Golfing in the Los Angeles Area.

[Glfman]

Sort of new to the area, any good, non-expensive golf courses that you would recommend?

[tristanhilton85]

What do you consider close?  Within an hour or two or less?

Also what would be inexpensive to you? Less than $100? $50?

If you can answer those questions somebody here should be able to give you at least a few courses you can try out.

[mdl]

I live on the west side and for me I'll splurge every once in a while on a course that costs more than $50 but week to week I can only afford <$40.

The LA city courses are a good cheap option.  Rancho Park's probably the best but it's generally brutally slow on the weekends.  If you can get a very early (like 1st hour) time it's not too bad even on Sat/Sun, and you can also pay the extra $10 or whatever and tee off 10-20 minutes before twilight rates start and generally move pretty quickly.  Encino, Woodley Lakes, and Balboa are all decent.  From the back tees they can play a good distance but they're wide open so not a particularly challenging test.  Wilson and Harding are in Griffith park and are also solid courses.

The Links at Victoria is also a nice course.  The fairways are kept up poorly, but my buddies and I have just devised our own local rule that if you end up on the grass free hard packed dirt on the fairway you can take a free drop on the fairway no closer to the hole.  It's a fun layout and the greens are in good shape for the price so I like that course with that "local rule".

DeBell is also a fun course.  It's very short with a bunch of par 4s <300 yards but with huge dog legs so unless you've got controlled big hooks/slices with the driver you play a bunch of par 4s as 9i, PW, putter.  But it's pretty tight and it's easy to lose balls there, so a fun test where you can score very well if you're hitting it straight that day but very very badly if you're taking lots of penalties.  Greens are hard to read cause it's up the mountains above Burbank and generally the putts want to break towards Burbank, but it's not the same on every green, so sometimes the putts look like they break uphill but other greens it'll still break away from Burbank but only maybe slightly less than it looks like.

You can also find deals on more expensive courses online sometimes.  Both golflinks and dogolf.com have specials sometimes, and also the reservation services a lot of courses use will sometimes have cheaper than normal fees available within a couple days of when you want to play.  Rustic Canyon and Lost Canyons are both fun, and I got a weekend Sky Course at Lost Canyons deal for $50 through dogolf.com recently.  They're up in Moorpark.  Up in that general area Tierra Rejada is also more that $50 on the weekends but on Tuesdays you get free replay for the weekday rate which I think is $55 or so, and that's a great course and a fun way to get two rounds on a really good course.

If you live on the west side Penmar's a decent little 9 holer.  Par 32, no par 5s, and they put 5somes out when it's busy, but it's cheap and a good local place just to get some good practice in for not too expensive if you live on the west side.

If you live east of downtown I hear there's good cheap options out in the inland empire, but I never want to drive that far so you'll have to ask someone else about those.

[mdl]

First sentence above, meant <$50.  The LA city courses are $41 on weekends for LA city residents, more if you don't live in the city.

[act0fgod]

I play most of my golf either at Rancho Park because it's close or drive up to Moorpark and play Rustic Canyon because in my opinion it's the best value I've found in an hour radius.

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[ejimsmith]

further south, Skylinks is a nice course.   Rec Park and El Dorado are good as well.  Lakewood is a 7 hour round, I'll never play there.  As for inland, and for a bit more $, Industry Hills is superb.  And if you're starting out down in Long Beach, or East LA, then Palm Desert is only a 2 hour drive.  Lots and lots of top notch courses out there, though we just hit the fall now, which means the rates and the crowds will start going up.

[DoGolf Jonathan]

Roosevelt Golf Course is a good length 9-hole walkable golf course... muni prices... good place!

[DoGolf Brian]

Check out some of American Golf's courses. They aren't overly pricey and you can typically find good prices on GolfZing...their in-house tee time website.

Not sure whether you've played Lost Canyons, but it's a pretty challenging course in Simi Valley. It's a good one to check out.

