Walked Torrey South for 50th bday Monday Sept 15th joined by buddies Steve, Ron and Matt at 12:10pm. 1st time here and a... » More

Walked Torrey South for 50th bday Monday Sept 15th joined by buddies Steve, Ron and Matt at 12:10pm. 1st time here and all staff encountered in pro-shop were friendly. One of the nicest starters on South that day. 1st time here for 3/5 of us. Weather both days encountered was beautiful. Early morning marine layer turned to warmer/humid conditions with a light breeze and around 75 degrees. After some epic breakfast burritos in del mar#[Rubens] we were at the pro shop to check in and use the practice facilities. Very nice clubhouse with two practice putting facilities that mirrored green speeds on the course. The range had a big area roped off with brand new turf that they are prepping for the farmers open in January. Range was on mats and practice facility included a ample chipping green with a bunker.

We had two groups and we elected green tees at 6635. Course played around 6700 + with the denser ocean air...Ala sandoiper/olivas links...our group thought about at least one club more on the irons. In speaking with the staff prior to the round they informed us that South would still have some lushness and bite with the process of North "being browned out" to start the overseeding process.

Fell in love with both layouts here at Torrey. My kind of course.

Greens on the south were medium firmness and held shots beautifully. Rolled with minimal bounces with true rolls. Greens could vary from small to large depending on the hole and most had some nice undulations. Rated 8/10

Rough was nice length for playability and was starting to brown out in spots. According to management here overseeding starts soon and the rough starts to get lush up until the farmers in January. Rated 7/10

Fairways provided a really nice surface to hit from. Would say 75 percent green with 25 percent brown. Fairways here are wide but not as wide as north. Rated 8/10

Tees were level and in good to decent shape. Rated 8/10

Was in 2 Fairway bunkers and two greenside bunker that had ample sand. The bunkers didn't look deep to the naked eye but had thick sand underneath the top surface. Some of the bunkers unfortunately had multiple foot prints in. I went for it in two on 18 and made it over the water to find my ball in a big foot print in the greenside bunker. Not the courses fault but note to players to please rake bunkers as playing partner was in couple bunkers with footprints as well..part of golf.

Onto my favorite part of reviewing courses which is the layout. I loved the South. I wish I was a resident of SD would be here all the time. The course defends itself well against par. Wide open tee shots present itself but if you miss the fairways you will do well to secure your par with the rough. I loved the par 3s which I was able to conquer today. Favorite par 3s were the iconic 3rd and 16th hole which I stuck to 9 feet but missed the putt. Most fairways and green complexes are surrounded by strategic bunkering. You must be able to hit irons well and have a good short game. Some elevation changes but everything was in front of you. My favorite holes were 3, 7, 13, 16 and 18. Residents are blessed here.

Of note when prebooking no twilight times were available. Also of note they ask for 4 hrs pace of play for morning players and maximum of 4 hrs 30 minutes for all other play. We finished our round in 4hrs 25 minutes.

Bucket list course and highly recommended. For premium conditions probably playing closer to the Farmers Insurance open in January is recommended.
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Had not played Lakewood for a while, so nice to return. Stange how the older I get, the longer the golf course gets! As ... » More

Had not played Lakewood for a while, so nice to return. Stange how the older I get, the longer the golf course gets! As stated in the last review, the fairways are not exactly conducive to roll, so that made the course play even longer. Greens were the best part of the course, although not as good as expected. The worst part was my senior discount card had expired, so the additional $$ was tough to take. They will be punching greens in a couple weeks - FYI.
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Played Sunday, Sept 14, 7:30am teetime, $108 to walk (a little pricey, but seems like everywhere is expensive these days... » More

Played Sunday, Sept 14, 7:30am teetime, $108 to walk (a little pricey, but seems like everywhere is expensive these days, especially on the weekends). POP was great, 4hrs, never waited one bit. A threesome that went off at 6:30am was finished 18 as we were making the turn, they flew.

