Hillcrest Golf Club at Sun City West

I played the below course today. When I arrived, I asked for range balls and was told the range was closed. I did not know this prior to booking this tee time and had I known I probably wouldn’t have booked there. The course is an absolutely horrible condition. There was a course maintenance worker mowing the grass. He was literally mowing dirt. I took a picture of it (see attached). Tee boxes and fairways were just terrible very hard to play a round of golf under such terrible conditions. The 14th hole (Par 3) had two active hose fed sprinklers on the green during play making it extremely difficult to play the hole as the hose and sprinklers were on the green. As I made my way onto the 10th green, I watched the course maintenance pumping water out of a greenside bunker onto the 17th green and flooding it during play. As a maid the way around the back 9 conditions were just as terrible as they were on the front 9 (see attached pictures). When I got to the 17th hole as a previously described, there were a hose and sprinklers active on the green, making the hole unplayable (see attached picture with ball on green for reference). The sprinkler was actually spraying over the flag stick and hole.

I addressed this with an employee at Hillcrest. The response from this employee was, “Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on with our maintenance staff”. The employee offered no remedy and genuinely didn’t care as they told me, “The course is in better condition than 5 years ago.” I was in disbelief.

As I mentioned previously, had I known the range was closed and the course conditions were so bad and they were under maintenance as well as having two holes that were completely unplayable. I would’ve never booked the tee time there and wasted my money.

I played the below course today. When I arrived, I asked for range balls and was told the range was closed. I did not know this prior to booking this tee time and had I known I probably wouldn’t have booked there. The course is an absolutely horrible condition. There was a course maintenance worker mowing the grass. He was literally mowing dirt. I took a picture of it (see attached). Tee boxes and fairways were just terrible very hard to play a round of golf under such terrible conditions. The 14th hole (Par 3) had two active hose fed sprinklers on the green during play making it extremely difficult to play the hole as the hose and sprinklers were on the green. As I made my way onto the 10th green, I watched the course maintenance pumping water out of a greenside bunker onto the 17th green and flooding it during play. As a maid the way around the back 9 conditions were just as terrible as they were on the front 9 (see attached pictures). When I got to the 17th hole as a previously described, there were a hose and sprinklers active on the green, making the hole unplayable (see attached picture with ball on green for reference). The sprinkler was actually spraying over the flag stick and hole.

I addressed this with an employee at Hillcrest. The response from this employee was, “Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on with our maintenance staff”. The employee offered no remedy and genuinely didn’t care as they told me, “The course is in better condition than 5 years ago.” I was in disbelief.

As I mentioned previously, had I known the range was closed and the course conditions were so bad and they were under maintenance as well as having two holes that were completely unplayable. I would’ve never booked the tee time there and wasted my money.

It used to be a great course as the layout is top notch. Unfortunately the maintenance is not aging well. Fairways dead and crusty to just flatout dirt. Sorry to see the decline in a once nice course. The sand traps might as well be asphalt as you can not even leave a footprint they are dried out and compacted. It did save time on raking though. Right now I would not play it again. I took pictures

A lot of courses try really hard to keep conditions up when it starts getting hot. Get the feeling this is not one of those. More dead grass/mud than live grass in the fairways. Greens were in a little better shape. Price was right and I was one of 3 groups on the course so walked 18 in 3 hrs or so.

I'll give it a try in the winter, if it was in better shape it would be a great layout, there's a few really fun, interesting holes.

The greens were the best part of the whole course. They were maintained in pretty good condition. The Fairways, rough and sand was in horrible condition.

Greens are ok but the overall course conditions were sub standard..

The fairways were horrible / hit a beautiful drive down the fairway to find the ball sitting in bare spots / same around the greens and the bunkers were the worst I’ve seen anywhere of late.

This course was the crown jewel of Sun City West, but it has some serious irrigation problems now. The course is either over watered and soggy in spots and mostly dead or dying in the majority of places. Thankfully, the greens are still watered. Unless they make a lot of irrigation improvements in a hurry, this once wonderful course may turn into a blight on the community.

Hillcrest used to be amazing.

They've really let this course conditions go downhill. (I played here alot 15-20 years ago) There are very few discernable cart paths. There are no GPS or USB plugs on the carts. However, all of the staff were Great, friendly and accommodating.

Greens were good.

Tees were marginal. Some haven’t been mowed in a few days.

Fairways were green and brown.

Cartpaths have potholes.

If you are off the fairway it is dirt or dead grass.

Played right after a tournament. Basically had the course to ourselves. Great pace of play.