2023 Course Conditions- Phoenix Area

[puttnforthe8]

10 minutes ago, Scratch2Plus said:

My buddy and I will be heading to Scottsdale for 11 rounds of golf the 1st week in May.

Our first time out there so we're stoked.

Booked Quintero, LongBow, Las Sendas, Gold Canyon (both), WeKoPa (both), TPC (both), and Ak Chin...

Cant wait for 90* temps and playing in shorts 🙂 

Good line up.  Unless you really have to play Gold Canyon, I would either only do Dino or skip both and go play both courses at Verrado.  You will have a better time.  Sidewinder at GC is a horrid course.  

[Scratch2Plus]

5 hours ago, puttnforthe8 said:

Good line up.  Unless you really have to play Gold Canyon, I would either only do Dino or skip both and go play both courses at Verrado.  You will have a better time.  Sidewinder at GC is a horrid course.  

Just checked Verrado and they're pretty wide open for the day we were suppose to play GC...

[AzSuperHack76]

Played Lookout Mt today, it was for a tournament, only reason. 
 

Just another good reminder that it truly is one of the worst layouts in the metro area. Between Lookout and Rancho I wouldn’t be upset if they bulldozed both. 
 

Course itself is in really good shape, best I’ve seen it in to be honest. Greens were actually very good. Doesn’t make up for the abomination it is 

[hackeraz]

Troon North, Pinnacle yesterday. Been a couple decades since I've been on this one but still in beautiful shape as one would expect. Forgot how unforgiving this course can be and it further reassured this midwest kid how much he doesn't like desert target golf but can only blame myself for that. One thing I couldn't get over was the number of ball marks on the greens. Does nobody fix them anymore? It was staggering how pocked out the greens were from this. 

[AzSuperHack76]

4 hours ago, hackeraz said:

Troon North, Pinnacle yesterday. Been a couple decades since I've been on this one but still in beautiful shape as one would expect. Forgot how unforgiving this course can be and it further reassured this midwest kid how much he doesn't like desert target golf but can only blame myself for that. One thing I couldn't get over was the number of ball marks on the greens. Does nobody fix them anymore? It was staggering how pocked out the greens were from this. 

Yeah, unfixed ball marks have always been an issue at both courses. 

[ilikegolf26]

Have 3 days to play:

 

Booked at Verrado and Grayhawk. Outside of Troon or TPC Stadium what other course would you recommend?

 

I was thinking Raven or We Ko Pa. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by ilikegolf26

[fore_life]

Why not drop verrado and do wekopa grayhawk and then southern dunes 

[ilikegolf26]

50 minutes ago, fore_life said:

Why not drop verrado and do wekopa grayhawk and then southern dunes 

There’s a large group playing only on the one day and they chose to play Verrado. 
 

Southern Dunes looks good. I might give that one a shot over WeKoPa. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by ilikegolf26

[NativeTX]

So we're heading out next weekend for a quick trip.

 

Fri - TPC Champions/Troon Monument

Sat - Grayhawk Talon/Raptor

 

Only hang up is we just realized due to the NCAAs later in May Raptor course will be CPO.

 

With highs in the upper 80s and the course being in near tournament condition I don't think that's a big deal but any thoughts? Is it worth scrambling to find somewhere else to play?

[puttnforthe8]

28 minutes ago, NativeTX said:

So we're heading out next weekend for a quick trip.

 

Fri - TPC Champions/Troon Monument

Sat - Grayhawk Talon/Raptor

 

Only hang up is we just realized due to the NCAAs later in May Raptor course will be CPO.

 

With highs in the upper 80s and the course being in near tournament condition I don't think that's a big deal but any thoughts? Is it worth scrambling to find somewhere else to play?

 

Nah....Raptor is a fairly simple CPO...there are a few holes if you really go offline that you may have to hike...but it's not bad.

[AzSuperHack76]

1 hour ago, NativeTX said:

So we're heading out next weekend for a quick trip.

 

Fri - TPC Champions/Troon Monument

Sat - Grayhawk Talon/Raptor

 

Only hang up is we just realized due to the NCAAs later in May Raptor course will be CPO.

