Just Returned - My Arizona Golf Vacation (Recap)

[huskylawyer]

Just got back from Arizona for a 6 day golf and gambling vacation.   My wallet is quite a bit lighter, but I had a great time.   Observations:

1) Weather.  The weather was great.  Before the vacation, I was playing in rainy Seattle with full rain gear and an umbrella.  It was 75-85 degrees the entire time I was there.   Perfect weather!

2) Talking Stick- Scottsdale.  I played the North and South 18 at Talking Stick Resort.   The course was nice.   Very wide fairways, but if you get off the fairways you are in rocks and it is easy to lose balls.   It is a very flat course, and not overly difficult.   Paid $110 to play.   It wasn't very crowded.  Stayed at the Talking Stick Casino, which has the largest poker room in Arizona ($20/$40 hold 'em limit players are not very good IMHO, I made $1,000 on about 6 hours of playing).  Also, the breakfast and dinner buffets are one of the best buffets I've ever dined at.  Ton of food options and reasonably priced.  Saw a few pro baseball players playing blackjack (two people asked me if I played baseball lol).

3) Westin Resort (Kierlan) - Scottsdale.   Played 18 here. This is a great looking course.  Very scenic with some nice looking holes. It is a very easy course.  The fairways are wide, and the outer fairways slope into the fairway so if you stray, the ball just rolls back down into the fairway.   The people who worked their said it was a "friendly" course, i.e., a PC way of saying it is pretty easy.    The only problem is the price though-$199 a round.   Apparently, the locals know where to get discount passes and such, but I didn't do my research before getting down there.    The hotel was decent, albeit expensive.  Also, the food wasn't that great.  However, you are walking distance to lots of shops and restaurants in  the area, so you should venture out.  I think the Cleveland Indians were staying there while I was there.

3) Red Mountain Ranch Country Club (Mesa).   Played 18 here.   A nice course and not very expensive ($70).  Pretty easy to lose balls here (for the high handicapper like me), and it was somewhat challenging, but I had a good time

All in all, I would recommend any of the courses above, but do your homework if you can get some discount passes, as Kierland and Talking Stick were way too expensive.

[scottmilk9]

Good Review, next time send a message to one of us locals and we'll help with the research.  Sometimes I get rounds a little less expensive with coupons and looking on golfnow at the last minute.

I haven't played talking stick yet, but it looks pretty nice.  Thanks for the review and good to hear you had a good time here.