Bay View Golf Club

Bayview golf course in Milpitas is great. They has spent money and really upgraded the greens. Staff is very friendly and nice

Things are difficult during covid but, this course does the best I've seen, of maximizing the customer experience. They do what's necessary to protect customers and staff yet, minimize the draconian CA lock down BS. Staff are friendly, professional, accommodating and very helpful. Driving range is nice. Carts are brand new. Course is fun, well maintained. They have food and drinks readily available. Bathrooms are clean and available. GREAT experience, especially when compared to other courses I've visited in 2020 that were HORRIBLE in customer service, even rude, and went WAY OVERBOARD with the BS COVID crap. This course, and it's staff were wonderful, fun, positive yet safe experience!!! Kudos!!! I'll be back!!!

Played this course in November but when we arrived it was cart path only, they said because of renovations. It is very hilly and difficult to walk, the pace of play is slow because of the cart path only rule. It is now 6 months later and I still see people complaining about the cart path only rule. Really don't understand why6 months later they still don't allow carts on the roughest walking course in the bay area.

I know they will post the default reply blah blah blah "We apologize for the pace of play issue you experienced. We always try to keep a great pace when having our golfers on the course. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback as we will use your review to better the experience going forward. We hope you give us another try in the near future!"

Hole 4 is so heavily sloped that even a great drive ends up in the rough. Hole 8 penalizes short drivers by pushing the ball off the fairway.

Otherwise, it is a nice course with lots of variety in the layouts

**Mini rant to begin: If you haven't played this course before and/or if you are not an honest single digit handicap --- please do not go directly back to the blue tees because this course may look short based on the yardage on the scorecard, especially when it is cart-path only and you can't consistently hit your tee shots straight. This will lead to a lot of walking and searching in the hills for your ball, thus slowing everyone else down and not making for an enjoyable experience. **

To begin, I will say that I have played this course many times when it was named Summitpointe but this was my first round since the name change and new ownership to Bay View Golf Club. As others have said, nothing has changed in terms of course or hole layout. All the holes play exactly the same as before.

I had a Thursday 11:00 tee time and arrived at the course at around 10:20. Plenty of parking available at that time. Checked in at the pro shop window and since my tee time was pre-paid, the employee directed me to the cart barn to check in with the starter and get my cart. You are able to drive the carts into the parking to load and unload your clubs. Got all loaded up and stretched out a bit before heading to the first tee.

I was able to tee off about 15 minutes early as a single because no one else was there. It was cart-path only because it rained the night before along with the morning of my tee time. I had no one in front of me for the first nine holes and was able to finish the front nine in one hour and thirty minutes. A group let me play through on #10 while they were waiting for their food to be prepared from the cafe. On the back nine I ran into a bit of a slow down on hole #12. There were three foursomes in front of me that were bunched together and waiting on each other. After a few holes of waiting, I saw the marshal driving the opposite way towards the group in front that may have been holding everyone up. After talking to what may have been the slow group, the marshal continue backwards along with course to let each group know that he hold the group out front to speed it up. After that, things did start moving a little quicker but I was already on hole #14 so not much could have changed before the end of the round. In total, I finished the back nine in two hours, giving me three hours and thirty minute pace to complete the 18 holes.

As for course conditions, like I mentioned before, it rained the night before and day of my round. So yes, it was wet and yes there was muddy parts on the course. I don't think any course in the area other than a high price country club could have avoided that. With those conditions, I did not get much roll on tee shots and there was mud on the ball after almost every full swing. Playing winter rules with lift, clean and place quickly solved this issue, If you are serious about score and want to post a number for your index, playing this course after it has rained may not be a good idea. Most greens were in fair/average shape with most of them having been needle punched in portions or all of the surface. With that, putts were bumpy and did not roll true during this healing process. Downhill putts were still quick because many greens are perched on mountain sides.

As for the day as a whole, I do wish it didn't rain the morning of this round and I wish the sun came out more to warm things up a bit but I can't complain that much about being able to play a round of golf in shorts during this time of year. A couple notable positives include seeing the marshal multiple times during my round and his dog. While I did not need him during the front nine, he was there on the back nine to address a slow play problem. As others have mentioned, the carts are new and very nice with GPS and built in music (either FM radio or bluetooth with your phone) along with a USB charging port. I will say having music to listen to while waiting on tee boxes was nice and seemed to lessen the angst of being slowed down. Seats are plush and comfortable and the cart has many pockets and drink holders. The GPS would remind you on the tee box of each hole that it was cart-path only, so no excuses for driving into the fairway and not knowing. The only error I noticed on the GPS was hole #7, there used to be a lake in the middle of the fairway. That lake has been taken out but the GPS still shows it as being there, so if you don't know it is gone, you will probably hit a layup drive when it is not needed.

