An Afternoon at Ivey Ranch GC

What can I say?  I'm a sucker for waterfalls and flowers and on the fourth hole of the Ivey Ranch Golf Course in Thousand Palms, California there is a waterfall surrounded by flowers in the middle of the fairway.  Yay!

Denny and I played on Sunday afternoon when the rates to play 18 holes was $25 per person with a cart.  Ivey Ranch is a nine-hole golf course set in the middle of a secured and gated 55+ community.  The fairways are narrow due to the homes lining both sides, but the fairways are lush, the greens are well-manicured bent grass and the course itself is well maintained.  You are not allowed to walk the course due to the amount of play in the winter, but it's a pleasant and nicely challenging course with a couple of ponds to hit over and quite a few sand traps sprinkled around the greens (I know because I found several of them.)  People who play here will allow you to play through, although we played 18 holes in 4 hours despite waiting on every hole, so the golfers here aren't slouchers.

For those who track such things, the slope rating is 102, the course rating is 33.2, the course itself is 2,656 yards long from the blue (farthest) tees.  There is a pro shop with the friendliest staff I've ever dealt with, a restaurant and bar, a putting green, chipping area and driving range.

And a waterfall!  If I had the money and the willingness to settle down, I think I could live here.

Salt Creek Golf Club, Chula Vista, CA

 

Winding our way from the Pio Pico TT Resort to the upscale town of Chula Vista was a bit of a culture shock.  One moment you're in the foothills on a two lane road and the next you're surrounding by huge gated communities of over-sized homes with six lanes of traffic.  We were afraid the Salt Creek Golf Club was going to end up being one of those golf courses that had fairways lined with home and townhouses but once we crested the final hill of the entrance drive we discovered a gem of a golf course with awesome views in every direction.

Playing 6514 yards for the yellow tees and 4814 for the red tees (that would be me) the course played a bit harder for us because the rules were cart path only due to the recent heavy rains.  Some of the fairways were a bit soggy, but overall the course was in excellent condition.  A bit links-like in design, the surrounding vegetation wasn't so thick that finding an errant shot wasn't impossible, although the rattlesnake warning signs kept us out of some areas.  What's a golf ball or two, right?  The ponds and creeks on the course don't really come into play, although the sand traps certainly do.  At times it was difficult to keep my attention on my golf game due to the surrounding scenery, the rabbits, squirrels, roadrunners and yes, even coyotes ki-yi-yi-ing on the hillsides as we played.

I made our tee times through the Salt Creek Golf Club's web page on their "specials" tee times.  Thank goodness I printed my confirmation because when we arrived at the clubhouse they didn't have our tee time in their computer.  Armed with the confirmation, we got in, but the man at the desk told us there had been several instances of computer-made tee times not coming through so they suggest calling for tee times; they will honor the "special/last minute" online prices.  

 This is a golf course I'd highly recommend, but be advised that they overbook in the early afternoon; we had to skip the final hole due to darkness and slow play.