Course is in overall good to very good shape. Teeboxes were narrow, but level with pretty good coverage. Fairways were very nice, although, the course gets a lot of walkers, so there's some unfilled divots. I found one divot, but was able to make good contact with my full pitching wedge, so it wasn't too bad. Rough wasn't too thick and it's pretty sparse in between the trees, no complaints. Found two bunkers and they were just fine, good sand underneath, but a little damp and compact. One bunker I saw had coyote tracks all through it, must have been after the morning crew. Greens were good for the most part, but not worth the $108 green fee. They were quite bumpy, but held shots very well. They will be doing some major aerating coming up in a couple of weeks, so beware. I don't hit balls on the range, but apparently it is still closed. Customer service was decent. The guy in the proshop wasn't too nice when I explained to him that I was trying to use my $50 "goplaygolf" gift card. After doing a little research, he saw that the company contacted the course on Friday to redeem my card, so it ended up going through, but he wasn't thrilled about it. I definitely recommend these courses. I like the Oak better than Willow, personally. There are some very narrow fairways and the back nine is super sweet in my opinion.
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Played here Monday.

Whoa! This place was packed yesterday. We had a 740 tee time and it was like a Saturday o... » More

Played here Monday.

Whoa! This place was packed yesterday. We had a 740 tee time and it was like a Saturday out there. We usually play Monday and its locals and quiet and yesterday it was on.

The course is going through a bunch of renovations in some of the fairways, trees being trimmed. Greens still terrible.

Nice to see the county adressing some of the issues with the course conditions but please why can't they work on the greens .Lots of top water on the greens. The bunkers are pretty terrible on the holes that see a lot of bunker play. Maybe even pick up some cat litter and throw it in there, just something.

POP wasn't the worst considering how busy it was out there.

Santa Anita is Santa Anita and will probably never be as good as it was pre Covid.
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Played here Sunday.

the good: Got my first hole in one on the 3rd hole. WOW!!! I play 3x a week for the last 10... » More

Played here Sunday.

the good: Got my first hole in one on the 3rd hole. WOW!!! I play 3x a week for the last 10 years and so many near misses and finally!!!

the course was not in as good condition as the Lakes I played 2 weeks ago. A lot of dried fairways and lots of clippings all over the course. The greens were good but not as good as the Lakes.

the layout is was fun, it was my first time playing there. The view is great but it sucks to see the course not as cleaned up as it could be. It was 75 bucks to ride and the pop was a little sluggish. 833am tee time.

i wouldn't be in a hurry to play this side again but the 17th island hole is cool.

I asked to buy a flag for the hole in one. They said they don't sell them I said ok. They said we can print a certificate but it wouldnt be on card stock . I said "ok" they said it would be on regular paper, I said "ok" , then they said the printer was broken. LOL

You can't make it up.

Still an amazing day regardless.
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Played with Alex late August. First time for the renovated Jay Blasi designed championship 18. All the good boxes checke... » More

Played with Alex late August. First time for the renovated Jay Blasi designed championship 18. All the good boxes checked for a great day of play.
Those familiar with the old nines on the north side of the property will notice some redirected holes, a couple new ones and a few you'll recall for the most part with new contours.
We played in near perfect weather conditions with little to no wind and mild sunny temperatures. I think with a club or two prevailing wind the course will be better protected.
Big expansive tee boxes with the back tees some 50 - 60 yards or more. The same grasses from tee to green and no rough of any length. Santa Ana bermuda is the tight lie grass type and it offers a great links style surface to play the close to the ground game.
Prestige bentgrass greens quick and firm also. Large offering many pin placement options.
Just a few trees on the course in play and only a couple water hazards.
Should be a great match play course and the meaningful distance difference of the tee markers would help even up index differences in my opinion.
Parred the long par 3 5th, shaping the driver R to L onto the large green 2 putt.
The 13th green, 14th tee, 17th green, and 18th tee are in close proximity to each other and are a bit congested in that area the first time through to figure it out.
Overall I feel it's an improvement to have the 18 holes and Ridge 9 par 34 (7-4's/ 2-3's) separated. the ridge 9 is a combo of old merlot and chardonnay with two new greens.
At NCGA rate good value and it's walk able. I'll be back.
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Played Fri 9/13, 9:40 time, 4:20 round. Course in decent muni shape.. Greens running a slow 10, soft and bumpy, lots... » More

Played Fri 9/13, 9:40 time, 4:20 round. Course in decent muni shape.. Greens running a slow 10, soft and bumpy, lots of unfixed ball marks. Decent throughout. Bunkers in good shape. Cart girl going around. I enjoy this course whenever I play.
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Played Thurs 9/12, 7:40 time, 4:15 round. course in pretty good muni shape. Greens running a slow 10, soft, quite a fe... » More

