San Diego Golf-Have the Fires Hurt the Courses?

With the headlines about the wildfires around San Diego, many phone calls have come into our offices at the Golf Guys recently about San Diego and, of course, the golf courses.

If you are planning a golf trip to San Diego, don’t let the fires stop you. We’re happy to report that all of the courses we’re affiliated with were hardly touched by the fires.

True, it affected a lot of land, but all of the courses are looking great and playing better. In fact, the area of greater concern in San Diego is what the maintenance schedules look like.

Steele Canyon Golf Club is open and ready for the challenge of the Canyon 9 or the meander through the Meadows 9. This is one of Gary Player’s Signature golf courses and one he deserves to be very proud of.

The course that was probably the most affected was Maderas Golf Club. They actually closed on October 22 when the community around the course was evacuated. They quickly reopened by October 27. They lost a couple of bridges, but they report, “The Clubhouse, Del Lago Ballroom, cart fleet, maintenance building and all on-course restrooms at Maderas are fine and intact.” We’re glad to hear that.

Maderas is one of the premier clubs in the San Diego area. If you are looking for a top-notch daily fee course that serves you like a country club member, this is it.

Another course that experienced a fire threat was Salt Creek Golf Club. The surrounding brush is a little charred but will be cleared in no time. The greens are probably in the best shape they’ve ever been in. This course is very convenient, only 20 minutes from downtown San Diego, sitting up on a hill overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean.

Several courses were a quite a ways from the fires but are in the midst of their annual maintenance. Mt. Woodson Golf Club completed their overseeding project and is cart-path-only right now, but were ready for you to play as of the weekend of November 17.

If you want to play a newer course in Southern California, include Arrowood on your golf agenda. With large greens, Arrowood aerates half of their greens at a time, so you can still play smooth, flawless greens on one side while the other side recovers. They’re also working on the rough and tee boxes, so they’ll be ready for your game by the end of November.

Carlton Oaks recently aerated their greens and Aviara Golf Resort overseeded their rough areas. Both will be ready for your Thanksgiving round.

Hopefully, this puts your concerns to rest. Makes plans to visit San Diego to give a boost to a community that has been through a lot this past fall. And also play some great golf.

Hit ‘em long and straight.

Roy Eshbaugh is the President of /www.Golfguys.net''>Golf Guys.net an easy way to find courses and reserve a tee time, especially on a /www.golfguys.net/golf-courses/san_diego/''>San Diego golf courses. A passionate golfer who has played some of the best golf courses around, he created GolfGuys.net to help people find courses that fit their challenging requirements or just happened to be close by in a strange town.