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Quality of Carpeting:
Carpeting appears to be well maintained with regular replacement upon wear out. Several brand new carpets were
present and only one older carpet appeared to have any tears, with none showing duct tape or lumps. Most greens and fairways appeared to be level where intended.
Borders:
All borders are concrete and appear to be in good condition whereby balls ricochet at true angles.
Obstacles:
Many obstacles consist of "choices," whereby hitting the ball in the right area provides a positive outcome and hitting the ball in the wrong
area provides a negative outcome. Other obstacles include inclines, distant ramps/ditches, humps, downslopes, upslopes with several holes on them, opportunities to overshoot the hole and end up in
a trap area long past or away from the hole, and terraces among others. While there is some non-identical duplication of obstacles throughout the course, for a 72 hole course, there is enough good
variety of obstacles to keep it interesting if you play all 72.
Putters and Golf Balls:
Only putters with rubber heads are offered by the course. Golf balls appear to be in good condition and provide good bounce
when dropped to the concrete.
Mechanical Features:
There are no holes offering moving obstacles. Most up-ramp holes are well designed so that the ball, if successfully hit up the
ramp, will not take an undesigned bounce and return to the shooter in most cases. Some upslope holes are designed so that if the ball doesn't reach its intended target, it will come back down,
should hit a lip half way up the fairway and be deflected into holes on either side of the fairway.
It was noted that these lips were not high enough to accomplish the intended result, and that the ball skips over them and rolls back down to the shooter. On one upramp hole, the ball is supposed to roll out of a pipe, cross the cement border and roll onto the green toward the hole. For some reason, the ball doesn't gain enough momentum through the pipe and dribbles out and remains on the cement border.
Geometrics:
It was noted that at least seven holes were of a design that makes it geometrically impossible to get a hole-in-one on without the use of a
sand wedge. There are some holes that offer "automatic" hole-in-one features with disconnected greens.
Some are quite challenging just the same. As expected, all four Hole 18s do not allow the golfer to retrieve their ball. It appears that a free game is not won with a hole-in-one on any Hole 18.
Tee Mats:
All holes have rubber tee mats with the standard three side-by-side tee holes about six to eight inches apart and appear to be in
excellent condition.
Landscaping and Comfort:
Landscaping is lush, gorgeous and well maintained.
It consists of at least a hundred fan palm trees, desert landscaping, rivers/waterways and Old West thematic structures, and a requisite windmill (that doesn't act as an obstacle). Late spring and summer temperatures here exceed 100 degrees regularly, and occasionally exceed 110 degrees. This course, in spite of its sheer landscaping beauty, does not provide adequate shading throughout the course. Therefore, sunscreen and a hat with a brim are highly recommended. There are also no water fountains throughout any of the courses—another downfall. Water is available at the arcade building, but you have to leave the course to go there. There are two centralized kiosk islands surrounded by the waterways, one for each two courses, providing netted shading, a circular bench and a vending machine for soft drinks. Golfers are directed over bridges and through these kiosks several times through each round of golf. Most holes feature a plastic laminate waiting bench near the tee and a scoring stand after the hole.
Noteworthy Unusual Holes:
Hole 9 on Course 3 is shaped like a large V.
Half way up the first leg of the V is a flat round platform. On the left side of the circle is a downhill canal barely larger than the diameter of a golf ball. If the ball goes down this canal, it rolls directly toward the hole. No guarantee that it will go in due to momentum built up from the slope, though. However, it is practically geometrically impossible to hit the ball there on one shot. So, if you shoot to land on the platform, it is possible to get there in two. However, being that the mouth of the canal is no wider then the canal itself, it is almost impossible to hit the ball into it anyway unless your ball is less than a foot away. If you hit the first shot past the circular platform, the ball reaches a downslope toward the bottom of the V, which extends all the way to the green at the end of the other leg. Unfortunately, the downslope is not very steep, and so the ball loses downward momentum and stops. And to add insult to injury, there are several spaced out rows of round bumpers in the way, so it makes it geometrically impossible for the ball to make it all the way to the green in this direction. Although the course gives this hole a Par 3, I give it a Par 5. It is virtually impossible to get less than a 4 on it. But it is a fascinating hole design.
Par for the Course/Difficulty:
Courses are moderately difficult, but not too difficult.
Most holes are somewhat shorter than normal, however, a 3-inch diameter cup in lieu of the standard 4-inch cup evens out (makes difficult) the ease of playing short holes. Par is 52 on all four courses. However, having played all four courses, it was found that there are slight differences in overall difficulty. Case in point is the one hole discussed under Noteworthy Unusual Holes.
Location:
Course is located on the west side of the Interstate 17 Freeway at the Dunlap Avenue exit.
It is visible from the freeway. After exiting, go west to the first street, make a right, and then another right at the T intersection and it is located on the right side of the street about a quarter of a mile east. If you are passing through the Phoenix area, from Interstate 10, take Interstate 17 north (the junction of I-10 and I-17 between 19th Avenue and 27th Avenue rather than where they meet between 24th Street and Buckeye Road) 7.25 miles to the Dunlap Avenue exit.
Overall:
These courses are some of the most interesting and fun courses I have played due to the varied hole designs, excellent maintenance and the
gorgeous landscaping. It is highly recommended.
David Brizel (September 2002) PMGA Arizona Correspondent
Best score reported: 43
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