Played today. Nice cool comfortable morning. Course is in reasonably good shape although it seems over watered in many areas. Especially in front of many greens and the greens themselves. No tee box issues. No trap issues. But while the fairways are green and provide good lies the roll out is not that great on many holes. As for the greens? They look good but chip and putt slow IMO. And there are a lot of unrepaired divot marks. Excellent service in the shop and with all other employees encountered.

good to know: my 10:27 tee time set me up to play as a single on Wednesday. Another single caught up to me on the third hole, so we continued together. This was my 2nd time in 6 months playing this course. Forgot that the 9th hole ends some distance from the club house area so you don't really have the luxury of getting any food or drink if its busy or running fast. Looks as though they once had a snack bar right between the 9th green/10th tee. Looks to be shuttered for good. I always try to only stay on cart paths or at least off fairways in cart. At times its a very rough and bumpy ride due to squirrel holes parallel to fairway. Still, I will be back as this place is a very good value, not to mention the grass driving range!

From 7/14

Back to Sandpiper!


Sandpiper was excellent, challenging, and testing! Played longer due 10-15 mph winds and the heavy marine layer. Pin placements were brutal at times. Apparently the Greenskeeper wanted to take it out on The Monday Golfers.


Tee Boxes: Level and green, no damage. Condition good with limited divot damage from the day.


Fairways: Green, lush, and defined from rough. Condition good with some limited areas being too wet or too dry.


Greens: Green, medium-fast in speed, with softness. Speed about an 11. Condition excellent.


Sand: flooded with water in several bunkers or rock hard. Below average condition due to flooding or dryness. Not sure what happened to the bunkers, no bueno!


Rough: very well maintained and defined, about 3 – 5 inches. Condition excellent. Very grabby.


Water Hazards: Very scenic on Hole 18.


Waste Areas: Waste areas were maintained lower than usual and cut down. Offered little to no recovery potential. Condition good.


Driving Range: one of the best grass ranges you can find in California. Condition excellent.


Practice Putting Green: excellent condition but speed much faster than the golf course. It runs at 12 to 12.5.


Sandpiper was again amazing, other than bunkers. This is such a great course and always a treat to play! Endorsed!

Played the Canyon and Ranch nines here today with an 11:30 TeeOff.com “Deal” time. After a 20% off promo code, I paid less than $58. More like “Steal” Canyon at that rate! Checked in the shop around 11:00 and then the starter in the staging area was very friendly and offered to let me either play at my time as part of a foursome, or start early by myself. I opted for playing alone and hit the first tee within a couple minutes. Didn’t catch anyone until around the 12th hole, and then things were pretty slow for a while until I was able to play through a group on 16 before zipping through 17 & 18. Total POP was great at about 3:25, often taking my time to take pictures or practice chips and putts after holing out.

Conditions are decent to good. Greens are the highlight, running smooth, medium to medium-fast speed, and quite accepting of full shots. Fairways are pretty firm and have mostly good coverage, but I did find some bare spots. Rough varied from light to thick Bermuda where the ball would sink down and cause some issues. Blue tee boxes were mostly good but some were a mix of grasses and a bit clumpy. I was in two bunkers, both of which looked decent at first but probably could’ve used more sand once I played my shots.

This was my first time here and I’d wanted to notch it off the list for a long time. It’s a decent course but not quite as impressive nor dramatic as I anticipated. Could be the summer conditions or midday lighting that just didn’t “wow” me much. There are some nice elevation changes on the Canyon nine but no one hole really captivated or excited me.

After the round, I inquired about playing the Vineyard nine as well, which looked wide open. The pro shop guy said sure but wanted to charge me $50. Considering that’s almost what I paid for 18, I passed, especially knowing from Jay’s reviews below that I’d already played the two best nines. Overall, definitely worth what I paid but I couldn’t recommend it at full rack rate, which for me as a non-San Diego County resident would’ve been an absurd $152. Even the $102 county resident rate is a bit steep for a weekday, imo.

Back out to Cottonwood on Monday, July 15, around 2:30pm. Showed up as a single and got right out. $48 with a cart, no complaints. It was so empty that they didn't have a starter, but the guy in the proshop (Evan? Owen?) was very friendly. Absolutely nobody in front of me or behind me, so I played a legit two ball. Played the front in 1.25hrs. and then a twosome jumped in front of me on the back. I was a little upset at first, but they let me join on the 11 tee and now there were people in front of them, so I wasn't going anywhere. We proceeded to have a blast (Chad and Rich). They were just looping around the place because it was so empty for some reason. Conditions remain about the same as previous.

Black Teeboxes are a little unlevel, but had great coverage and just needed to take an extra minute to find a level spot.

Fairways were pretty horrible in most all areas, but the main "landing" areas were surprisingly in good shape. Tons of squirrels all over, so you might want to play lift/clean/place. Most of the horrible areas are marked GUR, but if you're out there gambling, I'd establish LCP in the fairways with your group.

Rough is manageable and not too penal. Take relief from burrowing animals, as there's a lot of areas like this.

Didn't find any bunkers, but they looked just fine.

Greens were shaggy and slow, but smooth. They held shots just fine. No huge complaint here, just get used to the speed. Wish they'd mow them a little tighter. Surroundig green complexes were in good shape, as well.

No frills carts and no frills course, all around. If they put just a little more maintenance into the course, it could be a lot more special. The layout is great, especially the back nine. There's tons of great holes on the back nine. Could never compete with Steele Canyon in terms of wow factor, but it could be a sweet course with just a little more upkeep, but then I'm sure the value would definitely be affected. I do recommend, just keep your expectations on the conditions a little low.

