I was in the area for the night and decided to check out Elephant Rocks the morning of my departure. Booked a 7:30 tee time and after a small bucket and taxes it ended up being $83 for a Sunday Mornin... Continue »

I was in the area for the night and decided to check out Elephant Rocks the morning of my departure. Booked a 7:30 tee time and after a small bucket and taxes it ended up being $83 for a Sunday Morning tee time. That's not bad compared to CA and AZ valley courses. Weather was 63° at tee off rising to 80 by 11 with a stiff 2 club wind. When we arrived the man at the pro shop was almost comically happy to help. He had all kinds of tips and tricks for the course and was raving about how fast the greens were 12+. Its nice to see someone who enjoys his job and goes out of the way to help.

As for the course its a mix of woodlands and links style holes. The first 5 holes are in the trees followed by 6 holes in the meadow then back into the forest. Some of the views are quite spectacular with the mountains of Williams and Flagstaff in the distance. Most of the holes are straight forward but the width of them range from tight to wide open. I really enjoyed the course layout. Strongly the front nine only has one par 5 and one par 3 but the back nine has 3 and 3 so still a par 72.

Conditions were very good throughout the course. Tee boxes were level and had good coverage, there are only 3 options to choose from which is a bummer at 6600, 6000, and 5400 yards. The fairways were almost carpet like with a light green color but we did run into a few areas that were a little overwatered but noting that could bring down the score. The rough was a little nasty at 3" and the balls would sit down a majority of the time. Get near the tall pine tree's and it was wild grasses and could be tough to find your ball. Greens were very fast and smooth but sift enough to get your ball to stop on well hit shots. Sand traps were very wet but somehow soft and easy to hit from. This is not the typical sand traps we are use to as its from near by volcanic sand mines.

As for the practice facilities the ranges is not very long at 240 but plays down hill so getting your distances figured out at the 6000+ elevation is tricky. I was hitting 4 irons into the trees at the end of the range. Carts are nice but have no GPS we say the cart girl on the back nine and she was in a John Deer Cart with coolers in the bed. Overall I am very happy I played here as it is a total blast to play. The people are nice and the POP was just under 4 hours for a Sunday morning. I highly recommend playing here especially if you are visiting the grand canyon because it is one exit down on I40 from the main road to grand canyon.