Great day out at The Oaks Club at Valencia for our 65th Private Course event in collaboration with Vivid Golf and Golf Moose. It was our first event with the pre-round Skills Challenge. This event featured a delicate pitch on the 6 ft / 3ft circle. I couldn’t resist utilizing the courses beautiful practice facilities Thanks GKers rgm2525, GDR23 and Barkydog1 for the assistance.

What started as a chilly morning following a light shower, turned into a beautiful, partly cloudy day. The course was in excellent very challenging playing condition. The rough was thick, 2 to 3 inches primary / 4 to 8 inches of secondary. Balls off the fairway commonly required extra searching and at times some luck to find. According to the course staff, the rough is in the process of being cut down but will take a series of cuts to be at the playable height the club is accustomed to. The greens were smooth, mostly firm and medium/fast. The fairways were lush, full coverage and looked beautiful. The sand traps I experienced were groomed containing high quality sand. The tee boxes were level, lush and groomed.

The Oaks Club at Valencia, once TPC Valencia, is a very challenging, hilly, course winding through oak trees. The Oaks Club has many scenic views but also blind shots that can frustrate players. The golf carts do not have GPS so make sure to pack your own or a range finder. In addition, if you’re serious about trying to score well there, unless you know the course very well, study a course map because ball placement on most holes is more important than distance. On the holes I know how to play, I enjoy them very much The holes I don’t, not so much.

If you’re a group play organizer, as mentioned above, the course layout presents some challenges for first time groups. However, your group will appreciate the great turf conditions, excellent service, food, views, clubhouse and facilities. Overall, it should still be a very satisfying experience I recommend.

Thanks everyone that comes out to these events!

Played last week green still not in good conditions Aeration effectively on tee boxes and greens.

Played last Monday (3/24/25). This course is hard to figure out, it has very nice greens and bunkers, but the fairways are junk. On 99% of the holes there is awash on the right side and fairway slopes that way. Paid $30.00 to walk and that's about it's worth. The staff is great, and the club house is nice, but I don't think I will be back.

Played my first round of the year yesterday morning at Bellevue (3/30/25) and had a really good time, even though the course is in slightly rough shape. Weather here in western Washington was really quite cold this winter (I had a great ski season) and Bellevue's showing the effects of that. The 4th green's been closed for some time my friends told me, and the 12th green just opened for the first time since late November. Overall greens were very inconsistent speed wise, and very bumpy. The ones like 12 that haven't had any play, or get lots of sun, were pretty nice, and definitely faster and smoother than the others. Fairways and rough were all pretty good here (like always) and I can't comment on the bunkers as I was fortunate enough to not find any of them. Usually they are pretty good. Tee boxes were pretty rough, they probably hadn't been cut in some time and many of them were in pretty bad shape. A few just get no sun whatsoever, and the par 3s aren't very long on this course so those get beat up pretty bad. Our 3 some teed off about 7:15 or 7:20, a few minutes early, and we walked the course in about 3:20 for an awesome pace. Service in the shop and the bar afterward was friendly and excellent as always.

Played in the Golfmoose/Vivid golf GK outing this morning 3/31/25 joined by buddies Matt and Ron and a pleasure to meet and be joined by Anthony. We had a great time today with lots of good shots under cooler low 60s degree weather with up to a 2 club wind. Our POP was around 4 hrs 45 minutes which flowed well for this outing. Enjoyed the massive chipping/bunker area, huge massive putting green which mirrored the speed of the greens well. They have a massive downhill driving range which were on mats this morning.

Very impressed with the conditions this morning. Most Fairways were very lush with maybe some dry spots on a couple of the front nine holes but for sure Fairways on average were in the 8/10 range.

The rough was very green, very lush , healthy and a club grabber just off the fairways. Beautiful shape 9/10

Greens were the highlight of the show. I love quick and pure greens and these were that. Downhillers a 12 on the stimp, regular flat putts an 11. Very firm greens that rewarded irons with spin and punished shots with no spin. Some of the better greens I have putted on this year. Rated 9/10

Tees mainly level, lush and uniform and in good shape. Rated 8/10.

Was in one greenside bunker and 2 Fairway bunkers that were in great shape. Rated 8.5/10

Very fun and challenging layout that a member here could play everyday and not get tired of a boring layout. Not tight but crooked approach shots to the green can be penal. Very ample scoring holes, doglegs, mature trees, some water features on the front nine.

Very much recommended if looking to join.

Thx Oaks at Valencia and GK for a great day.

A scheduling SNAFU this past week meant that I played Los Amigos twice in a three-day stretch, so if anyone has the goods on current conditions there, it's me!

Walked both days as it's an entirely walkable course, and that also helps to mitigate the invariable wait times, which ironically were better on Sunday than they were on Friday afternoon. Go figure. Either way, big backups up until around the fifth hole are the norm here so come to terms with it.

Greens are in pretty nice shape here right now following the work done a few weeks ago. I would say they're fully healed and rolling pretty nicely right now. They hold shots and their lines pretty darn well. Fairways also have decent coverage right now but be careful in the rough as there are a lot of thin areas and the random tree root you don't see until it's too late.

Bunkers were a conundrum as the first few I played were in really nice shape, and then I got to the greenside bunker on the 11th hole and it was hardpan and chunky. Just pick the right one I suppose if you must beach it. Tee boxes are in decent shape (played the blue tees both days).

Overall I would say that I wasn't too bummed out about playing The Friends twice because the conditions weren't all that terrible and I played so poorly on Friday that I wanted some redemption on Sunday - which I luckily got. Price is always right too for this course so that helps.

