Lives
Fountain Hills, AZ
Handicap
10-14
Age
55-64
Gender
Male
Skill
Advanced
Plays
Once a week

Review Statistics

Average Rating

4.4
4.4
Total 17 Reviews

Rating Breakdown

17 Reviews
5 Stars
10
4 Stars
4
3 Stars
3
2 Stars
0
1 Stars
0
Recommended Courses
17
Not Recommended Courses
0
Helpful Votes Count
4
Not Helpful Votes Count
0
First Review
12/01/2012
Last Review
05/21/2017

Reviews Map

Reviews

4.4
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First time playing this course
Recommended
Review has

Pasatiempo Golf Club

Played On 05/20/2017
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Walked

Top 100

Mackenzie wrote the book on golf course design, and this is a great challenge. If you like to walk only fairly flat courses, take a cart.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging

Longbow Golf Club

Played On 10/08/2016
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Excellent weather
Used cart

Ready for overseed

The fairways were hard and fast, cut very short, greens hard and fast, getting ready to close for overseed. Tough conditions this time, but an excellent course. 5 hours this time, but it usually isn't that slow.

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Fair
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Moderate

Old Silo Golf Club

Played On 06/14/2016
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Good weather
Used cart

In trouble

The design is great, no boring holes, but most of the bunkers are ruined and marked ground under repair. That takes away a lot of the difficulty. They had too much rain the past 18 months, they said, and are working on them "as time permits". Seems to me the larger issue might be money. It is a good value for the price now, even without bunkers. The grill room was closed, only opens for weekends now. Greens and fairways were in good shape, fairways hard and fast, greens not so much.

Conditions Fair
Value Average
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Good
Pace Excellent
Amenities Poor
Difficulty Moderate

Continental Golf Course

Played On 12/31/2015
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Excellent weather
Walked

Fun little course

Tees need work, fairly unlevel and the grass was sparse. (Too small for the amount of play they get.) Greens had a lot of unfixed ball marks. But a fun little track, good for practicing irons and short game. Great value for money, especially in the high season.

Conditions Average
Value Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Fair
Amenities Average
Difficulty Fairly Easy
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Excellent weather
Used cart

Typical Troon Golf excellence

Desert golf. Wide fairways, big greens, typical of Panks design. Great condition and service, typical of Troon Golf managed properties. GolfNow Hot Deal makes it a great bargain.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging

The Stadium Course at PGA WEST

Played On 04/16/2015
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Excellent weather
Used cart

Pete Dye - need I say more?

The main difficulty is hitting and staying on the greens. Anything a foot off could be in water, sand, or at the bottom of a 20-foot dropoff.

Conditions Excellent
Value Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging

PGA WEST Pete Dye Dunes Course

Played On 04/14/2015
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Excellent weather
Used cart

Pete Dye - need I say more?

Lakes with RR ties, forced carries, huge bunkers. Beautiful resort, fancy clubhouse. The course was in great shape, everything you'd expect for the price. Good variety of tees for any skill level.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging

Blythe Golf Course

Played On 04/09/2015
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Excellent weather
Used cart

A hidden gem

Blythe is a William F. Bell design, with an assortment of doglegs, water hazards, grass and sand bunkers, a dramatically elevated par 3, and some blind or partially blind shots. The second hole is 195 yards from the white tees, but plays 170 to a double green, shared with #6.

Many of the greens are elevated. They're smooth and fast, with tiers and some severe slopes, so care must be taken in planning the approach or chip.

The fairways are also tilted sometimes, and can put a pretty good shot into a bad place.

The front nine runs down and up the Mesa Bluff, with large elevation changes. The back, from 10-16 is relatively flat, but with more narrow fairways and doglegs defined by large trees.

17 is a double dogleg par 5, 550 from the whites. 18 is a strong uphill par 3 with a grass bunker in front.

