Sunday round at Hansen Dam with a seven-person group (we missed you Johnny!) including many GKers. We got out just before a girl's junior tournament which was good, but the holdup at the turn waiting ... Continue »

Sunday round at Hansen Dam with a seven-person group (we missed you Johnny!) including many GKers. We got out just before a girl's junior tournament which was good, but the holdup at the turn waiting for hot dogs threw a serious monkey wrench in the POP and forced me to have to miss the 10th hole. How can hot dogs take 15 minutes?

As for the golf though, Hansen is looking pretty good right now after the rains. You'll rarely see it even this level of green, so enjoy it. That's not to say that everything is perfect though, because it's not. The greens don't look like they've been rolled for a while and were running quite slow, but aesthetically looked good.

Fairways are mostly providing good lies right now and the rough is very easy to work with right now. Bunkers had some thin sand and a few too many rocks for my liking. Tee boxes were mostly beat up but at least provided flat lies.

But the positives definitely outweigh the negatives right now so it's not a bad recommendation if you're up in the area to give Hansen Dam a whirl right now.

Sunday, 032419, with a 7:52 tee time on a nice day that warmed up close to 70 with very little wind.

I'm just not happy with their greens at all. It was bumpy and slow! I am sure it is not someth... Continue »

Sunday, 032419, with a 7:52 tee time on a nice day that warmed up close to 70 with very little wind.

I'm just not happy with their greens at all. It was bumpy and slow! I am sure it is not something anyone would hope for on any green they're playing.

Their fairways were fine and their rough is a mix types of grass that are cut low like a primary cut, but then other holes have thick lush roughs in the back nine although it was still low. The teeing grounds were 50/50 used up but you can find a spot to tee it in. The bunkers were 50/50 also- fluffy and light in one and thick wet and heavy on another- I was in two.

I heard one of their main pipes broke and the rest rooms were closed- they have a portable toilet near the driving range. I couldn't tell for sure if the restaurant was closed for a period, but the main door had yellow tape that looks like someone tried to pull out.

Check in was a typical L.A. city course treatment. Never a bev cart here (not that I'd be glad about it if they did)

But anyway, it's always fun to play here- I'm just hoping for better greens in the future.

Got out this Monday morning; teeing off early at 9:00, joining a twosome. We walked the course. I thought it was going to be fairly quick, but I was quickly reminded how slow it would be. It was a lot... Continue »

Got out this Monday morning; teeing off early at 9:00, joining a twosome. We walked the course. I thought it was going to be fairly quick, but I was quickly reminded how slow it would be. It was a lot of waiting on every tee box, but the actual golf seemed to flow okay and we finished in just over 4 hours, 30 minutes.

Tees: We played the blue tees and they weren't too good. Lots of bare ground and patchy grass.

Fairways: Mostly dormant kikuyu and Bermuda grass. There was some green, but mostly it's tight lies and moist conditions. Decent roll out on most drives and punch shots, yet soft conditions. It was real easy to take huge divots or hit fat if you're behind it.

Rough: Not too different than the fairways. Some areas that were not mowed recently due to wet weather.

Sand: Bunkers could use some maintenance. I wasn't in any, but I could see some had foot prints and most looked like wet, packed sand. One of my playing partners was in the greenside bunker at 13 and got out okay.

Greens: All were somewhat slow and a few seemed bumpy. They might not have been mowed today, that's how slow it seemed. There was the presence of lots of poa annua with the tell tale seed heads making some putts bounce a little.

All in all, it was not what I was hoping for. I suppose the recent wet weather has made it more challenging to maintain the course. I hoped for better greens, at least. Maybe as the weather warms up, we will see better conditions here. For $29 walking, I will be back.

