Boys golf trip-flying into San Diego. UPDATE

4 of us are planning a golf trip end of March. Lots of feedback on good courses to play here. But what would be a central location to stay to minimize drive if we want to hit up the 4/5 best courses in the area. Thanks.

Assuming you'll be flying into Lindbergh Field downtown. Tons of Airbnb options and hotels in Mission Valley probably cheaper than staying downtown. Mission Valley is only 15mins from the airport. You'll want a rental car if you plan on driving a lot with four guys and four sets of clubs. There are $200+ courses and $50 courses all within 15-45 mins away from that area. Maybe cheaper deals on GolfNow Hot Deals too (with further driving though).

What's your age group? Are you just golfing or are you trying to see the nightlife and beaches, etc?

Balboa Park and Coronado are must plays right near downtown with awesome views of the cityscape, ~$60 with cart primetime. Plus, right near all the nightlife action.

Thank you for your reply.

We are all between 38-41. Last year we rented an Airbnb in Scottsdale and spent most evenings drinking at the house after a great meal somewhere. So I think we want good restaurants and great golf.

We are all golf professionals (club pros, not the fancy ones), which fortunately allows us to get a great rate for golf at most courses and even ability to sometimes we can get on private ones. (Last year we got on silver leaf in AZ).

So green fee $ is not really a factor. Torrey does not offer a pga rate we know, but that is a must play regardless.

I’ve played Torrey, Maderas and Aviara before and thought they were great. Thinking we should try La Costa,or Ram hills. Wondering if there is a private course that we must try or something we don’t know about.

We would prefer something closer to beach with a nice patio to drink beers and tell Golf lies all night.

Thank you for you help.

Rams Hill, for sure. It's about 2hrs east through switchback roads so I'd highly recommend staying out there one night. Might be too far out of your way though.

I'd recommend Pacific Beach Airnbnb then. Don't break your neck watching all the dime pieces walking around in bikinis! It'll be spring break central down there late March. MLB baseball starts 3/28 with the Padres hosting the SF Giants and AZ Diamondbacks series so Petco Park might be a possibility (I find the best deals on seatgeek.com).

Torrey South will be under construction for the 2021 US Open renovations. I believe some holes will be closed at a time so might wanna just play the North.

You'll have to check aeration schedules when it gets closer (greenskeeper.org) to help determine some of your options. La Costa is ~30mins, play the Champions course. Encinitas Ranch is a great option too in that area. For private you could try San Diego Country Club or Fairbanks Ranch.

Arrowwood in oceanside is the best bang for your buck. Its a bit of hike but worth it and much cheaper than others

if you can get private club access since you're club pros... - San Diego Cc, La Jolla CC, Santaluz, Bridges at RSF, Del Mar CC, Pauma Valley CC, The Crosby, The Farms, just to name a few. candidly, i don't know why you'd bother with the pace/condition/price of either torrey course if you can get private club access.

If you ever want to play greens similar to the masters then you’ll definitely want to play SDCC. Various tour pros go there to get practice on greens similar to Augusta right before they head over or when they’re in town. Practice range isn’t the best but the course itself and members more than make up for any shortcomings from the range.

I stayed at an Airbnb in PB two years ago for a bachelor party that was awesome, quite literlly on the beach, 10-12ish (top)floor I think 3 bedroom penthouse in the 1 condo/apartment building in the area that is taller that 3 stories. would highly recommend I wanna say it was around 650 a night. if you out to rams hill, Borrego springs resort is around the corner, they have a good stay and play deal rate: could play there stay the night then rams the next day. Agree with everyones comments about opting for the privates if you can

I would say Goat Hill is a must if you’re getting 4 rounds in. It’s got some cool history, a really fun and fantastic layout, and would be a lot of fun to play. If you don’t play there you’re missing out.

Agree with wildcat, goat is very fun and just plain different in a great way. Friday afternoon skins game there would be a good addition to the trip

UPDATE:

So we booked an air bnb in Oceanside area. Which opens up a lot more clubs to play.

I see Riviera is less than 2 hours away on google maps. But am I fooling myself that driving through LA will take much longer?

Also, what are your thoughts on Pelican Hill? I played it years ago, and remember loving it!

