Little gem of a course at Balboa Park. This is the oldest muni course in San Diego at nearly 100 years old and the clubhouse is a San Diego City Historic Landmark. The moment you step into the clubhouse you realize the vast history of the location. For example, some parts are in need of major repair, but there are also nearly 100 years of player trophies and accomplishments on display in a large lobby time has not touched (nor cleaners, painters, renovators...but I digress). Don't miss the unbeatable hilltop views out the back of hole 1 and hole 18 side-by-side with the cityscape in the background. The same view can be seen from the restrooms, giving this place the best view from the loo award. I played the regulation 18 (they also have a nine hole executive course). The course was in good to very good condition. It's a fun, unique track and there are some very narrow holes, but fair enough because they are shorter. Accuracy off the tee is favored over length on most of the holes. There are also a few challenging elevation changes, but not many blind approach shots, which I don't think anyone enjoys. It's a fun track that keeps you on your toes. Many holes are lined by canyons so errant shots on those will be lost. Another unique aspect is that Balboa Park sits under the landing path of the airport. I tried to catch an airplane in my photos and it was pretty easy to in most all of them. Pace of play was fine at 4.5 hours on a weekday afternoon. Staff was friendly, but they deal with a lot of people so I could see how things could go sideways as some reviews have mentioned. Just exercise the golden rule. If you play golf and live in San Diego, I say this is a must play at least once. I'll be back again when I'm in the right mood. read more

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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. read more

Balboa park golf course is an amazing 18 hole (plus separate 9 hole) course with great downtown views. Pros: all main 18 holes ranges from par 3s to par 5s offering great range of your golf set and challenges your skills throughout your clubs. There is plentiful amount of parking near hole one and the driving range. There is a separate 9 hole course that's smaller par 3s that you can choose between which is a nice feature. The views along downtown San Diego across the course was a great addition to the course. There is a cafe with food and drink next door to the main golf shop which is a nice feature. Cons: this place does get very busy so make sure to book way in advanced. Be aware that golf carts are an additional cost on top of your tee time. You can walk this course but with people playing behind you in carts, you might need to go faster than normal. Verdict: I would play this course again and again. With tee times ranging between $40 in twilight and upwards during the day, it's a solid choice for a great game read more

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Holy smokes! Finally got around to a weekday twilight 9 hole on the big course! I must have to say it's in the best condition ever. Tee boxes were nice, fairway was so lush and the greens were rolling true! Can't beat the resident walking weekday twilight rate... great affordable golf at its finest. Huge shout out to Saksan in the pro shop.. hardest working, nicest guy I've ever met at any of the city courses. He was super nice at check in and even saved me a huge walk when stranded on the 12th hole after dark lol. read more

Balboa Park Golf Course - Golf Near Me - San Diego, California

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Nice course but not worth the price. Rented "Cleveland" clubs, holes 1-6 and 18 are cart path only so a lot of walking and hills. Located in direct landing path of the San Diego airport, and so loud you can't have a conversation with others in your group 25% of the time. Inside facility bathrooms are gross so try to hold it for the halfway house. And once you're done golfing - be prepared to carry your clubs up a hill and through the parking lot to get to your car. Carts not accessible until 5 min before you tee off and not allowed past the cart return behind the building at the bottom of a hill. No Marshalls on the course and we played 18 holes in just under 6 hours. Several groups in front of us hit two balls each at tee box. NEVER AGAIN. read more

Balboa Park Golf Course - Waiting on the 6th hole.. 2 groups back and still cart path only until 7th hole - Golf Near Me - San Diego, California

Balboa is a tough and entertaining course to play! All the fairways are tight with little room for error or you'll lose a ball in the canyon. Greens are quick and make placement on the green below the hole a must to score low. Overall fun to play but be aware the pace of play is slow! read more

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Showed up and checked in 45 minutes before Tee time. Range is closed every Tuesday, normal. Sitting waiting for my tee time, I'm a single playing with three others, they walk down 15 minutes before and check in and take off. Zero announcement. Starter walks away, doesn't ask who's the fourth (they have an IPad with everyone names). I walk down about ten minutes before Tee time. Tell them my time, said my group already left. Wouldn't give me a cart (that I paid for). Got a late notification email even though I checked in with the starter 10 minutes prior to tee time. Said I'd have to walk even though I paid for a cart. To many carts out already. They did give me a refund, but when I asked why I got a late notification email, said it was my fault for not being with my group. I am a single, checked in as a single. The starter can see that and doesn't say a word to anyone else. Staff was rude. Said there's a clock outside I missed. Mind you I checked in WITH THE STARTER, ten minutes before my tee time. Don't give these guys your money. Won't be playing here again. read more

Beautiful 3 Par course in the middle of the city. Nice views of the airport and surrounding city.

