2025 Phoenix Area Course Conditions

[southpaw72]

Gcu I thought was just fine. Tons of tough lies around the greens in the bare dormant Bermuda, some soaking wet, some pure hard pan. Greens were rolling well. Only played out of one bunker but it was perfect, I know they can be a little inconsistent out there. Looked like they had recently sprayed some more green paint. I remember it being in better shape in late November and felt like they overseeded more last year but maybe I’m wrong. 
 

Still a very enjoyable course to me, maybe that’s the maryvale and high school golf nostalgia speaking. 
 

The only other consistent factor is the morning Marshall continues to be the worst Marshall I’ve ever come across in any of my travels. Zero awareness. 

[puttnforthe8]

Coldwater: absolute shame.  It was never the greatest, but it was interesting and fun.

 

It is at one of those “just blow it up” states!  Every last thing about the facilities, course and more is a disaster!  Roads, cart paths, greens, bunkers, fairways, rough, tee boxes are all just broken, destroyed or worse!

 

Until I play another course this bad, it is truly the worst course in the basin!!  
 

Green speed: 4

Fairways: muddy and bare

Bunkers: hard pan

Tee boxes: uneven, holes, destroyed 

 

 

[AzSuperHack76]

3 hours ago, puttnforthe8 said:

Coldwater: absolute shame.  It was never the greatest, but it was interesting and fun.

 

It is at one of those “just blow it up” states!  Every last thing about the facilities, course and more is a disaster!  Roads, cart paths, greens, bunkers, fairways, rough, tee boxes are all just broken, destroyed or worse!

 

Until I play another course this bad, it is truly the worst course in the basin!!  
 

Green speed: 4

Fairways: muddy and bare

Bunkers: hard pan

Tee boxes: uneven, holes, destroyed 

 

 

Kokopeli West......

[cbbaron]

Reading these posts awaiting a snow storm tomorrow hope all is well with everyone

[teejaywhy]

19 hours ago, puttnforthe8 said:

Coldwater:

...

Until I play another course this bad, it is truly the worst course in the basin!!  

 

Ahwatukee on line 2...

[fore_life]

11 hours ago, teejaywhy said:

 

Ahwatukee on line 2...

Ahwatukee has new ownership finally!

[Olson12]

Played Encanto on Saturday morning with @teejaywhy.  The greens were QUICK maybe rolling around 11 or so. 5 three putts on the day. Overall is in really good shape and for $40 to walk with the city card its nice.  The best part was the free lunch at Hamburger Works thanks to the pillow fight of a match Tom and I had that day. POP was under 4 hours teeing off at 752

 

Verrado Founders on Sunday.  Course was in really good shape and I forget how tough that course can be especially if you're struggling off the tee.  The greens are definitely not pure but they roll well and the rest of the course is in really good shape.  The back 9 greens are in much better shape than the front and I think that's because of the afternoon pass they sell. The front 9 gets a lot more play than the back.  POP was 4:10 teeing off at 930

[teejaywhy]

On 1/21/2025 at 9:39 AM, Olson12 said:

...The best part was the free lunch...

 

 

[jatrain]

GCU.  The grass is just weird and makes it really tough around the greens.  Pace on Sunday prime time was just over 4 hours.  They had a Marshall pushing groups which I have never seen before there, helped a bunch .  As said, 3rd behind Aguila and Papago but $50 to walk is nice.

[puttnforthe8]

Ambiente.  Qualifier - cost is a factor in assessment!

 

the greens are superb!  the fairways leave a lot to be desired! We played lift/clean/replace in good grass because there were so many muddy bare patches!  Had multiple shots land and stop due to initial ‘plug’ indentation.

 

Bunkers good.  Tee boxes all in bad shape as laid out.

 

Look for a deal if you want to play.

 

 

[Olson12]

On 1/10/2025 at 8:15 PM, puttnforthe8 said:

Sterling Grove is so good now.  Greens are quick!  Real rough. Good bunkers.  4hr POP.

 

tough to beat a round out there.

