I actually do, almost all of my buddies agree too. I guess it's just that I like the open air feeling of meadow vs canyon.

I also don't like that on holes 6-13 there is FIVE par 3's....

I agree there are more dramatic and awesome holes on canyon (specifically number 9, 13, 14) but meadow just seems more standard layout and fun to play. I also HATE the pace of play on Canyon. Everytime I get out there it seems like it takes donkeys 5 hours at least to get around that place because it's too hard for the average golfer.

Meadow has always played faster and been more enjoyable for my group.

Six. Starting with the 4th hole every other hole is a par-3 thru the 14th. 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14. That is a bit much but there are also some good holes among them. 4, 8, and 14 in particular.

I do see your point though.

yeah, imo championship courses should haven't a par 3 ever other hole....but obv I like the course I just prefer meadow but that's just my opinion.

apparently my buddy did hook us up for a cart fee at a nice course in Flag for a 10:40 tee time tomorrow but he's being sneaky and not telling us until the morning on our drive up lol. We gotta wear slacks and he said it's a big boy course so I assume he got us set up at pine canyon, flag ranch or maybe even forest highlands because his mother in law has a house there.

either way going to be a fun weekend of golf, booze, poker and grilling
I will take pics and report back like always.

my buddy threw us all for a loop and ended up hooking us up for a cart fee at Talking Rock just outside of prescott. i have played there a few times and it was a sweet course. the wind was blowing about 30 mph during our round on saturday so it made it quite tough, but the conditions were fantastic.

seven canyons was pretty fun on sunday except it wasn't in pristine condition that we are used to. the bunkers had a lot of spots where there was no sand and I had a ton of bad lies around the greens that we usually don't see.

all in all, fun trip and of course I was boozing too hard to take any pics

As mentioned upthread, played Talking Rock two days in a row a few weeks ago. Really like the course the more I play it, plus I'm starting to feel a bit sorry for them - the howling wind seems like it's pretty much a constant, which can't be good for their always floundering membership drive. One thing I noticed this time is that like Classic Club in Palm Springs it sits up high and naked relative to the land to the southwest - the most common wind direction. So there is nothing to stop it.

Haven't played Seven Canyons in a few years but unsurprised about the feedback given the news I've been hearing about some irrigation issues which they couldn't afford to fix. Beautiful piece of land but Talking Rock is clearly a better golf course because Seven Canyons just doesn't have as much land as they need.

yes definitely agreed talking rock >>>>>> seven canyons. talking rock is just in a pretty remote location but it's 1000% a better golf course. we usually play the tips but we talked to the starter and they were expecting the 20-25 mph winds so they actually pulled the back tee markers to avoid 5 hours rounds lol. We ended up playing the blue tees and with the severe wind it was basically all we could handle. I actually felt good about my 78 even though I bogeyed the last 3. The golf course is very fair with plenty of room to feel comfortable hitting it but with the fast greens it makes it very hard to secure birdies obv.

just read your post about talking rock, I must have missed it earlier...

yes it was basically a three club wind and it was crazy because sometimes it would stop mid shot and we would airmail the green or come up 10-15 yards short and there wasn't much we could do about it.

I hit a couple of shots that I was in love with that didn't even sniff the green lol

played mcdowell mountain today after work for the first time since they remodeled the course...

teed off at 4:30 PM for 25 bucks and easily finished 18 with a threesome. they had punched the greens about two weeks ago so they were a little beat but still 100% playable. I really enjoyed the remodeled course vs the old sanctuary course. There was much more room to hit your shots and a couple nice changes to a few holes..would highly recommend for the current price of 25-40 bucks...

fairways and tees were absolutely perfect so if you give the greens another week or so I would say it's a great bargain for right in the heart of scottsdale

just an FYI for all the phoenix golfers...I have played Aguila twice in the last week and playing there tomorrow and the conditions are awesome for a municipal course. Only 18-25 bucks to ride anytime during the day.

I was talking to the starter and they just had the US Publinxs qualifier there a couple of weeks ago so they really got the course into great shape and rolled the greens so everything was really nice. It's a tought time of the year to find courses in good shape with all the work being done on courses and punching, etc so just a recommendation.

Catching up on your posts.

Played Quintero last weekend for the first time in years. Obviously a fantastic course, it reminds me of Talking Rock in that it was built way the f out in the middle of nowhere at almost exactly the same time (about ten years ago). The difference between the two though is that Talking Rock has some actual infrastructure in the little general store they have and restaurant on the premises so one could theoretically not leave the course every day, plus Chino Valley isn't all that far away. Quintero on the other hand hasn't yet gotten that far so for the handful of houses on the course everything they do requires a 30+ minute drive. Great course, I drool over the long proposed second 18 (they may have sold the land since, don't know), but wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't make it. On our way back from Vegas one of my friends pointed out some development called "Wickenburg Ranch" that apparently got all the way to the hole routing and grass growing before running out of money.

