Papago Golf course Phoenix AZ

Papago Golf Course
Phoenix AZ
March 2009

For years, Papago Golf Course has been respected as one of the top public municipal golf courses in the Phoenix area. Over the years it has deteriorated in condition but a couple of the holes continued to show up regularly on lists of the best 18 holes of Arizona.
They just completed a multi-million dollar renovation of the course, and its reopening has been all over the AZ golf news. In fact the LPGA tournament will be played there later in March of 2009.

I played it yesterday and it seems to me this renovation still has a long way to go. First of all its $89.00. Most courses in the valley are discounting their fees, but not Papago. The clubhouse is a construction trailer, not exactly the most inviting introduction as you drive in. There is no drinking water on the course and I never saw a ball washer either. The toilet facilities are still porta poties.
The carts are the old polluting gas carts, and although they allow walking, whick I like, you pay for the cart even if you walk. Did I mention the few trash bins I saw? Everything goes in there, even all the recyclable plastic bottles, of which there are many. This is a municipal golf course, I would hope that the city of Phoenix would be better stewards of the environment.

We played the front 9 in 3 hours. We waited on every hole, and there was no marshal on the course to move things along. That was frustrating. At the turn we went to the clubhouse and told them we didn’t have 3 more hours and they were kind enough to refund ½ our fee. So I can only tell you about the front nine.

The hole layouts are wonderful and the setting among the rock outcroppings and buttes of Papago Park is beautiful. I just wish I could say the same for the rest of the course. For a new renovation the fairways were in decent shape as were the greens. The sand in the bunkers was in excellent shape. However, all the tee boxes are scruffy as is the rough (its not really rough) and the transitions from the rough to the edges of the holes are all hard pan.

I will be interested to see how the LPGA reacts to these conditions in a couple weeks, but I would say there are lots of better places to spend your money on golf in the Phoenix area. I would play it again in a couple years if the conditions get better, but it is going to take some work to make that happen.