Strawberry Farms Golf Club

I've been interested in trying this place for sometime. My assumption is that when a place charges $175-$125 for a round is must be something really special. The course was nice, the amenities were nice, staff was AWESOME but the green fees are way too high. They are not competitive with other Orange County courses, not even close. These prices are appropriate if there are ocean views and/or impeccable conditions. Neither of which Strawberry Farms has. A friend of mine told me that that place was hurting for business, now I know why. $90 is the most I would pay for this place (and that's pushing it), and that is for an early morning weekend round. $75-$85 is more appropriate. They are pricing themselves out of the market.

My first time playing this course. I played early and most of the course was damp with the sprinklers were being used on several of the holes. This course is tight with a lot of environmental areas. You must hit your drives in the fairway or its bye-bye ball. It definitely will take a few tries before one unfamiliar with the course learns where they must hit the ball. The greens and traps are well taken care of. The fairways are in pretty bad shape and all holes are roped off for much of each hole. The course was trying to maintain the fairways, probably damaged from drought conditions; however, it's apparent that the players are not replacing their divots. I repaired maybe 100 divots and there were 100s more to be repaired. Sand was plentiful.

Because much of each hole is roped off, most of the time you could not use the cart to determine the distance to the green. I expect players were not happy walking back and forth to their ball and their carts and thus, the divots were left out of frustration. Poor excuse, though.

My problems resulted due to an early tee time. Each hole - all 18 - had one or two maintenance guys doing something. I was oblivious to them. Two greens keepers were playing tag heavily watering the greens and fringe area and then replacing the position of the hole. Others were sweeping and manicuring the traps. All were oblivious to me. After waiting on each hole, I finally hit my shot hoping I would not hit them. Out of fear that I would hit them, some of my shots were errant. After several holes in and no marshal in sight, I was not pleased. When I finished with my round, I did go in and let the front desk know how upset I was.

The staff was very friendly and courteous. I stayed and had breakfast. The food and service was very good.

I personally didn't like the layout of the course, not with all the environmental areas and roped-off areas. Either you hit a good drive or you have a lost ball, simple as that.

Good dill, everything is good.

Great Greens

Fairways a bit rough

Great advantage form the Women's tees for the ladies.

Staff was courteous and helpful.

The fairways needed work and reseeding.

Good course in Orange County, very friendly staff all around.

Fairways are in rough shape due to the drought but the greens were in great shape to make up for the fairways.

Tough but fair course that helps after playing multiple times.

Fairways in poor shape, ground under repair everywhere. Fairways roped off in some cases 150 yards from green, makes extremely difficult for senior player. Many fairways roped off for no reason, have played one other time encountered the same thing. Was assured that the roping off of fairways would not be an issue. It was an issue before the end of the first hole and continued through to the last hole. No worries - never playing again.

The course was fun to play. It played fair, not to difficult but it had some tough tight par threes. I will come back and play again.

Fun and challenging course in good condition. Staff always friendly. They moved our time up which was nice. Finished in 3 hours for 3 golfers. I consider this my home course. Also. Great food and considerate golf cat people.

Man, there's nothing more frustrating than booking a round at a nicer course, driving an hour and then only finding out about the punched greens as you walk on to the first green.

Since this is the third or fourth time that GolfNow (and the subsequent course) has failed to use their "Aerated Greens" alert, maybe it's on me for not calling ahead to every course I'm interested in booking to check the status of the greens. Seems like we should be able to address this issue since, you know, it's 2016 and we have the technology.

The course itself was in decent shape but dried out, which is to be expected right now.

Course was recommended by a local friend. The greens fees here are pretty steep for a public course so we were expecting it to be in spectacular shape. We were sadly disappointed. Let me be more specific...

Tee Boxes:

Green and lush and mown to a correct height. However, several were uneven and worse several were sloped. Basically prepare to start from uneven lie on several tee boxes.

Fairways:

The fairways are fair in generous in outline. Anything good about the fairways stops there. I literally felt like I was in a cow pasture. I don't think they had been but in days. There were several areas under repair...and worse, several that should have been so marked, and weren't. Uneven, bumpy, dissimilar or invasive grasses everywhere. Shame. This course could easily be a Top 25 So. Cal public course if the fairways were in good shape. They weren't even in "fair" shape. They were downright horrible.

