Golf in Los Angeles

[SubPar]

  Knockglock said:

Its worth the drive :) its in nice condition last time I checked. I'm going there today so I can give you an update. The practice is probably worth it too :) I personally think the course is a little bit tricky with the links style and wind and takes a some practice to get used to

I played a tournament there a year ago and swore I would not go back. The course was not in real good condition and it stunk really bad from the mushroom farm next door. But winds change direction and time heals some wounds, so I am going to give Olivas another chance.

SubPar

[P3R3]

  SubPar said:

I played a tournament there a year ago and swore I would not go back. The course was not in real good condition and it stunk really bad from the mushroom farm next door. But winds change direction and time heals some wounds, so I am going to give Olivas another chance.

Ive been really wanting to play tierra rejada but I am afraid my injury might have me too far out of form to play such a hard course.

[P3R3]

Got a 1:54 at tierra rejada gc in moorpark for tom. So far its me and subpar.

[DJDuran]

Course to check out
-Navy Course At Cypress/Seal Beach (Tiger Learned here, 'nuff said)
-Navy Course At Port Hueneme (3wd into a 212yd par 3, damn coastal wind)
-Hansen Dam (my personal fav of the LA muni courses)
-Olivas Links (wind can be bitch off the coast)
-Woodley Lakes (good confidence boost course if you had a bad round earlier)
-Lost Canyons (chances to run into Freddy Couples? yes please!)
-De Bell (narrow but fun)
-Riviera (parents have membership there, i take full advantage, haha)


places to avoid like the plague
-Knollwood, good god... yet to play a round in under 7hrs, the only plus is Gabby the bartender on tuesdays, and she drives the cart on the weekends. ive been here about 5 times total, all during the week, and it takes on avg 2hrs 45mins to reach the par 3 6th hole. super slow pace of play by the regulars there. i teed off once at 1130am... we finished at 8pm... we were walking, and the 4some in front had carts...

[enarhi]

Freddy at Lost Canyons is a lost hope...haven't seen/heard of him being around in a while. You'll have a much better shot at seeing Paul Holtby, winner of The Big Break season IV. Before he did the show I'd see him every time I played the Shadow course--he'd always be practicing out at the 9th tee of the Shadow course hitting dozens of drives. The guy has the loudest drives I've ever heard.

[cirem22]

  DJDuran said:

places to avoid like the plague

Knollwood is my local course and The more i go there the more things i find to hate it. played monday twilight, I get to the 9th hole and the sprinklers are on.....So i call them and im told "oh just wait, they don't last too long" sure the one sprinkler went off then on comes the one on the other side of the green............. The whole back nine we had sprinklers to dodge and puddles on the greens..... here we are trying to get the full 18 in before dark and they have the sprinklers going at 7:30. Doesn't get dark til' 8:45-9 these days. Of course they will still take my $ for the full 18 though.

[Ben]

Got to play El Caballero CC today. It beat me down and bruised my ego. Actually I got sloppy and let it defeat me. I wasn't the only one it got though. I played with a fellow PGA friend of mine and it got him too. Great course though. Really pretty and well taken care of, and definitely not a push over. Well bunkered greens which were somewhat tricky to read, but ran fast and pretty true. Really fun to play holes. Although I didn't play my best, there wasn't a hole that I didn't enjoy playing, or that felt like it didn't belong.

[P3R3]

tierra rejada...i dont wanna talk about it haha

[SubPar]

  P3R3 said:

tierra rejada...i dont wanna talk about it haha

TR is a nice course but it illustrates to stupidity of the handicap/course rating system. I am an 8 handicap at Encino, Balboa and Woodley Lakes. These are courses with little or no water in play, flat greens and wide, level fairways. You can miss a fairway by 60-70 yards and still have a shot at a par. Only Woodley has water and I don't think I've hit a ball in water there in 10 years because it is placed so far out of play. TR has massive elevation changes, multi-level greens, lots of water in play and hardly a level lie anywhere... I am a 9 there. If I walked the ball to the middle of every fairway and placed it 250 yards from the tee I'm not sure I could shoot the same scores I shoot at those other courses. Miss a fairaway by 20 yards on most holes and you'll have no shot, IF you can find your ball. $60 is a nice price at TR for a challenging, attractive course. The greens are very consistent and a good speed. This is a look at #8 (on the right) from roughly where the tee is, but tee is higher up and to the right. Image from Aidan Bradley . SubPar

[P3R3]

  SubPar said:

TR is a nice course but it illustrates to stupidity of the handicap/course rating system.

