I finally made it out to Cinnabar Hills after all these years and being so close to it. I can tell you right away that this wont be my last time playing here. What a great course! I’ve heard so mu... Continue »

I finally made it out to Cinnabar Hills after all these years and being so close to it. I can tell you right away that this wont be my last time playing here. What a great course! I’ve heard so much about it with everyone always raving about how good this track is. Well, I’m here to say they were all right. It’s a gem!

Starting with the clubhouse, you think you are in a private country club setting not some public muni course. In fact the clubhouse is so nice they have TV’s in the urinal walls. There’s also a shower in case you want to hose off after the round in the hot weather.

Pro shop attendant in the morning was having a bad day and was a bit grumpy. Afternoon staff was fine. We played the the Lakes / Mountain combination. Both 9’s were similar in style in that they had fairly open fairways sans a couple holes that had tight landing areas or gully’s to navigate. Course is on a hillside so there are plenty of elevation changes. Sort of like Carmel Valley Ranch, Cinnabar has most of the holes playing downhill. They have you drive up the hill to the next tee box so just about 90% of the holes play downhill.

Practice green was super tricky. However we found the green complexes on the course to be great. They rolled at the perfect medium-fast pace where downhill putts were slippery but you could get aggressive on uphill putts. I will say that I think we had more than our share of generous pin locations which helped tame the greens. There were a few tough pins but most were accessible

Fairways were being treated with some fertilizer that didn’t affect play too much, more the smell and aesthetics. Still, they were lush throughout. A couple fairways were soggy which prevented roll out.

Tee boxes were mainly level with lush coverage and divot free for the most part. Bunkers had great quality sand, though a few hadn’t been properly raked. We tee’d off at 10AM so and weren’t in any hurry at all so we slipped back a hole as to not pressure the group in front and we never had anyone behind us all day. The next group was easily 3 holes back.

As I said at the beginning, this was a blast of a course and I can see why people rave about it. I too will be one of the one’s raving about Cinnabar Hills!

First time playing this course, extremely challenging, but still fun. Played the Mountain/Lake combo. The course has a total of 3 different 9 hole courses that are rotated each day, can't wait to go... Continue »

First time playing this course, extremely challenging, but still fun. Played the Mountain/Lake combo. The course has a total of 3 different 9 hole courses that are rotated each day, can't wait to go back and try the Canyon 9. From the Cinnabar tees (Blues?) the yardage was only 6300, but the slope was 138!

Each 9 starts off with a pretty wide open fairway for the tee shot, followed by a remaining 8 holes that are very challenging for various reasons. Multiple blind/deceptive tee shots, tons of 100-200 yard forced carries, fun elevation changes, and progressively narrower tee shots all help to earn that high slope rating. Once you get it in the fairway, there are a lot of uphill approaches to super nice, tabletop speed greens. Quite often I was able to land on the front and roll all the way to the pin. A couple par 3s had shallow greens, making it tough to stop even a correctly played shot without rolling off the back. Overall, the super fast, well guarded greens kept even the best drive and approach from being an easy par. GIR and 3 putts were common, just tough to get the putts to stop close to the hole due to speed and slopes.

Overall course condition was top notch. Currently I would say this is in the top 5 in NorCal for under $100. Fairways were excellent, greens were even better. Pace of play was also perfect for a fully booked course, taking just around 4:10. This is one of my new favorite courses for quality, challenging golf.

Second vacation review. Sorry for the delay, very limited internet access while I was gone.

Went out early on a Sunday, played the Canyon/Mountain combo. Was paired up with a couple locals who wer... Continue »

Second vacation review. Sorry for the delay, very limited internet access while I was gone.

Went out early on a Sunday, played the Canyon/Mountain combo. Was paired up with a couple locals who were helpful with their insight as we worked our way around. This course DEFINITELY requires that local knowledge or both your score and enjoyment will suffer.

Conditions were very good to excellent from tee to green. A handfull if brown spots in fairways and a couple tees were fairly worn but other than that very green with good lies. Rough was not real deep but sticky/thick so it was a challenge to recover from. Greens were firm but not hard, most shots would take 1 or 2 bounces before checking up. They were fairly fast but not as fast downhill as you’d think, had several putts come up short of what I’d figured. All rolled very true.

Bunkers had good sand and coverage, both greenside and fairways. The layout is very challenging and requires proper placement of tee shots to keep approach shots reasonable. LOTS of elevation changes! Customer service was very good and efficient.

Overall a very nice facility with great views. A little higher than most in the area but based on the conditions it’s probably worth the extra. Definitely recommended.

First time I've played this course and after reading previous reviews, I had high expectations. The course did not disappoint. Played Canyon/Lake. Unfortunately started off on the Canyon nine in fai... Continue »

First time I've played this course and after reading previous reviews, I had high expectations. The course did not disappoint. Played Canyon/Lake. Unfortunately started off on the Canyon nine in fairly heavy fog, which really took some of the luster off what appeared to be a fantastic nine holes. Many of the holes, I could barely see the fairways, let alone the green complex on the approaches, but from what I could see it looked great.

