DeLaveaga Golf Course & Lodge

This course provides a challenge for all levels. Keep to the right on the front nine; favor the left on the back nine.
The fairways were a bit shaggy given the recent rains (yea for rain!), but the greens were in great shape.

Complaints: the restaurant / bar was not open. Tee-time was at 9:15am and was hoping to get a bite before play. Nothing was available 10am on Monday. The weather was pretty foggy and the course was like walking on soggy waffles all day. I play this course when I visit the area every 3-5 years. I always enjoy the challenging holes and terrain. The course demands hole management, especially if you are not familiar with the course. Bring plenty of balls. Most areas cannot be easily accessed for retrieval. Even though I play as a single I always appreciate playing with others that are familiar with the layout. Over all, this is one of my favorite courses. The fog, saturation and hours of operation are things we cannot control. The greens were all great. The traps were 90% under water or eroded with drainage valleys. Oh, I enjoyed the new auto ball feed/tee up range feature. That was new since my last visit. Enjoyable experience over all.

I learned to play golf at DeLa years ago. Used to play there all the time. Back then it was very affordable; not really the case anymore. But all in all I still love the course.

It is difficult, especially for beginners or those who are inconsistent off the tee. If you can't control your teeshots and find the fairway, you're going to have a tough day -- and lose a bunch of golfballs. The good news is it's not a terribly long course; most of the par 4's and 5's give you lots of options off the tee (irons, hybrids, whatever). I hit driver twice all day when I played there last (on 9 and 18.)

A great round of golf. Requires 100% of your attention. Number 10 is a killer. A short par 5, not much on the scorecard. But it's tough.

But why does DeLa struggle with drainage? My local courses have gotten soaked recently and the turf recovered great. But at DeLa the entire course was a swamp. I lost a ball in the middle of the fairway - it plugged in the mud and I never found it. And there was standing water three days after the last storm. It's strange that such a hilly course would struggle to drain that much. I thought the re-model was intended to address that? Speaking of the re-model... they converted two par 5's, making it a par 70. I thought those two par 5's were two of the most interesting holes on the entire course, especially 18. The old 18 green made for a sweet finishing hole. Oh well.

Overall good. Very nice setting, usually nice weather, challenging layout. Slower play especially on weekends is typical. Greens need some maintenance and were bumpy reflective of a high volume of play. Course likely to recover well with recent rainfall.

We played on a rainy day which added to the challenge of the course. It is a nice course to play. We saw plenty of walkers out there as well. There are plenty of challenges in the course: hilly, trees, plenty of lateral hazards with steep ravines, and some forced carries. The fairways seemed very thin (probably the drought) making some fairway shots more difficult. The greens were bumpy and had just been fed (flakes on all the greens). However, I putted quite well (30 putts). The course is in a park so there are no houses around, just the wildlife and trees.

Overall, we had a good time and I will play it again.

THIS COURSE IS VERY CHALLENGING FOR MY LEVEL OF PLAY. I WORK ON MY PUTTING THE MOST, BUT THE GREEN CONDITIONS DID NOT HELP MY GAME.

Not sure if the greens have some sort of fungus, but there are patches all over the place. Hopefully they can fix them because they used to be nice for an inexpensive public course.

The greens are absolutely unplayable. They have huge bumps as the result of an aeration done over 4 weeks ago. They also seem to have a disease with significant bare spots. The fairways are also in horrible shape.

I've played here for nearly 40 years and have never seen a course of this caliber in such bad shape. It breaks my heart. And they are hosting the NCGA Qualifying event this weekend.

First we where not told that it was cart path only!!!
The greens where in terrible condition. Where absolutely nothing like the practice area. and as for the Marshall most unfriendliest one I have come across in the 14 years of playing golf. (Must have gotten up on the wrong side of his bed!!!!!

They had punched and sanded the greens earlier in the week, but in all fairness, they warned us and gave us a discount for the round. They also told us that if we wanted to we could enforce a maximum two-putt rule due to the exceptionally slow surface.

We gladly enforced the rule because our putts were definitely affected by all of the divots.

ALL of the greens had just been punched and sanded. My fault for not finding out beforehand, but nonetheless, frustrating.
However, the weather was perfect and we had a great time.
I've played this course dozens of times and love the challenge.

Don't get me wrong but things just weren't up to par ..... The balls rolled forever never to be seen again, ( drought, I'm good with that ). The GPS didn't work, the cart died, no drinking water on the course, no drink cart and couldn't use the restrooms because we weren't told that an E-card was needed to use 'em ! Oh yeah, one more thing, the manager wasn't there, so no one took the initiative to get the refreshment cart out to the customers .................. With no water jugs, we couldn't wait to finish just for something to drink !!!

In spite of the drought conditions, The course was perfectly playable and fun. The greens had some fungus marks but most of them did not affect the role of the ball and they were rolling pretty fast. It was pretty warm maybe 94° but we had a great day

I used to play here regularly - moved away - now moved back. Course layout has changed slightly to make it easier to play. Still great layout with challenging holes, narrow fairways, & nicely manicured greens. Deep barrancas abound. Thankfully, they are lateral hazards instead of stroke and distance. The fairways were burnt out, very dry ground, many bare dirt spots - almost bordering on cow pasturish but smooth. Too much money for what you get. I would only recommend after it starts raining again.

I live only a few miles from DeLaveaga but haven't played there in years. Thought I'd give it a shot on a Sunday afternoon and now it will be many more years before I go back. The course itself is in rough shape -- fairways are patchy and dried out, greens are spotty and unmaintained, tee boxes look like the crabgrass in your backyard. Pace of play was horrible and there weren't many people playing, all of which were twosomes. Unfortunately this is what you get a lot at DeLa -- kids and hackers. We were behind a twosome that had no clue about golf etiquette or pace-of-play concepts. Chopping it down the course 10 yards at a time and walking along like a Sunday stroll while fully two holes behind the twosome in front of them. The two of us started playing two balls each and still had to wait too long on every shot. And don't look for a marshall to enforce pace of play -- you won't find one on this course ever. But it's a muni so they don't care. We quit after nine holes -- life's too short. They got my money for 18 holes but they won't get it again. Oh, and I started out with a cart (which I paid for) but it died between the 2nd and 3rd holes. Years ago this was a great place to play. I was even a men's club member. But forget it now.

Large areas of fairway are dirt on many holes. This is the worse condition I have seen this course in 40 years, and worse of any course I've played in the bay area. Put some water on the fairways. Play Seascape instead. The snack bar is poor. No course marshal and no on-course refreshment service.

This course is reasonably accessible down Hwy 17 from San Jose area. The course is fairly well maintained considering the drought. Some of the rough may be intentionally cut kind of high, to make it tougher. Some of the holes are very challenging, and fun. The staff and other players are very friendly.

A very beautiful, fun and, considering the horrific drought, well maintained public course! Plenty of challenges in the Santa Cruz foothills overlooking Monterey Bay. Always enjoy playing there.

Course is challenging. Fairway conditions are OK considering the drought conditions. Greens are not in the best of condition and it's not because of water. Need more care. Well worth your $$ They need to spend a little time & money on the bunkers. No or very little sand.

The first 9 we played in under 2 hours, but then the back 9 took over 3. We called the Pro Shop but it didn't seem to help. We could see open holes a ahead of the two groups in front of us at times the course doubled back. The drought has definitely hurt the course too. Hopefully it was just a fluke because it was the first time we played here.