Yea that place is quite the challange when the wind is blowing. I shot double my handicap and I can't wait to play it again.

[cirem22]

I played brookside for the first time this weekend. That course is way over priced. I even got a 20% discount and still over priced. The only good part of that course was the greens.

[SubPar]

I might be doing Olivas in Ventura around 1300 on Saturday if anyone is interested.

Subpar

[Knockglock]

  SubPar said:

I might be doing Olivas in Ventura around 1300 on Saturday if anyone is interested.

I'd probably be interested. I need to check and see if I'm doing anything on sat tho.

Edit: we should probably check if there's a tournament or anything that day. I was there last saturday practicing (I have a membership that gets me unlimited range balls) and I overheard someone complaining about their round taking 6 and a half hours to play 18 due to the tournament.

[Shindig]

So, I have a problem and I want to pose it to this thread.

I've been thinking of this for a while, and I realize I'm getting good ... at playing reasonably easy courses. Before too long, I'm going to break 80, but it's going to be a course like Balboa or Woodley. I love those two courses, but for trying to get good enough to be a single-digit and make my handicap able to travel, I don't think these are the best courses.

Spring 2008, when I was getting to the point of breaking 90, and playing very regularly, I was playing Knollwood every Monday and Rancho Park every Thursday. I'm thinking of going back to a schedule like that, especially if I can keep my dissertation work going well on the other 5 days. I chose those two because they made me think more about where the ball ended up after a full shot than Woodley did.

Otherwise, I'm looking for courses that aren't terribly long (6200-6500 yards), but still have a reasonable difficulty to them (slope rating over 120, CR not below 68).
I'd like to be able to walk the course and bring my own water bottles with me (the latter is something I've only been stopped about once, and I forget where). I'm not as opposed to carts as I once was, but I can do without the extra cost.
And I'd like to keep it within my budget: I want to keep it to about $75/week, playing twice a week, on weekdays. I can do this easily with the city courses, but I think that if I'm going to be a better player, I need to play more difficult courses.

Can anyone suggest which course(s) I should be playing with this goal? I live right near UCLA, making a good deal of the city accessible to me.

[cirem22]

Played Rustic Today for the first time. very nice course. Those were the most difficult greens I have ever played by far. I have an average putt per hole of 2.15 and at that course today I shot a mind blowing 58 putts! that is 20 more strokes than my average. I had my first 5 putt ever, it was one with a huge hump in front of me and pin right on other side so i had to just get it over and let it roll down. I missed getting it over twice, wow. Other than that I actually hit very very well. I only missed one fairway, 7 GIR's (good for me) and hit the ball very well all day. Those greens just destroyed me. I am a bit confused as to how they rate Olivas Links a more difficult course than Rustic, perhaps because of the narrower fairways? All in all, great course, Ill be back when My putting is supreme!

[enarhi]

  cirem22 said:

I am a bit confused as to how they rate Olivas Links a more difficult course than Rustic, perhaps because of the narrower fairways?

Wind, wind, and wind. Rustic's rating is definitely on the low side though.

[cirem22]

I felt I needed work on my short game and approach shots (still do) so I played Scholl Canyon this weekend in glendale. The course has some tricky par 3's and some very easy ones. Conditions were good, greens were great. The cool part about that course if the views, your up on the mountain. The bad part about that course is the starters, I have played there 2 times now, both bad experiences with the starters that worked there.

[P3R3]

Thinking about Rustic Canyon this weekend if anyone is interested. I am craving some links golf action.