Continental, yes that's it! OK it wasn't exactly TPC Scottsdale, but it worked nicely for getting out and knocking the ball around for a few hours after work. Was pretty cheap and really never crowded back in those days in the late afternoons/early evenings.

played 36 at moon valley on wednesday and 18 at kierland yesterday.

Moon valley is getting better and better last couple of rounds. Greens have fully recovered and roll smooth and good. Fairways good, tee boxes good, and I have seen you can play on golfnow for $21-$28 during the week.....don't know why more people aren't playing here. Played 36 in just about 4.5 hours and never waited one shot.

Kierland yesterday...played Aracia/Ironwood. Overall course is in pretty solid condition. Fairways/tee boxes are extremely nice. Greens were a little better on Ironwood than Acacia but both were fully playable.

Hoping these courses are just about done with their summer punch so we can get another 7-8 weeks of good golf before scalping/overseeding starts up.

I got a tee time at Legacy on Sunday that I'm pretty pumped for. Just always enjoyed playing that course and it's always in better condition than most in the summer. Plus it's pretty easy

Played legacy today...course is super juicy, greens are real nice and I highly recommend. One of my favorite courses in the valley

How was Ironwood? When I was out there it was closed. In addition to (presumably) aeration, it looked like they were gouging out a lot of grass to expand the desert areas along the perimeter, but that may be wrong. Surprised the greens would already be better than Acacia if they were punched more recently, but I certainly hope Acacia is improved from when I was out there last.

On Saturday "pulled a durango" and got a comp at Silverleaf. Hadn't been out there in about a decade, since not long after it opened and before the clubhouse was built. The clubhouse lived up to the hype as one of the best in the state, but didn't dawdle in it too long and as noted I don't rate my golf courses by the quality of their clubhouse.

Frustratingly, it took at least five hours to play despite nobody in front of us. We waved a couple of groups through and a twosome simply drove past us before we could wave them through too. One of the groups was a threesome, three guys each with his own cart, one of them had a long approach into a par-5 yet didn't even take his cigar out of his mouth to hit which I thought was pretty awesome. Reason for the slow play was most likely two culprits: 1) one of the guys in our group was ~18-20 handicap and in general we were in the desert looking for a ball most holes and 2) the forecaddie was called upon to read a LOT of putts, something I didn't bother with much because he was being utilized to death by the others. In theory the forecaddie is supposed to speed up play but it was probably slower in this case.

Playing one up, most par-4s were just under 400 yards, which for me meant 3-iron off the tee since I wanted to keep it in play and wasn't feeling confident with the 3-wood or hybrid. However, even from one tee up the 10th and 18th are beasts - I crushed driver and had ~190 home on each, albeit the flag was all the way back on both holes and 18 was into the wind. Still, that second shot with its forced carry on a hole that long must terrify the members. Those two holes and the three par-3s are the teeth of this course.

One other thing stood out: the number of quality golf balls just sitting out in the desert was hilarious. On the long par-3 5th hole, in the desert area well short of the green I found no fewer than 25 balls in a fairly short search, at least half of them worth keeping. Other searches weren't quite this fruitful but I easily bagged a dozen like new Pro-V1s, no doubt from members who couldn't be bothered to look, and 2-3 dozen of other quality brands were found (and mostly discarded) as well. Not a lot of off-brands, although someone found a Top Flite which led to us joking that that person should be banned from the course for life.

yeah ironwood's greens were honestly better than Acacia if you could believe it. I played with a few guys that worked there and they said it only opened back up a few days ago so it there was no ball marks/traffic at all for a few weeks so it healed up super quick. It wasn't a drastic difference but it was noticeably better and smoother than Acacia.

yes, they have removed a lot of grass areas and replaced it with "desert" which is basically just wide open with very small rocks. It's kind of hard to hit out of it right now to be honest. A few guys in our group were hitting it fat out of the weird lies but I suspect it will settle and harden up and be far easier after a few months of play.

Silverleaf is super fun. I think that place is very fair off the tee and surprised you had to hit a lot of 3 irons. When we played we hit from the back tee boxes and some of those holes were a joke. 18 into the wind from the back tee box is a complete beast as was the par 3 17th.

I played moon valley again this morning with my buddy at 6:30, we were the first ones out and finished just before 9. That course is really coming back into shape and well worth playing. I think on golf now it's only $22-$28 which is a great value. I always laugh at the people that will spend $30 to play Cave Creek and drive right by Moon Valley....I guess people still think it's private?

I would be surprised if Moon Valley being public is common knowledge. It's been private forever. Then again golfnow probably does such a high % of the bookings these days that presumably people would notice. Good course though, still plenty of challenge after all these years.

As for Silverleaf, I used 3-iron because it was the longest club in my bag I felt confident that I could put in play on that day. Wasn't sure the hybrid or 3-wood could be trusted, mostly because of a horrific range warmup session. Besides, most holes I had 8-iron or less in anyway so it was fine. Hit the driver well too but the margin for error was smaller so I stuck with small ball on the sub-400 holes.

yeah I can never really shoot a good score at moon valley..the front nine is relatively easy and then the back nine gets really tough imo. 11 is a fairly tough par 3 that u need to hit a good one, the 2nd par 5 isn't an easy birdie at all, then 14 has the crazy green...then 15-18 is one of the better finishes in the valley I believe. 230 yard par 3, 465 par 4 that you need to hit a cut, 17 you need to hit a monster slice and then 18 is usually into the wind, water left and 450-460.

