California Courses?

[Barbikes]

I had my vacation postponed a week by my boss at work so I just got back home yesterday. I played (in order) Dexter Lake, OR, DeLaveaga, The Oaks, Lake Casitas, LaMirada, Oak Grove, and Weed. I had hoped to play Milo McIvers in OR on the way up yesterday but Portland was having a monsoon. Every course that y'all recommended was great! Thanks!
Things that I didn't expect were:
Dexter Lake is a tough course! I had my worst score here.
DeLaveaga is popular! at 1:30 pm on a Monday afternoon the parking lot was full. I teamed up with another guy and we still had to wait about 20 minutes for first tee off.
Since DeLaveaga was so busy I hit the parking lot at The Oaks at 8:00 am. No one else was there and no one else was there after my game! I had the entire course (and it's a nice one!) to myself!
Lake Casitas is beautiful and has the best (and funnest) use of elevation change of ANY course I've ever played.
I didn't expect to get my second ace ever at hole 14 (DX Wraith, skipped in) at the worlds first ever golf course (Oak Grove)!!! YEAH!!!
LaMirada is very pretty in a ball golf course kind of way. Well manicured. Lawn. I enjoyed it a lot but it is a little too open for me. I prefer "wilder" courses.

I guess if I was picking favorites it would be Lake Casitas, then Dexter Lake,
then DeLaveaga. Delaveaga would move up to a tie for first if it wasn't so damn busy!

[some call me...tim?]

Right on man! I'm glad you got a chance to play Casitas. It's a little off the beaten path, but judging by your post, I'd say that you agree it's well worth the effort. I only played it once, shortly after it had been installed, and it's safe to say that it kicked my ass handily. I really want to go back and play it some more now that I'm a little bit better and it's been beaten in a little bit. Heh, when I played, it was the middle of summer, the grass was at least chest high in most places, the fairways were non-existant for the most part, thistles in schule, and rattlesnakes lurking all over the place. You'd be searching for your disc, then hear a "chikachickachikachikachicka" and be like "all right, I guess I'll take the long way around to my disc". Still though, had a great time playing there...now after reading your post, I'm fiending for a roadtrip down south.

[domromer]

I have heard people say that a score of +12 is decent for Dexter, It's a hard course for sure!

[Barbikes]

Tim, It sounds like Lake Casitas has come a long ways since you played there. I had the website's map but no personal guide. I had not trouble finding my way, saw/heard no rattler's, and the course was well maintained for a "country" course. I found it about the same difficulty as Terrace Creek or Lakewood. Not as difficult as SeaTac. I've played about 30 courses now and have yet to find one more difficult than Seatac. But - There was just something intangible about the Lake Casitas course that I found really cool. I really liked the elevation changes and of course the scenery is great.

Dom, my guide at Dexter Lake was a local guy named Ben. I didn't play well and ended up 14 over. He seemed to be a pretty good player and said that his best there was seven over. So it is tough but it's a beautiful course. You are lucky to live so close to it!

[some call me...tim?]

hehe, yeah I agree, seatac can be confusing, especially since there's no real "beaten path" to follow besides the service roads, and those don't really help at all. I seem to remember being able to find my way around Casitas all right...I think we had a map as well. It was just after we'd thrown our drives that we had troubles finding our way. How about that one "top of the world" hole there (I guess there's a couple actually, but there's the ONE that's just incredible)...I think it was around 14 or so?

And btw, was that your old police cruiser I saw at Lakewood yesterday morning (Sunday)? I was down there with a few buddies for the acepot and thought that might be you and that you'd be playing in it too, but when we went back to the parking lot for the players meeting you'd left (if that was your car).

[Barbikes]

I love those "top of the world" holes! 16 at Lake Casitas, 17 at Terrace Creek, and 27 at DeLaveaga are all great! I also liked 1 and 9 at Casitas because they were "across the water".
If it was black and white then yeah that was the Discmobile at Lakewood yesterday (and this morning, too). I didn't realize that there was an acepot going on yesterday. I like to play early and I wondered why so many cars were in the lot at that time of day.