It's been 2 years since I've last played here, so needless to say I was pretty excited rolling into town Wednesday night. The expectations were met with flying colors (as they always are here).

Got out right at 8am, and were told to expect a slow day because of a few "old geezers in 4 somes" as the cart guy put it. We didn't actually catch these guys until number 9, but we did play with someone who had never been to the course before and was from Australia. He was taking quite a few pictures because of the beauty of this course. Can't say that I blame him or that it bothered us at all since we did the same thing the first time we played here. Back 9 was quite a bit slower as there were several 4-somes ahead of us. Roasting in the sun an understatement. PoP = 5 rating (average). Can't complain when you know what you're getting into from the start.

Boxes - 8/10. Few spots could use watering and a little sand, but overall they were in great condition. Always found a flat lie and plenty of grass. Few of them probably could have used a mow, but I personally would rather have more grass than none at all. Dark green and not bare at all.

Greens - 8/10. I wish I could go higher, but we played 36. First round they were fast and true, second round (not too many people behind us) they were considerably slower and had some funky breaks. Not sure if they were watering behind us after the first round, but it just seemed as though the second round were not quite a true as the first. Overall - I would have zero problem recommending them or playing again.

Bunkers - 4/10. The one problem area for me here. While they looked nice and pretty, filled with white sand, when you got into them they were hard panned. Did not have one fluffy bunker all day. It seemed as though they watered them too much in the morning and then it dried hard. Did have one time where my partner was in the bunker and the maintenance guys didn't even bother to stop cutting the lip when he was hitting - not good etiquette if you ask me.

Fairways - 8/10. Nice and green. Some places were a little thin and had some browning spots, but overall they were in pretty good shape. No complaints whatsoever here.

Overall I would HIGHLY recommend this course to anyone. I've only ever played in the middle of summer, so I don't know how awesome it is in fall/winter, but I can only imagine. If you're even on the fence about this place, make it happen.

Got out this morning. Some surprising things are happening at Knollwood.

Pace of Play - 7/10- Started off as you would expect for Knollwood - slow. Got to the course at 6:30 for a 7:00 tee time, parking lot was empty so I had the foolish thought that we'd be good to go and maybe get around in 3.5 hrs. Walked to the clubhouse and there were about 40 people on the first tee standing around waiting. After checking in, spent some time BS'ing with the starter....he told us that the Pro Shop packs these groups in and then allows people without tee times to go out in between the groups that do have tee times. Once we got going, it wasn't too bad. Only had to wait a handful of times. Got around the course in just over 4 hrs total.

Tees -8/10- Generally all were pretty flat. Looked like we were the first group playing from the blues today so they were in pretty good shape. Most of them were forward though, so it definitely made the holes play a little differently.

Fairways -7/10- Apparently, Knollwood just hired a new Groundskeeper a few months back and they're doing some great things here. Fairways were a little thin in a few areas but overall better than I've seen at this course in a LONG time. Not quite Robinson Ranch, but certainly not Lost Canyons.

Rough -7/10- Same as the fairways. Few patchy spots, but generally in good shape. A lot of the brush/garbage areas have been cleaned out so you can play right out of them.

Bunkers -5/10- Really the only negative on the course. Looked like a soft layer on top and then were hard as a rock underneath. Definitely skulled a few shots out of the bunkers by being fooled in sand quality.

Greens -7/10- Best part of the course today. Greens were great. Before we teed off we noticed a Gator cart with a sprayer contraption hooked up to it driving across the greens spraying water and fertilizer. Would have rated the greens an 8 but the maintenance guy driving the cart water logged the greens and left puddles of the water/fertilizer mix on the fringes. Could have earned another point, but there were a lot of ball marks. Can't fault the course for that, but I think they could probably make the etiquette part of the game more prominent.

Overall it was a great course today and it seems like it's only getting better. As long as they can keep the pace of play under control (which they won't because they allow 5 somes and are proud of it) I would definitely recommend this course.

Played as part of the GK outing to support the launch of the book on friday as well, and have to say that this course exceeded my expectations based on the previous reviews.

Clubhouse/Restaurant: 9/10 - got there early and had a burrito which was pretty good. There are two jugs of water and what looked like iced tea out there for you to get any time you want, which is nice. Would definitely eat here again.