Played mid-morning Saturday, 1/12 paired up with a high school girl accompanied by her father who was overseeing her round but not playing himself. After a night of rain and the potential for more dur... Continue »

Played mid-morning Saturday, 1/12 paired up with a high school girl accompanied by her father who was overseeing her round but not playing himself. After a night of rain and the potential for more during the day, I decided to grab the umbrella, go for it and hope for the best. As could be expected, conditions were moist in general but pretty well drained, considering. There were exceptions where there were small ponds of standing water including on a couple of greens and in some bunkers. Puddles aside, I found the ball sat up well and the playing surface through the course generally acceptable with decent rollout and a reasonable minimum of mud balls. It actually rained on us for a hole and a half starting at the 5th tee box. The fifth green was wet enough to take about 10% off the putting speed, but by the 6th green the rain had pretty much stopped and the green speed was normalizing already. After the rain it turned into a pretty nice day. I missed the bunkers so I can't comment other than they were obviously very wet sand. The pace on the greens was a pretty good medium fast, they were were on the firm side and the surface was pretty clean — made a couple of birdies on putts of about 15' and 30' respectively and they tracked well. Per kviser's comment about the tees in an earlier post, they have moved them around. As he mentioned the yellow and white tees on some holes have been moved well forward. In at least one case I noticed a yardage monument at the new white location to suggest that move was permanent. It seems on those holes, the blues approximated where the whites used to be and the blacks more like the blues. In many cases the monuments haven't been changed and the tees were in something like their "normal" spots. In some cases, it's possible the tees were cheated up due to the weather conditions. They will definitely need to update their card. In summary, I enjoyed the round and thought the course held up pretty well to the rainy conditions. For the record, the high school girl was a freshman and #2 on her team, probably soon to be #1 according to her dad, and was blowing her drives about 30 yards past my better ones with us both playing the whites. Given that it would be a fool's errand for me to be playing golf to boost my ego in the first place, I simply appreciated her talent.

Played at Hansen Dam with two friends and paired up with a single this past Friday. Walked the blue tees with a push cart so I think the total was around $55. Unfortunately they were charging Holiday ... Continue »

Played at Hansen Dam with two friends and paired up with a single this past Friday. Walked the blue tees with a push cart so I think the total was around $55. Unfortunately they were charging Holiday rates for Thanksgiving even though it was Friday. What can you do?

I found the course to be in pretty good condition but with some questionable pin placements, namely the par 3 4th, where the pin was right in the middle of the most sloped part of the green so every ball would roll back down 20 feet. Utterly stupid PGA Tour type placement on a busy holiday for amateurs. The backup on the hole was three deep because of it.

In terms of conditions, they were mostly good but of course you're not going to find Augusta out here. Fairways were mostly in good shape but certainly some thin or muddy lies to be found (a day after the rains). Nothing worse than hitting a great drive and finding your ball in a dirt patch in the middle of the fairway. Rough was a mashup of long and short depending on distance from the fairway. Tee boxes were in some rough shape in some spots, especially the 10th which was basically just dirt. Sand looked okay but I never was in it.

Greens were rolling pretty well but there were some dried out areas on the edges. They were not particularly fast but held their lines pretty well despite some bumpiness that Keven alluded to in his last review. I thought they held shots pretty well though onto the green so that was nice. Not a lot of tricked out reads to make at Hansen, either.

Busy Friday but no cart service whatsoever was disappointing, but at least the water fountains throughout the course provided good, clean and cold water. And hopefully they've decided to keep the nines in this order and not reverse them again as the current setup is superior to the old one without a doubt.

Played here today with 3 others from Meetup.com, teeing off at around 9:44, finishing in about 5 hours. It seemed like the course and parking lot was not too full, but it did play somewhat slow. The g... Continue »

Played here today with 3 others from Meetup.com, teeing off at around 9:44, finishing in about 5 hours. It seemed like the course and parking lot was not too full, but it did play somewhat slow. The group I played with today were all riders, so I rode in a cart. It was $53 to ride.

It looks like the course is doing something different with the white and yellow tees, moving them up to the fairway. Maybe it's temporary, maybe not. Most of it played like temporary tees. The USGA plates have been moved, but the scorecard yardage is not exactly corresponding to the new yardages on several holes. They will need new cards for this. This will allow more separation from the blue and black tees for sure.

Greens: They were soft, slow, and somewhat bumpy.

Fairways and rough: Lots of semi-dormant kikuyu grass. Soft conditions everywhere. It was very easy to take huge divots or chunk fat shots. I did see some areas roped off and deep tire tracks in some areas.

Bunkers: I did not have to hit from any, but they looked okay with plenty of medium-brown sand that was more or less raked. My playing partners had no problems hitting from the sand, so I'd say it was good.

Tees: We played forward tees, using the white and yellow tees. For the most part, the blacks and blues were same as always: mostly level and plenty of good areas to hit from. The white and yellow tees were like teeing up on scalped rough in most areas. Some of the white tees were simply moved up to the forward teeing ground; other areas the whites and yellows were like playing ahead of the tees in the rough.

