Beautiful golf course just south of downtown Solvang. Gents are very hospitable and friendly. Well groomed course with great challenges to your skills. Carts well maintained. Nice Golf Shop. read more

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This is a hidden gem for breakfast. No, you don't have to be a golfer or have to play a round to enjoy the restaurant. You just have to be hungry. The website, not user friendly so just find the times it's open and go. Don't get frustrated getting more info on the restaurant because you're best resource is Yelp. There were four of us and we all enjoyed something different for breakfast. Coffee is good too an the service is nice and friendly. The views of the course are great so take some time to take a walk outside and enjoy the greenery and atmosphere. read more

The good. It's available. The bad. Conditions are average and pace of play is terrible. We're now on the 15th T waiting once again. At the four hour mark in our round. Called once early in the round. They sent somebody out who didn't make much of a difference and left. Best to find another place to play. read more

Amazing location. Can't ask for better views while golfing! Snack bar at the turn is well stocked. Every employee we encountered was very pleasant and helpful. The only negative was an issue with old hole plugs on the greens. Not from aeration, from changing pin placement It appears this course changes hole location daily which is fine if holes are plugged properly. But on this course too many plugs were not properly leveled - and that leads to "saucers" on the green. Other plugs did not appear to be woven and watered when replaced, leaving the edges to burn and shrink. Holes 6 and 7 are particularly bad (I think I counted 27 visible hole plugs on green #6). Again, great track. Just need more focus replacing plugs. read more

Beautiful and challenging course, although the pace of play was awful. Left on the 14th hole at the 4hr and 15 minute mark. That equates to about a 6 hour round which is rather pathetic for a weekday. The threesome in front of us took a minimum of 15 minutes on each hole, while the foursome behind us was hitting into us for the majority of the round. I wish I could say this was just one bad experience for a great course, but after reading several other bad reviews saying the same thing I can't be sure. Giving two stars, one for the sheer beauty that was the course, and the other for the staff. read more

In great shape, lots of trees, not too tuff layout. I played La Purisima two days before and I needed a break after that. This was the perfect slower dance to test my game. ‍ read more

The course was in amazing condition and so beautiful! It was a slightly challenging course, but perhaps mainly so, since we came from the desert and the greens were slower than ours at home. We dined in the restaurant and the food was great - with generous portions and the service was good. When in the area, we'd definitely visit again. read more

I love playing the river course! Excellence staff, service, and amenities. Highly recommended!

Very courteous staff, excellent grill, beautiful landscaping, great fun course with interesting variety, GPS high tech carts that keep score... need I go on??? Great prices too! Keep it secret just amongst us friends so that it doesn't get crowded! Love the 9th hole! read more

I had an amazing time at the Alisal, I haven't been to Santa Barbara before so my friends had taken me here & I couldn't have been more surprised. The drinks were delicious, the food was delicious, & the views of the course are even better. Couldn't have spent my Sunday morning any better. Will be going back when I visit again! read more

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What an absolute gem of a golf course! Played 36 holes through the golf moose app and super happy to make the drive from Bakersfield to play not only on a perfect day, but the course conditions were absolutely perfect and very well maintained. The pace of play was wide open and even though you see people playing on the course, we never were held up by anyone. The food at the grill was really good and staff here across the board was absolutely above par with zero complaints. Pro shop staff was super helpful and explained everything we needed to know. Grill staff was super happy and accommodating and able to get to go food out super quick and super fresh with everything cooked to perfection. I can not wait to come and play this course again hopefully very very soon. read more

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Went to the river course on Tuesday and was pleasantly presented with a nicely, kept golf course. The clubhouse was well stocked with Golf accessories, and the person at the desk was very polite and courteous. The layout of the golf course was perfect, presenting each hole with a delightful challenging finish. There was no pressure with players in front of us or in back of us in the greens are kept the way you would expect to have a enjoyable round. All the sand traps are in the middle of being redone, but it didn't detour or take away from a great round of golf. If you go to Solvang Enjoy yourself and don't forget to bring your golf clubs. You won't be disappointed it's a nice break. thanks for course for rounding out a great vacation. read more

The Good: If you love the occasional round making the loop playing by yourself. This is a place for you. This is a course that I've never seen crowded. All five times I've played there it was hardly anyone out there and I made the loop in less than 3 hours. Heaven! I think the location of this place is the reason why it's not as crowded as most places, but I'm sure they still get their fair share of play. Well conditioned course with some beautiful views of the Sant Ynez hillside. Fairly flat and not too difficult. You'll leave feeling good about the low score you just posted. That being said, it's still a rewarding test. Reasonable green fee. Great if you are visiting overnight out in Solvang or the surrounding area. Didn't get a chance to sample the food. The Bad: Can't say anything bad about this place. Looking forward to playing there again. read more

What an AWESOME way to spend my Birthday!!! Course is in excellent shape, lunch (Both food & service) was OUTSTANDING!!! Hope to see you again soon!! read more

River Course At the Alisal - View from the patio - Golf Near Me - Solvang, California

First off. How cute is the town of Solvang?? So adorable!! Arrived as a walk on. Hubby and I on carts. $70 each. Pricey. But the course seemed open as we started. The starter, Jeff was so helpful and kind enough to help us navigate. Very windy. But awesome layout. Very open course. We definitely will be back read more

River Course At the Alisal - 12th hole. - Golf Near Me - Solvang, California

Great place to play and practice and awesome views. Always room to practice or very little waiting time. read more

River Course At the Alisal - Driving range - Golf Near Me - Solvang, California

Nice public course ... great restaurant...old carts....beautiful setting... staff friendly...need better distance markers ..would return read more

