Olivas Links Finally Opens

[Kyle Henderson]

I didn't have a chance to see Olivas Links, maybe a future KIngs Putter.  I'm wondering if the two years since opening day have found those long grasses stabilized and now cut down to a height where the balls can be found and played.  

I have the same question about Peacock Gap, where the long native grasses were a P-I-A when anyone knocked a tee ball 20 yards off line.  Have those been stabilized and now cut lower?

B McB,

It was often possible to find and play out of what our local playing partner referred to as "those little sh!tty grasses" at Olivas. Evan was spraying his tee shots into said grasses, but muscled his ball onto the greens time and again to salvage pars. It was quite the show!

I thought the course bore some similarities to the renovated Peacock, but Forrest was allowed to add some roll into the fairways and exercised more restraint in contouring the greens at Olivas (which still have plenty of entertaining hums and bumps). Most of Olivas' greens were raised at the edges to collect balls that barely made the surfaces while repelling those that just missed them. This made for a lot of dicey pitches.

I would recommend Olivas Links to anyone passing through Ventura and would certainly play it routinely if I lived there. But, with cheap and masterful Rustic Canyon just 20 minutes inland, Olivas is not the must-play course of that vicinity. Still, I admire what Forrest was able to achieve with what did not start out as a great site for a golf course.

15th tee with playable "poopy grass" in native areas


15th apporach, paspalum coming out of dormancy


17th tee, the only substantially elevated portion of the course



Shared green for #'s 9 &18

[Damon Groves]

Forrest -

I live in Monrovia and plan on getting out to Olivas Links to play by Mid May. Looking forward to it.

Damon.

[Yancey_Beamer]

Forrest,
Olivas Links is one of my favorite courses anywhere.I hope the city of Ventura is aware of the quality of this muny.

[Damon Groves]

Jeff — Our goal was to create a fun golf experience and come in under budget in the process. I believe the green fee is $35, which is more than  fair for Southern California.

My favorite part at Olivas are the greens: 3, 6, 9/18, 10, 14, 16, and 17 have always stood out. They are not as bold a Buenaventura, but they have some teeth.

It was a balancing act to leave bunkers that the City could take care of — but would also fit the windswept site.There are not many bunkers, but those present play havoc in the wind. Width was also important. The more you play the course I think the more you will find ways to attack the targets.

Thanks for the photos!

Forrest -

Played Olivas yesterday. 58 degrees, overcast and winds about 15mph. Great course that was a ton of fun and with the number 4 pin placements quite a challenge from the blue tees. I was paired with a guy who was about a 6, I am an 8 and two ladies that are 25 handicaps. Everyone had fun and were able to get around the course with no problem. Says a lot given the diversity of the group.

Again great job and I look forward to playing it again soon.

Damon

[R_Paulis]

It has been said before - bravo again to Forrest for Olivas redux. It was a wasteland of a course prior to the remodel and now I proudly proclaim Olivas as my home course. With RC and Soule nearby we have a few reasonably priced gems all within 30 miles as some of the 2009 KP participants have attested.

I've read where Highlands Golf management (operators of Soule) have placed a bid to run Olivas. Highlands is also connected to Rustic so I wonder what that might mean for maintaining and improving Olivas.

[Forrest Richardson]

This thread is quite old, so the conditions at Olivas are very different from the freshly planted paspalum we were dealing with following opening. Several have asked about the paspalum, and the missing clubhouse, so I will give a brief update:

PASPALUM — Doing great on fairways. Tees continue to be interseeded with rye as needed. Greens are bent. Unlike nearby Buenaventura, where management opted for a risky ryegrass blend on fairways and roughs, Olivas is open with less shade and is proof that paspalum is a viable option for southern and central coasts of California. (Note:  A seeded variety of paspalum has been applied to Buenaventura's approaches and fairways over the past few years with great progress. I am sure that if allowed to "do over" their original specification at Buena the agronomic gurus would not have gone with 100% ryegrass.)

