ABakersDosen

I played Troon North's Monument course for the first time, and I can only hope it will not be my last. I had heard about this course many times over the year's but never had the opportunity to play. All I can say, is it lived up to the hype. The conditions at Troon North were better than any course I have EVER played in AZ, and we played in June (when conditions are not supposed to be ideal). The Greens are literally perfect, and rolled true to their lines on every hole. But that's not to say they were easy either, in fact, they represented a welcome challenge. On approaches, if you didn't have a high-loft shot or backspin, you usually didn't end up staying on the green. Fairways/rough were also in great shape for June. Bunkers have the soft white sand you hope for, and really differentiated the course from other's where a bunker is sometimes just "glorified desert". The most noticeable difference of Troon over other courses I have played in AZ was the maturity of the course. On some desert courses, if you are left/right of the fairway, there's a chance you will find your ball and be able to play it. However, at Troon, the vegetation and cacti are so luscious that you are considered extremely lucky if you have a shot out of it. Some golfer's would find this to be a negative, but I appreciated the fact that you were penalized from wayward shots. Our group had our fair share of those penalties, but the course is absolutely fair off the tee at the same time. It's evident that this course has been well maintained and developed for many years, to the point that even the "desert" feels as though it was personally manicured before each round. I could write about this course forever, but in the end you just have to experience it to understand what a fantastic course it is to play. I can't wait to get back out to play the Pinnacle course soon. My one caution to golfer's on a budget is to do your best to play in the offseason. While I can justify paying peak season pricing for this course (and I would say that about few courses that cost $200+), I believe the value was maximized by playing the course in June like our group did (@ roughly $100). Regardless of the results of your round, you are likely to come away pleased with your trip to Troon North!

I have played the Raptor course at Grayhawk twice and both times I have come away impressed. The course itself is what you would expect from a Resort course in AZ. We played the second tees (Palo Verde), and while there are some narrow fairways, most of them are manageable. The ones that were narrow were that way intentionally, to force you into "target golf" decision making like most of the desert courses (for instance, pulling an iron/3 wood over driver by default). Conditions on the fairway and rough areas were great, especially for the time of the year (June). The greens were rolling a little slower than expected the day we were there, but overall rolled true to their lines and represented a challenge due to undulations and tiered greens on many of the holes. Pace of play was about 4 hours and 15 minutes, which I find to be right on par with expectations. Finally, the atmosphere of the club was great. Between Phil's Grille (a great post-round Men's grille) and top-notch conditions, it felt almost like a private course. Where Grayhawk falls short is value. Even playing in June, which is considered the start of the offseason summer rates, we still paid $100 to play. I am not saying that is unheard of for courses in the area (Troon's pricing was nearly the same), but we played two other courses during our trip that matched the course conditions, but represented better overall values (Verde River and We-Ko-Pa). All of that said, I expect to return to GrayHawk (want to try out Talon) again in the future, but it may not be my first stop along the way. There are many courses in the area that offer similar challenge/conditions at a lesser price.