Not sure how I missed this, but I can likely make myself available (but can’t make any guarantees this far in advance…). I can ask around to see if anybody I know would be willing to host on their WeKoPass (discounted rate) and at the same time I would be happy to host on TPC.
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@pushdraw - Which TPC pass do you have? I recently moved to North Scottsdale and have been considering the TPC and Kierland annual pass options. Would love to hear any feedback you have on your pass - I play 90+% of my golf on weekends, preferably early mornings, and always wonder about tee time availability with the booking restrictions. Good to see you’re also from Chicago - I grew up in Wheaton. Great area to grow up but I certainly don’t miss the weather…
Welcome! I just had the TPC Pass, and I think it is the best deal in town. Will write the basic details here for future readers, and feel free to DM me for details.
TPC Pass = $400 sunk cost (good for 365 days, so if you buy today you would be good until 12/14/19, not a “calendar year” pass) (save $50 if you renew). Rates-wise, right now I would pay $65 for early AM including weekends. Of course, any day after 2:30pm it is $26 on Champs and $35 on Stadium (cart fee). You will have no problem playing as a single (and usually a two is somewhat easy 3 days out), but you’ll very rarely if EVER find a foursome at pass holder rate.
Would also recommend checking out the WeKoPass (I do not have it, and will not get it, but have heard great things).
Hope this helps!
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Heading out for the WMPO. Playing Kierland and hoping to sneak in Mountain Shadows. Anyone have recommendations for enjoying the tournament or comments on Kierland?
Only to play somewhere else.
Can you expand upon that comment?
I’ve only played it once I guess, but what I recall was a bunch of straight-away uninteresting holes with artificial built up ridges separating them. It’s not terrible, there are just a plethora of better options in the area that I’d play instead.
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The greens at Kierland are possibly the nicest I’ve ever played. The design is nothing groundbreaking but it’s managed by Troon and at the Westin so the service is top notch. The vibe there is fun and the conditioning is great but yes, the holes aren’t the most imaginative. The Ironwood nine is the best of the three nines. I’d highly, highly recommend you make time for Mountain Shadows.
My personal favorite in town is Talking Stick North, about 15 minutes away. If you’re into design it’s worth driving a few miles for a Coore & Crenshaw layout.
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I would actually second what @WarbirdND says. You will likely pay $200+ for a very average (great condition, but boring layout / easy golf) resort course. You could make a 30 min drive to WeKoPa, or play in the same area for much less and not lose ANYTHING in terms of quality.
For the WMPO, if you’re a true golf fan, avoid 15/16/17/18 like the plague for the most part. Can’t hurt to check it out, but 95% of the people out there are in that area. You can get uninhibited views on the rest of the course. I’ll be on my 2nd year as a marshall out there!
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Wow, thank you so much for offering that. Very kind of you! Would love to take advantage of the company, local knowledge and potential savings as well.
Since I posted I got in touch with one of my old KS buddies who lives out there now and he said he’d also be in to play. If that offer is still open for the both of us, I’d love to take you up on that. But if it’s not, I certainly understand and won’t be offended.
Got my flight booked, and will be landing around 10:15am in PHX on Sunday morning.
Let me know what you’re thinking, and thanks again!
I agree with this.
It’s highly priced at a nice resort and usually in pretty good condition, so it’s assumed to be a good golf course. It’s not a good golf course. There’s nothing more interesting about the golf at Kierland than at the Sun City Grand courses where my parents live in Surprise. But the real estate you might hit into is much more expensive.
That said, it’s not a bad golf course. There aren’t flawed holes or stupid things. It’s just generic golf with mounding and fake lakes and real estate corridors. If the most it ever cost to play there was $85 instead of $260, I’d have no real problem with it.
But if you’re coming in early February and therefore presumably dropping a lot of money to play, see a real desert course that’s at least somewhat worth the coin.
Bumping this thread to see if I could catch anyone interested in playing at Wekopa Saguaro on January 20th.
My flight lands around 10am and would like to tee off somewhere around noon-1pmish. I could be convinced on other courses as well.
