The Crossings at Carlsbad

This is a tough call. The hole designs are pretty interesting, the price is competitive - locals get a slam dunk greens fee rate and visitors aren't soaked. The clubhouse and staff are superb. The design of each hole is not bad. The greens are rediculously mounded and crowned and pin positions near the edge of the greens make scoring impossible for the average player. One par 3, I hit to within 8 feet of the hole and mounding carried my ball 75 feet to back of the green where I promptly 3 putted. On another par 5, I hit a high arcing shot to within 12 feet and ended in the rough 75 feet away because of mounding and roll. Too penal. The mounding on the greens need to toned down a bit because the quality and speed felt like we played Augusta at Master's time. The single biggest issue on this course is the course layout. Driving between some holes is unduly long. In fairness to the designers, the course meanders through a large tract of environmentally sensitive land. Therein lies the difficulty of rating the course. The experience certainly removes you from civiliation for most of the holes. The driving makes walking impossible. If I had to suggest and make mods to this course they would be: 1) consider a reroute to reduce driving 2) reduce the size and mounding on some of the holes. Good shots need to be rewarded. Too many designers are concerned with building in gotcha's and the average player just gets unduly penalized for not hitting a perfect shot. I'd play this again but I don't recommend it for beginners or corporate outtings. This is a challenging golf course for the serious, low handicap golfer.

Very new course. Extremely difficult. Overall conditions were excellent. Don't bother if you are more than a single digit. Johnny Miller would hate these greens...unbelievable slopes and humps. Bunkers are like hitting out of wet powdered sugar. Come see where the city of Carlsbad spent 67 million!!!!!!!!! Better yet, save yourself the punishment, and play Aviara instead.