Moving to California (Burbank/Pasadena area), any good and reasonably priced courses around?

Being from Ohio, some of our "better" courses can be played for a little as $20 including cart.  So my question is two-fold:

1.  Burbank, CA area -- what are some good courses nearby?

2.  How much would I expect to pay at an "average" course in Southern Cali?

Don't know Burbank area too well, but down here in Orange County, "average" courses range from 40 or 50 weekdays, to 60-80 weekends.  The nicer courses all push triple digits down here on weekend mornings.  A good example of what I'm guessing you mean when you say average is Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley ... http://www.milesquaregolfcourse.com/sites/courses/custom2.asp?id=535&page;=27504

$35 weekdays, $50 weekends (I think cart might be extra)

I can only assume that Burbank/Pasadena will have some similar options, but certainly you will get some feedback from others who are actually "in the know."

Those are a couple options. I used to live in Pasadena and played nearly all my rounds at Altadena GC or Eaton Canyon (the second link above). They're sister courses, both 9-holes. They're rather different, Altadena is pretty wide open with some gradual but occasionally important elevation changes and is the easier and less crowded of the two. Eaton Canyon is a bit more interesting, perhaps, with a few narrow holes with lots of elevation as you go down for the first 4 and back up for the last 5. Both are under $20 for a walker (and are easily walkable), and not hard to get onto without a reservation except weekend mornings.

I've not played DeBell, but I've heard it can be tricky / frustrating.

If you don't mind a bit of a drive, there's the Alhambra Golf Course, which is a short, relatively easy course with some tricky holes on the back 9. It's under $30 for a walker, IIRC.

There's also the Brookside courses in Pasadena. I've not played them, but they're apparently pretty good. They have a reputation for being extremely crowded and slow on weekends, and occasionally in poor condition because they park cars on them during Rose Bowl games. These are a bit more expensive, probably $40-$50. (http://www.americangolf.com/brookside-golf-club)

There are also the various LA City courses (http://www.golf.lacity.org/). I've played Hansen Dam and Rancho Park, and both were very nice courses and are under $50 even on weekends if your'e walking. These courses, particularly those more central to LA, are generally very busy, I believe.

Finally, there's an executive course called Scholl Canyon in Glendale. I've not played it, but it's apparently a sometimes tricky "par 3.5" sort of course.

If you're moving to CA, I hope your making well into a six digit salary. I made the mistake of moving there making $70K/yr and it was barely enough to pay my $1700/mo rent for a 1br apartment, feed myself, and play golf. Good luck, and enjoy life amongst the beautiful people!

I am originally from Long Beach, CA.

Be prepared for traffic 24/7.  Doesn't matter what time of the day it is.  Especially 110 and 405 freeways.

As for golf, if you are used to $20 for a round, you'll be in for a shock.  Even muni courses are around $50.

Just to add a couple of the nicer courses to my list, not super-close to Burbank but also not terribly far, there's Angeles National, which is hands down the best-groomed course I've ever played. It is decidedly not reasonably priced, but they do work pretty hard to keep it in beautiful shape, at least based on a sample size of one. That said, I didn't find it to be all that interesting a course, and it's got a lot of environmentally sensitive areas that lead to frustrating lost balls if you can't keep it in play.

There's also Rustic Canyon, which is quite a bit more affordable. It's also a desert links style course with plenty of lost balls, but I thought it was a more interesting layout. Not kept up as well as Angeles National, but kept up well nonetheless. There are quite a few others if you're willing to drive up toward Santa Barbara, notably Olivas Links which is excellent and affordable, and I've heard good things about Moorpark and some of the other courses out that way. Out east, too, there's Oak Quarry and a few other nice ones. These are all probably in the $40-$70 range, depending on day and time, I guess.

But your best value, IMO, is at Altadena, Eaton Canyon, and Alhambra (though that's more of a drive for you than it was for me). For a moderately high handicapper, these are well enough kept and the most affordable by a stretch. Altadena and Eaton Canyon also have nice all-grass ranges except during the rainy months, nice putting greens, and so-so chipping areas and practice bunkers.