Played Balboa for the first time and even though my score didn't reflect it (more on why later) I thought this course was a blast with a little bit of everything. Elevation changes, elevated tee boxes, narrow fairways, surprisingly good greens (some of the better ones in SD), and holes for every level of golfer to enjoy. When you walk into the pro shop you automatically know this course has some history behind it. We played the 18 hole course but there's also a 9 hole option as well. Hole #1 & #2 will trick you into thinking this course will be wide open but you'll learn really quick that's not the case, especially on the front 9. Holes 3 & 4 will tempt you to rip your driver but local course knowledge will tell you stick to an iron and much better options. Since it was my first time playing. I didn't listen and paid the price with two double bogeys. The back 9 does open up but only on a few holes. I was really surprised how good (quick) the greens were. Most city courses don't have that to offer but Balboa did and we loved it. My three 3 putts didn't love it but that's beside the point. If you're a San Diego local you can get your resident card and play 18 with a cart for $60. Incredible deal. The carts don't offer any GPS but at that price I didn't really care. It'll cost more for a visitor but still a good rate for a well taken care of and pretty challenging course. I'm looking forward to playing and hopefully redeeming all the mistakes I made playing it the first time. See you soon Balboa! read more

Balboa Park Golf Course - Golf Near Me - San Diego, California

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Staff is condescending, rude, and unkind. The grounds are unkept and mediocre. Mostly it's the rudeness of the associates that deserve the negative review. read more

It's a great course and it's in good shape. The staff there is very accommodating. My only complaint is their online reservation system and the difficulty of getting a tee time. Reaching anybody by phone is almost impossible. read more

Challenging course, but always kept nice. Very busy on weekends though. Amazing views of the city because the course is on top of the mountain read more

The Good .. the greens were just pinched and sanded apparently the day before ... awesome The servers at the restaurant were awesome ...(seriously ) And who doesn't love a $10 dollar hot dog with no chips or drink .. 10 dollar hot dog .. that's all I need to say .. teed off at 9:27 finished by 1:30 .. great pace of play .. apparently not the norm though .. read more

Never dealt with needing to bring extra clubs. Always enjoyed this course. Not recommending this anymore. Thanks Brandon.

If you have played a course by architect William Bell you will definitely feel like holes feel familiar. We played the 18 hole course. Love the location and the hills. The condition is pretty solid since we have had zero rain since spring. Golf carts are older but functional. No navigation on carts. STAFF are very friendly and conversational. The chap who attended Notre Dame is a real gem. Jets fly overhead occasionally but the noise is truly nominal. GREENS are surprisingly tough and we struggled to adjust. The clubhouse is very old skool and has charm Frank would like. Some great downtown and water views on certain holes. A great layout and a very enjoyable play. read more

Rated best place to poop in San Diego 10/10 Golf course is great too. Beautiful views. Tobey's with the bloodys! read more

Balboa Park Golf Course - Rated best place to poop in San Diego 10/10 - Golf Near Me - San Diego, California

Signed up for a 6 pm tee time. Upon checkin, was told we should take 5:51 and come back when it got dark. The ranger came to tell us to come back in at 6:45. It takes longer than that to play 9 holes, so why even have late tee times available? FYI, sunset was 6:30. In addition, which tracks after reading the reviews, customer service wasn't great, which we thought was because we were females, but it seems this is an issue in general. And yes, many walkers versus carts. As far as the course, it was well kept and offered pretty views. Parking was not a problem. Toby's was a delight to grab some food prior to playing and a drink for the course. read more

It's hard to play here, the bots get all the tee times. This was right at 7pm tonight when next weeks times are available. Every tee time I clicked on was gone by 7:01pm. Balboa should require a credit card to hold a reservation! read more

Balboa Park Golf Course - Online booking - Golf Near Me - San Diego, California

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I had a really bad experience at the driving range here and I'm still thinking about it a few months later, so I'm here to get this off my chest... First of all, let's talk about the facility itself. The range has no shade at all and feels very primitive. The ball machine doesn't accept payment outside & is super antiquated, so I had the misfortune of needing to go inside to purchase balls. Once inside, the guy at the counter greets me with a disdainful "hello ma'am" (if you know, you know). I say hello and ask him if I can purchase some balls. He immediately tries to upsell me a $100 charge for some frequent user ball key even though I told him that it's my first time at this range. Whatever, maybe this is required by the course, but it's still gross business behavior. He sells me my bucket of balls, and then patronizingly says to me, "make sure you put the bucket under the ball dispenser when you get your balls." No f*cking way, you don't say? As opposed to letting the balls fly out everywhere? Like he didn't tell me this as a joke. He said it to me very clearly to look down on me. You know damn well he would never have said this to another man. Men like this intentionally want to push women out of the sport of golf. I know women who golf can relate to me here. I felt the hatred emanating from this man as soon as I entered his space. I was stunned cause I've had bad experiences with men at golf courses, but this one takes the cake. I walked out and finished my bucket, but I'll never give these people money again. I'm bitter because this is the closest range to my house and now I'll have to go far away just to relax and hit some balls. I see many other reviews maligning the gross behavior of the pro shop employees. Do better, Balboa. read more

