2019 Phoenix Area Course Conditions

[azgolfer44]

Papago is healing decently after greens were punched two weeks ago. Probably another two weeks and they should be good. Lots of burn out spots on the fairways and collars - probably won’t come back until after overseed.

[AzSuperHack76]

Verrado Victory is in excellent shape. One of the better conditioned courses I have played this summer, especially considering the issues most courses have had including the Founders course right down the street.

 

Speaking of Founders, it is now completely shut down to repair the damage.

[DrSchteeve]

Pinnacle greens in great shape. Fairways with a lot of burnt areas but mostly playable. At least pace of play was fine. In relative terms, still pricey $69 for Sunday afternoon tee time.

[El_Nino_AZ]

TPC Champions Course opened last weekend. Anyone play or hear how it is post maintenance? Looking to play this Friday.

[puttnforthe8]

Legend Trail in really good shape - a couple of tee boxes looking ragged, but no issues.

GH Raptor - too wet, but in decent shape, greens slow

[SilverBullets]

> @El_Nino_AZ said:

> TPC Champions Course opened last weekend. Anyone play or hear how it is post maintenance? Looking to play this Friday.

 

Played it yesterday. It was rougher than I expected after being closed for 4-6 weeks or however long it was. The fairways had lines in them like they were recovering from being slit seeded. The greens were recovering from being plugged. A bit bumpy, a bit sandy, still had recovering plug holes. Not sure if true but someone said they plugged the greens multiple times.

 

While the fairways had lines in them, there were no bare spots and no brown spots. Very lush. And while the greens were still recovering, they actually rolled pretty quick and putted significantly better than they look. While they were a little bumpy at times, it didn't seem to impact much.

 

On a side note, they remodeled the clubhouse and restaurant. Looked really good and is laid out better.

 

[Bonneville85308]

 

Bunkers are a common conditioning complaint I hear about Legend Trail. There were some signs around the clubhouse yesterday indicating that they were going to be adding sand to some of the bunkers this week. The sand has been pretty thin in a lot of the greenside bunkers right now, the technique that now seems to work for me in them is to keep the clubface square and hit it like a regular pitch shot. I thought the entire course was in great condition otherwise.

> @puttnforthe8 said:

> Legend Trail in really good shape - a couple of tee boxes looking ragged, but no issues.

 

 

 

[El_Nino_AZ]

> @SilverBullets said:

> > @El_Nino_AZ said:

> > TPC Champions Course opened last weekend. Anyone play or hear how it is post maintenance? Looking to play this Friday.

>

> Played it yesterday. It was rougher than I expected after being closed for 4-6 weeks or however long it was. The fairways had lines in them like they were recovering from being slit seeded. The greens were recovering from being plugged. A bit bumpy, a bit sandy, still had recovering plug holes. Not sure if true but someone said they plugged the greens multiple times.

>

> While the fairways had lines in them, there were no bare spots and no brown spots. Very lush. And while the greens were still recovering, they actually rolled pretty quick and putted significantly better than they look. While they were a little bumpy at times, it didn't seem to impact much.

>

> On a side note, they remodeled the clubhouse and restaurant. Looked really good and is laid out better.

>

Thanks for the review! Sounds like maybe give it a few weeks then.

 

[DrSchteeve]

Southern Dunes is back. Conditions definitely to the furry/slow side, fairways probably average rollout, greens pretty consistent but slow, only a few brown/splotchy areas which they've kept out of play with the pin placements. No hesitation to play in these conditions.

[OspreyCI]

Grayhawk Raptor was in good summer shape. Bunkers were excellent and the greens were great speed and rolled true.

[El_Nino_AZ]

Legend Trail Golf Club this morning. Course was in ok shape for summer, fairways and tee boxes were good with the exception of the black tee box on #15. New-ish sod on this tee box and it didn't have a flat space on it. Greens were shaggy and slow. I was barely leaving dents in them even with lob wedge. Balls were rolling bumpy and inconsistent. If you're playing in North Scottsdale, stick with Troon North, their greens are far superior at the moment.