Oh, and I've heard only nice things about Industry Hills too.  2 courses, I believe the LPGA plays there, and it looks like you can play Mondays for $50.  Never been there but it's closer to where you're going to be than where I am. http://www.ihgolfclub.com/

Brookside

It's about 45 minutes from downtown Pasadena, but one of my favorites up there is:

http://www.lostcanyons.com/

Freddy and Pete Dye did the courses there.  Tough, beautiful and fun - as long as you're hitting it decent.  Top end prices are sub $100, which is pretty decent for SoCal.

Welcome to the land of year around golf!

I'm original from CO and now In OC.

Hope nothing serious happened to you during that Hail and Fire....

To OP:

Brookside is very packed...sometime close to 6 hrs/round....

Lost Canyon is very challenging, sky course I believe.

My favorite course is Blackgold, about $80~90 on weekend.

Enjoy the nice weather!

This was to Yukari......

If you're looking for affordable courses that aren't awful, your best bet out of the Burbank area is Debell and the LA city courses (Rancho Park, Wilson and Harding in Griffith Park, not a bad drive from Burbank not in rush hour, Balboa, Woodley Lakes, Encino, Hansen Dam).  Those are all $41 on the weekends if you live in the city of LA (not just county) and have a driver's license to prove it (or a reservation card, but you need a license with an LA city address on it to get that).  Rancho's the best of the bunch.  They used to hold PGA events there, though it's not kept up to those standards anymore, but the layout's fun and the course is usually at least in decent shape.  It can be brutally slow on the weekends, we're talking risking 6 hour round if you play mid day on the weekends.  Though you can get lucky and get a 4.5 hour round if you can get an early weekend time. The other city courses tend not to be as slow, though still far from open or quick.  Woodley, Balboa, and Encino are all open and pretty easy, though Encino's pretty long from the back tees and Balboa's greens are pretty small.  The Griffith Park courses are fun, and it's pretty up there, though it's hotter and they're a little burnt sometimes.

If you're right in Burbank, Debell's a pretty fun home course.  It's literally on the side of the hills above Burbank.  The course is very short, but with tons of dog legs around the sides of the hills.  Hole 1 is a 456 yard par 5, very downhill.  I can hit 3W/5i-7i and get on in two.  Then holes 2-5 are par 4s between 250 and 310 yards, all with very serious dog legs so you have to hit short iron or wedge off the tee (except 3, where you can get away with a mid iron) unless you've got very controlled huge hooks and slices in the bag (remember you're on the side of a hill pretty much all day, so if you miss big the ball's probably gone).  Then 6 is a very short par 3, often playing at ~110.  Rest of the course isn't quite as ridiculously short and has some fun holes.

Generally it's a fun course if you accept the semi-gimmicky use of extreme dog legs to make up for the lack of distance.  It can feel a little gimmicky on 2-5, but otherwise the use of the terrain is fun and often challenging.  Usually the greens are in good shape, and when they are the roll pretty quick and can break tricky (when in doubt, it'll break down the hill towards Burbank!).  They've got a men's club with some fun looking tournaments.  I almost joined but they have a lot of evening 9-hole events and I live too far away for that.

There are two iPhone apps (maybe for android, I don't know) that pull up affiliated golf courses and their tee times/green fees. Some tee times are discounted and you can reserve through the app while paying a ~$4 fee. They don't have all courses but at least you can get an idea of what's around you. One is GolfNow and one is Golfzing.

Thanks for the concern.  Fortunately, I am not near where the fire was.  As for hail, as you know that happens every year in the afternoons.

Looks like we traded places.

Glad to hear that.

My very first experience with hail happened while I was driving by golf course so I thought a ball hit me.

I was not into golf back then and thought “they suck!!”

Well, now I’m one of them

Im playing mile square prime time this weekend and I beleive im looking at like 63 with cart.

Most courses are busy around here and expensive. I am speaking for north orange county and south east LA area. Im playing a long beach muni course (El Dorado) today and it is 16 to walk after 4 o clock. Best deal around my work is los amigos that is only 20 to ride after like 3 o clock.

All that being said I think it would take me well over a year to get through all the courses with a 50 mile range. Corona and covina have some decent courses and are much cheaper, but they are a little drive, usually windy, and hilly and not quite the quality of most of the courses I have played around here. Especially mile square.