Bunkers:

Sand is thin and compacted. Hard to hit true bunker shots here. Play them more like hardpan shots, no splash shots.

Greens:

SUPERB! Great design, wonderful tiered effects on many and true roll on every green we played. Fantastic greens were the saving grace of this course the day we played. Considering everything above it was comforting to know that once you hit the green you were going to be rewarded with consistent speeds and accurate roll.

Amenities:

Range, Pro Shop and 19th hole are all adequate here. Certainly will get all you need out of all three.

Staff:

Friendly, attentive and helpful.

Pace of Play:

Was good. It wasn't fast, but for a public course, it was better than many.

I decided to give Strawberry Farms another chance. Paid $250 for greens on a Friday. This does not include range balls? We spent $250 dollars and have to buy range balls.

The course was in poor condition. Many fairways were roped off and they were in terrible condition. If this is how public golf is in Orange County. It is a sad statement for Orange County. Beverage cart stop by couple times- $18 for 2 turkey sandwich and water. Incredibility overpriced! I felt like my experience at Strawberry Farms was very poor. Will not play here again. Very poor value for what you are paying-

I have heard so much about this course, that it is a must play and you will thoroughly enjoy it. I look back and wonder who came up with this. It is a challenging course, which is fine, but the course was it rough condition. Fairways were marginal and in places almost dead. I am not sure if this has anything to do with the California drought and water restrictions, but I was informed that they use recycled water. Since this was the first time playing this course, based on the fact that I was informed that you would have plush conditions, especially when there prime time rate is $170.00 a round, I was quite shocked when I saw the course conditions. Thankfully due to the great rate I was able to obtain through golf now, I only paid $80.00, but I still think this was overpriced. The only positive. We played in under 4 hours. Kudos to the course for that element.

Course is in rough shape. Fairways are baked out, there are large stretches where they appear to have just given up maintenance, large sanded areas.

At least greens are in decent shape.

Heard from someone that ownership changed a little while back, it would appear that new mgmt needs to pay more attention to turf management.

With these conditions, hard to justify the spend vs other options around.

It is beautiful course in the city of Irvine.

Very cozy and calm.

The course is challenging but very playable. My only complaint was some wet spots that caused some mishits; but overall the course is in great shape. I played early in a "3- some" with two other gentlemen and had a good day, even getting to see a hawk dive down into the lake area and come up with a fish.

I think the layout has some great holes and pretty good challenge. The greens were in great condition. The sand traps have little sand so no explosion shots different sand shots. The course condition has been obviously challenged with water conditions. Fortunately the fee was under $100 with Golf Now the course wanted over $100-not worth it.

practice green was fast even uphill lie, but NOT course greens.. Not worthy of visit for money

Played the Blues (6276/70.9/128) as a 2some with 140ver using Forelinx in 3H, 50M. The weather was 70ish and clear with little wind. Most over seeded tees were lush, but several could use leveling. Even most par 3 divots had already been properly maintained. The Bermuda fairways have been previously sprayed green which provides some contrast with the dormant rough but are below average overall. Definitely winter thin with decent coverage and some GUR spots. The Bermuda rough has decent coverage for a dormant grass and weed mixture in the winter. The traps had not been raked today but have good sand. The greens are firm, putted fairly smooth, medium fast & held approach shots well. Both Tim in the Pro Shop & Rich the starter provided excellent customer service. Beverage cart out making the rounds by the end of out round. Nice clubhouse & restaurant/bar area, both the food and service are good. GPS on carts to the front, middle and back of the green only. I enjoy the difficulty factor of this course, tough but not overly tough. You have to keep it on the short stuff here. Recommended = Yes if you want to be challenged by quick/firm greens and many penalty areas.

I always have thought that this was an elite Orange County Course. I played it several years ago and at a charity tournament be fore that. The staff was awesome. The course condition was marginal, maybe due to the draught. The pace of play was a bit poky for the price.