Rancho Park Golf Course

I've played this place 4 times now in the last 3 months. I guess you can say its my "home" course. I must say that this is a great place to get your game back on track. Wide fairways, good/clean greens, and tee boxes that are flat (although some times a bit too patchy.)

The course is old, and the facilities show it, but I think that age has made for a great course in the middle of Los Angeles. Large, and sometimes purposefully un-groomed trees make for a heck of a challenge for the fairway-impared. Thick, slick rough also makes for challenging shots, even of you miss off the tee box by just a yard or two. The course definitely has that "classic" vibe that someone who grew up in the desert playing target golf can appreciate.

As for the off-the-course critique, remember this is a municipal course in LA - If you are expecting a modern clubhouse, or even a weekday beverage cart, you are in the wrong place. The people are nice, the restaurant is always full, and the practice greens are great. The biggest positive is the on-course beverage shack between the 10th and 11th. They have an awesome selection of canned beer, and those hot dogs are really on point - just remember to bring cash (no credit/debit excepted.) The biggest gripe is the driving range. Limited space and expensive vending make for a warm-up only reason to use it. For driving range only-useage, I prefer that 6 story complex in K-town...

Over all, I can't complain too loudly about Rancho Park. It's a Los Angeles classic that they are trying their darndest to keep up. I feel its worth the fee, especially if you are saving the $$ by walking....

Starter was very friendly and helpful in pairing me up with a group. Pace of play is slow as usual but tolerable. Greens in great shape

Driving range has been repaired recently, but the balls are so bad, it makes no difference what it looks like out there at the target with the new astroturf and new flags. The starter dude is jovial enough, he says it's been slow lately is why it's fairly wide open. I thought, cool, we'll get to play quick, then. Teeing off just around 10;30, I thought we'd be done by just after 2pm, on a weekday. Boy, was I wrong. The course is trashed. Tees thin, fairways thin, muddy, patchy with all kinds of different grasses that are more obvious in the dormant winter than in the summer, there is no over-seeding at courses like this, so you take what you can for the cheap muni price, but it is as good as it will get at this price. The greens were all bumpy, still! They still show signs of the punching from October! in all kinds of waves and tracks of where the holes used to be. Even with the good rain we've had, they are not laid down, nor flat. Bumpy like crazy, not rolled out. Some firm, fine, but mostly just bumpy. Deplorable. This is LA at its finest, just like the freeway and roads, as the jokes go, around here. No rough to speak of. The whole place all looks the same down-trodden look and condition. Yes it's cheap, it's a muni, and therefore it usually gets more play, but now I saw why people are staying away. This is not acceptable, but I guess it is what it is at this level of muni and pricing, you still get to get out and swing you clubs and play golf and try to make putts and have some fun. And to top it off, there was a total log jam of 4 groups at hole 4 and 5, we saw a marshal, we think, drive by and tell us it looks fine up ahead a couple holes, groups in position like they're supposed to be; but!, if that is the case, then why are 4 groups standing at the 5th tee? I tell you why. Because of 6-minute tee times. Just do the math. So it took just over 5 hours to finish today. It's really a shame and a disgrace, that LA can do this to this classic golf course that is renowned the world over. Like I said, that's the joke around here, that the golf courses run by the City is like the freeways and roads around these parts, that they have some of the worst conditions for one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the world. So embarrassing.

Played again a week later, hoping that the greens will have gotten better. Nope! Boy, was I wrong. They had verti-cut the greens! I know it got a bit cold with the very dry, low-humidity weather we're having so the course got firm, but to verti-cut them now, after the greens were punched only a month and half ago, and had not recovered fully! So disappointing. The rest of the course is starting to show the lack of water again too, dry, crusty and patchy in many areas and starting to see less and less of the rough again too. The whole course was strewn with debris from the wind we had the night before, broken branches and leaves everywhere, at least when we played, mid morning thru lunch. The only good thing was the bunkers, they had some newer sand in them and played like normal bunkers, which is an amazing statement for this place, as will all the regulars will attest. But it doesn't excuse the rest of the course.

Six hour rounds are just not acceptable on a weekday. Had to quit after 12 holes because the pace of play was so slow. Illegal pin placement on tenth hole didn't help to speed up play because if you didn't hole your putt it rolled all the way back past your feet.

