Overview: Sterling Grove Golf and Country Club is the first new golf course in the Phoenix metro area in the last 5 years. The course is managed by Troon Golf and is part of the Toll Brothers Housing... Continue »

Overview: Sterling Grove Golf and Country Club is the first new golf course in the Phoenix metro area in the last 5 years. The course is managed by Troon Golf and is part of the Toll Brothers Housing Development of Sterling Grove, which when completed will have a build out of 2,200 homes. The course was developed by Nicklaus Design (Jack's design team only ... not Jack), but it's a classic Nicklaus design with large fairways and undulating greens.

COVID-19: Pretty straight forward with masks being worn in the Pro Shop and Clubhouse, and 2 people in the golf cart. No water or rakes on the course, but the golf carts did have seed.

Course: The course for the most part is right in front of you except for 3 or 4 holes. I thought that the course opened up with some very average holes, but by the 6th hole got a little more interesting, and I definitely enjoyed the course a lot more after that. The tee boxes were in great shape and were almost PGA quality. The sand was excellent (was in 2 bunkers all day), and it was not the normal AZ sand, but kind of a combination of AZ sand and Florida sand. I thought it was very easy to hit out of and it was very consistent. The fairways were in very good shape and the rough was pretty easy to hit out of. The biggest concern was if you hit it into the fescue grass which was located on a lot of the holes. The fescue was very thick and it was very difficult to find your ball if you hit it into that area. Most of the time you would have to take a drop if you hit it into there. It will be interesting to see how long the course continues to have the fescue due to player complaints and when the rattlesnakes start to come out in the next couple of weeks. I can see a player going in there and being bit. I was concerned about the conditions of the greens because the first 2 or 3 greens had some bare spots and it looked like some fungus had gotten into them, but by the 4th hole they were in much better shape.

Final Thoughts: They have a nice pro shop and locker room, but they do not offer food on site yet. They did have a food truck by the pro shop, but the food truck shut down at 3:00 pm ... on a weekend day?
The course opened for public play on 2/11/21, and I thought the price of $89 was very fair, but they have already raised the price to $109 for the month March with $89 being the twilight rate. The course is nice, but in my opinion is not a course that is on the "bucket list" of courses to play in AZ. Lastly, the plan is for the course to go private in the next couple of years.