Finally made it out to the Rams Hill event. This is usually held the week after I've left the Palm Springs area so this year I changed up the week here so I could play Rams Hill. This is my second t... Continue »

Finally made it out to the Rams Hill event. This is usually held the week after I've left the Palm Springs area so this year I changed up the week here so I could play Rams Hill. This is my second time playing this course and I enjoyed it tremendously. In shirt it checks all the boxes required to be a highly recommended track; great conditions, elevation changes, multiple water hazards and good customer service.

Due to Covid they obviously can't offer all the normal services like loading up your bag. Staff was still on hand to answer any questions and help with whatever they were allowed.

Layout is straight forward. Most holes you can see the green from the tee boxes. Only a couple of dog leg holes. The others are either uphill or downhill and fairly straight. Fairways are wide and typically slope from the high bank down to the low side. All fairways have a series of fairway bunkers.

Condition were nice tee to green. Tee boxes were excellent with all being level and lush. Even the par 3 boxes had great coverage with only a few divots.

Greens are moderate in size and had 2-3 tiers. Being on the right level severally tamed the greens which could easily jump up and bite you.

Fairways Were nice. Not spectacular but decent enough. Bunkers had good quality sand.

Rams Hill is a drive. No doubt about that. Probably beat played as a beginning or end of a Palm Speings Trip. Worth the drive and price for a day trip. Very glad I changed my schedule to play it again.

Played in the inaugural Ramateur last weekend and what a blast it was. Hats off to Will and everybody at Rams Hill for putting on an incredible tournament with great food, people, and golf.

I'll s... Continue »

Played in the inaugural Ramateur last weekend and what a blast it was. Hats off to Will and everybody at Rams Hill for putting on an incredible tournament with great food, people, and golf.

I'll start with the tee boxes. I played the golds and there wasn't a single tee box that was uneven, chewed up, or bare grass. They all looked great and felt like hitting off carpet.

The fairways looked good and hit fine. There was some brown spots out there, and a few places looked like the overseed didn't quite take as expected. There were a few times out there that my playing partner and I would hit similar drives, be about 6 yards apart, and he would have a great lie and I would be in a tight lie with what seemed like sand and paint mixed with sparse grass. Not sure if weather factored into that or what. Some of the green surrounding areas were the same as well, especially the right side of #1. Some drainage work was done on a number of holes and you could see where the grass hadn't fully recovered yet. Regardless, I'd say about 85% of the fairways were lush.

The rough was great. Around the greens your ball was liable to sit down and make for a tough chip, and in the fairways it was sticky enough to grab a club but still able to play out of it with shorter irons. The non overseed around the bunkers was thick and curly, just nasty stuff to be in.

The bunkers were great. Nice, white sand that allowed you to really get under the golf ball and make it stop on the greens. The fairway bunkers had the same sand, just a little harder, which I like.

The greens. Oh my. They really dialed them up for the Ramateur. Fast and hard, even well struck shots weren't spinning and rolling for days. On 10 I hit my shot to 6 feet from the hole, only to watch it run away to the other side of the green some 35 feet away. It took 2 rounds for me to adjust to aiming away from the flag and letting the green funnel the ball where it needed to be. Some unrepaired ballmarks, but nothing that really affected the roll. I liken these greens to Fazio eating a bag of Lay's chips and modeling each green to the chips he was eating. Couple that with the speed, firmness, and mean pin placements we say last weekend, some high numbers were posted without shame.

Overall, the course is incredible. The design allows for strategic golf which I enjoy. The course is in great shape and I can't wait to come back in May. Well worth the 4 to 5 hour drive from Bakersfield, and I am sure to make it a yearly trip moving forward.

Made the drive out from Orange County yesterday which is about 5 hours round trip. This is my fifth time at rams hill and I love the layout and isolation. Every time I have been out here the course is... Continue »

Made the drive out from Orange County yesterday which is about 5 hours round trip. This is my fifth time at rams hill and I love the layout and isolation. Every time I have been out here the course is in near perfect condition. After reading recent reviews I had lower expectations, yet still was disappointed. I think there’s some bias of wanting to say the course is in good shape because of the love for the layout and the experience of going out there. We had a group of 12 guys and about 8 of them said they wouldn’t make the trip out again because of the conditioning price and length of trip. Tee boxes were fine, greens were maybe a 7-8/10. Fairways were flat out bad, there are tons of brown thin spots, shaggy spots, wet spot, they look OKAY from a distance but play terribly. Bunkers were good. For 140 bucks and a 5 hour drive there are tons of courses in Palm Springs in far superior shape right now to play, unfortunately to say.

