Roll Call: Orange County, CA (Long Beach, Inland Empire etc too!)

There’s an LA roll call already, but I didn’t find anything for those of us behind the orange curtain and neighboring areas. Any NLU’ers out there interested playing some golf east of the 710 and south of the 10?

I started the LA Roll Call and it’s definitely morphed into a West-LA specific group. I work in LB & HB right now so kinda fit into both regions. I know there’s more LA refugees lurking around too!

Any of you Long Beach / LA guys know a Stuart M (mid 30s, sub 80 shooter) - I’d love to get in contact with him. We met playing Pebble six years ago. Great guy!

I’ll be Stuart M! Another round at Pebble? If you can make the tee time and cover my portion I’ll venmo you after the round. Thanks!!

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Hey Kelch, if you are interested in an SCGA Affiliate club, we’ve got a great group called Sons of St. Andrews and we play tournaments once a month on Thursday afternoons anywhere from Long Beach to the Inland Empire. Most guys play in about half of our events and there are some diehards that make almost every one. We have a hookup at Hacienda Golf Club next Monday 12/10 if you want to join us and meet some of the gang. (Several of us are NLU devotees). Hacienda is a hidden gem worth the trip, best course this side of LACC IMO.

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I will be on the lookout for a Stuart M on the fairways of SoCal and tell him Matthew M from Pebble is looking for him!

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Thanks :grinning:

To be honest, he’s a man of style, and he’s got game. He was on WRX and I fully expected him to be a refugee, and to have already responded!

New OC guy here. I feel like we’re in a barren waste land for good golf. Mostly play at Oak Creek. Used to be a member at Aliso Viejo CC, but couldn’t deal with dropping off a pound of flesh every month for that mediocre massacre of a Jack Nicklaus (or whoever at JN Design drew it up) course. I’ll catch 9 at Ben Brown’s every once in a while also. I’m guessing there aren’t too many woke golfers in South County, but if you’re here, where do you play at?

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I moved out here a year and a half ago from the east coast…I feel ya on it being a pretty barren wasteland for golf. I’m a big fan of Oak Creek but my wallet is not. Same goes for Strawberry Farms. I play Mile Square in Fountain Valley a lot. It’s a solid muni and I live pretty close by. Don’t mind travelling to play decent golf so I also hit Talega, Tijeras Creek and Oak Quarry to name a few. I actually work in Laguna Beach so let me know if you ever want to get out to Ben Brown before/after work.

Sweet. I’ll DM you next time I’m planning to head over to Ben Brown’s and see if we can meet up.

Oak Creek can get pricey, but after sinking a chunk of $ into their player’s club membership, the $84 weekday rounds become more manageable for me. If I play weekend rounds, I usually play twilight for $89.

That makes sense. Without the membership it’s way more expensive. Such a great course though.

DM me about Ben Brown next time you’re out there.

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Big NLU fan but new to The Refuge/Nest.

Live in OC and play almost all my golf at Tustin Ranch GC. Pretty happy overall there, aside from the occasional long round. Their public rates are WAY out of whack imho but I see what they’re trying to do. Pay the monthly “membership” and fees become much more realistic/fair.

Anyone else make it out to TR often?

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I did the monthly membership at Tustin Ranch for a while last year. The discounts were crucial because the rack rates are absurd. I ended up switching to Anaheim Hills primarily because the costs were adding up pretty fast, even with the membership discounts. (Some of the regular members were, eh, less than welcoming to the monthly members, I thought, but that is mostly beside the point.)

AH is definitely not on par with TR but from a cost-benefit standpoint I’d rate it quite a bit higher. Would love to play at Tustin Ranch again but I don’t think I’d ever pay $200 for a 5+ hour weekend round.

Been trying to get around more locally and mix things up lately. Hope to catch you out there!

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Agree, if you’re not a member at TR it’s simply not worth it. No way around it.

Can’t say I’ve run into any issues with other members. But I play all my golf early AM on weekdays which helps a ton for pace of play and not sure I see many of the full members then.

I tried AH about a year ago and found that I just liked TR (taking $ out of equation) more. A bit harsh for me to judge off only one round though. Maybe we can find a time to play AH together? You ever play weekday mornings?

Oh yeah without the cost factoring in I’d agree with you. I live directly in between the two and realized before too long that if I was going to play 2-4 rounds a week (which I was doing in the Spring/Summer) then cutting my golf expenses in half would be wise.

I have heard mixed reviews on AH, which are fair. My take on it is that for the cost, it’s about as good as you can do in Orange County. And honestly, I’m not aware of any OC courses at its price point that are comparable. Rancho San Joaquin in Irvine is about the same and that place is just a dump. Otherwise you’re looking at way, way more money for good golf (TR, Oak Creek, Black Gold, Strawberry Farms) or less money for terrible golf (River View). There are a few good finds, I think: Fullerton GC is a decent short course that could probably be a real cool spot with some investment, and San Clemente Muni, which is a pretty straightforward walk in the park save for a few holes on the back that really mix things up, and ocean views on many holes. It’s a hike from north county though.

At any rate. Would love to catch a round at AH. I typically play in the afternoons because of my work schedule, but hoping for some holes in that schedule over the holidays. Let’s keep in touch and get out there if we can (warning: I’m not a great golfer).

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All fair takes. And yeah, cutting golf costs in half is always a wise decision if it can be done!

Sounds great re meeting up sometime. I’m sure I could flip to an afternoon round one day during the week too. And don’t worry, I’m not great either!

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New to the Refuge. Inland Empire and North OC checking in. Where y’all at?!

I live up in LA but I played Lakewood in Long Beach for the first time last weekend. Nice course, pretty good price ($45 to ride at noon on a weekend), good conditioning and decent pace for a public course. Definitely recommended!

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Orange here. Where do you play?

Currently mostly out in Murrieta, Temecula and Hemet areas as that’s where my 2 playing partners have moved. I’m in Corona so I’m a little closer to the OC stuff, but I’ve played almost everything public in the IE/OC area, I haven’t made it much past Royal Vista towards LA though.