1700 Coyote Point Dr, San Mateo, California, 94401
1 Ranking
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Gene Ouye
San Mateo
2013-10-30
$26 (cart not included), played on Tuesday, October 2013 at noon
Poplar Creek is an extremely popular course in the San Francisco Bay Area because it's a course that anyone, from rank beginner to expert, can play and have a challenging, but fun, time. Don't be deceived by the yardage or the course rating -- it's short, only par 70, but it was designed with the prevailing winds in mind, so some of the holes that seem so short they should be trivial play MUCH harder than they look on the card.
One thing that was done during the redesign in 2000 was to make the greens much more difficult on the shorter holes. If you are familiar with the greens there, you will find that 2-putting most of them is not a major challenge (with a few notable exceptions). But if you are not, then there are several holes where you will feel lucky to have escaped with a 3-putt -- and that's not because the conditions of the greens are bad, it's because the contours of the greens will start to play games with your head, LOL.
There is only one actually easy par 3 (#17) -- all the rest have one or more features that make them diabolical.
Hole #3 is medium-long, into the wind, and has a large pond front left and trees front right. But the wind swirls there, and feels much stronger on the tee than it is over the green.
Hole #5 is medium length with a bunker front left and gigantic mounding around the green -- and there is a severe back to front break on most of the green, and a severe left to right break on the left side of the green. If you are past the hole, good luck stopping the ball on your putt downhill.
Hole #12 is 210 yards (from the back) into the wind -- on a typical afternoon it plays more like 230, and the contours on the green mean if you are putting from one side of the green to the other (because you left your ball on the wrong part of the green), you will be lucky to 3-putt.
Hole #15 seems like it should be easy -- it's not too long and it seems to be protected from the wind a bit. The green looks pretty flat, but you will be shocked when you see the severe break your putt makes back to front when you are on the right half of the green.
The front side is par 36 and the back side is par 34, but almost everybody finds the back side more difficult than the front. There is a series of three short par 4's on the front (6 through 8) that are driveable for the big hitters -- but the only one that should be attempted (unless you are a MUCH better golfer than most of the people who play there) is hole #7. A big miss on #6 and #8 can result in unplayable lies and/or lost balls. Hole #13 doesn't seem very long, but it plays into the wind, and unless you have a big long draw off the tee and then can hit a controlled precise fade onto the green, you will be happy if you end up with a bogey.
The course conditions are what you would expect for a muni. Old divots in the places where balls usually end up mean a lot of crappy lies. You'll find patchy or spotty grass around a lot of the greens, making precise chipping and pitching more difficult than it should be, and you'll also find it in several areas on the fairways (and off the fairways), meaning you often get more difficult shots from there than you deserve. They have been working on improving the fairway conditions, and many of the patchy areas are now marked Ground Under Repair until they resod them -- meaning you get relief from the poor conditions there, but there are still a lot of places on the course that are not GUR but seem like they should be. They recently added or replaced the sand in most of the bunkers, so they play much better than they used to (which was horribly). And for the most part, the greens are extremely fast -- but they often seem to have been overwatered, so there will be hundreds of little depressions in them from the soft spikes on people's shoes. Those are extremely noticeable when the sun is low on the horizon. When the sun is high, you don't notice them, but they are still there.
It should take 3 hours to play the course if nobody is in front of you, and 3 1/2 hours is a reasonable pace of play. A four hour round will feel slow, and the 4 1/2 or 5 hour rounds you'll find on the weekends feel like you're moving at a snail's pace. And thanks to budget cuts, they don't have the marshals like they used to have 12 years ago, so it's rare that someone tries to get the pace to pick up. If you call the clubhouse about a particular slow group, they will always send someone out, but that only helps if the slow group is within sight of you.
Despite those shortcomings, I would definitely recommend this course. It's extremely fair for everyone, and with 4 sets of tees (as well as "Family tee" markers in the fairway, you will find that no matter where your game is, you can play Poplar Creek and have fun.