Early morning tee time, course was mostly wet and soft . Decent coverage throughout, not much rough to speak of, as always. But the greens are almost unacceptable. To have punched them over a month prior, to see them like this, you wonder if they punched at all. Well you know they did because it's bumpy from the punches still, and they have not cut them or rolled them to pack them down a bit. That #9 green needs to be either totally stripped and started over, or they need to triple roll that compared to the rest of them because the punchy waves are unbelievable on that green, that they can't figure something out for it. May be in another month it'll be better.

While checking in the staff question my using GolfNow. Why do they use it if they get upset when people do? Generally a good day. Rather slow the first nine though.

This was my fourth time so obviously I do enjoy playing here but today the pace was so slow we were unable to finish the last three holes due to darkness. We were a group of three and our tee time was 11:54. It was very disappointing to say the least. No one from the course apologized. They had to have known this was going to happen when there was a backload at Hole #1. Oh well we three all got Pars on the last three holes. Wink wink.

Played 11 holes. Quit after 3 hours. One to two group wait on every Tbox. Course condition OK for a Muni. Would play it again if I could get around in less than 5 hours.

First time back to play Rancho in 20 years....did not remember how hilly it was but I will remember how unfriendly it is to walk. There are no mown areas to walk from the tee box to the fairway, which means you will have some heavy pushing to do if you play from the back tee boxes and use a cart.

Course is in good shape for a muni and the greens play reasonably fast, considering where the pin placements were located when I played.

We were a twosome and got stuck behind a 3-some who would not push the 4-some in from of them. The 3-some let us through and the 4-some got the message. We played the front in 2.75 hours and the back in 2 hours after being let through.

I'd play it again, but riding this time!!

Spending a week here in LA , it was quite a challenge to find a golf course open to non members.

This one is perfect , accessible easily and quite friendly staff.

Old facilities except the range which is very nice.

You would be hard pressed to find and play Golf if you live in the city like Los Angeles. Go play this course and you will be greeted by the lush fairway and greens in this drought. Course is in exceptionally good shape considering the traffic is worst than the 405 fwy by all the foot traffic of play this place gets. Pace of play is 4 1/2 he round on Sunday afternoon.

There isn't many choices if you live on the west side of L.A. and this isn't one of them. This course boasts about being championship grade but its in terrible condition. The pace of play if poor and the staff doesn't seem to care or do anything about it.

Seriously. We're having a major drought. So how are they making the course so green now, the best I've seen it in the summer in a few years. The fairways are finally what they're supposed to be, with good grass everywhere. They've even got the rough nice and thick and juicy, at least 3 inches in the thickest areas which will make it difficult to find the ball if you're not careful! But - I will say this again - they can reduce some of the watering around a lot of the tee boxes and use it elsewhere that need it. Some of the tee boxes are so thick around the platforms that it's hard to pull the hand cart through them! I mean it's great that the course is green and has grass now and all - but in this drought, how are they doing this? But it's definitely the best I've seen the place in the summertime in at least 3 or 4 years. Play it while you can! They're about to aerate in 2 weeks' time. What a shame it's that time again. Just as as the course is starting to look good, too.

This is the second time I played this course this month. I played the courses in Griffith Park and this course is more challenging. For the golf now price, it is worth playing. This is becoming my local course .

The grass is growing back, finally, as the City has endeavored to start taking care of some of its courses, and it is looking much better. There is more grass all around, some rough are good and thick, and everything looks greener overall - it's probably the best I've seen it since 2 winters ago. May be in a month it'll be great. But - you have GOT to tee off before 8am to have any chance of finishing within 4.5 hours. Otherwise if you catch it too late it will be 5+. So schedule ahead and plan well.

Some part of fairway was bad because of sand with no grass. When the ball was there, the shot was erroneous.

2 hours to play 6 holes. I walked off. Enough said

The course is in good condition. Very good greens, fairways are nice and the ruff is very rough. Traps have decent sand and the course is generally a lot of fun to play, at least the first few holes. When we got to the fourth hole it backed up three groups. While standing in the fairway on the third hole the group behind me hit up and someone on the next fairway drove a ball right by me. No on calling "FORE". All that was okay because it was a beautiful day.
The problem is the starter was allowing doubles and even singles to play by themselves. That's great if the course is empty but we were waiting four groups deep by the sixth hole. At the turn two groups in front of us quit and the tenth hole was fine but by the eleventh hole is was three deep again. That took all the fun out of it and we abandoned ship and called it a day.

Rancho Park is conveniently located, course condition fair, greens a bit slow and bumpy. It is awfully slow, 3-4 times packed with 3 groups on one tee box, not even par 3s. No staff is even trying to get it in order. Maybe it is holiday spirit, yet I am not playing with that pace, again.