Here is what I think we are going to try for:

Day 1 - Maderas

Day 2 - Torrey North

Day 3 - Pelican Hill (morning) - Goat Hill Park (afternoon)

Day 4 - San Diego CC

Day 5 - fly home hungover. :)

The drive to Riviera will all depend on time of day. With a group you're at least using the carpool lane which helps, but it can still be a real crapshoot, especially Long Beach up towards the Palisades (where Riviera is located).

If you're not against a bit of a drive one day, I'd echo the previous suggestion of Rams Hill in Borrego Springs. From Oceanside you'd have a fairly straightforward drive of a bit less than 2 hours, going east on the 78 and then country highway and roads through Ramona and Julian. Your reward is one of the best conditioned courses you'll ever play, a Fazio design that's both challenging and a lot of fun. My group usually does four to five day trips there each season and we play 36 each time, which is easily doable even in the winter. You can either stay for dinner in Borrego, do an early stop in Julian (get some apple pie!), hit someplace like Stone Brewing in Escondido, or return to Oceanside. Rams Hill is unique San Diego County, and I consider one of the best anywhere.

Pelican Hills is good but not great. It's really, really overpriced for what it is, but if you're able to play it for a much cheaper PGA deal then it's good.

I'm one of those that doesn't feel the love for Goat Hill. While I appreciate John Ashworth's efforts to resuscitate place from death's door, there were good reasons it had fallen into such a sad state.

A couple privates you might consider are Rancho Santa Fe CC and Del Mar CC. RSFCC is awesome, an old design that was the original site of Crosby's ProAm before he moved it up to Carmel. Del Mar is a fun and fairly tough track that is more ostentatious and has a pretty big $$ membership. First time I played there we had to play through Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who were chatting off the green.

Thank you so much for the reply.

Our location may have just changed. The house we booked had an 11.5% transcient fee I was not aware of, so at $750 each for 4 nights stay, that location is getting a little too pricey for our likings. We want to be close to the ocean, (even though we all are from a city on the ocean), but being close to the beach adds to the California feel.

Last year our trip was in Scottsdale and we played Mountain Shadows one of the afternoons, and I was getting the impression that Goat Hill might be a similar experience. Can't beat the price of it.

Ram Hills is getting a lot of love here, so I think we need to seriously consider playing there.

We are going to play Maderas, Torrey and San Diego CC for sure. Sounds like Ram Hills is our fourth. Just need 1 more. We like to have 1 36 hole day.

The private clubs are hard to get on during weekends, so we could try RSFCC for Monday.

The reason goat gets the love it does is because of the atmosphere that ashworth and the crew he has put in place has created there. It is not like any course I have seen. In addition it is just unique. interesting elevation changes and not necessarily target golf but you need to think about your tee shots on the par 4s and 5s to give yourself a good look into the greens. That is why everyone here talks so highly of it, it is by no means an amazingly conditioned course. Not by a long shot but that’s not why people go to it and for the price the greens are well cared for and what little fairways there are they get the job done. Not saying all this as an attack to clambake at all but just want to clarify why goat gets the love it does. I love goat, not as a weekly course but it’s great to mix in every few weeks or months to have a good laid back time with friends or my dog. I echo the love for rams as well. Really really great course if you don’t mind the drive. If you guys are interested in checking out any breweries in the north county area I’d be happy to recommend a bunch

The reason goat gets the love it does is because of the atmosphere that ashworth and the crew he has put in place has created there. It is not like any course I have seen. In addition it is just unique. interesting elevation changes and not necessarily target golf but you need to think about your tee shots on the par 4s and 5s to give yourself a good look into the greens. That is why everyone here talks so highly of it, it is by no means an amazingly conditioned course. Not by a long shot but that’s not why people go to it and for the price the greens are well cared for and what little fairways there are they get the job done. Not saying all this as an attack to clambake at all but just want to clarify why goat gets the love it does. I love goat, not as a weekly course but it’s great to mix in every few weeks or months to have a good laid back time with friends or my dog. I echo the love for rams as well. Really really great course if you don’t mind the drive. If you guys are interested in checking out any breweries in the north county area I’d be happy to recommend a bunch

Thank you for your feedback. Much appreciated. I would love a brewery tour or info, but one of our guys has ciliac disease so its strict rum and cokes for him. lol.

