duerrtim

Fitted Desert Canyon onto the end of a 4 day golf trip. Decent pricing at $59, but charging extra for range balls is very 1990's! The course condition was very good for early October, greens were true and had a good pace to them, fairways and tees decent.

It's obvious the place is struggling - very little merchandise in the pro shop, no starter on duty etc., but at least the money is being spent on the right place - course conditioning.

The views are great, but too many holes are a poor design with blind shots and 2 holes with 2 different greens that makes laying up very difficult. Also some enforced shortening on your drive with cross-rough at about 260 yards on multiple holes. Par 3's were very good.

Pace of play was very poor on a fairly quiet day - nearly 5 hours, not at all helped by some ridiculous pin positions - for example not he 18th if you were 20 feet short of the pin on your approach you could either hole it...or finish at least 12 feet away as the hole was in such a ludicrous position.

At $59 it's about worth a game, maybe for the view alone, but any more than that it's not worth it. In case anyone thinks this is sour grapes after a bad round, I shot under my handicap index. I really wanted to like the course as it's close to my home, but would rather drive an extra 30 minutes to Gamble Sands...

Played GS for the 2nd time this weekend - 36 holes. Greens had been punched a few weeks ago so were not as good as they were earlier in year, but ok considering the time of year and the price. The design and the views are wonderful, turf is real links style (and I grew up playing links golf in the UK every week) and it's a very fair and totally playable course - lots of terrain helps the ball towards the green/hole if you know how to look at the green surrounds not just the pin.

We stayed at the newly opened Inn, and the rooms were excellent and decent value at $120/person total for 2 nights.

Food in the restaurant was a bit hit and miss, some good, a couple almost inedible.

Our big issue was music on the course. I realize some people like that but the acoustics at GS are so clear that you can hear a dog barking (or coyote howling) from miles away, so having groups playing music out loud will carry 2-3 holes easily. GS needs to ban it quickly. Pace of play was ok in the morning, very poor in the afternoon - they did have staff out on the course in the afternoon trying to speed it up but it didn't really help - we had to play the last hole in the dark.

Course is fine for walking - we walked in the morning then hopped in a cart for the afternoon (they have golf boards too).

If you're wondering if it's worth the drive from Seattle or Spokane, I think it's well worth it. Would recommend staying at the Inn for 1 night/2 days golf and visiting in September before the lunch the greens or maybe May. It will definitely be better once they add a 2nd course but it's still worth it now....