They book tee times so close together that it doesn't matter if you are a party of two... chances are you will be waiting on a party of four ahead of you... every single time you visit, meaning you will be locked in for over 5 hours... this should honestly be unacceptable. Someone needs to be hired to help plan out their schedules more efficiently because obviously they aren't doing a good job... and if that is someone's job already?... News flash: experience in being able to count the number of fingers on one hand is a good way to tell if you're hiring someone with more than 2 brain cells. Tf. Schedules are easy for an elementary school level student, get it together. read more

Great city views. Two courses available. 9-hole and 18-hole. City views are epic. Pace is slow due to numerous hills and many walkers. I am mid to high handicap. Narrow fairways on many hlles were frustrating and difficult. I wanted to love this course, but it proved too hard to enjoy. read more

I've been playing at Balboa Municipal Golf Course since 1995. I was actually born right across the road at The Balboa Naval Hospital. In High School (Kearny High School) Balboa was our home course for Tournaments and practice, I've spent ALOT of time at this Golf Course and it is very special to me. On April 6th my friend and I went to play the 9 hole course and were harassed by one of the Pro Shop employees. This was NOT the first time by this particular employee. The employee was so preoccupied watching me and my partner that he hit another patrons car in the parking lot while driving a golf cart. I'm not sure why the employee targeted us when the group behind us had 7 people in their group but said nothing (photo attached). To make matters worse they've gone beyond and locked my account for not checking in 30 minutes prior to Tee time. I've always checked in 30 minutes before and the 1 time I didn't was when there was rain storm and nobody could golf. In conclusion I have 30 years of Love and memories from this course and this experience has put an unnecessary negative impression upon me. I really can't believe they've gone as far as locking my account for a fabricated reason. I will prevail read more

Balboa Park Golf Course - Group of 7 on the green. But they want to Harass my 2 some. - Golf Near Me - San Diego, California

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Very fun for the price. Visited from out of town for a work comference and had some spare time. I'd be shocked it you can name a better public golf course for $38. read more

Some of the staff in the pro shop are incredibly rude and unhelpful which is a bad way to start a round of golf. The course itself is decent, but they pack so many players on to the course that you are looking at a 5 to 6 hour round. It gets really old having to wait before every single shot for the group in front of you to move. Oh, good luck getting an advance tee time on their antiquated online booking platform. All in all not worth your time to play here. read more

Great municipal course in the heart of balboa park. The back 9 gives incredible views of the skyline during twilight rounds.

I'm not one for yelp reviews, but I had to come on here and give my two cents. The older man in the pro shop makes me never want to play at this golf course again. He must live his entire life with a 14 inch long stick up his ass. In my 76 years on this earth, I've never had someone been more rude and disrespectful to me for no reason at all. Based on the other reviews I've seen, I may be beating a dead horse, but this guy has got to go I have played this course a couple of times now, and every time I play he makes checking in/getting carts difficult and frustrating for no reason at all. The fact that he acts the way he does to paying customers is truly mind blowing. I do like the course itself, but unfortunately will not be returning until they make some changes to their staff read more

Danny Allen was great. He was knowledgeable, helping so kind. Gabe me golf pointers. This was my first time at the golf course. I will definitely be back. read more

I belong to a private club, but I play the nine hole here with friends once a week. The nine hole is fun and easy if you're new to golf. The 18 hole can be challenging but the city views are priceless. Toby's 19th hole café is super awesome. The food is consistently good and the servers are really nice and personable. read more

Love the course but the guys who work there are grade A douchebags and clearly don't like people. You guys should really stop trying to be hardos because no one thinks you're tough and you just come off as losers. It's pretty pathetic that management has allowed this to persist for so long and makes me wonder who's doing the hiring and why they haven't been fired. read more

Pro shop staff (and every other staff I encountered) were among the rudest people I've encountered working. Anywhere. This is my 2nd and last trip. I can get treated rudely for free at a lot of better places. Those guys just seem to be happy ruining someone's day. Never again. read more

