Drove down on Sunday to play de Anza on Sunday in the always-fun Swinging Sammy. Playe.d with my brother and OLD friend Tim and his cousin Isaac. Got the requisite listing of current maladies, past ... Continue »

Drove down on Sunday to play de Anza on Sunday in the always-fun Swinging Sammy. Playe.d with my brother and OLD friend Tim and his cousin Isaac. Got the requisite listing of current maladies, past year's surgeries and excuses over with on the first tee that seem to be mandatory for us Medicare folks and then had some fun. Had never played De Anza before and was pleasantly surprised. Bermuda tees and fairways were way above average for desert courses this time of year. Greens rolled slow but true. Rough was mowed down to an inch or so, but you knew you were in it. Traps had good sand and were well maintained. Pro shop was accomodating and happy to have us out there, not always the case at a country club. Course is a tree-lined old-style flat course par 72, well bunkered with good hole variation. Greens don't have the big undulations of newer courses, but grain and subtle breaks kept you honest. Rate was $50 with a cart. This course would be easy to walk, but at 110 degrees may not be everybody's cup of tea. Not really a worth-the-drive course, definitely worth the time if you are in the area and a splendid warm up for Rams Hill.

De Anza is in the middle of the desert, but it's not a desert course. Its a parkland-style course with a surprising number of trees lining the fairways. Conditioning is excellent--especially this ti... Continue »

De Anza is in the middle of the desert, but it's not a desert course. Its a parkland-style course with a surprising number of trees lining the fairways. Conditioning is excellent--especially this time of year. Greens tend to run a bit on the slower side. The desert mountains provide a nice backdrop for many of the holes (similar to La Quinta-Mountain). Like most classic courses, it's made for walking. The pro shop is professional and the members are welcoming.

Date: 5/4/2019 POP: 3:15 (1:45 front 9, 1:30 back 9) Weather: 92-98°F Time: 11:30am Service and Amenities: The staff was very friendly and welcoming and the clubhouse attendants were fun and engag... Continue »

Date: 5/4/2019 POP: 3:15 (1:45 front 9, 1:30 back 9) Weather: 92-98°F Time: 11:30am Service and Amenities: The staff was very friendly and welcoming and the clubhouse attendants were fun and engaging. Nothing spectacular in terms of private club amenities but the range was probably the best I have seen. Impeccable condition of the turf and they provided alignment sticks, balls, club washers, etc at every station. The pro-shop had some awesome deals if you were looking for gear and the guys working there were a lot of fun to talk with. Greens: After playing at Rams Hill earlier in the morning, the greens here felt so slow in comparison. To be fair, there rolled very true and probably at a speed of around 8-9 on stimp, but in comparison it felt like we had to really wack the ball to get there. Greens were very firm and took some getting used to as I am a high spin wedge player and was not used to having lob wedges release 3-5ft forward. Fairways: The fairways were very firm and well maintained. They provided very nice rollout and good lies for iron shots. No bare spots observed. Nothing too tricky about the fairways here although there were a few spots with large undulation/dips which appear to be drainage routes. These areas were maintained just the same and were in excellent shape but it was a little frustrating to be center of the fairway with a downhill/sidehill lie. I guess that boils down to local course knowledge though. Bunkers: Bunkers were well maintained and very course grained sand. They were uniform all throughout the course and that includes the practice facilities. The sand here is the brownish yellow grainy sand which provides firm yet fair lies in the bunker. While the bunkers look thin on sand, you could easily get a club through them without issue. Parkland course had very shallow bunkers with lips no more than 2-3ft high. Tee Boxes: Flat and lush. Very Level and well maintained. No excess divots or bare spots. Rough: About 1.5" long and somewhat thick. Depending on how it was sitting, the rough was deep/thick enough to produce crazy fliers or dead shots. Overall: This was a very nice course and I am glad I got to play it. It was a lot of fun and if I lived in the area I would definitely consider membership here.

Since a 2nd round at Rams Hill would have been a little slow, I decided to try out De Anza for a 3/25 round. What a pleasant surprise this course is!