[BUCKEYERBALL88]

Great day yesterday at copper canyon. It’s not a top 5 design in the valley but definitely a hidden gem. The routing is pretty odd now. We started on the former par 3 11th which is at least 1/3 mile from the clubhouse. The course is wide & pretty easy yet still interesting. Conditions, customer service, green and pace of play were all excellent. Has anyone tried the new mountain 9.?

[mf056015]

Got to play Troon North Pinnacle, Quintero, and the Cholla at WeKoPa 2x this past weekend.

 

First off, thanks to everyone and their recommendations for the week. My buddies and I could not have asked for a more wonderful first trip to the desert, and will be back very soon for more.

Many called us crazy for going and playing 72 in two days at the end of July and I will admit that the heat was a bit more intense than we anticipated. The morning at Troon was absolutely perfect. Cloud cover was present through the first nine and the back was pretty standard temperature wise, so we let our guards down for the second round at Quintero and we definitely suffered. Needless to say, our second day was full of ice towels and gallons of water/pedialyte and we had an absolutely perfect second day.

 

Now the important stuff:

 

Troon North - Pinnacle: This was a perfect way to get the trip started. Conditions out at Troon were actually wonderful. Outside of a few spots on the fairways where they were a little dried out/patchy and some dried out pitch marks on the greens, there really was no complaints from out end. Greens rolled GREAT! Surrounding areas of the greens were also great. We played the ball down the whole weekend and I really don't think that that was an issue at any time (obviously excluding playing errant tee shots out of the desert). One of my friends shot 76 as a 4 handicap so that was also a huge perk in the round, as it was very fun to watch.

The service at Troon was exceptional (as I was expecting after seeing that said on here quite a bit). The short game area was closed, but they allowed you to chip on the shared practice green on the 18th at Pinnacle.

 

Quintero: Completely ignoring us being on the verge of heat exhaustion for the middle part of the round, Quintero was probably the most enjoyable course we got to spend time at. The views were outstanding. Conditions were perfect all around. The starter told us that the greens were rolling at an 11.2 and I fully believe that that was accurate (very close to the greens at Troon). They were true and smooth, and the fairways were absolutely perfect. I do realize that a lot of people on here do not particularly like Quintero. All three of us really loved the course, and while it was all of our highest scores of the whole weekend we still could not stop talking about the "video game" golf course that we were lucky enough to play. I hope I don't sound like I am hyping the conditions up, but I really could not find one thing to complain about while we were there. I caddy at Lakeside Golf Club in Hollywood at the weekends and while it is a terrible thing to do, I usually compare conditions to the ones there and I must say that Quintero was not too far behind the conditions there.

 

WeKoPa Cholla: We bought the 36 hole special at WeKoPa for $136 and I am glad we got to play a course twice, as the second time around it was great to have some familiarity of the course. While we really enjoyed the layout and thought there were a lot of good holes out there equally challenging and fun, the conditions were not nearly close to Troon and Quintero. Fairways were just a little more lush and furry, the greens were on the slower side. Really had to hit putts hard if you wanted to make them. Grain took complete advantage of any putt that was mishit. Green surroundings were great, and me complaining about the greens is mos likely me being a little picky. I also think we got spoiled the first two courses given the time of year. With that being said, there was only one time I was REALLY upset about a condition related situation was the first and only time I was in a green-side bunker. A really straightforward bunker shot with plenty of green to work with, my wedge bottomed out and I hit the equator of the golf ball sending it over the green into a bush in the desert leading to a triple bogey. Was kind of a bummer as it was during my best round of the weekend, but obviously will not let that hinder on my experience overall.

 

Overall, we all were so happy to have spent the weekend playing golf in Scottsdale. Obviously waking up this morning and going to golf was a real tough feat, especially after spending Saturday night at Hot Chick......that is another story for another forum though.

 

Hope everyone enjoys the review.

 

MF

[Lefty_3Jack]

Thanks for the review!

