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First the Good: Challenging layout and good greens in scenic location. I played alone in cart and was only slowed down a few times by twosomes searching for lost balls. With a few more maintenance dollars this would be a great course.
Now the Bad: I dont know WHEN or HOW OFTEN they mow this course, but it was a shaggy mess the day I played. Even on hillsides where the rough was trimmed to 6-8 inches they left the newly cut grass on the ground. I lost 6-8 balls on the day and only two were OB...the rest should have been findable but were not. Long fairway grass also limited any rollout and since so many greens are elevated above the fairway, this made course play MUCH tougher than the 119 slope rating. And on holes-3-4-5 you must be concerned about cars driving through the fairway as you play. More blind tee and uphill approach shots than any course I can recall playing.
I would love to return in summer when maybe the grass won't be so thick or they have a larger maintenance staff. I could give this course 5 stars if all the fairways were really fairways and not a lower cut of rough.

First time here. Played at 1/2 normal fee just 5 days after green punching and aeration -- neither of which I knew at time of booking. Arrived 2 hours early to prep. Nice driving and practice areas and restaurant/lounge. Check-in staff neglected to inform me of some important info, such as their "roving starter" who is not stationed near the first tee (??) but rides around on a cart. I arrived at tee box #1 about 10 mins before my tee time, and was there alone as I prepared to tee off. Finally the starter arrived with my playing companions with just 2 mins to go. He was not happy with me, since I apparently (1) had not looked for him and (2) had parked my cart in the wrong place. Fortunately my playing partners were very cordial and as the day wore on I forgot about the bad start. Front 9 much easier than back 9, as elevation changes grew more severe. Even from the Orange (white) tees I really needed a good long iron and fairway wood day to score reasonably. Wind kicked up later in day making those shots even tougher. Fairways were perfect, as well as bunkers. Some greens had a layer of sand that was still 1/8" high making putting and short game a bad carnival ride. With all the other great courses in the area I will likely not return to this one soon, no matter how good the greens may be on the next visit.

Great greens, which are a problem on windy days as on the day I played. Everything else mediocre, especially fairways. Okay, the bunkers were not terrible. Unfortunately played same day as their monthly skins game which made pace of play terrible. I quit after 9 holes and 2.5 hours. Won’t be rushing back soon.

Played front 9 only on perfect Friday afternoon. Since the 9th hole does not route past the clubhouse, you would think they have a safe path and clear instructions to return there after 9 holes. Nope. I and several others had to drive back -- facing incoming shots on the 9th hole to guess our way back to the clubhouse. C.mon, for these high $ green fees you should be more professional that this.

Holes are beautiful and in excellent condition but playing the hokey 6th hole (hillside short par 4) and then the elevated tee par three 7th hole is a guaranteed delay of 15 min or more on to your round. Groups back up badly.

Hope to return some day to play the full 18, but given the slow pace of play and the pricey green fees, I am not in a big rush to return -- given all the other great courses within a 30-45 min drive of this one.

Note -- It WAS nice that the refreshment cart came by on a Friday afternoon. They should really have a full time snack bar on the 6th tee (or a puppet show or crochet class), since you are going to be waiting there for awhile.

Played as a single and was added to local group of 3. We later added another friend of theirs. I walked while they all road in carts. Played mid-day on a Thursday. Never saw a marshall and never saw a refreshment cart, though the course was busy. We finished in 4.25 hours.

Greens in very good condition. Fairways healthy but hard and did not seem to have much of a cushion. This made iron shots from the fairway more challenging than usual. I did get a fair amount of extra roll on tee shots. Bunkers were bad, containing dirt that was very hard in some places. That was okay for fairway bunkers but greenside with high lips it was not. Combined with a very ragged apron with clumpy grass around many greens, it became obvious that if you missed a green, you wanted to miss it short to get a decent and fair lie. And you wanted no part of greenside bunkers which required a high lofted pitch with great precision instead of a typical bunker shot.

With a load of good sand in the bunkers, better uniformity around the greens, and a tree added here and there, this could be an exceptional golf course.

Course is flat and fairly easy to walk BUT the back nine has hundreds of yards between several of the holes. I walked more between the holes than I did on the actual course. The only 4 beers they have on tap in the grill are Bud, Michelob, Coors, and Coors Light. Luckily they have other beer in cans. I have found this to be the case of most public courses in the Bakersfield area.

Nice course but fairly boring tee to green. From 100 yards and in a nice test. Restaurant closed. Played as a single and starter added me in 2 hours earlier than my tee time, which I appreciated. Pace was slow. A bit overpriced for the course, though my companions made it worth it -- two professional caddies who called this their "home course."

The greens are what everyone talks about, but the fairway bunkers will affect your scoring the most. This course will punish random tee shots and if you regularly under club, it will cost you dearly here. Don’t play here without a good tee-to-green game or it won’t matter much how good your short game and putter are working. On the plus side, I met a dozen locals here who are as fine a people as you will meet anywhere.. My driver and iron game were subpar but my short game was excellent — yet I shot one of my highest scores in years, playing from the Blues with a slope rating of just 124.

First time playing here. Had been told that course conditions had really slipped in recent year and it was no longer the jewel it once was, but I was in area to play other courses and got a great $19 deal to play after 3 pm.

The stories were true.
The Good--> interesting layout with a few very small greens which were mostly in good condition. Plenty of blind shots so a first-timer is going to lose some strokes just not knowing where to aim. The Bad--> plenty of resort hackers who don't know or care about etiquette make for very slow golf. I must have fixed 10 fresh ball marks on some greens.