I recently made the long drive out to San Vicente Golf Resort on 7/12. For a morning rate of $99, I feel like this is a great price for the quality you get. I could not stop telling my playing partner how amazing the course conditions were from 50 yards and in. I'm not sure if they recently redid those areas on the course, but it looked like it to me. The bunkers were set up to give you great lies most of the time (Hard sand on the bunker walls, but nice soft sand at the bottom, so the balls rolls down into the good sand most of the time). The greens were also in great shape. They were cut very short and were rolling at a 10.5 at least. They have many tiers and undulations so expect to 3-putt a little more than normal. Fairways, Rough, and Tee Boxes were average-good quality, but the area from 50 yards and in was almost up to country club level! If you live within an hour of this course I would highly recommend making the drive out for an under $100 weekend morning round.

We stayed in a de Anza course home last Wednesday to Saturday with extremely hot weather. Course open Thurs thru Sunday having recent greens aeration/sanding had me playing two putts max. Other than greens entire course was in terrific condition lush fairways with rough about 1”, plenty of raked white sand bunkers and flat tee boxes with crews out every day. Reduced fee of 29 included golf, cart, ice, grass range (new balls), trap/pitch area friendly staff and bighorn sheep grazing. I went out Thursday & Friday after warm up 7:30 done before 10. Saw only 1 couple about four holes ahead first day but weather was 90 to 107 that day and although cooler Friday didn’t notice anyone else out. Pro shop intact but main clubhouse burned down and County is reviewing rebuild plans. Was a fun trip stayed cool enough on course using chilly towels and plenty of ice water while playing fairly quickly. Most holes have large trees to shade tee boxes, along fairways and around greens. House pool and AC the rest of the day into nite. Would have tried Rams Hill but it is closed for course wide maintenance most of July.

Played Strawberry for the first time last week late in the afternoon with a buddy. Arrived early, and asked during check-in if we could tee off early and was told no due to other tee times. Multiple foursomes teed off during our brief warm up, and while we loaded into our cart, we asked if we were going to play with another twosome, but were told the twosome we were due to play with went early!
Carts are very basic and had empty sand bottles, no cooler, or ball/club washer on them. It did have GPS though. Front nine is completely forgetable, while the back nine is more imaginative and requires strategy. We were both underwhelmed by the course conditions and pace of play for this South OC course. When the best thing about your course is the quality of sand in the bunkers, something is wrong.

Played in another RPGC tournament this weekend and was very excited to get back out to Mountain Meadows in Pomona. I played in the B flight and had an 11:40am tee time on a hot, but survivable summer day.

If you've never played MM before, it's a tale of two nines, though not quite as dramatic as a place like Tijeras Creek for example. The front nine has fewer dramatic elevations but no shortage of tricky and narrow up-and-down holes, while the back nine has much more unique holes like the stretch from 11-15. It's a good test of both accuracy and length, and the par 3s are all unique and fun.

Overall conditions are very good - definitely doing great work to beat the heat. The greens were very nice - rolling fast, holding shots and rewarding good lines. Some of the greens are quite small which adds to the challenge, but the other ones do have plenty of subtle breaks to keep you honest. The fairways are in good shape as well - solid lies all day long in good spots. The rough? Mostly playable and easy to hit from so no drama there. Bunkers were a bit of a mixed bag with the early ones on the front nine playing very nicely, then the latter ones (like greenside on hole 16) being thin, crusty and difficult. Tee boxes were not all level but the coverage was good ... could definitely improve that.

Cart service came around numerous times but was not very efficient as she had to input the credit card number and all details each time - even for just a Gatorade. I'm hoping that was just a glitch for the day and not the standard procedure. It simply takes too long to grab a quick snack and keep the POP moving. Speaking of POP, were were one of the last groups in the tournament and it did not run super smoothly, finishing at just under five hours.

Really fun course though in very good shape and at a reasonable rate - get out to Mountain Meadows right now if you can and it's going to be a good day.

Best thing I can say about this course is the weather is nice in the summer. In pristine shape, would be a fantastic track. Layout is kind of a parkland and links hybrid. Lots of potential…

But…

Greens in awful shape. No one has bothered to mow or roll them in ages. Fairways mostly green, but still plenty of visible burn spots. Tee boxes probably the nicest grass on course.

Pace of play was 4 hours even. Locals must be catching on the course is in rough shape since it was pretty wide open.

Walked the golds this afternoon 7/14/25 teeing off just before 2pm with my buddy Mark. Pop was 4 hrs 10 minutes under beautiful skies on the front nine around 70 degrees turning to a colder damp foggy back nine with a nice marine layer.

Sandpiper remains in good shape with just a few blemishes from the last round out here 2 months ago.

Fairways still in very nice shape. There are several sections that have dried out in most Fairways but would say 80% nice and 20% dry. Rated 7.5/10

Greens were in fabulous shape. Quick, pure holding shots nicely. Perfect combination. Rated 9/10.

Rough in great shape just off the fringes and fairways at times overwatered near the greens. Rated 8.5/10

Was in no Fairway bunkers and in 2 greenside bunkers. Sand was a clay like wet more hardpan surface. There is sand in them but they need to be raked to get a fluffier texture. Poor link of the course.

Rated 5/10

Tees mainly all level with some usual divot damage on the par 3s.

Good test of golf from the golds or blacks. Course plays fair and had added length with the lingering marine layer today.

Highly recommended!

Played Sat 7/12, 7am. nice day, a little chilly, 1-2 club wind and heavy air most of the day. Greens running pretty true, probably a 11. Course in great shape. Always enjoy the views, complain about the greens. Though this course is growing on me the more I play it. And playing in pebble beach is never something to complain about. 4:45 hr round. I hear they are closing the course soon to redo the greens... So i'll look forward to that. Had a great time.