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Rating Index Rating
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3.8
425 Reviews (425)
5 Stars
97
4 Stars
185
3 Stars
91
2 Stars
30
1 Stars
22
Conditions
3.6
Value
3.9
Layout
3.8
Friendliness
4.2
Pace
3.8
Amenities
3.5
82.4%
Recommend this course
348 out of 425 reviews
Read Reviews
Average Rating
Avg Rating
3.3
23 Reviews (23)
5 Stars
3
4 Stars
10
3 Stars
4
2 Stars
3
1 Stars
3
Conditions
3.2
Value
3.3
Layout
3.5
Pace
3.3
Amenities
3.2
StaffFriendliness
3.9
69.6%
Recommend this course
16 out of 23 reviews
Read Reviews
Average Rating
Avg Rating
3.8
53 Reviews (53)
5 Stars
17
4 Stars
21
3 Stars
8
2 Stars
4
1 Stars
3
Conditions
3.7
Value
3.8
Layout
3.8
Pace
3.8
Amenities
3.5
StaffFriendliness
4.1
83.0%
Recommend this course
44 out of 53 reviews
Read Reviews
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AI summaries based on real golfer reviews
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Course Highlights
Balboa Golf Course delivers outstanding value as a municipal course, with well-groomed fairways and consistently maintained greens that reward returning players. Friendly pro shop staff and a smooth pace of play make each round an enjoyable experience.

About

Holes 18
Type Public/Municipal
Par 72
Length 6628 yards
Slope 116
Rating 70.5
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Balboa Golf Course
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Course Details

Year Built 1954
Fairways Bermuda Grass
Greens Bermuda Grass
Golf Season Year round
Architect Steve Timm (2008) William P. Bell (1954)

Rentals/Services

Carts Yes - $11 - $18
Pull-carts Yes
Clubs Yes

Practice/Instruction

Driving Range Yes
Teaching Pro Yes
Pitching/Chipping Area Yes
Putting Green Yes

Policies

Metal Spikes Allowed No
Walking Allowed Yes
Dress code Proper attire is required.

Food & Beverage

Food & Beverage

Available Facilities

Banquet Facilities
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Reviews

3.8
425 Reviews (425)

What Golfers Are Saying

The 19th Hole is Great For:
Drinks 10
Course Challenges Include:
Bunkers 6
This course/club is great for:
Locals 13
Walkers 13
Seniors 9
This Course's Location is:
Convenient to the City 14

Numbers based on reviews tagged with attribute.

Advanced Filters
Overall Rating
Recommended
Handicap
Age
Type of Golfer
Gender
Played On
Reviews 15
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 2
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Previously Played
Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Average
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Beginner
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart

Great course but unfriendly staff

We had a tee time booked at 2:50, entered the clubhouse at 2:45 to find that our tee time had been forfeited with no prior warning, aside from an intercom announcement that we had not heard since we were walking up. The staff was very condescending and rude when we inquired about why we had lost our tee time. Eventually we got on a wait list and ended up playing. The course is beautiful and golf was great, but an unnecessarily hostile atmosphere made for a less than great experience.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Poor
Pace Excellent
Difficulty Fairly Easy
Played On
Reviews 25
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Pace of Play

Better this week but still has to be a rule that no one over 50 years old Walking… I understand these People are Cheap when it comes to Renting a Cart or they want their Steps Count (Exercise) but do that somewhere else.. you get behind slow players and your game along with your day drags on ..

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 213
Handicap 0-4
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
3.0
Top 50 Contributor
Previously Played

Thunderstorm! Who would’ve thought. Course is meh.

We got caught in the thunderstorm that rumbled through in the afternoon. Who would’ve thought it would actually pass through here and RAIN!?!??? Yeah it rained!! Some heavy droplets. Anyways…….

Let’s hope the rain helps to grow back the place even more. At least they left a lot of the rough growing thicker today, which was actually good.

