tuq, my buddies and I have a 2:30 tee time at papago...15 bucks for walk is a steal this time of the year imo!

I am playing at Kierland today at 3:45 with my buddy who work's over there. Hoping the course is dead so we can get in all 18 holes....LOVE THIS TIME OF THE YEAR!

kierland report....

The course is in absolutely fantastic condition. I played with my buddy that works there and they just started cracking down on charging for employees friends so I had to pay a whopping $16 cart fee lol. The greens are extremely fast but still receptive. I have played there a bunch of times and I would say this is about as good as they could possibly have the course condition wise.

I shot 76 which was pathetic considering I had four 3 putts because the putts kept creeping away leaving me a 4-5 slider coming back that I was struggling to convert.

Playing Papago and Red Mountain Ranch CC this weekend so hopefully I can putt a little better.

TUQ are you going to play papago on saturday? If you do I will be teeing off at 2:30 with my group of guys. I have a white ping bag and probably wearing a white ping hat, say hi if you are around.

Tell me you played Acacia, by far the best nine on the course.

Anyway, doubtful for Saturday but if I do play it will be around 7AM so even then I'd hopefully be long gone by the time you get there. (Nothing personal of course.)

nope unfortunately Acacia actually had quite a few people out there so we opted for the wide open ironwood mesquite combo. obviously acacia is the best 9 there but we got in all 18 holes easily teeing off at 3:45 so I will take that all day long.

the greens are unreal fast right now there, fastest I have ever seen them! I have never once felt like I had to be easy or careful on the greens at kierland until yesterday.....

anyone got any tips at red mountain ranch cc? playing it for the first time on sunday. it looks pretty short from the website only 6600 yards and it's pete dye so I imagine it's tricky and hilly around the greens

RMR drives me nuts. It's really tight, one of those courses like Sanctuary (pre-remodel) or Ancala that would be 1000X better with more landing area and general fairness. It appears even tighter off the tee - it's very hard on a lot of holes to see the fairway or have any idea how much room there is (there isn't much, but there is usually more than is visible).

Anyway, it's quite short - at least three of the par-5s are easily reachable and driver is pretty much unnecessary other than that - and the greens are indeed mostly elevated with a lot of undulation and importance on hitting it to the correct level. On the plus side it's far from boring. The holes are generally interesting and the par-3s are really strong.

thanks for the info on red mountain ranch...luckily I am very solid and straight with my 3-wood off the deck which I use on most par 4's under like 420 yards to give myself a 8/9/W into the green so I should be able to attack a lot of those short par 4's that you say are quite narrow.

I had the chance to play a scramble at the TPC Champions course this afternoon for work. I was surprised at the shape the course was in, multiple brown fairways and some really rough areas on multiple greens. It was still in ok shape, but nothing like Vista Verde was last week.

I'm pretty pumped to be playing Firerock CC on Monday. From what I've heard the place is great.

Firerock is a pretty sick track, definitely a fun course to play.

Red Mountain Ranch was so hard I will basically never drive out that far to play there again even though we got comped. The course design itself was pretty decent and interesting as TUQ said, but the greens were basically rock hard and fast as hell. You literally had to play for 30-40 feet of release even with wedges! If the greens were receptive I could see that course being fun but right now it's basically an impossible course imo.

Papago on saturday was in great shape and fun. PLus it's only $15 to walk which is a steal.

Firerock was great. The course was in very good shape (some browning on the fairways, but nothing that affected play) and the greens were some of the best I've played on. I was curious if anyone knew what a membership out there cost? (I'm too poor, but it was a topic of discussion while we were playing).

I also had a chance to play RMR on Sunday and I can agree with what Tuq and Durango both said; it's an interesting course with some fun holes. But the greens were very hard and made approach shots very difficult. Although I still shot a 90, which is right around my average (Yes, I suck).

gosunsgo what time did you tee off at RMR? did you have to pay or get comped? We got comped through a buddy of ours working at orangetree where the new director of golf there used to work at RMR or something...

those greens were a joke at RMR, I can't believe people actually enjoy playing there this time of the year because I would imagine 90% of the people shoot 95+ with how hard it was to stop anything and I usually have a ton of spin on my shots

I played at 11:45 on Sunday; and don't have any connections to the golfing community so I had to pay.

I struggle getting a lot of spin on my shots, so I had a particularly difficult time getting shots to stick at RMR.

played 18 holes at kierland again yesterday after work with just my one buddy who works there. Teed off at 4:15 done at 6:40...never rushed or waited a shot. We were playing matchplay but I think I shot around even, had 4 birdies but had a couple of stupid 3 jacks. Summer is here as the ball is flying off the tee and rolling out awesome.

finally bought a phoenix city card to get my 4-6 bucks off each round as I am resorted to the muni's if I can't find a hook up. we booked aguila for saturday afternoon as it's always in good shape and super fun to grip it and rip out there.

Oh yeah, RMR is the course where I realized how completely hopeless front hole locations were because there was no spin and even a wedge would roll out a bit and since so many of the greens are crowned you can't land short of them either. Pretty annoying.

Anyway, playing Legend Trail on Saturday and Papago on Sunday (6AM! ). LT's conditions can be a box of chocolates ever since Troon Golf stopped managing it and of course Papago can change regularly too. We'll see. With this mild spring there's not much reason for poor course conditions.

