Garbage muni that embodies everything you think about muni courses.
Are they gone? Good. I want to keep this on the down-low (as if anyone reads this anyway LOL). This course is awesome. And I don't mean awesome for a muni course - I mean this is one of the best courses I've played in SoCal.
Rio Hondo is in Downey. Downey is a blue collar town not far from south central. When you think of golf courses in south central, you think burned up fairways, destroyed greens, a crappy little mobile home for a clubhouse, and just an overall mediocre golf experience. The first thing you notice about Rio Hondo is the insanely beautiful clubhouse. I could've sworn I found a Trump course in the middle of the ghetto. The clubhouse is so nice that I immediately thought that I might've missed a zero in the price of a round. When I found out that it was definitely was only $61 for a round and a cart, I figured I was going to see a Los Verdes-esque number of fivesomes and my Aunt and I would get paired up with Hunter Mahan and Rickie Fowler. What? We're not paired up? Wow, this course must be absolute shit. Hmm, well these teeboxes are very flat and well-maintained. Holy crap, these greens are perfect. I wonder what the fairways are like (I still haven't gotten that far after a few rounds here).
The point is, this place is an enigma. It's inexpensive, it's beautifully maintained, the layout is very tight and difficult but very rewarding, it screams class, AND NOBODY FUCKING PLAYS IT. When the dude in the pro shop told me it came to $27 yesterday (Memorial Day) to play all the holes I could get in (I made 18), the words that came out of my mouth were "whoa, what?". "Yeah, they make us give you the weekend rate because it's a holiday". "Dude.. no.. that's cheap. I was on your website and it didn't say anything about twilight so I figured I was going to be paying like $45".
Let's get into specifics of the course. Every teebox is perfectly flat, so that's automatic points. The greens are Poa like all of them down here, but they roll extremely true. The layout is tighter than a nun's cunt. There are some holes where you have to fit your teeshot up a chute that's no more than 20 feet wide and land it on a fairway that needs a few pieces of cake to hit 15 yards wide. If you manage to hit the fairway, usually you have a pretty straightforward shot to the green. If you miss, you're chipping out. There are no blind teeshots here - the challenge is right in your face, daring you to hit the driver.
There are some TOUGH holes here too. #8 is a 233 yard par 3. 9 is a 420 yard par 4 with water up the left and a tiny chute that you need to fit your ball in from the tee. The 3rd is a par 5 with no landing area for your tee ball. 7 is a 170 yard par 3 with a lake guarding the right. The rest of them are either lined with trees or OB. If you're not hitting the ball straight, you're going to have a rough time. If you're hitting it well, you're going to make some birdies. That's what they call a fair challenge, boys and girls.
Bottom line, if you play this course, don't tell anyone about it. There are VERY few courses in SoCal where you can go out as a twosome on a respectable course, not get paired up, and finish in 3.5 hours.
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