I'm gonna blame this on Huckaby.
It was dismal day last Friday in San Diego, flash flood, mud slide and wind warnings, but it was our last day in CA and we're looking for a course to play where it wasn't raining. The Crossings was it - based on this thread.
On the way to the course we stop at Pro Golf Discount looking for a travel bag to replace my destroyed one. The store manager asks where we're playing and suggests maybe we don't want to play the Crossings. The greens are ridiculous, he says.
Appetites whetted, we head to the course. Arrive at 12:30. Get a time for 1:00 for a twilight rate of $55. Seems like a pretty reasonable price. Get paired with a couple of young studs even though the course is relatively empty. One of them works at the club. He says it's the most expensive course ever built - $71M. A very nice clubhouse and a lot of very big bridges no doubt contributing.
Regrettably, given the rain forecast and limited time, I forgot to take the camera. Too bad, it's a very photogenic course. The two holes that can be seen from the road are two of the tamer holes.
It reminded me most of Wolf Creek in Mesquite althought the landscape was more scrubby than rocky like WC.
The view from the fouth tee overlooks the back nine and my only reaction was holy cow or words to that effect.
My son, the triathlete, wanted to walk it (with clubs on the cart), but gave that up quickly based upon the long drives and huge climbs and drops between holes. The 12th Tom mentioned is merely the longest, but flattest of those. To add to the pleasure of the 12th there is a black chain link fence with an overhang to protect the players driving along the side of the fairway to the tee. It's not visible from the tees though. After all that the 12th on it's own is a really good and daunting hole.
The two short par threes seemed OK to me. I didn't feel they were forced. Perhaps they were better for the brisk winds of the day.
Unfortunately the ground was wet given the rain earlier in the day, so it did not play fast and firm. Worse, we were restricted to the cart paths. I hate playing cart path only. On the other hand the course is unwalkable.
There are a number of vertigo inducing tees and greens on the course. Rather than "strip club" I'm thinking more "Space Mountain" to describe the course. Something of a thrill ride, both literally and figuratively.
The ESA's are on six holes they tell you at the beginning. They were pretty sparse ESA's, but I guess they're trying to reclaim that land to a more natural state. They didn't really interfere with play.
After the build up to the greens, they were not as exaggerated as I expected. Lots of plateaus but not over the top. Only complaint would be that the rises to the some of the plateaus were so steep that they couldn't be effectively mowed. Oh, and the greens were the spongiest I've ever walked on. Like a sponge on top of rock. Most new greens I've played are very hard and sound like a drum if you tap them with a club. These were not.
Played the 18th more or less in the dark. Even darker after they turned out the range lights next to the 18th. Found my drive and hit a 4 iron to a flag that appeared to be sitting on a cape green hanging on a rock outcropping over the canyon. Hit the green and made par. Nice finish to CA. The couple playing in front of us were sitting above the 18th green. Turned out they were employees and were tracking us on the GPS to "make sure we hadn't driven into a canyon in the dark". Nice to see they cared.
My summary, a lot of interesting holes taken on their own. The routing is hopeless if you want to walk. It's a very difficult site but the course is certainly worth experiencing.
Matthew summed it up best: it was fun and an experience to play, but he wouldn't want to play it all the time. So maybe more of a dumb blonde of a course.
So in the end, thanks Tom for raising the visibility of the course here. Otherwise I may not have experienced it.