With such a slow round at TPC Stonebrae, I barely had enough time to squeeze in one shorty in the evening afterward. I headed over to Monarch Bay and just played the 9-hole executive Marina Course (To... Continue »

With such a slow round at TPC Stonebrae, I barely had enough time to squeeze in one shorty in the evening afterward. I headed over to Monarch Bay and just played the 9-hole executive Marina Course (Tony Lema will have to wait until a future trip). Twilight rate was $20 for nine holes with a cart. Would be an easy walk, but I wanted to play as fast as possible. There were a few people over here, but I pretty well zipped through in about 30-40 minutes.

The course was in decent shape. I rated 6's across the board, except the bunkers that were a little less than good. The tee boxes, fairway areas, rough and greens were all in decent shape. The greens rolled fairly well and were soft on approaches, so you can be pretty aggressive on this short layout with three short par-4s and a good mix of par-3s.

Overall, I think Marina is a solid short course that does what it should. It's a good layout for beginners to learn the game, but more advanced players can still use it to work on the irons and short game as a warm-up or cool down when paired with the main course here.