Real del Mar Golf Resort

So I played this golf course in 1993 but was revisiting golf memories with a friend when this golf course came up. I looked it up to see if it still existed and found the website and it's YouTube flyover video. I was shocked to find the golf course was STILL in terrible condition. When I played it (1993) it had just opened a year or so earlier. It was still growing in but the neglect and inexperience was evident. Newly planted palm trees were struggling to survive. Patches of bare ground on all the tee boxes and many greens. Sand bunkers neglected and grass bunkers overtaken by weeds. Fairways had been poorly sodded and the rough was well... rough, as in tall weeds and undergrowth that didn't seem fair. It went from fairway to wasteland. The layout itself was sketchy. Tight tee shots with poor sightlines. Short par 4's built as if designed by an inexperienced golf design team. Small landing areas that were extremely unreasonable. So... yes, the course was "challenging" but for all the wrong reasons.

The only saving grace of playing there was that my wife and I were invited as guests of Cobra Golf employees (Carlsbad, CA) and to be honest, our hosts were embarrassed and apologetic for the experience. It was one of the few times I couldn't wait to finish my round of golf.

I heard about this course from a friend how played there a few years ago

He said just south of San Diego and the course is on great shape and very inexpensive

Well it was inexspenaive But the course needed some help

If your in the San Diego are and want to head south into Mexico for a quick round o recommend this place

I just hope they bring it up a bit

Played the Blues (6403/70.7/125) with Sixpez. The course is about 20 minutes south of the S.D. border crossing.

We arrived shortly after 6am before anything was open and walked around and checked the place out. Let me paint this picture. The greens we could see had large patches of hardpan on them. The bunkers had NO SAND in them, just dug out areas full of weeds. The tees were furry and had numerous weeds also in the 6" range standing up. Much of this course looked slightly better than the closed Shadow course @ Lost Canyons... and the best for last. On parts of the course, it smelled like sewage was mixed in with water draining alongside many of the holes.

The sign on the Pro shop said it opens @ 7am, which was our tee time. Golf Cart attendants & starter were arriving by 6:45. Starter encouraged us to go ahead and tee off and pay @ the turn, which was what a local single did. However, with visions of federalies showing up and us spending the rest of the weekend in a mexican jail, Keith & I waited until the pro shop guy finally wandered in and opened the pro shop a few minutes after 7. So we went in, paid our $45 and teed off.

The fairways were probably the best part of the course, in that they were mediocre and actually had grass on them. Relatively tight course to start with that was made unreal by very thick weeds that composed their "rough" that was usually in the 4" to 2' range right off almost every fairway. I quit using good balls by the back 9 because if you missed the fairway by even a foot, the chances were more likely than not your ball was lost.

Perfect example, #7 was a short, downhill par 4. I had a chip shot from perhaps 25 yards away land just short of the green, take 1 bounce sideways and be in a small area just between the green and greenside bunker. We were both standing there and definitely saw where the ball went and could narrow it down to a small area, maybe 10 square feet. 5 minutes of looking and I finally stepped on my ball when searching literally step by step over the entire area we thought the ball was.

The course layout was actually OK to good, but you get an idea on the condition. Keith said he had actually played a few courses in worse condition than Real del Mar. However, I think it's now at the top of my "bad" list taking the whole course into account. I actually was trying to play golf and score until #7. From that point onward, I spent the next 11 holes trying to hit different shots that I thought may come in handy in the afternoon for our GK match @ Bajamar. It was little more than an overpriced driving range experience in my mind.

The bunkers here are the first time I have ever rated something a 0 on the Gk scale. They were dug out like you would expect a bunker to be in the golf course design stage. Completely devoid of sand and had numerous weeds in the 6" to 9" range popping up. Packed brown dirt or mud.

I will say this. Had we have not actually paid before hand, I would have been inclined to not pay $45 and either leave after 9 or just hit range balls, it was THAT bad. $45 with a cart, even on a Saturday was about $40 more than this place was worth. Good layout, I would hardly ever say not playing would be preferable to playing. However, even if the course conditions improved here by 50%, it would still be a course to avoid.