RegularGolfGuy

Sterling Hills continues to be a gem off the beaten path. It's a 45 minute drive for me, but worth the travel. The greens are quicker than LA muni's, the course has personality without being obnoxious, and the staff is always friendly. I like what SH has done over the last few years, it's not resting on its heels collecting money from the new covid golfers. SH seems to be reinvesting in the course and keeping the conditions nice and smooth.

This used to be a very fun course. It was challenging yet not overbearing. What happened?

Course conditions are terrible. You can be in the middle of the fairway and you are sure to find nothing but brown patches, dead grass, dirt, anything other than living fairway grass. Wow.

Many of the tea boxes had crabgrass. The only two bunkers I was in all day rock hard.

Greens were in good shape. Clearly they are still watering those.

My advice to people playing here would be bomb away. It doesn’t matter if you are in the fairway or off the fairway, because there is no grass either way. So take as much yardage off of the tea as you can get.

Sterling Hills is a golf course that I have come to really admire and appreciate. It’s challenging without being intimidating, and seems to always be in better shape than many of the Los Angeles area courses. The staff is friendly and the amenities are always available.

Like every other course in Southern California, there is a bit too much traffic and rate of play it’s slower than it should be. The marshals are very nice, maybe too nice. My only complaint here is that when pace gets slow, they are reluctant to put any pressure on the slow groups.

12 noon tee time, went out at 12:10 after the starter allowed a 2 person replay of the course to slip in infront of us.
Ended up being a 5.5 hour round. Absolutely ridiculous for a premium course.
Typically I’m in love with this course, but the starter and the Marshalls were being lazy today. Bulls#%^ round.

At every opportunity to create an amazing view, this course designer screwed it up with pointless foliage. Every single shot is blind, and the ones that shouldn’t be, are. Very obnoxious course design.

Everything is always the same at this place. It is a hurry up and wait attitude by the starter. We had a flagstick to the right over there 12:40 teetime and he rushed up out there at 12:30 because they didn’t want to “get behind”.
Waiting for two groups in the fairway after driving. Was no reason to rush us out ahead of pace. Seems like it happens here every time.

My other gripe is that once you’re off the first hole, there’s no respect to pace of play.

Typically a good track, but lately the fairway bunkers are unkept and growing over with weeds. Also, I noticed that OFTEN my ball was laying on bare spots or dead spots in the fairway or around the green. The grass has not been well cared for this season.
Wouldn’t surprise me if the staff budget was being cut way down with Covid as an excuse. After all, it is LA.

Got stuck behind a tournament today. Worst players I’ve EVER SEEN on a course in front of us. If the tournament was “most balls in the trees” or “most botched shots”, these clowns would win.
The Marshall wouldn’t do anything about it. He simply said, “they paid a lot of money for this tournament.”
I paid $89 per player for our group, but I guess that price tag doesn’t mean anything. No indication that we were going to be behind a tournament before booking. No warning of pace of play by the starter.
Without any attempt to make this right from the Industry Hills people, I won’t be back.

This course is in terrible condition. The entire fringe and apron of nearly every green is muddy and feels like a wet sponge. I don’t understand how half of the course is brown and dry, and any chipping area around the green is wet and spongy. It hasn’t rained here in a very long time and this is a middle of the day round. If you drive it down the middle of the fairway, you will land in brown patches dead spot. Los Angeles is probably making a lot of money off of this course and not hiring any maintenance staff to take care of it.

Played Angeles National for the 4-5 time today. It’s a difficult course with plenty of obstacles to overcome. The grass was green, and the sand was brown. It’s what you’d expect from a course of this caliber. Very well maintained.
Be aware — the greens were punched a little over a week ago and they are still playing rough and sandy.
My biggest disappointment with this course was the lack of amenities on the course. It’s a desert course and with weather in the 90 degree range, you’d hope to see a cart girl, or drink/snack stand somewhere , but no. To make matters worse, by 3pm, the pro shop and restaurant in the clubhouse were completely closed and locked.
Make sure you buy plenty of water before hand. It’s very very dry, and very hot. You’ll get no refreshments along the way.

Very nice, challenging course with trees, hills, water, and sand on nearly every hole.
As a kid-high handicapper, this was a nice challenge.
The pace and layout was very good for the most part. I do think the back to back par 3 late in the front nine tended to slow down play. We were stacked up 3 groups there. Otherwise, pace was great.
I’ll definitely be back!

Balboa is a par 72 course with 18 holes and wide fairways. It’s a great Course to practice on and learn your chops.
Pace is usually pretty good, prices are reasonable, and staff is helpful.
While it’s not a hard Course, it’s still a very fun Course.

This course was fun. The fairways were in good shape, the course had enough trouble to make it challenging, and the staff was very friendly and easy going. The putting greens were very interesting however —The front nine had some greens that were stupid fast — A soft breeze would move your ball. The back nine had some greens that were so slow you’d think you were putting through quicksand. Definitely a fun course, but very hard to gauge the green speeds.