Mercer Oaks Golf Course - East Course

It has been 5 years since I last played Mercer Oaks East. The setting and layout of the course is sensational . You feel like you are far away from civilization in a beautiful place with nature abundant. The course was a bit mushy, the fairways didn't provide much roll and the greens were quite slow on this day. The traps are huge and were like cement with hard packed sand.

We had a great day and the weather was perfect. The facility as a whole is very nice. I know that the course conditions will be better on a future visit but it certainly did not impact a great day!

Greens a little beat up

Some Sand bunkers like cement

All in all not to bad for $50

I would come back

This course has held up a lot better than some of the other courses I've played this summer. There is some evidence of wear and tear from the rain then heat but nothing too bad. Special thanks to the Marshal for speeding up the group in front of us who had a 2 hole gap. We are getting into aeration season so I will try to get back in a couple of weeks.

The course was aerated the day before and the day of my play, there was no warning online however it was posted on the proshop door once I arrive but it was too late to cancel.

I arrived on time, checked in and got to the tee box 1 minute late for my 1:20. The courses appeared wide open at the time, the first 3 holes was a breeze, but from hole 4 to 18 I waited after every shot, I was joined by another single who was also walking at the 5th tee. We saw the Ranger drive by then several times and never asked them to pick up the pace or let us through.

I finally had enough and stopped the Ranger on 15 to have a discussion, his excuse was that they were playing on pace and he couldn’t do anything. This foursome had three carts, they allowed the threesome ahead of us to play through in the fairway on 7 and those guys were gone.

I was told by the starter the foursome had a 1:40 tee time but was sent out early at 1, I had a 1:20 and the clueless, spineless Ranger that refused to do his job should have known this and had a conversation with them about their place of play.

I don’t know if this is how it is at this course, but my experience was horrible.

I’m sure the other amenities could have been better, but I wasn’t going to stick around and take any chances.

Very disappointed. I play this course every year and its historically been great. They expect you to play a 4 hour round. We were 6 minutes behind (on a weekday afternoon) and the ranger came out to us twice to say the people behind us called the pro shop because we're playing slow. 6 minutes behind is not worth the ranger coming out and getting into an argument with, but it happened. All the while the bunkers had weeds and rocks, and the fairways had brown spots and random holes with water. Course was in terrible shape and all the ranger cared about was us playing 6 minutes slow.

For this time of the year the course was in pretty good shape. A couple of tee boxes were pushed up and 1 fairway go killed by the rain/heat combination. They are aerating on 8/18 so keep that in my. A special thanks to the marshal for speaking to the group in front of us as they had a 2 hole opening in front of them. It helped a little.

Conditions were absolutely horrendous… played here many times in the past ….never seen it like this!!!!

Hard fairways, fast greens, tee boxes ok. Super hot day, but some cloud cover made this round bearable. Wide open fairways , sand bunkers just rocky, need more sand. Heat starting to take its toll.

Played the east course and found it to be very enjoyable. Course was in good shape but the greens were a little bumpy. Pace of play was great and the price was reasonable. Definitely would come back and try the west course

I played the West and East a few days apart from each other and I'm having a hard time deciding which I liked better. The West course is a little more challenging with tee placement and a little tighter of a course while the East you can get a away some big misses off the tee if you strategically choose the widest part of the fairway. Since the East fairways are more open, they increase difficulty by making a lot of the greens have 2 tiers so your approach shot needs to be accurate for the proper tier that the pin is placed on. If you hit the wrong part of the green, you can easily 3 putt on the trickier greens. If you struggle with your tee shots, I would suggest playing the East course with most holes giving you plenty of room for a miss without punishing you too bad.

Mercer Oaks is a favorite, worth-a-drive destination, which probably made the conditions even more surprising. The rough features considerable crabgrass, the bunkers need tending (some are rock and stone-strewn), and the ball washers were mostly dry. The staff was great, as always, and the course layout engaging, as always. I am sure the wet weather has been a problem, so hopefully when (if) conditions improve, so will the course.