I am surprised to see negative reviews. I live about 15 minutes from here and love playing the 18 hole course. The first 6 holes are difficult (maybe not hole 1 but you will see). Pretty narrow and a challenging layout. That is not to say it gets easier but those holes stick out to me. The course itself has a ton of character. Lots of elevation change and some pretty long holes, especially if you play blues. For being a public course, it is in great condition. The fairways are real nice and the greens are well-maintained. They actually roll quite fast and have a lot of hidden breaks. You will also get great views of the city when playing here. I paid $43 to walk the course on a Saturday morning (residents card) and I believe my non-resident friend paid $67. Pace was really good and we were never waiting. As for people who give them 1 star because of the pro shop. Who cares? Pretty simple to go up on time, give them your name, pay, and go play your round. They deal with a lot among the 2-3 of them and I do not know what people expect from them. Have only had positive interactions with the employees here. read more

I was gonna leave a bad review in detail and tear them up because of the grumpy old man... (I think his name is Bob or something) but looks like I don't have to. I think the consensus is clear from all of these 1 star reviews. Even if you show up early he will yell at you. He was rude to me and my wife who have never played there before. Acting like I should know what he's thinking. Never coming back again until he is either gone. read more

Course was in good condition. Green speed and line were good and consistent through all greens. Speed of play was acceptable for a busy day. Wind affected conditions but just made it more interesting. Perfect sunny day. Inside staff were very friendly and efficient. Price is better for a SD county resident but non-resident fee is more than acceptable. A hilly course with many walkers. I'll take a cart any day there. A range with mats. A large putting green is available for practice and warm up. Electric carts were clean and powerful. Definitely will return! read more

Balboa Park Golf Course - A view of downtown San Diego #15 tee box. - Golf Near Me - San Diego, California

It's a great value in the San Diego area! There's some quirky holes in the front 9, but nothing too outrageous once you get the layout of the course. Conditions are always well maintained. read more

I was a little bit worried when I read some of the reviews about the staff, but I had a pleasant experience and golf course was nice!

Course is actually in pretty decent shape considering it's an old muni course. Be prepared for a very long round though. I had know idea everyone in San Diego have absolutely nothing else to do with their day because they all walk when playing golf. 6 hour round is not outside the norm. We played 15 holes in in five and half hours and could not finish the last three holes because it got dark LOL. It's groups and groups of people playing from tee boxes they have know business teeing off from. Completely disregard the "we strictly enforce pace of play" statement on their website. We were on a par 3 and we had four groups in front of of us all waiting on the same hole lol. Seeing the skyline on a few of the holes was pretty cool, but what you have to do to even get a tee time isn't worth the hassle to be honest. If you play it once you'll understand. I had my wife sign up for an account both sons signed up and we all were on our laptops waiting for tee times to be released and we lucked up and got one tee time for a threesome. I can say I played the course and if I never played it again I wouldn't loose a wink of sleep. All that being said, you should play it at least once, it's not as narrow as everyone says it is. Quite a few of the holes run next to each other so you still have shots even though you may be hitting from the other fairway. For the price though, you can't go wrong. If you don't mind hit and wait, hit and wait, and you have the patience of a saint, this course will suit you just fine. read more

I actually love playing here - all these poor reviews are from some fancy boujee golfers. A few friends and I walk the Balboa 9 every week since we live close by and it's by far my favorite course to practice 5 irons-SW. The tee boxes are being maintained currently and this course is played a lot. Lots of inexperienced golfers play the par 3 since it's an easy course, so you'll need to duck, dive, dip, and doge sometimes. That's just the name of the game. The 18 course is actually really challenging. Steep and hilly. I regretted walking it my first time. It's great to practice really tight shots using fades and draws. This course is not for high handicappers and not a typical course layout (it's in a tight canyon, duh!). My buddies and I love Balboa, it's a great price, you get what you pay for, and we're in San Diego:) Be grateful and my god grant you grace. read more

Beautiful, fun, great location. We thoroughly enjoyed our round. The course is in good condition, staff friendly and helpful, price is right and the views are fantastic. So happy we gave this course a try and will return. read more

Let me describe a typical weekend round at Balboa Golf course, coming from experience of 30+ rounds played here: you sit on the bench of the 6th tee, a par three, having played your first 5 holes in 1 hour and 50 minutes. I have played hundreds of golf courses, and the first 6 holes at Balboa are the slowest in all of golf. By 14 or so, it's inevitable that half your group has quit. If you're going to play here, play on a weekday or just go to Torrey or Coronado. Save yourself the sadness. I give 2 instead of 1 because the layout is actually enjoyable, though the pace is too slow to enjoy it. Solutions: actually use a Marshall. Or, put up some pace of play reminders on course. Or, just play another course. read more

Balboa Park Golf Course - It's a real kerfuffle out here today (the usual) - Golf Near Me - San Diego, California

I'm not one to write a bad review but this was not a great experience by any means. When we arrived, they were immediately rude and the greens were in horrible condition due to aerating and I was still charged full price. I gave 3 stars only because the fairways were nice, the rate of play was good and the course was laid out well. The experiences I had with the staff were sub par, pricing was not justified for the condition of the greens and poor customer service. read more