Sunbird Golf Resort

This course is usually in good condition but yesterday the fairways had lots of areas that were just dirt. Where there was grass it was very wet. The greens have some kind of blight. This was definitely not the golf experience that I have come to expect at Sunbird.

Everything was great , including Breakfast in the restaurant

Great condition, and was a medium speed, easy to read

The greens and fairways were overall in pretty good condition. Pace of play was good. I was a single between groups of four and finished in three hours.

Short course but with good par 4s and one par 5. Grounds need work, but not bad. Greens very slow, but grass is good. Few meaningful bunkers but some water comes in play. Electric carts.

Located in senior community, but open to public.

This course is nicely kept, greens are in good condition and overall a nice course to play a round.

It wouldn't be fair to review this based on other higher end full par 70-72 courses I've played. This review is purely based off other short courses I've played here in Arizona (Greenfield, Augusta Ranch, Desert Sands). The one thing that was worse at Sunbird compared to the other short courses was the greens conditions. I had a morning tee time and the greens were so slow that single putting was nearly impossible unless you were within 3 ft (at my handicap 15 handicap level). There were multiple instances where I landed on the green with a 20 ft putt to go and I would strike it (hard enough that I thought I would blast past the hole) and still end up 5-10 ft short.

If you take that away the rest was pretty average or slightly average about the course. One thing I greatly appreciated was the course layout. Most of the other short courses it is the same hole over and over again with minor differences (greenside bunker positions and maybe some water). At Sunbird intentionally built it so that even with a par 4 250-300 hole it would be blocked off so you would have to use an iron/wedge on off the tee and plot your attack to a birdie chance. The course also appeared to have Junior tee boxes which I thought was awesome and would love to take my son when I feel he is ready for his first time on a course.

Overall, if the green were better and at a fast or at least medium speed, then I would say this is easily the best short course option at of all of the ones I've played. Out of the four, this is how I would rank them.

1 - Augusta Ranch (best maintained with grassy roughs instead of rocks and okay to great greens depending on the day).

2 - Sunbird (most of the course was maintained to price standard minus greens. Course/Hole Layouts was a breathe of fresh air compared to other short courses that are straight shot with no challenge).

3 - Greenfield Lakes (Par 4s and Par 5s all truly require Driver, but almost all par 3s are extremely short with wedge or 9iron distances)

4 - Desert Sands (Just no. I've played twice and the only reason why I might acknowledge its existence is if a $15-$20 budget is all you can afford and it is the difference between getting a round in and not. Even so, one of the two times that I played I walked away feeling that spending $15 on a large bucket of range balls would have been better than dealing with the pace of play and course conditions).

Enjoyed this short course venue. Greens and fairways were in excellent shape. However, “sand traps” were terrible. More like semi-cement. This would be an easy and inexpensive fix and make a huge difference in the course.