Played here yesterday morning with GKer Itslikeimsayin. This course I think still considers itself private, but I've seen tee times pretty regularly on Standbygolf.com. We booked a 7:22 time for $45. ... Continue »

Played here yesterday morning with GKer Itslikeimsayin. This course I think still considers itself private, but I've seen tee times pretty regularly on Standbygolf.com. We booked a 7:22 time for $45. However, when we arrived, they didn't seem to have us on the tee sheet. I had my printed confirmation, though, and there were no problems slotting us in. We ended up going off right about 7:00 ahead of a couple other groups and we zipped through quickly with nobody behind or in front of us all round.

The course was in very good overall shape. Mostly green and lush with consistent fairway and rough cuts and good lies throughout. Tee boxes great. Bunkers good. Greens solid, rolling at medium speeds. Only maintenance issues of note are the big patches of repair work on holes 1 and 5. There's a sign at the clubhouse noting these as GUR, so it's good they warn you. They just have big patches of the fairway right in front of the greens on these holes completely cut out and are currently just bare dirt/sand until they put down some new sod.

I'm not sure how I felt about the course. Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. Definitely some old school desert charm with the neat retro clubhouse and members all around in their personal carts. Nothing too exciting about the design and I think there are some missed opportunities in terms of how they use the big ponds and water features throughout the property. Other than a few holes, water doesn't really come that much into play like the pictures on their website lead you to believe. It could be a prettier course and more interesting design with the water playing more of a part.

Also, as an old style course you can expect a few funky hole designs. Most holes have notable doglegs and from the blue tees, there are many very uncomfortable tee shots with trees dictating how you need to hit or shape the ball to get to the ideal part of the fairway. Course knowledge would be helpful because even when you hit a decent drive, the approach angle can sometimes be awkward if you are not in the perfect position. Course definitely favors draw hitters (in my opinion as a fade hitter), but I think it would just take a few times playing here to figure out the best strategy for your game on each hole. Only other note is the par-3s are all quite long from the blue tees. Three of the four are 200+ and the other is about 175. I'd rather see a little more variety. With the wind being a factor, I ended up hitting my driver on the 3 long ones, which is the first time I've ever done that 3 times on the same course!