Hidden Valley Golf Club

Took 5 hours on a Tuesday afternoon. They lost a few tee boxes from the rain and other storm damage. Will try again after they get a chance to do repairs.

There is a reason I keep going back. It’s only 40 min away from south Orange County where I pay 125-175 a round, $46-84 is great value for this course with cart. (New ones).

Green side Bunkers are my only complaint but you can chip more than splash out of them except for when under a tall face or lip (good luck). Fairway bunkers great, shallow sand is easy to smash my 5 iron 200 or get on green with any mid to low iron.

Greens are mostly okay, but unique, so practice some up and down hill putts before you tee off on #1.

You can score low here if you don’t try to over do it. Several par 5’s easy to reach in 2, and at least 1 if not several par 4’s you can reach in 1, even from the blues…. so it’s hard to not go for it on every hole here.

CATCH IS- 5 hr + round and your group behind you is watching you as you wait for the green to clear for a par 4 hole in 1. SOLUTION- If you want to play in 3.5-4.5 hours- go early as you can get there and avoid the crowd. And stay out of the green side bunkers.

Course was amazing! Pace was acceptable. Love the course. Gentleman in the pro shop was rude and brash about not showing up at least 30 minutes early. On-course staff was super.

As usual, the course was in pretty good shape with the exception of the bunkers which look nice but have only about 1/4"-1/2" of sand over hardpan dirt. Why they have rakes nearby is beyond me. The greens were in fine shape as were most of the fairways. The wind blew pretty hard for about half the round and that makes the fairly difficult course in good weather a real bear. Those few negatives are nothing that would keep me from coming back, however

I preface this by saying I love playing hidden valley but the course looks to have taken a beating with the rains. Tee box were uneven and sandy. Fairways had lots of under repair zones and the greens were uneven and dry. Needless to say when spring comes am sure hidden valley will be back to its usual self. For now play Goose creek down the street, it’s in waaay better shape.

Do yourself a favor and play this gem post heavy rainfall it’s in elite shape

The staff was unfriendly, the course condition was not good, and the playing time took more than 6 hours.

Great views on probably 75% of the holes and lots of fun elevation changes. Solid restaurant/bar as well. Fairways are wide enough to give the average player some scoring chances but also, bring some extra balls haha. The gps settings on the cart were super restrictive compared to other gps carts (even on the paths) but as previously mentioned, there are some pretty serious hills up here so I can see why they are extra cautious. Overall enjoyed this a lot for $50 though.

I love this course. Overall, was in “good” shape - but there were a few greens and fairways that showed some disease or were under repair. I’d consider the course slightly difficult, with errant balls being extremely difficult to find in the rough. (Bring more balls than you expect to need.)

*Golfcarts are great with GPS and screen built in. Dislike that they restrict speed or ability to drive in some locations.

I would love to come back to play again!