I will definitely be playing and depending on the Chiefs postseason success this year (lol), possibly a longtime friend that now lives out there would play as well.
Anyone is welcome! Thanks
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I’m out of town that weekend, unfortunately. Enjoy! (Holy hell their rates are high for out of state players!)
Dang. Hopefully I can catch someone else from the area.
Thanks Matthew!
Just booked my flights for April 11-14 (Masters weekend). Will be playing the We-Ko-Pa courses on the 12th or 13th, and likely 36 at Southern Dunes the other day, unless we end up at the Superstition Mountain private courses that day. Will have room for 1 for sure or possibly 2; let me know if anyone is around and wants to join!
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Just did that exact same pairing last weekend. You’ll have a blast!
We got lucky in that one of our guys lives down there so he bought the We-Ko-Pa peaks pass and we were able to get rounds for $109.
While I scored better on the Cholla course at We-Ko-Pa, I thought the Saguaro was the better of the two and definitely more playable. #widthandangles
Our guy down there had only ever played Cholla and which he thought was the premier course and was better because it was harder and prettier, and he’d heard that Saguaro was more of the old man course. It was also my first time on a C&C course, so it was nice recognize my new found #wokeness for GCA firsthand, and was really cool to be able to enlighten the other guys on some of the strategic elements on Saguaro and how the fairways might be wide there was still a definite advantage to be had by being in certain spots. By the end of the two rounds his opinion had definitely swung around to Sagurao being the better of the two courses and the one he was more frequently going to play going forward.
Cholla was still fun, and it is beautiful, but the back 9 has a couple of goofy holes and you can find yourself in some awkward spots even on well struck shots. It’s a very target specific course, and we’re a bunch of barely bogey golfers on a good day. The group consensus was given the option we’d definitely chose to play Cholla as the first course of the day, as we’d rather get beat up partway through the first round, then at the tail end of a 36-hole day. Cholla was the second course of the day for us as I said my number 1 priority for the trip was Saguaro and we wanted to make sure we got it in given the limited daylight in early January.
Southern Dunes was excellent as well. We got out at 7:52 with a teeoff.com tee time of $79, and then decided at play another 18 after the first round with a replay rate of $60. All-in we got 36 holes in at Southern Dunes for $140. Course was in great shape, and never would have known they had flooding there if I hadn’t heard about it on here. Read somewhere that they had to replace all of the sand in the bunkers, which there are a lot of. I do feel like I was in two bunkers on the front though that definitely had a different consistency to the sand then the rest of the course, which lead to two awful shots. Something I’d make sure to keep an eye on if playing there again, as the club reacted so much differently in those bunkers in comparison to the super fine soft sand that was everywhere else.
The fescue was dormant this time of year, which definitely was an advantage for us. I think the course would have a lot more teeth, and snakes, come April!
Have fun! Definitely jealous and already contemplating heading back down there. Was going through serious golfing withdrawals this weekend.
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How were the turf conditions at We Ko Pa and Southern Dunes? Firm and fast?
I wouldn’t say they were super firm. Good condition though. There was some roll out I guess, but nothing that struck me as much out of the ordinary.
Southern Dunes had a couple of low areas that were a touch soggy, but they’d actually gotten some rain a couple of nights while we were there. Rough areas were dormant, but would stop a ball dead in its tracks.
The greens were interesting, very firm but still seemed to hold well. Would struggle to even find the ball mark sometimes. Took me a long time to stop reading too much break on the greens. I (finally) noticed at both courses I was consistently over-reading putts, as the ball wouldn’t take the break until the very last foot or two of roll-out. Once I got that in my head I started actually making some putts.
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Phoenix area courses are NOT going to be firm in the winter months, unless they don’t overseed
Question for the locals / hoping to revive this a bit and get a little more dialogue going (see: trying to find people to play with)…
Where are you playing right now (during peak season as a whole)?
Do you have a pass? If yes, which one? (personally had the TPC pass, but didn’t renew due to impending fatherhood, but going to go back to renew ASAP)
Anybody interested in creating a network of locals looking to play?
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