Played with my usual Sunday threesome here at 11:02 am for $20 off a hot deal on GolfNow. This course never allows for singles to book so I've never played here, and the last time one of my partners i... Continue »

Played with my usual Sunday threesome here at 11:02 am for $20 off a hot deal on GolfNow. This course never allows for singles to book so I've never played here, and the last time one of my partners in the threesome played here was some 5 odd years ago. We were excited. This course has an extensive history with being one of the first courses established around 1913, before Arizona was even officially a state. The service was acceptable, the cart guys grabbed our bags, we checked in, hit the bar to grab our drinks as there wasn't a cart girl out on the hot Sunday we played. We were off without warmup due to the driving range being simply foam golf balls into a 150 yard grassy area with a few trimmed "greens". The conditions on the tee boxes, with around 4 sets of tee to play from, were nice and acceptable of any tee. The fairways were a little overgrown, but noticeably lower than the rough. The rough was quite lush, it'll hide your ball pretty well and impact any approach shot. The greens, which we were warned of being slow, were pretty pristine. Soft and receptive on any shots into the green but rolled true with putts. Not seemingly baked at all and fun to putt on...once you were successfully on the greens. The bunkers, which all are SURROUNDING the small greens were a little inconsistent. Some were soft and well raked while others could be firm and packed a bit too tight. The only weird thing about the conditions was the absence of the fringe, it was basically trimmed greens and immediately off the greens was the rough and crabgrass. This course is for sure a parkland style course, with very little desert seen if any and if you saw desert shrubbery it was because of the houses that are prominently lining the holes of this resort/hotel course. The fairways are rather accepting of errant tee shots but to score well, bring your sharpest of irons because these greens are the size of postage stamps. Every green was in great shape, which is great because you needed the ability to putt well with all of the greens being defended by at least one bunker, up to three surrounding the green complexes. My only gripe was this course strategically could be great if the greens weren't under 1,000 square feet because EVERY green is surrounded by bunkers. It's not necessarily target golf other than with the greens but the greens limit your options for approach shots, they need to be able to fly and stop quickly. It was a fun course, albeit rather challenging with my below average iron game that Sunday, and with the conditions I'll be back but it's not for the everyday hacker that can't accurately control their irons. If you can't bring some swim shorts and a towel because you'll be at the beach all day.