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Arnold's Design....about 7000 from back tees...never been. Can someone give me a quick review and what to look out for? thanks

I don't know how it plays on a regular basis, but I played it right before their Nationwide Event a couple years ago. Deep rough. A bit narrow on some fairways. The girl who was up front was not nice and the range balls are expensive.

It's a tough course, mainly because of it's length. 18 is actually pretty easy with a driver and a good fade. If you hit it well, you can easily reach it in two. That hole is very memorable because I didn't think I could carry the water to the green with a 3 wood. The guy I played with said go for it. I did and had makeable eagle putt that almost went in. Greens were receptive when I played there, but with all this wind in SoCal you never know. It's a good course, but I don't think it's worth how much you pay for.

I'm serious about the girl at the pro-shop.

It's a fair course, I've probably played it 40-50 times as I live a few minutes away. Under normal (non-Nationwide tour) conditions you don't get penalized too badly for a tee shot misses the fairway. The greens are generally pretty smooth and roll pretty quick. The one thing I don't care for is the false fronts on a few holes and the deceptive use of mounding on some of the fairways.

Hole 4 and Hole 9 in particular are very deceptive. From the 4th tee it looks like the landing area is pretty narrow and it tempts some into trying to cut the corner (something I wouldn't advise - if you don't carry it over the trees you end up in a very tough spot and are looking at bogey or worse). The 9th hole looks pretty straight forward but the mounding around the green makes it appear much closer than it really is. Be sure to find yardage markers before hitting into the greens and try to play to the front of most of the greens (if you end up on the top shelf and have to hit down to the hole it can get tricky - I'd advise leaving yourself with as many uphill putts as possible).

Don't expect to set a personal best on your first time out at Empire Lakes.