Played Papago today for the first time. It's less than 6 miles from me I realized. Teed-off around 11. The heat starting getting to me on the back but otherwise enjoyed the round, which included a birdie on 18. The greens were rolling terrific and looked to be in good shape. The rest of the course was, I'd say, above average for this time of year but nothing to write home about.

For those who haven't been, it is located on a great piece of property in in Tempe. The guy I was paired with said that at one point the plan was to upgrade the course and charge green fees of 100+, which sounded plausible given the quality of the land. The top-to-bottom elevation change doesn't seem to be much, however, the course is full of rolling hills, which makes walking the course a tad challenging (which I don't mind). It has pretty good views of the city and the mountain ranges in the center of the city. It also looks to have a quality practice facility, which I will be checking-out soon. The staff was competent although it wasn't that busy when I was there.

And the cart girl was hot.

This is a HUGE nit that I'm embarrassed to even type, but Papago is in Phoenix. The park (which is much larger than the course itself) is a joint venture of Phoenix and Tempe, but the course is in and is run by Phoenix. There is an executive course nearby called Rolling Hills that is a Tempe municipal course (which may also be part of Papago Park, not sure). The Phoenix Golf pass can be used at Papago and is a good value if you plan to play at least a few times per year and it includes the other Phoenix muni courses too, the most notable of which is Aguila, which is solid.

Mostly I note the above because anything involving Tempe generally annoys me. Just an annoying city in general, certain ASU coeds excepted.

Legend Trail was OK - greens were slow.

Played Lookout Mountain last weekend. Slow-ish greens but with the Troon pass it's $29 all inclusive into September. Really hard to not get value out of that rate.

We-Ko-Pa Cholla today - greens were great, conditions good in general. $52 after tax all inclusive with We-Ko-Pass through the summer. Pass includes discounts at Eagle Mountain and Sunridge Canyon too. Parred that goddamned second hole for the first time ever. Playing #2 and #8 in combined +1 was a huge win, no doubt I don't say that about any other combo of par fives anywhere but those two are goofy and punitive.

Playing Desert Highlands tomorrow for the first time ever. Haven't even been out there since the inaugural skins games after it opened in the early 80s when I was a wee lad.

I played Papago on Saturday and Quintero yesterday. Papago on Saturday was fine, as the other posted said it's in okay shape and the greens are pretty solid. Shot a boring 76 missing a ton of short putts (my fault, not the greens fault).

Yesterday we drove out to Quintero for an early 6:40 AM tee time. My buddy just started working a few days a week out there so we got comped. I have played there a few times over the years and it's always been in awesome shape but yesterday I would rate the course as a 10/10 shape. PGA tour quality shape all around from the tee boxes, to the fairways to the bunkers to the greens which were absolutely pure and fast as hell.

I have always thought that course was pretty damn hard from the tips but I hit it really well and shot 75 while the other players in my group all balloned into the 85-100 range.

Luckily I hit my three wood pretty deep off the deck so I just slapped that around down the middle all day and hit a bunch of quality iron shots. If you hit it in the desert out there you can just flat out forget about it because you never have a shot.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND going out there to anyone on this forum that hasn't play there before.

Can we get comped as well? You know... sweeten the deal a little more...

I plan on getting out there at some point this summer. Although I start lessons on Thursday in my first real attempt to get my score from the low 90s into the mid-to-lows 80s (hopefully).

Maybe it's an age thing or impatience or something, but there was a time a few years ago where courses on the outskirts of town like Quintero, Verrado, Estrella Mountain Ranch, Southern Dunes were all in our rotation, but now they all seem so far away and traveling to them basically adds almost two hours to the time investment. Which is a shame we've gotten lazy because those are all really good courses and good values. Quintero for example is no more than $59 this summer on my Troon pass and I think it's as low as $35 after 10AM. That's ridic value for that course.

Played Desert Highlands today for the first time ever and the first time I've been on the grounds since the Skins Game so long ago. What a good course - forgiving enough to be fair, but with a lot of challenge around the greens which makes birdie opportunities hard to come by. Small greens, a lot of contours and crowning which feeds balls off fairly easily. Amazing condition.

never been out to desert highlands but I have heard it's super private and super sick.

I live at roughly the 101 and 7th street so quintero is only about 30-35 minutes from my house so it's a no brainer especially if it's free.


Rexx I mean if we have a spot I might be able to get you out just because I like your name. I have a dog named Rexy (usually call her Rex) so your name fits lol. In all fairness though I only play on the weekends and have a foursome that's basically set in stone unless someone has a wedding, funeral or vacation....

Quintero for $35 would have to rank up there in the top 5 deals in the entire United States in my opinion lol

"I like Indiana." "We named the dog Indiana."

Appreciate the offer... and if I ever feel like flying a few thousand miles one weekend to get comped on a pretty nice course (and to say hi to my namesake), I just might hit you up.

trying to decide between dove valley ranch and tatum ranch this afternoon...both are 30 bucks which is pretty good value imo.

anyone played either of those recently

went ahead and booked tatum ranch figuring since they have memberships there that the course will be in a little better condition...I will give updates after the round

gotta love summer golf and cheap rates

Possibly heading to the White Mountains to play this weekend. I haven't been in several years. Any recs?