Located in the heart of Irvine, Rancho San Joaquin, a public golf course has terrific views of the newly evolving city. The just built high rise condos, the corporate buildings and proximity to John Wayne Airport make this area the new business center of Orange County.
I've played similar courses in other cities, such as Encanto Golf Course in downtown Phoenix and always enjoy the park like setting of a golf course surrounded by city. You can't help thinking how nice it is that those people in the buildings are hard at work and you're not.
Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course has 3 small lakes which luckily don't come into play too much but the potential for disaster is always there. Palm trees are everywhere and one of them was nice enough to knock down one of my errant shots and keep me on the fairway. Speaking of the fairways, many of the public courses in Orange County use a kukuya type of grass which is not my favorite type of grass to hit off of. The pros wouldn't go near it. If you don't mind an occassional wrist sprain go ahead and try taking a divot with a wedge.
But for us average hackers it's the thrill of that one big drive, a wedge shot that lands softly on the green or the bending 30 foot putt that finds the bottom of the cup that keeps us coming back for more.
As I've mentioned before I play with a group of local Realtors with the very accurately descriptive name "The Laguna Hackers". Our team captain for the day, Andy, was able to get a very good group rate of only $37 including the cart. It was a beautiful day, the course was in great shape and it was a good day to ponder life's injustices: Why can't we do this everyday?
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