I went and played Ridge Creek this morning with a buddy teeing off at 7:10am. We were the second group off on a nice warm morning. Ridge Creek is... » More

I went and played Ridge Creek this morning with a buddy teeing off at 7:10am. We were the second group off on a nice warm morning. Ridge Creek is a challenging links style layout with nasty rough (12”+) off of the fairway and deep pot punkers in the middle of the fairway. Accuracy is a premium to say the least. Greens are large with moderate undulations. The greens at Ridge Creek are almost always soft and easily hold well struck approach shots. Today was no exception. The down side of this set up is the greens get riddled with pitch marks. Most are repaired and don’t affect putts too much but to the eye it can cause some strain. Greens rolled at a nice medium-fast+ pace today.

Fairways were nice, but not as emerald green as I’ve seen them in the past. In fact they were more brown that green. Yet, the fairways presented a sufficient platform to hit from. Tee boxes weren’t bad. All were level with decent coverage and only the short Par 3’s were chewed up. I somehow avoided all bunkers today, but my buddy saved par from one of the three he was in and he’s a high handicapper.

Course is easily walkable which is what we did. For COVID compliance they had metal rings in the cups that were almost level with the top of the cup. Balls easily rolled over and out. For some reason this set up didn’t suit my eye and I struggled with putts. I thinkit was more mental than anything.

Customer service was friendly as usual. Overall, Ridge Creek isn’t in the best shape I’ve seen in it but definitely worth the price of admission.
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I played Laguna Seca a couple of times over the past weekend. This is always one of my favorite layouts in the peninsula with all of the elevation ... » More

I played Laguna Seca a couple of times over the past weekend. This is always one of my favorite layouts in the peninsula with all of the elevation changes throughout the entire track. Conditions are always average at Laguna Seca and this weekend was no exception.

Greens can always be a mystery here but this weekend, they were consistent. Greens rolled at a medium pace that was consistent throughout the course. Naturally downhill putts were very fast but everything else was manageable. Greens at Laguna Seca are sneaky. They don’t look intimidating (a la Blackhorse & Spanish Bay) but they can reach up and bite you big if you don’t pay close attention.

I will say that on Sunday afternoon there were a TON of unrepaired ball marks on the greens. I was routinely fixing 5+ pitch marks per green and that was only covering a small percentage of them.

Tee boxes had good lush coverage but some could use an overall and releveling. Fairways were in average condition. Decent overall coverage with no real major thin areas. Sand traps weren’t bad. The second day I played, I was in 5 bunkers and saved par twice from the sand which is good for me so the traps can’t be that bad.

Pace of Play… Well it was a three day holiday weekend on the peninsula with perfect weather and only half of the courses open. Enough said. Though, I’ve seen it a whole lot worse here.
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I hadn’t played Pacific Grove in probably about a year. I must admit I was extremely disappointed all around. From the half hearted COVID-19 measu... » More

I hadn’t played Pacific Grove in probably about a year. I must admit I was extremely disappointed all around. From the half hearted COVID-19 measures, to the poor conditions to the horrible business practices. I’ll start off with the check in process. I booked my round last week through a third party booking party. In Monterey County you have to pre-pay for your round before getting to the course. Pacific Grove lists on their website the couple of ways to go about it. I had a mid-day tee time and called about 1.5 hours ahead of time to give them my credit card. It took them 20 minutes to find my reservation then they charged me $2 more than my reserved price. I’m not going to waste another 15 minutes over a couple dollars (that’s my decision so no ding on them for not fixing).

When I called and paid, they finally took my credit card and said I was good to go… Until I got to the course. I arrived about 30 minutes early and was told the third party booking company had over booked the course and I wouldn’t be going off for another 2 hours. They actually thought they had done me a favor by squeezing me in. After a little “discussion” it was decided that I would tee off right away with the next couple on the tee box.