Loved this restaurant! The view and food was amazing. Nice servers and great atmosphere

Our second annual outing here for our mens group. This year was even better. Sara handled all of our needs without a hitch. She is to be commended for her efficiency and friendliness. From the organizer side that's a huge plus to have someone make it that easy. Thanks to both Sara and Brook. We're already planning next year's event. Now the course. This year the course was in great shape. The greens were excellent.The course seems so docile but can really be a monster if you play against it rather than with it. Even after our round the patio and staff were very welcoming. Our group had a great experience which makes my experience even better. All pieces of this facility came together perfectly for us. Thanks again Sara and Brook! See you next summer! Rito Chisholm Menudo Men's Golf Club read more

River Course At the Alisal - Excellent conditions and challenges. - Golf Near Me - Solvang, California

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My husband and I loved golfing here this past weekend. The course was beautiful and the staff inside were lovely. We also enjoyed a nice lunch at the river grill after. We will definitely be back soon! read more

Honestly speaking I can give only 3 stars to this place, I was expecting something different than the rest because the place has gorgeous views, but the breakfast was just one more of the same. The coffee was really bad, the pancackes was like plastic, and I don't know how having this beatiful facilities they don't have a good breakfast. read more

Played yesterday, Greer conditions and met Johnny one of the maintenance workers and he deserves an A+. Chatted with him for a bit and super respectful guy! read more

Not very satisfied with Customer Service at this course. They have the worst Cart Girl I have ever encountered. When we tried to discuss her rudeness with the club pro, he didn't seem to care. We found out she was his sister. I will never give that course my business again. read more

If I could do 4.5 stars I would, but 4 will have to do. Booked this course since it was close to Solvang where my wife and I were doing a "get away from the kids" break. It is pretty much the only public course near downtown Solvang (literally half a mile outside of town). Tee time at 9, checked in at 8 to get breakfast. The guy behind the desk was pretty much indifferent to my being there, but all good. I don't expect someone to get excited and fawn all over me just because I am there. But wait... no breakfast. The grill is closed on Monday and Tuesday. I don't recall this info on the website but maybe I missed it. No biggie. The town was 3 minutes away and we had a wonderful breakfast. Back to the course, and off we went. The course is laid out so weird, so you really need to pay attention to the signs and the back of the card. You can tell it was built before golf carts because there were times you had to walk 50+ yards to the green from the path. I am not a "drive up to the green" kinda guy, so it was a lot of walking. Good - unless you have mobility issues (so keep that in mind if you do and think about playing here). The reason for the star knock-off is that I booked this right when the tee times opened up about 3 weeks out, and there was nothing on the site when I booked that said that the tee boxes on the back 9 would be under construction and alternate tees were in place. Some of them were 200 yards from the original blue tees, so a par 5 became nearly a par 3. Great for my score, but sucks when you are trying to birdie an actual par 5 hole. Let's just say my back 9 score was a lot better than my front. I don't mind course updates, but tell me when I book that it will be under construction. My local course tells you when you book above overseeding and any maintenance. Was a bit spendy for a round under construction, a cart with no GPS and no tee boxes on the back 9. But the course was in excellent shape, and the greens were wonderful. I do recommend the course, but only after July 20 2022 when they are done with the back 9 tee boxes. Thanks for reading. read more

I used to love the course. Now with their discount offerings you cannot play a decent round in under 4-4.5 hours. That's sad because you used to play 18 in 3 max. My last 4 rounds I left after 6-8 holes that's how slow it was. I'm not happy and recommend stop chasing the buck with your discounts and think or the players. Truth be told ? I bet net net it's a wash or worse ? Discounted rates with more players ? Or regular rate with limited play ? If this continues you'll have more upset players overall ? 4 plus hours is nuts compared to what this fabulous course used to play. Regards Pete read more

Pro shop was unfriend, and rude. Not returning. Treated us like we were intruding on there course

The course is in great shape, but some of the greenside bunkers aren't as consistent as the fairway bunkers. Biggest gripe is that they charge weekend prices on Friday! Hardly anyone plays on Friday now. read more

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. read more

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 read more

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. read more

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! read more

Excellent course, excellent service. It's not a 5 star simply because the landscape can't compete with some of the great courses of the world, but I thoroughly enjoyed my experience. read more

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. read more

The scorecard yardage doesn't tell you the real challenge in this trak. 6 of the back 9 are played into the afternoon wind. Every approach shot needed at least extra club. The fairways are firm so spin off the irons is a higher level game. And the greens at firm so running them up is an adjustment to make from hole 2 or 3. The Pro Shop staff was great. There was even grounds crewman out there who helped determine approach yardage. Although the clubhouse was getting a renovation for the upcoming summer season, I'm sure the plans will turn out great. Put this challenging trak on your to play list this year. read more

The course is in overall good shape however there is no management of pace of play. Groups are jumping holes to get around slower players. We even called the club house requesting them speak to slow paced group who were taking pictures in the course and driving up to the greens. Nothing was done. We stopped after 9 and asked for a refund. It was ridiculous read more

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. read more

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. read more

This might be the worst golf experience ever. The course was in terrible condition and the play so slow it took almost 6 hours to complete the round. Totally overpriced and neglected. I gave it one star because of the restaurant which was excellent. Save yourself some money and frustration and play somewhere else. read more

A straightforward, unimaginative public course...the positive thing is it's not intimidating and when we played both days it was nearly empty. It could use more grooming...on a few holes you hit over a gulley with trees in it...no biggie I suppose...just not very aesthetically pleasing and it looks like a jungle. The grill was great, and the clubhouse was very nice. We enjoyed sitting outside with the pretty view. read more

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!!!! read more