MY HOME COURSE ALBERTA

Turner Valley Golf Course -Black Diamond Ab.  **** A beautiful mountain view course. Friendly staff, great course, nice fast greens,and a well planned layout.Blues play over 6000 yards and with slope rating 68.9/121. I would highly recommend this course to play anytime and if looking for a membership course you can’t beat this one for price with what you get.

MY HOME COURSE MESA AZ 

Dobson Ranch Mesa AZ ***  Love this course. It is a muni course but is very very nice with lot of trees, great fairway layout, wonderful sloped greens. It plays at 6712 yards from the blues with a slope rating of 71.1/123 . Priced extremely well on Golf Now and is worth a visit.

San Marcos Golf Resort Chandler AZ- *At 6626 yards it plays fairly long but is in poor shape. This course with renovations would be very nice but the weeds have grown up in the sand traps and the greens and fairways are only mediocre . First hole has a glass front commercial building on the right hand side that is a little scary for anyone that slices right. Very inexpensive golf though. Would NOT recommend this course.  71.1/125

UPDATE*** Has completed a 3.9 million renovation of this course. I would recommend trying this course now as it is a pretty course and has a lot of interesting holes. Sand traps were the best we have played in Arizona in 2015

The Legacy Golf Club  -Phoenix AZ-*****A beautiful golf course. First class clubhouse, the grounds are spectacular and the course in amazing shape. It is on the pricier side but there are coupons, Valley passes and the odd time GolfNow has deals on it. Worth to play . Plays at 6378 yards  69.5/121

Superstition Springs- Mesa Az -*** great deals on this course. A nice course in decent shape with some interesting holes. Great water holes. Right in the middle of the city but doesn’t seem like it. Champion tees play at 6700 yards. Would recommend this course as a nice course to play that doesn’t cost a lot.  71.7/126

TPC Scottsdale – *****A must play on any golfers bucket list. Very expensive course. The day I played it was $300 per tee and another $50 for a fore caddie which you have to use. The fore-caddie is an amazing option to have and makes the golfing experience even better. Great shape, very scenic and if given the chance play it after the Open to experience the Stadium effect. A must do course. 6525 yards 71.1/129

Painted Mountain -Mesa – **Very nice club house with great food. Another good budget course in good shape but the homes are just to close for comfort. It also is short at 6021 yards from the blues. Some very nice water holes. A good course to play for a quicker round with great service and pricing. You should score very well here. Would highly recommend for a casual round of golf. 66.1/108

Raven Golf Club -Phoenix- ***** A first class course. Beautiful clubhouse, great service, nice practice facilities and wonderful landscaping. Played silver tees. Would highly recommend this course. Valley pass and they have their own pass you should check out. A must golf course. 70.5/125

Gold Canyon Apache Junction*****  One of the nicest golf course I have played. Play the Dinosaur course for spectacular views, elevations and course design. Watch for deals on GolfNow etc as it is pricey averaging around $125 a tee or more depending on the timing. But worth it !! This course has a rating of 73.5/137 on the Blue tees so you know it is NOT an easy course. I highly recommend this course to play as a special treat. Loved it !!

Club West  Phoenix *** Very nice course, great elevations.Voted best par three hole in the valley. You tee off at the top of the mountain to a a small green 217 yards away. Awesome hole. Nice course that I would highly recommend to try it out.70/118 Great value and

Johnson Ranch- Queens Creek **** Exceptional nice course. The elevations and tees on top of the small hills and mountain in the middle of the course are spectacular. The course was in great shape and played very well. I would highly recommend this course . 70.2/120 @ 6656 yards.

Ak-Chin Southern Dunes *****  Beautiful course. Exceptional club house and grill. Very attentive staff and lots of those little extras like free range balls, tees on the range for you, free bottled water at stations along the course and a very involved marshall. It was a great golfing experience. We played the blues tees which aren’t really long at 6493 yards bu the course plays really hard. It has really fast greens ( fastest this year) and very sloped greens which kills you on the putting if you make it to the green without killing your score by being in a bunker. 114 bunkers surround the greens plus fairway bunkers strategically placed. I love the course but due to the higher green fees ( Troon course) and the difficulty of the course I most likely will not play it again. I would highly reccomend this course for anyone that wants a beautiful setting and wants to challenge themselves if they are a low handicapper. If you are a boogie golfer you will get killed on this course. Odd why the slope rating isn’t higher though. 70.6/126 at 6493 yards.

