As a regular customer at Barona Creek, I got a chance to play Rustic Canyon for the 4th time last week. For those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to play both frequently, choosing one is tantamount to telling your two children which one you like the most to their face; some emotional scarring is bound to occur. A direct comparison would be more valid if they were both resort or municipal courses, or if each charged the same. I think what's important is that they both deliver to the customer exactly what they were intended to provide.
Barona Creek fills its' niche as a resort course perfectly. Guests are provided a challanging and exhilerating layout, which can be mastered with limited exposure, provided the player executes. The greens, although far from ordinary, have a much more gradual slope which makes green reading less complicated than at Rustic Canyon. The fairway width accomadates all classes of golfer, and it takes only a few trips around to determine which of the forced carries can be successfully attempted. The yardage book and daily pin placement card provided, leave little mystery to the first time player as to what actually confronts him. Conditioning is in line with the $75 green fees, with the added bonus that the course is maintained firmer than anything within a day's drive.
Rustic Canyon on the other hand provides the ideal continuing challange that players would want from a municipal course, and relies heavily on "defense of par at the green". I have the feeling that this nut will only be cracked with an encyclopedic amount of local knowledge. How long it will take to accumulate this accumen remains to be seen. This only seems to make players want to return even more; to unlock its' many mysteries, in hopes of providing the keys to lower scoring. What strikes me as Rustic's greatest defense is the "down canyon effect". Putts can race away towards the entrance gate with seemingly no reason. This effect is very hard to detect, you can't see it, you don't feel like your standing downhill, and watching your playing partners putts race off the green can be quite comical. I'd be interested to know how the regulars are adapting to this effect; when is the threshold reached for the brain being able to factor this in without telling yourself, watch out this is down canyon? The intricasy of the green sites requires pin point shotmaking, knowing how to use the many slopes and banks to your advantage will take time incorporate. The tightly mowed bent grass aprons cause great indecision, and mastering the right shot to play of these collars, at the right time, will not come quickly. The rudimentary yardage markers and no pin placement guide makes every shot somewhat of a mystery. Trying to figure out where the pin is located on the 50 yard long 10th green for instance, even from 100 yards out, can be virtually impossible. The pin placements on the front nine can be scouted out when driving in, but the back nine gives less of this opportunity. What more could any muni hack want; a lifetime of challange and discovery, all for $35!