Rio Rico Golf Club
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About
Editor's Note: Course closed for business in 2018.
The beauty of the natural terrain and the way Jones fit the golf course into it is truly spectacular. Situated alongside the Santa Cruz River, the course meanders into the surrounding hillsides where the sunlight casts mystical purple and yellow shadows in the late afternoon. Holes 5 to 8 are considered one of the finest four hole stretches in the state, ending with the 439 yard No. 8. Teeing off from high on the hill, the fairway drops off twice before your long approach shot settles onto a green framed by a reed filled pond to the right and a gaping bunker to the left.
Tee | Par | Length | Rating | Slope |
---|---|---|---|---|
Black | 72 | 7240 yards | 73.0 | 132 |
Blue | 72 | 6706 yards | 71.1 | 128 |
White | 72 | 6220 yards | 68.9 | 124 |
Silver | 72 | 5737 yards | 66.1 | 117 |
Silver (W) | 72 | 5737 yards | 70.9 | 128 |
Red (W) | 72 | 5085 yards | 67.0 | 121 |
Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Black M: 74.9/131 | 449 | 594 | 202 | 386 | 202 | 412 | 480 | 439 | 420 | 3584 | 558 | 371 | 193 | 447 | 406 | 441 | 448 | 192 | 600 | 3656 | 7240 |
Blue M: 73.1/123 | 421 | 558 | 173 | 363 | 183 | 389 | 472 | 431 | 411 | 3401 | 523 | 342 | 160 | 422 | 370 | 403 | 370 | 162 | 553 | 3305 | 6706 |
White M: 70.7/121 | 395 | 523 | 159 | 339 | 157 | 358 | 453 | 412 | 392 | 3188 | 496 | 319 | 145 | 382 | 354 | 377 | 322 | 132 | 505 | 3032 | 6220 |
Silver M: 69.2/117 W: 70.2/119 | 367 | 492 | 137 | 319 | 147 | 338 | 438 | 352 | 346 | 2936 | 480 | 292 | 131 | 351 | 328 | 348 | 293 | 102 | 476 | 2801 | 5737 |
Red W: 67.1/113 | 299 | 445 | 106 | 291 | 128 | 303 | 368 | 310 | 333 | 2583 | 463 | 273 | 114 | 295 | 280 | 291 | 256 | 77 | 453 | 2502 | 5085 |
Handicap | 3 | 11 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 5 | 17 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 18 | 16 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 10 | 14 | 4 | |||
Par | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 36 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 36 | 72 |
Handicap (W) | 5 | 1 | 13 | 17 | 15 | 9 | 11 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 16 | 14 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 18 |
Course Details
Rentals/Services
Practice/Instruction
Policies
Food & Beverage
Bar, SnacksAvailable Facilities
Conference Facilities, Banquet FacilitiesAvailable Activities
Swimming, BilliardsReviews
Reviewer Photos
Greens were horrible
Nothing wrong with the layout of the course but the greens were terrible. Hope warmer weather and lots of water will bring them around as this could be an excellent course to play. The young man who checked me in was very friendly as were the people they put me with. Was very inexpensive to play. Hope they get things fixed up, but won't be back until they do.
bad greens
The greens were horrible and I as well as my 3 playing partners will not return. It was a wasted trip. We play all over southern Arizona and this was not worth 30 dollars.
Thank you for leaving your review on our course, we appreciate the honest feedback. We will inform our staff and will continuously work to improve the greens here at Rio Rico Resort. We hope to see you again this season!
Billy F
The greens were as bad as I have ever played. Thought it was overpriced for the condition .
Hi Billy,
Thank you for leaving your feedback on Rio Rico Resort it is important to us. We will inform our staff on your concern regarding the greens and we appreciate you voicing it. We will work towards a better round for you on your next visit. Come back and see us!
management plan & efforts will pay off!!!!!
Greens are progressing only as fast as weather permits. Bent grass requires at least an average temp. of 40 degrees to be active, and its been hard to find consistency above this temp. this golf season. Tees and some fairways are much better.Stay with them, as warmer weather equals a grass explosion/
Clifford Jan 9, 2016
tees
Thanks for your review on Rio Rico Resort! We appreciate you noticing our efforts and glad you love the course and see the potential, weather permitting. Looking forward to seeing you in 2016!
