Carlton Oaks Lodge, Ascend Hotel Collection

Played the back 9 Sunday morning, course was nice and weather was good.

Classic carlton. Decent greens. Patchy fairways. Layout superb.

I love Carlton Oaks. The staff is always friendly. The course is fun. My only complaint is that the sand trap are more like gravel traps. Other than that, love this hidden gem.

Difficult layout and poor conditions.

So…. Affordable prices for beginner golfers to an unfriendly course for beginners=

1.

Poor Conditions getting worse from beginners (fixed at least 4 pitch marks per green). Greens are not firm enough to withstand the onslaught of beginner golfers.

2.

Incredibly slow pace of play made worse by the employees putting up their hands (what are ya gonna do?)

I would play for $30 first thing in the morning. Not for $60.

Sad that one of the best layouts in San Diego has become an absolute dump. I wasn’t sure if it was a golf course or the surface of the moon. This could be one of the best tracks in the county if it were in good shape.

I’ve played this course at its absolute worst and it’s absolute best and right now the conditions are above average. I can see they’re starting to put some money into the course and the fairways are getting nicer! The greens are a little slow and could use a little overseeding. The biggest problem I The last time I played was the pace of play. It was very slow and took us almost 5 hours to finish 16 holes!

I’ve always loved the layout of Carlton Oaks. Over the years the wild card has always been the course conditions and maintenance quality. This round, my only minor comments are that some of the tee boxes are in need of repair, and the greens were very hard and not as receptive to pitch shots as usual. The latter is just a matter of allowing for lots of rollout. Putts roll well, bunkers are in good shape. I really enjoyed my round and I will be back.

Got an early tee time for myself because the boys could come out to play. I ended up trailing another single, but he asked me to play through as I caught up to him and ended up with a two-some another hole ahead. The fairways were good and the greens were tricky with the morning dew. The par 5s are fun, too.

One issue was we had to tee off from the side of the tee box on one of the later holes because the groundskeeper had the sprinklers on and didn't turn them off as we came up. He just waved at us...other than that, this is a nice course and its at the right price.