Monarch Bay Golf Club - Tony Lema Course

Enjoy this place the course is perfectly maintained. The long grass eats your ball.

course was good fun. Nice breeze off the bay.. the starter was nice but seemed to be on his own.. front desk never communicated with him or announced whose in the tee.. my round if golfnow.com was supoose to come with a cart and it said on fine print.. but the stsff refused to give it to me... even showed them the email.

4.5 hrs to play

Even though reserved tee time included CARTS. I was force to pay for two riders- some Covid issue. Not good politics.

Course in great shape. Not too crowded today. Played mid day and played in 4.5 hours.

Always have enjoyed Monarch. Course is in great condition, and covid adjustments are no problem here.

I’ve been wanting to play this course for a while, and finally pulled the trigger. I’d heard pace of play was an issue, but we played at 7am, and the pace was great- we didn’t have to wait for the foursome in front of us once.

It’s a good walkable course, with occasional long walks between green to tees. The greens were in good shape, as were the fairways. Like a lot of courses, the geese seem to be a menace, making you need to watch your step when walking!

It was a beautiful day, with minimal wind. I can imagine how a windy day would make it much more challenging. I like links courses, and I liked how this one looked and played. I think it’s a good value for the money, and I’ll be back to play it again.

First time this happened, short on carts and our 11:10am tee time didn’t go off till 1140

Great course Very good facility

The layout great

and the staff are very friendly

It windy

I've played Monarch a few times, and like Metropolitan in Oakland, it gets exceptionally windy in the afternoon. What makes Monarch even tougher is that the last four holes are usually directly INTO the wind, and it's hard to finish strong. The course layout is nice, and has some very interesting holes. As a muni, it's not in pristine shape and that's okay. But the pace of play, especially on weekends, is often really bad. The par-3 6th hole tends to be the biggest culprit - we had three foursomes waiting there -- it's a longer par-3 where the wind is WAY up, so most golfers are nowhere near the green off the tee, and it just takes so long for them to finish up that the pile up occurs.

That said, it's a good course with a driving range for practice, and well worth the price for the Bay Area.

If the tee time purchased is Golfnow Hot time deal, the invoice will show it includes a cart. However, when I check-in, the staff tells me otherwise, and it is not included, and Golfnow made a mistake. I ended up renting a pushcart for $7 dollars (power cart was $17) despite my protest to the shop manager. He was telling me it is Golfnow’s problem, and they have nothing to do with the cart issue. I need to call Golfnow to get a reimbursement was his message. At this point, I was disgusted with their attitude towards the tee time booked through Golfnow, so I paid and left the pro shop.

Monarch Bay is a fun course that is definitely challenging. Holes are long and the wind makes it difficult. The course is in good condition and pace of play was good even though the course was crowded.