[jatrain]

Legacy on Sunday. Average summer conditions. Fairways were good, very little burn off. Greens were punched just over two weeks ago and while on the slow side still putted well. Bunkers were very inconsistent. $23. Very slow, 4.5 hours which was brutal in the afternoon heat.

[Justmuckit]

Thanks for posting, @mf056015. I'm heading that way at the end of August to play Quintero, Wickenburg Ranch and We-Ko-Pa. Good to hear about conditions at Quintero. Odd to hear about Cholla considering they just re-opened after being closed for 2 weeks.

[DrSchteeve]

> @Justmuckit said:

> Thanks for posting, @mf056015. I'm heading that way at the end of August to play Quintero, Wickenburg Ranch and We-Ko-Pa. Good to hear about conditions at Quintero. Odd to hear about Cholla considering they just re-opened after being closed for 2 weeks.

Actually the soft conditions described at Cholla are what you should expect coming off a punch, added to the fact that Cholla was in pretty bad shape going into the punch. Quintero almost always has really good conditions, as does Wickenburg Ranch.

 

 

[Justmuckit]

> @DrSchteeve said:

> > @Justmuckit said:

> > Thanks for posting, @mf056015. I'm heading that way at the end of August to play Quintero, Wickenburg Ranch and We-Ko-Pa. Good to hear about conditions at Quintero. Odd to hear about Cholla considering they just re-opened after being closed for 2 weeks.

> Actually the soft conditions described at Cholla are what you should expect coming off a punch, added to the fact that Cholla was in pretty bad shape going into the punch. Quintero almost always has really good conditions, as does Wickenburg Ranch.

>

>

Good to know. Thank you.

 

[Rohlio]

Southern Dunes this morning. 6:15 tee, sitting in the restaurant at 9:15. Everything perfect shape, except the greens are currently SLOW. They look fabulous now and they should speed up in the coming weeks.

[mf056015]

> @Justmuckit said:

> > @DrSchteeve said:

> > > @Justmuckit said:

> > > Thanks for posting, @mf056015. I'm heading that way at the end of August to play Quintero, Wickenburg Ranch and We-Ko-Pa. Good to hear about conditions at Quintero. Odd to hear about Cholla considering they just re-opened after being closed for 2 weeks.

> > Actually the soft conditions described at Cholla are what you should expect coming off a punch, added to the fact that Cholla was in pretty bad shape going into the punch. Quintero almost always has really good conditions, as does Wickenburg Ranch.

> >

> >

> Good to know. Thank you.

>

 

Yeah, I was going to say that a few more weeks will be good for the Cholla course. I think they were just having a bit slower recoup time compared to Troon, giving us the differences in playing conditions.

[El_Nino_AZ]

TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course opened back up for play this morning. The course was closed (planned) for the entire month of July for maintenance. The course is in phenomenal shape. By far the best course conditions I have played in AZ since summer maintenance has started. Troon North Pinnacle's greens may get a slight bump ahead of TPC's but the course from tee to green was in awesome shape. No burnt out spots on the fairways, tee boxes and greens in great shape. Maintenance crews out working and sprinklers were out and being used. The only complaint I had was I had 3 embedded balls. Two were on the front of the green, one was on the fringe. They weren't soaked mud balls or anything, so I found it a bit odd.

 

I played the front 9 solo at 10:50am in an hour and 15 minutes. Played through one twosome. I caught up to a 2-some on the 13th hole and joined them in. I played in 3 hours 15 min. Customer service was awesome. Had a frozen mango towel delivered to our group on the back 9. Cart girl made multiple passes. Perfect day, surprised the course wasn't more packed. It was disgustingly humid on the front 9.

 

Pics:

 

[El_Nino_AZ]

Whirlwind Cattail Course this morning. Decent summer condition. Greens were good. Not an overly memorable course (I prefer Devil's Claw) but no glaring problems with course condition.

