Ak-Chin Southern Dunes

Ak-Chin Southern Dunes, Maricopa, AZ

First of all this course is way outside of town. You really feel like you are going on an adventure but based on where you stay at in the metro area (we stayed in Mesa) and the time of day you go, it may take you actually less time to get there than courses in the metro area. (Side note, the horses you see in the desert when going across Wild Horse Pass, really are wild horses.) Southern Dunes has a unique charm that starts with a tree lined drive as you pull up the club house. The clubhouse itself is immaculate and would be perfect for setting for just about anything golf or non-golf related. The course itself has a great practice facility and when we played it was nearly empty. There was hardly a flaw on the course; very few un-repaired divots, smooth greens, and perfectly manicured bunkers. The layout of the course as a whole was very good though I couldn’t say there was any one extremely memorable hole. There are many desert-type trees ( I dropped out of "Woody Shrubs and Trees" in college) but you don’t quite get the “cactusy” desert feel as you may expect out of a course in Arizona. The greens are deceptive and do not have as much break as you’d expect, there is no need to play anything within 15 feet outside the hole. Being outside the city allows a unique serenity as well, besides an occasional train passing by all you really hear is nature. The extras that the course provides really put it at the top of my list for replay- free bottled water every four holes, GPS, and an in-cart USB port. We were the first group out for the day and played in less than four hours and paid less than $100/person.

Longbow Golf Club

Longbow Golf Club, Mesa, AZ

This course is located on the east side of the Phoenix metro and was also fairly accessible.  Though it is somewhat in the city it provides a unique desert setting with giant cacti and rumors of rattlesnakes. The course provides an interesting mix of long and short par fours along with probably the best group of par 3’s I’ve played in a while. Of the two courses we played, Longbow was the more compelling layout that provided more opportunities to make a mistake as well as score. Being closer to the population base, you could see the use that the course was getting: noticeable pitch marks in the green and the receiving areas of the course that had plenty of un-repaired divots. This could have been because a recent Women’s NCAA tournament was held at the site (again a nod to the strong layout). There were some things that showed sometimes of neglect as it was clear that none of the bunkers had been raked for at least a day. Longbow also didn’t provide the resort type of feel that Ak-Chin did i.e. there was no cook to prepare breakfast (so we had toast), the range wasn’t open before we teed off, there was little to no drinking water throughout the course and no in cart GPS. Again, we were the first group out for the day and paid $100/person.

Preview: Spring Training Trip 2016

In just a week my dad and I will be back in Arizona for golf and Spring Training baseball! On the docket this year are two courses on Golfweek'sBest: State-by-State Courses You Can Play, 2016: Ak-Chin Southern Dunes and Longbow.

We are also looking forward to attending 3-4 baseball games; visiting a couple of new parks we weren’t able to make it to last year. I’ll blog more about the trip as it happens!