Here was the issue. If two separate groups book for twosomes for the XX time slot, the course separates those two groups putting them out on XX and XY time slot. So you can see how the course gets backed up. I get the COVID-19 precaution but as a course you have to make a decision. Let strangers pair up (single carts and walking) or don’t allow two groups to book for the same time slot. Dragonfly is doing it that way in Fresno, and it’s frustrating because the tee sheet gets filled very quickly but at least you know ahead of time what the process is. And of course for a business practice, the fact that they waited until I got to the course to tell me I had been backed up 2 hours was just plain…$h!++y.
Now on to the course conditions. I rated the greens at about a 5. The first few were somewhere in the 4-5 range and the back nine greens were in the 7 range. The first few greens were slow, bumpy and had some dead/disease areas throughout. The back nine greens were much better and were decent.

The fairways were OK. Some thin and dead areas throughout but generally decent enough overall to get good contact. The skirt areas around the greens were actually in great shape. Easily a 8-9. I had 13 missed GIR and was able to get up and down for par 6-7 times mainly due to great lies from the surrounding areas off the green.

Tee boxes were partly ok and partly horrible. I can’t imagine that much damage has been done in the two weeks since golf has been allowed again. Sand traps. The worst ever. I get the no rakes in the bunker due to coronavirus. But these traps hadn’t been raked since March. Seriously, whereas other courses are sending someone out once or twice a day to rake bunkers, or at least doing them every night. PG has not maintained their traps once since being back open.

The views at Pacific Grove are always great with ocean views throughout and especially the back nine which sits right on the water (across the street). Always plenty of deer to walking around and the lighthouse between the 16th and 10th tee boxes is special in it’s own right.

But even with the great views I can not recommend Pacific Grove right now.
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Played Pebble Beach this morning in absolute glorious weather. The social distancing requirements were taken to a whole new level at Pebble Beach. ... » More

Played Pebble Beach this morning in absolute glorious weather. The social distancing requirements were taken to a whole new level at Pebble Beach. Every other parking space was blocked off so you couldn’t get close to someone in parking lot. The range was set up so everyone was 15-20 feet apart and the shuttle from the range to the first tee wasn’t running. Also, they didn’t have a supply of tees on the range like usual. No big deal other than I had to walk back to my car. Even their social distancing signs were high class. See the GK app for an picture of one. ‘

Check in was simple. Payment was done in advance through central reservations. A person at the range verified your tee time and then a starter sends you off with your group once you are back down at the first tee. The pro-shop is completely closed so no shopping ?

As expected the course was in fantastic shape. Being this is the fifth day Pebble has been back open the tee boxes were a 10+. Fairways were a 9.5-10 as were the greens. Greens rolled at a medium-fast pace. As always. Uphill putts are manageable and downhill putts are… well, good luck with that!

Pace of play was the usual 5 hours but like I’ve said before. Who care’s?! It’s Pebble and on a beautiful day like today, you certainly don’t want to rush!

My two minor complaints. One, the pool noodles in the cups were a bit too high. All too often balls would skim right across and out. The last few holes seem to be better, but the majority need to be cut down a ¼ to a ½ inch. Also, because they have the retail shops all closed down the walk back to the car from the 18th is atrocious. They route you all the way around the shops and back up the road. Why they can’t open up the path near the practice putting green for a short cut I don’t know. Of course I might have just been mad because I put my approach shot on 18 into the water!

I will say, that Pebble Beach had a different vibe out there today. One that was much more relaxed than normal. They still had marshals every couple of holes to keep things moving but we fell ½ a hole behind for about 5 holes and no one said anything. True the group behind us had fallen behind as well but I was surprised that none of the marshals said anything.

As always, Pebble Beach is a truly fantastic course and experience. I posted a handful of pictures on the GK App
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Played Tulare on Monday 5/4 with an early (7am) tee time. I've only played here a couple of times but I'm guessing this is about as good as ever for ... » More

Played Tulare on Monday 5/4 with an early (7am) tee time. I've only played here a couple of times but I'm guessing this is about as good as ever for this course. Conditions were a solid 7 all around. Being that they just opened the tee boxes had little divot damage and the late April rains did the fairways wonders. Greens were smooth and divot free sans one which had a lot of pitch marks probably from the weekend.

Greens rolled at a medium speed. All the COIVD-19 measures were in place. Check in was done outside the pro-shop, no rakes, and flags remained in. We walked as this is an easy course to walk being completely flat. The layout is ok. Nothing spectacular but nothing horrible. There are a few holes with tight fairways that put a demand on accuracy over length

All in all it's not a bad place to golf with better than average conditions right now.
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