Carmel Mountain Ranch Country Club

First time I've played here since they changed the course to dessert scape. Course in good shape. Will def be coming back soon

The course has been recently renovated to be water conscious. Once the plants mature it will be nice hidden gem. It does lack a true driving range. Great little course that can be difficult if playing the championship tees.

Interesting and much improved tee boxes. Have to drive ball over xeriscaping

They have change the course in to a desert landscape, which is looking great so far. Redid a few tee boxes and holes, so once it is complete it will be great. Some of the run off areas of dirt were hard because a lot of small rocks and ditches from a little water the day before, but the course was great.

The greens are sandy, would have been nice to be warned

First about me: I play 5 days a week, I'm a 3.3 handicap, and I've played EVERY public course and military course in San Diego County, and in 13 other countries.

About Carmel Mountain: The renovations are incomplete with piles of concrete and debris visible on multiple holes. The "desert landscaping" is simply acres of low cost pebble rocks and bark with very sparsely planted immature/cheaper drought tolerant plants which all look like weeds. The density of the plants is increased only near the clubhouse for the website photos. Speaking of weeds, there are weeds everywhere throughout the course.

The started was missing so I started myself. No driving range as before, but an interesting little net system to stretch out.

The greens were beautiful, but way too slow and furry, and they were all being manually watered during my round. The fairways were alright with occasional dead spots and weeds.

The scorecard shows some distance changes but it's basically the exact same course with some minor changes like the missing monster bunker on the 15th.

The bathrooms missed out on any renovations and look and smell like the public beach bathrooms in Pacific Beach on a hot summer weekend.

The clubhouse has white peeling paint visible on the exterior as you enter the clubhouse, the carpets are stained, and the wood and furniture have noticeable water damage and stains.

Golfnow "Hot Deal" customers are treated as second class citizens and are forced to either share a cart or join up with random players who usually play from the forward tees and have a handicap close to 30. I was charged a $15 rider fee for bringing my wife to see the renovations - only Carmel Highland and San Luis Rey would charge this fee and ....well you know what happened.

Bottom line: I would never pay $39 to play Carmel Mountain Ranch on a Hot deal and I would certainly not pay the weekend rate of $64.

CMR is brownscaping and the project is nearing completion. The redesign has completely changed the look and feel of the golf course in a positive way. What was a quirky, funky course has now turned into a jigsaw puzzle. All the fairways now have reachable and well defined landing areas if you play the correct club from the correct tee box. There are many holes that provide several club choices, where in the past, you were forced into one club off the tee. New tee boxes have made club selection key to playing well. Some bunkers could use a little fresh sand. A creative practice range has been constructed so now you can warm up with a few full swings. When this course matures it will be a must play. Well done!!

the course over all was fun to play. Very Hilly. Seems like I lost a lot of balls when I hit good shots. Greens were in decent condition, but the a-holes playing before don't like to repair divots. Seems like there were 10 unrepaired divots in every green. The price was very good, I would go back.

Unfortunately the 4 million dollar remodel is not being maintained. The greens are nice but golfers are not fixing divots. I imagine the course will be in pretty poor condition in another 6 months. The drought will no doubt be a part of the problem but the lack of maintenance will be the main problem. For instance the sink in the bathroom at the 15th tee box has been broken in half for months.

Carmel Mountain Ranch CC is absolutely stunning and challenges the mind and demands exact shot placement. I played the blues which was 6263 yards of all you could handle. The design of the course is beautiful with rolling hills, lush green fairways, streams and huge boulders. Not to forget to mention being surround by a breathtaking mountain range.

For all the long hitters make sure to bring enough balls. I pulled driver almost on every hole just to watch the spectacular tee shots. Although I wouldn't suggest driver on most holes, your 225-255 club will work well to navigate the doglegs and challenging fairways.

Enjoy!

Probably was a good course when it opened but now maintenance wasn't that greats greens were very slow

Fair course. Spraying the ball left or right will get you into trouble.

The course has a lot of grass taken out so if you miss the fairway you make be hitting out of mulch. Carts are equipped with GPS showing the carts in front of you which helps in not hitting into the players in front of you. Snack bar was hard to get to after the 9th hole.

I played this course in the 80's when it was just opened up without any houses or streets around. The original layout and setup was wonderful, however, after 30 years later, the course became a kind of strange, front and back 9 was flipped over, from hole to hole seems so far away to get to and circling around from houses to houses, tunnels to tunnels and passing around streets over streets. Most holes were still very good, but few were altered (as I remembered) and shorter with strange tee ground sitting. I would play there again once a while, but is not my favorite any more.

The remodel of the course to cut down on the extra grass is nearly complete but the fairways, rough and greens were in great shape. Very fun and well paced round. Will definitely be playing here more in the future.

Played 1st time yesterday. Fairway grass so-so, greens very good, but a little slow (they were punched a month ago). Not long, but lots of elevation changes. Would be a tough course to walk. Front nine easier than back. Many multi-tiered greens, some tough pin locations. No yardage markers in fairways. GPS on carts,; yardage seemed off on a couple of holes, especially 17. Shot 79, but a triple and double did me in.

Course is shaping up EXTREMELY well after renovations. Tees are firm, and greens roll true 5 weeks after being sanded. Well worth it if you haven't played CMR in a while. Enjoy!

Once they are finished with the remodeling it should be great again

Advertised as fast play. When did 5 hours 20 minutes become fast pace of play? Very disappointing as this was main reason for booking this course.

The redesign to a desert layout has made this course much more pleasing to the eye, however the character of the course has not changed. Hit a good shot and get a good score, hit a bad sht and get punished. Some holes are target golf, but overall this is a fair course with no tricked up holes. After playing it a couple of times you will learn the correct clubs to hit and then it becomes an even more fair course. Will play again real soon.