I have heard so many good things about Oak Creek, but have never gotten around to playing it. I did yesterday (8/14). My review will be "mixed" at best.

Let me begin by letting you hear of the co... Continue »

I have heard so many good things about Oak Creek, but have never gotten around to playing it. I did yesterday (8/14). My review will be "mixed" at best.

Let me begin by letting you hear of the comments of the three fine gentlemen I played with:

"Cheese, I'm sorry. I've never seen this place looking this bad."

"This golf course is in trouble."

"It's never looked as bad as this..."

Well, since I had never played it in the past - I had nothing to go on as a comparison. I'll let you know what I DID see - and - I have to admit - it was not pretty.

Many LARGE dead areas in the middle of the fairways. And, not just "dead grass" in the fairways - but dead, hard-pan, sun-baked adobe brick fairways. There's no excuse for this. It's a great track with a very cool and challenging layout - - but, that's the kind of stuff I'd expect to see at a poorly-run muni - not in the middle of O.C. And for $90.00 (that's what I paid) - I would expect better.

The worst offender: The #1 handicap hole (#6) must have had a half-acre of dead, hard-pan dirt right in the middle of the fairway.

Now, as for the greens...I thought they were O.K. My friends who play Oak Creek all of the time said they were running about 50% slower than they are used to - and - about 1/2 the normal break was evident. I found them tricky, but - they rolled true. There was still a lot of sand on the greens - so that could account for a lot of that. The greens held all shots well...high shots could barely get out of their own divot - some shots actually plugged in place. Overall, the greens were the best part, I thought.

I was only in one sand-trap (greenside) all day. The sand was high-quality and there seemed to be a lot of it.

The pace of play was just fine - we got around in 4.0 hours - no complaints there.

Oak Creek has to have one of the best practice areas I've ever seen (although $10.00 for the smallest bag o' balls was a bit sttep, I thought!) Grass hitting area for the range, shipping greens, practice bunkers - this place has it all.

Service was good. The only comments we got when we complained about course conditions was that hopefully the Fall drilling and overseeding will take, and they can get Oak Creek back to its former glory.