 

With highs in the upper 80s and the course being in near tournament condition I don't think that's a big deal but any thoughts? Is it worth scrambling to find somewhere else to play?

You'll be fine but you still need to hydrate a ton. 

[ilikegolf26]

On 4/25/2023 at 3:57 PM, fore_life said:

Why not drop verrado and do wekopa grayhawk and then southern dunes 

Decided on Southern Dunes over WeKoPa just for tee time availability. I get in around 7:30 AM and playing Southern Dunes in the later afternoon so any input on possibly another course I could play on my way down there from the airport?  Saw a par 3/executive Bear Club or something maybe. 

[fore_life]

8 hours ago, ilikegolf26 said:

Decided on Southern Dunes over WeKoPa just for tee time availability. I get in around 7:30 AM and playing Southern Dunes in the later afternoon so any input on possibly another course I could play on my way down there from the airport?  Saw a par 3/executive Bear Club or something maybe. 

There’s another course in maricopa called the duke, I personally really like the layout, fairways are super wide so a nice warm up round, then a short drive to dunes from there

[Bonneville85308]

Francisco Grande today. I was passing through the area and decided to play it to get it off my never-played-before list. The winter rye seems to be burning off in the fairways, and especially the tee boxes (most were burnt to a crisp). The greens were in pretty decent condition.  They were playing somewhat soft/receptive whereas the rest of the course is playing firm.  Bunkers had decent sand but some had grass growing in them. The layout didn't do much for me, sort of a less interesting and worse conditioned Tres Rios. Some interesting green shapes but otherwise blah, but it's a pretty flat piece of land except for around holes 3-5. $45 with cart. Once and done for me.

 

There had been a shotgun earlier in the day that was finishing up as I went off, and the non-shotgun people were all clumped together on about 5 holes of the back nine and moving slowly, so I did a bunch of skipping around to get all 18 holes finished in about 2.5 hours. Nice side benefit of a core routing with a bunch of maintenance roads in between holes.

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by Bonneville85308

[AZ_JHWK]

Played in Palm Springs Friday and Saturday. Our foursome played in 3:30 both days starting at 11:20 and 10:20. The tee sheet after 11:00 was wide open on the 2nd course. I haven't played in 3.5 hours around here in at least 6 months and the tee sheets still seem to be jammed. To be fair, he did say things really opened up after the snowbirds started to clear out.

 

We played Indian Canyons South and North. The South is a nice resort style course. The North is the old Canyons CC, Frequented by the movie stars of the day back in the 50's and 60's. All owned by the local tribe now. My buddy had a player's card, and I was able to play for $60 and $40 respectively with cart and range balls. They overseed everything there at those two courses. It was nice to be able to hit a few floppy wedge shots around the greens. 

[AzSuperHack76]

Aguila is in great shape as always. Haven’t been since they’ve opened up all the back tee boxes. Played from the tips, wow, some of those par 4’s are beasts and 15 was straight into that 30mph gust today. 

Edited May 2, 2023 by AzSuperHack76

[ilikegolf26]

18 hours ago, AzSuperHack76 said:

Aguila is in great shape as always. Haven’t been since they’ve opened up all the back tee boxes. Played from the tips, wow, some of those par 4’s are beasts and 15 was straight into that 30mph gust today. 

How accessible is that course if I showed up around 9:00 AM as a single on Friday? Would I be able to get on? Looks pretty well booked. Same with Papago. 

[ilikegolf26]

On 4/28/2023 at 7:29 PM, fore_life said:

There’s another course in maricopa called the duke, I personally really like the layout, fairways are super wide so a nice warm up round, then a short drive to dunes from there

Checked out The Duke but it looks like suburbia golf playing in between rows of houses on both sides of each fairway. 

[fore_life]

18 hours ago, ilikegolf26 said:

Checked out The Duke but it looks like suburbia golf playing in between rows of houses on both sides of each fairway. 

You had mentioned bear creek so I didn’t know you were looking for another core no housing layout.