Interesting lay out
The course condition is improving from previous years. It is an interesting lay out. No private homes around the course. Natural beauty.
Thank you for your review! We have been working hard to get the greens back in shape - and we certainly appreciate your feedback. We look forward to your next tee time with us!
Stunning Trent Jones design, but...
Rio Rico has been in the same condition for 3 years now and calling it rustic would be generous. It is a fabulous track, but it needs a bunch of money thrown at it. The new management company seems to be doing some things (like watering the greens), but the greens are currently in very poor condition. Bunkers are pretty good and most fairways are just OK. The aesthetic of cart paths, fairway delineation etc is non-existent.
If you can get a round here for less than $20, I think it is worth it. I am happy to pay $20 to play this great track. I have played it 3 years in a row for this price, and I'd go back again. Cheaper than a couple of buckets of balls. But Rio Rico is currently not worth more than $20.
Thank you for your review. We appreciate your note that we have been working on the conditions. We underwent a long overseed recently for which we have already seen improvements. We have brought in a specialist that has helped us build a plan of action and have followed accordingly. We will continue to have great specials to encourage course play while in recovery. We value your continued patronage and hope to see you back soon!
Give it a break...show patience!
First time playing the course since the days of hosting PGA sectional qualifying. The staff alerts you of the condition of the course and measures taking place to improve the playing conditions. Give the course 6 months to improve. It would help if players filled/repaired divots in the fairway and greens. Give the course a break...what did you expect for the price you paid?
Thank you for your review and kind words! We hope to see you back soon!
Greens were atrocious
While the individual holes offer some interesting challenges, the journey to the greens was diminished by virtually "unputtable" greens. Two temporary greens were just plunked in the middle of unmanicured fairways with no yardage indicators.
Thank you for your review. We have been working hard to bring the course back into top-notch condition. We feel you will continue to see improvements with each future visit, and hope to see you back soon.
Frustrating
I like the course layout, but the greens are horrible. We had 4 temporary greens in the fairways which were a complete joke. There are only about 4 greens which are puttable. I won't go back until major improvements are made. The staff is friendly. The greens fee was very low.
Thank you for your review. We are working diligently to bring the course into shape. We hope to see you back for another tee time as we would like you to see its continual improvment.
Sad condition.
Needs at least a month or two of serious maintenance. Looks like they are redoing all the greens, they are unplayable now. On the fairways if you look around you usually can find a spot with a sort of playable lie.
Thank you for your review. Yes, we are redoing the greens and expect to see much improvment over the next couple of months. We hope to see you back for another tee time soon.
NICE SETTING
Have been playing the course for years but this time was not worth the drive down from GV. Greens were unputable . Hard to hit off the fareways with little grass. Ended up only playing 9 holes.
Thank you for your review. We have been working diligently to bring the course back up to the beautiful conditions it was in the past. We hope to see you back for another tee time and that you can experience the improvements.
Our favorite course gone bad.
We love this course but we were not informed that Tees were set up any where from 20-30 yards forward in rough fairway. What a mess. To top it off, a home above the course was playing a boom box so the entire 18 holes were treated to bad '80s tunes. Not the course problem? Well if I ran the place it would be. What do we want for $15....well we got what we payed for.
Thank you for your review. We are charging special low rates because we have been undergoing some intense repairs on the course to bring it back up to it's former, beautiful conditions. We apologize for the local noise, please let us know next time so we may address. We would love the opportunity to provide a better experience for you next time you visit Rio Rico. Please send us an email at rioricoteetimes@aol.com, we would like to offer you a promotional code toward your next round of golf with us.
Rio Rico
The greens are unputtable. Course maintenance is shabby. Leave it alone for another year.
Thank you for your review. We have been diligently working on the course and finished overseeding mid-October, with temporary greens being in place. We are seeing gradual improvement and we hope to see you back for another tee time to check out our progress!
