The Course
Talega Golf Club
990 Avenida Talega
San Clemente, CA 92673
(949) 369-6227
First Impressions:
I arrived early to get a good lay of the land and the first thing I noticed is that this is a pretty course and looks to be well maintained. The second thing I learned is that this is probably not a course to walk because some of the holes have quite a bit of distance between them. I was advised that the first 9 holes are mostly standard play for the average armature but the back 9 will be challenging. I met with the golf shop pro (Brian Schaefer) and he set me up with 3 seniors to make up our team. Brian is great and helped make this event a success.
My golf partners:
Doug
Jeremy
Christen
Jeremy and Christen are friends and Doug is a member at this course and was very helpful in providing information on best way to play each hole. Doug and Christen were not interested in keeping score so Just Jeremy and me kept actual score. However, we all agreed to a friendly par contest so we kept track of each person’s number of pars.
About our game:
Well although it was not a contest between us but Doug lost the first ball on the first hole. We all lost at least one ball playing this course. Doug and I made a nice dead center drive on hole #4 and we both made par. Jeremy was clearly the long ball hitter of our group and he had a rough start on hole #2 finishing with a triple bogie. However, after that he went on to play a very consistent good game. Christen was making some great tee shots and playing quite well all day. I think she should have kept score because I think it would have shown off some of her skill. Doug got over the frustration of loosing a ball on the first hole and went on to play some pretty good consistent golf. I think if he kept score it would have also been pretty good. Jeremy and I kept hitting dueling drives with his mostly beating mine by about 10 yards.
Our results:
Doug = no score and 3 pars
Christen = no score and 1 par
Jeremy = score of 87 and 7 pars
Tony = score of 87 and 5 pars
Jermey and I tied for final score but he clearly won the par contest.
About my game:
Hole #9 (par 4) After a bad drive and a bad 2nd shot that left me behind a tree, I hit my 3rd shot to get back out in the faraway. Then I hit my 4th (pitch shot from about 90 yards out and landed just inches from the hole and made bogie. See photo attached.
Hole #16 (par 4) I hit an excellent down the middle drive and then a 2nd shot that was about 60 yards short of the green. My 3rd (chip shot landed about 15 feet from the hole and then I made the long putt for par. It was an amazing right to left putt. This was not an easy course to play and finishing with a score of 87 was very good for me. The golf gods were on my side this day.
My favorite hole:
Hole #15 (par 5)
Yikes! You cannot see the green from this elevated tee box. The fairway and green are down below. As you stand at the tee box there is a large clump of tall trees blocking the view of the green and fairway. There is a flag out on the left side of the fairway and on top of a tall pole (like a telephone pole) that you can see just sticking up over the trees in front of you. The idea is if you hit your tee shot left of the flag you will most likely never find the ball, but if you hit right of the flag, you should be in the fairway. I found my ball on the left side and went on to make a bogie on this hole. I was happy with that.
A little more about this course:
Talega Golf Club, located in the hills of San Clemente set above the “Spanish Village by the Sea,” is truly one of the best golf experiences in Southern California.
Established in 2001, Talega features an 18-hole, par 72 Fred Couples “Signature” championship golf course in Orange County ranked America’s Top Golf Course (by Golf Digest/ESPN/Zagat Survey), driving range, and Spanish colonial clubhouse architecture with bell tower and village courtyard setting.
This would not be my choice to play as an early beginner golfer. However, having said that if your plan is to play just 9 holes then the front 9 is probably ok. I scored one stroke better on the back 9 than I did on the front 9 so I was very pleased with that.
The GPS in the carts is great and not only gives you distance to the front, middle, and back of the green but it also recommends on how to play the hole. (see picture attached). This is good because the score cards do not have a course map on them like most do. However, there is a course guide book available that gives detail on each hole. This course was designed by Fred Couples (famous pro golfer) and I made a joke to the group that he must have been high when he planned out hole #15. This is a fun place to play for an armature like me and I would love to do it again sometime.
