Fun course just off the 5 near the Bakersfield area. Wanted something to play on my way south and this fit the bill. Decent layout, very nice staff and pretty mediocre conditions. Good bones, but in r... Continue »

Fun course just off the 5 near the Bakersfield area. Wanted something to play on my way south and this fit the bill. Decent layout, very nice staff and pretty mediocre conditions. Good bones, but in regrettable shape. Greens rolled decently, but some were damaged and most showed wear and tear. I bumped the ball in all the fairways, hopefully it's in better shape in the spring.
Not a winter course, no windshields on the carts. $29 for a late Sunday round and I basically had the place to myself.

Late post review: 22nd January. From what we were told the course was spending time and effort to bring the course back to a better shape. Although it’s my first time there, some of the work are evi... Continue »

Late post review: 22nd January. From what we were told the course was spending time and effort to bring the course back to a better shape. Although it’s my first time there, some of the work are evident but has not transferred to a good conditions.
There are bunkers that are still being worked on and many aren’t very good to play out of.
There have been greens at least one I know that has been infected with some type of fungus and you may have to move from a position where you won’t have to go through some deep uneven or an abnormal conditions to play on.
Fairways were fine for 85-90 percent and tees were okay.
Some trees have fallen and laid there for a while without markings and grass have grown around them- you won’t know till you get there.
Nice layout of the course.
Helpful staff on busy course.
Pace was at 4:45 to 5:00.

Played 1/23/22 Paid $32 to walk at 1145. Went off as a single with wife as company.
Everyone else watching football. Smooth sailing for four holes and then hit a wall. Twosome riding behind us basica... Continue »

Played 1/23/22 Paid $32 to walk at 1145. Went off as a single with wife as company.
Everyone else watching football. Smooth sailing for four holes and then hit a wall. Twosome riding behind us basically said we are going through you. Told them no where to go, but then went anyway. I stood on the same tee with them and watched them tee off for the rest of the round. There was no where to go. Conditions Tees little uneven. Some thin spots that were more mud than dirt. Playable though. Fairway dormant bermuda with spots of green throughout. Some bare muddy spots. Overall okay. Rough was short but its thick and will turn the club over. Around greens real thick. Greens were surprisingly really good.
Little soft, but as fast as I have ever seen them. Eighth green still has a large bare spot on the right edge that has been there for a long time. Bunkers have sand but lots of rocks too. Overall a fine muni condition wise.

Played Sunday 9am. Hot muggy morning. 4 1/2 hours which did not seem that long even though we waited on every shot. Tees are still uneven, fairways a little thin in places, but always some grass under... Continue »

Played Sunday 9am. Hot muggy morning. 4 1/2 hours which did not seem that long even though we waited on every shot. Tees are still uneven, fairways a little thin in places, but always some grass under the ball. Other areas are very good. Rough varies from thick to sparse. Rough around greens is very thick and tall. Trees are plentiful are seem larger every time we go Greens are really nice. Little soft in some places medium speed with lots of sweeping breaks. Smooth and quite fun to put. Bunkers are few here, but I found one and it had a lot of sand in it.
Mostly typical muni condition nothing great, but nothing to keep wou from not coming back.

Two of my friends and I made the drive up to Taft today to play at Buena Vista GC. Being one of the only courses still currently open and never having played it before, the opportunity would not go be... Continue »

Two of my friends and I made the drive up to Taft today to play at Buena Vista GC. Being one of the only courses still currently open and never having played it before, the opportunity would not go begging. We played from the blue tees and I rode at a very reasonable $35 greens fee, while the others walked.

The course itself seems fairly pedestrian when checking it out in advance online and imagining the topography, but the course is surprisingly hilly, with many elevated greens and a good amount of very long and sometimes narrow holes. It's truly an isolated course with nothing but barren land surrounding it, so you won't hear or see any cars with the exception of the 10th green.

Course conditions are pretty good right now but there are definitely a few areas of disrepair. The greens varied in speed all day and many of them had large patches that had been eaten away by some type of fungus. They ran pretty smooth on the front nine, less so on the back nine with far more imperfections. The fairways had decent coverage but a lot of thin lies and interesting grass (for lack of a better term). The rough was not penal and the bunkers were in awful shape - both from standing water from the rains and just a general gravel quality to them. A lot of GUR-esque areas, too. Tee boxes were in good shape.

The course was not overly crowded which was surprising considering the dearth of options available, but then again it's pretty far out there and well off the beaten path. There was no cart service and all the quarantine precautions were in place. The grill at the clubhouse is open for takeout only.

I'm glad to have played the course and crossed it off the list, and as long as the closures continue I would still consider playing it again. Hopefully we soon have a lot of other options.