Even more upsetting though, the fairways and green aprons were comparable to an average muni on my visit. Whether lack of water or poor fertilizer choice or their maintenance crew is vastly understaffed, I don't know. But it is a shame an obviously great design is left to get this ragged.

I will return to play here (a) early in morning before the course is packed and (b) only if I get another under-$40-rate per round unless (c) I hear that the course conditioning is back up to "good" or better.

Played in afternoon after wind started to kick up to 15 mph +
Fairly flat muni course with a nice big practice putting green and popular driving range.
In fairness, I had played nearby Black Lake in the morning, and after several holes on this course I realized this was not the same caliber golf experience. A few really interesting holes on front 9, including 9 itself. Overall a good practice venue and very inexpensive.

Great for locals but if you are in the area to play the most interesting courses between SLO and Santa Barbara, this is one you could probably skip.

First time playing here. First round of a 3-day, 6-course golfing mini-vacation. Teed off at 7:30 am so it was fairly cold (high 40s) and damp. Greens in excellent condition. Played the LAKES and OAKS courses. Lakes was pretty boring with wide landing areas and some fairway slopes that made it a bit more interesting. In early morning with dew it played fairly long. The Oaks course was quite a bit more interesting and challenging. Would like to return to play the Canyons 9 some time in the future. Due to COVID I could not enjoy much of their off-course amenities.

My first time here. I played as a single and was joined by another single plus a pair of buddies playing a money match. When I voiced concerns over the forced carry on Hole #1, they suggested I play from the Quicksilver tees for my first round here, and its easier 130 slope rating.

What a great course. Danger everywhere, and the fastest, hardest-to-read greens I have played in a year or two -- maybe ever. Yes, it was a little wet in a few areas, including some fairways which made crisp iron shots much more difficult. I usually prefer to walk when I play, but I am not sure that is an option here -- this is one hilly course. Elevated tees, ravines, and lots of beautiful sandy bunkers. All on a day when the temps reached the low 80s. It was a day and a course that makes you either love the game or hate it.

Warning: This is not a course for people who struggle to get the ball airborne. You will have to hit over danger areas quite a bit. And bad putters should put a limit on themselves for each green, and pickup after 3 strokes. Don't be the person who makes the foursome behind you tolerate a 5 hour round.

My first time here. Played 9 holes here after playing nearby Eagle Ridge in the morning. This is a full fledged golf course with full length holes, not some Par 3 pushover. Greens in very good shape. Staff about as friendly as you will find, and a killer little cafe that charges 1/2 the $ you would pay for the same quality food at a larger course. If I lived anywhere near here this would be my normal after-work and weekend stop to play and practice and hang out with some good people. As for the course, my favorite holes were the 6-7-8 stretch that winds back towards the clubhouse. When I return to this area to play golf I will likely stop in here either (a) to play a quick 9 as a warmup or just (b) grab a bite to eat and relax a little.

My first time playing here. I knew there would be some temporary greens, and I knew some bunkers would be under construction as well. What I didn't expect was how soggy the fairways and fringe would be, especially on the back 9. Very very wet, making the course play much longer and making it very hard to hit crisp irons and wedges. Greens in excellent shape, and very quick. I will return in the future and hopefully play a dryer, less handicapped version of this course than I played this week.

After a boring first hole that helps you overcome first tee jitters, this course takes you on a nice ride of short par 4s and par 5s with great deception off the tee. Long hitters who know the course well could probably shoot some very low scores, but first timers will be deceived by the elevation changes and blind shots. A very fun course in excellent condition. I normally walk but was worried about slow play on a hot day, so took a cart for shade support.

The downside: no marshals to assist in speeding up play - even on a busy Saturday in August. Since this is a "resort" course you get some very poky players out there. No on-course refreshments. When we were finished at 530 pm and wanted a beer and something to eat, we could not get a straight answer about what we needed to do for that to happen. I understand that COVID-19 has caused golf courses to change how they do things, but by this point most of them have figured this all out. Apparently not this one. A simple sheet of paper telling us what we could drink and eat while sitting outside would have saved time and we wouldn't have had to go eat somewhere else.

A disappointing end to a great day of (slow) golf.

I was really looking forward to my first visit here. The weather was perfect, but the course conditions were surprisingly weak. Some fairways looked recently "scraped" and fertilized, often with the fertilizer powder and pellets still visible. The layout of this course is masterful, and I am sure when fairways and greens are healthy it must be quite an adventure. But that was not the course I played on my visit. The fairways were worse than "tight" -- some of my lies weren't sitting on grass at all (see photos) And the greens were not smooth or green, nor appeared to have been watered any time recently. I was unable to find my ball mark on most greens, since they were so dry and hard. I asked several regular players after my round if this was common to Bayonet, and they said the course was a "little dry and ragged right now". I think that was a very diplomatic answer.

I hope to return some day, but certainly won't pay anything close to full price unless assured the course is a different one than the one I just played.

I first got hooked on golf playing in a scramble here 30+ years ago, and typically play 9 holes or practice here 10-20 times each year. The past few years the course quality has tumbled quite a bit, most likely due to the extreme weather and perhaps some neglect. But in past few months great improvements have been made. Played 9 holes this past weekend and wow...best greens and fairways in years. If they can maintain this quality I would expect more tournaments to return here. Nice staff too, great little clubhouse, and good range.