The course is a par 73, with 5 par 5's. The fairways are well-groomed, and the greens are pristine, smooth and fast. The greens fees are quite reasonable. This is an above-average golf course at a very reasonable price.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Moderate

SunRidge Canyon Golf Club

Played On 11/22/2014
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Excellent weather
Used cart

Bring your "A" game

The course is in great shape, the greens fast and true, the staff friendly and helpful. Lots of elevation changes, forced carries and ungroomed desert. The Wicked Six finishing holes are mostly uphill and against the prevailing wind. Not walker-friendly, but one of my favorite courses. The rack rate is pricey, but not as much as some comparable courses in Scottsdale, and well worth it with a golfnow hot deal.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging

McDowell Mountain Golf Club

Played On 10/26/2014
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Excellent weather
Used cart

Redesign helped the clubhouse, not the course

Just overseeded, cart path only. Still an interesting layout. The redesign added new back tees for more yardage, and seems to have turned a lot of desert into grass, and cleared out the cactus and brittlebush from the remaining desert, so finding a wayward shot is easier, and many fewer forced carries. And some bunkers seem to be missing? Much expanded practice areas. If you play from the same tees you always did, it's an easier course, more wide open. And they reversed the nines, which I don't like. The old 17 and 18 (8 and 9 now) were great finishing holes, the new 18th not so much. The remodeled restaurant is pretty, bigger TVs. Good job there. I liked the course better before, more character, lower greens fees.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Moderate
I Recommend This Course
4.0
First Time Playing
Excellent weather
Used cart

Interesting layout

Butch Harmon signature course, pictures of Natalie Gulbis everywhere may have raised expectations too high. The yardage markers were inconsistent and sometimes non-existent, but the holes were interesting. Some of the tips on the scorecard were laughable: "Par 5, hit it long and straight", or "Long par 5, lay up if you can't make it in two".

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Moderate

The Natural at Beaver Creek Resort

Played On 08/03/2014
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Good weather
Used cart

Seems short on the card, but long shots needed to carry the water

You have to hit straight to avoid the woods on both sides of every hole. #1, #8, and #18 have big water hazards to carry on the 2nd shot, or 3rd if you don't hit it 260 down the middle from the blue tees. Well-maintained, good variety of holes, used every club, scenic, pleasant walk in the woods.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Excellent weather
Used cart

Great experience

Like other RTJ Trail courses, this one is an excellent value and was in great shape. The greens had been top-dressed following an aerification, but needle times were used and they rolled true and not too slow. I had 28 putts. Every hole has unique features. 8 holes border or cross inlets on the huge lake, and there's water on two more, a small pond alongside the double green for 1 and 7. The 15th and 16th holes are worthy of a "signature" label, but I like the 12th, a risk-reward par 5 along the lake. If you want to go for the green in two, you have to hit over more water and aim at some fairway bunkers. The 15th is an "island" green par 3 much like 17 at TPC Sawgrass, but it's 230 from the tips and the green is wide and shallow like the 12th at Augusta. 16 is a short dogleg par 4 with the lake in the dogleg, another risk-reward hole for big hitters. Nice clubhouse and pro shop, friendly staff, beautiful natural surroundings.

Conditions Good
Value Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging

The Golf Club at Bluewater Bay

Played On 05/07/2014
I Recommend This Course
3.0
First Time Playing
Excellent weather
Used cart

suffering from recent heavy rains

Bay Course, Tom Fazio / Jerry Pate design. Doglegs make it interesting, and local knowledge is required on a few holes. Stay away from the corners of the doglegs or you won't see the green. Greens were recently aerated, some still had way too much sand on them. Course is flat, easy to walk.

Conditions Fair
Value Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging

The Golf Club at Bluewater Bay

Played On 05/07/2014
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Excellent weather
Used cart

Great value on Golfnow Hot deal

Marsh Course, Tom Fazio / Jerry Pate design. Doglegs make it interesting, and local knowledge is required on a few holes. Don't be afraid to cut a lot off on the 5th, or hit 3-wood off the tee. I hit a good drive through the fairway into the bunker. Otherwise, stay away from the corners of the doglegs or you won't see the green. Greens were recently aerated but quite playable. First tee and 9th green are a long way from the clubhouse. Course is flat, easy to walk, but add a mile or more for getting there and back.

Conditions Average
Value Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser

Private club quality and atmosphere at a public course price

Like the Crossings course, also at Magnolia Grove, this one is impeccably maintained and bargain-priced. They say:

“Magnolia Grove, the most southern location on Alabama’s
Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail was recently named one of the
“Top 50 Public Courses” by Golf World Magazine readers. The
Crossings and Falls courses are also listed in Golf Digest’s
“Places to Play” as two of the nation’s great value courses and
as “America’s Top 50 Affordable Courses.”