 

whirlwind would work

[Bonneville85308]

19 hours ago, ilikegolf26 said:

How accessible is that course if I showed up around 9:00 AM as a single on Friday? Would I be able to get on? Looks pretty well booked. Same with Papago. 

 

If there is a big block of tee times booked for a private group or a tournament going on, forget it. If it's just normal play/normal tee times, you could probably get out fairly quickly as there are usually a bunch of no-shows or short-shows, moreso at Aguila than Papago. Just call and make sure nothing special is going on that day. The snowbirds and tourists are mostly gone at this point so tee time availability has been getting better in the past few weeks.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Bonneville85308

[Skydiver22]

20 hours ago, ilikegolf26 said:

How accessible is that course if I showed up around 9:00 AM as a single on Friday? Would I be able to get on? Looks pretty well booked. Same with Papago. 

Played the Phoenix city last weekend... the greens at Papago are trashed and sanded... it was like putting on a linoleum floor.  Aguila was the Saturday round and it was in really good shape.

[MackDaddy480]

3 minutes ago, Skydiver22 said:

Played the Phoenix city last weekend... the greens at Papago are trashed and sanded... it was like putting on a linoleum floor.  Aguila was the Saturday round and it was in really good shape.

Who ended up winning the championship flight and what was the score? Was out of town for work so couldn't play, it is always a fun tourament to play in.

[Skydiver22]

8 minutes ago, MackDaddy480 said:

Who ended up winning the championship flight and what was the score? Was out of town for work so couldn't play, it is always a fun tourament to play in.

Sam Engel...  Shot a smooth 68/69/72

[ilikegolf26]

2 hours ago, fore_life said:

You had mentioned bear creek so I didn’t know you were looking for another core no housing layout.

 

whirlwind would work

Think I’m just going to play Bear Creek followed by Southern Dunes Friday. It seems to be the closest course with tee times this late in the game. 

[vallygolf]

1 hour ago, ilikegolf26 said:

Think I’m just going to play Bear Creek followed by Southern Dunes Friday. It seems to be the closest course with tee times this late in the game. 

You might take a quick peek at the Raven.  Not winning any contests, but an enjoyable track.

[Bonneville85308]

On 5/1/2023 at 7:02 PM, AZ_JHWK said:

Played in Palm Springs Friday and Saturday. Our foursome played in 3:30 both days starting at 11:20 and 10:20. The tee sheet after 11:00 was wide open on the 2nd course. I haven't played in 3.5 hours around here in at least 6 months and the tee sheets still seem to be jammed. To be fair, he did say things really opened up after the snowbirds started to clear out.

 

We played Indian Canyons South and North. The South is a nice resort style course. The North is the old Canyons CC, Frequented by the movie stars of the day back in the 50's and 60's. All owned by the local tribe now. My buddy had a player's card, and I was able to play for $60 and $40 respectively with cart and range balls. They overseed everything there at those two courses. It was nice to be able to hit a few floppy wedge shots around the greens. 

 

I've found Indian Canyons in Palm Springs to be a very well-run facility and a fair deal for the location and quality of the conditions. (yeah I know, this is a Phoenix thread, but had to give IC a shout-out).

[ilikegolf26]

25 minutes ago, vallygolf said:

You might take a quick peek at the Raven.  Not winning any contests, but an enjoyable track.

I’ll check again but Raven didn’t have any tee times in the narrow window I’m looking at between my flight getting in and playing Southern Dunes in the late afternoon. 

[AZ_JHWK]

5 hours ago, Bonneville85308 said:

 

I've found Indian Canyons in Palm Springs to be a very well-run facility and a fair deal for the location and quality of the conditions. (yeah I know, this is a Phoenix thread, but had to give IC a shout-out).

 

I kind of went "off book" on this one but was kind of making a comparison between Phoenix and another winter golf destination.  Both courses still looking good.

[fore_life]

What time is your tee time at dunes?

[Golf Pig]

21 hours ago, ilikegolf26 said:

I’ll check again but Raven didn’t have any tee times in the narrow window I’m looking at between my flight getting in and playing Southern Dunes in the late afternoon. 

 

Have you checked with Legacy (right next to Raven)?