Finally played El Dorado for the first time on Sunday, grabbing a $67 'deal' online that sure didn't feel like one by the end of the day. I did find out that the walking price is $52, which would be f... Continue »

Finally played El Dorado for the first time on Sunday, grabbing a $67 'deal' online that sure didn't feel like one by the end of the day. I did find out that the walking price is $52, which would be fair for this course, but $67, meaning $15 for the cart fee, is a bit crazy. And from what I understand those fees are going up, so that's not good. Still, I had always wanted to try out the one remaining big Long Beach course that had always eluded me all this time. How was it? Not bad. I can see why some have gripes with this course, but I still think it was alright. However, a few things were not alright. How about POP? Well, never good when you're behind a fivesome of young dudes with backwards caps, tank tops and a cooler full of brews. Even worse when they're not that good (and it's okay to be bad, just don't be bad AND slow). At the end of the day, shocked to clock in at just under SIX hours. Luckily it was a gorgeous day and the players I was paired with were quite nice and fun to hit the sticks with today. How's the layout? For the most part it's okay, but man do I have a gripe with hole 6. When you pipe a 281 yard drive right down the center, it's supposed to be a good thing. But on this hole, they throw in a random tree right between my perfectly struck tee shot and the pin. Great. Ended up costing me big time so I was not amused. But the rest I was okay with. As for the conditions, some good, some bad. The greens were actually quite fast, rolled true and were a lot of fun to play on. A few stray ball marks here and there but overall I would say they were in quite good shape. Tee boxes were also good. Fairways had some patchy sections but there is also a lot of green to work with at El Dorado. But the dried out areas do encroach many of the fairways so you can find yourself with some pretty thin lies even with some solid tee shots. And the rough was also varied from hole to hole - not horrible, but far from consistent. And the sand? Well, they make sure it looks real good on holes 1 and 10 to give you hope, but they were awful after - very thick, watered down mud in some of them even. The others thin and frustrating to hit out of with any consistency. It was a hot day and never saw a cart girl once, however there were a few water stations along the way filled with the cold stuff. Nice snack shack too in the middle of the nines. I didn't hit any balls before the round but the practice areas were well maintained and the driving range looked pretty good. So yeah, some problems for sure with my first visit to El Dorado, but I guess in the end I would not be averse to coming back if I can get a way better deal. It's just not worth full price (not unlike Skylinks), but if you can get a deal, I'd give it a shot.