Balboa Park Golf Course — 18 Hole

A great city run course. Tee times are hard to come by but well worth it if you get them. The course is very challenging. Tight fairways, small greens, and thick rough. Not for the feint of heart. But if you are cool with tossing the scorecard and just having fun a great round of golf is waiting for you. Staff can be a bit prickly and the course can be a bit beat up but it’s kind of understandable given how many people they pump through this course each day. Bucket list kinds of course if you can get on.

Played here the other day for the first time. I was surprised how tight of the fairways there was on every hole. It’s actually quite a difficult course. You probably want to be a >20 hcp At least to even play here because you’ll find yourself if some tough situations with forests around most holes. Easy to lose balls. Greens were playing fast early in the AM so balls would just keep rolling for days. I’ll have to give it another shot to see if I just had the jitters when I played or if the course is actually that difficult. You really need to know how far you hit each club to manage the long par 4s and 5s. With cart and players card it was still around $70. Views are nice but the course is kind of mid. Walking is possible but it’s a long course.

Drove 2 hrs from los angeles to catch a 10:56am tee time on a Wednesday. Very beautiful course.. started with a bucket to get warmed up then walked up to start the game. Everything was fine the course is great. The big lawnmowers were out and were very noisy and one of the lawnmower ate my ball 😒 gotta be careful if you're slicing balls theres a section where is close to homes and the street and the fence is low. No extra netting. You can break a window or hit someone. I highly recommend this course. Nice view of the city. Great game. Must do

I’ve played Balboa Park Golf Course many times over the years and, despite its flaws, have referred plenty of friends and family because it’s convenient and affordable. I’ve always tolerated the usual annoyances, but today’s experience was disappointing. I attempted to play the 9-hole course with my girlfriend, who is new to golf. She was mostly coming to walk along with my friend and me, but wanted to hit a few tee and approach shots for practice. We were more than willing to pay for an extra round for her to be more comfortable on a course. The pro shop said this was fine, yet the starter/manager turned us away solely because she didn’t have a full set of clubs, stating it is policy. This decision felt arbitrary and is inconsistent with my experiences here. I’ve repeatedly seen regulars on the 9-hole course play with few clubs, no bags, and dressed poorly without issue, yet she was singled out and denied. She was dressed appropriately, had the clubs she’s comfortable with, and the interaction was unnecessarily hostile. While the course is kept in decent shape, the pace of play is always extremely slow, the range is in poor condition, and staff can be hit or miss. Experiences like this make it hard to recommend, especially given all the other issues. To the starter who turned us away: this kind of behavior doesn’t grow the game or help the course. She was extremely excited to be included for a round and took the afternoon off of work to make it, which you ruined for some small power trip. This is a budget municipal facility, and if policies are going to be enforced, they should at least be enforced consistently. I’ve been around golf courses since before I could walk and have played courses around the country, and this was easily the least hospitable interaction I’ve had with course staff. Do better.

Public course owned by the City of San Diego. SD city residents can get a discount card for $25 annually. There are two courses, one is 18 holes while the other is 9 holes. The café serves some pretty good quality food as well.