Monarch Bay Golf Club - Tony Lema Course

Course was in great shape considering all the rain. Will look forward to playing there again.

Between the 11th green & the 12th tee box, the golf carts stopped running .. I was able to get mine running and to continue playing .. This also happened between the 12th green & the 13th tee box .. Other golfers experienced the same issues .. I brought this up to the front desk in the club house ...

Pace of play was a little slow ..Staff is AWESOME! Course was beautiful ...

This is a challenging course that could be great with a few simple fixes. First, the tee boxes need significant work. They are very uneven making it difficult to find a firm stance or hit a clean drive. Second, signage giving direction to the next hole or, at times, identifying the hole, is sorely lacking. Third, the carts have been ‘upgraded’ with GPS in such a way that assists course management but interferes with the game. The upgrade does not include a screen to show you course layout and distance to the flag. Instead, it locks the cart up at random distances from the green requiring you to back the cart up beyond a line marked by two yellow stakes, one or both of which you may not be able to see from your current position. A screen giving course layout, distance to flag and a warning of approach to the lock-up point would serve management’s purpose while providing a benefit to players instead of aggravation!

Other than that, as I said earlier, it is a challenging course. The greens and fairways are in great shape. I indicated that I would recommend the course but only with a warning about the issues noted above.

Check in - they don’t want me there - showed no care. It was like my $90 was nothing - just another golfer….

Range - totally run down. Entire landing area is dirt. Each range stall has old hitting mat and no rubber tee to hit driver. Typical for an ownership group that could care less about “experience” or value to cost.

Course - all tee boxes / all of them no exageration wasn’t flat. These tee boxes have never been redone since being built. All have been taken over by crabgrass and the greeskeeping staff seems to think this is how they should be kept.

Fairways were much the same as the tee boxes. Weedy and many areas of swamp with broken irrigation.

Greens were okay - probably the best part of this D- course.

Speed / pace of play. Teed off at 9am on a Sunday. 5 hr round. No Marshall keeping pace.

On course amenities - no beers of food offered on course. With all of the waiting they could have at least offered me a $10 beer to buy.

Net/Net - this is a hard pass moving forward. A true D- Beter option is Corica Park cheaper and much much better course and experience very close by.

The course was an absolute gem to play. My brother and I had a phenomenal time! There were great views of the bay and even a few foxes running around. Atmosphere was 10/10. Pro shop guys were friendly and made me laugh. The only thing was missing was the cart girl. But La Piñata was right around the corner for a nice after round dinner. I’ll definitely be coming back!

Beautiful views, good maintenance for a public course, greens were in good shape. I really enjoyed playing here. By myself at 6:30am — finished in 3 hours. Nice staff. I’ll be back.

Nice layout and greens were good, which is always first and foremost. Staff could have been friendlier. They seemed bored with their job. Always slow no matter where you play in the Bay Area. This was no exception.

Fairways are mostly Ok except some in under repair.Greens in good shape.

Overall it’s a good enough one to play.

The course is in decent condition, except the driving range which nearly has no grass. Pace is very slow, it took more than 5 hours to finish the round. I never experienced the behavior from some players on the course. The guys in front of us played in sandals!! Then the guy forgot his sandals on one of the tee boxes and demanded the staff to get his ‘shoes’. At the end of the round the guy was completely drunken and used his driver to hit balls into the bay.

Loved playing the course. Only drawback is the amount of garbage (empty chip packages...empty cigarette packages...water bottles etc)

This is a links course that plays soft, meaning the course is too wet. Fast and firm is what it should be but isn’t. Greens are soft too. No bounce. I was hoping for faster greens…

Design is fine, some good holes for sure.

As for the hazards there are a few, not enough to keep you from hitting your next shot. Wide open course with sand traps well placed and high quality sand in most bunkers as just a few had rocks.

With the wind and soft course, in October with a dry summer, I’d expect it to be firmer. Made the course extra long from the black tees.

After 20 years of playing here I finally birdied 4 and 17 however both playing well over 200 yards.

4 stars because it’s on the bay with good views, a crowd, and good mix of links holes. Not to mention those great birdies!