Ocotillo Golf Club - Blue/White

I've played this course occasionally for over 20 yrs. Ever since Arcis took control of management the course has consistently gotten worse every year. Poorly kept sand traps, dead areas on greens, poor greens keepers, hacked up tee boxes and a driving range with required hitting of lousy quality mats. Several greens were striped with dead kill from leaking mowers and previous pin plugs sinking 1/2" below the putting surface.

They now have ball washers only on select holes and no ball washers on carts.

Simply cheap lousy management and no one seems to care when you bring it up. This course, which USED TO BE one of the premier courses in the area, is now nothing more than a HACKERS OVERPRICED DOG TRACK.

A perfect example of CHEAP ownership. I'll play anywhere else at any price and get a better value. What a waste of a good course design and my 4 hrs.

Played at 2:18 on a Saturday. Finished 13 holes. For spending 109 and driving 45 mins I was extremely disappointed. Staff in the pro shop was very friendly. Fairways were plush, greens were pretty good. However charging 100 for a twilight is absolutely criminal especially when you know peace of play is an issue. I liked the course and how challenging it was with all of the water involved, however I will not be playing here again. Would advise to go elsewhere that is a better value for the money.

We played "Blue" and "White". The staff from the pro shop, starter and on course was great! Its important to note that we played in January and our first round of the "Blue" 9 was a bit disappointing as the course was over-run with geese and ducks and their waste. From a design perspective, there were water hazards on many holes which made it fun to navigate, but found that sometimes even driver would get you in trouble with things you could not see from the tee box. The "White" nine holes had many great holes that were fun to play with the best being the 9th or our 18th, with a back to front sloped green that required a carry over water for your second shot if you were able to deliver a good drive down the right side of the fairway.

Course is a very unique layout with water hazards on virtually every hole - a rarity in Arizona. It's target practice - I hit fairway woods off the tee more than my driver. The white course was very easy - ended up shooting my best score of the year there.

Conditions were typical for this price point in Arizona. Tee boxes were beat up, fairways were sticky painted grass, rough was dry dead grass. The most frustrating thing about the rough was how it wouldn't hold any balls up - ended up losing 2 shots that would have been stopped on courses that maintained their rough. Goose poop all over, tons of birds on this course. Greens were very solid, just full of ball marks.

No GPS in carts. Ball cleaners every ~6 holes. No towels to wash off balls. Practice range was mats only. Our playing partners cart shut off on hole 18 - ran out of battery. No food at the turn - drink cart only had snacks.

The wait at the bag drop was too long. Check in was too long. There was no ranger on the course. The starter doubled as a guy working the bag drop.

We had a frost delay but the course was up front that it would be a ~30 minute delay and we were off maybe 20 minutes after our scheduled tee time. The course was packed and we waited every shot for the group in front of us. Still ended up having a 4:15 round which wasn't terrible.

The course would not give singles their own cart, so I was paired up with a gentleman who would constantly park the cart in front of our playing partners hitting their balls. We had a twilight time and since there was a frost delay, he was always making comments about how we needed to "push the group in front of us" (they were waiting too). He went off on 1 hitting into the group in front of us, and sped down the fairway without waiting for our playing partners to join - causing them to hit into us. Thanks for forcing us to share Ocotillo, really made for a memorable experience.

While one of the prettiest courses in the area, it is overrun by geese. After the significant number of water hazards, geese are the next biggest challenge. Bird droppings from tee to green. It might be better later in the year, but in January the bird dropping left me feeling dirty.

I love ocotillo. Probably the best winter value in the area. If you are a “sprayer” of the golf ball you may want to go elsewhere. There iw water everywhere. I didn’t count, but probably on 15 or 16 of the 18 holes we played (they have 27 holes). Course was in good condition and pace of play was good. We waited on the group in front of us on every shot of every and still finished in under 4 hours.

Now for the bad - it was cold and windy - 18 MPH wind with gusts up to 25 according to the weather app. It was a difficult day. If it’s reallly windy and you havent played in awhile either: go elsewhere or bring lots of balls. One grandson lost 15 balls and the other about 10. It was a poor choice of course by me for kids that havent played in 6 months…Oh well, it paid for the balls. :)

Would have to add that I would recommend only to a low handicap golfer! A difficult course with so much water!

27 holes of fun and entertainment. Ocotillo always give you a pretty good dollar value and it plays fair with good greens. Pace of play could be better but that's what you get for a public course.

The diverse layout is cool - makes it just challenging enough to make you think about different club choices off the tee. If your a slicer, brings extra balls - lots of water to the right. Very pretty course with holes over water, in between a variety of trees, descent bunkers & lush fairways. The rough is average length but curly in a lot of spots making it pretty unforgiving. 2 beverage carts was great, we were never short on drinks. Only complaints would be 1) this course always seems very wet in the morning - the ball plugs even on some drives in the fairway & it causes almost muddy conditions in the fairways. 2) arrive extra early to check in - every time i have been here the proshop takes FOR-EV-ER to check people in. The guys inside were friendly, it must be the system they use.

This course has gone down hill. Greens were good. Fairways were average as well as tee boxes. The bunkers are bad with limited rakes and most of them are broken. Overall I’m disappointed based on what it used to be.

Ocotillo used to be well managed course with great pace of play. Unfortunately they are only focused on flooding the course with golfers and do not care about the player experience. I’d avoid any tee time after 11am if you want to finish with the sun still up. Horrible.