Matt Cardis, the founder of the Instagram account @golfinyourstate, is in the middle of a one-month residency at Rams Hill, where he’s either staying in the House on the Hill or camping in his van at ... Continue »

Matt Cardis, the founder of the Instagram account @golfinyourstate, is in the middle of a one-month residency at Rams Hill, where he’s either staying in the House on the Hill or camping in his van at some spots on the abandoned old holes, while documenting the whole thing on social media. I was fortunate to get an invite from him to play yesterday at 12:20. He got us a great rate and I was paired with three cool guys – two from Irvine and another from San Diego. There were four groups in all, and Matt bounced around from group to group, joining us for some golf and taking lots of photos and video.

Course seemed pretty busy for midday Monday (I later overheard the shop attendant saying it’s been very busy), but we still started right on time. (They had no problem providing a single-rider cart when I requested it.) We finished in about 4:20, and the last group of the four didn’t quite finish the 18th hole before total darkness set in. We all sat (socially distanced) around the giant fire pit for an hour or two afterward. What a great spot out there on the patio.

I think the couple reviews previous to mine served me well, because I had a little lowered expectations that were definitely exceeded. I’m not saying the other reviews are inaccurate, but I think it’s testament to how immaculately maintained Rams Hill typically is that people would even notice some of the current imperfections. I saw a large area on the second fairway that looked good but is currently roped off as GUR, and maybe some other “less than perfect” areas throughout, but for the most part, I found conditions to be excellent both visually and playability wise. The sun ducked behind the mountain when we were finishing 15, but the ~20 minutes just prior to that looked as good as it gets.

I played the tips and tee boxes were all good. Fairways looked beautiful and played almost as beautifully. The rough was lush and not too penal, maybe 3 inches deep at most in spots. The dormant bermuda rough that rings some of the bunkers can be tricky, though… a playing partner’s ball sunk down in it so much he wondered if it was embedded. It wasn’t. The greens were smooth, medium fast and semi-firm, with full shots sometimes taking a bounce before stopping. Certain downhill putts barely needed a nudge to get rolling and would just keep going. (Uphill putts into the wind still needed a pretty good whack, though.) Bunker sand was good; no rakes so one time I had to take advantage of the Covid rule to move the ball out of a footprint.

It started out pretty windy and only got windier as our round progressed, which made the course play much tougher than normal. Any shots that got significantly up in the air were whisked sideways quickly. Hopefully we get calmer conditions on December 13. Can’t wait to get back!

Played 11/22/20 8 am. $110. POP 3:45. The super hot & dry summer took a pretty good bite out of RH. 85% of the normally pristine fairways were in great to fantastic shape. The other 15% is a mixed bag... Continue »

Played 11/22/20 8 am. $110. POP 3:45. The super hot & dry summer took a pretty good bite out of RH. 85% of the normally pristine fairways were in great to fantastic shape. The other 15% is a mixed bag of recovering areas. They are working on them to get them back into shape, but some my take a couple months. They consist of mostly thin soggie recovering grass areas. They are mostly visual, but there were a couple of large areas that were in the middle of the fairways. The 85% played fantastic. The greens were in great shape. Receptive and ran smooth. Posted 9.5 speed and I would say correct at a solid medium speed. There were a couple of the greens that had some trouble spots near the edges, but mostly in great shape. Found a couple of traps and they were perfect. Great service as always.
The main driving range was closed for reseeding, but you could drive to the other side and use that practice area. Never been down there. Much smaller hitting area, but some better aiming targets with pins over traps to hit at! A fantastic chipping areas with two greens & sand traps. If your a person who enjoys getting to a course earlier to use practice facilities, you'll love this area if it is open. The rack rate might seem a little steep for a course that is not in it's typical form, but still in overall great shape.

Played 36 on 10/31.

Pace of play: Our foursome played the first 18 in 3 hours. Saw the Marshall 4 or 5 times. The second 18 was 4.5 hours, with long waiting times on the par 3s and a few of th... Continue »

Played 36 on 10/31.

