shoot me a DM and I will send you my cell number
Looking forward to it!
I’m in
Are there any open spots? I’ve got a couple fellas I can ask.
1 spot open
So 11a meetup tomorrow at Southern Dunes. Post round meal at Freddy’s?
@pushdraw talked up Southern Dunes so much I had to book a single for Wednesday as my last round in the desert, lets go
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Tomorrow will be my first go! Hope I didn’t talk it up that much haha
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I had no luck getting someone for that last spot.
Likewise…
Anybody else have someone they think may be interested, throw a feeler out there. Then post up here.
Don’t want there to be a 4-for-1 putt off for the 8th spot…
It’s worth it. Plus in the winter the scent of Maricopa is much less noticeable and the flies aren’t as thick. Those are usually the only downsides. Great golf course.
1120 and 1130, correct? Under what name?
Yep, just spotted the dark water near by lol hopefully it’s an easterly wind on Wed
Precisely. Whatever that farming operation directly east of the course is … it’s often ripe. Worse in the summer for sure, though.
For those of you who haven’t seen Southern Dunes before, my thoughts on the course …
The bunkers are what grab your attention (there are over 100 even though they reduced the number of them a few years back!) but really it’s the tiny greens that make the course tough. It was built as a private (men only) club originally and so wasn’t designed as so many resort/public courses are with a lot of play in mind. Even the biggest greens play small because they are shallow or narrow.
The fairways are ample but they need to be since the wind can really get up out in Maricopa (the windiest rounds I’ve ever played in Arizona were there). You can generally find your ball even off the fairways but some areas are thicker with vegetation so you’ll lose a ball every once in a while if you spray it.
Standout holes:
2: An early taste of a lot of what the course is all about. You don’t need much club off the tee, just enough to clear the bunker on the left and almost anything you hit will leave a wedge approach. But most of the fairway is blind due to that bunker on the left and it’s easy to take on more risk than necessary. The green is tiny and pretty heavily sloped back-to-front. The heavy slope short looks bad but it’s easier to get up and down from short than if you miss long.
4: The first of an excellent set of par 3s. This is the short one, often a wedge or short iron (but then the 6th is a wood, sometimes even a driver, depending on the tee and the wind). The green in mostly blind and angled so you have to get the club and line just right or you’re in for a world of hurt on a short hole.
5: Depending on the wind and your tee you can cut a huge amount of the dogleg off here, or almost nothing at all. Either way, the green is very shallow for your approach so a shorter iron or wedge is much preferred.
7: If you can get your drive past the bunker on the right, this par 5 might be reachable, but again the green is an incredible shallow target.
9: I love this green site with a deep saddle running through it. Generally one of the longer approach shots on the front (along with 8), but can be a birdie hole if the hole is in the low spot. If anywhere else, hold on.
10: The pond grabs your attention but any fairway wood or long iron should get past it easily. The real trick on this hole is again the green which again has a steep cant.
12: I used to play a strong draw and loved to work my drive around the bunkers. This hole is so much more fun if you have the shot. From the right side of the fairway, the second shot is much less fun.
13: The first of two great 3-shot holes on the back side. This one moves steadily to the right. As tempting as the green is, missing the fairway right here often leads to lost balls (the low area right of the fairway seems ripe for growing weeds).
14: As if the preceding holes we’re good enough, this is where the course really goes up a notch. 14-16 is as good as any 3 hole stretch of public golf in the state, IMO. This is a reachable par 4 but the green is almost like one of the volcano holes on a miniature golf course. If you don’t go for it, you have multiple layup options, all of which are confounding in their own way–you can play a fairway wood to a blind section of fairway that leaves another mostly blind flip wedge to the green, or lay way back short of all the bunkers with a drive of less than 200 yards, which leaves 100 or so into the green. The right play really depends on how you’re hitting it and the wind.
15: Just a beautifully natural hole with a tee shot downhill into a valley and the second shot back uphill again. The fairway is over 90 yards wide but a centerline bunker complicates things; ideally, you’d prefer to shorten the hole and go left but two other bunkers make that the somewhat more narrow route. The green slopes right to left with a small bunker right and a huge deep bunker on the left side.
- The snake. The tee shot is downhill a bit and right to left. A big drive can carry a cluster of bunkers at the corner and cut a lot of distance off, potentially bringing the green into reach. If you can’t cut the corner, you have to decide where you want to lay up, because the hole twist back to the right and the green is 40+ yards deep but only about 12 yards wide. The further you hit your layup, the worse your angle gets (the best angle is for an approach from about 100 yards out, if you’re in the middle of the fairway).
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You have me counted on there, right?
Yes
Will probably aim to get there around 10:30-10:45 tomorrow…I’m sure we can migrate and find one another and figure out pairings / games (if any). Looking forward to it
Is the course laid out for walking/push carting?
This is what I am wondering as well. Is it walkable?