[act0fgod]

To comment on the reply about Lost Canyons...I play it when they have $59 all day deals and get 2-3 rounds in.  The afternoons there tend to get windy.

[TheGeekGolfer]

I played lost canyons on vaca once, it was a nice course for the price. They treated you good, too. My round was delayedbecause of some ultra-slow golfers in front of us. The marshall came out and gave our group vouchers for a free round, no prompting. We still finished before dark. I went into the pro-shop and explained I was from outof town and they gave $50 shop credit for the voucher!

[Clambake]

Originally Posted by act0fgod

To comment on the reply about Lost Canyons...I play it when they have $59 all day deals and get 2-3 rounds in.  The afternoons there tend to get windy.

Originally Posted by TheGeekGolfer

I played lost canyons on vaca once, it was a nice course for the price. They treated you good, too.

Anyone played Lost Canyons very recently?   I played it earlier in the summer and the place had gone to hell.    It looked like they had trimmed their maintenance budget to the point where they couldn't afford to water the course and could only pay one part time gardener to come in on Tuesdays.   Staff had also been cut way back at the pro shop, restaurant, cart barn, and range.     It was quite a contrast from when I played there a couple years ago.   The marshal said that they were struggling financially and were going to be closing one of the courses to turn the land into housing and hopefully be able to make a go of it with only one course.

[turtleback]

Originally Posted by Glfman

Sort of new to the area, any good, non-expensive golf courses that you would recommend?

If you are willing to travel a bit you can get a great bargain on some pretty nice courses in the High Desert of Victor Valley.  We have Apple Valley Country Club (which is now open to the public), Green Tree, and Hesperia Golf course.  All three are VERY reasonable (less than $50 and even cheaper, off peak).  The first two are generally in excellent shape and While Hesperia is not is as good shape it is the best layout of the three.  It used to be a site on the PGA tour in the late 50s and early 60s.  It is an old style course where accurate driving is at a premium.

http://www.applevalleycountryclub.com/index.php?page=2

http://www.hesperiaparks.com/facilities/golf.php

http://www.victorvillegolf.com/Victorville-California-Play-Golf.html

None of them are very crowded generally.  Rounds of 4 hours or less are the general case.

[Stevedore]

Only 45 minutes from the west side with ocean views and under $50, easily the best deal in Los Angeles.  Try and play it during the week as a weekend round can be slow, 5 hours.  The fairways are good with mostly tight lies and the greens are pure with everything braking toward the ocean.

Los Verdes Golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes:

http://www.americangolf.com/los-verdes-golf-course/?cid=google&kw;=los%252520verdes%252520golf%252520club&gclid;=CMa2teznvq4CFQcJRQod8DqkCg

[TheGeekGolfer]

Originally Posted by Stevedore

Only 45 minutes from the west side with ocean views and under $50, easily the best deal in Los Angeles.  Try and play it during the week as a weekend round can be slow, 5 hours.  The fairways are good with mostly tight lies and the greens are pure with everything braking toward the ocean.

Los Verdes Golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes:

http://www.americangolf.com/los-verdes-golf-course/?cid=google&kw;=los%252520verdes%252520golf%252520club&gclid;=CMa2teznvq4CFQcJRQod8DqkCg

NO, NO, NO, NO...DO NOT GO HERE!  This course is cr@p!  Try 5+ hours on weekdays and they send out groups in 5-somes.  Plus some weird policy they had (when I played 2 years ago) where you couldn't pay until your tee-time was called.  Talk about a cluster-f*ck of logistics.  Hang out and putt, wait till you hear your name called, run in and stand in line to pay, then run out to catch the tee.  Fairways were in horrible condition.  I hope it's changed since 2 years ago, but I doubt I'll ever go back.

