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Rating Index Rating
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3.6
621 Reviews (621)
5 Stars
164
4 Stars
266
3 Stars
99
2 Stars
61
1 Stars
31
Conditions
3.6
Value
3.3
Layout
4.0
Friendliness
4.4
Pace
3.3
Amenities
3.8
67.9%
Recommend this course
471 out of 621 reviews
Read Reviews
Average Rating
Avg Rating
3.9
7 Reviews (7)
5 Stars
2
4 Stars
3
3 Stars
1
2 Stars
1
1 Stars
0
Conditions
3.7
Value
3.3
Layout
4.0
Pace
3.0
Amenities
3.3
StaffFriendliness
4.5
71.4%
Recommend this course
5 out of 7 reviews
Read Reviews
Average Rating
Avg Rating
3.8
21 Reviews (21)
5 Stars
7
4 Stars
8
3 Stars
2
2 Stars
3
1 Stars
1
Conditions
3.7
Value
3.7
Layout
4.1
Pace
3.4
Amenities
3.6
StaffFriendliness
4.3
76.2%
Recommend this course
16 out of 21 reviews
Read Reviews

About

Holes 18
Type Public/Municipal
Style Traditional
Par 72
Length 7380 yards
Slope 130
Rating 75.0

Papago Golf Course is conveniently situated just a few minutes from downtown Phoenix though you would never be able to tell with the peace and seclusion provided by the course's location in Papago Park. The golf course sits at the base of Papago Buttes, past the rugged red rocks you can see Phoenix skyline. The course was designed by William Francis Bell, whom you may know for Torrey Pines in San Diego. The challenging layout features undulating greens framed with strategically placed bunkers and subtle but tricky mounding. Water hazards appear on a few holes as well. It's a tough but straightforward layout that is still playable for a range of skill levels. Since opening in 1963, Papago has hosted numerous events including the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship and Phoenix Open Qualifying.

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Papago Golf Course
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Course Details

Year Built 1963
Fairways Bermuda Grass
Greens Bermuda Grass
Golf Season Year round

Rentals/Services

Carts Yes
GPS No
Pull-carts Yes
Caddies No
Clubs Yes

Practice/Instruction

Driving Range Yes
Bunker Yes
Golf School/Academy Yes
Teaching Pro Yes
Pitching/Chipping Area Yes
Putting Green Yes

Policies

Metal Spikes Allowed No
Walking Allowed Yes

Food & Beverage

Bar

Available Facilities

Clubhouse

Accolades

  • Golf Advisor: Top 25 College Courses in the U.S. (2020 #23)
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Reviews

3.6
621 Reviews (621)

Reviewer Photos

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Overall Rating
Recommended
Handicap
Age
Type of Golfer
Gender
Played On
Reviews 7
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Previously Played

Not as great as usual but still good

Probably the worst Papago conditions I've played in but they still weren't bad, I'm just used to this place being perfect conditions even during the summer. A little expensive if you don't have the city card, but would still recommend.

Conditions Average
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 4
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a month
1.0
First Time Playing

The course is in terrible shape. There are so many courses to play in the area that are in better shape and are a better value.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Fair
Played On
Reviews 2
I Recommend This Course
4.0
First Time Playing

Great Course! Poor Conditions

First time playing here. Loved everything about this course except for the condition. Some areas were burnt, some areas were flooded, literally no happy medium here. Also, the greens were bumpy and atrocious.

Conditions Fair
Value Average
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 60
Handicap 5-9
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Top 1000 Contributor
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart

Good value with city card

Don't listen to the super negative comments: it's summer conditions in Phoenix. Every course has areas where the grass isn't great. Papago is doing their best, clearly watering, and there's plenty of sand in the deep bunkers which is a huge plus as there are a lot of bunkers. With the City of Phoenix card, it's a good value for the summer.

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Beginner
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Beautiful course. Had a 25 minute delay because of a mechanical problem., they had to water the course so grass and bunkers were soggy. I know… you’re not to hit in the bunkers but hey it happens to the best. But otherwise enjoyable place.

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 79
Handicap 5-9
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Really?

I heard so much about this course. It was a nice course-but for the money, there are better values. Nice practice facility and club house-but a lot of brown patches on fairways and work around the greens. I hope ASU has a great golf season.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Average
Played On
Reviews 2
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
1.0
Previously Played

Disapointing

I played this course same time last year, it was in absolute pristine conditions. Today was horrific. Greens aren't really playable, with how much ground under repair they currently have this course shouldn't even be open for public tee times. This was a course I have spoken highly in the passed bu there are no excuse for the conditions of this place. Very disappointing expierience.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Played On
Reviews 4
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a month
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Conditions Average
Value Average
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Good
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 4
Handicap 10-14
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
1.0
Previously Played
Used cart

Worse shape I've ever seen

We have been playing Papago in the summer for decades. There were 6 of us that played on June 25 and we all were very disappointed. Every green was blighted with large areas of some sort of malady that created pock like areas. We had to lift and place balls so we could actually put, but some greens were so bad you couldn't find a clear spot to put. A number of greens had large areas where the turf adjacent to the greens had been scalped down a couple of inches. Other areas had been sodded, but done poorly and not watered. On top of that, they had aerated the course. When we called to make the tee time no one mentioned there was an issue. The head pro or director of golf is always visible and greeting golfers, but not this day. I'm sure he did not want to face the music.

