Played at 11:03 am on July 29th, twosome for $26.63 (with a $10 gift card given to us at arrival). The staff welcomed us as soon as we approached the club shop with a cart and directions. This course ... Continue »

Played at 11:03 am on July 29th, twosome for $26.63 (with a $10 gift card given to us at arrival). The staff welcomed us as soon as we approached the club shop with a cart and directions. This course is tucked away in the Gold Canyon mountains and suburb area, beautifully located in the mountain's crevices if I say so myself. Once we walked into the pro shop we checked in and were given the mentioned gift cards that were included in the tee time phoned in because of recent aeration (it ended as of July 27th but they retroactively gave them to us anyways) and we were on our way. The drive to the first tee of the Sidewinder is a bit convoluted but the cart guy gave us some solid directions and we arrived.

The carts are equipped with a small cooler, club/ball cleaner and a really nice touch screen GPS system. All of these prepared us to conquer the perfectly maintained resort course. The tee boxes were lush, well outlined with walk-up rocky paths that accepted a tee at any point of our pleasure. The course allows for five to six different tee off locations, with Gold being the tips and the newest (latest addition as the distances were listed on any of the hole's mapping near the tee boxes). The fairways were soggy in FEW locations but otherwise very green and firm, lush in many areas without any bare spots to truly be seen. Though with no divot fill seed on the carts we didn't notice many if any divots on the fairways. The greens were perfect, accepted literally any shot creating a pitchmark (I drove a green with driver and the rollout was MAYBE 15 feet after it's crater of a pitchmark). The roll was true whether it was from a putt, approach or one of many well manicured and fluffy bunkers. The rough was 1"-2.5" inches but well manicured.

The course (Sidewinder) is relatively straight forward, could definitely be difficult for those who can't consistently carry driver 175+. Can't say there are any more than one or two memorable holes besides the 8th with a tree in front of the green in the fairway posing threat to any approach shots not placed off tee correctly; and the last par 5 18th that climbs up the slope nearby the Dinosaur's first tee box. While I'm not one to complain, this course often followed this ritual: tight fairway with slight dogleg one way or the other, bunker guarded green with slight deviation in elevation change and greens that were tiered at least once with a large bump.

A fun track that can twist and twine in between the suburbs and craters of the hilly mountain terrain well, I'd advise you take the trek out eastward and play this resort yourself.