[Clambake]

Originally Posted by Stevedore

Only 45 minutes from the west side with ocean views and under $50, easily the best deal in Los Angeles.  Try and play it during the week as a weekend round can be slow, 5 hours.  The fairways are good with mostly tight lies and the greens are pure with everything braking toward the ocean.

Los Verdes Golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes:

http://www.americangolf.com/los-verdes-golf-course/?cid=google&kw;=los%252520verdes%252520golf%252520club&gclid;=CMa2teznvq4CFQcJRQod8DqkCg

Originally Posted by TheGeekGolfer

NO, NO, NO, NO...DO NOT GO HERE!  This course is cr@p!  Try 5+ hours on weekdays and they send out groups in 5-somes.  Plus some weird policy they had (when I played 2 years ago) where you couldn't pay until your tee-time was called.  Talk about a cluster-f*ck of logistics.  Hang out and putt, wait till you hear your name called, run in and stand in line to pay, then run out to catch the tee.  Fairways were in horrible condition.  I hope it's changed since 2 years ago, but I doubt I'll ever go back.

I'm glad someone else stepped up to point out how lousy Los Verdes is.    To me Los Verdes had a couple OK holes and one really nice hole with a great view as you approach the green, and outside of that it was pretty mundane.   I like William Bell courses, but this wasn't one of his better efforts.    And as TheGeekGolfer says, they're simply terrible at logistics, the conditioning is very poor, and the pace of play is measured in geological terms.      I used to live nearby and would gladly drive an hour off the hill to go find someplace better.   We used to drive to Encino and play Balboa or Woodley instead, and if you know those course you'd know how much of a damnation that is of Los Verdes.

[Stevedore]

Originally Posted by Clambake

I'm glad someone else stepped up to point out how lousy Los Verdes is.    To me Los Verdes had a couple OK holes and one really nice hole with a great view as you approach the green, and outside of that it was pretty mundane.   I like William Bell courses, but this wasn't one of his better efforts.    And as TheGeekGolfer says, they're simply terrible at logistics, the conditioning is very poor, and the pace of play is measured in geological terms.      I used to live nearby and would gladly drive an hour off the hill to go find someplace better.   We used to drive to Encino and play Balboa or Woodley instead, and if you know those course you'd know how much of a damnation that is of Los Verdes.

Different strokes for different folks I guess, been playing there for years off and on.  I know all about the nightmare 5+ hour rounds that you can run into while playing there; secret is never play it after 10am on the weekday and absoultely never play it on the weekends unless you tee off before 9.  I just played there last week after not playing there for over a year and the course was in great shape, greens pure and fast and the fairways were in good condition.  I teed off at 7:30 and was done by 12:00, good enough for me and at $27 to walk, the price was definitely right.

[Stevedore]

further south, Skylinks is a nice course.   Rec Park and El Dorado are good as well.  Lakewood is a 7 hour round, I'll never play there.  As for inland, and for a bit more $, Industry Hills is superb.  And if you're starting out down in Long Beach, or East LA, then Palm Desert is only a 2 hour drive.  Lots and lots of top notch courses out there, though we just hit the fall now, which means the rates and the crowds will start going up.

I live in Long Beach and play Reck Park and Lakewood regularly. I work nights am able to play during the week and early which helps as far as pace of play. I'd never play those courses on the weekend or any course for that matter unless it very early in the morning. As for El Dorado, it's awful right now; fairways are a joke and I've seen the greens in better shape then they currently are.

[pls4ms]

This thread has been helpful to me, as I'll be out in LA soon.  I've narrowed down my selection to the following northern courses: Rustic Canyon, Simi Hills, Lost Canyons, or Tierra Rejada.  Anyone care to help me decide?  Rustic seems to keep coming up, and looks nice, but not sure if that is still the case and curious about the others.

I'll be playing as a single on a Friday evening at about 3pm or 4pm (whenever twilight rates start), then heading back to LAX for a 10:25pm flight.  Just in case that info makes a difference in terms of where you reccomend.  Thanks much in advance.