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san diego area

torrey pines

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coronado  (Coronodo Island)

Balboa Park

Eagle Crest  (Escondido)

chula vista golf course  (Chula Vista)

San Vicente  (Ramona)
Mt.  Woodsen   (Ramona)
Oceanside Municipal (City Of Oceanside)

the vinyard (escondido)

torrey pines

address:  11480 N. Torrey Pines Rd.  La Jolla, Ca.  92037  Phone:  858-452-3226   website:  https://www.sandiego.gov/park-and-recreation/golf/torreypines 

When I was on vacation in San Diego a few years back I wanted to play Torrey Pines South because that is where the Farmer's Insurance Open is held each year.  I endured the six hour wait as a walk on because it was something that you just don't do everyday.  I'm glad I did if not for the golf, but for the views alone.  I played the South Course and enjoyed it very much.  I even survived the 12th hole.  I haven't played the North Course but I am including the course statistics in this directory.      

tees:

South Course 

Taupe  7628 YRDS Par 72  Rating 78.2  Slope 144:  Black  7051 YRDS.  Men  Par 72  Rating 75.3  Slope 137  Women Par 77  Rating 82.8  Slope 148:  Green  6628 YRDS.  Men  Par 72  Rating 73.1  Slope 133  Women  Par 77  Rating 80.5  Slope 143:  Gold  6153 YRDS.  Men  Par 71  Rating 71  Slope 129  Women Par 73  Rating 79.4  Slope 139:  Silver 5467 YRDS. Men Par 68  Rating 67.5  Slope 119  Women  Par 72  Rating 73.6  Slope 129    

North Course

Taupe  7258 YRDS.  Men Par 72  Rating 75.8  Rating  Women Par 72  Rating 82.7  Slope 144:  Black  6781 YRDS.  Men Par 72  Rating 73.6  Slope 129  Women  Par 72  Rating 79.9  Slope 139:  Green  6346 YRDS.  Men Par 72  Rating  71.5  Slope 125  Women  Par 72  Rating 77.5  Slope 133:  Gold  5851 YRDS.  Men  Par 71  Rating 69.3  Slope 120  Women  Par 72  Rating 74.7  Slope 129:  Silver  5197 YRDS.  Men Par 68  Rating 66.0  Slope 112  Women Par 72  Rating 71.9  Slope 128

Green Fees:  $24-$229 plus cart

driving range:  Yes

Coronado Golf Course

Address:  2000 Visalia Row  Coronado, Ca.  92118  Phone:  619-522-6590  Website:  https://www.golfcoronado.com 

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I have a few courses on my absolute favorite golf courses list.  Coronado is very high on that list.  The fairways and greens always are in the best of shape and the views ain't too shabby neither.  The course is a lot of fun to play with some great views of San Diego Bay and The Coronado Bridge.  Its also very reasonable as far as the green fees and the staff is extremely helpful and friendly. 

Check out our YouTube video:  https://youtu.be/hVoPtxKiQJ8

Tees:

Blue  6590 YRDS.  Men  Rating 71.6  Slope 121  Women  Rating 78.5  Slope 138:  White  6276 YRDS.  Men  Rating 70.2  Slope 117  Women  Rating 76.4  Slope 134:  Green  YRDS.  Men  Rating 68.3  Slope 113  Women  Rating 73.1  Slope 126Gold  5675 YRDS.  Men  Rating 67.4  Slope 111  Women  Rating 73.1  Slope 125   

green Fees:  $39-$69  Check for Cart Fees

Driving Range:  Yes

Balboa park

Address:  2600 Golf Course Dr.  San Diego, Ca.  92102  Phone:  619-235-1184  Website:  https://sandiego.gov/park-and-recreation/golf/bpgolf

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Balboa Park is located in San Diego's famous Balboa near the world famous San Diego Zoo and the world class Balboa Park Museum Complex.  There are two courses here, one being a sporty 9-hole course and the 18 hole championship course. I have heard that the 9-hole course is a lot of fun to play, but I only played the 18 hole championship course. The course is hilly but well taken care of.  Greens are tricky but putt fairly true and the course is quite the challenge.  My favorite holes are the par threes with #13 topping the list.  The par 5's a lot of fun too.    

Tees:

Blue  6339 YRDS.  Rating 71.2  Slope 125:  White  5835 YRDS.  Rating 68.7  Slope 119  Red  Rating 72.1  Slope 120  

green fee:  $22-$50  Plus Cart

driving range:  Yes

Eagle Crest Golf Club

Address:  2492 Old Ranch Rd.  Escondido, Ca.  92027  Phone:  760-737-9762  Website:  https://www.eaglecrestgc.com  

This is one of those pleasant surprises that you discover by accident.  I am very glad to have found this course.  The course is set in the hills above Escondido so you have a variety of lies although most of the fairways were flat.  Each hole has it's unique character as the course designer used the hilly terrain as a blank canvas.  There is water and rocks and bunkers and who knows what.  It is a fun layout with the only drawback being that it fairly dry when we played it.  Still, this didn't take away from the beauty of the course or how much fun it was to play. One last thing and that is that the course is no a housing development-the houses don't come into play though-located way out in the boonies so you might want to GPS the directions on how to get there. 

