Crystal Springs Golf Course

If you want to spend 8 hours on this course, this is the course for you. This is the second time a friend and I have played her with the same results and this will be our last. The staff has no idea how to turn people away making the course pace extremely slow. It took 3 1/2 hours to play 9 holes. Crystal Springs makes it extremely impossible to contact management to get any sort of refund. I do not recommend this course to anyone.

This is one of maybe three public courses in the area not in the city of San Francisco. Because of that, you are going to get all kinds of players/participants on the course, even though the layout is one the more challenging side if the spectrum.
The fairways can be tight and uneven with many elevation changes. I loved the challenge but I can see it causing serious slow play. Fortunately I think many just play the front nine as it is very scenic and the pace speeds up at hole 10. Maybe it was the grill at the turn that causes slow play because it seemed very disorganized with burger toppings not prepped. We stood there waiting as the cook diced tomatoes with a plastic knife for our burgers, that's right, diced. Without the scenic mountain views to distract you on the back nine, you can really get a feel for how bad the conditions are. The fairways were really dry and hard with many patches of just dirt and dead grass. You can also see a lot of the run down facilities which make it feel like a cheap muni course. There were a lot of areas of no rough, just hard pan which could send your ball rolling OB or into a creek. The greens rolled well but sometimes seemed over watered. I had an awesome 6 iron shot that was suppose to release off the front and trickle to the front pin, but instead plugged into the fringe. It happened to another player on a different
hole.

Bottom line: love the layout, but I'd come back when/if the grass grows back in the fairways.

Crystal Springs GC is a very hilly course with few level lies. The fairways are fairly hard and fast with many sloping side to side. The ball tends to roll very far (good and bad) on the fairways. The greens are in good shape and reasonably fast. The only draw back was the slow play time (5 hours). However, there are plenty of beautiful vistas to see while you wait.

It'd been a while since I played Crystal Springs, and I had nearly forgotten what a pleasure it is. The course is interesting and challenging--especially if you've been playing level tracks. There are plenty of uphill, downhill, and sidehill lies, and yet plenty of good landing areas if you think a bit.

It's not just the golf, either; the setting is very pleasing on the eye and it's a given that you'll see a lot of wildlife during any round. A nice reward no matter how you're hitting 'em.

The golf shop lost control of the course. There were two groups waiting on each tee. It took 1 hour and 40 minutes to tee off on the 4th hole.

I play the course frequently and this was totally unacceptable.

Pro shop was reasonable and refunded my green fees.

Besides the marshal taking my golf ball off the center of the fairway and driving off, it was a great experience.

I really enjoyed this course, it has beautiful views and is well maintained. I also appreciated that the golf carts had a tablet showing how far the cart was from the hole. And I would definitely play here again, but I would warn anyone who is planning to play here to expect certain delays. Both times I've come here they were running late so we had to tee of about 20-30 minutes after our scheduled tee time. And the pace of play is very slow, taking between 4.5 to 5 hours. I notice that the first 4-5 holes are very slow as it gets bottlenecked around the third hole. Yesterday, there were three parties at the third hole and we had to wait about 20 minutes to tee off. It clears up a lot after the third hole and by the fifth hole, you don't have to wait for groups ahead of you.

No Marshall on the course moving pace of play. 6.5 hour round yesterday. Takes the fun away especially knowing the staff really doesn't care. Next thing you know people start hitting up on us because we were trying to finish the round before darkness.

Crystal Springs is a challenging but fun golf course. Have to hit your spots on your tee shots to have decent approaches into the greens or lay-ups.
I was dissatisfied with the pace of play all day. Took us nearly 5 hours to play 18 at 2:50 on a Sunday. Need more marshals to speed up play or play people through the slow groups. Otherwise had a lot of fun and would definitely play this course again!

Nice track overall. The greens are in real nice shape, rolling great. The fairways can be beat up in some spots, but playing better then last month. Lots of walkers caused the pace to slow. Marshalls actually keep you on pace, but can be a bit grumpy if you run into the wrong one. Way to overpriced in my opinion. Maybe due too being the only public track around the area. One month ago, my buddy booked n crystal springs website (mistake) and when we arrived, found out we were triple booked. They couldn't do anything about it so I complained to the GM and he severely discounted me during this round. Yet, if the price was 20% lower, I'd come around more often.

Great course, but incompetent management/ownership. HORRIBLE pace of play. Absolutely unbelievably slow. I will never go back here.

2.5 hours = 5 holes, first attempt 7/13/14

3 hours = 9 holes, second attempt 7/27/14

over twenty minute delay of both start times WITH reservation
I understand it was a weekend, but this was ridiculous.

I rarely review but wanted to let everyone know I broke 80. lol. The course was well maintained. It was hot so the ball rolled a little too much and many of the fairways are on hills. It was perfectly fine for what it was, less than $50 with a cart, pace of play was fine, cart girl was pretty, sun was out, views, not too challenging, overall enjoyable. Not too many places to get in trouble, rough outside of fairways are usually sloped hills back to the short stuff.

This is a challenging course with some great views, don't be surprised to see wildlife as you play ( great photo opportunities ) . Several fairways are off cambe, and there are some very elevated greens and tees. The greens can be tricky but are in good condition.

Went out late on a Friday and the pace of play was pretty slow. That said, the course was in good condition. This is a course where local knowledge is very helpful, especially on the greens. This is not a course for beginners but one I would recommend to average players or better.

As advertised. Beautiful. Great views. Every hole is unique. Friendly deer on almost every hole. Great elevations. Challenging but fair. Greens in great shape. Rest of course in average shape but it's still vary much in good shape.

It's a must play in SF.

Good course for the money. Slow here every time I play.

The greens are fast and lots of long beautiful drives. Over looking Crystal Springs Reservoir. Surrounded by trees for shade and there are lots of deer, birds, and wildlife to watch and enjoy.

This course was recommended to me by a few different people. They were running late because of a junior tournament, but they did ask me if i wanted to go out earlier than my tee time to avoid the delay. I got paired up with three rather novices, but it was really fun. The course was beautiful as i must have seen 20 to 30 deer on the course. The elevation changes were nice, but the pace of play was slow even though we saw the ranger quite a bit at the beginning. However, i had a good time regardless and would play again.

Course could be in better condition. Greens were slow , course needs water but the overall views are worth it.