 

Played Sterling Grove this weekend and it is absolutely PURE.  Best conditions of any course so far since overseed.  They don't overseed their greens but they are rolling so good!  Would highly recommend getting out there. It's also really nice that they let you walk. Buddy and I teed off at 1230 on Sunday and finished right at 4 hours.

[cod4101]

Anyone play Rio Verde Country Club recently? Got a tee time there in a few weeks and curious what to expect. 

[puttnforthe8]

51 minutes ago, cod4101 said:

Anyone play Rio Verde Country Club recently? Got a tee time there in a few weeks and curious what to expect. 

Not sure what you want to hear.  It’s a good CC with 2 good, short, housing courses always in decent shape as they are managed by Troon.  I believe Quail course is closed for Reno’s, so imagine you are playing WW course.

 

I will probably play in a couple weeks too.  If I note any issues I will update. 

Edited January 31 by puttnforthe8

[puttnforthe8]

Duke down in Maricopa.  Been a few years since I last played.

 

they have cleaned up a lot of brush and weeds around the holes and it looks nice. 
 

course is in pretty good shape and a def play for the price.  Fairways are firm and the rough is dormant. Greens roll quite good and are decent speed. All the bunkers were filled with new sand that hits nice, maybe needs a little of compacting to be great.  
 

Really good design, easy to forget how good many of the holes are.  

[AZ_JHWK]

Encanto today. Not a bad choice when you get shut out for Aguila at the 9-day window. Overall, in pretty good shape with the exception of the bunkers. There seems to be plenty of material to work with, but it seemed dirtier, rather than sandy. The greens were very fast for a muni, and is the main defense. The pushed-up nature of the green complexes and the total lack of any rough around the edges, makes for getting "up and down" a huge challenge. Most of the lies tended to be wet hard-pan. Fairways were good. Pace of play was 3:50.

[Golf Pig]

Anyone play Whirlwind Devil's Claw lately? How are the conditions?

[fore_life]

Haven’t played it but with the lpga coming up, it should be primo

[AZBRONCFAN]

Played Papago this am at 830 on the city card. It was worth 50 bucks. The 3 dudes I played with paid over 300. Total ripoff. 

 

Honestly they have ruined Papago in my opinion or it is going to take a long time to get in good shape. It is hard and the grass doesn't seem to be taking in spots. A lot of muddy spots and balls too. No cart paths and dirt is like playing on building lot excavation. Course was better before tearing out all the grass and even the trees on 18. Used to be my favorite course now I don't even recommend it anymore unless you have the city card(which you don't need suggestion).

[AZ_JHWK]

On 2/6/2025 at 3:09 PM, AZBRONCFAN said:

Played Papago this am at 830 on the city card. It was worth 50 bucks. The 3 dudes I played with paid over 300. Total ripoff. 

 

Honestly they have ruined Papago in my opinion or it is going to take a long time to get in good shape. It is hard and the grass doesn't seem to be taking in spots. A lot of muddy spots and balls too. No cart paths and dirt is like playing on building lot excavation. Course was better before tearing out all the grass and even the trees on 18. Used to be my favorite course now I don't even recommend it anymore unless you have the city card(which you don't need suggestion).

You make some valid points. I've been playing there for about 3 years and the first time I played it looked pretty rough around the edges. Most of that is due to a lack of cart paths on all of the holes. It is very dusty after the recent changes and absolutely zero rain to settle the dust the last 6 months. They also could use some clear footpaths off of all the tee boxes for walkers and push carts. But all of that is cosmetic. The course itself is very good and a great challenge. The facilities are excellent...pro shop, restaurant and banquet hall.

 

And yes, I would never play it without the City Card. 🙂

[teejaywhy]

Wonder if there is any published master plan out there at Papago?  It does seem quite silly to undertake the turf reduction with no cart paths in place.  One would assume that they would be dropping down some crushed granite over the bare dirt?  I dunno.   I love the course and the property it sits on.  Just wish they would re-do the yardages.  All great for a top-level college golfer, but the setup for an old hacker like me is just dumb.  Par 3's especially.  

