Scruffy local muni in a scenic setting that plays tough. Overall conditions were OK, greens were absolute lightning. Had at least 5 three putts and never got close with easy chips. White tees 6245 par... Continue »

Scruffy local muni in a scenic setting that plays tough. Overall conditions were OK, greens were absolute lightning. Had at least 5 three putts and never got close with easy chips. White tees 6245 par 70. Lots of elevation change and several monster holes. Back-to-back par fours on the front 458,436, par 3's on the back 223, 219 both uphill, the second one significantly. $32 hot deal for a Sunday 10:40 tee time was a fair price, and I enjoyed the course. If I were a sandbagging golf hustler this is where I'd like to have my handicap. LOL

Being that Kern River was one of the few courses open during the pandemic, I wanted to show some support and played here during the weekend on my Bakersfield trip. It was also a good course for my b... Continue »

Being that Kern River was one of the few courses open during the pandemic, I wanted to show some support and played here during the weekend on my Bakersfield trip. It was also a good course for my buddy who hadn’t played since September as Kern River is forgiving off the tee with its parkland setting. Aesthetically, the track is set on a gentle hillside so it’s not completely flat and it offers several views of the Kern River reservoir lake which was busy during the perfect low 70’s weekend day.

Course is in decent muni like condition. Pretty much what you would expect from a course at this price point. Greens rolled true albeit at a medium-slow pace. Most greens are two tiered so they are manageable (2 birdies on the day) if on the correct tier but difficult (three, 3 putts) if on the wrong level. Also, they had a “masters” tournament in the morning and had some nasty pin locations

Fairways were average. Decent enough but nothing to brag about. The pleasant surprise were the sand traps. They were in excellent condition with nice light fluffy sand. Bunkers are where most courses in the price point fail but Kern River excels.

My main issue with this place is the par 70 rating for a course that plays 6350 yards from the whites. There are 4 par fours that are around or over 450 yards and three par 3’s over 200 yards including one that was 225 uphill playing into the wind. That’s PGA stuff not double digit handicap (or worse beginner) yardage

Other than that it’s an enjoyable experience.

Played Friday on a rare week day round. POP 4:15. Quite different thank the 5 hour weekend rounds. Course is in overall good winter condition. Tees are level Par threes
show lots of divot damage, but... Continue »

Played Friday on a rare week day round. POP 4:15. Quite different thank the 5 hour weekend rounds. Course is in overall good winter condition. Tees are level Par threes
show lots of divot damage, but the tees are large and were placed out of the bad areas.
Fairways are reaching the poa is starting to grow stage. So there are clumps of it everywhere especially since we played in the afternoon. We were moving the ball if a clump was behind your ball. Bunkers are hit a miss literally. Some are crusty dirt. Some
have white fluffy sand. They have been converting them for what is probably 15 years?!!
Greens are very good. Usually insanely soft, but had some firmness to them. Rolling well
the exception of a few that you could still see old plug holes. Ball would bounce a little.
Fringes have the clumps going on so are hard to put from. Overall very enjoyable day.

I get the feeling we'll be seeing a lot more reviews for Kern River since it appears to be the only course open anymore! My foursome made the two-hour drive up to Bakersfield today and were met with a... Continue »

I get the feeling we'll be seeing a lot more reviews for Kern River since it appears to be the only course open anymore! My foursome made the two-hour drive up to Bakersfield today and were met with a nice little course that is in very good shape and a super value for the money.

We had an 11:52 tee time and the course was very busy, but moved along nicely with a few exceptions at the par 3s. The range is in good shape and easy to pick up balls right there with tokens from the pro shop. Riding for $45 was a steal. We played from the blues.

It's a bit confusing getting around this course as there are not a lot of signs clearly defining where the next hole is, but if you use the map on the back of the scorecard, you can generally figure it out. There's some criss-cross sections of holes in the middle, but the rest are pretty straightforward with a few caveats.