Kokopelli  Gilbert **A nice course winding through a neighborhood but with wide fairways that make it a fairly easy course to play. A flat course with little elevations but has some interesting articulations to the greens. It is one of the few courses that when you book it through GolfNow makes you pay them instead of GolfNow. Rate is a little high for the course as it was on the dry side. Longer rolls of the ball though. Nice course to play if the price deal is right. Careful on the 18th hole as it is a little dangerous with the driving range hitting on to the cart  path as you drive up the 18th green. 70.4/129 @ 6228 yards. ( my lowest score of the year here so far)

Las Colinas Queen’s Creek **   An good course but nothing special. Plays at 67.7/112 from the Gold or Black at 70.8/123.  Fairly level course, dry fairways. For an inexpensive golf outing not a bad course.

Wickenburg Ranch Golf ***** In my opinion this is the best course I have played. The elevations, the fairways, the tee boxes are the best ever. The signature hole #13 is 200 yards over a lake onto a green surrounded by water. Our group of 8 with a scratch golfer, and multiple people with single digit handicaps only had two players break 90. It isn’t particularly hard but sure played that way. Play 6000 yards to 7000 yards with slopes of 126 to 139. Had a wonderful day on a beautiful course. Restaurant would be the only small consideration as the service was non existent.

Heatherglen- Calgary *** This course just off Glenmore on the east side of Calgary doesn’t get it’s due. They have 27 holes with nine on each being heavily treed and the other not so much. It plays difficult with these trees. It plays 6300 yards from the blues. It is usually the first to open and last course to close. The greens keeper deserves to be awarded as he keeps the greens in amazing shape from day one to finish. It is always a pleasure to play. I would highly recommend this course for a great course at reasonable rates. Only consideration would be a more consistent cart  on the course.

Raven Meadows Golf Resort- Alder Flats, AB  * This course is right on Hwy 22 between Rock Mtn House and Drayton Valley. It is a wide fairway course with some tree and water trouble. It plays long with all except one Par 3 over 200 yards. The rest of the holes play long also with over 500 yard Par 5’s. The greens were horrible.It is the beginning of the season so hopefully they will get better. If it had decent greens I would give it 3 stars. I wouldn’t recommend this course for a serious golfer but a great tournament course or new golfer fun course. Nice people running it.

Speargrass Golf Course- Carsland AB ****  This course just a 1/2 hour east of Calgary is a great course. It gets it name from the grass along the fairways. End up in the speargrass and you have lost your ball. Hold it straight and you are for a treat. The greens here are always first class from early season to seasons end. Wed night is Men’s night which is the best men’s night in Calgary. The last three holes on this course are the nicest and hardest finish three you will see. A par 3 over a valley and a par 4 with a 200 ft elevated tee with a small lading spot. And it has a beautiful par 3 on hole 7 that someone I know got a HOLE IN ONE one. Me !!! Love this course. I would highly recommend this course.

Fort MacLeod Golf & Country Club. *** This is a wonderful course. It only has two sets of tees but  plays from the Whites at 5926 yards so it isn’t easy. Very heavy large treed fairways. You have to hit straight if you want to score well. Some amazing holes. A elevated par 3 182 yard hole is great. A 202 yard par 3 and a 507 yard par 5 make it interesting.They had a bit of trouble with the flooding but you can tell what shape the course can be and is normally in. It is a nine hole format but still is a very very nice course . I would recommend this course to play for a fun time and to make history as it is the oldest west of Winnipeg.  Scored a 37 on the 9.

The Hamptons Golf & Country Club  Calgary **** A very nice course right in the city. You would never know it with all of the trees and elevations. Wonderful course that plays tough. The greens are extremely tricky and the hole layout is perfect. I would highly recommend this course for a higher end course in perfect shape and challenging. Beautiful water holes, fantastic fairways ( a little on the narrow side) and tricky greens. ( only course this year over 100!!)

Boulder Creek Golf***I take back everything I said in the past about Boulder. The greens were is fantastic shape, the fairways were great and the tee box’s exceptional. The course was in tip top shape.  I like the layout of Boulder. It is a wide open course but isn’t the easiest by any stretch with a lot of water holes and a couple over 500 yard par 5’s. At just over 6000 yards it is long but if it is windy you would be in trouble. I thoroughly enjoyed the course. I would highly recommend this course . For the value it is excellent. Rated at 68.2/116 which is on the easier side but stills plays challenging.

Springbank Links ****  A beautiful course with great elevation and interesting holes. Very nice club house with great food.  This course is unique with it’s design. It can play very tough if you don’t hit straight. The elevated tee boxes, and huge valleys make it a one of a kind near Calgary. I would highly recommend this  course as a fun, interesting, different design, challenging ,great scenery course.

