What a glorious day yesterday!! Bob and I tee’d off just after Noon on what was one of the most perfect golf weather days on the peninsula all year! ... » More

What a glorious day yesterday!! Bob and I tee’d off just after Noon on what was one of the most perfect golf weather days on the peninsula all year! Sunny and about 72 degrees with hardly a breath of wind. The fog did roll in with about 2 1/2 holes left to play but given a couple of weeks ago it was sweater and vest weather and a couple weeks before that up the road at Poppy Hills we couldn’t see the greens through the thick fog from 100 yards out, this was a big welcome.

Condition wise, I’m happy to report that the course is in fantastic shape. Back in May and June the course was starting to slip a little bit. I was concerned that since they are shutting it down for a makeover in March 2026, that they were going to start letting conditions slide downhill. That is not the case, I can assure you. Greens were excellent, rolling true at a nice medium-fast pace. They did get a little bumpy towards the end but that’s to be expected at 5pm on poa annua grass.
Fairways were near perfect. very lush throughout the entire course. Tee boxes were level with ample coverage. No issues with the sand traps or the rough. Beverage cart was around several times and for those who do take a cart they have GPS in them. POP was about 4 3/4 hours which is to be expected for a weekend tee time here. All in all, Spanish Bay is in fantastic shape with ocean views galore. It’s no surprise that it’s one of my favorite go to courses on the Monterey Peninsula.
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DeepSea14 and I met up at the newly redesigned Poppy Ridge. Gone are the three separate 9 hole layouts used in rotation to create 18 holes for the da... » More

DeepSea14 and I met up at the newly redesigned Poppy Ridge. Gone are the three separate 9 hole layouts used in rotation to create 18 holes for the day, and in place is one standard 18 hole layout with a separate Par 3 course. This is obviously my first time playing the new layout, and I will admit that I only played the old course twice, so I didn’t have a huge sample to compare it with.

Before I go into the layout, I will give you the down and dirty only the conditions. Overall, very nice. Nothing below an 8. Greens rolled smooth and fast. Fairways had complete coverage throughout the entire course. Fairways presented tight lies but the trade off is good roll out.

Sand traps were an 8-9 in that they had deep fluffy sand. Only 1 was damp and a little compacted. tee boxes were level and divot free. There isn’t any rough to speak of here. Just lush fairway and dirt. Maybe Peter can recall something different.

Onto the layout. It’s a hilly course with WIDE open fairways. Probably the widest fairways I’ve seen in a long time. Much much issue off the tee. A bombers dream for sure. I struggled with the driver all day, yet I finished with the same ball I started with and didn’t have a single double bogey. Like I said WIDE open. Not a tree in sight. There is now only one water hazard on the entire course. That’s a bummer in my opinion. I’d say it was a water conservation thing but they have a ton of excess grass on tee boxes that are 100+ yards long and tightly mowed
“Fairway” grass from tee to green on a 200 yard par 3. If they needed to conserve water there are plenty of areas they could change that would save water yet not affect the playability of the course.

Greens were very large with modest undulations. Some of the greens rivaled those at Rancho Solano in nearby Fairfield, CA. BTW all flags are blue at Poppy Ridge we walked so we didn’t have access to the GPS in the carts and my golf app hadn’t updated the system to the new layout yet. We were often guessing at the pin location in relation to the overall layout of the green.

As mentioned before, the tee boxes while level and lush were. Huge. Sometimes a 100 yards long. We walked the course and for the most part it’s a fairly walkable course. There were only two real back breakers of a transfer. One was actually on a par 3 from the tee to the green which was across the gully. You had to retrace your path from the tee box back to the cart path and walk around the ditch then either walk all the way around the Side of the hill or hike through the barren land with rocks. A little bridge and path would have been nice.

Overall, I preferred the old layout to the new one. Not sure what the motivation was behind it as they didn’t make it any easier to walk nor did they insert any water conservation measures.

