I honestly haven't played golf since I played Troon North in mid July. Prior to that, it was late April. I just haven't had the free time I had hoped for this summer. Hoping to get up to Trilogy at Vistancia in 2 weeks when a friend of mine from NC gets into town. Or maybe Quintero.

nice, I have my big golf trip up north coming together for September 21-24th with 12 guys again.

We have Seven Canyons on Saturday on the way up. Drive up to Flagstaff and stay at my buddies house in Forest Highlands. Play Pinewood on Sunday (we love that little course). Then pretty sure we will get hooked up for Forest Highlands on Monday/Tuesday for Canyon/Meadow which should be epic. If we can't get out at Forest Highlands it will probably be Flagstaff Ranch/Pine Canyon. My buddy hooking it up HARD again.

The best part about the trip may be the drunken poker games at night though lol

Sounds like a lot of fun. Free/discounted golf and drunken poker with a bunch of friends is tough to beat.

Looks like Quintero can be had for 40-45 on Monday 9/9 when I'm looking at playing so I'll consider that a win. Only gonna be 2 of us so if anyone else can be available that day, let's make it happen.

That's a great deal I assume it's still in good shape at least until overseeding

Played Vistal for 18 Saturday and Legacy for 20 Sunday. Both in decent enough shape. Looking for something new this next Monday. Any deals out there?

There's deals pretty much everywhere right now, aren't there?

Time for my obligatory "September is the best month to golf" post.

Game sucks but played Papago twice last week - twilight both times. The "slow" round was 2 1/2 hours for three of us. Can't get enough of playing so quickly but the days are getting shorter and overseed is looming.

Probably playing twice this weekend, no clue where though as of yet. Definitely looking top end while the prices are still decent and they're more likely to be semi-decent.

^agree, end of august and most of september is the best month of golf here in AZ imo. The prices are right, the courses are in great shape right before overseeding and I think there's that extra little bit of excitement to play because you know in 5-6 weeks everywhere will be soggy/wet/seeded/cart path only.

Legacy is leaps and bounds above Vistal imo....

I am probably playing Moon Valley on sunday with my buddy since it's free and it's in great shape right now. I would recommend anyone ITT to play there at $20-$33 before overseeding...rounds are quick and it's a fun track with an excellent back nine that has one of the tougest finishes around imo.

Troon North- Monument or Pinnacle?

YES!!! Lol

I played the monument course last month for the first time. Outstanding. Haven't player the other one but from the guys on here it sounds pretty similar. You can't go wrong.

Pinnacle

Phoenician today, $27. First time, played desert and oasis. Great deal.

^ I personally hate Phoenician but $27 is a good price...that place just feels squeezed in and wish they would have just put 18 good holes in there instead of 27.

There were definitely a few awkward holes on desert. Like that par 4 that runs up ti where the hikers start up Camelback.Would like to play canyon next time.

Phoenician is awful, what decent holes there were they ruined when they squeezed in the extra nine. Which is to say they added seven holes but then had to reconfigure the bulk of the course to jam in two extra holes. The outcome is that you have holes like a 440 yard "par 5" and an endless string of 340 yard par-4s.

Not hating on you Wondercall - that's a decent price and since it's a resort and a Troon managed property it's probably in good shape most of the time. But I live both by Phoenician (and have a Troon pass) and the Biltmore and play them pretty much never, with the exception of scramble/charity events.

Anyway - Papago on Saturday morning and Wekopa (Cholla) this morning. Papago's greens, <2 weeks after aerating, were back to being solid. Wekopa's greens were good as well. Don't get me wrong, neither were super fantastic, but they rolled well and the pace was moderate. Acceptable for this time of year.

Pace: oddly, even on a holiday weekend Papago for some reason wasn't full up. The starter paired up two twosomes in front of us so we went off with the first hole or two open and didn't catch the combined foursome until they were coming off the 18th green. 3:40 or so pace. Glorious. Wekopa on the other hand...had three groups backed up on the third tee, slow all day, and pace was closer to 4:40.

The threesome in front of us appeared to be a couple paired with a single, or that is how it appeared. And they were all pretty clueless. We came around to the 10th hole and it was open so we went ahead and teed off. All four of us had hit when the group that had been in front of us comes rolling up to the tee, saying they stopped at the turn. Like dumbasses we offered to let them go back in front of us, and like even bigger dumbasses they accepted our offer. One guy even hit two drives after his first one wasn't to his liking. It was grating as hell and they were at least a hole behind but it was so slow they eventually got back into position so it didn't matter all that much.

Well it was my first time playing there and the price was right. I had a good time. So tell me where to play this weekend for less than $30?

tuq - nice report...I would have never acknowledged that group pulling up to the tee and/or just say we already teed off, you are behind us now lol

wondercall - Legacy, Whirlwind, Triology at Vistancia, Vista Verde...depending on where you live

I also think if you're willing to expand your budget to $40 (noting that you said weekend, when courses are $10 or so pricier) you're bringing a lot of good courses into play in addition to the ones durango mentioned. Since my rotation is usually Papago + Troon courses I don't know which ones exactly but golfnow has an asston of courses on their site now so this should be pretty easy to find out.

Wondercall - the part of town you are in could be useful too. I don't mind driving for good golf but it's even better when I don't have to.

Yeah that would have been smart. To be fair to them they no doubt didn't have the slightest clue that they had yielded position when they wandered off so they no doubt didn't know any better. I went into typical tuq "can't stand rude people" monkeytilt at the time (double bogeyed both 10 and 11 but was only two over the other 16 holes) but calmed down once they caught back up to the group in front of them.

Oh this reminds me, the ****ing sand traps. Granted, I was only in them on one hole, the 11th, where I volleyed back and forth between the two alongside the green, but they had virtually no sand in them. Which is a problem when they are as deep as they are. It couldn't have been just that hole because everyone else in my group had the same trouble on other holes without exception - they had trouble getting out because their club was bouncing and when they would get out the ball would go sailing over the green. That's a pretty big crime on a course that touts itself as highly as it does.

hehe I share this same frustration on a couple of the cheaper courses I play here in Las Vegas (Durango Hills and LV Golf Club, I'm looking at you). Seems the cheaper the greens fees, the less sand you get in the sand traps around here at least. On these courses basically it is 1/4 inch of sand and rock hard dirt underneath. You cannot get under the ball so many bladed line-drives out of the trap are the result. I do choke down and try to "pick" the ball w/my 60 degree wedge but you have to hit it 100% perfect to get any decent elevation.

There is no excuse for a decent (i.e. more expensive) course to not have decent sand though.

agreed...all they need to do is drag the tilling attachment/machine through the bunker every once in a while and it will loosen it up but I can see how that gets neglected and/or rain compacts it down pretty quick. The hottest thing is when a course has rock hard bunkers for literally years and never does anything about it...

My brother is staying on the corner of FLR blvd and N Scottsdale Rd, without his sticks (ouch) he can't give enough props to this part of the country.

lol my office is about .5 miles from there. yeah he's staying in a nice part of scottsdale...tell him to take a drive due north up Pima road where all the big boy north scottsdale courses are. We just had an epic rain last couple of days so the desert is beautiful right now.

this trip officially materialized again

Seven Canyons - Saturday
Pine Wood - Sunday
Forest Highlands Canyon - Monday
Forest Highlands Meadow - Tuesday

Staying at cabin inside Forest Highlands....12 guys, officially pumped! Will snap some pics again.

I would like to plan a trip like that with some friends. Would Prescott or Flag be a better destination?