Practice Facilities: 8/10 - only giving it an 8 for two reasons. (1) mats. I hate hitting off mats, and that was the only option I saw here. I know some other courses (like Vista Valencia) have an unspoken rule where you can take the balls and hit the opposite way into the range with irons off the grass from the other end of the range, but I didn't see anything like that going on here. (2) range balls were a bit old and a good number were cracked. Overall though, this course has some of the best practice facilities I've seen. 3 putting ranges made it easy for everyone who wanted to putt to have their own hole to practice on.

Tees: 9/10 - few had some uneven lies, but a step or two to the side would take care of that. Most were in great shape to where you could always find grass to hit from.

Fairways: 8/10 - in racking my brain, I really can't remember too many bad lies from the fairway. Some areas may have been a little thin, but still definitely playable from any of the fairways.

Rough: 6/10 - given the drought, this is very acceptable. The grass rough was patchy if you were more than 5 ft off the fairways. One thing I did like, and I commend Los Serranos for, was having the rough between trees, bushes, etc. clean. I could tell that they were making their own mulch and filling in a lot of the dirt rough areas, so in a few months this may be an 8/9 rating.

Bunkers: 6/10 - like bsparks noted, the bunkers were a mix of heavy/soft stuff. Seemed to me that the fairway bunkers were heavy and the greenside bunkers were soft. It also seemed that in every bunker I was in, someone had walked right through it from one end to the other, and didn't rake it.

Greens: 9/10 - by far my favorite part of this course. All rolled true. This course definitely makes you think about which way the sun is beating on the grass, the wind is blowing, etc. - all the things that affect how the ball rolls.

Overall: 8/10 - would definitely play this course again. Love the length of the South course, definitely makes you think and decide if you can get there in 2 on one of the 6 par 5s.

Played yesterday morning at 8:00. Course was EMPTY.

Pace of Play - 10/10. Flew around the front 9 in an hr & 10 minutes, that's how empty it was. Caught up to people on the back (#10) so the back took twice as long, but still a 3 hr round on a beautiful friday morning is not too shabby. Pace of play was excellent to say the least.

Tees - 7/10. Not sure if it was because the ground was still frozen underneath or they hadn't quite finished moving all the boxes around yet, but tees looked a little worn with divots in some areas and a few weren't too level.

Rough - 8/10. Luckily, I didn't find the rough today. Was either in the natural area or rolled through to the other side fairway. Guess I hit 14 fairways, and some of them twice - that still counts right? For those who haven't played this course, it's pretty tough to actually stop in the rough. Course is WIDE open so stray shots are almost always playable. Rating is based on my cousins feedback, said it wasn't too long/tough to hit from but had a few thin spots.

Fairways - 8/10. Few spots were thin, few were soaked wet but overall in decent shape. I maintain that in the afternoon when the course is thawed out, this place has some of the best fairways around. Few areas (shady areas) were still frozen underneath which made for some thin shots.

Greens - 6/10. This is more a rating of the weather in Palmdale and how it affects the conditions of the greens than the greens themselves. Ususally this course has pretty decent greens. Took me 4 holes to figure out that the ground was still frozen solid underneath the surface. Watched a pitch shot hit the green and proceed to bounce 4ft in the air then roll another 35ft by the pin. This is how the rest of the greens were throughout the round. This actually brings up an interesting question - what is the etiquette for repairing ball marks on ground where you cant dig your divot repair tool in? We tried to fix as many marks as we could, but couldn't get the tool in more than a few centimeters.

Sand - 8/10: Despite the cold conditions, the sand was still soft. Balls found a way to plug and didn't roll out like you would think they normally would. Not sure if it was a function of soft sand or it was a little wet or what - either way it was soft.

Played yesterday 11/23 for the family's "Tin Cup" award. Happy to say I was able to hold on to it for another year as it has become a fixture under my TV. The empty spot there just didn't look right.

Anyways on to the review - first time ever playing this course and the GK reviews definitely came in handy.

Tees: 6/10 - generally were in pretty decent shape but the ground was hardly level on any of them. Was hitting my tee shots from 3-5 yards behind the rocks on most of them just to find level ground. Looked like there was some good grass in between the rocks, just tough to tee off when it's not level.

