Carmel Valley Ranch Resort

My buddy and I had the privilege to play this course a couple weeks ago. The staff is super friendly and accommodating, the course was in amazing shape given the massive amount of rain in the weeks leading up to us playing (this was the Wednesday before the 2017 pro am in Monterey.) The only slight negative we had was that our cart broke down during the round but they had a replacement to us in under 10 minutes and by the time we hit our next shop the guy had moved all of our stuff to the new cart and we were ready to keep going. I can't recommend this course enough, and we can't wait to go back.

This is a beautiful private course in the sun in Carmel Valley California .

Very nice layout wonderful conditions great pro shop service inside and out. nice driving range included in your green fee.take advantage on last-minute golfer when this offer is available .

From views to river and lakes on the front to oaks on the hills on the back this course makes you think but isnt overly difficult. I would have hit more irons off the front nine par fours of it wasn't my first time. The greens can have breaks and are kept fast

What a buetifuel design just about 10 miles from the Monterey peninsula. The resort is absolutely amazing from the time that you drive in to the resort. The whole setup is absolutely remarkable and the inn and golf in ammaculant. The buetifuel clubhouse and well spoken staff is great.

The course has buetifuel rolling fairways and deep rough and rolling greens. With buetifuel 65 degree weather the whole round was very fun! I thought the hillside was very buetifuel and the trees was great. They reccomend that you walk on the course and I would definitely reccomend walking instead of riding in a cart. The rocks and buetifuel setting and sunset down the stretch was great.

The food in the clubhouse was great and off course amenities are absolutely great. Overall the setting and the buetifuel course ties it all together as a buetifuel resort.

The course was a bit soft in some fairway spots due to recent rains, but the greens were outstanding. Course conditioning was superb, including the bunkers. It's a quirky layout, but it makes good use of the geography to take you around the valley and gives beautiful vistas. No two fairways look the same. Visual treat. It is a resort style course, so it does not beat you up too bad as many Dye courses reportedly do. Very generous forward tees for the gals, too, so it would be great for a mixed group. Homes don't encroach on the fairways too badly. Overall, I was sorry when the round ended, which is always a good indication.

CVR is a nice golf course. Our round was a little odd as they had a frost overnight after a rainy week. As a result, they had us start on #15, which was odd.

They made the mistake of sending out the groups as quickly as possible, instead of keeping 10 min intervals, so pace of play was bad. It was also cart path only, so a lot of walking back and forth. Just over 5 hours to play...

The course was overall in nice shape. The greens were nice and had a good speed to them. You can tell they are young, but will grow in nicely.

I would go back and play, but would not be ready to pay their rack rate.

Interesting, fun layout and in real good shape. Shorter course requiring accuracy.

How can you go wrong with a nice course in the beautiful Carmel Valley? You can't. The front nine pretty straight forward and fun with the back nine featuring several elevated tees with spectacular valley views. Look forward to playing it again.

Front 9 nice enough but the back nine up in the hills makes you want to come back

Love playing there, the back 9 especially. It has some beautiful elevated tees

The course is in a beautiful area and you'll likely encounter many deer and wild turkeys. Conditions are pristine. I found the layout to be a bit over the top in some spots with several super elevated tees that didn't really add to the experience. Overall, the course is short, narrow on several holes, and can be pretty tricky. It was fun to play once, but it's not a course that's calling me back to play again. I much preferred the Quail Lodge course which is nearby.

Played Carmel Valley Ranch yesterday, and generally enjoyed it. Made a day trip from San Jose, and it took nearly two hours to get there with traffic. That said, I think it's worth the drive.

Course was in great shape. Fairways were lush, roughs were thick, greens were fast and true. The layout is playful and interesting. It's a par 70, and there were four par 3's, two par 5's. The par 4's are almost all on the shorter side, but because of the doglegs and bunkering, you can't simply take driver and leave yourself a wedge on every hole (but you can on some).

The par threes were actually disappointing. 7 is a joke of a hole - 118 yards from the tips - the pin was in the front, and it's banked in such a way that a shot short, or right of the hole trickles down towards it. The green was interesting - maybe the pin placement was just really easy - i'm not sure, but the way it was laid out on Saturday made no sense and certainly didn't bring the back bunker into play.

On the other hand, the 16th plays 226 from the tips, there's a bunker on the right of the green, and if you approach it from the front left, there's no depth to the green to either a long iron or hybrid would roll off the green, into rough that slopes down off back, so you're well beneath the hole on your 2nd shot. I was able to save par, but there's no chance for an average player to birdie this.

2 and 11 stand out as favorites for me. 2 is a short par four with water around the right of the green with a beautiful mountain backdrop. 11 starts from a very elevated tee box into a breathtaking view. The drive actually takes you beneath the green leaving an uphill approach. The picture on the website doesn't do it justice.

The range was nice, though not especially long. If you're a big hitter, be careful hitting driver since there are people using the range from both ends. The staff at the bar didn't seem to appreciate the fact that we had an afternoon tee time - it took forever to get and then pay for a couple of sandwiches. The other staff was great and allowed us to push back our start since what we expected to be a 20 minute lunch took 45 minutes. Pro shop was very nice.

I'll probably be back again - I really liked the place.

Wish we knew before going that we would be following a tournament

Front nine is shortish and fun to play. Back is creative design and more difficult. Great turf conditions.

Played 18 holes with my wife. The course isn't exactly long but demands accuracy off the tee. Tees and Greens had been recently aerified but ball roll was still great on the putting surface. Fairways were in great shape. A very fun round, will play again!

The staff members are very kind and friendly.

Great services through out the day.

We played this course as a practice round for an upcoming tournament round there. The course was almost empty on this Thursday with rain threatening (but not showing up until we finished). We had a very enjoyable round. Conditions were very nice except that the greens had been aerated within the last few days.

The front nine is flat with plenty of bunkers and some water. The back nine is hilly, harder, and more interesting. The course is shorter and narrower than most, so the challenge is more toward accuracy than length.

Carmel Valley Ranch is a great option in the Monterey/Carmel area. Resort quality course. Impeccable condition. It is not a long course by any means (around 6,100 from the back tees). I only hit driver on a few holes. But short does NOT mean easy.

Front nine is down in the valley: open fairways with a ton of subtle slopes lead to interesting lies even in the middle of the fairway. Minimal elevation change. Water in play on four holes on the front. The fourth hole in particular. Back nine is a completely different experience. Severe elevation change, blind shots.

Front or back, the greens will challenge your short game. I am a single-digit handicap and play a lot of golf at Bayonet, where they keep the greens pretty quick. But I was blown away by the firm, fast, smooth conditions. Had to concentrate on every single putt. No easy two-putts. Rolling true but very fast. It's a fun challenge, both with the putter/wedges around the greens and approach shots.