Played here at twilight with KC Leonard again Went off at 4:30 finished under 3 hours.

I loved watching the Cartbarnguys and wanted to play here. They recently finished the massive renovation of the clubhouse, ASU practice facility, and driving range. The amenities are awesome. Top notch club house, amazing staff, great open aired bar. While I didn't want to hit ba... » More

Played here at twilight with KC Leonard again Went off at 4:30 finished under 3 hours.

I loved watching the Cartbarnguys and wanted to play here. They recently finished the massive renovation of the clubhouse, ASU practice facility, and driving range. The amenities are awesome. Top notch club house, amazing staff, great open aired bar. While I didn't want to hit balls in 102 heat the driving range looks world class now.

The conditions were rough today, I was let down. The greens were scorched. Mowed way too short and firm and brown. Appeared some greens had some burrowing bugs leaving small dirt hills. They weren't fast but the ball won't stop on a downslope. Just keeps trickling. It appears they may have punched the greens earlier in the month which may help explain the condition. The greens were not good. Let's leave it at that.

Bunkers were consistent, consistently low on sand. The sand is dirty clumpy sand as well.

The fairways were nice. Firm conditions today so it helped the course play much shorter. We never felt the distance today from the tips except the par 3's . Papago has big boy par 3's from the tips 3 are 240+.

Aside from the damaged greens the main problem was the through the greens area of the course. Outside of the fairways there is a lot of bare dirt and patchy grass.

The course is a good layout and I bet in better shape it is a nice golf course. It's a full size championship course. You will have to hit driver on the par 4's and be able to play the doglegs. If I lived closer this would be a fun weekday knock around golf. But it is definitely over-hyped and pales in comparison to the other offerings if you are out of town.
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Walked the Blacks (6360/70.8/119) in 3.5H with Mneilson super twilight. Partly cloudy, breezy and around 65 made for a nice late afternoon round.

The tees had good coverage, Okay overall, but most of the par 3's were chewed up with divots.

The fairways had good coverage, pretty lush for kikuyu. Not much roll on these fairways.

The rough was lush, not hig... » More

Walked the Blacks (6360/70.8/119) in 3.5H with Mneilson super twilight. Partly cloudy, breezy and around 65 made for a nice late afternoon round.

The tees had good coverage, Okay overall, but most of the par 3's were chewed up with divots.

The fairways had good coverage, pretty lush for kikuyu. Not much roll on these fairways.

The rough was lush, not high but thick. It would quickly kill your shots.

There are only a few sand traps on the course. Was not in any, but they looked okay.

The smallish poa annua greens putted medium slow but were okay once you adjusted to the speed. Some of the softest greens I have putted on in awhile, actually backed up several mid irons on these greens.

No GPS on the carts, small driving range that is shorter clubs only. Customer service was excellent, quick efficient check in. No drink cart today. Recommended.
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This is my son's first time at the Stadium course. Arrived at 5:40am for our 6:09 tee time. As we left our clubs near the bag drop, an attendant greeted us and loaded them to our carts. We walked in through an impressive clubhouse that includes Ernie's (which happened to be closed still). We promptly got checked in and off we go to warm up.

All grass driving range... » More

This is my son's first time at the Stadium course. Arrived at 5:40am for our 6:09 tee time. As we left our clubs near the bag drop, an attendant greeted us and loaded them to our carts. We walked in through an impressive clubhouse that includes Ernie's (which happened to be closed still). We promptly got checked in and off we go to warm up.

All grass driving range, chipping area and putting green. World class facility. As we approach the starter, he quickly reminded us that this is one of the toughest courses in the western region. And he wasn't kidding. We both bogeyed the first hole. The course was not in the best shape but decent enough to give us a good experience. Some of the bunkers were a little thin and some greens have bare spots.

Made the turn and snack bar was closed. And no bev cart in sight. I guess getting out early, you need to bring your own food. There were water stations but no cups. Glad we brought our water bottles.

As we approach 16 and 17, the heartbeat starts to beat a little faster in anticipation of the 'wall' or as it is noted as San Andrea's fault and Alcatraz. I survived 16 but my son did not and had a good 16 feet of a bunker shot to get up to the green. As he climbed back up to the green, you can feel the tiredness start to creep in. I reminded him to take it easy and compose himself before heading to the island green. After he calmed down, we hit our shots and his landed 6 feet for his birdie try, while my tee shot landed on the fringe. We survived the hole with ball dry and went to get our pars and victory was ours.

Finished 18 in 3 1/2 hours.

Fun day indeed at Pete Dye's masterpiece. Certainly will be back for more punishment soon enough.
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