Fairways: 8/10 - fairways were in good shape. A lot of the areas were a little shaggy and slowed down the roll but all in all they were definitely playable. For the most part they were filled in nicely, can't recall too many areas under repair either. Can't complain when you're hitting from the short stuff anytime.

Rough: 8/10 - First off - the starter told us all ALL the native areas are a free drop. Didn't see that rule on the card or anywhere else...might just have been a rule to help keep things moving. The grass rough was thick but definitely playable. Not sure if they got any rain that kept them from mowing but it was long and definitely impacted your shot if you had to play out of it. Native areas were all raked/smoothed out nicely - very appealing to the eye.

Bunkers: 8/10 - fortunately I was able to avoid these, so this rating is based on what my partners told me. In more than one, heard that it was soft even though it looked hard. Sand was white and stood out on the dark green grass surrounding it, so it looked pretty too. Wish I could say more, but got lucky just enough to avoid the sand.

Greens: 6/10 - Same issues as the fairways with the shagginess. Looked like they hadn't been mowed in a few days, but there have been storm warnings here in SoCal so you know how it goes - 1" of rain and the world is ending. Because of the shagginess the greens were SLOW. As it warmed up a little they picked up a little speed but overall i'd say they were running about a 7/8 on the stimp.

Pace of Play: 9/10 - this part of the course management was great. They got us out early behind the pro shop worker (guess it was slow enough for him to head out to the course at 10:15 am), but they took off and I don't think we saw them again until hole 14 or 15. Twosome behind us was at least a hole behind for almost the entire day, until hole 16 when out of nowhere they sped up and acted like they were going to try and pass us.

Overall I'd give the course the 8/10 that it rates here on GK. Because of the storms, I'm not going to hold the slow greens or shaggy fairways against them (despite the fact that green speeds are usually my number 1 factor when rating a course), the rest of the experience was just so great that it would absolutely be worth it to go back out again.

Played yesterday (Friday 11/8). Here is the review:

Tees: 5/10. They're working on the boxes throughout the course. Every tee is covered in sand right now. Most boxes are generally flat and will be in good shape again once the work is done and the sand is gone. Definitely not something to hold against the course.

Fairways: 9/10. Few spots were a a little thin, but for the most part they were in great shape. Couple spots were ground under repair, think I can count on one hand the number of spots on the entire course, but the course is in great shape.

Rough: 8/10. Couple bare spots. For the most part it was lush but playable. The bush areas were nice and clear and really allowed for errant shots to remain playable and not hurt the scorecard too much.

Sand: 9/10. Lucky enough to only find 2 bunks all day. 1 was a fairway bunker on 10, although the sand looked wet and hard it was still soft. Other was a greenside bunker on 4. Same thing - looked wet but ended up being really soft. Nice to play out of soft bunkers at Tierra.

Greens: 10/10. Greens were impeccable this week. Fast, true, just generally amazing. Best shape I have ever seen the greens in, and I've played Tierra well over 100 times.

Played yesterday for the first time in a few weeks, sure was nice to get out there again.

Always a little leery at Cam Springs - especially on a Saturday since it really is a "weekend golfers paradise". Not the most challenging or expensive course, and generally has some good specials out there on other sites.

Tees: 7/10 - some were lush, needed to be mowed and some were in great shape. There were only a couple that were in dire need of some attention. Decent enough shape, have definitely seen them looking worse before.

Fairways: 8/10 - looks like Cam Springs has been doing some good work on most of their fairways. Still haven't gotten the memo that water-logged fairways in the middle of the day aren't exactly what Golfers are looking for, but no complaints here as far as the quality of the fairways.

Bunks: 6/10 - by far the low point of the round. Standing water in just about all of the bunks that I saw and those that didn't were water logged mud bunks instead of sand. Could have gotten better as the day went on, but I was lucky enough to stay out of them on the back 9 and didn't really pay a lot of attention to them at that point.

Rough: 7/10 - Rough just off the fairway was in GREAT shape. Rough outside of that was patchy. Although it was easy to hit from, it was a lot like hitting from asphalt or cement in some instances. Also - the lakes that are prevalent on the front 9 and a few holes on the back were empty. Bone dry. Weeds growing in them. Made it easy to find the ball, but at the same time did something for the serenity and views since they just weren't there.