I think my best round out there is even or +1 but you definitely need to go low on the front to shoot a number.

we are playing late afternoon at moon on thursday after pga coverage and then I have some family from out of town coming in so I booked a 9:09/9:17 at aguila on saturday. Figured I would book somewhere WIDE open for some of these hackers. I was thinking about dragging them out to Quintero but really didn't feel like looking in the desert all day for these guys balls lol

got the last minute invite on another nice trip up north

playing seven canyons saturday in sedona, staying in the villa there saturday night and then making the trek up to flagstaff to play pine canyon on sunday

I wish we were staying up there sunday night but should still be a blast. courses should be pretty pure by now, especially pine canyon

I just moved to Arizona from New York.

I live in the West Valley and have had fun golfing (especially for <$20) so far.

I've played, Sundance, Verrado, Estrella, Granite Falls in Surprise in the past 10 days. I suck, but it's been fun so far. The heat isn't that bad either as long as I bring water/sunscreen.

Compared to the farm courses in NY these courses have been awesome.

Glad to see someone else from out west on here. What part of the West Valley are you in? Of the courses you listed, I've only played both Granite Falls courses, but enjoyed them both.

Josh, nice welcome to the valley. Just wait until after overseeding and around December and January when everyone is freezing their ass off back east and you are teeing off on green grass.

Of those courses I have only played Estrella but I heard Verrado is very nice as well. If you are on the West Side I would recommend Triology at Vistancia and Quintero (my boo). Quintero is probably a top 5-10 course in the state and can be played for $50 right now I believe. I highly recommend you check out Quintero before overseeding...the greens are fabulous right now.

EC and Josh should hook up and play a round at Quintero and thank me later

http://www.golfnow.com/phoenix/tee-t...lf-club/search

I'm in Goodyear. I'll have to check out quintero thanks for the recommendations.

WEST SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE. I hope you have a big gun and a big dog. Best of Luck.

Hopefully you played the better of the two Estrella courses, the one over the hill in the housing community. If not, go play it. Legit layout.

Hey Durango, how do you feel about Quintero? Haha.

I definitely plan on getting out there before the summer gets away.

When u play it come back and tell me...it's legit.com

My opinion is slightly higher of it because I play for free usually but honestly the scenery, layout, conditions of the greens are 10/10

My boss keeps raving about Wi-Ko-Pa (sp?)

I figured that you were in my neck of the woods judging by the courses you listed.

I would recommend any of the Wigwam courses. Gold is great and tough. Red is fun and easy. Blue is quirky and tough. They are all parkland if you're sick of playing desert course like me.

I would stay away from Tres Rios Estrella. Basically a dog track. I don't particularly care for the Pebblecreek courses because they are bland and short and in average condition.

Falcon is not in that great of shape but I kind of like the layout and the price is right. Very walkable if you're kinky like that. One interesting(?) feature is that it is literally right next to the airforce base runway so if you play it on the weekday then you'll experience fighter jets taking off.

Sundance is excellent value. Every time I've been out there the greens are like 8+ out of 10, which for 10-20 bux is a steal. Plus the staff is friendly.

Yeah one of our buddies booked us a round at Tres Rios for $7 thinking it was Estrella. We played it anyways just because... Reminded me of a New York course. Open, no elevation, and greens that were incredibly slow. They have a $30 month membership going on lol.

Yeah I'll get onto the Wigwam courses soon as well. I've heard about some course where whenever you hit the ball it feels like you're going to peg an airplane out of the sky. Maybe that was Falcon, heard it was a really neat experience.

I like Sundance, unfortunately one of my friends hates it because of the undulating greens and how much rock / kitty litter is near the fairway/first cut.


Personally I need a lot of range time so if you guys know any good deals in my area that would be awesome.

Had a great time on our trip to Sedona this weekend. "Unfortunately" Pine Canyon never materialized for our group to we had to settle for Seven Canyons on Saturday and Sedona Golf Resort on Sunday.

Seven Canyons was in good shape. It has been up and down the last couple of years due to problems with the club but apparently it's going private again here pretty soon and the conditions are finally getting up to where they should be. Greens rolled true and were super soft but a little slower than we are used to. Drank wayyyy too much on the course and melted down the stretch to shoot 79-80 I think, can't really verify my score.

Sedona Golf Resort was a notch better on conditions than Seven Canyons. Greens were a little faster and overall conditions solid. Got my game back on track and had four birdies and shot 73. I played the par 5's like a freakin' donkey unfortunately.

Only snapped a few pics, but see below.

Seven Canyons #3 instagramed


Seven Canyons View from #4 tee elevated par 3 looking back towards the mountain


Sedona Golf Resort



#10 signature par 3 instagramed

should have got more pics but I have played both these tracks a bunch of times so always forgot to grab my phone. I will say that I have a little bit more respect for Sedona Golf Resort as a course. It's pretty damn fun and a really fair course to play. I still probably rank Oak Creek CC just barely ahead of it but when all three courses in Sedona are in good shape you really can't go wrong with any of them.

wow, what a beautiful backdrop for the Sedona course.

I know the weather in Northern Arizona can get pretty cold and snowy in the winter. Do those courses up there close down during winter season or only as needed due to weather?

In Sedona they only close officially a handful of times during the winter and re open after snow melts but up in flagstaff they close down for the winter for 3-5 months typically

And yes Sedona still amazes me every time I visit...it's gotta be a top 15-20 most beautiful places in the USA in my opinion

no one ITT golfing lately?