Some of the tee boxes just need some sand and levelling. They can’t even do that???? Just cover up some of the patches!!! It’s so simple. Same goes for some of the well-trafficked areas behind some of the bunkers on the green fringes. Just sand it!! And put Keep Off signs!!! It’s so simple!!! People pay to play a normal Muni that is making money hand over fist due to the minimal work being done, and then they raised prices on range balls again!!!! Why?????? Absolute greed. For limited-flight balls, no less!!!! Absurd!!!

Greens were hit and miss as usual. Par 3 4th Hole was particularly bumpy compared to all the rest. Some greens were firm and rolled nicely like 9, but most of the others were kinda mush and not very good.

Look we all know it’s just a Muni, but again, I played Whittier Narrows a week ago and those greens were fabulous. Soft, but rolled beautifully. I’ll keep saying it over and over. LA CITY golf courses need to revamp its employees. They are slacking, and are doing minimal work and taking home the money. It’s such an embarrassment, it represents everything typically wrong with LA, and the whole world sees it

Conditions Fair
Value Fair
Layout Fair
Friendliness Average
Pace Fair
Amenities Fair
Played On
Reviews 1
Handicap 20-24
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Windy weather
Used cart
Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
Played On
Reviews 7
Handicap 10-14
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart

patchy

Why is it so hard for this golf course to fix all the patches on the fairways and cut out some of the weeds? All it takes for them is to go to a Home Depot and buy some grass seeds and spread them around where there is none. They just take your money and never take care of the golf course.

Conditions Poor
Value Average
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Poor
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 7
Handicap 10-14
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart

Fix the T Boxes

They need to invest some of the money they take it and spend it on the golf course for very needed improvements. The T Boxes are all dirt and long weed. The greens were Ok, but fairways need work as well.

Conditions Average
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Poor
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 9
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Previously Played
Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 7
Handicap 15-19
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart

T Boxes are a mess, Where does all the money go when it is not being spent on the golf course and keeping in good condition?

Conditions Fair
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Poor
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
1.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Disappointed

The course had good greens and they were well kept. The golf cards were very nice. The rough was very bad, patchy and very uneven. There were a lot of patches in the rough. Around the greens were not well kept . Rest rooms had no warm or hot water and the paper towel machines were empty. Lots of dead and fallen branches and sticks all over the rough. I would not play this course or recommend this course to anyone. Needs a lot of fertilizer for better grass growth and weed and feed.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Poor
Friendliness Good
Pace Fair
Amenities Poor
Played On
Reviews 30
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Fun Day of Golf

Very nice and convenient location. Gees ere good fairways little ruff. But in all worth playing.

Conditions Average
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 102
Handicap 25+
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 102
Handicap 25+
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 213
Handicap 0-4
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Top 50 Contributor
Previously Played

Better. Bunkers have sand and raked. Back 9 greens needed a cut and roll.

Finally they put some work in. Chopped away 2 of the 5 trees that fell down in the last winds.

Fairways were mowed! Quite nice actually. Bunkers all had sand and were machine raked, they finally looked like real bunkers. Thanks for that. May it continue.

Greens were hit and miss. Front 9 better than back. Back 9 were seriously wavy and bumpy. Needed the same cut as they did on the fairways.

I wish they would let the rough grow. So many places are like this. Sure we all want a decent fairway to hit from - but at the same time, a slight missed strike should not run off from the fairway too much and then run some more through the non-existent rough either to deep under the trees or the next fairway! So many people are playing from the next one over when the ball just ran too far, all they need to do is have some rough that would catch the ball from running away so much wasting everybody’s time going too deep to the edges or over to the other fairway. It’s firm due to the winter, if there has been no rain or watering, but just a couple inch rough instead of bone dry and thin would really help everybody out. So many dead grass thin spots.

But at least they tried to make it more playable and respectable today. Carry on!!!

Conditions Average
Value Fair
Layout Fair
Friendliness Average
Pace Good
Amenities Fair
Played On
Reviews 7
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
2.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Free for All

People teeing off at wrong time without their full group and others playing wrong or random holes.

Not sure what was going on there.

Conditions Fair
Value Fair
Layout Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Poor
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 4
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Average
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Average
Pace Average
Played On
Reviews 271
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 271
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 102
Handicap 25+
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart
Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
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