Played a 12:30pm start time on a Saturday with a brisk breeze. I haven't played Admiral Baker since 2014, and it was good to be back out there. The course was generally in good shape. Fairways and rough were good, with greenside bunkers having plenty of sand but fairway bunkers being more hard pan. Greens were rolling at a medium/fast speed, but seemed to be pretty hard. Iron shots that normally stop or spin back for me where hopping forward into the back fringe.

It was a fairly warm day, so the breeze was welcome. There were two separate beverage carts running, plus the snack shop was open, so there was plenty of opportunities to hydrate. I believe I paid $76 with cart, non-military, which is a great rate these days for weekend play. I was playing with a couple of beginners, so we we ended up about a hole behind, but we still got around in 4hr 40min.

Played a Sunday AM round, my first time on the course. Cloudy conditions kept things moist until mid-day, around the start of the back nine. Yardages on the par 4s were pretty short, but it's not the type of course you can overpower. It felt like a course you would need to play multiple times to figure out the correct spots to layup, especially with a lot of elevated greens.

Greens rolled pretty nicely at a medium-fast pace, although there were very scattered random aeration holes mostly on the front nine. Some of the fringe areas had newly installed replacement sod patches. Fairways and rough were in good condition. I was lucky enough to avoid the bunkers this round, but my partner said the sand was plenty fluffy. Got around quickly in 4 hrs 5 minutes, with no waiting on any hole, and I think the group behind us only had to wait on one hole where we had some bad luck. Saw the beverage cart a couple of times, but we were very close to the turn both times. The customer service at the pro shop and the starter was very good. Nice to try a JC course I hadn't played before, it gave me another positive data point in considering a membership. I would go back and play given the opportunity.

Played at noon on Saturday. I had heard from fellow golfers that JC Golf had put a lot of money into this course, and it was a much better value than its Eagle Crest days. I don't think I've played this course in 15 years, its condition as Eagle Crest had left a bad taste in my mouth.

Green fees were $79, which included the cart. No range, it looks like they would need to put tall fencing up to get the old range area open again. Fairway and rough conditions were pretty bare, a lot of brown and dirt areas. The greens were extremely soft and brutally slow (apparently they were punched a few weeks ago). I had an 80 foot putt in the 15th hole which may be the hardest I've ever hit a putt, and yet still came up 15 feet short. Some sand in the bunkers, but not much, maybe an inch worth.

No water on the course, but there was both a water cart and a small beverage cart that came around a couple of times. It was much needed, as it was still fairly warm in mid-October. Staff was friendly and polite. Apparently there was a tournament in the morning that slowed play down, and multiple times we drove up to a tee box with the group ahead of us still waiting to tee off. We ended up having a 5hr 10 min round.

I'll probably wait another year or so until I return. It's nice to see a course on the rebound, but it's not quite to the level where I want to spend more money.

Played in a tournament on Saturday with an 11:30am tee off time. Glad the heat wave broke, a humid day with some little drizzle at the end of the round. The course was a little damp from the rain the day before, and the greens seemed to be most affected. Balls tracking towards the hole just seemed to put on the brakes, as everyone was leaving their putts short. Fairways and rough were in pretty good condition, and while the bunkers were a little more inconsistent they were in fairy good shape as well.

Ended up playing a 5 hr 15 minute round, although things didn't slow down until the 14th hole or so. The group in front of us seemed to be having some bad luck with shots and finding balls, as the group in front of them was a hole ahead. Beverage cart came by four times, and service was very friendly.

Played in a Saturday tournament on 7/16. Initially we were bumped back to 11:30am because the Men's Club was playing before us, but when we arrived we were told the Men's Club finished already and we could tee off at our original 11:00am start time. It was a gorgeous day in San Juan Capistrano, with a nice 5-10 mph breeze that felt really refreshing.

I'm most impressed by the greens at San Juan Hills. The ball didn't have the stuttering hop you normally see on public greens. Instead, the ball stayed on the ground and rolled true. And there were definitely a few holes where you wanted to stay below the hole, or the putt would roll by incredibly fast.

There were some white paint delineating some ground under repair on a couple of fairways. On the whole the fairways were pretty nice, the ball sitting up with some tasty lies. There was a little bit of inconsistency to the sand in the bunkers, with a couple being hardpan but with most having decently fluffy sand.

The beverage cart rolled by a couple of times during our round, and there's a snack shop at the range when you cross the street to play the 10th hole. San Juan Hills treated our club very nicely during COVID, so we made a point to schedule the course again this year. I look forward to my next trip there.

Played in a 8am tournament on Saturday (11/14). Our tee times were moved up half an hour, so people were scrambling to warm up and get on the tee. I was really impressed by the great condition of the course, I really don't expect a course to be this sharp in November. Greens were fast and true, you definitely wanted to leave your ball below the hole. The sand in the bunkers were soft, deep and fluffy.

The layout at Soboba is imaginative and fair, with room on the fairways if you play the correct side. Some holes have water that will sneak up on you, with shaved fairway and rough areas that will allow a ball to roll into the wet stuff.

The beverage cart came through 3 times on a gorgeous day for golf. I think my club will continue to put this course in the schedule.

Played a round on Friday with a tee time just past noon. This was my first time playing Torrey North since the renovation that switched the nines. The course had just been overseeded, so it was cart path only. All the tee boxes were pushed to the front tees as well.