I was able to shoot 78 from the white tees while not losing a single ball all day. My FitBit recorded about 6,000 steps for the round while being cart-path only. Be warned that if you decide to play from the blue tees and/or can't hit your tee shots in the fairway, you will likely be taking a lot more steps than I did plus hoofing it up and down the hill sides more. I am anxious to see what this course becomes during the spring and summer months when everything has dried up and the greens have healed.

This course will do anything to extract as much money out of unknowing golfers. This is basically a muni course in every way except the golf carts.

Here are my top 5 reasons not to play

1. Course is in bad shape. Fairways are a mess with no remedy in sight. Layout makes it so even great shots just roll all the way down the hill for no reason.

2. It is Cart Path only with not heads up. Despite the course being in lousy shape and no clear attempt being made to fix it you have to walk more with a cart than without one. With the layout being very steep it is a workout for even those in good shape. I walked 2 miles more more on this course with a cart than I did walking Poplar Creek the day before.

3. They won't cancel tee times due to weather. I had a tee time the next day and they refused to cancel despite the course being soaked already and there being steady rain. I basically had to eat my tee time and not play. This kind of policy is only going to make the course in worse shape.

4. Pace of play is slow. This is primarily due to the layout and cart path only rule. Unless you layup by cart paths it's impossible to stay on pace. Outside of that when you inevitably run into bad golfers paired with that it makes for a 5 hr round.

5. Green fees are absurd. I got a hot deal so it was a little cheaper but to charge $95 with a cart on a weekend to play here is borderline criminal. It is no different than Summitpointe which was the courses' name under old management. They only made some minor upgrades to the back 9 greens, upgraded the carts, and felt that warranted a 3x price increase.

First I will start with the pro's and con's of the course itself.

Pro's:

Good Golf Carts with GPS and Speakers

Back 9 has good greens

Views of the Bay are pretty cool

Regular staff is friendly, especially Ethan. Marshall did his job picking up pace in a hopeless situation with a cart path only rule.

Con's

Cart path only which was not notified of before

Layout is stupid on many holes. Challenging to the point where no level of skill would compensate

Extremely steep on the front 9. Basically not walkable for anyone not in good shape

Fairways are patchy and like a muni course

Their regular green fees are absurd for the quality of the course.

Pace is slow even for good golfers as some of the best shots require you to walk across the fairway to hit as a result of cart path only rule

Overall Summary:

This is the same course as the old Summitpoint municipal course. There have been near to no changes made outside of the golf carts and some work on the greens. However it is 3x the price. Cart path only makes it a slower pace and unenjoyable as you often have to walk more with a cart unless you hit along the cart path. I got so sick of it I started laying up by cart paths so I didn't have to waste 5 mins walking to the ball. One member of our group gave up the cart midway because he was ironically walking more with the cart. The course has potential if a ton of money was put in dramatically improving conditions but until that happens anything above $50 is highway robbery.

Also I had a tee time booked the next day, while the course was already wet and raining they refused to cancel the golfnow tee time due to weather. Basically my gauge is they will do anything possible to extract as much money as possible from you under any circumstances. Range balls are expensive (irons only too), tee times are expensive, and wouldn't be surprised if they started charging for parking.

This is my first time playing here since they changed the name from summit point to the bay club. Nothing has changed other than an increase in prices, fairways are still bare and dead, blue tee boxes are hard pan and weeds and the greens are mediocre. Pace of play is 2.5 - 3hrs per 9 and 20 minutes behind schedulded tee times. Only play this course if you are dying to golf and every other course (including golfland) in the south bay are booked.

A lot of the reviews are for the old course or during renovation but we went recently after they renovated the back 9 and this course was great! If you have the chance get in on this course now before they start filling up and raising the prices, it was challenging with a lot of hills beautiful views! definitely recomend

I don’t know what happened but our tee time was delayed by 30 minutes. The course is in great condition but today was soooo slow. We spent 1 hour and 45 minutes waiting at the tees combined. The staff was super apologetic but we were supposed to tee off at 10:48 and ended up teeing off at 11:20. Great food and there’s a cart girl but we almost didn’t finish cause it got dark. The greens roll super quick which makes it very challenging. Wish they were a little slower

First time playing this course. We payed $95 to play this course and they made us wait an hour to tee off. The Marshall allowed a group of 8 carts play in front and there was no sense of urgency or planning to smooth this issue out.

No apology or explanation from anyone which is completely unacceptable, especially at the green fee they charge it is complete joke. The round still took us 5 1/2 to play. Save your money and play elsewhere

If you’re used to playing San Jose muni or Sunnyvale this course will challenge you. Similar difficulty to coyote tournament.

If you like the ups and downs of hilly play come on out and get some! Greens are in great shape as well as the fairways. Much better run course than before!