Casino del Sol

There are a lot of tee choices and on the back nine they are all long. Starter made a point to tell us that “jade” was equivalent to white elsewhere. Ok, so why not just have white tees? But I digress.

Back nine from the combo Tess ruby/jade was about 3500 yards, which is too long for this near 70 year old. However, I played with one +3 handicap who had no problem from the back geeks and another younger man who had no problem from the rubys, so it really was just me.

Course several several doglegs where you need to hit your drive over 1 bunker and short of another, so driving accuracy is important.

There is no rough to speak off. There is grass for rough, but the lies are extremely tight. Greens are nice, some have difficult swales. If they don’t have swales then the putts are straighter than they look.

Lots of water, som of which is hidden. Pay careful attention to the GPS maps and distances.

If you miss certain sides of the fairway, the ball is rolling off the fairway and into bunkers/water/desert. The fairways are cut short and there is no rough to stop anything. Greens are good, tee boxes are good, chipping around greens was tough as there was no rough at all, it was like chipping off dirt. Sand traps had very limited sand in them, but bunkers were all over the course.

The course is absolutely beautiful out in the desert with no homes, lots of wildlife, and tons of plants. This is target golf, I was hitting fairway wood off the tee on almost every hole, even on Par 5's where the layout makes it just about impossible to get on in 2. Lots of blind shots off the tee carrying it over bunkers. Pin placement was extremely challenging, tucked away into corners on the greens and often on the edges of slopes.

Course does not advertise pricing online (it was $110), the casino got hacked so it's cash-only with no ability to book other than over the phone. This made for an open tee sheet, but the round was not fast as I was grouped with some slow golfers who didn't care that they were slow (no ranger came by to tell them to speed up either).

Carts had GPS, but the course did not provide bottled water. There was no water cups on the course, only fountains at restroom areas. Restroom code did not work on the ladies restroom. No food at the turn to order. Practice range was excellent. Starter/staff were friendly.

The facility was very nice. The course scenic. It was a very cold and windy day that made playing a challenge but we enjoyed our game and lunch in the grill.

It would be nice if the restrooms at the snackbar/proshop were available when finishing in the later afternoon. You ould easily put a retractable gate to screen off the proshop/snack bar so the restrooms could be accessed.

Great course and atmosphere. Cons are definitely the cart rules and paths are unclear and they’re way over booked. Took me over 6 hours to play 18. I’d say less over booking will fix majority of issues here. They also have a booking system that is quite flawed.

Showed up to check in and the pro shop didn't have any record of my deposit with Golf Now. I'm out yhe booking fee.

This course is a nicely groomed desert course. We played in early March and the overseeded rye grass came in nicely. It is definitely a target golf course off the tee. We played 6100 yard layout and off the tee for par fours and fives used almost every club between Driver and 6 iron. There is a ton of water that comes into play along with some desert washes that cannot be carried with driver which makes most par 5’s true 3 shot holes. Some of the fairways tilt towards water so what you think was a good shot rolled out into the hazards. When we played the fairways were hard and bouncy. Most of the greens were receptive to well stuck iron shots but they were firm, fast and rolled well.

It is desert golf on a fairly flat plot of land.

Fun to play the second time you play because you will remember the way the ball rolls out. When in doubt take a club or two less than what you would normally play.

Welcoming staff and cart crew.

Overall a fun day.

Great experience. However no balls on driving range for warmup which starts the day off wrong. Bunkers were in need of repair and sand. Will still come back fun Course to play.

Why do the no carts sign as you approach the greens have to be placed sooooooooooo far back from the greens? Really slows up play .

Great course with wonderful facilities.
Our only negative was the pace of play.
We had the talk from the starter about pace of play and how the crew would have no issue asking a group to pick up and move to the next tee. It seemed to us that the push didn’t happen.
After nine holes we were 28 minutes behind and after thirteen holes we were 34 minutes behind.
We did not get our entire round in before dark. As we drove in we passed three groups that were also not going to finish. Too bad because the finishing holes are fabulous.

The course is a beautiful, challenging layout. However, after the starter made a big deal about selecting tees because of pace of play concerns, we were only able to finish 14 holes in over 4 hours due to a group in front of us not playing with any urgency. When we drove past them to get back to the clubhouse, we saw they were two holes behind the group in front of them.

Disappointing for a course that is as beautiful as Sewailo, that there is no one out there, no ranger, monitoring pace of play