Played the Crossings with a 1:30 tee time. As this was a Guru outing their will be multiple reviews of the course. My review is from the perspective of a double bogey, hi-handicap golfer who in fact... Continue »

Played the Crossings with a 1:30 tee time. As this was a Guru outing their will be multiple reviews of the course. My review is from the perspective of a double bogey, hi-handicap golfer who in fact wasn't playing anywhere near his best on this day. The Crossings at Carlsbad is situated near the outlet mall at Carlsbad and in the backyard of Callaway Golf. You can play, eat and shop. The course follows the topography of the canyon it was built around, and surrounds a large tracts of environmentally protected wildlife habitat. The club house at the Crossings is impressively grand and commands a wonderful view of the first, eighteenth holes and the ocean. Arriving at the club there are members of staff waiting to take your bag, check you in and get your bag to the cart. If you wish to go to the practice range there is a shuttle to and from the range. I arrived early, and explored the club house, pro shop, restaurant and facilities. The quality of each is befitting a high end private club. The pro shop is well stocked and has a trained club fitter on staff. Well I did not dine at Canyon's restaurant a look at the menu, and what others were having indicated a very sophisticated dinning environment. Canyon's could easily be considered a destination of it's own, with a view of the hills and ocean worthy of visiting. I elected to have a hot dog with fresh diced onions and an ice tea before warming up. The hot dog was $4 served on a fresh bun, and tasted very good. The seating area adjacent to the chipping area overlooks both the chipping and putting green and was very relaxing. There are two chipping areas one located in a bowl, the other siting in a group of mounds and flat areas. The rough around the practice greens is deep much like that found around the greens on the course. The pitching area features multi-tiered greens similar to those found on course. A small bucket of practice balls appear to be intentionally left to practice with. (no lob shots allowed) Just east of the chipping practice area is the main putting practice green. This is large, features multi-tiered features but was not really as representative of the greens on course as the chipping greens were. All are in excellent condition. The aforementioned shuttle regularly runs from the practice green out to the driving range, and back as well as to the parking lot. It is important when going to use the driving range that you have gotten the code from the pro shop. The driving range itself is compact, it was not clear what the distance to the fence was, or to the three posts. I am estimating around 200 yards. Mats are used but will accept a tee. Recent e-mails from the Crossings have touted their fleet of new carts and they are nice, pretty blue, featuring a USB plug. The carts feature a cooler which the snack bar will fill with ice to complement drinks purchased at the course. If you like to be sure you have a cold one, use this option. We only saw the drink cart once on course and as our group was a tad behind the pace of play we were unable to stop between holes to avail ourselves of the service. There was water available at the driving range, I did not see any water on course although we did not stop at the on course restrooms where they might have been a fountain. The carts feature GPS. The quality of the image in direct sun light was very good. Using the touch screen you can get the distance from the carts location to the hazards, and the target. You can also get the distance to the pin, not just the front / center / back of the green, as well as the distance from a point on the green say the front to the pin so you know how much room you have to work with. What you don't know without course knowledge is the contour of the green. You are not allowed to walk this course. Given my handicap I chose to play this course from the whites. (on some holes such as the 10th I should have just played from the drop zone) This course favors long hitters, and straight hitters. I hit driver with a average 198 carry. There were areas where a 165 carry was required but at the same time a very accurate shot was also required, well exposed to wind. Misses were in the previously mentioned protected habitat, and balls were irretrievable. My play was sub par and as a result I lost a dozen balls during the round. To my eye the tee boxes were lush, and overall very level. The only complaint might be how far away the whites were form the ball washers. The first tee if very honest and representative of this course. Standing on the tee it is hard to see the flag, the architect used the natural contours as the courses primary defense. At my distance the landing zones were alternately wide, or very very narrow. Visually this is intimidating off the tee. The use of protected habitat as expansive hazard means at times dropping into a shorter more controllable club is not an option. In many cases the target direction and landing zone are not clear from the tee or even from the fairway on long par 4's and par 5's. Tee shots are critical, get it wrong and recovery is very hard. The views and vista's from the tee on each hole are worth playing this course. Fairways. San Diego didn't not get anywhere near the rain that ares north of San Clemente did, thus the fairways are not as lush as we are seeing in other areas. The top soil was soft, I seldom take a divot and I took more than my share on this day, but the grass felt a little on the dry side. (all water hazards are full). Overall the fairways are very good, well covered, well maintained. Rough is penal as would be expected and given the amount of OB on this course was on occasion a welcome sight. Many if not all of the fairways on this course are sloped meaning even when I found the fairway I often had a shot where the ball was above or below my feet. It is worth mentioning I have played this course before, at that time I was paired with a father and son who play the course weekly. The son is a high school golf coach. The advantage of having a playing partner who knows this course inside and out is huge. Course knowledge is critical in my opinion to enjoying this course. The father son duo essentially acted as a caddie, giving my target and distance info that made the course easy. Yesterday I played with three very good players, far better than I, but without the detailed information. The GPS well it shows the layout of the hole, doesn't provide the insight (really would be an ask for it too) I suspect even if my ball striking hadn't deserted me, my score would have been higher than my previous round. In the challenge category this course ranks high on my scorecard. Fairway bunkers are deep, for me they required a lofted club out despite being as much as 200 yards from the hole. Green side bunkers were also very steep, the condition and quality of the bunkers were good and a fair test of the players sand skills. Add the multi-level nature of the greens and pin placement visiting the green side bunkers could drive the score high. Hazards (are everywhere) The amount of protected habitat means the most balls hit OB cannot be looked for or retrieved. This course demands a conservative strategy and confident execution. Hidden behind the heavy brush were large pools of standing water, this manifested itself in several concentrations of mosquito's and other bugs. Greens. I enjoyed the greens and the challenges they produced. I found the greens on course were playing substantially slower than the practice greens, but the condition of the greens on holes one through 13 were very good. 14 seem to show evidence of having recently been punched, and the remainder of the holes the surface was very soft, such that walking left very visible spike marks. You had to be very careful not to step in your playing partners line which because of break could be very wide of the obvious line. This is a wonderful course with even better service. From arrival to departure where the staff cleans your clubs and takes them up to the front door everything is first class. This is what I call a destination course. The total experience is the reason to come, not just the are tee to green. Having said that this is a course to play with a local, someone who plays it regularly. I am not competent to do so, but if I could recommend The Crossings at Carlsbad do one thing, it would be to have their teaching pro, write a series of tips for the low, mid, and high handicap player for each hole and post it here on GK. Having that information in my pocket would have helped. Golf is a game of confidence, and it's hard to be confident when even from the white tees you can't see the hole, it's a dog leg and you can't see the landing area. I hope to be back later this month to play on my birthday, they have a great deal for birthdays.