I waited a couple days to post this – I’m trying to get over my thought that I may be through with SDCGC after last Saturday, 3/7/20. Played with my monthly club at 9am on a cloudy, breezy day that su... Continue »

I waited a couple days to post this – I’m trying to get over my thought that I may be through with SDCGC after last Saturday, 3/7/20. Played with my monthly club at 9am on a cloudy, breezy day that surprisingly cleared up and was mildly warm by noon. Since almost every course in SoCal is dealing with the realities of a dry winter (firm dormant turf, dry conditions), you can virtually count on dry turf and firm greens. The rub (for me, at least) with advancing age and various inconvenient medical issues, the more slopey courses built against the foothills become problematic in terms of my being able to navigate the physical challenges and stay focused on the shot execution.

Many holes at SDCGC offer narrow aspects off the tee and make the golfer really think about where to place the ball. With the course being not overly long and with current turf conditions driver is not always required, and good placement of shots is often preferable to sheer length. That said, there are factors here at SDCGC that really impact playability – many holes have significant tree issues in terms of narrowing landing areas and restricting lines off the tee; and, MOST of the teeboxes (we played White) are BADLY sloped or domed. Boxes had been punched but that really didn’t present a problem – the main issue was the severe sloping, behind a right-handed golfer, that affected my ability to shape the required shots (as much of the trouble here is along the left side of many holes) and avoid tree trouble. And this wasn’t just minor sloping, but severe sloping. Even across the box and within 2 club lengths from the markers a good spot could not be found.

Greens were very firm and showed only small ballmarks. They had very good coverage and rolled mostly smoothly at medium-fast speeds, and you had to be aware of where the foothills were and watch the downhill rollouts. Many pin positions had some serious breaks right around the hole locations, frustrating our entire group. Fairways and rough were thin and dry, and frequently patchy/clumpy/bare. Rough was dry and bumpy - travelling over many rough areas in the cart was teeth-rattling. We played lift/clean/place so I didn’t rate the course. Sand was in great shape in all bunkers I was in or saw partners in. Tees – see above.

Carts have a ProLink Solutions GPS but the screen was too dark to be very useful; two of the carts parked together showed a 9-yard difference to the same pin position. GPS has 10 buttons but only 3 are labelled for use, so who knows what features we might have missed (approach view; menu to report problems; etc.). Hole 14 is so stupid (layup off tee short of the pond, then long iron/hybrid into the wind) that players were bombing drives into 15th fairway and then playing back to the 14th green– it reminds me of Hidden Valley #12 (tee a 5-iron short of the ravine, then hit 5-iron to the green).

Many distractions today, which is likely a combination of course conditions and lack of concentration due to my advancing age – harder to focus. It was windy and we had a mix of people in our group who preferred the flag in or flag out while putting, so there was a lot of moving the flag back and forth while we all missed short putts. Directly behind us we had the noisiest group on the course, who also hit into us, drove next to greens, and was yelling at us to hurry on #16 (we were in position). Public golf!

I’m trying to decide if SDCGC is just too slopey and quirky for my taste, aside from fighting the poor conditions. We’ll see.