Valley Oaks Golf Course

This review is based solely as a bride, and not as a regular/experienced golfer.I had my wedding here on November 7, 2015, and Joe is THE MAN to thank! He gave us the perfect ceremony site, the clubhouse venue space for the reception, the delicious catered food, access to the clubhouse bar (with bartender), the resources to rent equipment (through Details, in Tulare), and the extra staff to run the show. Since the time that we chose this place as our venue, he has been readily available to answer any questions I had, and to meet up in person to work out any other details. He even closed off part of the golf course to ensure our ceremony site was undisturbed. He was incredibly helpful and a pleasure to work with, he truly seemed to care about my wedding and that meant a lot! As I said earlier, food is AMAZING. We did a tasting session a few months prior to the wedding, and we did not even need to change the entree options. The tri tip was my favorite, and the chicken was my husband's favorite, so we did a half and half option for the guests. Sides of green beans and bacon, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, and he offered vegetarian options as well. I had an ice cream sundae bar, and he also helped store the extra ice cream in his freezer.I also need to give a special shout out to Raul (hope I spelled your name right!). He was also integral to my wedding's success, with doing all the technical work (getting a PA system to reach ~500ft away from the clubhouse), as well as chauffeuring myself and my elderly relatives out into the course.Everyone here made my wedding a truly special day. I can't say enough nice things, but to wholeheartedly recommend this place to any other people looking for potential venues within a practical wedding budget. My guest total was about 60 people, and I bet at least 100 could have fit in the space we had. So thank you again, Valley Oaks, and to Joe! I don't know any better way we could have spent our special day!

Valley Oaks golf course is not being taken care of and the pro shop guys are disrespectful. The course is in horrible shape after bad and mistimed decisions and a lack of maintenance around the driving range. Muddy, slimey, mats with algae and no benches to sit on. Someone took them out during the covid nonsense and forgot to put them back. There is even a long time dead tree hanging over the chipping and putting green and they even forgot to over seed this year so when the rains come it will be a muddy mess. What's going on at Valley Oaks ???????Sincerely, Monte McKean

This is the worst managed golf course in the valley. Showed up for a 1007 tee time and there were 10 carts on the first tee still waiting. Talking with others in line they had 950, 954, 1000, 1004, 1007 1010 1014 tee times. We didn't tee off until 1045. There were 3 groups waiting on every tee. Absolutely ridiculous. Not only that but they allowed fivesome and sixsomes. Do better Valley Oaks. Would not waste my money to come back.Update: we finished in 6 hours and 12 min. The marshal apologized to us multiple times and said they were trying. But there is no excuse for overbooking and such packed tee times. All about the dollar and it showed.

Highly recommend private lesson. Good overall experience. Busy, but most people polite.

The Starter has to deal with keeping everyone safe and had to put single between an Threesome and a Foursome. Slow play but it's totally understood with the COVID issues....Valley Oaks is always great place to tee it up!!!!

Tee time management. There is always multiple groups waiting on the 1st tee. I believe the tee times are only like 3 minutes apart.

Since my review things have been very neutral, Which I appreciate. Thank you for addressing my review internally and making the appropriate corrections.

To the Valley Oaks General Manager: aside from the course being in great shape- fairways were great, bunkers had good sand and greens are rolling smooth, it was the staff that made my day...that turned into night because I lost my cell phone on one of the holes right at dusk. Gabriel went out of his way to help me find my phone, making about 3 trips on the course just to help me find my phone. Also, Calvin and Blake came to the rescue as well. These 3 exemplary gentleman went WAY out of their way to help me and even refused my reward for a dinner for finding my phone. They spent almost an hour in complete darkness just to help a guy who just wanted to play golf. In riding in the cart with Gabriel, I found out that he's a new father and is in the fire fighting program. This is a guy who you definitely want help from as a first responder. These guys really showed kindness and empathy for my mistake and have inspired me to pay the kindness forward. On that note, to the general manager of Valley Oaks, these guys need recognition for making sure their patrons are well taken care of. Thank you again Calvin, Blake and Gabriel. All of your futures look bright.

The course itself is amazing, tough, and a good challenge for casual golfers. The only thing that is making me put this rating lower is the pace of play. 2 weekends in a row, its taken me 2 1/2 hours to get threw 9 holes! There were 2 very slow, 4 man groups in front of us. The course marshal was no where to be found. Once we finally got threw the first 9 holes, the same slow groups were also playing the same next back 9 holes as us. The back 9 holes also came out to 2 1/2 hours. When we started the back 9 and came back to the club house there were two course marshals just driving around the club house. We never saw a single course marshal while playing at valley oaks golf course.

I have played golf all over America and Mexico, having played for about 45 years now. This course is a little too expensive for what you get. $59 is a little high for this area but it would be acceptable if the course was well managed. It is not well managed on several levels. The fairways and sand are in pretty solid shape but the greens are the worst around of all the local courses. No one fixes divots on the green apparently and no one running the course appears to care (have played three times recently and not once were the greens well groomed). Compared to the Tulare greens, there is no comparison because in Tulare, you can tell that the management takes great care with their greens. In Tulare, you can putt and expect that your putt will remain true to your aim and not get bumped off line, not so and Valley Oaks. Lastly, the pace of play is not managed at all. We made a tee time for 12:30pm on 11/11 a few days in advance. We couldn't tee off because there weren't any carts available to us and the woman behind the counter just told us to wait (wasn't very pleasant and didn't seem to appreciate that we were patrons of the business). I played with two friends from out of town that day who play weekly in Santa Barbara. Their comments regarding the greens and the management were less than favorable. When we finally teed about 25 minutes late, the adventure began. We arrived at Hole 2 and counted SEVEN groups on the hole or waiting to play including us. Ridiculous! I called the pro shop and let them know immediately. The foursome in front of us literally told me that I was wasting my time and that the management wouldn't do anything about it (implying they had tried that tactic before). The woman on the phone said that they were really busy today and I had to confirm with her that this wasn't a normal thing on other courses. SEVEN GROUPS on one hole is outrageous and it shows that the course is only interested in sending off as many people as are willing to pay. She did send out a guy in a cart to look and he got out and looked at the situation. I addressed him and told him that no one is monitoring the pace of play and that is the problem. He said that they had about 350 people on the course and that basically it is what it is. Nothing was done (as predicted by the other patron). As we made the turn about three hours later, we asked about getting a raincheck for the last nine holes as it was about 3:45ish and there was no increase in the pace and there was no way we could finish now before dark (the sun set at 4:52pm). We also asked to switch to a different 9 holes in an attempt to be able to play faster. No and no. So, the message to me was "you aren't important, we have your $59 already, it's everyone else's fault not ours." We literally played the last three holes in the dark (not kidding). We had fun crouching to the ground so we could try and find where the ball went against the horizon, but we weren't honored as patrons. $350 x $59 = $20,000+ on a single busy day ... having a course Marshall seems doable.Go to River Island or Tulare. Those businesses understand how to value people.