CLUBHOUSE — The clubhouse went through an exhaustive design process and simply could not fall below the $3 million range. One of the issues at public facilities in California is the state's prevailing wage requirement. This requirement means that labor rates are set and cannot be lower that State mandated thresholds. The City had the wisdom to defer the clubhouse, opting to invest in the golf course, which we completed for less that $4.5 million. With some site work the total investment at Olivas is probably in the $5.5 million range, and it too was subject to the prevailing wage requirement. I suspect that the clubhouse will come back as the economy rebounds and the annual rounds rises to near pre-2001 volumes. That may take some time, but I applaud the City of Ventura for recognizing that the course itself had to come first. (The old clubhouse was in a flood plain and has been demolished in favor of a new site that is not in a flood plain and has the benefit of integrating with the historic Olivas Abobe hacienda along Olivas Park Drive.)

[Scott Weersing]

Thanks for the update.

I am out in Ventura this weekend but I opted for Rustic Canyon instead of Olivas Links.

Forrest- Do you think a change in management companies make a difference?

How did the no 1, no. 2 and no. 9 fairways look? Those were the ones that they were having a hard time growing in the grass. The course has been open two years now so I would think those fairways would be completely grown in.

I think players have a love hate relationship with Olivas Links. Either they love the strategy of hard greens that slope all sorts of ways, or they don't like it and put down the course for too many high grasses and no clubhouse.

I heard that Buenaventura had a good spring and the grass was coming back in the fairways.

This thread is quite old, so the conditions at Olivas are very different from the freshly planted paspalum we were dealing with following opening. Several have asked about the paspalum, and the missing clubhouse, so I will give a brief update:

PASPALUM — Doing great on fairways. Tees continue to be interseeded with rye as needed. Greens are bent. Unlike nearby Buenaventura, where management opted for a risky ryegrass blend on fairways and roughs, Olivas is open with less shade and is proof that paspalum is a viable option for southern and central coasts of California. (Note:  A seeded variety of paspalum has been applied to Buenaventura's approaches and fairways over the past few years with great progress. I am sure that if allowed to "do over" their original specification at Buena the agronomic gurus would not have gone with 100% ryegrass.)

CLUBHOUSE — The clubhouse went through an exhaustive design process and simply could not fall below the $3 million range. One of the issues at public facilities in California is the state's prevailing wage requirement. This requirement means that labor rates are set and cannot be lower that State mandated thresholds. The City had the wisdom to defer the clubhouse, opting to invest in the golf course, which we completed for less that $4.5 million. With some site work the total investment at Olivas is probably in the $5.5 million range, and it too was subject to the prevailing wage requirement. I suspect that the clubhouse will come back as the economy rebounds and the annual rounds rises to near pre-2001 volumes. That may take some time, but I applaud the City of Ventura for recognizing that the course itself had to come first. (The old clubhouse was in a flood plain and has been demolished in favor of a new site that is not in a flood plain and has the benefit of integrating with the historic Olivas Abobe hacienda along Olivas Park Drive.)

[Forrest Richardson]

I was there a few months ago and the fairways looked very good, even though they were still somewhat dormant.

As far a management companies go, they always make a difference. However, Olivas was a hat-trick in terms of the investment-to-bang ratio, so I cannot imagine any firm doing better given the limited budget and having to operate without a clubhouse. It has also been terrible timing with 9-11 and the recent economic troubles. Good news is that municipal, affordable golf is likely to come out very well.

I think the lack of a clubhouse, while problematic, is something that many golf courses in the U.S. would have benefited from during the past 20 years. How many times do we see the overbuilt or too-soon-built clubhouse siphon money away from the golf course? It happens a lot and I applaud the City of Ventura for their restraint. Of course, I would love to see it built, and I do realize that it will stimulate play and groups. Obviously it was a financial decision. And, by the way, it had nothing to do with funds spent on the golf courses as we were within budget on both courses for Ventura. It simply was a timing issue and the reality of rounds being reduced across golf as a whole.