Over the past 10 years or so the course was always in pristine condition this time of year and we asked what the change was. The gentleman in the golf shop told us the A.S.U. golf coach wanted his own guy in as course superintendent, so they let the other guy go.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Average
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
Played On
Reviews 3
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
1.0
First Time Playing

STAY FAR AWAY

This may be the worse course I have played in over 31 years in Arizona. First of all, the fairways and greens were plugged with no warnings from GolfNow. At least 33% of the fairways were dirt. The collars around the greens were all dirt. The greens were not puttable. We quit after 9 holes. It is very disappointing that Golf Now gave no warnings about the plugging or condition. There are courses in Phoenix for half the rate in better shape than this place. It is an embarrassment to both Papago and GolfNow to collect $280 for this. Never again. I think I will start making my own times from here on in and talk to the course directly. Shameful.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Fair
Friendliness Fair
Pace Poor
Amenities Poor
Played On
Reviews 26
Handicap 5-9
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Great layout

Always a fantastic day playing here. Greens had been punched recently and they were doing significant work around multiple greens on the back nine, but the work has to get done at some point. Great track, especially for the money.

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 30
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Aeration made putting tough although I knew they had going in. Otherwise course in good shape thought they could have charged less due to aeration

Conditions Average
Value Average
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 1
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 6
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Excellent

Great staff great price beautiful golf course I will play again soon.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 4
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Papago gotta go

Enjoyed playing for the first time. Friendly layout that was friendly to my wife. Definitely will come back

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 7
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
3.0
First Time Playing

Okay

Started out early in the morning. Great staff. Directed me around the facility and helped out with anything I needed. Overall, driving range is great. The pace of play early in the morning is amazing. Played under 4 hours easily. I only had two disappointments. One, was the lack of direction to the next hole. This was caused by the scarcity of car path pavement. There was only 4 holes I remembered that had cart path roads. Lastly, the greens were in bad condition. I don’t know if they were dealing with some sort of disease from tournament play but they were are hard to role the ball. Price did not match the quality of the course

Conditions Average
Value Average
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 14
Handicap 5-9
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Great golf experience.

Good test of your golf game. Fun to play. ASU golf team's home course.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 8
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Good
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 5
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Average
Value Average
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 6
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
2.0
Previously Played

Great NEW clubhouse, same course, lousy service

From the start I should have known our experience was going to make for a challenging day. We were met at the bag drop and were very abruptly told that the range was closed due to a wedding. I did not receive an e-mail telling me this was going to be the case that day, there was nothing on the Tee Off.com reservation system noting this limitation, nor was any other warning provided about this closure. Then after telling the starter and his staff our tee time he advised us to check-in and he would put our bags on a cart so it was ready when we came back out. Needless to say, that did not happen and I was forced to find a cart myself and load our bags. In fact, while we saw the starter riding around the clubhouse area on his cart he never assisted us again. We went to the first tee and started ourselves. Upon starting play, it did not take long for us to realize play was going to be slow and frustrating all day. There was no effort made to speed up play. Then when on course, we soon discovered the overly restrictive and maddening set-up of their GPS system on their carts. If you wandered 6-inches offline the system shut your cart down. At one point we needed to call the clubhouse to get assistance to restart our cart and when the attendant arrived he was rude and blamed us for not knowing how to fix our cart. When we finished our five-hour plus round, we drove by the driving range and saw no evidence that a wedding was going to occur or had occurred. The new clubhouse shows that this course is an $80 - $100 per round course, but your course conditions and the service of your staff barely makes this a $30 per round course. Much improvement still needed to bring this course to the elite level your rates suggest. ASU should be embarrassed that this is now their home course.

Conditions Fair
Value Poor
Layout Good
Friendliness Poor
Pace Poor
Amenities Fair
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Golf Packages
the-phoenician-9.jpg

The Phoenician Golf Around Package

CLICK BELOW
PHOENIX/SCOTTSDALE | Enjoy lodging accommodations at the Phoenician Resort and golf at The Phoenician Golf Club, Westin Kierland Golf Club & Papago Golf Course.

The Phoenician Golf Around Package

CLICK BELOW
PHOENIX/SCOTTSDALE | Enjoy lodging accommodations at the Phoenician Resort and golf at The Phoenician Golf Club, Westin Kierland Golf Club & Papago Golf Course.

Arizona Golf Grind Package

CLICK BELOW
PHOENIX/SCOTTSDALE | Enjoy lodging accommodations at the Courtyard by Marriott Scottsdale Old Town and golf at the Phoenician Golf Club, Longbow Golf Club, Papago Golf Club, and Eagle Mountain Golf Club.
20-3208_0256.jpg

Arizona Golf Grind Package

CLICK BELOW
PHOENIX/SCOTTSDALE | Enjoy lodging accommodations at the Courtyard by Marriott Scottsdale Old Town and golf at the Phoenician Golf Club, Longbow Golf Club, Papago Golf Club, and Eagle Mountain Golf Club.
Sunridge Canyon Golf Club

The Fairways of Fountain Hills Package

CLICK BELOW
PHOENIX/SCOTTSDALE | Enjoy accommodations at ADERO Scottsdale Resort, Autograph Collection or The Inn at Eagle Mountain and golf at Eagle Mountain Golf Club and SunRidge Canyon Golf Club
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