Played here with #GKPlays last Sunday. Gotta say this course is in FINE shape. Had fun with my fellow GKers :D Good to see old and new faces at these events. Greens rolled true. They were very ... Continue »

Played here with #GKPlays last Sunday. Gotta say this course is in FINE shape. Had fun with my fellow GKers :D Good to see old and new faces at these events. Greens rolled true. They were very receptive. Fairways were framed by desert. Key to this course is target golf and knowing where to place your ball. Off the tee it was simple. Closer to the green the strengths of this course showed up in spades. Greens heavily protected. You had to know where to place the ball which was difficult. Wind plays a HUGE factor and knowing where to send the ball WITH the wind was key. More often than not I would hit close to the water's edge and watch the ball take a super bounce towards the drink. Steep slopes protect the greens with water. If anything aim AWAY from the water and closer to the dryer side. If you expect to run the ball up the water side, don't bother. Save your golf ball aim towards the dryer part and be rewarded. One thing we did notice. Trees non existent on course. Hard to really see the wind without trees and it played a major factor with shots to the green. Pace of play great. Conditions Superb. Food..... need to stay open longer :D Play here again? DEFINITELY.

This course is in near perfect shape from tee to green. Had a great time playing at the GK plays event. nice playing with Rob, Vic and Gus. looking forward to the next one. this facility is top notch ... Continue »

This course is in near perfect shape from tee to green. Had a great time playing at the GK plays event. nice playing with Rob, Vic and Gus. looking forward to the next one. this facility is top notch course, club house and practice facilities. Nothing to complain about. Its a must play!

Played the Blues (6671/72.8/133) in the GK Plays with Sixpex, Lotrgolfer48 & allan_grant, just an excellent group to play with. The weather was 90ish, partly cloudy and breezy. POP was around 5H, typi... Continue »

Played the Blues (6671/72.8/133) in the GK Plays with Sixpex, Lotrgolfer48 & allan_grant, just an excellent group to play with. The weather was 90ish, partly cloudy and breezy. POP was around 5H, typical for a tournament on a Sunday afternoon. Thanks to John/GK and the GK sponsors for a very fun and well organized GK Plays. The staff had everything perfectly set up for a 12:30 shotgun start. My 2nd time here, I enjoy the uniqueness of this layout. The huge fairways and no rough I find attractive both aesthetically and from the perspective that if you ARE near the edge, you are holding your breath that your ball stays on the fairway and does NOT find the desert scape. Because if it does, there is probably a 3/4 chance that your ball is either lost in a bush or even if you find it, unplayable. Other courses should come out and inspect these tee boxes. Huge with plenty of room to rotate tees, mowed close, lush, level and well maintained. In other words, almost perfect! The fairways were also lush & well maintained. Few unfixed divots. Hard to rate the rough here, because there basically isn't any. The only grass maintained higher is a strip around the sand traps, because if you are around a green, it is mowed as fairway. Miss the fairway and every hole has a large amount of hard pan desert scape that basically is the rough here if you are off the fairway grass. If you miss the fairway, good chance your ball is gone in the large amounts of bushes and native plants that ring every hole. The hard pan between bushes is so firm that the ball will almost assuredly end up in a bush, not on hard pan and playable. The sand traps are plentiful and well maintained with high quality sand. You need to manage the course and AVOID the bunkers here more so than on most courses. Numerous holes had 6-8 fairway bunkers that are more severe that the average golfer is used to navigating through. Green side bunkers are deep and large. The Bermuda greens putted smooth and medium fast. Firm and fairly small for a course this length, and many are odd shaped with a few that run away from the golfer. Overall, this course is in excellent shape and after seeing it twice, is probably in my top dozen favorite courses. It has nuisances that I appreciate, the difficulty factor is deceptive and I like the visuals that the holes present. Almost every hole has a forced carry over desert scape, but the fairways are generous in size. The customer service throughout the staff was exceptional, nice grass range with complimentary balls, nice sand/chipping and practice putting areas that closely resembled the on course conditions. Absolutely recommended.

Played the GK open play event at Pga west (Greg Norman) superb playing conditions indeed!
Tee boxes,fairways, greens, were all in fantastic condition...weather was perfect too. Having said that; I be... Continue »

Played the GK open play event at Pga west (Greg Norman) superb playing conditions indeed!
Tee boxes,fairways, greens, were all in fantastic condition...weather was perfect too. Having said that; I believe this course requires a few plays before good scoring is possible.

Played Sunday 5/1 in the GK Plays event. Thanks, as always, Johnny! It was a fun day with you, Vince, and Ron.

It was my first time playing the Norman course, and I wasn't disappointed (well, at l... Continue »

Played Sunday 5/1 in the GK Plays event. Thanks, as always, Johnny! It was a fun day with you, Vince, and Ron.

It was my first time playing the Norman course, and I wasn't disappointed (well, at least by the course - my game was another story). The tee boxes, fairways, and greens were all in great shape. The greens appeared a little dry in places, but they putted smooth, medium-fast, and consistent. As has been the case in all my visits to PGA West courses, the facilities and customer service were great.

This is definitely a place where I will be more conservative off the tee in future rounds - I lost 2 drives to the desert and one par-3 tee ball to a lake. If you can avoid the desert (where the bushes ate easily 75%+ of the balls our group sent in there) and the lakes, it's a place where a decent score can be had, especially on a calm day.

