This well-manicured par-56 in Solana Beach is like a good Pixar movie - simple enough for the beginners to enjoy, with sufficient nuance to also entertain any grizzled old vets along for the ride. T... Continue »

This well-manicured par-56 in Solana Beach is like a good Pixar movie - simple enough for the beginners to enjoy, with sufficient nuance to also entertain any grizzled old vets along for the ride. The course is nestled in some hills, so most tee shots are either uphill or downhill, often significantly so. Most holes are in the 90 to 140 yard range, with two longer par-3s and two 250-ish par-4s. The length and features of the par-4s make club selection interesting. Most holes have a greenside bunker or two. Teed off on Saturday at 11am with my wife. The course was decently crowded, mostly with twosomes. At several tee boxes, we waited for a couple minutes, but nothing egregious. The pace felt fine and came in at about 2 1/4 hours for the 18 holes. Only complaint was the dry and heavily divoted nature of the teeing areas. Otherwise, the course looked and played great. Green complexes, and greens and the two fairways all seemed well watered. Greens were memory-foam-soft and rolled slow but true. Bunkers ranged from good to OK.