Harvest Hills****  It is only a nine hole course ( play twice for full game) but it’s slogan is “ONE TOUGH NINE” and it is true. It is championship length at 6375 yards. It plays tough with 68 bunkers plus water hazards on a full 7 holes ( 14 holes). 2 hundred yard par three protected by bunkers in front and water along the side. There are very few bump and run holes. You have to hit the green as they are all have bunkers in front.You are right in the city , no chance to hit a house, fully treed and you would think you are miles out in the country.It is Rated at 71/131 so you can see the difficulty level. I would highly recommend this course .

Radium Springs***   A very nice course.  It has some very nice hole designs with some shorter par 3 but most over gorges. It plays blue at 6273 yards which is a greta length course as most par 4’s are in the 375 range so it means coming in with a wedge on most holes. I would highly recommend this course as a great playable mountain course.

Copper Point Ridge **** A very unique golf course. It has 10 par three’s and no par 5’s and plays at 4566 yards. I thought when I saw the card I will kill this course. The opposite happened. Long par 3’s can add to the score quickly if you don’t land on the green. Great elevations and super design makes this a real fun course to play. It sure is a work out for the irons and as most of you know par 3’s an sometimes be the Achilles heel in a golf game. I highly recommend this course especially if you want practice your iron shots and par 3 skills. Slope rating of 63.5/104 and trust me plays a lot tougher than that.

Windermere Valley ***   Want a nice course to take a high handicapper or want to practice your iron shots this is the course. It has tree lined fairways, relatively flat and long par 3’s. A fun course to play in the mountains but isn’t your typical mountain style course. I recommend playing this course as a warm up, high handicapper or a couples fun time out.Plays at 62.8/100

Eagle Ranch ***** My favorite course in Invermere. Fantastic club house, exceptional staff, wonderful course design and length and beautifully winding fairways among the trees. Exceptional course . Plays at 69.3/133 so you know it can play tough. Best clubhouse around. Best deck and food. I HIGHLY recommend playing this course as a tough mountain style course in the most scenic area of BC.

Balfour Golf & Country ****  This is one of those gem’s in the mountains that is unknown. It is equal to any mountain course with spectacular elevations and hole design. It is a Les Ferber design. Loved this course and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting a first class golf game. The clubhouse serves 5 star food. It plays at 6135 yards  with a slope of 70.1/131 so you know it isn’t easy. Can’t say enough how nice this course is. A lot nicer than the more well know Kokanee Springs.

Granite Point Nelson ***  An average course. It has some beautiful scenery holes overlooking the lake and is in good shape just not up to par to one of the more elite courses. It played at 6209 yards with a rating 70.4/130. If in Nelson worth playing but there are a lot nicer courses within an hour away.

Kokanee Springs *** Disappointed in Kokanee Springs. They do a great marketing job but the course is only an average mountain course. It is in very nice shape has some great elevated holes but overall I jsut didn’t care for it. It plays at 6271 at 69.6/126 but doesn’t play easy. No club house for a destination resort course is very disappointing along with a lot of missing beautification things like a paved parking lot etc. Not impressed !  Nice to say I have golfed it but most likely will never be back unless we make a trip to play Balfour and visit the Ainsworth Hot springs.

Crowsnest Pass****  Loved this course. Another unknown course that deserves more recognition. I think the problem is driving past the course on Hwy 3 you see two holes and think it is a flat prairie course. That is far from the truth as it move up the mountains with huge elevated tee boxes on numerous holes. Course and greens were incredible. The first few holes I guarantee you will three putt as the slope on the greens is amazing. You need to golf this course !  Only negative thing is the clubhouse is old and a little dirty. It plays at 71.7/129 at 6499 so you know it plays tough. Awesome course. Try it out !

Forest Heights Golf – Sundre **** This a great course. It designer was the same guy that did the Sundre Golf & Country Club. The fairways are wider on the front nine and a lot tighter on the back nine. Greens were in excellent shape and the fairways lush. I do have to say the greens were very tricky with a lot of undulation. Makes it a lot of fun but can add tot he score quite fast. I would highly recommend golfing here. I am sure you will like the course and perhaps get hit with just a little higher score than you thought. There are a few blind holes that the second time playing you will score better knowing the course layout a bit.  Clubhouse is nice, no kitchen but good dogs and sandwiches. Newer carts, great tee signage and good cart path directions. Water, trees and elevation make it a fun course.