River Course At the Alisal

Had a 12:20pm tee time at this course yesterday, a Saturday afternoon in the middle of May. We were told that the café at the 9^th hole would be open. When we arrived there at 2:45 the café had just closed at 2:30. At that moment we saw some players walking back from the clubhouse with some food, so we promptly drove our cart up to the clubhouse only to find out that the restaurant there had closed at 3 PM. The bar was open of course, but there was no food except for cookies in the entire facility and we still had 9 holes left to play. I expressed my disappointment in their food schedule, and especially since the grill had just closed, I thought they might have made an effort to accommodate us but that didn’t happen. We made it five more holes and called it quits. We planned an entire weekend around playing golf at this course and the lack of food really put a damper on the entire experience, especially since people could have told us ahead of time what the closing times were so we could have gotten food before setting out to play. I could understand if it was winter and a weekday, but neither of these were the case.

The course is fine to play but the guys in the pro shop are incredibly rude. We have played here 2 or 3 times in the past, but couldn’t even get a tee time today because the guy on the pro shop was so rude. Maybe because My wife and I had not put our golf clothes on yet, but they wouldn’t even look us in the eye to answer questions. They threw out incorrect prices, and told us they had no tee times available. We said we had called earlier and there was twilight available. He then changed his answer and said we could play after 3. As we tried to ask another question he looked past us and started asking questions to the next guy in line. At this point, I laughed, got my wife, and we walked out. Apparently they didn’t want us to play there, so we didn’t.

Sorry for the people below with some of there negativity but honestly some people just like to moan about everything and cannot get out of there own way, I love this course.
Play 36 holes I dare you, play 18 in the morning go for lunch and play 18 in the afternoon, you will get two different courses. Morning calm and breezy, afternoon the wind does seem to pick up and that’s the fun time to play golf. Makes it a little more challenging like a links course.
Staff always smiling and the course is on good shape, they just added new sand to the bunkers (Welcome Addition) and two Bocce ball courts next to the pro shop. Go figure Bocce Ball is popular in the area with leagues. Restaurant serves great food and they also have a really large patio area overlooking the course. I have even seen some weddings going on at the course so they cater for that also. For a public course you cannot go wrong here!!!

This was such a peaceful experience with great food, nice staff and great price.
A local tipped us on to it the night before.
We hear the bloody marries are good but we couldn’t make it happen this time around.
Next time for sure.

Totally overpriced, unimaginitive course. No benches on the course to sit if you’re waiting for hole to clear. Rigid man in the pro shop held up the checkin line haggling over $ 6 dollar price differential which was quoted to us over the phone! So unwelcoming and unprofessional. For a $ 45 twilight rate on a weekday in the Bay Area, you will get to play on a high quality course that includes a cart, not an overgrown cow pasture with a view. I don’t know know if they kicked their rates up after Sideways came to town, but you would be much better off taking the drive to Rancho San Marcos if you want to get what you pay for.

Beautiful golf course!
Not to mention the most affordable practice facilities (range) around
Friendly staff.
We had the chicken Caesar salad and the tri tip sandwich at the River Grill.
All at a reasonable price.
Great way to spend a day!

