I recently played this course and while the layout and scenery are impressive, the overall experience left a lot to be desired. I flew from Australia and was expecting a great experience but I will never be back and nor will my cali friends.
First, let’s talk about the course itself. With a slope rating between 136–142, this is not a casual walk in the park—it’s a genuinely challenging track, especially for amateur golfers. Despite this, there seems to be an unrealistic expectation for all groups to finish under 4 hours. For a difficult course with tight lies, blind shots, and ball-hungry terrain, that pace just isn’t reasonable for most players.
The course does offer a good walking experience in terms of natural beauty, but I’d strongly advise taking a cart—ironically, not because it makes things faster, but because of the lack of proper cart paths and rough terrain. You end up driving slowly through uneven areas, which only slows down play more. This layout really doesn’t support a quick round, even in a cart.
Things got worse off the course. We teed off at 2:30 pm and finished around 7:05 pm. Yes, that’s on the slower side, but given the course difficulty and the fact we were a four-ball, it wasn’t excessive. However, the staff at the pro shop were unnecessarily rude. They accused us of taking 5.5 hours (which isn’t even accurate) and confronted us on the 18th green in a way that felt unprofessional and confrontational.
They also seemed upset that we didn’t wave through five two-ball groups behind us. But if you’re going to send multiple two-balls off in the late afternoon and expect them to get around a hard course in record time, maybe rethink your booking policy—perhaps only allow two-balls after 2:00 pm if pace of play is such a concern.
To make matters worse, we were looking forward to grabbing food or a drink after the round, but the grill and drinks bar were closed—on a public holiday, no less! When the course is busy and people are paying full price, you’d think the basic amenities would be available.
All in all, it’s a shame because this course could be a great golfing destination. But until there’s a serious attitude change in how the place is managed—from customer service to pace-of-play expectations—I wouldn’t recommend it for casual or amateur golfers.