[puttnforthe8]

Played Oakwood (Lakes and Palms 9s) and it was in very good conditions except for some wet/muddy areas in the rough.

 

Greens were a bit slow but good.  Bunkers were excellent.  

[AZ_JHWK]

The Duke in Maricopa today. Took my friend from Kansas here after Puttnforthe8 said it was in good shape. He was not wrong. I thought the greens were really good and fast with lots of interesting contours. Fairways, bunkers and tees were all fine. I thought it compared favorably to Power Ranch, but for much less. We paid $100 for a 9:24 tee time and finished in just under 4 hours.

[teejaywhy]

Aguila yesterday.  Course is in top shape and the greens were pure.  Something like 13 birdies between our four ball!   A late 1:40 tee time and a typical weekend 4:40 round but we managed to finish 18 as the light was fading.

 

Very noticeable was the previously mentioned brush clearing project in the native areas which is super improvement.

 

[SilverBullets]

On 2/8/2025 at 7:24 AM, AZ_JHWK said:

You make some valid points. I've been playing there for about 3 years and the first time I played it looked pretty rough around the edges. Most of that is due to a lack of cart paths on all of the holes. It is very dusty after the recent changes and absolutely zero rain to settle the dust the last 6 months. They also could use some clear footpaths off of all the tee boxes for walkers and push carts. But all of that is cosmetic. The course itself is very good and a great challenge. The facilities are excellent...pro shop, restaurant and banquet hall.

 

And yes, I would never play it without the City Card. 🙂

It funny I stopped playing it like 3 or 4 years ago for many of the reasons listed.  Can't believe it's even more dusty than it used to be. I always felt like I had just gone on a 8 mile hike in the middle of the desert after walking that course. 

[r2edline]

Anyone played Legacy or Raven recently and can comment on course conditions? We're visiting next week and looking for an afternoon round after we fly in around lunch time.

 

Our other courses so far are Whirlwind Cattail and Boulders South which I'm expecting will be both in excellent shape?

[puttnforthe8]

3 hours ago, r2edline said:

Anyone played Legacy or Raven recently and can comment on course conditions? We're visiting next week and looking for an afternoon round after we fly in around lunch time.

 

Our other courses so far are Whirlwind Cattail and Boulders South which I'm expecting will be both in excellent shape?

Raven in good shape across the board.

 

Boulders was not good a bit back, but this string of hot weather might fix it up nicely.  Hope it’s good for you.

[r2edline]

1 hour ago, puttnforthe8 said:

Boulders was not good a bit back, but this string of hot weather might fix it up nicely.  Hope it’s good for you.

 

How far back?  That's a bit scary considering its $340pp, if it wasn't mint I would not be pleased

[Golf Pig]

5 hours ago, r2edline said:

Anyone played Legacy or Raven recently and can comment on course conditions? We're visiting next week and looking for an afternoon round after we fly in around lunch time.

 

I played Raven in early December and it was fantastic. I played Legacy about 2 weeks ago and it was in great shape too. Both of these tracks are high up on our buddy trip course list.

Edited February 22 by Golf Pig

[puttnforthe8]

3 hours ago, r2edline said:

 

How far back?  That's a bit scary considering its $340pp, if it wasn't mint I would not be pleased

🤣Boulders is never “mint”!!  It should be fine; it’s been about 6 weeks.   Not $340 fine!  It’s not worth half that.  
 

 

[vernon]

On 2/21/2025 at 3:19 PM, r2edline said:

Anyone played Legacy or Raven recently and can comment on course conditions? We're visiting next week and looking for an afternoon round after we fly in around lunch time.

 

Our other courses so far are Whirlwind Cattail and Boulders South which I'm expecting will be both in excellent shape?

Played Cattail on Thursday and it was excellent.  They're getting ready to host an LPGA event in March and it's pretty evident by the course conditions.  

 

Staff is extremely customer service oriented.  A very enjoyable experience.