First of all, a huge shout out to Johnny, PGA West, Srixon and Cleveland.
The chipping contest was a lot of fun, and that Cleveland 60 degree 588 2.0 wedge sure had great balance and the feel was ama... Continue »

First of all, a huge shout out to Johnny, PGA West, Srixon and Cleveland.
The chipping contest was a lot of fun, and that Cleveland 60 degree 588 2.0 wedge sure had great balance and the feel was amazing. Congratulations to ItslikeImsaying (Mark) for winning it.
This was my first time playing the PGA West Greg Norman Course and I enjoyed it from minute we drove into the gated entrance. This is a course where you don't want to go from car to tee box. Arrive early and take full advantage of the practice facility. If you arrive super early like Josh and I did, you must try the breakfast burrito and Bloody Mary, both of which I highly recommend.
First view of the course I thought was breathtaking. With the narrow green fairways to the desert with the wild flowers blooming to all the water, its truly a site to behold.
We played the Blue/White combo tees today (71.5/128/6,427 yards), which was a lot of fun (great idea Rob or Mark). and it was the perfect set up for us. The tee boxes were level and well taken care of. The fairways were spectacular. They were in my top 3 of all the courses I have ever played. The ball would site up so nicely and give you a lot of confidence to try to go after the tricky greens. The greens IMO were kind of odd. They rolled medium/fast and were true, but just never really got the hang of them. They are really narrow and didnt hold even well struck balls (thanks for the tip sixpez). If you missed the green long, it often left you with a tricky down hill chip. With that being said, the fringe was just about as good or better than some courses greens that I have played, which gave you a great opportunity to pull out the Texas Wedge, which gave you an opportunity to get the ball close.
This was my second GK Plays event, and for anybody thinking about playing in one of these, do yourself a favor and show up. Not only do you get a chance to play a really nice course for a great rate, but you get to play with a lot of other people that are just as passionate about golf as you are.
Once again Johnny, thanks for the well run tournament and the sleeve of Srixon Z-Stars. Also a big shout out to Rob, ItsLikeImSaying (Mark), and Josh. If you ever get a chance to play with any of these guys, jump on it, as their sportsmanship/etiquette was spot on.

Had a great time playing with SBogey, TeaGal, and acesfull in the GKplays event. It was my first time at this course. Ditto what everyone else has said about the great conditions- perfect fairways, sm... Continue »

Had a great time playing with SBogey, TeaGal, and acesfull in the GKplays event. It was my first time at this course. Ditto what everyone else has said about the great conditions- perfect fairways, smooth greens, challenging bunkers. I liked not having rough at the edge of the fairways as several times my ball returned to play from a wayward trip into the desert. Unfortunately many other balls chose to go into the water instead, but the water was clean and clear and balls were easy to retrieve. Although there wasn’t much variety in the scenery around the course, the one thing that did strike me was the tee boxes. Every one, so perfectly green, flat and cleanly edged against the dirt, looked like a giant “welcome” mat :-) Thanks to Johnny, the sponsors and all of the course staff for another great event.

Not too much to add to all the previous reviews about conditions. Everything was really nice throughout this course. Fairways just about perfect. Sand fluffy. Greens rolling true at medium/fast speeds... Continue »

Not too much to add to all the previous reviews about conditions. Everything was really nice throughout this course. Fairways just about perfect. Sand fluffy. Greens rolling true at medium/fast speeds, with just a little bump here and there (mainly from old or poorly repaired ball marks). Otherwise, it was another great GK Plays outing. Thanks to Johnny for setting it all up and getting such great sponsors. The staff at the course was super responsive and helpful in getting our carts organized and the shotgun started. I'm like a lot of the others when I say that this course doesn't excite me that much, but it is growing on me a tiny bit. This was my third time here and I have liked it a little more each time. Some holes do kind of blend together and a lot of the design touches are subtle. Others mentioned the desert contours to help push slightly off balls back into the fairways, though ones really off-target are rightfully punished. The real key here is to avoid the bunkers. No bunker shot is easy on this course. Then, you have the funky-shaped greens that are often very shallow or diagonally oriented with all sorts of run-off areas. They are hard to hold and any miss usually results in an awkward up-and-down attempt. Because of these elements, I feel the course is deceptively challenging.

Overall course conditions are great. This was my first time at this PGA West venue. Our group suffered from poor ball striking much of the day and on this course it will kill your momentum and you wil... Continue »

Overall course conditions are great. This was my first time at this PGA West venue. Our group suffered from poor ball striking much of the day and on this course it will kill your momentum and you will take a beating score-wise. It was already mentioned that the decomposed granite desert contours will bring your ball back into play; providing it doesn't end up finding some really nasty plant material. Those tall, spiky grass plants will swallow up your ball and you are not getting it back. I like the fact that if you are not in the desert, you are on fairway as there is no rough here. Poor shots might get lucky and run a ways through the desert areas and funnel back to the fairway. The greens were in good shape, medium fast, no bumpiness, and rolling true; however, there were times that the breaks were so subtle, it seemed balls would break uphill. Say what? Cart service came by several times. Drinks were super expensive here, but there are large coolers on the carts with water and ice available.