The Crossings at Carlsbad

The Crossings at Carlsbad is a challenging Greg Nash design carved throughout the natural canyons and habitat preservation of Carlsbad, CA. At 6,817 yards from the back tees, optional tee boxes are also available to accommodate players at any skill level. GPS (Global Positioning System) is installed on every golf car providing pin-pointed yardage calculations, personal safety and on-course assistance with pace of play.

  bgoody - 7/20/09
Tough but fun course that is maintained well. It punishes golfers who work the ball left to right because many of the fairways slope to the right then end at a canyon or environmentally protected area. It has a number of target golf holes but just as many wide open fairways. If you do however miss a fairway expect to be penalized at least 1 stroke - there are no side by side fairways that you can recover a poor tee shot from. My first few times playing I felt that some of the holes were unfair but now appreciate more how the holes were designed to be played. Experience pays off here as there are areas that you never want to visit and this isn't always apparent from the tee.

The severe slopes in the greens are a bit excessive for my taste but no doubt make for some interesting lags.

Expect to shoot a high number if you don't bring a solid game. This course is no pushover especially from the blacks.

I found there to be better driver landing areas from the blues and blacks. The whites seems to be a little too short at times.

Has some of the best views in Carlsbad.

  golfergonewild - 9/20/08
Target golf at its best, an insult to the game and Carlsbad tax payers at its worst. This course cost 72 million (That is 1 million per stroke of par) and 17 years of planning, endless environmental impact studies, and the end result is 13 mediocre holes, and 5 holes that were jammed into the surrounding terrain to finish the course.

2 of the par 3's are so short that you feel like you are at a pitch and putt executive course. One hole takes you out to camp pendleton and back as it is clear that they ran out of room and did not want to open a course with only 17 holes.

Driving the fairways is a crap shoot. Great drives that hit the fairway 2 times out of 5 gather out of bounds or end up with some bizarre side hill lie.

The finishing hole takes on new meaning as I am sure it will finish many novice golfers careers. First the tee shot must be aimed left at the bunkers to stay in play, straight or right and it will gather into a canyon to the right that lies exactly in the landing area of most drives. Then the approach shot must be played perfectly, over the canyon, to even find the center of the green which is surrounded by canyons on 3 sides. If you play 2 very good shots and are on this shallow green in two, you must contend with no less than 9 different steeply slopping levels on this green which looks more like a bmx course that grew grass then a putting green. 3 putting is almost guaranteed if you are any distance away from the pin. Novice golfers have already gone through 2 or 3 balls on this hole before they even get to the green and most likely have just picked up and don't even bother to 4 or 5 putt. What a great way for most beginner golfers to end their round and instill that "I can't wait to get back out there" feeling. I hope that no one plays this course as their first golf experience and think this is what golf is all about.

Well designed golf courses understand the concept of risk VS reward, and setup the tee boxes to give players of all levels an appropriate amount of challenge. This course fails on both counts. The course dictates most of the shots that must be played and presents very few options. Most tee boxes on this course have been carved out of the side of a canyon 150 yards away from the nearest real estate that would work for a fairway. The result is experts and novices are all hitting across the same canyon just to get the ball in play which significantly hinders pace of play.

My advice, if you are a novice and enjoy the game of golf, and you are not just outside to get some sun and look at the ocean, play somewhere else where the game of golf was the primary driver of the course design and not property values and minimizing environmental impact. If you are a decent golfer, bring your sun screen because there is a high likelihood that if your 6 hour round doesn't turn your face red, either your cart running out of juice on the 15th hole, the pin placements not matching the GPS system, or your general frustration with playing a gimmicky course surely will.

  PWDH - 10/6/09

  Eric.Gray - 8/18/09

  golfdaddy - 6/24/09

  Kaster - 6/17/09

  mfaj5 - 5/28/09

  StevIsRad - 5/27/09

  Alexin1 - 5/11/09

  cndmntman - 1/19/09