2024 Phoenix Area Course Conditions

[Bonneville85308]

Time for a new thread now that we are in 2024.

 

I played The Duke in Maricopa this morning for the first time.  Fairways were cut fairly tight but good grass coverage and quickly dried off once the frost melted. The entire course had a great level of firmness, drives rolled out well, an approach that landed short would usually roll on, the mounding came into play. Greens were in good condition, on the fast side once they dried out, not many ballmarks. Dormant rough had a lot of areas where it wasn't completely matted down to hardpan which was a plus. Tees had good grass coverage and were level. They've renovated the majority of the greenside bunkers fairly recently; a very high quality white sand that wasn't too deep or fluffy; I forgot how to hit out of such good sand! Despite being a housing development course, the layout is pretty wide open, not really difficult but still enjoyable for me. I played the silver tees at 5,914 yards and it felt like it played a bit shorter due to the firm dry fairways. The price is really high right now ($90-$110) for being the second best course in an isolated town that smells like cow poop, but I'd play it again for sure in the summer.

 

No frost delay, but they wanted us to keep the carts out of the fairways (we could drive in the dormant rough) until 9am. Finished in around 3:30, never saw the group in front after #2 and never saw the group behind us after #1. 

 

Edited January 15, 2024 by Bonneville85308

[vallygolf]

Whirlwind Devils Claw sunday.  Course was in great shape tee to green.  Some minor mudballs in the fairway, and the practice putting green by the driving range was running about 7 on the stimp while the course was more like 10-10.5.  As usual, good course and conditions...As usual price is pushing $200 (rack rate).  For the course and conditions I cant say it is out of line with other valley offerings.  Frost delay, we were the second group out and didnt see another group on the whole course.

[AzSuperHack76]

Has anyone played Ken MacDonald recently? Just curious on conditions, thank you! 

[puttnforthe8]

Southern Dunes today…great as usual. Greens fantastic!  And of note, they addressed the bunkers, because they played well. A couple have too much new sand which has not settled.  
 

only issue, is they apparently recently hired a starter who interjected racist, politically charged commentary to each group that started.  I had to walk away when he started complaining that he was going to move to Florida because he no longer felt safe here in AZ because of ____.  😖🤬

[AzSuperHack76]

First time out at Ken McDonald today. What a funky course, odd layout, but it was actually fun to play. Conditions were on par with a lower tier Muni, not good, not bad. Bunkers were incredibly thin, greens were a bit bumpy but rolling at a decent pace. Pace was awful, but again, teeing off at a lower tier muni it was expected, 4:50 minutes teeing off mid morning and following some sort of league event. 

 

 

[jatrain]

Aguila today, I hadn’t been there since November and after the discussion on the other thread was interested to see what type of shape it was in.  
 

I’ve been playing there for 8 years and think that’s the worst shape I’ve ever seen it.  The grass both on both the fairways and greens were very thin, with those lines of grass that haven’t filled in between them.  It was terribly wet, very spongy/slimey in fairways with mud holes.  Same with tee boxes, little grass with mud in spots.  
 

Pace was pretty good at 4:30 playing behind men’s league and a tournament.  

[AZ_JHWK]

10 hours ago, jatrain said:

Aguila today, I hadn’t been there since November and after the discussion on the other thread was interested to see what type of shape it was in.  
 

I’ve been playing there for 8 years and think that’s the worst shape I’ve ever seen it.  The grass both on both the fairways and greens were very thin, with those lines of grass that haven’t filled in between them.  It was terribly wet, very spongy/slimey in fairways with mud holes.  Same with tee boxes, little grass with mud in spots.  
 

Pace was pretty good at 4:30 playing behind men’s league and a tournament.  

I agree with that assessment as I played in the League that morning. It really reminded me of playing a course immediately after a 2" rain. The combination of tight lies and soggy conditions, make ball striking a premium. Also, the divots are exponentially larger. 

 

I had the pleasure of being randomly paired with fellow Golf WRXer, azgolfer44. Didn't come to that realization until the back nine.  

[jatrain]

3 hours ago, AZ_JHWK said:

I agree with that assessment as I played in the League that morning. It really reminded me of playing a course immediately after a 2" rain. The combination of tight lies and soggy conditions, make ball striking a premium. Also, the divots are exponentially larger. 

 

I had the pleasure of being randomly paired with fellow Golf WRXer, azgolfer44. Didn't come to that realization until the back nine.  

I actually checked my Weather app to see if had rained down there overnight because it was so wet, it lightly sprinkled on number 2 on us but that it.  They just must be watering the heck out of it.  