[DrSchteeve]

> @El_Nino_AZ said:

> TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course opened back up for play this morning. The course was closed (planned) for the entire month of July for maintenance. The course is in phenomenal shape. By far the best course conditions I have played in AZ since summer maintenance has started. Troon North Pinnacle's greens may get a slight bump ahead of TPC's but the course from tee to green was in awesome shape. No burnt out spots on the fairways, tee boxes and greens in great shape. Maintenance crews out working and sprinklers were out and being used. The only complaint I had was I had 3 embedded balls. Two were on the front of the green, one was on the fringe. They weren't soaked mud balls or anything, so I found it a bit odd.

>

> I played the front 9 solo at 10:50am in an hour and 15 minutes. Played through one twosome. I caught up to a 2-some on the 13th hole and joined them in. I played in 3 hours 15 min. Customer service was awesome. Had a frozen mango towel delivered to our group on the back 9. Cart girl made multiple passes. Perfect day, surprised the course wasn't more packed. It was disgustingly humid on the front 9.

>

> Pics:

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It's great when the cart girls make passes...did you accept any?

[El_Nino_AZ]

> @DrSchteeve said:

> > @El_Nino_AZ said:

> > TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course opened back up for play this morning. The course was closed (planned) for the entire month of July for maintenance. The course is in phenomenal shape. By far the best course conditions I have played in AZ since summer maintenance has started. Troon North Pinnacle's greens may get a slight bump ahead of TPC's but the course from tee to green was in awesome shape. No burnt out spots on the fairways, tee boxes and greens in great shape. Maintenance crews out working and sprinklers were out and being used. The only complaint I had was I had 3 embedded balls. Two were on the front of the green, one was on the fringe. They weren't soaked mud balls or anything, so I found it a bit odd.

> >

> > I played the front 9 solo at 10:50am in an hour and 15 minutes. Played through one twosome. I caught up to a 2-some on the 13th hole and joined them in. I played in 3 hours 15 min. Customer service was awesome. Had a frozen mango towel delivered to our group on the back 9. Cart girl made multiple passes. Perfect day, surprised the course wasn't more packed. It was disgustingly humid on the front 9.

> >

> > Pics:

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

>

> It's great when the cart girls make passes...did you accept any?

*rimshot*

[Bonneville85308]

McDowell Mountain early this morning. Greens were aerated this past Monday and are in pretty rough condition - "surface of the moon", very slow and shaggy. Stay away for a few weeks. Many tees also seemed to have been aerated though this doesn't bother me since I'm teeing up the ball. Fairways were in good condition. As a foursome we played in 3.5 hours only waiting maybe briefly twice, though I think we got lucky on the tee time as the group that teed off immediately after us was 3 holes behind us by the end.

[DrSchteeve]

Longbow in really good slightly furry shape. Greens a bit slow. Fairways/tees/traps/all else good. Should be fine into overseed and greens will only firm up.

[garcia51694]

Hey guys. Heading to Scottsdale Sept 8-10. Where to play and where to avoid that time of year? Staying in Old Town and don’t mind driving. Thanks.

[Rohlio]

This feels really weird to say... But Encanto is in really good shape tee to green... I mean the bunkers are still the same consistency as the cart path, but there is 1/4" of soft sand on top of the hardpack which is new. Seriously though the fairways and greens are actually in great shape.

 

Can't believe I just said that.

[El_Nino_AZ]

> @garcia51694 said:

> Hey guys. Heading to Scottsdale Sept 8-10. Where to play and where to avoid that time of year? Staying in Old Town and don’t mind driving. Thanks.

 

Grayhawk Raptor

TPC Scottsdale Stadium

Troon North Pinnacle

 

[vallygolf]

Made some northern runs this week and played Pine Canyon and the Rim Golf Club. PC just finished a complete bunker renovation and it turned out like TPC Scottsdale, except the white sand looks better in the mountain setting than the desert setting. Needless to say they were flawless. Really fantastic sand. Probably recency bias, but I would say this last round at PC has to put it at the top of the list of non links courses. Give me Whistling Straits, Pinehurst, Streamsong, etc, etc, Im picking PC. Greens were easily running 11-12 and true as can be. Rim had similar, but not quite as good contitions. Definitly worth working to get on either.