Was back out at Madera yesterday with a late morning tee time. The course is in overall nice shape with the greens being about 90%+ healed from recent aeration. Greens rolled nice and smooth at a... Continue »

Was back out at Madera yesterday with a late morning tee time. The course is in overall nice shape with the greens being about 90%+ healed from recent aeration. Greens rolled nice and smooth at a medium-fast past. Greens were super predictable and have just enough undulations to make you take a close look but nothing ridiculous.

Fairways are also in spring condition with most of the course having good coverage of medium lush grass that is green throughout. Rough is not much to worry about. Mainly prevents extra rollout on drives. I was in one sand trap and it surprisingly had a good amount of sand. Tee boxes were ok. All were level but a few were chewed up. POP was right at 4 hrs. Madera is an easy course to walk as it is completely flat. I hit the range beforehand while waiting for my buddy. The range balls are very old and in need of replacement.

Right now it’s in nice shape and worth playing if in the area or traveling through on Hwy 99.

Winter update for Madera. Played today and a few times in December. Overall, it’s in ok shape. Playable but nothing spectacular. Fairways were thin but certainly had enough coverage to make clean ... Continue »

Winter update for Madera. Played today and a few times in December. Overall, it’s in ok shape. Playable but nothing spectacular. Fairways were thin but certainly had enough coverage to make clean predictable contact. Greens were a bit on the shaggy side but rolled smooth at a medium pace. My guess is they have missed a mowing or two this week.

Tee boxes were level but a couple of the par 3’s were chewed up pretty bad. Rough is not existent. Fairway to brown dirt. Maybe a slightly ¼” taller boarder grass between the fairway and the dirt.

I was in one bunker and had decent sand. Much better that in the past here. POP was pretty decent. We ran into a foursome on the 5th hole and waited on every shot until we got around them at the turn. We finished in 3.5 hrs.

Course is easy to walk, completely flat with only one extended transfer from the 10th green to 11th tee. For $27 to walk on a weekend, it’s certainly in acceptable condition

I've played Madera about 4-5 times in the last couple of months. Course remains in decent overall shape with nice greens. Fairways are a bit thin, especially yesterday and last week. They are sta... Continue »

I've played Madera about 4-5 times in the last couple of months. Course remains in decent overall shape with nice greens. Fairways are a bit thin, especially yesterday and last week. They are starting to show sings of the triple digit heat effecting them. But the fairways still present a decent hitting surface and overall not too bad, especially given the tradeoff of extra roll out. Greens are in really nice shape. Seemed like they rolled a bit slower yesterday, but that could just be because I was coming from the peninsula greens which roll much faster in general. . We played mid day and naturally the course was fairly quiet. I have a cycling client who is now taking up the sport so it was perfect for him to drop extra balls and hit multiple shots as we didn't have anyone behind us until the 16th. Good solid customer service. Layout is pretty basic flat parkland setup which is perfect for a beginner. They have also added some "new" carts. They are still basic carts but in a lot better condition than the old ones!

Madera Municipal golf course is my baseline for rating all other muni courses. Madera is usually in ok condition, nothing fancy but nothing horrible and has decent greens all at a reasonable rate. ... Continue »

Madera Municipal golf course is my baseline for rating all other muni courses. Madera is usually in ok condition, nothing fancy but nothing horrible and has decent greens all at a reasonable rate. With that, today was no exception. Greens were in nice condition rolling smooth at a medium+ pace. There was light rain for about 30 minutes just prior to teeing off this morning so that kept the greens a little slower than normal. I never realized how tough the greens can be here. Don’t get me wrong they aren’t like Blackhorse, Spanish Bay or Glen Annie, but they have just enough undulations to really test your skills.

The greens easily held well struck approach shots and even chip shots would check up occasionally.

Fairways were decent enough. Mainly winter thin(ish) but overall not bad. The fairways even had a little green color to them throughout. No issues with the tee boxes and even the par 3’s had good coverage. I avoided the bunkers all day but judging by my playing partners reactions, the bunkers were mainly hardpacked dirt with a light dusting of sand on top. The skirt area around the greens were in decent shape and made chipping with confidence easy.

There isn’t much rough so to speak. There’s the first cut which is all of about a ½” taller at best than the fairway. After that and it’s hardpan dirt between the fairways. Layout is a parkland style and completely flat. Our group was all walkers and judging by the carts out on the course, it looks like they are still the same old beat up basic carts they’ve had for years and double riders.
I don’t know if I’ve ever played here prime time on the weekend but the standard rack rate for walking was bearable as was the POP. We were making good time until the turn and then the wait at every shot got longer. Still we finished right at 4 hours on a 9:50 AM tee time during a three day weekend.

I played Madera Municipal on Saturday afternoon. Walked the course as it is completely flat and super easy to walk. Only one semi-long transfer (between 10th green and 11th tee). The rest is a walk... Continue »

I played Madera Municipal on Saturday afternoon. Walked the course as it is completely flat and super easy to walk. Only one semi-long transfer (between 10th green and 11th tee). The rest is a walk in the park! Again social distancing orders in place. Single player per cart for those not walking, and raised cups along with no rakes in the bunkers.

