Scottsdale Country Club - The Championship Course

My son and I have played Starfire/Scottsdale Country Club many times over the years and enjoy it. I knew when I booked it the rate was great and that areation had begun. The couse was pretty messy in spots burnt out where areation plugs and watering made them muddy. Overall, other that the known fact going into the round, the course played good for conditions and greens were in good shape. The pace was awesome finishing in under 4 hours! We'll be back with the grass starts growing and the holes begin to heal. The changes at the range (covered and trackman) and putting area are great! Also, new outdoor coffee/lunch spot is very nice. They do need a path access or walking path back to club house rather than driving all the way around the putting greet to cart staging to get a mid round drink or food is the outdoor spot is closed like it will likely be most of the summer. All good changes though!!!

The course didn't notify me that only 9 holes were open, which isn't the worst thing in the world, except that they kept scheduling players every 8 minutes. That means, when players would come off #9, they would immediately be backed up my new groups starting on #1. This was a disaster, as there were also teenagers in FIVE-SOMES on the course. Pace of play was brutal--was waiting on the tee box at least 10 minutes every hole. I gave up after spending over two hours playing only the first 7 holes. Additionally, the course itself is horrible--beaten up everywhere. You can't call yourself a "country club" when you can't operate it properly.

Tee boxes were in good shape, pace of play was good. Greens were challenging.

Checked in 55 minutes before tee time, no carts available until 20 minutes before tee time. Finally got cart and headed to driving range, vending machine balls to expensive $10 for 25 balls. On the 1st tee in front of us was a 5-some, not what you want to see on a busy day. The starters sheet appeared all wrong and he me down as a single but there was two of us, he was confused!! The 5-some later split up to a twosome and threesome. They were all poor players and didn't keep up with pace, left clubs behind. No rangers on the course that I saw to speed them up. The course was in terrible condition from the tee box full of divots, fairways bad, you had to move your ball many times to find any grass. Greens were pretty good. Sand traps were terrible, hard and not racked. For the money....the worst course I've ever played!!!! I have played this course in the past and it has really gone down hill, will not play it again!!!

I have played this track over 200 times and I have never seen the greens in this condition with pins in very difficult positions. One putt backed up 15 ft from a hole high miss from 20 ft….

Fairways were marginal and the tee boxes are getting bare.

Needs some tlc!

I played a Saturday afternoon round that was on offer for a decent price. I have played this course many times when it was Starfire and this is the first time since it has been renamed as the Scottsdale CC. While they are investing in upgrading certain elements of the course such as the range, and the short course and the new putting course, the course seemed understaffed and the absence of a starter, or any course rangers heavily impact the golf experience as well as a very odd incident on hole 8.

The King course conditions were pretty average, although they are going to be upgraded; however, the Greens were good and rolled true and the bunkers were pretty OK, so overall for the price they currently charge it was fair value. However the experience is let down by a couple of bizarre things that could easily be addressed with a ranger.. more staff..

Firstly on the 8th hole, a par 3 over a small pond surround by houses... we were held up from teeing off because some small children ran onto the green from a nearby house and picked up one of our groups balls... once we got to the green it was apparent there were many people in the patio of an overlooking house and the kids had presumably been sent on to the course to grab balls and one of the party was hitting shots on to the green... our group shouted to the house to make it clear this was not on but this was ignored.. the group behind us had to wait on the tee, it was only 4:30pm and the course was nowhere near closed.. totally unacceptable and had there been a ranger they could have addressed or been aware.

Secondly the pace of play was horrendous... while tee times were not spaced out too much (8 minutes) this was not the problem, the problem is the total lack of any ranger or advice given to players. Groups ahead of us we could see taking more than 10 strokes routinely to finish holes and were sharing clubs / lining up putts still.. While beginners can be expected there was no management at all of the pace of place and much of this can be solve with simple reminders. There were also gaps ahead of some groups so the issue was people not keeping up with the groups ahead or not being aware of etiquette.

While it was a cheap round, these things are very frustrating especially as they are so simple to address with basic oversight and management. The new owners definitely need to keep on top of actually managing the course and plan to match their obvious new investment. Staff that I did interact with seemed under pressure as there was so few of them..

We have played this course many times in the past and enjoyed it. In fairness, the owners are making significant investments in new facilities for the driving range and other amenities, so their attention is probably diverted from maintaining the course itself.

Our last round at Scottsdale country club was disappointing on a few counts:

- Poor Fairway conditions

- No sand in the bottles on the cart

- increased price of balls at the range ($10 for 25 ball warm-up bucket)

- slow pace of play (nearly 5 hours)

- No Marshall to assist with pace of play

- carts without windshields were a problem on the very windy day that we played.

A 6 hour round ! No course marshal . I’ve been a loyal player and have brought a lot of clients here . I have never experienced such a blatant disregard for pace of play .

5 hours to play 16 holes. Had to leave to make dinner. Teed off around noon. Slowest course in the valley. No rangers. They overstuff the tee sheet and do nothing to improve pace of play. Insanely bad for 160 bucks. Cart girls were nice.

This used to be my go to course after today I will never play again. He’s six hour round. No marshals pay A play absolutely horrible.

Looking forward to using the new trackman system at the driving range next time there.

Familiar course making improvements to range and putting area. Staff and course attendants are extremely friendly and professional. Still major problems with course drainage and irrigation. Mud mess along nearly every cart path on the course. Greens were great - fast. Looking forward to buying a summer pass.

Hitting fairways didn’t always mean on grass.. lots of inconsistency with wet areas and hard pan Greens were fine albeit most don’t fix their ball marks. Great price though and it’s central Scottsdale