Work trip out to the Phoenix area and decided to brave the bad reviews and check out Kokopelli Golf Course. My playing partner lived about halfway between where I was and his house and we had to lock ... Continue »

Work trip out to the Phoenix area and decided to brave the bad reviews and check out Kokopelli Golf Course. My playing partner lived about halfway between where I was and his house and we had to lock down a very early 6:40am tee time due to the heat in the afternoon currently.

I was surprised to see so many people hitting balls on the range at 6am, but there was good energy and the range itself wasn't too bad, although the mats definitely need some replacing. We grabbed our cart, joined another twosome out from WI, and played from the yellow (back) tees. Things looked promising as the holes around the clubhouse were very green and well-maintained.

Things changed quickly once the facilities were out of range. Each hole was progressively worse as we went along, with many having horrific dirt patches before and adjacent to the fairways, while the water features were empty bits of reed and bush carnage. The fairways are incredibly hilly throughout, which isn't a knock - just an observation. If you're expecting level lies all day - you wont' get them. But I always get a bemused chuckle when golf courses gussy up the first few holes and let the others slide. It's just kinda dishonest.

As for the course conditions, the greens were actually not too bad and had some crazy pin placements. There were a lot of flags on precipitous slopes that didn't allow for any misjudged speed. They varied greatly in size but never in difficulty. Coverage and speeds were pretty good, though.

The fairways were good to decent on a lot of holes once if you got past the mayhem, but again - that really depended on clubhouse proximity. Other holes farther away were really struggling to be up to standard. The rough was quite thick in some areas, super thin in others - no consistency. Bunkers didn't have sand per se, but more playable dirt that looked pretty bad but played better than its appearance. Tee boxes were all pretty good.

We had cart service throughout the day and POP was sub four hours since we were one of the first groups out and never once saw the twosome that was ahead of us at the first hole. These two factors were a good saving grace. I might have lost it had we been waiting and thirsty.

All in all, there are of course a hundred better options than Kokopelli in the Phoenix area, but if they ever got the conditions good and really put the work into the place, I think the bones and layout would be quite fun. But it's a long way from that at present.