Tees:

Blue  6550 YRDS.  Men  Par 72  Rating 71.7  Slope 133  Women  Par 74  Rating 77.7  Slope 143:  White  YRDS.  6066  Men  Par 70  Rating 69.6  Slope 125  Women  Par 73  Rating 75.3  Slope 143:  Red  4903 YRDS.  Men  Par 67  Rating 64.5  Slope 113  Women  Par 71  Rating 70.2  Slope 125

Green Fees:  $30-$49  plus Cart

driving range:  Yes

Chula Vista Golf Course

Address:  4475 Bonita Rd.  Bonita, Ca.  91902  Phone:  619-479-4141  Website:  https://www.chulavistagc.com

Chula Vista Golf Course has a reputation in the San Diego area which I won't go into because I want to stay positive in my reviews of the courses. I really didn't want to play Chula Vista but the course has sentimental value for my wife so we played the course on a recent visit to the San Diego Area. I liked the layout, however the course is not in the best of shape. I did talk to the pro and he stated that the City of Chula Vista is finally going to upgrade the course starting with the watering system and in fact the City has allocated monies for improvements. That's good to hear and I hope all the changes are made because I felt it was a good test of golf with some interesting holes.   

Tees:

Gold  6759 YRDS.  Rating 72.6  Slope 130:  Blue  6520  Rating 71.5  Slope 127:  White  6186 YRDS.  Men  Rating 70.0  Slope 121  Women  74.5  Slope 136:  Silver  5419 YRDS.  Women  Rating 71  Slope 123   

green fees:  $25-$38  plus cart

driving range:  Yes

San Vincente Golf REsort  (Ramona, Ca.)

Address:  24157 San Vicente Rd.  Ramona, Ca.     Phone:  760-789-8290

Website:  https://sanvicenteresort.com   

 

I love the Ramona area.  It is out of the hustle and bustle of the Metropolitan San Diego area and is a fairly rural community about 20 minutes northeast of Escondido.  We spent a week at our timeshare in Romona and were pleasantly surprised.  One of those surprises was San Vicente Golf Resort.  The course was enjoyable to play and when we played it, the course was coming off a major renovation project.  The greens were redone as were the bunkers. Therein lies my only criticism of the course.  The greens were very hard and did not hold very well.  They were also very fast.  As far as how the greens played when you talk about their contour, they were fairly flat with a slight amount of contour to them. Being new greens though, they were slick.  The fairways were fairly lush and when you hit your ball, the ball released giving you a good lie.  The rough was, what can I say, rough.  It wasn't thick, but you could tell when you hit into it that you were playing from some significant but not punitive rough. There is water and a few creeks that cross a few of the fairways that you have to negotiate over. The back nine is different from the front in that the front is fairly wide open and the back has more tree lined and tighter fairways.  There is more water that comes into play on the back as well.  Most of the creeks that you have to negotiate are on the back.  The front is the easier of the two nines with the back presenting more of a challenge.  If you are in the San Diego/Escondido area, drive up the hill to Ramona and book a tee time at San Vicente. 

 

Tees  

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Men:

Grey (Championship)  6822 YRDS.  Rating 73.7  Slope 135:  Black  6704 YRDS. 

Rating 73.0  Rating 73.0  Slope 133:  White  6346  YRDS.  Rating 70.8  Slope 128

Gold  5534 YRDS.  Rating 66.8  Slope 119:  Green  4604 YRDS.  Rating 62.3  Slope 107

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Women:

Black  6822 YRDS.  Rating 79.2  Slope 146:  White  6704 YRDS.  Rating 76.6  Slope 139

Gold  6346 YRDS.  Rating 71.8  Slope 129:  Combo Gold/Green  5002 YRDS.  Rating 69.7