The greens are quite different from RH. Both ar... Continue »

Since a 2nd round at Rams Hill would have been a little slow, I decided to try out De Anza for a 3/25 round. What a pleasant surprise this course is!

The greens are quite different from RH. Both are in great condition, but while RH is medium soft, fast and tricky, De Anza is firm and slow, and generally little break. If you have the speed down, you can attack these greens.

The course layout is surprisingly more parkland than desert course. The rough is tough. Playing solo, I lots a few balls in the rough not far from the fairway. Grass is thick and the ball settles down low. Lots of trees off the fairway, and pretty narrow fairways, so you often need to hack low shots from the thick rough making recovery difficult.

Borrego Springs has a nice 1-2-3 punch in Rams Hill, Borrego Springs and de Anza CC. Three really different golf courses, but all nice in their own ways.

For our second round this past Saturday, we hit up the private De Anza Country Club after having called a few weeks ago to learn that they now offer tee times to the public (not sure of the conditions... Continue »

For our second round this past Saturday, we hit up the private De Anza Country Club after having called a few weeks ago to learn that they now offer tee times to the public (not sure of the conditions or days offered, but it worked out for this particular day).

Check-in was nice and easy and the staff helpful and fun - no hint of anything but a welcoming attitude, which can sometimes not be the case at private clubs when you're not a member. But the staff was great and we paid around $80 with carts and a 12:15 tee time. POP was not an issue as we finished in just over three hours.

Very similar conditions to the previously reviewed Borrego Springs course, but the wildlife and closer proximity to the mountains make for a very unique experience at De Anza. We had a herd of rams coming off the hill in one of our fairways, loads of roadrunners and ducks and birds aplenty to spice it up.

De Anza is a very fair course but completely flat and parkland style, however there are lots of mature, tree-lined fairways waiting to gobble up shots not going straight down the pipe. Some water in play for sure, but mostly trouble-free golf and you can definitely make good scores here if you're relatively straight. It's fun but not super challenging.

Very green and well manicured fairways currently at De Anza, with a fairly thick rough to accompany them. Great lies for chipping and pitching around the greens. The fairways were cut pretty tight so you could actually get a decent amount of roll out of them, and the lies were always top notch.

De Anza isn't overly-bunkered enough to annoy or intimidate, but they do have many long and narrow bunkers guarding the greens. These were in good shape but seemed a tiny bit hard at the surface - maybe too much watering? I was only in one and it played fine, though. Tee boxes were also in perfect shape with a nice variety of tee options to play from.

Greens were very good actually. Not visually the most stunning I've ever seen, but held shots well despite a very firm surface (ball marks were minimal upon landing) and putted at a nice pace, maybe a 10-10.5 on the stimp. The pro shop had told us upon going out that the greens were very small here, but we did not find that to be the case after the first hole perhaps. But yeah, overall very good and lots of fun. Nothing too outrageous here either in terms of breaks or slope.

Definitely recommend a visit to De Anza if you're in the area. Again, it's not the most challenging course you'll ever play as it's fairly straight up and down, what you see is what you get golf, but you'll enjoy the surroundings, the wildlife, the interesting houses lining the course (all different styles and eras), and the very nice conditions. Make it a part of your next weekend down here and you won't be let down.

And did I mention we finished in just over three hours and never waited? That part is awesome.

this was the first leg of our Borrego trip. Given that this is a private track, we figure it would be a good stop for a weekend afternoon practice round before heading to Ram Hills.

Arrived earl... Continue »

this was the first leg of our Borrego trip. Given that this is a private track, we figure it would be a good stop for a weekend afternoon practice round before heading to Ram Hills.

Arrived early for our 1pm tee time. Course was pretty much empty after the members' morning round so we got to go off earlier than our slot. No GPS, no yardage books but the layout was pretty conventional course. There was a driving range and a practice green available for us to use but we just went straight to the first tee.

Not too much hazards to deal with so it was a comfortable round. there wasn't really a stand out hole either. Conditions pretty good. Lush fairways. Greens medium fast. Not much different from Keith's review a few years back. There were a few greens with a lot of unrepaired ball marks which is a bit surprising.

I would sum it up as a bland but well maintained course. Not the same level as Ram Hills but ok for a casual round.