There are design differences that make the Falls course more fun and challenging for the average amateur at the same time they make the Crossings a better venue for the LPGA Tour, who visit every year. The grass on the Crossings greens is quite grainy, and seems always to grow down the slopes, not, as the conventional wisdom says, toward the setting sun, making downhill putts faster and uphill putts slower, and adding more break to breaking putts. It may have been because of the overseed when I played The Falls course, but there the putts seemed to always break less than they looked, and the grain seemed to have no effect at all. For this reason the Crossings greens are comparatively flat, with subtle slopes, and the Falls, although the speed is about the same, can have much more contour in the greens.

On the Falls, the view from the tee can often make the amateur quake in his spikes, because you almost always can see a place you can easily hit the ball that will turn your bogey into a sure triple. The Crossings has relatively few visually terrifying tee shots, and wide, open-looking fairways, but there are limited places to hit tee shots, and more importantly approach shots, if birdie is to be a possibility. Miss an approach by 10 feet, and your birdie putt might be 30 feet longer. Go for a tight pin position and miss by 10 feet, and par can become a challenge.

Thus the Crossings can appear somewhat boring to the amateur, while forcing the pro to have his A-game if he wants to break par; and the Falls is more interesting, and can appear scary to the amateur while not challenging the pro, who is confident that he can avoid the obvious hazards. The Falls has a variety of looks, with 7 true dogleg par-4s (vs. 2 on Crossings), well-placed fairway bunkers to create narrow landing areas, and water hazards which, while not requiring excessive length, almost always require a forced carry.

The facilities at Magnolia Grove are comparable to more pricey daily fee courses, or private clubs. The pro shop is large and well-stocked, the grill and bar large and richly decorated, and the staff is friendly and courteous.

If you can play here twice, play each course once. If you can play here every day for a week, you'll likely enjoy the replays on the Falls more than the Crossings.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser

Two hardest par 3's of any nine

“Robert Trent Jones is an evil man.” – Vicki O.

Highland Oaks is on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Dothan, Alabama. There are 27 holes, plus a 9-hole par-3course. I played the Magnolia and Highlands nines, which

"was named by Golf Digest as the 7th best new public course in America in 1994 and 31st in their list of America’s Top 50 Affordable Courses. This combination was also named by Golf Digest’s "Places to Play" as one of the nation’s Great Value courses."

The greens on the Magnolia course are all elevated, in the style of Pinehurst #2, with closely-mown slopes going down to the fairway, or collection areas, or a lake (on 9). Each hole is interesting, and unique. No flat, boring, up-and-back par 4's here. The grass on the greens is similar to that on the Crossings course at Magnolia Grove, in that the grain always seems to grow downhill.

The Highlands course has the hardest pair of par 3's I've ever played, or seen on TV. Only the 12th and 16th at Augusta National come close, and the ones here are longer, and downhill, and exposed to the wind off the lake. The 4th is 256 yards from the tips, with water by the green in front and back and on the left. I played it from 181 yards, and did not aim for the green. Nevertheless, during the downswing, my unconscious mind screamed “DON'T GO LEFT”, which triggered an electrical storm of nervous system impulses, driving the shot another 30 yards right of the green. The 40-yard chip shot was over two large mounds to a green sloping away toward the water. Short-sided, of course. Another involuntary spasm left the first try halfway to the green. The second chip was stuck perfectly, but suffered from a lack of concentration and preparation, and broke an unanticipated 15 feet. I was uncharacteristically sanguine about my double bogey.

The 6th is the signature hole, the peninsula green, 206 from the tips. Fully 50 yards longer than the 17th at TPC Sawgrass, but, to be fair, a somewhat larger green with a much larger trap in front. I'll spare you the details, but it was another double bogey without a penalty stroke. It was while approaching this green that Vicki gave her opinion of Robert Trent Jones. You have to know that Vicki has never played golf, but has accompanied me a few times and we have watched golf together on TV. After the round we discussed why the various clubs have numbers, and what they mean. So, as you can see, her opinion was insightful far beyond what her golf experience would afford.

Just to set you up for these two holes, the third is a 457-yard dogleg left par 4 with the lake on the left all the way, like the 18th at TPC Sawgrass. Except that the tee shot is over the lake to a fairway that runs at an angle, like the 18th at TPC Scottsdale, where the farther left you go the longer the forced carry. I parred that one (from 414 yards).

If you're ever in Dothan, Alabama, this is one not to miss.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging
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