This was our second stop yesterday. We used a GolfMoose voucher minus a gift card cert won at GK Plays, so it was a great deal. We teed off around 10:30 at the tail end of the morning rush. They reall... Continue »

This was our second stop yesterday. We used a GolfMoose voucher minus a gift card cert won at GK Plays, so it was a great deal. We teed off around 10:30 at the tail end of the morning rush. They really don't use a three-nine rotation here anymore. Creekside/Hillside is considered the main 18 and then Diablo is basically just a separate 9-hole course. We played the Creekside nine first and it was packed. It only took 2 hours to complete the nine, but it felt slower. We ended up going over to play the Diablo nine second (paying a $10 replay) because it was more wide open. Then, we came back to finish the Hillside nine last and things had opened up a lot by then. It was a lot of driving around because of the spread-out routing, but it worked well and we finished all 27 in about 5 hours. The course conditions were probably just a slight notch above what we got at Rio Vista. They were overseeding most of the white tees, so most of them were moved up to play with the reds or set up in awkward temporary places. A few played back with the blues and some used their normal boxes. If you play the whites right now, you'll be treated to a super short and easy course! The fairways were inconsistent with a lot of spotty sections, though I mostly ended up with good lies. The rough was best avoided. There were some areas with a lot of gopher mounds, some hardpan/bare spots, some super thick and chunky spots where the rough was 6 inches tall, and everything in between. It was the wild west once you stepped off the fairways, so it paid to keep it in the short stuff. The bunkers were super firm without much sand to work with. The greens, however, were the best part. They were in really good shape and rolling well at medium speeds. If Rio Vista was 90s-era Ted Robinson residential template #5, then Brentwood was #6. I would say RV was a more interesting layout than Brentwood, but the slightly better conditions and 27 holes to play made it more appealing on this day. Brentwood is more forgiving and has some character with plenty of water hazards and elevated greens to provide some challenge, especially on the Hillside 9 (easily the best of the three), but also has a familiar kind of feel. Solid course and worth playing with the right deal, but nothing worth going too far out of your way for.