Played Thurs 9/12, 7:40 time, 4:15 round. course in pretty good muni shape. Greens running a slow 10, soft, quite a few ball marks but tap them down and they mostly roll true. Fairways in good shape. bunkers seemed consistent. Had a good time
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Played here today with my monthly group, shout out to Casey's Tournament Players Club. I played here once, about 10 year... » More

Played here today with my monthly group, shout out to Casey's Tournament Players Club. I played here once, about 10 years ago. I did not remember all the undulating fairways. The fairways were mostly in good shape and had really lush kikuyu grass. So lush that I managed to chili dip three shots on a single hole after a good drive. Oh well, I guess I'm not that good yet. There were a lot of Ground Under Repair areas on the front nine. It appears that there is some revegetation or other landscape construction going on several holes. It did get better on the back nine.

The greens were very soft and there were lots of unrepaired ball marks. By the size of the practice putting green, I guess the course sees a lot of play. Fixing ball marks doesn't seem the be a common practice here.

Fairways and rough were mostly good. Some areas of the rough had some very deep grass, but for the most part your ball would sit up.

Bunker sand was mostly wet and kind of thin.

We played the Blue Tees and most were in good shape.

Pace of play was about 4.5 hours.

I did not get anything from the club house, but my playing partner bought a single 25 oz. domestic beer for $12.
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Played as a twosome with my buddy on Thursday 9/11 wit a 2:30 start. At his preference, we played the whites but not muc... » More

Played as a twosome with my buddy on Thursday 9/11 wit a 2:30 start. At his preference, we played the whites but not much distance between them and the blues generally. The clippings that were a major issue for Inkybeme1 in the previous review were gone when we played and the overall conditions were good. One consideration is that a handful of the tee boxes have new sod laid over them and those tees were moved forward of the usual teeing grounds — in the case of the par-5 8th hole, somewhat dramatically. That temp tee also made for a seriously tilted surface that was an exception to the rest. So a course that tops out at 5.600 yds played even shorter overall, with holes 8 and 15 especially so. The majority of the tees were good. Fairway conditions were mostly good and usually no issues if you landed there, but there were some overwatered muddy patches distributed over the course that included some fairway. The rough here varies greatly from playable to thick to encroaching wild that can be dirt and/or thick brush. It's one of the challenges here and reinforces the penalty for getting off line on this target course. I was in a bunker and it was OK. Green surrounds were inconsistent as to lie quality but mostly good for short game. Greens themselves were good. Quick enough but not overly so given the contours of some of the greens.

Bottom line, not having been here in a good while, I enjoyed the course, maybe because I got beat up a little less than usual. But between the sodded/temp tees and wet spots, the course is not playing close to peak conditions right now. Good for casual option, but I suggest monitoring until they have activated the re-sodded tees. They should be a nice improvement over the old teeing surface and it's good to see they are making improvements.
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Course was not effected by the recent fire. Other than maybe 2 holes or so, you do not even smell smoke.

Playe... » More

Course was not effected by the recent fire. Other than maybe 2 holes or so, you do not even smell smoke.

Played here for my 1st time on a Saturday afternoon at 1:04pm. Was pretty open in front of us so they let us head out early. Caught up to the group that went out 20ish minutes ahead of us and had to wait a few times. Nobody was behind us for at least 2 holes so we just played at a leisurely pace with some waiting. Round ended up taking 5.5 hours and was MUCH slower than I thought.

Course was in excellent shape BUT some of the bunkers don't have sand in them and not marked as being under repair. Also, not sure what happened but they did not roll the greens and were not the smoothest.

Regardless, it was a fun round and weather was in the low 80s in the middle of Sept.
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Played here yesterday. Course is a Pete Dye design and one of his early ones. Done in 1984. So it can claim being a form... » More

Played here yesterday. Course is a Pete Dye design and one of his early ones. Done in 1984. So it can claim being a former TPC stadium layout. It is a wonderful course to play. It is in Castle Rock so easy trip from Denver. Great rates, layout and staff. Found all the course to be in great shape. I love the Par 3 12th with (they say) 10K railroad ties. And the 17th is a Par 3 island hole made famous by Dye at many of his TPC designs. I really recommend this course if you are in the area.

Starting Monday I will be making a NE golf tour playing Awarri Dunes, Wildhorse, two days at Dismal River in the Sand Dunes of NE and finishing up with Scottsbluff CC. As NE is not in the GK lineup John will post my pics along with my posts in the Members Forums.
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