Overview: Copper Canyon Golf Club is a 27 hole upscale daily fee course that consists of the Lake 9, the Mountain 9 and the Vista 9. The Lake 9 and the Vista 9 were the original 18 holes, and the Mo... Continue »

Overview: Copper Canyon Golf Club is a 27 hole upscale daily fee course that consists of the Lake 9, the Mountain 9 and the Vista 9. The Lake 9 and the Vista 9 were the original 18 holes, and the Mountain 9 was added about 3 years ago. The course was designed by Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley (the same team that designed AK Southern Dunes). The golf course is the center piece of Sun City Festival which has been built by Pulte/Del Webb. When completed the community will have over 7,000 homes (due to the continued surge in the Phoenix housing market.) The course is located in the northern part of the White Tank Mountains in the Phoenix suburb of Buckeye.

COVID-19: The course is pretty strict about people wearing a mask in the pro shop (only 2 people at a time), the clubhouse and while purchasing something at the snack bar. 2 people in a cart if you are only from the same household, and I was surprised to have seed in the carts and see water in the cooler jugs out on the course. No rakes in the bunkers and a very unique device was used to get the ball out of the golf hole ... something I have never seen before.

Course: Was fortunate enough to play on a beautiful AZ day with the temperature about 70 and sunny skies. The wind was down, which never really happens at Copper Canyon and we played the Lake/Mountain combination ... which is my favorite combination to play. The course was in very good shape and the contrast between the over seeded fairways vs the dormant bermuda rough was very evident. The fairways were in nice shape and had good coverage and the bermuda rough was cut very short. The greens were smooth, ran at a medium pace and did not have a lot of ball marks. The course has generous fairways and large undulating greens. The bunkers were not in the best shape, but I will give them a pass on this due to the COVID-19 restrictions.
The primary defense of the course is the wind ... which thankfully was down. The Mountain 9 is one of my favorite 9 holes in the valley because of the beautiful vistas and being segregated from the rest of the community. Many new homes are being built on the Mountain 9, but they are not really close to the course.

Final Thoughts: The course is very busy in the high season due to the golf membership packages that they have for the residents of Sun City Festival, and the ability for residents to book 14 days in advance where the general public may only book 7 days in advance. I thought the green fee of $89 was very good considering the time of year. What I like about the course is that it is in great shape year round, in my opinion the greens are in even better shape in the summer.