Mission Inn Golf Resort

Historic Golf Trail

4.0 of 5 starsReviewed November 28, 2022

A resort that has two courses ready, one very old and one rather young - in a very spacious environment.

We're in the Hills of Lake County - aptly named, there's a lot of water here - at 120 feet above sea level. Already the approach via the US 27 from Sins gave us great views over the hills. On the resort's home page they underline the difference in altitude of 85 feet... ...there is movement in the terrain on both courses.

Sublime, challenging and frustrating - so the titles of the courses - it's true...

El Campeon...
...was designed by George O'Neil - Chicago - in 1917, Charles E Clarke from Scotland - Troon - redesigned it in 1926, is considered one of the first courses in the southern United States.

Many golf courses (4) and literature do not exist by George O'Neil, we found a number of newspaper articles in the Chicago Tribune in which he describes the design of the holes in detail.
There is even less traceable of Charles E Clarke.

It's a great open parkland course with exciting and difficult holes, surrounded by lots of water - a few times it's in play. There are some holes that demand everything from the player, a difficult par, a slight bogey is the basis of the layout. Some of the bunkers remind us of Scotland - as high as a man!!!
The greens were very good - great ball speed - great to play but very tricky and difficult.

La Colinas...
...a course by Gary Koch that is quite narrow in parts, most of the holes are in the forest.
As far as we can tell, a lot of work has been done on the tees on this course in recent years, some of them look new.
The greens were very good, not too high ball speed to play - therefore a bit easier.

Both are great courses, you can easily give 5 stars for their layout, but unfortunately not for the maintenance.

Overall, we weren't too happy with the maintenance on either course. Several tees looked very battered, not repaired divots, also on the fairways. Basically, this is the work of the players, but it needs to be improved by the greenkeepers. Lots of leaves and needles on the playing ground made it difficult to find the ball but also the game. (El Campeon) Both courses were partly wet and deep, got a lot of water, from above as well as from below as it looks.

It was great fun, you can't always expect perfect conditions...

Great very nice and courteous staff!

All have four stars.

Translated by Google.