DarkHorse Golf Club

6:50 Tee time Tuesday 8/20 Course conditions were atrocious, for being August in California this course was over watered and we couldn't tell when it had been mowed last. We didn't see anyone mowing fairways and the tee boxes / rough areas had not been mowed in some time. Areas around and including trees were so over watered that your typical shot would chunk or not roll properly. Crab grass had over grown the second cut around most tee boxes. We do not recommend this course for the 75$ price tag. 13$ at the turn gets you a hot dog and Sam's club coke. Overall course rating would be 2/10 at best we felt that is being generous.

Worst shape I've ever seen it in. They've had an issue overwatering for a few years now but I've never seen in this bad. The fairways are swampy, sick, and poorly mown. The greens are bumpy, spongy, and soaked. It's really sad. This place does not live up to its ranking. Great course, awful conditioning. On top of that it was slow AF. Nearly a 6 hour round with no marshal in sight. Been playing here for years but this will be the last time. Just can't keep hoping it will get better.

Been coming here off and on for 15-20 years and surprised I never wrote a review. I'll lay it out with pros and cons ProsBEAUTIFUL course, like it is always in good condition. Plus just very scenic.Amazing bunkers - I wish I wasn't so familiar with these. Lol. But they are very nice and sparkle like there is gold in the sand.True greens - they roll pure and true. No wobbles, no hops......unless some butthead didn't fix his divot.Good elevation changes - they do a good job with this. Some holes seem directly uphill and some super downhill. I like that. Cart girls are always very friendly.I always enjoy a Turn Worm(hotdog), they are typically stationed between 9 and 10 by the golf cart garage.Golf carts are pretty awesome. GPS, Bluetooth speakers and comfy seats.ConsThe men - I swear EVERYTIME I call to make a tee time I feel like I am bugging them. And everytime I check in with a dude they still seem a little turned off or put out. (Got lucky this last time and it was a blonde young lady helping us, she was very friendly, thanks for that)No water on course - Not a single water jug out there. I did notice a couple of ice chests near trash cans, but they just have ice in them everytime. Guessing there was water bottles in there? Not sure. No ball cleaners - like seriously don't think I ever saw one. Seems simple to have, even janky golf courses have them.Can't drive golf carts to parking lot - not a huge deal but lil annoying to walk up all your stuff.Most people would complain about no clubhouse but whatever it is not super necessary. Just you and that beautiful beast of a course. I'll keep coming back but I know what I am getting into and I am fine with that.

such a nice area and course. Now they went to basically a robot to schedule t-times and need a card to hold. You guys are going to lose business this way. Go to the Ridge or Whitney people.

This is a very pretty course, but no place to sit and relax, get food or a drink after golf with friends.We were surprised to find that Darkhorse has no clubhouse of any kind. This course is a ways out there and no restaurants close by. This course has been here over 20 years and still no clubhouse?It seems to me, they really don't care about return customers. In my opinion, its overpriced for what you get. For us, the Ridge golf course is a better choice and not as far out.

Reading some of the recent reviews here on Yelp on the conditions for the course had me concerned about playing at Darkhorse in early Oct '24. We were coming into town for a few days and had booked out 4-weeks prior to play here and another course in the area. So I was pleasantly surprised that the conditions were not as bad as noted in those reviews. The fairways were in okay conditions for the most part. A few areas that were a bit thin, we simply moved our ball to an area with better coverage. The greens were slower that we were used to, but they seemed to get firmer and quicker later in the round.Yes, there is no clubhouse and/or restaurant so if you are looking to relax at a bar after the round, this is probably not your course. While checking in and telling the attendant this was our first time at the course, he gave us a course/yardage that provided yardages to certain landmarks and descriptions and suggestions for how to play each hole, which was appreciated. There are bathrooms water stations on both the front and back nine, but you will need your own water bottle. The beverage cart girl came around at least 4 times where we were able to pickup gatorade.Overall for the price - we paid $69 for each of us - I found this course in decent condition and wouldn't hesitiate to come back and play. And that's with having a horrible front nine score. It is a tough course with challenges off the tee, especially if you are not the straightest of hitters. We did have a slow foursome in front of us that thought they were a lot better that they actually were. Playing from the gold/yellow tees and lining up and playing their putts like they had big $$$$ for each putt. But we didn't have any place to be so we weren't stressed out but the single that had joined us was getting ticked off and yelled at them to pick up the pace at one point LOL.

Dead grass all over the fairways. Ball marks all over the greens. Tee boxes are brutal. This isn't the course it was years ago. Not worth the $80, more like a $45 course.

Zero stars. Course conditions were bad and management is absolutely terrible. Sad, because we used to love this course.

Course was in great shape and always a good value. Plus, Mary on the beverage cart is a rock star and provides exceptional service! My buddy Wagner was 40 over through 17 and the constantly looking for his golf balls made us extremely parched. Thankfully Mary was always there for us with ice cold waters and killer service. Dark horse is damn lucky to have her! Thanks again Mary and DarkHorse!

It pains me to give one star to such an incredible golf course. And I mean it when I say incredible. There's a reason this place makes the Golf Digest list of top public golf courses in CA every year. It is both a strategic delight and a visual treat. And to the ownership's credit, they keep the course in stellar shape, especially for what you pay. It's easily my favorite course in the Sac area, no contest. It's a must play for any golf enthusiast. Unfortunately, the course itself is where the positives end. When we checked in at the starter shack for our noon-ish teetime, the starter informed us that both the snack cart at the turn and the cart girl would be shutting down at 12 because the course was slow that day. Suffice it to say, we paid full price for our rounds, so we weren't thrilled that management was sending all of the service staff home just as we arrived. How could it possibly be that there would be literally no way for us to buy food or water all afternoon? Knowing that we would need food at the turn, we bought hot dogs at the start of our round, and ate them soggy two hours later. It would have been nice to have stored the hot dogs in a cooler for food safety reasons, but the carts have no coolers, so the hot dogs sat out in the heat until we ate them. To make matters worse, despite the 110 degree heat and total absence of a cart girl or snack cart at the turn, there are only two--count 'em, TWO--water stations on the entire course. It was lucky that I brought four large refillable water bottles with me, because my playing partner and I each needed two huge bottles to stay hydrated for 6-8 holes at a time. If we had only brought one standard water bottle each, we literally could not have played for lack of water. Maybe the lack of water stations would be less of an issue if the ownership had the cart girl doing rounds all day, but we only saw her once on the fourth hole before she left. We took the opportunity to stock up on Gatorade. Thank god we booked our teetime for before 12. It's clear from the many, many reviews like this one, and the many weirdly defensive and aggressive responses similar reviews have received from the Darkhorse account, that the ownership just doesn't care about these issues. Which is a real shame. How difficult would it be to put a water station at every other teebox like so many other golf courses do in hot climates? Is it really so cost prohibitive to erect a nice shade structure next to the snack cart so patrons have a place to sit and eat out of the sun? I'm not even here to knock them for lacking a clubhouse. Good golf doesn't need a fancy clubhouse. They could get by without one just fine if they did a decent job of providing water, food, and a comfortable, shady place to eat. Unfortunately, besides the course itself and the practice range, Darkhorse has virtually no facilities at all, except for a couple of bathrooms. The crazy thing is that despite all of this, I'll still be back. The course is *that good.* Darkhorse should be a top golf destination for miles around, but it's not. And until something changes it doesn't deserve to be.