Anaheim Hills Golf Club

[MNUte]

Hey there! So my wife's stepdad and I will be playing Anaheim Hills Golf Club tomorrow for the first time while the wives are at Disney. Let me know if there are any recommendations for handling the course. Similarly, let me know if there are any questions. I'll provide an update and review either tomorrow or Monday. 

[MNUte]

All in all, a very fun course. 

Facilities: 8/10. While it's certainly not the Ritz, the facilities are very nice and definitely above average. There's the formal dining room and restaurant with very good food, very accommodating staff, and a lot of good variety. The snack bar is literally 20 feet from the 10th hole's teebox, so perfect location for a back-nine snack. 

Food: 9/10. The snack bar has enough to keep you going for the back 9, including hot dog, chili cheese dog, drinks, alcohol, chips, etc. The formal restaurant has even more, ranging from stereotypical golf course food up to actually quite nice fare. I went quick with the hot dog and wasn't disappointed. Filling, not too large or too small, perfect for a quick refresh. 

Food/Drink Cart. 5/10 Of course needs to be its own category. Has several different types of beers available, several different types of chips and snacks. The downside is that the cart appears to just be driving the course in reverse and therefore has the chance to show up at the strangest times and locations, i.e. middle of the 14th hole. I think a lot of these issues could be mitigated with a second cart and dedicating one to the front nine and one to the back nine. 

Rental Clubs: 8/10. The rentals were all Cleveland. Cleveland HB launcher driver, 3 wood and 19 degree hybrid. Cleveland CBX launcher irons with steel shafts, Cleveland CBX 56 degree wedge and a Cleveland Huntington Beach putter (I had the blade, wife's stepdad had the mallet). Overall great rental clubs in great condition that nearly anyone can use. Since I normally play CBX's, it was an easy transition for me, but for my step-FIL with a faster swing, he loved that he had clubs that were so downright easy to hit high and straight despite them being a bit too spinny for him. The only reason I'm giving clubs an 8 is the gap from the 44 degree PW to the 56 degree SW. Unfortunately, the lack of a 48, 50 or 52 meant I was in some rough distances and had to manufacture some shots I wasn't comfortable with. Unfortunately cost me about 3 strokes for sure. 

Course layout: 10/10. Some people are going to strongly disagree with this, but I absolutely loved the layout. I had to think on absolutely every hole and even when I was complaining, I was smiling. The course has some massive upslopes and downslopes and multiple blind hard doglegs that force you to layup and actually break the course apart. E.g., on one hole it was a blind, uphill 230 yard max shot and then a 70 yard shot into the green 90 degrees to the left where I couldn't cut the corner because of a massive hill in the way. Additionally, the course is designed into the hills and has several incredible panoramas and views. I just appreciated the variety that the course had, where I can genuinely say every whole was significantly different than the others. 

Course difficulty: 5/10. For anyone near a bogey golfer, this isn't a difficult course. Playing the course sight unseen with rental clubs after two days of Disney walking, I shot a 95, which is only a few strokes above my normal. And several of those strokes could be attributed to lack of a wedge between 44 and 56 degrees. It's not a long course at all and emphasizes consistency over distance off the tee. 

Course conditions: 7/10. It was actually frustrating because it was hard to find consistency between tee box, fairway and greens. Some of the tee boxes and fairways were over-watered and so I had several soggy shots. Yet, the course was overall in great condition. The greens are fairly well maintained and run incredibly quickly. Not pro levels, but definitely quick. Bunkers were a little firm but overall it was still a fairly smooth and easily smooth swing to get the ball out of them.