Played 36 here today after a last-minute invite to attend The Kingdom, a special event put on by The King Kollective this weekend. The course is close... » More

Played 36 here today after a last-minute invite to attend The Kingdom, a special event put on by The King Kollective this weekend. The course is closed to the public for the weekend as a result. (Or I think they said Sunday afternoon public play will resume.) The first round was a three-man shamble with two teams on each hole, and the second was best ball foursomes, with shotgun starts for both. Despite having a buffer of around three holes between each group, the first round was quite slow at around 4.5 hours. We played the second round in a little under 3 hours. Gorgeous day and hotter than I anticipated. Breeze picked up midday but wasn't too bad.

The course is in very good shape. The greens are excellent, medium-fast, smooth, and mostly firm. Full shots hit with lots of spin would stop, but many approaches took a bounce or two before stopping. Fairways are pretty nice, although one type of grass might be right next to another type of grass, and some fairways have some thin/dirt spots. Rough varies from just a little longer than the fairway to some deeper, more penal areas in some areas. I think I was only in one bunker and it had good sand, but I hit a terrible shot anyway. Tee boxes are the lowlight; some are pretty beat up with tons of divots and others are a little better. Wouldn't say any of them are great.

It's always fun to revisit the Goat and see more progress being made to the course. I think someone said in a recent review that's it's the nicest they've ever seen it, and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. The 18th hole is currently under construction and playing to a temporary green, but you can see the permanent green in place and they are building at least three revetted bunkers surrounding it. The green itself looks almost smaller than the old version, which was a pretty small green already, IIRC. Should be a nice finisher when it's done. All in all, a very fun day with breakfast, lunch, and dinner provided, awards, raffles, and lots of great people.
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Played here today with a 2:10 tee time. $55 to ride. Joined a friend from Vegas (Joe from The Chasing Daylight Podcast / @hittingreens on Instagram) a... » More

Played here today with a 2:10 tee time. $55 to ride. Joined a friend from Vegas (Joe from The Chasing Daylight Podcast / @hittingreens on Instagram) and his friend Trey. We were joined by a nice single. The Oaks nine is currently closed for maintenance so we played Creek/Stonehouse. Pace was fantastic and we finished in about 3:40. Nice cool weather and it even rained a bit for a couple holes.

The course is in good condition. Greens are mostly in good shape but there are some unfixed ball marks in various states of repair. They accepted full shots well but anything less than a full, spinning shot would run out some. I had a hard time gauging speed most of the day. Fairways were mostly good, not quite great. Rough varies from a little thicker to much thicker than the fairways and can be penal. Black tee boxes were mostly good. I was in one fairway bunker that could've used a raking; my ball was sitting down a bit between higher points of sand.

The Creek nine is pretty boring so I'm glad we played it first. Oaks/Stonehouse is definitely the best combo here. Really fun day! Not a bad deal at the twilight rate but not sure I'd be thrilled to pay $30 more earlier in the day.
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Played here today with a 2:20 time, riding for $69. Paired with a threesome of fun guys and we started right on time. Pace was amazing for a Rustic we... » More

Played here today with a 2:20 time, riding for $69. Paired with a threesome of fun guys and we started right on time. Pace was amazing for a Rustic weekend afternoon; we'd finished the front nine in just a little over two hours, and then the back was a little slower. Total POP a smidge over 4.5 hours and plenty of daylight left on a gorgeous afternoon. A nice breeze kept temperatures tolerable. Three or four holes were CPO.

Conditions are good and the entire course is exceptionally green for how hot it's been lately. Greens are smooth, medium speed, and medium firmness, accepting full shots well. Fairways are very lush and provided good lies all day. Rough is thicker than normal for here and actually slowed offline shots down from going into the native areas. The only bunker I was in was (I think) a waste bunker and it was pretty compacted where my ball was, although a playing partner had no issue with his shot just a few feet away. Blue tee boxes were mostly good but did have lots of divots.

Definitely recommended.
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Played here today with a 2:20 TeeOff.com "Deal" time for $25 with cart! Amazing deal that popped up sometime Friday morning. Check-in was simple and I... » More

Played here today with a 2:20 TeeOff.com "Deal" time for $25 with cart! Amazing deal that popped up sometime Friday morning. Check-in was simple and I was paired with a threesome. Started right on time behind a twosome who were directly behind a tournament. Pace was slow – three groups were backed up on the par-5 7th tee – but overall time on course was surprisingly decent at a little under five hours. The projected high temps didn't really pan out as it was cloudy and breezy much of the day; almost felt like midwestern thunderstorm weather. Hole 1 was CPO.

Conditions are pretty good. Greens are the highlight, running smooth and medium-fast. They accepted full shots well but shots from the rough and/or shorter shots ran out some. The poa was flowering a lot late in the afternoon but it didn't affect any putts; just gave the surfaces almost like a white sheen. Fairways were mostly good except some dried out spots here and there. Rough was a mixed bag of thick kikuyu and thinner areas, some bare spots. I was in several bunkers and they were all pretty good – fairway bunkers were hard and thin while greenside bunkers had lots of soft sand. Blue tee boxes were the low point; lumpy, not level in many places, and lots of divots.

Hadn't played here for a while and loved the deal I got. (Normal rates have gotten quite expensive here.) At one point ElDo was my favorite Long Beach course but now I think I prefer Rec Park. ElDo is a tougher test but is flat and pretty boring where Rec Park takes advantage of contours much more. Played terribly today but still had fun. I always like the Long Beach courses when temps are forecast to be super hot. Beverage cart was out and about, but like RDDenn mentioned, the snack shop was not open.
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Played here today in the GK + GolfMoose collab outing. Super fun times being paired with JohnnyGK and rgm2525. We were group 1B so we got to play the ... » More

Played here today in the GK + GolfMoose collab outing. Super fun times being paired with JohnnyGK and rgm2525. We were group 1B so we got to play the course as normal, starting on 1. POP was typically slow for these types of events at a little over 5 hours. It was a very hot and hazy day but a nice wind helped combat the heat most of the time. (Although it seemed like that wind was into us on about 80% of the holes. ;-) )

Conditions are great. The practice putting green was extremely pure and those conditions translated to the course as well. Greens were very smooth, medium-fast, and accepted full shots really well. (Most of the course seemed very well watered.) They recently renovated and reopened sometime in the the last year, and there are nice contours on many of the new greens. The fairways were similarly excellent, providing great lies almost everywhere except a few areas that were sort of burned out, and some of those areas were aerated. Many of those aerated areas were right in front of greens. Rough was lush, thick bermuda that took a toll despite not being too deep. It could really grab your club. Blue tee boxes were mostly good; a few were in lesser condition. All the bunkers I was in were great.

This was my first time ever playing here. I sort of expected a little more interesting layout. I always figured it was sort of a "sister course" to Mission Viejo Country Club, because they're both RTJ Sr. designs from the same era, Valencia from 1965 and MVCC from 1967. I realize it's unfair to make this course live up to a random expectation I developed in my head, but Valencia lacked as many elevation changes that make MVCC more interesting, in my opinion. (VCC filling in for Riviera as host of the PGA Tour's L.A. Open in 1998 also led to higher expectations.) Don't get me wrong; this is a very nice course and it was an outstanding day. Would love to play it again sometime. (Whoever led the renovation really loves fairway bunkers.) Thanks Johnny for organizing it!
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