Would travel: 20-30 Miles, Not Vacation Worthy
Bottom line: I would play again, Better than average course for the area, Fair priced based on quality and competitive area pricing
Layout, Price, No Houses on Course, Staff, Pro Shop
$26 (cart not included), played on Tuesday, October 2013 at noon
Poplar Creek is an extremely popular course in the San Francisco Bay Area because it's a course that anyone, from rank beginner to expert, can play and have a challenging, but fun, time. Don't be deceived by the yardage or the course rating -- it's short, only par 70, but it was designed with the prevailing winds in mind, so some of the holes that seem so short they should be trivial play MUCH harder than they look on the card.
One thing that was done during the redesign in 2000 was to make the greens much more difficult on the shorter holes. If you are familiar with the greens there, you will find that 2-putting most of them is not a major challenge (with a few notable exceptions). But if you are not, then there are several holes where you will feel lucky to have escaped with a 3-putt -- and that's not because the conditions of the greens are bad, it's because the contours of the greens will start to play games with your head, LOL.
There is only one actually easy par 3 (#17) -- all the rest have one or more features that make them diabolical.
Hole #3 is medium-long, into the wind, and has a large pond front left and trees front right. But the wind swirls there, and feels much stronger on the tee than it is over the green.
Hole #5 is medium length with a bunker front left and gigantic mounding around the green -- and there is a severe back to front break on most of the green, and a severe left to right break on the left side of the green. If you are past the hole, good luck stopping the ball on your putt downhill.
Hole #12 is 210 yards (from the back) into the wind -- on a typical afternoon it plays more like 230, and the contours on the green mean if you are putting from one side of the green to the other (because you left your ball on the wrong part of the green), you will be lucky to 3-putt.
Hole #15 seems like it should be easy -- it's not too long and it seems to be protected from the wind a bit. The green looks pretty flat, but you will be shocked when you see the severe break your putt makes back to front when you are on the right half of the green.
The front side is par 36 and the back side is par 34, but almost everybody finds the back side more difficult than the front. There is a series of three short par 4's on the front (6 through 8) that are driveable for the big hitters -- but the only one that should be attempted (unless you are a MUCH better golfer than most of the people who play there) is hole #7. A big miss on #6 and #8 can result in unplayable lies and/or lost balls. Hole #13 doesn't seem very long, but it plays into the wind, and unless you have a big long draw off the tee and then can hit a controlled precise fade onto the green, you will be happy if you end up with a bogey.
The course conditions are what you would expect for a muni. Old divots in the places where balls usually end up mean a lot of crappy lies. You'll find patchy or spotty grass around a lot of the greens, making precise chipping and pitching more difficult than it should be, and you'll also find it in several areas on the fairways (and off the fairways), meaning you often get more difficult shots from there than you deserve. They have been working on improving the fairway conditions, and many of the patchy areas are now marked Ground Under Repair until they resod them -- meaning you get relief from the poor conditions there, but there are still a lot of places on the course that are not GUR but seem like they should be. They recently added or replaced the sand in most of the bunkers, so they play much better than they used to (which was horribly). And for the most part, the greens are extremely fast -- but they often seem to have been overwatered, so there will be hundreds of little depressions in them from the soft spikes on people's shoes. Those are extremely noticeable when the sun is low on the horizon. When the sun is high, you don't notice them, but they are still there.
It should take 3 hours to play the course if nobody is in front of you, and 3 1/2 hours is a reasonable pace of play. A four hour round will feel slow, and the 4 1/2 or 5 hour rounds you'll find on the weekends feel like you're moving at a snail's pace. And thanks to budget cuts, they don't have the marshals like they used to have 12 years ago, so it's rare that someone tries to get the pace to pick up. If you call the clubhouse about a particular slow group, they will always send someone out, but that only helps if the slow group is within sight of you.
Despite those shortcomings, I would definitely recommend this course. It's extremely fair for everyone, and with 4 sets of tees (as well as "Family tee" markers in the fairway, you will find that no matter where your game is, you can play Poplar Creek and have fun.