Lake Forest Golf & Practice Center

The short fairways are fine. Aside from shape of the greens, the terrible soggy tee boxes, the holes in the fairway and the rude staff, this place is great. I recommend simply hitting a bucket of balls. But not here, they are $20. That’s 40% more than a bucket at a great golf course like Oak Creek or San Juan Hills.

Where is the value?

Just when you think you’ve found a dump of a course….

Check-in:
- Arrived about an hour early to pickup our carts, warm up with a bucket and do a little chipping as it’s a short course. That’s when the wheels came off….
- This place seems to have been inherited by the current owners who clearly put no effort into it while benefiting from being surrounded by homes with folks of some disposable income. We were stoked to hear about Trackman on the range but that’s where the good ended.
- This place will nickel and dime you to death. Rubber tees = extra. Using Trackman = extra. Chipping/pitching = hourly extra.
- They have one cart.

Range:
- Normally don’t review a driving range but this one was interesting.
- Two tiers without knowing it and again Trackman was extra.
- Cheap balls and again, practice rubber tees were extra.
- With all the nickel and diming though karma has a sense of humor. When we finished our round, there was a bit of an uproar at the clubhouse. Apparently, they were out of balls in the machine. I wonder if the staff had to pay to use the picker.

Course:
- Good luck finding the first tee. Girl at the counter was oblivious to providing any direction and after we asked about a scorecard and pencil (we were legit waiting to hear these were extra), pointed us in the right direction.
- Greens were actually ok. Course layout and care is poor and that’s being a bit generous. Over growth everywhere, trash, weeds, etc. You name it, it’s here.

Overall:
- I love pitch and putt courses as they almost always have a thing that draws you to come back. The 9th hole was literally the one good thing about this entire course as it’s a nice little dog leg left over a hazard. That said…without knowing the course ahead of time, and no map, we sit blind to an estimated landing area forfor approach. Birdied out but yeah….
- Sadly, I cannot recommend this course and definitely won’t be returning. It has potential but not how it’s being run.

Yes, this was the first time I’ve ever played a round of golf. It’s a fun course. The greens are really sandy though. That’s my only real “complaint”. Otherwise, for the money, I think it’s totally worth checking out. I’m sure I’ll play here several more times while I work to improve my game.

Have played this course a few times and would rank it as the worst course I’ve ever played, hands down. Pace of play is atrocious, I’m currently waiting on a 5 group backup on hole 5. Round of 9 will likely take 3+ hours, with no less than a 15 minute wait on any hole.

Greens were recently aerated and are a 1/10, if I’m being generous.

I’m regular here and I like this simple course that has a good chance for you to go solo and work on various aspects of short game and putting. It’s short enough that you can do a 3 club challenge (5i, 8i, Sw, Putter) which is pretty fun and makes it interesting. You could use a hybrid and wood, but don’t recommend a driver if you already hit 180 yards easy.

I will warn for any of those hot deals you see on Wednesday morning (around 830 am). There is a tourney group of men that come out who are all great, but are slow because of the foursomes and need of a cart. They are really nice and might let you pass but if it’s really backed up I would say start on hole 7 if it’s empty then work your way back to hole 1 or 2.

It’s tough to be critical when you’re playing all these short par 3’s because you expect to be playing behind beginners. But when the group ahead of you know they’re still learning and continue to hit 2-3 balls each when we are backed up 3 groups, it gets a little ridiculous.

Played here first time today. Played alone so pace was fast. Shorter course than expected but was good for short game practice. Good value!

Good place to practice. Although $20 for a large bucket of balls seems a little expensive.