I don't think I've ever played a course that had not one, but two 230 yard par 3s. Not a lot of room for error there. The fairways are pretty tight on a lot of the holes here and there are a lot of trees, but the main defense seems to be mostly small greens with a few exceptions, and those usually have multiple tiers to contend with. The course plays longer than its 6500 yards from the blues in my opinion.

Conditions were most very good, especially with all the extra traffic this place is getting. Like Alex236 mentioned in his review, you'll mostly get very good lies but then strangely find yourself in a thin one out in the middle of the fairway. But more good than bad. Rough is pretty thick and grabby, but manageable. I was only in one bunker and it seemed a bit thin. Tee boxes were somewhat beat up but lots of tee options to work with here.

The greens were varied throughout the day but I found them to be in good shape and mostly rolling true. There was a good amount of wind today (luckily the rain stayed away) so there was a lot of debris on the greens so that makes it tough to judge. But I found the speed changed a bit depending on the hole ... some slow, some fast, some medium. Tough to gauge.

POP was just over four hours so that was pretty darn good, and the cart girl was very attentive and did a great job. Would I come here again? Well, that's the plan, especially if it's still the only course open next week. Have no issue at all driving back up. It's a nice course at a very good price and I'm thankful they're keeping their doors open for us.

Played Kern River Golf Course on 4/1/2020 with Kviser for our GK Cup match. Kevin did a great job describing the conditions. Which I would call “average Muni conditions”. Overall everything was ok... Continue »

Played Kern River Golf Course on 4/1/2020 with Kviser for our GK Cup match. Kevin did a great job describing the conditions. Which I would call “average Muni conditions”. Overall everything was ok. Nothing spectacular by any means but nothing horrible either. I thought the greens were slow to medium-slow. It took me a full 9 holes to get the speed of the greens dialed in. Part of that might have been that I had just rolled my putting green so it’s super fast right now and the two were night and day different on speed. Given that the greens at Kern River rolled smooth for the most part. Greens were medium sized with moderate slope and undulations.

Fairways had decent coverage but had some thin spots mixed in. Like Kevin said it was the luck of the draw on having a great lie or a sketchy one.

Rough wasn’t tall but very very sticky. Deceivingly tough. Sand traps were the weak link of the course for sure. Very thin at best.

Setting was fun without a doubt. Track is set up against the Kern River which was full and flowing nicely. It’s a few miles out of town so you get the away from the hustle and bustle relaxed feeling. Being both of our first times here we got fooled by the routing of holes as far as the doglegs but no big deal (especially since I made birdie on one of them).

My one criticism would be that it’s only a par 70 with three par 5’s and five par 3’s. Yet they had a few 430+ length par 4’s and three Par 3’s in the 200-225 yard range (one was 225 uphill from the whites). I would have thought they could shorten one or two of the long par 3’s and add the length to one of the long par 4’s to turn it into another par 5. Or shorten a par 4 and lengthen a par 3 to turn it into a par 4. At nearly 6300 yards from the whites there should be enough room to make this at least a par 71 course. That’s just my thought is all.

Overall it was an enjoyable day with nice weather, good company and a decent enough course. Staff at check in was very friendly. I don’t know that I will play here again in the future, but that’s only because of the location and distance to get there for me. Certainly for the price it’s worth it if in the area.

Played today with Alex326 for our GK Cup 15 match. It was nice to find a golf course open and Alex got us a 10:00 for $25 riding, so that's a big plus. This is really a big parkland style layout and i... Continue »