Pace of play: Our foursome played the first 18 in 3 hours. Saw the Marshall 4 or 5 times. The second 18 was 4.5 hours, with long waiting times on the par 3s and a few of the shorter par 5s. Never saw the Marshall in the afternoon. Would love to see courses doing more to move slow groups along and make sub-4 hour rounds the standard.

Condition: Very good, but not up to Ram's Hill's very high standard. Greens were slow and the fairways were patchy in spots. This is our first time playing so early in RH's season (they opened for play only last week), so maybe the comparison to mid-season conditions isn't fair. But one of the primary selling-points for this course in the middle of nowhere is spectacular playing conditions. Right now, the conditions are very good, but several rungs short of spectacular.

Layout: Fun! Nice variety of holes, hole shapes, and green sizes and shapes. Very few homes bordering the holes and most holes have very good aesthetics.

Other amenities: Carts are excellent, with HD-GPS screens, usb ports, etc. Driving range is excellent. The Ram Shack (snack shack) is solid (for what it is), and the restaurant has lots of outdoor eating areas. Beverage cart made regular passes. Pro shop, starter, and other staff were excellent.

Drove down to Rams Hill with Minneapolis Joel 10/28 for 36. Played with Pat and Mark, friends from SD who drove down also. In talking to the front desk, this is an early opening for them and it did s... Continue »

Drove down to Rams Hill with Minneapolis Joel 10/28 for 36. Played with Pat and Mark, friends from SD who drove down also. In talking to the front desk, this is an early opening for them and it did show, slightly. Prepaid for a 727 time and all was smooth and pleasant as usual. Tee boxes were almost too nice, about a half inch of thick carpet. Bring long tees. There were a very few areas where the grass around the fairway hadn't completely grown in. In the middle, it was perfect. A week should take care of that. Rough had the same slight issues. For most courses I wouldn't even mention these areas, but it's a drive out there and usually this place is as close to flawless as I've played. Sand was outstanding. No rakes in the bunkers, but when we came around again in the PM they had raked behind us. Nice. The greens were nicely covered and held well-struck shots, except on 6 with a pin in the front behind the trap. But they were slow and it definitely affected the play here. They weren't get-the-dynamite slow, but slow to the point where being above the hole was not a factor and there are a lot of shots here where normally that's imperative for par. Of the 30 or so uphill putts of 30 feet or more we had as a group, not one was long and most were three putts. Glad we went out, but felt let down by the speed on the greens. It was listed as 9.5, just as a guide. I'm sure it won't be too long before they're back to normal, but if I was going again, I'd ask about 'em.

Played today early to beat the heat. Which really never came, making it a great day in the desert. The course is in fabulous condition. As others have noted. Having played here numerous times, I wante... Continue »

Played today early to beat the heat. Which really never came, making it a great day in the desert. The course is in fabulous condition. As others have noted. Having played here numerous times, I wanted to get back here before it closed. Tee boxes fine. Fairways nice with good roll (never had a bad lie). Rough was manageable but stayed out all round. Greens were just wonderful all round in chipping/putting holding shots. Customer service is excellent at Rams Hill. Even found a silver lining re the virus? Traffic down and back was outstanding. It may be a long drive for many of us? But I cannot imagine you will complain to much should you play here.

Went out yesterday with a tee time of 7:30ish and went out much earlier than that. Finished in 3 hours flat. I was sandwich between 2 foursomes and I stayed just back enough of the group ahead so th... Continue »

Went out yesterday with a tee time of 7:30ish and went out much earlier than that. Finished in 3 hours flat. I was sandwich between 2 foursomes and I stayed just back enough of the group ahead so they didn't feel rushed and far enough ahead of the group behind me that I didn't hold them up.

Really the Pisarski brothers and Blake summarized the conditions very well. Overall conditions are excellent and really is a must play. Everything is just in fabulous conditions right now. The only ball marks on the greens were mine (which I fixed). It's really nice knowing that your ball will hold the line. The greens did have some tricky breaks which I misread but what else is new there.

Customer service is top notch here. Bob in the pro shop was super helpful and helped me with my refund for the guys that didn't show up in my group. They do have a marshal out delivering water and ice which was needed as the temp was starting to creep up there. Range was open as was the chipping and putting greens. The food is carryout only and they do take your temp before you enter the pro shop.

I paid $130 for the round with a cart and I think that is a solid price. I'm actually looking to try and get back before the course closes for the summer on 6/7. The only question is why haven't you played here.