Spent Sunday afternoon at Diamond Bar GC with three friends despite recent reports of renovation issues (nothing that affected play) and poor conditions (sadly far too true). Check-in staff was not go... Continue »

Spent Sunday afternoon at Diamond Bar GC with three friends despite recent reports of renovation issues (nothing that affected play) and poor conditions (sadly far too true). Check-in staff was not good in terms of their attitude, the cart one of my friends used kept stalling on every hole and needing restart, and there is no water/ice machine anywhere which is pretty rough on a super hot summer day.

But alas, the game goes on. After hitting some balls on the range, we took off for our 11:40 tee time - three walkers, one riding, and all playing from the blue tees. As previously mentioned, the highway construction only impacted the third hole, but it's actually much better now than it used to be. It's a fine par 3. In fact, the layout and mix of holes at Diamond Bar is actually quite fun, including that wild, uphill par 3 9th hole. The problem is the conditions.

Right now you're going to find burned out fairways on almost every hole, but also a few with some nice lush areas. But far too often I would hit a perfect drive in the middle of the fairway and be rewarded with dirt or the thinnest of lies. That's frustrating, but it's August in SoCal so I'm fairly understanding. I'm less willing to accept the amount of horrible tee boxes that were either a shaggy, unkempt mess as if hitting from the rough, or else just plain dirt. Some of course were just fine, but far too many were a shambles. Bunkers I avoided all day so I can't really speak to their quality.

Greens were actually pretty good, as evidenced by only 28 putts on the afternoon. I found them to move pretty well at medium-fast speeds with little to worry about in terms of tiers or 'tricked out' areas. There are a few small greens and ones that have a decent amount of slope to them, but nothing that will get the blood pressure racing. They held shots well and were generally the best part of the course. Props for that.

POP was also very good as we only waited on a few holes on the back nine after the group ahead of us got a little behind at the turn. Other than that it was smooth sailing on the front nine and much of the back so that was a good thing. We saw a marshall/ambassador on the 9th hole green, but he didn't seem to have all that much to do, which I guess is a good thing.

I do like the bones of this course and it suits my eye pretty well in terms of scoring, but conditions right now are not optimal and I hope they return to a better state in the near future. I'll definitely be back again but will wait to hear more favorable tales of the course's condition before that happens.