Slope 125:  Green  4604 YRDS.  Rating 66.1  Slope 117

Driving Range:  Yes

Fees:  $85-$65   

Mt.  Woodsen  Ramona, Ca.
Address:  16422 Mt. Woodsen Dr.  Ramona, Ca.  92065  Phone:  760-788-3555
Website:  https://mtwoodsengolfclub.com
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I will tell you from the beginning that this course is harder than it seems. The course is short according to the scorecard with the yardages at between 4229 from the forward tees to 5764 from the blue long tees.  These yardages are of course as the crow flies, and that crow should be glad that it didn't walk the course, the course plays longer than the yardage on the card.  This course is up hill in many places and also has some great downhill holes.  To me, it is one of the more interesting courses I have played and definitely one of my favorites. I love this course because of its architecture.  The changes in elevation-uphill and downhill holes-is what gives it character and makes this course very challenging.  There is a little bit of water, but generally water is not a factor on the course.  The greens are fairly small and do have some very interesting subtleties to them. They putt true.  One small problem is that they had a trifecta of events that caused problems with the green and they almost lost them.  The draught has presented a challenge along with a recent heat wave and what the owners think is a batch of mislabeled fertilizer.  The greens took a heavy beating, but when we played Mt. Woodsen recently it was evident that the greenskeeper and his staff are working very hard to bring them back.  They have done a superb job of bringing them back and are almost back to where they were before all this happened Hole number three is Mt.  Woodsen's claim to fame in that it is a wooden bridge that spans the barranca between holes two and three. Riding over the quarter mile wooden bridge from hole #2 to get to The #3 tee is quite an experience.   

tees:

Par 70

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Blue  5764 YRDS.  Men  Rating 69  Slope 133  Women  Rating 74.5  Slope 138:  White

5399 YRDS.  Men  Rating 67.3  Women  Rating 72.2  Slope 134:  Gold  4642 YRDS.  Men 

Rating 63.9  Slope 113  Women  Rating 68.2  Slope 122:  Red  4229 YRDS.  Men  Rating 63.1 

Slope 111  Women  Rating 65  Slope 116

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Range:  No (Nets)

Fees:  $77-$52  Cart Included 

          Senior Rates Are Available

oceanside golf course  (Oceanside municipal golf course)

Address:  825 Douglas Dr.  Oceanside, Ca.  92058  Phone:  760-433-1360

Website:  https://www.playoceansidegolf.com

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I had no idea that Oceanside had a muni.  That is one of those surprises in life that I am glad happened.  This course is a hidden gem.  The green fees are very reasonable not to mention the course was in great shape given the draught and the fact that the San Diego area was undergoing a pretty bad heat wave.  I very much liked this course and even though it is relatively flat, there are a few holes that you really have to think about how to play.  There were a couple of very memorable holes such as the par 5 8th where you have to hit your approach shot over a creek bed.  The number 12 hole, a 285 yard uphill par 4, is  the kind of hole that you have to ask yourself who would build a mountain in the middle of a flat piece of land.  And of course what goes up must come down.  The 13th is a par 3 that goes straight down the mountain you just came up.  The greens were fast and had a few breaks in them you wouldn't expect.  I was very impressed with the fairways and how the grass was pretty good given the fact that there was an ongoing draught.  I highly recommend this course if you are ever in the San Diego area.

tees:

Blue  6480 YRDS.  Men  Rating 71.8  Slope 125  Women  Rating 77.9  Slope 137:  

Orange  6393 YRDS.  Men  Rating 71.2  Slope 123  Women  Rating 77.2  Slope 134:

White  6083 YRDS.  Men  Rating 69.8  Slope 120  Women  Rating 75.6  Slope 130:

Gold  5509 YRDS.  Men  Rating 67.3  Slope 113  Women  Rating 72.8  Slope 122:

Red  5217 YRDS.  Men  Rating 65.6  Slope 108  Women  Rating 71.0  Slope 118

 

Range:  Yes

Green Fees:  $34-$41 plus cart 

the vineyard  (escodido)
Address:  925 San Pasqual Road  Escondido, Ca.  92025  Phone:  760-735-9545
Website:  https://vineyardatescondido.com
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This was one of the courses on my "I want to play that course someday" list.  We had passed this course a couple of times when we were in the San Diego Area on our way to play Eagle Crest.  The comment was always, "Next time we are in San Diego, Let's play Vineyard."  Well we were on vacation last week and it was time to see what kind of course Vineyard was. I wasn't disappointed.  The course was in great shape, given the conditions of drought and also we were down there in an unusual heat wave.  Conditions were dry and the greens were slow because of the cut of the green in order to ride out the heat.  The greens were cut a little higher than usual in order for them to hold the water and not burn.  The fairways were a little on the dry side, but they were very much playable and there was enough grass in the fairways and rough to make for some good lies. The bunkers were a bit hard, but there was sand in them. One comment I have to make here that deals with courses in dry climates.  When its dry, its hot and you are going through drought conditions, you are not going to have lush green fairways and rough. You kind of have to be patient and understand the heat and water situation.  At any rate, I enjoyed playing the course-except I bombed miserably on the par 3's- and will be back next time I'm in The San Diego Area.

tees:

Blue  6247 YRDS.  Rating 71.2  Slope 128:  White  5782 YRDS.  Rating 69.0 

Slope 123:  Silver  4854 YRDS.  Men  Rating 64.4  Slope 113  Women

Rating 69.2  Slope 115

 

Range:  Yes

Green Fees:  $78-$43 Cart Included  (Senior Rate Available)  

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