Greens: 9/10 - By FAR the best part of the course today. Greens were in a shape I had never seen them before at Cam Springs. Everything was true and fast and it was just nice to see the work they'd done here. Only green that had a bunch of marks that weren't fixed was 18, and I have a feeling it's because people just figured they didn't have to fix their marks since it was the last hole.

Pace of Play: 8/10 - Generally was pretty good. Had a group of hackers in front of us that allowed an entire hole to open up in front of them on 8, then had the nerve to wait on the next tee and ask us to slow down and wait for them to drive to the next hole before we teed off (we teed off when they were messing around at their cart for a little bit of time after they cleared the green). Still finished the whole round in 4.5 hrs though, so can't be too upset about that at all.

Played today as the GK Cup #5 match with longball23.

Tee boxes: 7/10 - started out great on number 1, but some of them were on slopes or uneven lies, and some of them were a little torn up. 7 might be a little low, but the fact that some of them were in pristine condition tells me that they know what they're doing there and just let a couple of them slide.

Fairways: 9/10 - GREAT condition - especially for how hot it's been and the lack of water that we've had in SoCal this year. Not a lot to complain about here, except a couple bare spots on the back, but it definitely didn't affect the game at all.

Rough: 9/10 - some of it was VERY deep and some of it was cut low. Overall though, very playable (unless you were under the trees, in which case it would be more of a 5/10 rating). Looked like they were doing quite a bit of work to the tree line here, as it was much more cleared out than the last time I played here.

Mats: 7/10 - this maybe belongs under the fairway or green rating section, but since the mats came in to play so much I thought I'd give them their own section today. Mats were VERY inconsistent. Some of them were fast, and some of them were like Velcro. Could not get the hang of them at all, and that definitely led to quite a few lost strokes due to the lack of consistency.

Greens: 9/10 - despite my bad putting today, these greens were majestic today. Fast and smooth (for the most part, but can't penalize the course for others not fixing their ball marks). Some breaks that you just didn't see made the course challenging on some of the easier holes.

Bunkers: 8/10 - got the pleasure of being in both fairway bunkers and greenside bunkers today. You know that old saying "you better bring some suntan cause you're never gonna get off that beach"? - that was applicable to these bunkers. They were so soft that it was like walking on the beach. Only rated them down to an 8 because they were a little wet, but definitely still playable.

Played here on thursday 09/26. Pro shop was really cool...had a 10:30 tee time on the way down to san diego, but got stuck in the great city of LA and their wonderful traffic for an hour and a half and had to call and get the tee time moved to 11:30. Super accomodating.

Tees: 7/10 - boxes had some chunks missing in a few locations (played from the blues), but were generally decent. Few uneven lies but could generally find a decent enough spot to hit from.

Fairways: 8/10 - little thin but generally decent. No overgrown areas, all in all not too bad.

Rough: 6/10 - very inconsistent. Front nine had some thick, difficult to hit from stuff, but the back was just like the fairway all the way around. Pushed/pulled balls wouldn't really affect you on the back. Lots of tree sap from the pine trees around too...that stuff is a pain if it gets on you or your stuff.

Sand: 7/10 - luckily i wasn't in the sand, but my partner was and said they were like cement. So this review could be way off, but it's based on what he said.

Greens: 8/10 - rolling pretty true. Only negative is that the course was super busy and people weren't fixing their divots so there were a ton of marks all over the place. Speed was a little inconsistent from the front to the back as well, and then I realized that they were watering the greens 2 groups in front of us on the front and nothing at all on the back which would do it.

Played 09/27 at 7 am for the first time....was surprised...all the years I lived in SD that I had never found this place before. Little bit out of the way from where I was staying but that's okay. Guess it's a big military retirees course, so don't expect a super quick round here.

Tees: 9/10 Great bentgrass, level, lush, just in all around good condition. Couple holes had the boxes set directly in line with some trouble, but they were mowing and trimming the whole time so not sure if they just didn't re-set them into the right position or not.

Fairways: 7/10. A LOT of the holes had a lot of GIR. They were also drenching the fairways, not sure why, it was still early and wasn't that hot until the latter half of the round. As a result, a few were mud baths.