Am I disappointed? No, I’d play here again. The conditions coupled with the (NCGA) price is worth it alone. And it’s not that it’s a bad layout. I just preferred the old one.
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Every time I play Cinnabar Hills, I walk away with a smile and say I need to play here more often. I played Wednesday morning with a 9AM tee time in... » More

Every time I play Cinnabar Hills, I walk away with a smile and say I need to play here more often. I played Wednesday morning with a 9AM tee time in bright sunny weather. Routing was the Mountain/Canyon combination and this is only my second time playing the Canyon 9. Unlike the other nines, the canyon is much more strategic off the tee. It’s a good mix up from the grip it and rip it wide fairways of the other two layouts. Condition wise the course was in fantastic shape. The last time I played here was in May so naturally it was in great shape. Weather has been hot this last week and you wouldn’t know it by the condition of the course.

Fairways were near perfect. Very lush with a nice emerald green glow throughout. Fairways presented a great hitting surface along with a decent amount of roll out. Easily rated a 9 but could be argued they were a 10. Tee boxes were also in that 8+ to 9 rating. Level and lush with ample coverage. I was only in one sand trap and it had a good amount of fluffy sand.

The rough was the “weak” spot. For the most part the rough was lush throughout but there were a handful or two of dead /thin areas. Still rated at a 7 so not horrible.

The greens were nice as well. The greens on the Mountain course were super smooth and rolled at a fast pace. Greens on the Canyon side were noticeably slower but still rolled true. The greens at Cinnabar are a perfect blend of challenging undulations but fair.

POP was 4.5 hrs and the carts have GPS to the pin.

Cinnabar is a public course that has a country club feel to it. Oh, and not a house within miles if you’re looking for a course outside a housing track.
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Black Horse was once a favorite track that eventually disappeared from my playlist. Well after playing here on Tuesday, I’m happy to say it’s back... » More

Black Horse was once a favorite track that eventually disappeared from my playlist. Well after playing here on Tuesday, I’m happy to say it’s back. Yes the course is unrecognizable if you haven’t been here in a few years. Gone are the hundreds of Cypress trees that lined the fairways (and blocked views of the ocean). In their place are now dozens of homes. It is what it is. $3m dollar homes bring in more money than $59 Golf Now specials! But on the positive side is both courses remain fully intact with their original routing. Yes some wasteland areas have been added mainly from the tee box to the “new” beginning of the fairway a la Spanish Bay and Del Monte. However, unlike Spanish Bay it doesn’t take a monster drive to just reach the fairway. So kudos to Bayonet/Blackhorse for keeping both courses open and intact.

Conditions have also returned to excellent all around. Greens are firm and fast (but very predictable speed in all directions). We played in early afternoon so by the time we got to the back nine the wind was up a bit so that had more do with holding the green than anything. Down hill, down wind and it was impossible. Uphill, up wind and you could stick it 3’ from the pin.

Fairways were nice and lush side to side with hardly a thin spot to be found on the entire course. Sand traps were just short of a perfect 10. In fact, they probably were a 10 but because I was in 7 of them, I had to knock them down somehow!

POP was 4 hours 15 mins. Which wasn’t bad considering it took us 10-15 minutes to tee off because the idiots in front of us drove their cart into the soft sand / wasteland area and got stuck. Carts now have GPS in them which I don’t believe they did before.

As I mentioned before, they removed a ton of trees. This has opened up numerous views of the bay that weren’t there before. There is still construction going on but it’s traditional contractor stuff and not the heavy earth moving equipment that was here before.

I can finally say that a once favorite peninsula course is now worth playing again. Course conditions and layout now match the entry price.
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I played here this morning with a sub 6AM Tee time to see if I could finally beat the 5 hr round that always comes with this place. Unfortunately, N... » More

I played here this morning with a sub 6AM Tee time to see if I could finally beat the 5 hr round that always comes with this place. Unfortunately, NO. In fact it got so bad that I quit after 12 holes and walked across the entire course back to the parking lot. Conditions of the course are pretty identical to my last review. the only real difference is that fairways were in a bit better shape side to side and the tee boxes were a bit uneven.

All in all this is a fun challenging track with solid conditions tee to green. All at an acceptable price point. However, the the dreaded 5 hr round during mid week and early early morning will most likely prevent me from coming back. I couldn’t image what this place is like on a weekend during prime time. Play here if you have a day to kill, otherwise avoid it.
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