Spent this past Sunday afternoon playing in a Rancho Park men's club tournament on a very hot day enjoying one of SoCal's best public courses. My group played from the white tees and had an 11:40am tee time, so we were right in the thick of the heat, but the course has held up well.

Fairways are in good shape with the occasional thin spots around the greens and many r... » More

Spent this past Sunday afternoon playing in a Rancho Park men's club tournament on a very hot day enjoying one of SoCal's best public courses. My group played from the white tees and had an 11:40am tee time, so we were right in the thick of the heat, but the course has held up well.

Fairways are in good shape with the occasional thin spots around the greens and many remnants of old GUR areas that are apparently back in good graces - but the faint outlines are there to see! Rough was thick in areas but thin in others, while the bunkers in good shape from what I saw. The worst part of the course were some of the uneven tee boxes and one that had barely any grass at all (I'm looking at you #10) - definitely improvement needed there.

Greens were in good shape - consistent speeds, holding shots well and lines being true to the putts taken. No complaints on the greens at all. I was very appreciative of those greens as I had a career afternoon which I'll write about in the 'What'd you shoot - September' section!

POP was not great at the start but really picked up after the 4th hole and we pretty much kept moving nicely for the rest of the afternoon. The old rumors of Rancho Park's six-hour rounds are nothing more than nostalgia now and that's a great thing.

If you can get a time there, I would recommend it right now.
» Close

Played last Friday at Skylinks with one friend, then somehow managed to add Mattias and one of his friends late for a fun foursome at one of the LBC's best courses. We had an afternoon tee time and were able to take off a bit early and had a very nice POP for most of the day until we hit some snags on the back nine.

Course conditions at Skylinks are improved from my l... » More

Played last Friday at Skylinks with one friend, then somehow managed to add Mattias and one of his friends late for a fun foursome at one of the LBC's best courses. We had an afternoon tee time and were able to take off a bit early and had a very nice POP for most of the day until we hit some snags on the back nine.

Course conditions at Skylinks are improved from my last visit but still not at its optimal best. The fairways are playable but don't look very nice and are still saddled with some thin areas, while the rough is not too penal at all. The bunkers are a little on the thin side while the tee boxes (we played the blues) were all just fine.

Greens were running pretty nicely to the best of my recollection - nothing really stood out too much in terms of issues. Sure, there are a few with some limited damage around the edges, but for the most part they ran consistently medium-fast, held shots well and stayed true to their lines. Nothing too bad to complain about.

Overall it's all just above aveage, but of course you're paying optimum Long Beach course prices, so it should simply be a bit better than that, but I will give them some concessions based on the very hot temperatures over the past week or two. I think some rainfall and some fall aeration will probably do this course wonders.
» Close

Played this AM. Great to see cool weather when teeing off. Course is doing well with this latest heat wave. They are keeping the course well watered. Tee boxes all playable. Fairways had good coverage, needed mowing but still provided good lies/limited roll out. Traps have improved greatly with the new sand. Rough was manageable. Greens were slow due to moisture. But you could ... » More

Played this AM. Great to see cool weather when teeing off. Course is doing well with this latest heat wave. They are keeping the course well watered. Tee boxes all playable. Fairways had good coverage, needed mowing but still provided good lies/limited roll out. Traps have improved greatly with the new sand. Rough was manageable. Greens were slow due to moisture. But you could go after pins w/o fear and that added to the number of birdies made. Great customer service from Christian and Julia as always as well as Rich in the cart barn. Still the best value for 18 holes in S CA IMO.
» Close

Played 9/8, was very hot. Course overall is in good shape. Fairways on most holes have good coverage. A few like #1 are beat up. Greens were nice and smooth for the most part. Sand traps were hard with little sand. No cart service here which is tough when it's close to 100 outside.

Walked the blacks today 9/9/2024 under great weather around 80 degrees with little to no wind at tee off as a single. Friendly staff got me out 30 minutes before my tee time. I played through a 3some on 3 tee and flew around walking the front in an hour 15 minutes. Hit a logjam of players on 14 for a total POP of 3 hrs 30 minutes.

Enjoyed the course immensely today eve... » More

Walked the blacks today 9/9/2024 under great weather around 80 degrees with little to no wind at tee off as a single. Friendly staff got me out 30 minutes before my tee time. I played through a 3some on 3 tee and flew around walking the front in an hour 15 minutes. Hit a logjam of players on 14 for a total POP of 3 hrs 30 minutes.

Enjoyed the course immensely today even way back at almost 7200 yds. Sandpipers layout from hole 10 through 14 is just something special. I also love holes 5 and 7.

Conditions were good but not as great as say 2 months ago. Most portions of the fairways had good to great lies with some spots here and there of browning. Rated 8/10.

Tees were very lush, soft and some tees needed leveling like the back box on #6. You needed long tees for your driver that is how soft they were. Rated 7.5/10

The rough was more brown than I'm used to just off the fairways but still in the 7/10 range. Was in fairway bunker on 8 that was perfect to hit out of.

The greens were very healthy looking and rolled pure. They are slower and softer than I'm used to. Would say a 10.5 on the stimp rather than there usually 12 on the stimp. Rated 8.5/10

It was a hot day in California so blessed to be able to walk this course today even in low 80s which is hot for Santa Barbara. I did not see one walker today. Would highly recommend this track. One of my favorites.
» Close