Played today with Alex326 for our GK Cup 15 match. It was nice to find a golf course open and Alex got us a 10:00 for $25 riding, so that's a big plus. This is really a big parkland style layout and it would be difficult to actually lose a ball OB. There were many large trees lining most fairways. Very lush conditions throughout. The grass in the rough was so thick and sticky, it could grab your club and make it difficult if you weren't able to hit clean, ball first contact. Greens were medium slow, but they rolled true and has no discernible bumpiness. Sometimes, the downhill putts toward the river could get away, but uphill putts needed a firm stroke. They were also somewhat soft and I fixed many a ball mark, most of which were made by the groups ahead of us. Covid19 protocol called for a round piece of foam at the bottom of the cups to prevent balls from going all the way to the bottom. No flag sticks were touched. Fairways and rough were very similar. Lots of variety of grasses growing all over the fairways and rough; some of it was clumpy and having a good lie was almost a matter of luck. The fairways could be cut more and the rough was pretty thick if only 1"-2" in height. Tees were mostly level and finding a good place to hit from was easy. We played the white tees, but the difference was minimal and more often than not were were just forward of the blues by a couple steps. Bunkers were okay to look at, but hitting from them was iffy. They had some soft sand in a thin layer over some well packed hard pan. I think we both had difficulty at times. No rakes; again, Covid19 protocol. Hopefully most folks who enter the bunker would smooth their footprints and divots with their feet, but that was not always the case. We smoothed out ours and we never landed in someone else's footprint. Overall, I liked the course. It's right off the Kern River at the foothills of the Sierra. There is a campground nearby and the river looks really full now. I think the campground is closed due to this Covid19 hysteria anyway. The green fee we paid was as good as you get for a full length course riding. Definitely, you could walk. There are a couple of lengthy par 3's of over 200 yards. That was challenging. It's lush now, but I don't know what summer will do. I did see there were others from Southern California here, so if you are in the north part of LA County, then it's doable for a day trip.

Played Sunday late morning. Place was real busy. Almost 5 hour round. Was walking and still waited 10 to 15 minutes per shot. Very good weather must have brought the throngs out. Course is in the tran... Continue »

Played Sunday late morning. Place was real busy. Almost 5 hour round. Was walking and still waited 10 to 15 minutes per shot. Very good weather must have brought the throngs out. Course is in the transition from dormancy. Tees were very good. Fairways were also quite good. Rough is growing well full of various grass types and real thick in places. The green surrounds are over seeded and very green and thick. Bunkers are some of the better one around. Little hard on top, but deep underneath. Greens look great. Almost completely healed from a plugging. They are thick, very few ball marks and quite slow. Usually the are damp, but quick. So slow in fact I did not trust myself to hit the ball. Seemed wrong slugging them. Would suggest you play it if in those parts. $30 to walk on weekends, just don't be in a hurry. They now have frisbee golf to go along with foot golf too. That would become a zoo if anyone played the other two.

Played 7/27. POP okay at 4 1/2 hours. Which is pretty good for here. Five par threes slow up play quite a bit. Entire course is in good shape. Main problem being the tees and fairways are quite long. ... Continue »

Played 7/27. POP okay at 4 1/2 hours. Which is pretty good for here. Five par threes slow up play quite a bit. Entire course is in good shape. Main problem being the tees and fairways are quite long. Looks the the tee markers have not been moved for some time as the grass in that area is wore out. Guessing because of the heat? Greens a little slow and not cut quite as short as usual. That is okay as it probably helps with the heat and the greens are actually smoother because of less water that leads to ball marks not being fixed properly. Rough is quite thick and bunkers are good. An average course with pretty good conditions that can be challenging because of the small greens and long par threes.

Played Sunday April 2nd. Awesome day for golf weather wise. POP 4.5 hours which is somewhat fast for this course. Five par 3's can bog this place down. Course was mostly green after all the rain and i... Continue »

Played Sunday April 2nd. Awesome day for golf weather wise. POP 4.5 hours which is somewhat fast for this course. Five par 3's can bog this place down. Course was mostly green after all the rain and increasing temperatures. Tees were great, fairways were very good with no bald or then spots that I could find. Rough is a mixture of different vegetation composed mainly of grass and clover. It was maybe 2 inches deep, but you ball just settles to the bottom. Ramps up the difficulty some. Bunkers ranged from real fluffy to very little sand in them. You have to dig you feet in to see. People please rake the bunkers. Greens were excellent rolling medium fast and rolling out well. They tend to break more than they look. Overall its fairly tree lined with wide fairway and gentle rolling hills. A very good mixture of long and short holes you will use most every club in the bag. Customer service always great.