Been awhile since I reviewed BV. Course is in overall very good shape.
Thanks to PGE equipment failure I got Friday afternoon off. What to do with an unexpected
afternoon off. Why golf of course. We... Continue »

Been awhile since I reviewed BV. Course is in overall very good shape.
Thanks to PGE equipment failure I got Friday afternoon off. What to do with an unexpected
afternoon off. Why golf of course. Went out alone $25 with cart, did not have the push cart in the car. Usually don't in the summertime as its too hot to walk. Played through three guys on second hole and never ran into another soul. POP 2 hours hitting two balls per hole. Tees very good some spots uneven no big deal. Fairways very good coverage except near the front of the greens where everyone parks the carts and a few semi bare sports
occasionally. Rough was quite thick in spots adn you have to watch out when chipping as ball sits up and you can go right under it. Also rough will grab club. In two bunkers and they were just fine. Greens in good shape just soft. I backed up a five iron? Medium speed and quite smooth. Of the county courses in these part in the best shape. Better than some not county courses too. Great choice for us locals to play.

Haven't golfed for awhile so finally got out with some friends. Course was not busy at all
around 4.5 hour pace as we took our time and enjoyed the cooler weather. No none in front or behind us until... Continue »

Haven't golfed for awhile so finally got out with some friends. Course was not busy at all
around 4.5 hour pace as we took our time and enjoyed the cooler weather. No none in front or behind us until the 17th hole. Most enjoyable day. Tees offer good coverage although some are very uneven. Fairways were very good with a few over watered spots here and there. Rough was mostly short, but real thick. Edges were brown hard pan, but really why waste water on those areas. Found two bunkers and had good sand in them. Not real deep or fluffy, but easy to get out off. Greens were great. Roll fast and very true unless you hit a ball mark. Greens are a little soft so even though people were repairing ball marks you get the occasional bounce from a poorly fixed one. One of the better munis around as far as conditioning, challenge and enjoyment.

For a change of pace, it's nice to review a course I've never played. I was driving up to Silicon Valley and back for a few days and, given that most courses on the route were clustered towards either... Continue »

For a change of pace, it's nice to review a course I've never played. I was driving up to Silicon Valley and back for a few days and, given that most courses on the route were clustered towards either end, BV seemed the single option along the way that was centrally positioned to best break up the journey (2hrs from LA, 4 hrs from Sunnyvale.) I played it going up on Monday, 1/12, a little after 10:00am, and on the way back Thursday, around 2:00pm. There was a lot of fog and overcast in the valley this past week so, with the rains from the prior weekend, the course was pretty damp on Monday. Thursday was better, though the underlying dirt was a little muddy and prone to give you occasional mud ball. Monday I got out as a single ahead of the men's group and got around in about 4 hours with some groups ahead of me. Thursday, I again got out as a single, caught up around the 7th hole and played behind a twosome on an otherwise empty course until the tenth hole, where they quit. I think there may have been someone else on the course somewhere, but not within sight of my back nine and I got around in three hours, finishing at dusk. I literally felt like I had the course to myself. With the exception of more dampness on Monday, the conditions were the same. Tee boxes were sometimes a little wavy but had decent coverage and you could usually find a level spot. Fairways were a hot mess of mostly thin lies, multi-hued grasses (mostly yellow or white), occasional bare and muddy patches, and generally severe winter conditions that are probably the follow up to drought issues. Despite the aesthetics of the fairways and that I got my share of thin or hard lies, the great majority of the time the ball was quite playable. The greens were pretty decent if not pristine—medium quick with some subtle and unexpected breaks. While firm and reasonably smooth to putt on, they were a bit thin skinned and incoming shots left pronounced pitched marks due to the moist under-soil. It took a little finesse to repair them. It also meant there were a lot of visual scars scattered about the surface. There is some bunkering around the greens but little elsewhere on the course. I was only in one and it was decent. Rough was a lot like the fairways to the point of being indistinguishable most of the time. The front nine is mostly flat with the exception of two holes that have dramatic rises to the greens set on hilltops. A couple of other fairways have some wave to them. The back nine is significantly more contoured and a bit hilly by comparison. There is some length to the course with a good number of long par fours. The fairways are pretty generous and you can use a lot of driver here—not overly strategic. Other than a small housing development along the 11th fairway, the course is surrounded by open scrub land, farmland, and a stretch of aqueduct—it has (what I thought was) a nice sense of isolation. I was traveling with my dog and had called ahead to clear it, so they let me take him out with me with no issue. This is definitely not a destination course, but it's a serviceable muni with good bones. It mainly needs the fairways to fill in and grow out. The severity of the fairway conditions notwithstanding, I still enjoyed my round and appreciated how, even though it made for a longer day overall, it gave me something to look forward to, broke up the driving nicely, and made it seem easier overall. Is there really such a thing as bad golf?

Played Sunday 12/28/2014. Course was not too busy at all. Weather was a little chilly, but
after walking up the hill to the first green you are warmed up. Its about 50-60 feet. Tees
can be quite une... Continue »

Played Sunday 12/28/2014. Course was not too busy at all. Weather was a little chilly, but
after walking up the hill to the first green you are warmed up. Its about 50-60 feet. Tees
can be quite uneven, so you have to search for level lies at times. Fairways still had some
color which is rare for December. Greens were med fast and in 95% great shape. There are a few thin areas, but not many. Overall great especially for this time of year. There was some rough and it was an inch high with some clumps here and there. Really surprised at how green the course is. I was in two bunkers and would have what I would call a "dusting" of sand. You hit it like a normal lie and you are good. Don't explode it.
Overall it is a very good course for what it is meant to be.