acoffmangn

The course was in great shape overall, greens are a little slower than what we were used to but balls were tracking well. The Cart GPS was not that useful as it only reads to the center of the greens. There were a lot of front pin placements that changed the distance by 10 yards or more, and you did not want to be above the pins as there were some fairly steep sloes to deal with. We had a rangefinder but had trouble getting a reading on the pins in some cases. Range balls now included in the fee which was a nice surprise. Staff was friendly, and beverage cart was around every few holes. The Links is the more scenic of the 2 courses, for out of town visitors it provides some spectacular views, elevation changes, and challenging holes.

We played the middle tees (6000 yards), but don't be fooled by the shorter distance, if you are not hitting straight the desert will grab your ball on numerous holes. Due to the slopes of the fairways, they are sometimes effectively half as wide as they appear from the tee unless you can hit a fade or draw when needed. Greens were in good shape excepting a lot of unfixed ball marks. The constant challenge with Phoenician is reading the greens, the Camelback mountain slope makes most balls break away from it, even when it appears the greens are slanting toward the mountain. The cart GPS was incorrect up to 20 yards at times, but did not impact us as we had rangefinders anyway. I always enjoy the Phoenician just for the stunning views, and the price was great at $47. Two months ago you would have paid $150 or more. This course will force you to concentrate on hitting the fairway more than most, but when you go back to a course not as tight, you'll feel like you're playing in a city park.

The Adobe course was in good condition overall, and not burned out like a lot of other AZ courses are this time of year. It is very forgiving for errant tee shots as there are multiple adjoining fairways on most holes. The greens were a little slower than I'm used to and the ball did not roll out on the fairways much. Phoenix had a heavy rainstorm several nights ago which probably contributed to this. The bunkers had adequate amounts of sand to hit out of, some AZ courses seem to cut back this type of maintenance during the summer months. The pace was great, we never had to wait on any tee. One issue we had was the GPS rangefinder on the cart seem to want to put us on the other 18 hole course from time to time. We did have our own rangefinders but it was hard to get a reading from the flags from over 180 yards. Maybe the flagsticks don't have the prism type devices installed, not sure. Overall though for $30.00 I thought the course was a great value.