Rancho Park Golf Course

Very cool spot in the heart of West LA. Small greens, inconsistent green speeds, off camber lies, long par 3s, interesting holes, all leading to one of the more bizarre 18th holes I've ever played. Looking forward to when the clubhouse gets rebuilt as the off course amenities are limited. The course is a bit of a time capsule from the 70s-80s and I loved it.

That must be a record! Conditions are much better than when I played it in early May. Greens were playing their typical bumpy ways but at least the green speed was fast. Teed off at 1010. Finished at 1425! Keep it up RP!

Bang average.

Greens were all different but all soft and mushy, different from one to the next. Some were really bushy slow and may be a couple were just OK, and some showed the vertical mow marks as the greens never get rolled flat to make them smooth. If you threw the ball up it would have the deepest ball mark and stay right there. You just can’t make putts when it’s like this, also painted green, ball could go one way or the other on the mow tracks or not let the ball take the break at all.

Fairways are hit or miss as always, some good others are being attacked by the creeping crab grass such as down the left side of 7, I don’t get why they don’t just go there and burn or shave it all off and start over, just put some GUR around it and let it grow back properly after removing all that crab grass that is in patches of dirt and bare ground, it’s absolutely horrible it’s been like this for over a decade and the fact that NOBODY in the WHOLE CITY has done anything about it. So sad. So typical of the mismanaged city of garbage.

POP was 4 hours and 40, dead slow for a Monday noon time tee time. Dunno why the entire golf industry puts up with this, they are making too much money from unhappy and clueless people and they just don’t care. And it’s not just at Munis like this, it’s everywhere.

Driving range balls here are NEVER WASHED. Why???? They seem to be able to wash the balls very clean at Encino and Encino has a grass landing areas as opposed to the Astroturf at Rancho!!!! Makes no sense. None. Why do we have to pay increased prices at such a disaster???? If you traveled to a foreign destination city and saw this you will have nothing but complaints, and the impression of worse here because it’s supposed to be the USA, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, but we all knows at street levels of urban-run cities it is like a 3rd world country

I’ll start with the good: great place for affordable practice rounds on a decently fun layout. Easily accessible to LA residents.

The bad: Greens and tee boxes here could really use some work. It’s annoying when a putt is tracking and it hits a random bump to kick it off line. I almost don’t know if I should put these scores into GHIN cause on another course with better maintenance the scores would be different. Pace of play can be bad, we had a group who was 5 minutes late to

their tee time in front of us and took 20 minutes a hole. They need to finish the clubhouse renovation. It’s quite an eyesore in its current dilapidated form.

Hopefully management takes this information and improves things cause it really could be a gem if it wanted to be.

Course in terrible condition. I hadn't golfed there in 3 years, at that time it was in much better condition. If you don't belong to a club, it's a place to golf. I don't know why they don't redo the course and complete the clubhouse.

Having never played Rancho Park before and reading some of the online reviews online, I wasn't sure what to expect out of my early morning round of golf there. Course was in a relatively nice part of LA. Cheviot Hills. Not far off the 10.

Teed off @ 640a on a Wednesday to try and avoid as much OC to LA morning traffis as possible. Tustin to Rancho Park in 1:01 wasn't too bad. Got paired with three other local singles. Pace was great, they all walked while I rode. Walked off 18 at just under 3:45.

Course was in very good shape tees through the greens. No complaints. Bunkers had sand. No bare spots in the fairways and the rough was fair. Greens had been punched 10 days prior but were good. The smaller, old school type greens seemed to get better as far as the recent maintenance as the round progressed. That wasn't noted on GolfNow but was noted on the course website.

The course overall was a fun time. A little more up and down than I expected for what's basically the middle of LA. Some dog legs and a lot of trees.

It turned out to be a fun round and I'd certainly recommend the course to anyone. Be aware of traffic though for sure. Also, the guy in the pro shop, the Quonset hut by the 1st tee, James, was great. Courteous and helpful to someone who had never played there before and as friendly of a pro shop guy as I can recall. That's not always the case, even at high end courses, so his attitude was good to see and was much appreciated.