Overall, this course looks like it's going through another transition. Customer service was one guy at the starter window checking golfers in. The snack bar had a kid who did not know how to use the register very well, which earned him some extra change from me since I did not want to wait for a manager to help him a second time.

I like the course, but I would wait to play here again any time soon. Maybe last week's weather softened things up too much and they could not cut the greens closer. Maybe the new forward teeing grounds have to be made more permanent. Maybe I just need to move back to the blue or black tees.

Teed off at 8am Monday 11/19 as a foursome. Weather was perfect. It started out a little chilly but ended up in the high 60's to low 70's. Our foursome finished in 4 hours. Pace of play was fine. I pl... Continue »

Teed off at 8am Monday 11/19 as a foursome. Weather was perfect. It started out a little chilly but ended up in the high 60's to low 70's. Our foursome finished in 4 hours. Pace of play was fine. I played here about a month ago. Back then, the fairways were very green and lush and the greens were fairly smooth. The high winds and very low humidity over the past couple of weeks has taken its' toll on the course. Right now it's in fair to average condition. The Tee boxes are a bit chewed up, but you can usually find a decent teeing spot. The fairways are OK, but not very green and not well padded. They are quite firm with some bad spots scattered about. Though if you're in the fairway your lie will usually be decent. The grass surrounding the greens is hard to play from. It will grab your club and stop it, giving you a poor shot result, if you don't clip the ball just right. I ended up putting a lot more from the fringe because I could get a more consistent result than with my wedge. I was not in any sand traps. But they looked fine. The greens are very poor. In addition to being quite slow, several greens are missing grass, and are so bumpy you could lose your line or speed. The greens are the worst part of the course. They weren't terrible, but were more challenging than they needed to be due to the bumpiness. I like the layout here and elevation changes. It's a fun course to play. but right now it's just in fair condition. But with the inexpensive green fee it is still a good value.

Went to the course solo this morning and got out a little after 9:00 AM paired with a pleasant couple. I had gotten there just late enough to miss my 8:48 reservation but they got me out pretty shortl... Continue »

Went to the course solo this morning and got out a little after 9:00 AM paired with a pleasant couple. I had gotten there just late enough to miss my 8:48 reservation but they got me out pretty shortly thereafter. Overall conditions were pretty good. The black and blue monuments were combined, which I played and generally had no issues in the tees boxes with finding levels lies and enough grass of appropriate length. The fairways were in overall good shape, usually offering good lies. There were only occasional browned spots on the fairways, but not only were they generally few and far between, they weren't particularly thin and still gave one's ball some cushion. One exception that comes to mind was the 18th fairway, which was lumpier and less clean overall than most of the other fairways. Rough was generally green, playable, and sometimes punitive. I was in a few bunkers and they were clean, firm-ish but not hard, and quite playable — my efforts no withstanding. The greens were in good shape and medium quick. There was some underlying moisture in the course so pitch marks on the greens were more pronounced, but the surface quality was generally fairly clean and true. A nice, warm day without being overly hot, and vey little wind to factor in for most of the round. I didn't note the exact times, but I think the round came in a little under five hours. While there was some occasional waiting and the pace was not exactly brisk, it generally moved along steadily enough that it really didn't feel that long. As munis go, I'd say it's in better shape overall than most and recommend it. I like the layout, had no real complaints and really enjoyed my round.

Played 9-5-18 mid morning on a Teeoff deal for $26 including cart, joining a twosome and finishing in a little under 4 hours. Tee boxes were in okay shape, a little long but mostly level and in need o... Continue »

Played 9-5-18 mid morning on a Teeoff deal for $26 including cart, joining a twosome and finishing in a little under 4 hours. Tee boxes were in okay shape, a little long but mostly level and in need of being thatched. Fairways had a mix of lush green Kikuyu, thin and dry Kikuyu and some small bare spots. Rough was mostly in descent shape ranging from 2-3 inches in most areas but there were some longer spots up to 10-12 inches. Was not in any bunkers but playing partners said they were firm and thin. Greens were in bad shape with some bare spots, mostly around edges, and some small patches of Kikuyu in almost ever green. Under current conditions I would probably play somewhere else.