Sand: 8/10. Was only in a couple greenside bunkers, but they were great. The fairway bunkers however, were hard as a rock. Maybe could have used some of that water they had going on the fairways.

Rough: 6/10. Depending on the hole, the rough was either very thick and swallowed your ball, or nonexistent and you were hitting off a mud patch. Not a deal breaker, but a little consistency would have been nice.

Greens: 9/10. GREAT shape. They were punched in June (this place does it only once a year, in the hotter time of the year). Greens were only bumpy on two holes, and thats when the guy I played with was putting from the mat. Generally there weren't too many extra divots but we definitely fixed a few that weren't ours.

Pace of Play: 7/10. Not sure how this worked, but the lineup went like this: 5 some, 4 some, 4 some, 2 some (us), 5 some, 5 some. We were waiting a bit, but since we were walking, we were able to negate SOME of the waiting by BS'ing and walking a little slower. Would have been brutal if we were in a cart though.

Well it's been a while since i've been able to get out (little over a month), so needless to say this is my first review in a while.

Teed off at 10:24 today (sat 07/27) as part of a 4 some.

Pace of Play: Decent. Much better than I thought it would be for a saturday Robles. Took us about 4.5 hrs to finish the round, and that included waiting on more than one hole.

Tees: Good. Rating them an 8/10 as there were a couple that tough to get a flat spot on and one or two that looked like they'd be primo if people filled in their divots.

Fairways: Good. Rating them a 9/10, few spots under repair and a few spots were soaked with water which definitely affected a couple shots in our group.

Rough: Above average. Quite a few dead spots on the back 9 in the rough, but luckily it wasn't me who was having to deal with it. Patchy areas made a few shots tough for my buddy and forced a couple of the dreaded "s word" as a result.

Greens: Outstanding. Rating 9/10 - just a little slow for my liking. Always tried to fix a few extra divots when I could find them but that was only on one or two holes so it seems the people who play robles read the forums here and know how to take care of the greens.

Bunkers: No rating. Was lucky enough to avoid the bunks today, but one of the guys in the group said they were like concrete. Saw another one later on that looked half powdery and half concrete - like it couldn't figure out which one it wanted to be.

Overall: 8.5/10. Robles is always a "go to" course for me when I haven't played in a while or want to play a place that you know will be in great shape at any time. Doesn't hurt that my best friend from when we were growing up, and the guy who got me hooked on Greenskeeper.org is the head pro there, but that's not why i go play out that way.

Played today (06/21) as part of the match play event for the GK Cup #5.

As always, Knollwood starts off a little slow. Huge group waiting to tee off on #1 and people just walk up to the box as if it's automatically their turn. Starter did a pretty decent job of keeping the groups in numbered order though.

Tees - For the most part were average or above average. Always a decent place to hit from, was able to find some flat ground on the majority of them. Little surprised with the tee box placement, but it looked like they were trying to let some areas heal and that's completely understandable. Would rate them a 7/10.

Fairways - Few areas were water logged, and a few areas were patchy but for the most part they were pretty good by Knollwood's standards. Few of the holes had quite a bit of marked off areas but no ropes, just spray paint circles. Rating: 6/10.

Greens - Aeration was almost healed, in fact I didn't even notice it until number 15. As with any standard muni, there were a lot of divots to repair. I think our group probably fixed 10-15 on the majority of holes. Speed was different on each and every hole, tough to get a real gauge on em. Rating 7/10.

Rough - definitely not US Open rough that's for sure. Very playable. Most of the trouble areas have been cleared out pretty well so balls will find their way back into the fairway or just off most of the time. Think one guy we played with hit 3/4 into the "crap" on the first hole and ended up playable on all of them. Rating 8/10.

Sand - fortunately only found 2 bunkers on the day. First one was more mud-like than sand so balls were playing a little heavy. Looked like they over watered the sand since even a couple hours later there was standing water in one of the bunkers and they all looked mud-like. Rating 5/10.

Pace of Play - believe it or not, after getting a late start, we only had to wait a couple times. I would say that I think it's an anomaly for Knollwood, but multiple times I saw Voltaire (GM) riding around in a cart checking up on groups. Starter told us at the beginning that their goal was 4:20 round, and i'd say we were pretty close to that, maybe just a little over. Rating 8/10.