[AzSuperHack76]

Mid morning round at GCU today. Course is in overall good shape. Greens were rolling very nice this morning then got a little bumpy towards the end of the round as they saw more traffic. Bunkers were better than normal, more consistent throughout. 

 

Pace, we should have finished in 330 but we were stuck behind an insufferable group of old men that were clueless, at one point we figured they were 2 1/2-3 holes down. We saw the ranger and asked if he could speed them up, he talked to them but it seemed they didn't get the message. We ended up finishing in 420 or so, not awful but it was irritating to say the least, we waited on every single shot on the back. 

[cbbaron]

On 1/20/2024 at 7:23 PM, puttnforthe8 said:

Southern Dunes today…great as usual. Greens fantastic!  And of note, they addressed the bunkers, because they played well. A couple have too much new sand which has not settled.  
 

only issue, is they apparently recently hired a starter who interjected racist, politically charged commentary to each group that started.  I had to walk away when he started complaining that he was going to move to Florida because he no longer felt safe here in AZ because of ____.  😖🤬

Wow as someone in sales that deals with every cross section of life like I am sure he does he needs to learn to STFU

 

Edited January 28, 2024 by cbbaron

[hackeraz]

Has Arcis ruined Grayhawk yet? Headed out to Raptor this week and want to prepare myself for a 12 hour round and sandless bunkers if need be. 

[puttnforthe8]

Vomitorious is a word right?  

 

[AzSuperHack76]

Falcon Dunes today. Course is in good shape overall. Bunkers, well, they tried to improve some of them. They seemed to have dumped a bunch of construction sand in most of them, without cleaning them out first, so it's a mix of dirt, sand and rocks. 

 

Tee'd off at 830 and finished at 12 so that was good. 

[jatrain]

Rolling Hills for the very first time.  I think there’s potential to be Mountain Shadows like and worth the prices they want to charge but it needs a bunch of work to get there.  Fairways (what there is) and greens conditioning was very good. I thought the back nine was much more interesting with better green complexes than the front.  Tons of ugly dead space that they could infill with rocks and cactus and it’d look pretty cool.  Paid $45 to walk which is the top of what I’d want to pay at this point. 

[puttnforthe8]

1 hour ago, AzSuperHack76 said:

Falcon Dunes today. Course is in good shape overall. Bunkers, well, they tried to improve some of them. They seemed to have dumped a bunch of construction sand in most of them, without cleaning them out first, so it's a mix of dirt, sand and rocks. 

 

Tee'd off at 830 and finished at 12 so that was good. 

Worth the trip from east valley?  

[hackeraz]

Grayhawk Raptor. Happy to say Arcis hasn't destroyed this lovely gem just yet. NCAAs are coming up soon and the course is nearly pristine. Greens rolling true and those turf kids are doing a spot on job. Only complaint I have is my game is trash. Got around in about 4 hours on the nose. 

[lvlites]

On 1/31/2024 at 8:35 AM, puttnforthe8 said:

Vomitorious is a word right?  

 

 

[lvlites]

Looks like GCU must have a lease payment due to the city of Phoenix.  

[AzSuperHack76]

2 hours ago, lvlites said:

Looks like GCU must have a lease payment due to the city of Phoenix.  

Thankfully the rate with the city card is only $60. 

[azgolfer44]

6 hours ago, hackeraz said:

Grayhawk Raptor. Happy to say Arcis hasn't destroyed this lovely gem just yet. NCAAs are coming up soon and the course is nearly pristine. Greens rolling true and those turf kids are doing a spot on job. Only complaint I have is my game is trash. Got around in about 4 hours on the nose. 

NCAA is in San Diego this year.

[hackeraz]

16 hours ago, azgolfer44 said:

NCAA is in San Diego this year.

They have to have something going on as carts had placards stating 90 degree rules and no carts off path rules in order to preserve the course for NCAA play. I suppose they could have never removed them from last year? 

[puttnforthe8]

Sterling Grove in amazing shape tee to green! Such a great day…pins were all in the toughest spots on most greens making for a super fun day.

 

even at full rate it is a super deal for this time of year.  Used Troon card to get it for $65.  

[SilverBullets]

On 2/1/2024 at 9:13 AM, hackeraz said:

Grayhawk Raptor. Happy to say Arcis hasn't destroyed this lovely gem just yet. NCAAs are coming up soon and the course is nearly pristine. Greens rolling true and those turf kids are doing a spot on job. Only complaint I have is my game is trash. Got around in about 4 hours on the nose. 

