Superstition Springs Golf Club

Three ponds on hole #1 fairway that sucks up golf balls that cannot be retrieved as the water was dirty and filled with grass. Why weren’t they drained? No ball washers. Rough is spotty with only patches of grass. Too much goose poop on at least 3 - 4 fairways.

This is a good course that with a little maintenance can be one of the best in Mesa.

OK, this is going to be another one of my “Good, Bad and Ugly” reviews.

The “Good” - The fairways and greens (and the first cut for both) were in really nice condition. I really liked the course layout which keeps you on your toes. In the absence of GPS on the cart be sure you have an app that shows the entire hole and the hazards because you will need to pay attention to the entire hole tee to green. Often players will notice locations where a ‘miss’ will be OK and typically course designs provide that ‘out’ as it were, however on this course there weren’t many decent places to ‘miss’ and if there was one it wasn’t a very big. On a couple of the Par 5’s choose your layup wisely since the target landing area ‘may’ be the narrowest part of the fairway. A few of the Par 4’s are very short risk/reward holes, needless to say choose wisely here too. Speaking of the greens, and many may put this in the “Bad” category but I liked this feature, the greens were a mix of very small greens to larger ones to ones oriented in multiple directions, including ones narrow and deep (looking at you #15!) and wide and shallow (looking at you #14!) and everything in between. Point being depending on Green configuration IF you are off on either your distance (like #14) or direction (like #15), you will be in big trouble more so on this course than others because the green complexes are extremely tricky with elevated green and moguls and sand…up and downs can be tough.

The “Bad” - While I mentioned the fairways, greens and first cuts were in good shape, everywhere else was in terrible condition. Yes, I get it, should be playing in fairways and on greens but that is not always possible, that’s golf. This is relative to what you are used to, but the green’s to me seemed quite slow, hopefully they will be cut and rolled soon. The Tee’s…it would be very helpful to have some mixed or intermediate tee’s between the Championship and Middle tee’s (and probably even the Middle and Front tee’s for shorter hitters). The difference of almost 800 yards (Championship 6,700 and Middle 5,920) is just begging for a set of tee’s in the 63-6,400 yard range.

The “Ugly” - Sand…and I use that word loosely because the sand and the trap conditions in general were absolutely awful. Lastly, many of the tee boxes were extremely domed, i.e. a (even semi-) flat spot was not to be found. So basically you had to tee up with the ball either way above or below your feet…I don’t mind, and expect, uneven lies on the fairway but on the tee it was a little annoying.

So even with the “bad” and “ugly” I did really like this course and IF work and maintenance were done I think it could be a top level course in the area.

Found a good rate and decided to try course again. Rained day before so course was virtually washed out but cart paths only. This is a course with the need for more information on the tee boxes. Hazards that can’t be seen and yardages to landing points not provided. Caddy booklet or signage easy solution. Tee boxes very uneven but greens rolled well. Pace of play was 5+ hours which I hear is normal. Even with conditions far too slow. For $60 and if you have a short game it is a decent test of golf.

Golf was great , unfortunately they need more service staff and cooks in the morning.

Breakfast was not consistent on same meals and over one hour to get.

Many tee boxes were crowned an almost impossible to find a flat spot that had grass

No divots we’re repaired or filled with sand and seed

This might be more a reflection of the players but did not appear to be much effort into making them reasonable

Pace of play was brutal and the simply planed the numbers

Don’t overbook and get a marshall that does something

Fairways and greens were in good shape and layout is great

The course has an interesting layout and many holes are actually beautiful with small waterfalls and palm trees. Lots of dog legs and almost all with raised greens making for lots of “cross your fingers” shots. The condition was good.

The negatives are the pace of play and lack of marshals. 5 hours on this course is too long. Get the starter, whose a tough nut, out there. Get players to skip holes. Book less tee times.

Hills everywhere on every green , elevated greens, sand traps were everywhere and terrible sand. Good pace.

I like this course, but I wish there wasn't so much garbage in the ponds...nasty!

I would not recommend this course. First there were no carts available, then when we get to 1st tee we’re behind a 5-some playing with 3 bags. Watched the ranger go up to and completely ignore them. This was not even the worst of it however. The course was super slow all the way around, but this time of year in Arizona I’m noticing this is a common problem. Rangers need to do their jobs and get slow pokes moving. Tee times should be every 10 minutes. They’re just raking in the dough with all the jacked up rates. Not a good value at all.