I just moved nearby and have had a few great rounds here. Really enjoy having McCormick as relief against the big-dollar Scottsdale desert courses in the winter. This an excellent parkland-style t... Continue »

I just moved nearby and have had a few great rounds here. Really enjoy having McCormick as relief against the big-dollar Scottsdale desert courses in the winter. This an excellent parkland-style tournament course and has beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. Conditions are usually great. McCormick also has one of the only public grass ranges in the area and is a great bargain for practice. If you add in the value and convenience you have a perfect course for locals. The Pine course is my favorite of the two because the holes are slightly more memorable and feel more isolated. The Palm course feels a little bit like you're in Florida at times, but is also a fun course to play and is a nice break from all the desert courses around here. I always have a really pleasant time playing in this area, same with nearby Talking Stick -- there's something very relaxing about this part of the valley with all the surrounding mountains. The Pine's back 9 in particular opens up onto the more isolated and scenic north side of the property. The course itself is moderately challenging. Pace of play is usually about 4-4.5 hours. Could use a little more diversity in tee options (there's a huge distance gap between the tournament tees and the next shortest). Greens are relatively straightforward but play harder than they look. This week they were rolling extremely fast and it added 5+ shots to my score. The course was starting to brown for re-seeding and was playing really fast all around. I wouldn't recommend this course to someone coming to Scottsdale to play a bucket-list desert course. But, it is an awesome parkland-style course and an incredible value, so I would generally recommend it to anyone with the above caveat. Definitely in my top 3 for local spots.