Being a weekend with limited courses open it was packed. POP was a bit under 5 hrs. We waited on every shot. Such is life, during weekend golf.

Course was in slightly below average Muni condition. Tee boxes were about average and fairways are starting to recover from winter thin. Recent rains had fairways greening up but still some thin spots throughout.

Greens were very slow. They obviously have not recovered from the mid march aeration. Bunkers were hard pan dirt. No need for a rake as footsteps and club didn’t leave a single impact mark!

Overall, conditions were ok for a valley muni course. The only real drawback were the super slow greens.

Grabbed an early morning Hot Deal this past weekend for a round with a few buddies. My previous review(s) for this course won't change much for the most part. Greens are typical Madera speed, quick, b... Continue »

Grabbed an early morning Hot Deal this past weekend for a round with a few buddies. My previous review(s) for this course won't change much for the most part. Greens are typical Madera speed, quick, but not fast, and all bowl out to the middle. Whomever placed these pins on Sunday(11/17) must not have been in a good mood! They were just off slopes and I've played here so many times, and there were placements that I had never seen before and they were tough!
But my biggest problem at Madera is the tee boxes, the tee markers seem to rarely be on a flat surface, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the Blue tees. I don't know if they just throw them down knowing that it won't get a ton of play, but for the few of us that do play "the tips" here, we seem to be looking for a good flat spot to peg one down. Why is it such a hard thing to find on many of these tee boxes?
Next, I am very understanding of the hardpan bunker in the valley, have dealt with my fair share. But when you lay sand,er, dirt down in the bunkers to give a semi-good looking lie, its really bad when the dirt is less than a 1/4 thick, and the hard pan is right under to bounce your club hard and typically blade the ball. Madera has visible drains in the bunkers, which helps drain them but do yourself a favor and actually give golfers who happen to be bunkered a chance and not fool them with a little coverage.
All in all, this is one of my favorite courses in the Fresno area, always affordable, and rarely do we have to wait on shots. You can rip it around this place, and not have to worry too much about being in certain spots because trees are well groomed and the rough isn't too damaging to a score.

Played Madera late afternoon yesterday. Course was in it’s typical average Muni-course shape with the exception of the greens having a ton of unrepaired pitch marks. I was routinely fixing 3-5 ball ... Continue »

Played Madera late afternoon yesterday. Course was in it’s typical average Muni-course shape with the exception of the greens having a ton of unrepaired pitch marks. I was routinely fixing 3-5 ball marks per green. Come on people, is it that hard to bend down and fix your pitch mark? I know I’m preaching to the choir and that most GK’ers are like me and repair not only their own ball marks but others as well.

I was talking to CenCalGolfer33 after the round and he said there had been a tournament there earlier in the morning. It might be time for course to start charging organizers a fee to send out a “sweeper” after the tournament to clean up after them.

Fairways were decent for the most part with a few thin areas here and there to go along with the wet areas caused by the much needed heavy watering during the recent triple digit heat.

First cut of rough was only about 1” and very easy to hit from. After that, it’s hardpan dirt (just like the sand traps). Tee boxes were ok. Nothing glamourous but no major issues.

POP was right at about 4 hrs. We were moving along nicely until about the 14th hole then started waiting on every shot.

My biggest complaint was the golf cart. No sand, and one piece solid plexiglass windshield. With 90+ degree heat it would be nice to fold down the windshield to get some air flow through the cart while driving. Plus, it was so scratched up we could barely see through it.

Played a day earlier than Alex did, and won’t go into great detail because it’s obviously very similar to Alex review on Madera. The greens seemed slower than the typical Madera green speeds but also ... Continue »

Played a day earlier than Alex did, and won’t go into great detail because it’s obviously very similar to Alex review on Madera. The greens seemed slower than the typical Madera green speeds but also they were in good shape! I still have a problem when the tee boxes are not flat. We play from the Blue tees but the white tee box on 1 is by far one of the worst around. It literally sits on a hump and your feet are either above the ball or below the ball and it runs the length of two or three clubs and not sure why they never level it or move the tee box to a flatter area. Got a Hot Deal so it was worth the price on my end. Still one that is an easy walk!

déjà vu - Exactly the same as my last review. Skipped my ride so wanted a course to walk. Started as a single, joined one other and course conditions are the same. A little less than what I woul... Continue »

déjà vu - Exactly the same as my last review. Skipped my ride so wanted a course to walk. Started as a single, joined one other and course conditions are the same. A little less than what I would expect given the wet winter and spring conditions we are having. Fairways had several thin spots throughout. Greens were decent but rolling slower than normal. Tee boxes were OK, I suppose. I was in several traps throughout the day. All are just hard pan with a very very thin layer of loose dirt on top. I normally don't mind getting out to Madera a few times a year, but I think I've hit my quota on this course for a while until conditions improve a bit.