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.

Massive $10 GN deal for a 1pm start time. Got there at noon, was allowed to go off as soon as I finished warming up. Course is in wonderful shape for the end of July. Tee boxes ranged from good to v... Continue »

Massive $10 GN deal for a 1pm start time. Got there at noon, was allowed to go off as soon as I finished warming up. Course is in wonderful shape for the end of July. Tee boxes ranged from good to very good to excellent. Flat, few divots, just a few that were a bit dried out. Fairways were green with few bare spots. Rough is Bermuda, very thick, not dormant, cut to about 3" Greens were super soft but still fast. Definitely bring your ballmark repair tool because you will leave a mark. Somewhat difficult to read, but rolled true. Bunkers throughout the course appeared to be in excellent shape, and the two I found on the back 9 proved that to be the case. Well maintained and plenty of sand. The Back 9 (actually the Back 10, as 9 crosses over the road into the resort and really is more of back half than the front) is definitely more challenging than the front. Greens have false fronts, many are crowned and balls can roll off if you don't use enough club or hit the wrong area. There are a few blind tee shots, and either bunkers or desert await a shot pulled too much or sliced. For my handicap (13ish), the scorecard recommended the Blue (3rd set) of tees. While this made for a good challenge on the Par 3s and 4s, I felt it made the Par 5s too easy. Perhaps Blue/Black combo might be a better selection next time. Electric carts that come with a ball/club washer, GPS and a water cooler. GPS is very helpful, showing you the distance to the front of the green and to the flag location that day. No annoying commercials, though if you stray where you're not supposed to, a nag screen will pop up telling you to return. Driving range uses mats to hit from, putting green just has flags placed on it but not holes cut. The course superintendent likes to fill in all the divots himself, so no divot mix is provided, but that dude and his team definitely are on top of it. A pleasant change was the staff attitude and service. Pro shop was helpful, cart guy was very helpful and friendly, and Crystal the cart girl loaded me up before the round and even gave me a mango towel to start my day. Kudos to all for the massive upgrade in service. CP

Played GCSW Wed 6-13-12 in the afternoon. Played as a twosome with the place to ourselves. Got around in 3:15. Great conditions all around. Staff was professional, on task, and abundant. Saw the ... Continue »

Played GCSW Wed 6-13-12 in the afternoon. Played as a twosome with the place to ourselves. Got around in 3:15. Great conditions all around. Staff was professional, on task, and abundant. Saw the beverage cart 3 times even though she was covering both courses. She insisted that we take iced towels the last time we saw her.

SW seems to exist in the shadow of Dinosaur; not without reason, as Dinosaur is an awesome course. But Sidewinder is a fun and worthy test also, and the surfaces are just as good.

They're very up front about it, but be clear that by policy they don't provide drinking water on the course. Stock up at the snack shack or via the beverage cart. Carts have ice chests.

The course is a little shy on yardage markers; e.g., I don't recall any distance markers on the tee boxes. Also, no prisms on the flag sticks. However, the on-cart GPS was always withing a yard or two of lasered distances, so that obviated those shortcomings for the most part.

Overall, a great course and experience.

Golf Canyon Golf Resort Review
Arizona Golf Course Reviews

My wife and I stayed at Gold Canyon Resort to golf at Sidewinder and Dinosaur for a winter getaway. We played Sidewinder twice and Dinosaur twice. We have to say that, overall, it was a great experi... Continue »

My wife and I stayed at Gold Canyon Resort to golf at Sidewinder and Dinosaur for a winter getaway. We played Sidewinder twice and Dinosaur twice. We have to say that, overall, it was a great experience. The staff (save one) was great. The accommodations were above average, the food was good. The courses were very green. The grass was in great shape. It did seem to be cut a little short in places. The greens were in very good shape, but again the grass was very short making the greens really fast (even in wet conditions). The Sidewinder course is for the most part flat. If you have trouble with hills this would be the course to play between the two. The sand traps could use a little more sand (less crushed rock mixed in), but otherwise were well cared for. Definitely a challenge to pitch out of. Sidewinder does wind between a lot of houses. If hitting a ball close to homes bothers you maybe you would be better playing Dinosaur. A good mix of par 5's, 4's, and 3's. On Sidewinder I did not bring out my driver on many holes. On some of the par 4's the smarter play is to hit a shorter club. The desert "rough" is present throughout and I found it very scenic. I did not lose as many balls in it as I thought I might. Our only real complaint comes from an encounter with one of the course marshals. Except for this one individual the starters and marshals were great. Our problem came when we were on the 10th on Sidewinder. The closest group ahead of us started 30 minutes before us. The group behind us had been nipping at our heels from the start. We were not slow (the GPS showed us being 25 minutes ahead of pace). At the 10th the group must have complained and we encountered this course marshal. He seemed rather abrupt and rude. He said we were too slow and to pick up the pace. We offered for the group behind us to play through, but the marshal said that "was not an option." I am not sure why that was not an option. Well, to pick up the pace we started to pick up balls on the fairway and greens. Not much fun on the back nine. The rest of our time and experiences were great, so we hope he was just having a bad day. I would recommend golfing and staying at Gold Canyon.

Played the Sidewinder course on 7/17/2009 as the 2nd half of a Dinosaur/lunch/Sidewinder special. This is definately the more forgiving and easier of the two courses at Gold Canyon. It's a resort co... Continue »

Played the Sidewinder course on 7/17/2009 as the 2nd half of a Dinosaur/lunch/Sidewinder special. This is definately the more forgiving and easier of the two courses at Gold Canyon. It's a resort course, and very wide off the teeboxes. The Sidewinder course is much more women friendly than Dinosaur, the forward tees are designed to eliminate many of the forced carries Dinosaur has. There are a few holes with water that's pretty easily avoided on the Sidewinder course. The greens had been punched about 2 weeks before, and were coming around nicely, although they were a bit bumpy. There are many holes where houses can come into play on errant drives on the Sidewinder course. Not nearly as scenic or challenging as Dinosaur, this is still a nice resort course and worth the trip around the links. I'll make plans to play it again when it's not 114 degrees.

This course is in excellent shape. THe only detractor was some water in the sand traps but that can be expected with all the rain tha day before. Greens are very nice and the entire course is great. T... Continue »

This course is in excellent shape. THe only detractor was some water in the sand traps but that can be expected with all the rain tha day before. Greens are very nice and the entire course is great. The views of the Superstition Mountains add to the setting. Well worth the SWPGA pass price.