2018 Phoenix Course Conditions

[BUCKEYERBALL88]

Us open qualifying at the dunes leaderboard:

 

https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/1428616

[DBill]

Lone Tree yesterday. Course in pretty good shape, some patches here and there drying out. Was paired up with 2 others and our 3 some played in 3 hours and 20 minutes, will take this every time.

[Olson12]

Us open qualifying at the dunes leaderboard:

 

https://www.golfgeni...m/pages/1428616

 

Damn they are playing #3 as a par 4. The leader made a 2 on #1. Crazy.

 

Poor Ray, a 3 handicap going out there and shooting 90 is not a fun time for anyone.

[SilverBullets]

How are the bugs at Southern Dunes? Haven’t been there in awhile. Remember there being some at times. Going Sunday and was just curious. Thanks

 

I haven't played it since March but probably played there 8-10 times in the last 12 months. The bugs seem to be hit or miss. Sometimes unbearable, sometimes nonexistent. I will say the last 3 or 4 times I played there, I don't remember seeing any real bugs.

 

Best to always be prepared there. They seem to be worse on the front 9 than the back.

[DBill]

Approaching my first summer here in the Phoenix area (East Valley) what kind of conditions should I prepare for?

[fore_life]

Better than winter IMO

[jatrain]

Best time of the year. Cheap golf, empty courses.

[DrSchteeve]

Best time of the year. Cheap golf, empty courses.

 

...and fast and firm conditions. May get a little out of hand with the drought this year, but the better courses probably won't have issues.

[dbewen]

Playing TPC champions 1248 tomorrow. First time at tpc for me.

Are range balls included? I assume the practice facility is decent

[BUCKEYERBALL88]

Playing TPC champions 1248 tomorrow. First time at tpc for me.

Are range balls included? I assume the practice facility is decent

 

I don’t believe so but I’d suggest calling to confirm

[OspreyCI]

Bear Creek this morning by myself again. Walked it in 2.5 hours. Back home by 8:15. Lol. Greens are getting better.

[DrSchteeve]

Wickenburg Ranch. Pretty much no reason to report on conditions, as they are always immaculate.

[jayrod79]

Papago this morning. Greens were in fantastic shape and rolled very true. Plenty of sand in bunkers as well. 4:20 minutes round after teeing off at 7:40.

[puttnforthe8]

Mcdowell Mountain: Basically it is a porta potty that was visited by someone that was drunk the night before and had 2am food at Filibertos and didn't quite make it to the hole in time!

 

imo the worst course in the valley now!! stay away, do not go. warning provided!

[BettorThanMost]

3 courses from Fri/Sat/Sun:

 

Friday: GC of Estrella - Excellent condition everywhere, greens were firm and fast too. If this place wasn't so far away from me, I would get out there more often.

Saturday: Papago - Greens rolling really nice, maybe a hair slow. Clubhouse is coming along and supposedly ~1 month from opening.

Sunday: Southern Dunes - Firm, fast, no issues with mosquitoes but there were a lot of flies and bees. Driving range was closed at noon, which seemed odd, but maybe a regular thing down there...

[One_Putt_Blunder]

Mcdowell Mountain: Basically it is a porta potty that was visited by someone that was drunk the night before and had 2am food at Filibertos and didn't quite make it to the hole in time!

 

imo the worst course in the valley now!! stay away, do not go. warning provided!

 

UGH this really really sucks to hear, as it is the closest course to me and with no car it was going to be my go to easy to get to summer course since it is typically lower rates than TPC Champions. Thanks for the heads up.

[BUCKEYERBALL88]

Great pace of play & firm & fast conditions at verrado Founders yesterday!

[saltyk9]

Talking Stick North yesterday - probably the worst conditions I've played it in but not too bad for the $35 price tag. I must say, this is a bit of a boring course and probably won't be heading back (to either of them) for a long while.

Red Mountain Ranch CC today - I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about this place as far as the design goes and I understand why now. The conditions were so-so. Greens slightly better than expected. The driving range is trash. Fairways are a bit long so felt like I was hitting out of the rough. As far as the layout goes, I had to hit a lot of 4-irons off the tee but I enjoyed many of the holes out there - fun track to play with a few friends but don't have any plans to go back. If you don't like Karsten, you certainly won't like this.

[puttnforthe8]

Mcdowell Mountain: Basically it is a porta potty that was visited by someone that was drunk the night before and had 2am food at Filibertos and didn't quite make it to the hole in time!

 

imo the worst course in the valley now!! stay away, do not go. warning provided!

 

UGH this really really sucks to hear, as it is the closest course to me and with no car it was going to be my go to easy to get to summer course since it is typically lower rates than TPC Champions. Thanks for the heads up.

 

I should have taken pics. It is horrible tee to green. Half the spots you hit in the fairways are dead and patchy....and it does not seem just 'transition', some spots just seem rotted. But there are greens where part of the green looks completely dead (#1 front). It appeared that they were trying to do something about it as they aerated all the dead areas.

 

In almost every case if you miss the green short or around the green you will be hitting off of dead areas.

 

It was just gross and sickening!