Lake nine had far less fog, so no issues with respect to visibility. I enjoyed, but not nearly so much as the Canyon nine. Greens were a bit slow because they have not fully recovered from the recent punching. Fairways/rough were fine, but the tee boxes had a lot of bare areas and severe divot damage

Staff was great. Rick, the starter got us off in front of the "regular twosome" so we had no issue as to pace. Wanted to play the Mountain nine, but it was closed due to a tournament. Maybe next time?

Cinnabar was an excellent day of golf. From the friendly staff in the proshop and the starter to the impeccable tee boxes and greens, your day of golf will be easy going. The green fees are on the h... Continue »

Cinnabar was an excellent day of golf. From the friendly staff in the proshop and the starter to the impeccable tee boxes and greens, your day of golf will be easy going. The green fees are on the higher side but there is definitely value in what you are paying for. We played on July 3rd (holiday weekend) and the pace of play was very good. The tee box placement accounted for most of the difficulty of the course but each one was well placed for good views of the fairways and greens. Be sure to bring a few extra balls if you stray on your tee shot. The previous reviews of the greens being fast were spot on. Do not expect to stick on the greens as you will have a hard time finding a divet to repair. Overall an excellent day at golf while visiting the Bay Area at Cinnabar.

Normally, this course is in fantastic shape and one of my favorites. But I guess the drought has taken its toll. Greens were soft and unmown. Fairways were big-plug-aerated and the holes filled wit... Continue »

Normally, this course is in fantastic shape and one of my favorites. But I guess the drought has taken its toll. Greens were soft and unmown. Fairways were big-plug-aerated and the holes filled with dirt, leaving bad lies all over the place.

I played Cinnabar yesterday morning, and was able to play all 27 holes in about 5.5 hours getting an early start just after 6:00. Played the Mountain/Canyon combo first paired with a somewhat slow-pla... Continue »

I played Cinnabar yesterday morning, and was able to play all 27 holes in about 5.5 hours getting an early start just after 6:00. Played the Mountain/Canyon combo first paired with a somewhat slow-playing twosome and then joined another twosome for a relatively quick nine on Lake. The staff was helpful to get me back out quickly for the third nine, which I appreciated. With the drought restrictions in effect as seen on other courses during this trip and the latest review from a few months ago, my expectations weren't super high with the conditions. However, I found the course to be in very nice shape overall with things being pretty lush and green throughout. The tee boxes were great. The fairways had some weak spots here and there, but I almost always had excellent lies. The rough is a little dappled in color, but consistently cut and not too penal. The greens were very firm and lightning fast, which presented a great deal of challenge all day. It was a little frustrating because most balls landing on the green wouldn't stay on while anything short would stop immediately in the much softer fringe/fairway grass. That said, the greens were very smooth and quick on putts, so the surfaces were great. I was in a couple bunkers and they had good sand. The greens were definitely challenging because they have plenty of undulation and many pins were right on top of subtle ridges and knobs, so downhill/sidehill putts were hard to stop once past the hole and uphill putts were hard to get to the hole and/or hold the line. This all said, what a really dramatic and beautiful course with each nine bringing similar elements, but presenting a different set of challenges. The Mountain nine is the most "open" but has a lot of tricky uphill/downhill and a few really significant forced carries. The Canyon nine is purely insane target golf playing into the woods. Also a ton of major elevation changes, but with more trouble in play in the form of trees and creeks/hazards. The Lake nine is somewhere in between the other two, without as many elevation changes. The setting is absolutely gorgeous and completely secluded from civilization, and the facilities are nice all around with a really cool golf museum inside the clubhouse that has all sorts of neat memorabilia and replicas of all of golf's most iconic trophies on display. With the high rack rates and challenging layout that some might deem a bit to tricked out in places, it may not be the type of place you play every day, but it is certainly worth checking out. I was pretty exhausted after surviving all 27, but I would go back and do it all again in a heartbeat!

According to the weather report winds were gusting up to 25 mph today and maybe more because this course is set in the mountains above south San Jose. This is a tough course and just about every hole... Continue »

According to the weather report winds were gusting up to 25 mph today and maybe more because this course is set in the mountains above south San Jose. This is a tough course and just about every hole is either going up the hill or down the hill with many undulations in the fairways and greens alike. Many forced carries, some water hazards, stiff rough and many trees make this a difficult course for first timers without course knowledge. Although there were no brown patches to speak of, the fairways were hard in many places. The greens were in good shape but difficult to judge both in speed and line. I don't play this course very often because of the pricy green fees but we had a Groupon. I remember this course as being in great shape but probably because of the drought, it has gone down in stature in my mind.

GN discount of $62 for a 10:50am tee time on a Monday. Course immaculate. Greens very true, even ball marks were smooth(shows the quality of players). Was playing very well, with only a couple of '... Continue »

GN discount of $62 for a 10:50am tee time on a Monday. Course immaculate. Greens very true, even ball marks were smooth(shows the quality of players). Was playing very well, with only a couple of 'loose' shots, scored 88 on Lake and Mountain 9's. Wind was up on Mountain 9, but from the white tees it was playable even in 90 degree heat. 4 stars and excellent service.