I’ve waited two months to write this review for a reason.
Let me explain… my cousin, brother in law and father in law and I played this course on ¹²⁄₂₂. We had a Golfnow «Hot Time» where we got on for $ 40 with a cart. We checked the weather all week and saw that there was a chance of rain on that saturday. We headed up there, experiencing no rain until just on the other side of Ventura.
Got to the course and it was raining off and on. Talked with Andrew Howie in the pro-​shop, and he was very professional and polite. He told us that there were no electric carts being allowed out while it was raining (understandable), but that if the rain stopped they would be sending them out. There were carts lined up right outside of the clubhouse at this point. We were kind of hoping the rain would let up so we decided to have breakfast before making a decision.
After breakfast we kicked around the idea of just passing and coming back, but ultimately decided that it wasn’t raining very hard and we had just driven from the Palmdale area to get there (pretty long drive — 3+ hrs). We checked with the pro shop again and confirmed that there were still no carts being let out and that they would be let out if the rain stopped.
On hole 3, the rain let up for good and the sun came out. We were already walking and on the other side of the course so we figured it wouldn’t be an issue to walk the rest of the 9 and then switch out and get the electric cart for the back. While finishing the front 9 we saw a few electric carts out on the course with players in them (**this part is key for the rest of the story).
When we stopped off at the clubhouse after 9, Andrew was gone and it was a new guy (Mario). This guy was probably the most unprofessional, angry, impolite person that I have ever met/​dealt with. My brother in law poked his head in to ask if we could get the electric carts since my father in law is getting up there in age and is over weight with bad knees — not a good combination for walking, and before you know it the conversation is heated. I actually have the detailed conversation line by line if anyone cares. Bottom line, Mario began swearing, using the F word at us, and threatening to kick us off the course. I know this is where most people will say that we deserved it, but I have been playing for years and can promise you that we did not.
We ended up finishing the round walking, and I thank God that I took pictures of the other carts on the course and Mario talking to the players in them. Heres why: I emailed Robert Scarpati, the GM of the course and didn’t get a response. In this email I detailed out the situation, including the line by line conversation and asked that the course consider giving us a complimentary round given the service that we were lucky enough to get. Really, I don’t even care so much about the free round because I’m not too likely to drive 3+ hours to get there again, but really I wanted an apology — either from Robert or from Mario himself. Called him and he did actually call back a couple days later. He told me that he was informed of the situation (one side of it anyways), and also that there were no carts on the course. I almost felt as though he was arguing it with me — the patron — until I mentioned that I had pictures of the carts on the course and Mario talking to them. His tone seemed to change at that point. He agreed to review the email (which I sent directly to him this time) and that he would call me again a few days after that. Well, it has been close to two months now since that phone call and I have not heard anything from Robert. I have reached out a few times trying to call them but have not gotten anything more than crickets back from them.
The ONLY reason that the course got two stars, is because the course itself was decent. It was a fun layout, with good teeboxes and fairways. Greens were pretty true but water logged and given the rain I couldn’t expect much more. The service here though (this is pro shop only — the restaurant was great) was sub-​par. Despite Andrew’s professionalism and positive attitude towards customers, Mario and Robert have dropped the ball big time and will not be earning any positive reviews from this golf fanatic anytime soon.

Does this course belong on a SoCal list? Maybe, maybe not. But I enjoyed it so much that I would tell any of my LA friends to drive up to Solvang for the day or even a long weekend and make a mandatory stop at the River Course.
The Course: If you’ve ever gone wine tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley, driven the San Marcos Pass or checked out Solvang you know how beautiful it is. And golf nerds like me always think «how great would a course look right here.»
Well this one fits the bill. About a 2-​hour drive from LA and within walking distance from downtown Solvang, the River Course is firmly entrenched in my favorite west coast courses.
There is just so much to like about the property from the beautiful views, cool breezes, fun layout and wine country setting. This was same course featured in the film «Sideways».
Everything was in great shape when I played here and it was nice to get away from the overseeding that is necessary for more southern courses.
The River Course isn’t the most difficult track, but there are definitely opportunities to get in trouble, especially off the tee. If you can hit the fairways however, you can definitely score here. Some very big greens and some pretty short par 4’s.
I really enjoyed the last 4 holes too. Some people hate short par 3’s, but #17 is a very fun 105 yarder backed by a cool stone wall and lake. #18 is a «hit this tee shot as hard as you can» straight away par 4.
Facilities: Really nice clubhouse and busy grill room. Looks like it gets a lot of use from non-​golfers which is always a good sign (I didn’t eat there). Also a really cool staff in the pro shop who let us out early and even gave us free sunscreen when we forgot ours.
Pace of play: This might have been the best part of the round. I played with my wife on a mid-​day Saturday and we finished in 3 hours and 40 minutes! There were other people on the course but it moved along.
Value: Once again GroupGolfer came through with a great course but from what I understand the regular rates are plenty reasonable and I will gladly play this course again when I’m in the area.
Apparently the Central Coast is loaded with courses just like the River Course. Beautiful, not overplayed and a great value. Definitely worth the trip.

The River Course is a challenging but a really great course. A lot of trees, changes in terrain, etc. A lot of the course opens up in a lot of spots, so you wont lose a ton of balls. The conditions have always been good as well. The holes wind through a number of homes, past a vineyard on one hole. And best of all, not that expensive. (I posted the rates below)
Thank goodness, this one location in Solvang that has NOT been overrun with Sideways movie fanatics.
RIVER COURSE GREEN FEE RATES
EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2007
DAILY FEE: MONDAY-​FRIDAY $ 60.00
DAILY FEE: SATURDAY-​SUNDAY $ 72.00
TWILIGHT: 2:30 DAILY $ 45.00
SENIOR FEE: (55 AND OLDER) MON.-FRI. $ 45.00
JUNIOR FEE: (7 – 17 YEARS OLD) MON.-FRI. $ 39.00