Can i just say as well that the cleaning fees for airbnb are insane! $400 cleaning fees? Are they getting Bill Gates to clean their places? It does not make sense.

The reason goat gets the love it does is because of the atmosphere that ashworth and the crew he has put in place has created there. It is not like any course I have seen. In addition it is just unique. interesting elevation changes and not necessarily target golf but you need to think about your tee shots on the par 4s and 5s to give yourself a good look into the greens. That is why everyone here talks so highly of it, it is by no means an amazingly conditioned course. Not by a long shot but that’s not why people go to it and for the price the greens are well cared for and what little fairways there are they get the job done. Not saying all this as an attack to clambake at all but just want to clarify why goat gets the love it does. I love goat, not as a weekly course but it’s great to mix in every few weeks or months to have a good laid back time with friends or my dog. I echo the love for rams as well. Really really great course if you don’t mind the drive. If you guys are interested in checking out any breweries in the north county area I’d be happy to recommend a bunch

I understand your feelings about Goat and don’t take it as an attack at all. I think you capture the spirit of Goat well in your description, but it is also exactly why it isn’t a place I would recommend to visitors of our wonderful area. Things like “what little fairways there are” and “mix in every few months” are great for locals looking for a bit of quirky variety, but I guess my perspective is that when people are spending a lot of their money and precious free time to visit here, we should be steering them towards the best places within their budgets that offer memorable golf experiences. To me, Goat is sort of like a local dive bar that used to be so horribly run down that the city was going to condemn it, and then a local businessman stepped in and hosed down the sticky floor, fixed the broken urinal, added a couple craft beers to the taps, and replaced the old B&W TV with a 40 inch flatscreen but still only shows one channel of mostly wrestling. It has a certain atmosphere and is a fun local hangout, but visitors would have a better time bar hopping in the Gaslamp.

Your list is solid. If your not making the trip to a pelican and don’t sub it out with rams hill, or end up with any CC’s to access, I’d consider Aviara, Journey or Barona and just do a replay to get 36. Casinos after a round are always a good option for guys trip shenanigans.

I will say barona could be a good same day with maderas. Should be less than 30 mins. I would play Torrey and a private course due to proximity.

Thanks everyone, unfortunately Maderas is aerating March 25th, which I think we will pass on a week later.

Looking at La Costa now instead

I will say barona could be a good same day with madras. Should be less than 30 mins. I would play Torrey and a private course due to proximity.

Barona is off the table as a recommendation for most of the next year and a half. The back 9 is shut down for renovations, reopening in June. In the meantime 9 hole play is only available to holders of their elite casino club card holders (public and regular Classic card holders can’t play). Then next January they will shut down the front 9 for 6 months and repeat the process. The course won’t really be back to a consistent full 18 until late 2020.

Is late March / early April a typical time for aeration in San Diego area?

What about Shadowridge or Journey at Penchant as options since we are staying in Oceanside?

What about Shadowridge or Journey at Penchant as options since we are staying in Oceanside?

Journey is a much better course of the two. much much better.

What about Shadowridge or Journey at Penchant as options since we are staying in Oceanside?

 

Journey is a much better course of the two. much much better.

Reading online reviews of the course is that it is too challenging for the average golfer and to expect 5.5 + hours round.

I heard it is a fun layout and we are all decent golfers, but don't think I am into waiting on every single shot.

Is this a valid concern, or should we expect this not matter where we play?

I've never played Pechanga where it was anything more than 4ish. It's too expensive and too far away from stuff for it to have 5.5 hour rounds. I have a hard time believing that reviewer wasn't embellishing.

Was just a few trip advisor reviews I read. Said starter claims 5 hour is standard pace of play.

Another question.

We are flying in on a Saturday at noon to San Diego international. Knowing sunset is 7 so we want to be on a course by 2. What course close to the airport would you guys suggest playing.

We are staying in Oceanside.

Only course we have booked for trip is San Diego CC on Tuesday.

Thanks.

Balboa

^ Seconded

I would suggest The Farms Golf Club although it's private but I think it's one of the best.