[Olson12]

Talking Stick North yesterday - probably the worst conditions I've played it in but not too bad for the $35 price tag. I must say, this is a bit of a boring course and probably won't be heading back (to either of them) for a long while.

Red Mountain Ranch CC today - I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about this place as far as the design goes and I understand why now. The conditions were so-so. Greens slightly better than expected. The driving range is trash. Fairways are a bit long so felt like I was hitting out of the rough. As far as the layout goes, I had to hit a lot of 4-irons off the tee but I enjoyed many of the holes out there - fun track to play with a few friends but don't have any plans to go back. If you don't like Karsten, you certainly won't like this.

 

 

Not good news on Talking Stick. I'm going there thursda after work. Oh well... $25 i'm sure it will be fine.

[SilverBullets]

Played TPC Champs on Sunday. Course wasn't in great shape. Fairways were getting bare in spots and they oversaturated those areas so those spots ended up being muddy. Greens were slow and a little bit bumpy. They weren't awful, but, they certainly weren't good.

 

TPC Champs seems to have changing conditions every time I play there. A month ago, it was in as good of shape as I have seen it.

[One_Putt_Blunder]

Played TPC Champs on Sunday. Course wasn't in great shape. Fairways were getting bare in spots and they oversaturated those areas so those spots ended up being muddy. Greens were slow and a little bit bumpy. They weren't awful, but, they certainly weren't good.

 

TPC Champs seems to have changing conditions every time I play there. A month ago, it was in as good of shape as I have seen it.

 

Sounds like they're trying to hang on to the rye grass and with as warm/dry as we've been the rye is not agreeing. This part of the season frustrates me, just let the rye go and let the bermuda come back when nature decides it is right vs the courses trying to hang on and over water everything.

[jatrain]

Talking stick south today. Course was in pretty good shape. A little thin in some landing areas but it really didn’t affect play. Greens were really nice - firm but receptive and putted really nice.

 

Biggest issue was pace of play. I left on 15 after 4.25 hours. We were stacking up two deep on tee boxes. There was foursome (of middle aged men) holding everything up. The marshalls were out and tried to have them skip two holes as

they were at that point almost four holes out of position. But they refused (marshall was pissed) so cant really blame the course as they were trying.

[saltyk9]

 

Not good news on Talking Stick. I'm going there thursda after work. Oh well... $25 i'm sure it will be fine.

 

Yeah it's a good deal for $25. My review sounded a bit harsh saying "worst conditions I've played it" because it's always been in quite good shape when I've played it in the past.

[SilverBullets]

Played TPC Champs on Sunday. Course wasn't in great shape. Fairways were getting bare in spots and they oversaturated those areas so those spots ended up being muddy. Greens were slow and a little bit bumpy. They weren't awful, but, they certainly weren't good.

 

TPC Champs seems to have changing conditions every time I play there. A month ago, it was in as good of shape as I have seen it.

 

Sounds like they're trying to hang on to the rye grass and with as warm/dry as we've been the rye is not agreeing. This part of the season frustrates me, just let the rye go and let the bermuda come back when nature decides it is right vs the courses trying to hang on and over water everything.

 

That's exactly what was happening. It seemed to be mid transition but they clearly were saturating the fairways.

 

Of all the courses I play in the valley, TPC Champs seems to struggle the most with the transitions in the early summer and late fall. It seems to be the most noticeable that the course is mid transition there. Other courses seem to handle it better. With that said, I really enjoy the layout at Champs and the deal there is as good as youll find in the valley. So I'll keep going back. I just know one or two out of every 10 or so rounds the course isn't going to be in great shape.

[Nobbykat]

How are the bugs at Southern Dunes? Haven’t been there in awhile. Remember there being some at times. Going Sunday and was just curious. Thanks

 

I haven't played it since March but probably played there 8-10 times in the last 12 months. The bugs seem to be hit or miss. Sometimes unbearable, sometimes nonexistent. I will say the last 3 or 4 times I played there, I don't remember seeing any real bugs.

 

Best to always be prepared there. They seem to be worse on the front 9 than the back.

 

Played there on Sat May 19 and there were none during the round.

[BUCKEYERBALL88]

3 courses from Fri/Sat/Sun:

 

Friday: GC of Estrella - Excellent condition everywhere, greens were firm and fast too. If this place wasn't so far away from me, I would get out there more often.

Saturday: Papago - Greens rolling really nice, maybe a hair slow. Clubhouse is coming along and supposedly ~1 month from opening.

Sunday: Southern Dunes - Firm, fast, no issues with mosquitoes but there were a lot of flies and bees. Driving range was closed at noon, which seemed odd, but maybe a regular thing down there...

 

The dunes converts their range to mini dunes in the afternoon. It’s a fun short course.

[puttnforthe8]

Encanterra today....some patches due to transition, but not bad. Greens excellent; nice bunkers. Love the course!

[DBill]

Finally getting down to Southern Dunes tomorrow. Any tips for a first timer?

[BUCKEYERBALL88]

Finally getting down to Southern Dunes tomorrow. Any tips for a first timer?

 

Stay out of the traps. It’s fair if you play from the correct tee. Pretty wide off the tee. Defintely a 2nd shot course