Courtesy of Fairmont/Brian Oar
Courtesy of Fairmont/Corey Weiner, Red Square Photo
Courtesy of Fairmont/Corey Weiner, Red Square Photo
Courtesy of Fairmont/Corey Weiner, Red Square Photo
Courtesy of Fairmont/Corey Weiner, Red Square Photo
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Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists
Reviews
Review
“Resort golf courses are your quintessential country clubs for a day, on steroids. In return for hefty green fees, they aspire to higher standards of service, course design, maintenance, and quality of experience. The Grand Del Mar Golf Club meets those measures while maintaining a level of exclusivity. The Grand Golf Club debuted in 1999 as a daily fee course called Meadows Del Mar, but underwent substantial improvements under the direction of its original architect, Tom Fazio. He turned the par-4, sixteenth into a par-5, changed some teeing grounds, added bunkers, and installed a million-dollar waterfall to the eighteenth hole. This is a bold routing through canyon country. The course provides four sets of tees from 5230 to 7180 yards. Fazio spaced them roughly 500-600 yards apart, which makes a fair game for anyone. Choose carefully to make the most from bunkering and terrain with beneficial pinball qualities, in places. Typical of resort courses, many of the holes look more threatening in contemplation than reality. To score well, stay close to the lines. Bogeys are easy, even on the large greens. A string of pars and birdies will take some doing. From the two rear tees, this is all the golf course a single digit player can handle. Every hole is interesting. The front nine offers several excellent par 4-s. The uphill, par-4, second plays as long as 462 yards. It moves around elbow bunkers inside a dogleg left. Stay away from them. This hole plays well from the right. Even the green slopes right to left. Two bunkers protect the left side. The downhill, par-4, fifth plays a maximum of 378 yards. It looks short and simple on paper but is just long enough to require a straight drive into the narrow, right-to-left slanting fairway. Woods and a hidden creek crowd the left side. This hole exemplifies the best of those multiple tee options. Fifty yards separate the whites from the backs, and twenty more from the tips. From either of those latter two, it feels as if you are driving the ball into a thimble. The 372-454 yard, par-4, eighth, was my most memorable hole on the course. It moves left, uphill, and around a mountain, with penal/protective bunkers on the outside corner. You will hit your second into a two-tiered green with more bunkers, which lie short right. Why this hole, which requires two all-world shots, ranks as only the #5 handicap, baffles me. Phil Mickelson reportedly bogeyed the eighth while en-route to shooting a 63. The Grand Del Mar Golf Club does not require brut force all the way around, however. It also has a nice rhythm. Easier holes follow tougher ones, allowing players to gather their wits. The back nine finishes with four memorable holes. The par-4 fifteenth plays 416 yards and drops 220 feet from the tips. Hit a rainmaker into the fairway and watch it fall. Favor the right side and the green opens up nicely. The 495-515 yard, sixteenth, is the shortest par-5 on the course, but narrows in the landing area, and bends slightly downhill, to the right. Many shots funnel back to the center. Strong golfers can reach this green in two if the wind does not blow, but there is native area, left, and water behind. This is an excellent hole for mach play, or to get one back. The 148-242 yard, par-3, seventeenth resembles a moderated cape hole, with water in front, left, and behind. The green is deep, with two tiers. If you have anything on the line, the seventeenth will take some mettle, particularly from the back tees and into that prevailing breeze. Finally, you will reach the 351-421 yard, par-4, eighteenth. This is home to that million dollar waterfall. Pumps push seven thousand gallons a minute into a fast moving creek below the green, and then that water fills a lake. This is one to see If you are an aficionado of such manufactured water features on golf courses. After seventeen holes through mostly arid environs, it was like, ’Where in the land of drought did this come from?’ Your answer...recycling. And yet, that creek adds strategic value. The eighteenth plays downhill into a fairway pinched by bunkers. My ball found the left one, making par problematic due to three bunkers defend the left side of an elevated green. That water adds one-too-many risks. It may inspire you to lay back, hoping to wedge tight. We should that for dedicated walkers of golf courses, The Grand Golf Club is impossible. Distances between some teeing grounds lie too far apart. Just ride. The golf carts have cushy seats."
Read More2023
Review
“an unremarkable course other than 3 holes (4/5/13). Reasonably good conditions. Probably wouldn't play it again unless I was staying on property."
Read More2023
Review
“Great design golf course but was in poor condition when we played. Disappointed in poor greens and dead grass around fairways. Course is over played with many divisors in fairway. Faron design and could be a great course. Good practice facilities. Good challenge golf course for all handicaps."
Read More2018
Review
“The only Fazio design in San Diego. The routing is good with some holes in the valleys and others more open. Always in great shape."
Read More2018