I played Raptor last weekend and everything about it was PURE.  

 

Its been like 2 years since I last played it and I walked feeling it's condition as well as any public in the valley and it's probably the best test of championship golf that we have in phoenix.  

[hackeraz]

On 2/4/2024 at 12:04 PM, puttnforthe8 said:

Sterling Grove in amazing shape tee to green! Such a great day…pins were all in the toughest spots on most greens making for a super fun day.

 

even at full rate it is a super deal for this time of year.  Used Troon card to get it for $65.  

Looks like SG does have some decent rates, unfortunately no booking times really. Looked a few weeks out as I have a buddy coming into town and already pushing 2:30pm as earliest tee times on the weekend. About ready just to retire from this game again. 

 

What's half a** decent in the Peoria, Surprise, Glendale area currently? I'm willing to drive a bit to not pay $200 a round. Coyote Lakes worth a damn? 

[puttnforthe8]

1 hour ago, hackeraz said:

Looks like SG does have some decent rates, unfortunately no booking times really. Looked a few weeks out as I have a buddy coming into town and already pushing 2:30pm as earliest tee times on the weekend. About ready just to retire from this game again. 

 

What's half a** decent in the Peoria, Surprise, Glendale area currently? I'm willing to drive a bit to not pay $200 a round. Coyote Lakes worth a damn? 

 

@hackeraz I noticed that SG adds a bunch of tee times within 2-3 days.  There were none when I looked and then all of a sudden 3-4 prime tee times were open.  Maybe cancels.

 

Vistancia is $120.  If you don't mind this drive: you can go SW area for less.  Coyote is prob not worth it.  You can try Corte Bella (around 100).  Maybe even look into Hillcrest - I thought I saw it had improved some.   Maybe the 500 Club?

 

 

 

 

[hackeraz]

4 minutes ago, puttnforthe8 said:

 

@hackeraz I noticed that SG adds a bunch of tee times within 2-3 days.  There were none when I looked and then all of a sudden 3-4 prime tee times were open.  Maybe cancels.

 

Vistancia is $120.  If you don't mind this drive: you can go SW area for less.  Coyote is prob not worth it.  You can try Corte Bella (around 100).  Maybe even look into Hillcrest - I thought I saw it had improved some.   Maybe the 500 Club?

 

 

 

 

Awesome, thanks! 

[Bonneville85308]

6 hours ago, puttnforthe8 said:

 

@hackeraz I noticed that SG adds a bunch of tee times within 2-3 days.  There were none when I looked and then all of a sudden 3-4 prime tee times were open.  Maybe cancels.

 

Vistancia is $120.  If you don't mind this drive: you can go SW area for less.  Coyote is prob not worth it.  You can try Corte Bella (around 100).  Maybe even look into Hillcrest - I thought I saw it had improved some.   Maybe the 500 Club?

 

 

 

 

 

I've noticed the same with SG at various points during the past year. I suspect when the tee sheet opens they block everything before 10-11am or so off for members, then a couple days out they release to the public what the members haven't taken.

 

Copper Canyon is $109 now and a fair deal relative to a lot of other courses if one doesn't mind the drive. Hard to get a foursome time but not too tough to get a single or twosome time.

[vallygolf]

On 2/6/2024 at 11:15 AM, puttnforthe8 said:

 

@hackeraz I noticed that SG adds a bunch of tee times within 2-3 days.  There were none when I looked and then all of a sudden 3-4 prime tee times were open.  Maybe cancels.

 

Vistancia is $120.  If you don't mind this drive: you can go SW area for less.  Coyote is prob not worth it.  You can try Corte Bella (around 100).  Maybe even look into Hillcrest - I thought I saw it had improved some.   Maybe the 500 Club?

 

 

 

 

This is the case.  I have had great luck checking the tee sheet for a few days out and always it opens up.  Have played with some very nice members, and a few who are quite good golfers.

Edited February 13, 2024 by vallygolf

[moostache]

On 2/13/2024 at 6:55 AM, vallygolf said:

This is the case.  I have had great luck checking the tee sheet for a few days out and always it opens up.  Have played with some very nice members, and a few who are quite good golfers.

 

Triple confirm, I'm a member here. Empty slots before 11AM get released to the public 2 days before. Course was fertilized last week and is in fantastic shape. Regarding pin placements, there's always some crappy ones...

[jatrain]

Papago was painfully slow today.  I not sure why a course charging $180+ doesn't have marshals out.  Bachelor party with 2 foursomes ahead of us was 1.5-2 holes behind.