Played spur of the moment today. Went right out at 1:36 with another single. Course is in good playable shape with the greens being the highlight. Fast, accepting and mostly smooth although I did repa... Continue »

Played spur of the moment today. Went right out at 1:36 with another single. Course is in good playable shape with the greens being the highlight. Fast, accepting and mostly smooth although I did repair far more than my share of ball marks.

Just played last weekend. The greens were in the best shape I have ever seen on a golf course.

This course is very challenging and if you cannot hit a fairway to save your life, you better bring ex... Continue »

Just played last weekend. The greens were in the best shape I have ever seen on a golf course.

This course is very challenging and if you cannot hit a fairway to save your life, you better bring extra balls. You only get about 10 yards either side to make a mistake on most holes, otherwise you are dropping.

A lot of elevation to this course, if you are walking be warned! But, this also makes it fun. #17 has a tee-box that is about 100' above the green I would guess. Sadly, #18 is the most underwhelming hole on the course.

A lot of fun and a good course to play!

Was able to score an early morning tee time Monday and was able to finish the round under 4hours! Course is in great shape right now with two exceptions, tee boxes and sand.

Most tee boxes were in... Continue »

Was able to score an early morning tee time Monday and was able to finish the round under 4hours! Course is in great shape right now with two exceptions, tee boxes and sand.

Most tee boxes were in good shape, some a little beat up and uneven. Fairways were awesome with great coverage and lush. Rough was cut down so not a big issue and very few brown spots. Bunkers were just ok, wet and some had not been raked. Greens were the highlight although they were pretty firm. Great coverage and ran smooth.

The non resident walking rate is a good deal compared to some other courses in the area. Balboa is a very challenging course with small greens and lots of areas to lose a ball. If you haven’t played here I would highly suggest you give it a try.

First off twilight, 2:03
Finished at 6:15
Course is in good shape overall
Fairways lush
Greens very nice and on the fast side
Atmosphere, a circus.
You may be able to hit the ball but are you ... Continue »

First off twilight, 2:03
Finished at 6:15
Course is in good shape overall
Fairways lush
Greens very nice and on the fast side
Atmosphere, a circus.
You may be able to hit the ball but are you a golfer?
Is etiquette, decorum and civility a thing of the past?

Golf before the storm. This was my 2nd time playing golf in San Diego and was again thrilled to play another fine course. To me this was target golf. If you came close to your target you are plea... Continue »

Golf before the storm. This was my 2nd time playing golf in San Diego and was again thrilled to play another fine course. To me this was target golf. If you came close to your target you are pleasantly rewarded with a beautiful approach to the greens. The greens were the fastest greens I have ever putted on. After about the 4th hole I found my groove. Besides the golf, the scenery overlooking Downtown San Diego was incredible. My playing partner, Tim was a local and a treat to play with. If my stay here in SD was longer I would be playing here again.

Played yesterday as we got Columbus Day off from work. Last minute decided to head over there around 9:15 am and put my name on the waitlist. It was a busy day, but I got sent off with three awesome... Continue »

Played yesterday as we got Columbus Day off from work. Last minute decided to head over there around 9:15 am and put my name on the waitlist. It was a busy day, but I got sent off with three awesome guys at 10:13. Good customer service all around, especially from Arta in the proshop, he was great. POP was surprisingly good at 4hrs. We did wait quite a bit on the back nine, but overall it was much better than I thought.

Blue Teeboxes are quite a mess. Uneven and tons of divot damage on pretty much all holes. #3 was moved way up to the whites and a couple of others were moved up, too.

Fairways were a mixed bag. I had some horrible dirt lies and quite a bit of good lies, so it's a crapshoot, for sure. They looked ok from a distance and most of the normal landing areas were ok, but with the tees moved up a couple times, the landing areas were farther foward than normal and there was some poor coverage in those areas. They did offer some decent rollout and will probably be much better in a few weeks as it looks like they are doing quite a bit of work.

Didn't find any bunkers, but they looked pretty good.

Rough was not very tall or penal, but I didn't find too much of it as I missed two fairways by a combined 3 Feet , so I was just barely off.

Greens were all pretty good. They held shots amazingly well and are coming back nicely from the maintenance last month. A few of them were absolutely perfect, so in a few more weeks, I suspect all of them will be very nice. They rolled fairly smooth and at moderate to fast pace.

$35 walking rate is a great deal for this course. When it gets back into better shape, it's always an easy recommend.

Got out on Tuesday, 9/20. Haven't been playing much, but a friend called. Looked online and lo and behold a 7:09 time at Balboa pops up. Lucky boy. Lucky boy didn't check Greenskeeper for maintenan... Continue »

Got out on Tuesday, 9/20. Haven't been playing much, but a friend called. Looked online and lo and behold a 7:09 time at Balboa pops up. Lucky boy. Lucky boy didn't check Greenskeeper for maintenance alerts. Greens were two weeks away from being playable. Many fairways were thatched. Overall the course is under repair. That said, we played with no one in front and no one behind. It was a beautiful day. When they cut down the Eucalyptus trees on 10 and 12, I was REALLY not a fan, but the views they opened up are truly fabulous. At the City rate of $26, even in the poor shape of the course, I felt I got good value. There a three holes that are downright funky, two that are really hard, but it's part of the package. From experience, in a month the greens will roll great and I'll feel like I stole something after playing.

Played here for the first time today. Had heard good things, but personally; it didn’t impress me. It was definitely a muni, in the negative sense, in that it was showing its age (over 100 years old) ... Continue »

Played here for the first time today. Had heard good things, but personally; it didn’t impress me. It was definitely a muni, in the negative sense, in that it was showing its age (over 100 years old) and not very impressive in terms of course conditions or facilities. Which is interesting, because Torrey Pines is municipal as well—part of the same San Diego Golf system—and their course and facilities are exponentially better. I guess that’s what hosting professional events will do for you; evidently they don’t spread that money around.

But I digress. In terms of course conditions, greens and fairways were fine, bunkers looked fine (I wasn’t in any), but the rough was inconsistent. It was deeper in some spots than others, somewhat patchy, wet or muddy in some spots, and just generally not well kept. Tees were generally not in good shape. Lots of divots, but also lots of bare spots, which is obvi worse.

The conditions were enough to make me not care to play here again, but the layout was also a factor. It wasn’t bad, per se; just didn’t suit my fancy. The front nine is basically cut into a canyon, which makes for some funky holes with very penal areas if you miss on the wrong side of the fairway or green. Again, hard does not automatically equate to bad. But some of these holes just seem too forced into the terrain for me to buy in.

Good pop, just over 4 hours
Greens good
Overall worth the effort!

Good pop, just over 4 hours
Greens good
Overall worth the effort!