Quintero of course is a bitch from the tips. Like a 75 rating and 150 slope. Fairways are generous enough but there is little to no chance of playing any ball that goes into the desert. Just dead like Sunridge Canyon.

Good tip on Aguila, and good update on McDowell Mountain Ranch. Never much cared for it as Sanctuary - let's face it, it kinda sucked - so hopefully it's fairer now.

Planning to play 2-3 times in coming days. Possibly We-Ko-Pa (Saguaro) tomorrow and either Kierland or TPC Champions on Friday.

getting out at quintero for free with my buddy who works out there sometimes. should be in good shape I assume since they punched 4-5 weeks ago

Played Las Sendas yesterday for the first time, I enjoyed it quite a lot though their driving range is under construction so no warm up. The course was in good shape though aside from some bumpy spots from punching the greens, but I assume another week and it will be very nice. Some fun holes and some awesome views.

Yeah, Quintero was fine.

Love Las Sendas, used to play that course constantly since we knew the guy who ran it, like at least 10x/year, but then he left and it's probably been 5+ years since we've been there at all. Too bad, bitch of a course but once you get used to it, it can get more manageable.

Three round brief log:

Papago: played Wednesday, greens are holding up nicely. A little rough and a little slow but much better than average considering it's the dog days of summer.

TPC Champions: played Friday, first time in a year or two I'd been out there. Every time I play it I wonder why I don't play it more often, it's a tough, fairly tight but not overly punitive course given that a lot of the desert seems to have been cleared out. 18 is still the hardest goddamned finishing hole that I can think of anywhere, and the bogey I made is very possibly the best score I've carded there in the several rounds since they redid the course 3-4 years ago. It's probably not an unfair hole, but it's tight, pretty long, and almost always plays into the wind.

Legend Trail: played today, not really sure where to begin with this. In short, it was in the worst condition I can recall seeing on any golf course I've ever played, including municipal courses and nine hole goat pastures. Should have taken a hint when the driving range was all dead grass and sand and the putting green was like playing plink-o. The tees sucked, the fairways really REALLY sucked - they were both dead and soggy, like the superintendent is trying to soak them back to life - and the greens were ****ing tragically bad. The best things about the course were 1) the bunkers were actually decent (I speak from a fairly sad amount of experience), and 2) the carts were stellar. They really hauled ass. When the two best things about a course are the sand traps and the golf carts you've got major problems. They only charged us $29 after tax, and now I see why. I feel particularly badly for the staff - they probably have to endure a ton of bitching from players and it's not really their fault.

It's also too bad I had committed to this round as last night I got a call and had a chance to play Phoenix C.C. for free today and one of the members of the foursome was Ken Kellaney, possibly the most accomplished amateur golfer in Arizona history and someone I've always wanted to golf with. But backing out of a(nother) round of golf at the last minute is an absolute no-no so I had to decline.

Yeah we played the third tees (gold) at Las Sendas and the course rating is still slightly over par from there (6350 yards I think for par 71), its a slightly weird layout in that all the short holes are par 3s and par 5s and all the par 4s are medium / long except for 17. I hit driver / hybrid on a couple par 4s and I hit driver / 6 iron on one of the par 5s. I could tell its the type of course that 1) plays brutal from the back tees, and 2) plays tough if you aren't hitting your driver just how you want. I was cutting corners all over the place from the gold thanks to some nice driver accuracy and the course seemed relatively tame to me. 18 is an odd finishing hole though, a visually scary par 5 but no matter where you hit the tee shot its nearly impossible to not go for the green in 2 since you either have to hit over a lake or hit over the corner of the lake into a really narrow fairway unless you want to lay up outside of like 175 yards for the 3rd shot. I hit a crappy drive left and still only had 200 to the green over the water (and shorter if I bailed out left of the green which I did like a chump). Feels like a course that would get a lot easier with familiarity.

The guys we played with also recommended red mountain ranch cc which is right next door practically and open to public now, I'll have to check that out

Played Quintero from the tips yesterday and it was awesome. Course was absolutely perfrect as expected. Tee boxes, fairways, rough, bunkers, greens, etc EVERYTHING was in great condition. Bogeyed the first three holes like a donk but ended up playing the rest of the front in -1 for a 38. Started to get drunk on the back 9 and just whittled away my round with 5 pars and 4 bogeys for a 40. 78 isn't tragically bad from tips but decent considering my start and finish.

Everytime I play this course I like it more and more. There is far more room off the tee than what you can see usually so once you are comfortable out there you can let some driver rips and play some holes more aggressive. Obv most of the game out there revolves around the greens and putting as the greens are easily rolling 11.

I think golf now has the place for 39 in the afternoon which is an absolute steal considering reading TUQ's report from Legend Trails...nothing worse than getting pumped up for a round of golf only to walk up to ****ty conditions FTL.