My first impression was how many fewer trees there were on the course. We were paired up with a knowledgeable single who said that storms that had knocked down a lot of trees. It was different being able to see so many holes on the course at once, because the view wasn't obstructed by trees. The course was playing a little damp, with not a lot of roll on the fairways and fairly soft greens. Greens were rolling about a medium speed, not as quick as I was used to at Torrey.

A light fog rolled in when we were on the ninth hole, and unfortunately the scenic 15th and 16th holes were covered in fog when we played it. Two of my playing partners were playing Torrey for the first time, and I had to apologize to them that they weren't playing the "picture" holes at Torrey during ideal conditions.

We were definitely out of sync with the beverage cart on this occasion. We found the cart after the ninth hole, filling up on supplies as the snack stand was closing down. The next time we saw the cart, it was rolling towards us as we were standing on the 18th tee.

All in all, it was a beautiful day to be out. The two first-timers that I was with enjoyed themselves immensely, and were already making plans to return to play the South.

Played in a 8am shotgun tournament on Saturday, 9/21. There were actually two shotgun tournaments that started at the same time. The course moved surprisingly quick. Within a few holes, the group in front of us were usually putting out by the time we got to the tee, and the group behind us could not be seen. I think the nice pace of the course may have had a lot to do with the generous layout. Playing from the white tees, the course was mostly a progression of 360 yard par 4s with fairly wide fairways. The rough did tend to fairly lush and would tend to grab and catch your clubface. There were quite a bit of brown spots on some of the fairways, spots I would have expected to be marked as ground under repair. The greens were fairly soft and putted nicely at a medium-fast speed.

My playing partner and I did have some bad luck with golf carts. Our first cart would stall on startup, and we would have to throw it into reverse and then back to forward for it to move. At the turn, we exchanged it for another cart. This second cart, when we would slow down, would suddenly slam on the brakes by itself, jerking us to an abrupt stop.

I didn't get a chance to interact with the pro shop, but the marshall on course was very nice and very helpful when we told him about our problems with our first cart. The young lady in the beverage cart was also very nice and showed up a few times on a day that got into the mid-80s. We really couldn't ask for better weather in Fontana, and we finished the round in what felt like a quick 4 hr 20 min, done before any afternoon winds would kick up.

Played Bonita with a 1pm start time on Saturday. The fairways are cut very tight, and there are the browning patches you would expect to start seeing as the weather turns cooler. Greens have recently been punched, and have not fully recovered, but still putted at a medium, medium-fast speed. It was a gorgeous day to be out, and many other people seemed to have had the same thought as the course was pretty busy. We were waiting on pretty much every hole, but not unnecessarily so as the foursome in front of us was keeping up. One of our foursome had never played Bonita before, and he was suitably impressed. He was lucky to be with us though, to navigate the convoluted, snake-eating-itself layout at Bonita. Got around in 4 hours and 38 minutes. Great value at $40 with cart for afternoon rates.

Played in a Saturday morning tournament (7/22). Conditions were hot and humid. Fairways and greens are showing wear from the summer weather, with some brown / dirt areas. Around noontime, the greenskeepers actually watered the greens on a couple of holes in front of us. Tee boxes are showing some wear as well. The unpredictable kikuyu rough has been thankfully cut low. They did have two beverage carts going around the course, which was appreciated under the hot conditions.

I had forgotten just how long the Ike plays. The four par 4s over 400 yards from the white tees really challenged the high handicappers in our tournament. Customer service is excellent, giving a resort feel to the course. Industry Hills remains a gem in the San Gabriel Valley, hopefully we get some milder weather to help it out.

Sorry, this review is a week late, wrote it up but didn't have time to post it...

Played in a 9:30 am tournament on an overcast Saturday morning that started to get sunny around the 5th hole. Luckily there wasn't much of the wind out there that can make Los Serranos such a tough course. The range was set up on grass instead of mats, and still in good shape by that time of the morning.

The North starts off fairly easily, and doesn't really start to challenge you until the 7th and 8th hole. The fairways and rough were in pretty good shape. The sand in the bunkers was thick and coarse, but more dusty than heavy. The only exception that I can think of were the intimidatingly deep bunkers that guard the front of the 16th green. Those bunkers barely had any sand at all.

The greens on the North are pretty small by modern standards. Although they were running medium-slow, the greens tended to be fairly sloped. There were many downhill 20-footers that would break two or three feet. It's best to leave the ball below the hole.

Both snack areas were open, and the staff throughout the course was relaxed and friendly. The round was a great reminder of this gem of a course.

Piggy-backing on the reviews of Itslikeimsayin, apisarski, and Gregholla. Had a great time playing with those guys, loose atmosphere with a lot of laughs. Some pretty thick fog obscured the golf course until the third hole, making for some damp conditions to start with. The Presidio nine did look like it had some fairways with new patches of sod laid down, and some repairs needed to the edges of a couple of the greens. The Mission nine was in the usual pretty good shape. The bunkers stood out as the best feature of the course to me that day, lots of consistent sand to dig into.

We were unfortunately out of sync with the beverage cart, catching it once on the front side, but then seeing it roll by while we were near the clubhouse (Greg, I still owe you a drink).