played moon valley on wednesday with my buddy who works there
ocotillo on saturday $40 (prolly the most I have paid for a round this year by far)
quintero yesterday for $10 tip to outside guys

moon valley was pretty solid, they aerated the greens about 3-4 weeks ago so there is just a few bumps but it's almost fully back to good on the greens. definitely way playable and fun

ocotillo on saturday at 9 AM, overall course was in decent shape but they watered the course so damn hard that every shot had almost zero roll, mud balls and made the iron shots real tough to hit. also the humidity in the second half of that round was some of the worst I have experienced on a golf course in a while because of all the watering/water on the holes. only played there because my sister's bf invited me and I hadn't played with him and his friends in awhile, probably won't make the drive out there to play anytime soon

quintero yesterday with my buddy who works there was awesome as usual. we teed off at 2:45 PM which is like 2 hours after they closed their tee sheet for the day so we did not see one other golf cart on the entire day. we actually played a 5some and finished in right at 4 hours which is pretty good for that place. the greens were in perfect shape and rolled fast and true. fairways are fairly burnt out so we played lift/clean/place in the fairway to make it fair. pretty awesome to play at that place and have no one out there and come in and just clean your own carts and let yourself out of the gate as the last people there on the day.

Looking for a recommendation for this weekend. Me and my buddy are going out Sunday and/or Monday. Most courses I've played since I moved out here have all been pretty similar....nothing bad, just nothing with that wow factor. Looking for a different style of course. Something with some noticeable elevation changes, and not necessarily winding tightly through a neighborhood. Not looking to spend a ton, and a good price is more important than a short drive. Any suggestions for that style of course? Or any hookups anywhere for anyone *cough* durango. I see lots trip reports from you guys, but obviously I don't have access to some of those private courses. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

one word...Quintero...it's 100000% worth the drive just past Lake Pleasant. It has the elevation you want (best set of Par 3's in the state IMO)

It's $50 on golf now and I played it on Sunday and the greens were awesome. Fairways a little burned out but the course itself is sweet.

I will try to think of some other ones but you need to make sure the course hasn't been recently punched obv.

Was definitely considering that. My buddy just said he saw something online for Troon North on Monday for 39. Could that be accurate or did he see something wrong?

that could be possible...that would be worth it for sure too

other options imo would be vista verde, trilogy at vistancia, whirlwind, southern dunes...those are some of my favorites that I always talk about on here

if you don't mind driving...southern dunes is one of the best layouts in the state it's just in Maricopa lol

just saw $39 at troon north at 1 PM...I would grab that one if you haven't played there before. My buddy played there on monday and said it was juicy.

Has anyone played Elephant Rocks in Williams, west of Flagstaff? My best round ever.

Thanks for that list. I knew I had heard Troon mentioned a lot, and spoken highly of. Any recommendation or preference between the Monument or Pinnacle course?

I always get them confused ever since they switched up the 9's awhile back....they are both fun so doesn't really matter.

Maybe if Tuq is out there he can comment because I think he plays more of the Troon courses that I do.

Another option I just remembered is Wekopa...u can do a deal where you play both courses the same day I believe u guys are up for 36. I would look into it.

nevermind wekopa is charging $75 lol

Just booked the Monument Course at Troon North for Monday at 3:00. Pretty stoked. And at $39, it seems like a pretty decent deal from what I've heard of the place. Looking forward to taking advantage of summer pricing and hitting up more of these places.

nice, yeah 2-3 pm is my favorite time to play...courses are pretty empty and it really cools down about 4-5 pm and then you get some nice shade and out at Troon North you should be able to see some animals wandering around at dusk as well.

How strict are courses this time of year about bringing a small cooler or jug of water on the course?

lol, I bring 8-10 beers with me to every course almost every single time and I've never had a problem. I have a sneaky way I take care of that though...

Every donkey in the world shoves beers in their golf bag but of course this makes it obviously heavy as hell and sometimes causes questions. My trick is to put my golf shoes on while I am at my truck and use my golf shoe bag to bring the beers in. Never once had anyone question me or try to take my shoe bag. Simply carry the shoe bag to where your golf cart is or bring it into the golf shop when you check in if you have to

Cooler - A lot of places will say something thinking it's beer/gatorade
Jug of water - no problem imo

I played Troon Monument for the first time when in Scottsdale in March. Found the front 9 to be nice/nothing special, back 9 to be fanastically phenomenal.

Thanks for the info. I'm sure I'll have a beer or 6 with me, but I just want to be sure I have plenty of water and wet towels with me.

there's water in beer, that's my motto

I couldn't agree more.

Heard great things about this course but never seen it nor played it. Should make a point to include it in our next Flagstaff-related golf outing since that's somewhat close.

After the renumbering what is now called Pinnacle is >>>> Monument, but I see you have already booked Monument so don't feel bad, it's still pretty solid. It's comprised of both front nines of the original layouts. The front nine has retained the Monument name, so given because of the giant rock dildo aka "monument" in the middle of the 3rd fairway. An OK but mostly unremarkable nine.

The new back nine of Monument, which was the original front nine of Pinnacle...well, it clearly has the most scenic holes on the property but also by far the narrowest and goofiest. On the downhill par-3 16th, I have heard that Jenna Jameson has a house off to the right. There are also a couple of mountain lions that call that hole home, or at least used to. Last time I was out there one munched on a rabbit right in front of us.

I'd recommend Monument to tourists because of the views and interesting holes, but Pinnacle is a much fairer test of golf and that is my choice when I go out there.

Oh also, played Kierland (Acacia / Mesquite in that order, Ironwood is closed) twice on July 4th. Decent pace of play, condition was OK but a little roughed up by their standards. Going out there again tomorrow.

Played Papago last Sunday. A friend and I got around in about 2:20, and didn't rush at all. Just an outstanding twilight venue as you can jump around if you come up on a group. We rerouted our back nine a little to get past a foursome. Greens continue to be amazing for a muni, every bit as good and probably better than Kierland.

Thanks for the reviews tuq. We'll be sure to look out for mountain lions. And Jenna.

Btw, did the 2+2 Golf in Phoenix outing get put on the shelf?

Ugh we really gotta do that, it's remarkable how long (years) we've discussed it but it just gets no traction for no particular reason. I've golfed with a handful of people from this site but not as a planed outing.

Can't speak for others, but Sunday and Monday are my two days off. I'd be down for anything on those days, and could arrange to be free most any other day with a bit of notice. Let's make something happen while prices are cheap.

Sunday I have a standard group but I have been working from home lately so any afternoon M-F I am pretty open(or morning lol)

I played 9 holes yesterday at Moon Valley before the dust storm...started getting pretty wild right when we were on #9 so we just called it a day...wasn't too bad right after we left so we easily could have played through it but whatever. Course is ok, still healing after the punching on a few greens but definitely worth playing.

Just got a call from my buddy that we will be hitting up Troon North as well on Sunday at 1:30 comped. Not sure what course we are playing but doesn't really matter to me.