RT Jones RIP
This once great RT Jones course is a disaster. The course is overgrown, fairways have not been maintained, sand traps are more like mud holes with weeds, grass has not been cut and greens, once the best bent greens is South Arizona are gone. Many holes you putt on dirt. Some of the reviews state that maintenance is being performed, however no workers seen this date. I would rate the course as the worse ever seen in my 50 years of playing golf. If you live in Tucson don't drive the 70 miles. If you come to Tucson for the winter there are much better courses in and around our town.
Thank you for your review. We have been continually working on bringing the greens back up, we began overseeding September 7th which typically takes about a month for conditions to truly improve. We hope to see you back for another round.
Worried that it's not getting better
This was one of my favorites until a couple years ago. It was worth the drive from Tucson. But now, it just isn't, as much as I want it to be. It got bad, but a little over a year ago they started to work on it. But on this most recent outing, it seemed that the progress had been lost, as there had been even more deterioration. The two "greens" that had been closed and redone last year were not noticeably better than the rest. There might have been one that was almost playable. I know there was overseed coming, but I'm not at all sure that takes care of it. The rough is pretty much out of control weeds, the fairways were actually the best part, but still not even close to good, and after the monsoon I would have expected at least some better grass. I'm not giving up yet, but it will be a few months before I'm back.
Thank you for your review. We have been undergoing intensive overseeding and have some temporary greens in place. We hope to see you back for another tee time, we are working diligently to bring the course back into the condition it deserves!
being redone
The course was in very bad shape looks like someone just decided to open it all greens need to be redone or reseed all grass needed cutting 4 temporary greens staff was friendly and they were working on course I'm a 6 handicap so it wasn't for me maybe this winter it will be ready I believe I played this course back in 1994 and it was great back then I love the course design just needs lot of work
Thank you for your review! We have been working diligently to bring the course back up to its former glory, we expect conditions to continue to improve and we hope to see you back soon to see so for yourself!
Course has made major improvements.
The course is still a work in progress but has changed so much from 3 months ago. It is in much better condition. We plan on going back again next week.
Thank you so much for your feedback! We have been working very hard to improve the course and are so happy to hear you have seen noticeable results! We look forward to your next visit!
THIS COURSE NEEDS IMPOROVEMENT TO RESTORE.
THE COURSE NEEDS IMPROVEMENT ESPECIALLY GREENS. THE ENVIRONMENT IS BEAUTIFUL. I UNDERSTOOD THE COURSE WAS RATED NUMBER TWO IN 2002. NEEDS TO RESTORE ASAP
Thank you for your review. Under new ownership, we are working very hard to bring the course up to its former beauty. We hope to see your for another round!
Needs work
The fairways and green need lots of help. The rain has helped a lot since our last time here but it is no way close to where it needs to be. Ball was difficult to locate even on the fairways due to weeds and tall grass, putting was horrible, too many burnt areas? The staff was excellent, our cart actually died on the 8th hole and they responded within 10 minutes. Lunch was provide with our deal and I it was excellent, the lady serving us was upbeat and made our tome there enjoyable. Lots of potential with this course just needs a major overhaul.
Thank you so much for your review! We are working diligently and taking all measures to bring the course back up to its excellent former conditions. We are so happy to hear you enjoyed the lunch special and that you were treated very well. We look forward to your next round!
Needing work
This course, once a gem, is now tarnished. One green on the back side was three feet high in weeds with a temporary in front of it. The fairways are no longer grass, but wild growth of varying type. The fairways were so long that it was like hitting from the rough most of the time, especially the back nine. The sand traps were concrete. Evidence of vandalism on ball washers and trash cans was everywhere, and the maintenance was just not up to par.
Thank you for your feedback. I assure you new ownership has taken control and we are working diligently to bring the course back up to its former glory. We have even had an expert come in to advise and we are following his strategy. - and we will get there!
Thanks for playing at Rio Rico Resort. We appreciate your honest feedback and are working hard to bring the course conditions up to par. We hope to exceed your expectations on your next visit.
Thank you for leaving your review with Rio Rico Resort, your feedback is important to us. We have notified our staff and crews and are working towards the best Rio Rico possible! We hope to see you again soon.