Teed it up Monday at Sunset Hills CC 3/24 with rgm2525, abbacat and TPROVJ. What a fun day!

This was my 8th Private Course Outing at Sunset Hills CC since 2022. Our group really enjoys the experience here. The golf course, was, as always, in excellent condition. Sunset Hills CC had again, a full friendly staff on hand for F & B before, during and after play. Bag drop services were solid and organized. The facility does lack a full-size driving range instead having a short game area with nets for full swings plus a few 150 yards limit driving range stalls. There are two areas to practice putting and chipping. Besides the limited practice facilities, it’s got all the other other amenities and services. I see a lot of families memebers here.

Thank you, Molly Dunn, Membership Director, for the surprise welcome of coffee and donuts! See photo. It made a great impression with our group!

Greenskeeper.org very much appreciates Sunset Hills CC having us out in collaboration with Vivid Golf for these events.

Be on the look out for them. We got more coming here in 2025!

Played Sat 3/29, 12pm tee time; 5 1/2 hr round. cool and windy day, wind started mild 1 club wind, but increased up to a 3 club wind as day went on. Lots of waiting in this slow round. Never been here, and came in preparation for an ncga 2 man event. Course in poor muni shape. Fairways unkept, with dandelions littering the fairway, lots of unfilled divots, and bare spots. Greens are the best maintained feature, firm and fast, grainy, running a fast 11 downgrain, slow 10 upgrain. Tee boxes thin and uneven. Rough thick and patchy. Sand sandy. A fun layout, links style, mounds, hazards, big greens. right by the oakland airport, and apparentlly under the runway approach, and small jets are non stop landing. Fun, but not well kept, and slow on this sat afternoon. For the $100 rack rate, I'd rather go to Corica Park on the other side of the airport. If they took better care of it, I'd give it a recommend.

Early Friday morning cool and misty round on the Creek/Stone nines. The staff has always been the best here since the 80's when it was called Rainbow Canyon. It's been awhile since playing the Stone nine which has been shortened to a par 35 with the first hole now a par 4. I'm sure those that were having their vehicles damaged in the parking lot had something to do with that! The carts are nice with fairly accurate GPS. The tee boxes were all level with good coverage except for the par 3's which were a real mess of deep divots and spotty grass. The wet rough was extremely thick with fresh cut grass clippings/mounds that made finding a ball in it nearly impossible. If you could find your ball in the rough hitting from it was not fun. The grounds crew was mowing the rough and fairways as we were playing which became slightly bothersome. The freshly cut fairways were a beautiful emerald green with total thick lush coverage. There are many unfilled divots on the fairways usually found from about 150 yards and in on the par 4 and 5 holes. Great coverage of the fairways with the freshly cut grass made for perfect lies and pretty nice roll. The traps are always damp and difficult to hit from every time we play here which is really a bummer. The traps do have good sand and plenty of it but many golfers neglect to rake them. The weekday rates are acceptable and they do offer walking rates for those that like to do that and save some money.

Mid morning five hour round on a cool cloudy Thursday. The staff and practice facilities are great. The carts are large and comfortable and also in nice condition. The tee boxes are all level with total coverage and well kept. There are many boxes to choose from which is good for all skill levels. The rough was in perfect shape and just thick enough to slow down your shots before they disappeared. You could put a good swing on it from the rough which was nice. The fairways were probably the best conditioned of any course I've played in many years. The lies were perfect, the grass was lush and green cut at the perfect length. The marshal said to not be concerned with divots as the grounds crew filled all of them during the last two hours of their shift. I asked if they were hiring! The deep sand traps had plenty of well prepped white fluffy sand that was really great to swing from. The large greens were the best with plenty of roll total coverage with no ball marks and extremely quick. The pin placements made attacking them not in the best interest for scoring. Well struck shots would hold but if you came in low you found yourself off the back quickly. The layout and setting of this place with top notch course conditions make it a pleasure to play.

Played here twice this week, Sunday in a Men's Club tourney and Thursday when I got on as a single, walking both times. Played with three nice older gentlemen in the latter round, two walking and one riding. Pace of play was 4:30 teeing off at 10:30. Much better than I expected. No cart service on Thursday. Otherwise, great service as usual. $33 and change to walk on Thursday with a LA County Senior card.

Both rounds, the pins were placed in unusually difficult positions in my experience. very close to the edges most of the time and on slopes. I heard they were set up in difficult spots for the team play match on Wednesday so maybe they left them there the following day. Made for tough putting days considering the greens are firm and running fast. They are rolling great though. The coverage in the fairways is good although it looked drier on Thursday than last weekend. The sand in the bunkers is very playable. The rough is cut down which makes the course play shorter and allows balls to roll into trouble more often.

Did I mention both days were gorgeous especially Thursday? Just beautiful out there. I'll be back.

Played today with a start time of 9 AM. Left after the 16th hole as it was already 1:30 PM and still needed to play 17/18 which had a foursome waiting when we reached it. In fact we waited on every hole today w/o any marshal every showing up. There is always a jam up at the first hole, 2nd hole and 3rd hole that puts the damper on a 4 hour round on this course. Course conditions are just OK in my opinion. Tee boxes were playable but beat up. Fairways had decent coverage, lies and roll out. No rough to speak of and that was fine. Traps were playable based on comments from our group. Greens while looking OK were very very slow and no one was satisfied with them. Good customer service in the shop. But I won't be going back as POP has always been an issue here and it does not seem to ever get better. The fee for Sr is $39.75 with cart but most people walk and course allows 5's and most of them walk so that contributes to the slow play.