Hey,

i hope there are some san diego locals here. I will be moving there in january and will stay at least 6 months. I have few questions.
I am looking for a course that has good practice facilities for an affordable price (and would let me use them). Perfect would be if they also have a decent course and good Pros for a few lessons. Any place you could recommend? I will be staying in Mission Beach (i think).
Also, here in germany to get on most courses you need to be member of a golf club (any golfclub) and get some kind of license that shows you know how to play. Is there anything like that in the US too or can you just call the clubhouse and make a teetime at the non-privat clubs?

thanks for your help!

Nothing required to get on a public course
The Stadium Golf Center in Mission Valley is a well thought of practice facility with good teachers. (15 minutes east)
The closet course will be Riverwalk, which is ok for what it is. (10 minutes east)
Then of course there is Torrey Pines about 15-20 minutes north.

The San Diego Golf Institute in Mission Valley is a good practice area (much better for shortgame practice than Stadium IMO). It's a membership thing though, not pay as you go. I think SDGI is 350 a month for unlimited balls and practice but it also comes with 2 hours of lessons (though you'll get more than that in reality). The two head instructors there know more about the golf swing than anybody I've ever met besides Mac O-Grady and Grant Waite.

Other than that, there aren't really any great options for you as far as memberships go. Everything is pretty much either private or it's a public course that's got some stupid membership thing that's not worth joining since you can just go use the putting green for free anyway.

The best putting green near mission beach is at Riverwalk, which is also where SDGI is, but you can't chip there. Torrey Pines has the best putting green around and it's not too far from MB. THey also have a practice chipping area but it's more just for practicing 20-30 yd pitches.

The best short game practice facility in san diego on non private courses is probably at Barona Creek but that's a bit of a hike, probably 40 min from MB. It's a beautiful course though.