Coyote Creek Golf Club - The Tournament Course

I will try to be as neutral as possible with my review. This is only my second time playing Coyote Creek and neither time was a pleasurable experience. This was my first time playing the tournament course which used to only be for members but is now open to the public.

The track layout was decent but nothing really spectacular. The 7-8 holes in the hills were fun but I actually enjoyed the flat section of the course more which is odd for me because I put a lot of (rating) weight into courses with a lot of elevation.

My favorite hole on the course is the par 5 17th which has water in front of the green that makes going for it in two a real risk. It also plays into a head wind in the afternoon making it even tougher. I needed another 10 yards on my drive before being comfortable with trying it but it was sooooo tempting!

Greens roll smooth at a respectable medium/fast pace. Pay attention to the direction of the grain on these more than anywhere. I got fooled a few times on putts not breaking as expected.

Sand traps were excellent, however they are short on rakes. There were a few huge bunkers with only one or two rakes total So you have to walk around a bit to get a rake. I raked up a few footsteps from other players who didn't bother with fetching s rake.

The course has recently been destroyed by wild pigs. None of the greens were affected but several large areas around the greens and on the fairways were completely destroyed. There must have been 20-30 areas the size of a living room that had been turned up and destroyed by pigs.

I felt bad for the grounds crew.

The course seemed to play longer than the yardage said. I shot my handicap so my game was decent but it might have just been the cooler windy conditions.

Customer service at coyote creek is absolutely the worst. Both times I've played here I've had bad experiences with the staff. The guy at the pro shop was busy talking to another employee who was headed to the range on his day off. Not only was he ignoring me but he was ignoring the starter who was trying to reach him on the radio. When he finally did check me in he acted as if I was a bother. There was no friendliness in his tone nor did he explain anything (carts, range, 1st tee location etc) he didn't ask if I had any questions and just seemed put out that I was there checking in.

Getting my cart was the same as neither person bothered to even talk to me more less help me with my clubs (I saved money on tips for sure). They too did not offer any friendly small chat or any direction on the layout of the land.

The starter was the only friendly staff members outside of the grounds crew that I encounter. The starter was an elderly gentleman and he was polite and courteous as you would expect from someone from that generation.

The entire staff if Coyote Creek need to take a trip down to Quail Lodge or San Juan Oaks for some customer service lessons. Those two courses have the best staff around.

My wife is the one who likes Coyote Creek so if I ever go back it will be because of her. Hey you gotta lose a battle to win a war occasionally!

Front 9 is beautiful and while the back nine is pretty flat, this course is well designed and you have to position your ball to make GIR's.

Speed of play was horrifically slow. No one seemed to care. Course layout was very interesting, but course conditions were bad. The secondary rough is pathetic - rocky, terrible grass, and potholes everywhere. Could be an amazing course if better care was taken, and speed of play managed.

Pack of peaple in front nine and no marshal around. waiting more than 10min each hole

1230 tee time was at 15 4:53, the last 12:30 tee time no issues

Granted I played here after a small rain storm the days prior, but it was a decent course for what I paid. The greens and tee boxes were great, everything else was pretty average. I wouldn’t pay the full price to play here again, but I had a good time nonetheless.

I have been all over the Bay Area and one thing that most courses here have in common are terrible tee boxes. The worst offenders are some of the most frequented courses near the bay Tilden is perhaps the worst of the lot and chabot being a close second. Coyote hills tournament course however is a breath of fresh air in this regard. I can tell that the course operators take the conditions very seriously with attempts at perfecting drainage(this past round was after a heavy rain) and the greens being some of the best and fastest in the Bay Area. It was challenging but I felt like I had good lies when hitting the ball in the fairway. I’m giving this 5 stars even though the pace was slow(there’s always 27 handicappers playing from the black no matter where you go). So, book a round here and be amazed with the conditions. I can’t wait to come back here in the spring to play a few rounds ahead of the qualifiers coming up in ca this year. Thanks a bunch coyote hills!

Had a blast can’t wait to improve my game and go back and try it again but it was a blast everything about the day went great staff and course conditions were good 👍

We played the tournament course and it was beautiful. The gap between the 12th and 13th hole made groups move from the valley course to the tournament course. We had 4 groups lined up on the 14th with a 30 minute wait. We opted to leave since we had timed our trip with a 4 hour pace of play. Our pace of play (waiting at every hole) was around 5.5 hours.

Fun course! 105$ on Fri. Not cheap!
My only complaint was how many ball Marks unfixed on every green. Pretty sad for that much money, literally fixed 5-6 marks in my line on every hole, not all unfixed but 30-40 unfixed on every green.