Desert/Canyon at Phoenician, The

We booked about 3 weeks ago through Golf Now to play today. Course conditions were not good, with a number of fairways in bad shape. It felt like we were playing on a muni, as opposed to the most expensive course on this trip. For the dough we paid I was expecting an outstanding experience. There are many courses in the Phoenix area I would recommend, but this is not one of them.

Second time this week we have played the Venetian, and we think it’s terrific. Highly recommended!!

Great course! Incredible condition, great staff, well worth the hot deal!

The course is apparently all new, and although it was lovely and in excellent condition, the layout made for a lot of driving between holes. Will definitely go back.

Last time we played here was maybe two years ago, a beautiful course back then. We didn't know they had sold 9-hole since. The best 9 hole of the course were gone and none of our watches worked (I guess it was our own fault for not updating). The worst part is cart on path only, so a lot of walking back and forth. I never felt this exhausted at the end of a game.

Enjoyed the new Phoenician course with redesign of holes. Good special rate and staff very friendly. Played back nine first in 1 hour 15 minutes, then joined a threesome on hole 5. Played under 3 1/2 hours and really enjoyed the quality conditions and fairness of the course.

Walked this course with some friends in the afternoon. Felt like we had the place to ourselves until the last couple holes. A handful of these greens were sodded towards the end of the recent renovations because they ran out of time for grow-in. These greens were a bit soggy, but should firm up over the next few months. The conditions were good, but beyond the views, this course just didn't feel memorable. Had fun overall however. Wouldn't bring high-handicappers on busy days.

Sometimes you get addition by subtraction, which is exactly what happened at The Phoenician Golf Club after a renovation by local architect Phil Smith. What was once 27 uneven holes is a much cleaner 18-hole golf course now. Gone are some of the holes that were shoehorned into the mountainsides. The fairways are more generous now, and the course flows much better. Many of the holes are still recognizable, but with the repositioning of tees and greens, they are a lot more user-friendly.. Best of all, it's in fantastic condition with great scenery, much like most of the premium courses in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area. While I wouldn't rank The Phoenician among the very best, it's certainly a premium play that won't beat you up.

First time playing course since the renovation. Being it was Christmas the course was wide open, so pace of place was super fast.

Course was cart path only, which is not ideal. For the money I would not recommend as there are many other courses to play in the area.

I enjoyed playing the Phoenicion today. Everyone was friendly, the course layout fun, and the pace of play was under 4 hours. Conditions were a little wet due to fertilizer being recently put down, but considering it just opened last month after renovations I thought the course was in good shape. Still cart path only, which was ok, forcing me to get a little exercise.

Cartpath only until the grass grows in. No markers on the course in your GPS will not work. So not very good to judge distances. Greens are very gimmicky. Really didn’t enjoy it very much

I know it was Thanksgiving but pace of play was terrible. Course condition not great but I know it was recently opened. We will give this a rest for a couple of years.

This was my first time playing the Phoenician. Some people will compare the new layout to the old one but I have ncomparison to make. First off, I have to mention that we got the tee time in TeeOff.com for $82.00 each vs. The $160 on the Phoenicians website. That being said, I would have splurged and paid the full price after actually seeing the immaculate condition of the course. It’s a Troon managed course which pretty much says it all. I’ve never golfed a bad Troon course. The greens were pretty inconsistent as a result of the course renovation. Some were rock hard and laser fast while the next would be soft and slow. The general feeling around the club is pretty snooty and they definitely notice if you are a player who has booked with one of the online services. We overheard the staff at the bag drop mention the fact we were an online teetime. Overall the course was one of nicest courses I’ve played in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area.

The course is a simple and fairly easy lay-out with some challenging holes. Greens were hard and quite slick and would be a good golf experience, except for the pace of play of over 5h.

They are closing next week for a year.

we were not told they have left the course un-maintained and closed 17th hole and shortened 18.

no marshal and we had 4 drunks behind us hitting into us. we finished in 4 hours.

My wife and I were visitors to The Phoenician golf course on Wednesday, December 27th. We booked a tee time online on Monday and we were aware that the course was beginning its renovation process on January 8th, 2018; however, the entire experience was one that has left us disappointed and quite frankly very upset.

We typically play on city courses as they are more affordable for us to visit on a more frequent basis, but today was a special occasion. I purchased the round of golf for my wife and I as a first wedding anniversary gift thinking that it would be a nice treat for us to play a luxury course and enjoy the amenities that come with that type of course. Unfortunately, I was sorely mistaken and I wish that I had chosen to visit the Biltmore Golf Course, which would have been $20 cheaper and of a much higher caliber.

To begin with, we were not greeted in any fashion upon walking up to the bag drop. A gentleman did take our bags from us but only after we stood there for a minute or so looking around for assistance. We were told to visit the pro shop, where the gentleman behind the counter was very nice. We decided to spend our time waiting for our tee time on the practice putting green, which was expertly maintained with luscious green grass. If only I could have played my entire round on that single practice green as that was the only real grass that I was to see for the rest of the day.

As our tee time approached we got into our cart and headed to the first tee. As we were about to get ready to tee off, from hole 1, an employee approached us and said that we were actually going off of 10 and that another employee had gone to collect our playing partners for the day. This was the first interaction we had with one of your employees in regards to our round of golf for the day and it was all very disorganized. Our playing partners were very nice and their company was appreciated; however, they only had one full set of clubs between the two of them. The female of the group only had two clubs with her, an iron and a putter, for the entire course. While they were both very nice, this would never be allowed on any course we've played before and it did slow down our pace of play as she proceeded to tee off of almost every hole, including the par 5's, with an iron.

Mentioning pace of play, I was astounded to be approached before we had even finished the second hole about our pace of play. The "course assistant" rolled up as we were making our way down the fairway and proceeded to tell us that we needed to catch up with the group in front as the course was very busy today. My wife and I had yet to adjust to the poor course conditions, and as mentioned above in regard to our partner's club situation, we were still able to catch up with the group ahead of us by the 4th hole, finishing the entire round only 4 minutes over Time Par. It would have been nice to have some more time to acclimate to the course before being hounded about our pace of play.

Speaking of poor course conditions, I was astonished to see that major construction had already started and that the upkeep of the entire course was far from what we saw advertised on their website. As I mentioned at the beginning, we were aware of the upcoming construction, which the website stated was set to begin on January 8th. That being said, we did not expect to come across drained, brown, and smelly lakes, and dying greens and fairways that had clearly been painted green in an attempt to hide their true condition. In addition to the fairways and greens being painted, the general upkeep of the grass was poor - there were many divots that had not been repaired on a majority of the greens, and some of the greens were lacking in general repair as there were piles of dirt on them and very uneven edges. Overal, the entire course lacked a clean and manicured appearance, making us wish we had saved our money and supported one of our local, city courses.

In the end, we just wanted the round of golf to be over and done with so that we could go home. I am upset that I wasted my money on this course to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and would not reccommend it to anyone looknig for a luxury round of golf.

Going through a course design alteration , brown fairways. Not the Phoenician that it was last year.

Phoenician is one of my favorite places to play so I was surprised by the condition of the course. The staff let me know that the course will be closing in a month for 10 months so they did not over seed the course so the rough was in terrible shape. The also spray painted parts of the course green. I understand not over seeding as the course is closing in January but knock the price down to summer rates as the course was not worth the price and there was no notice of this on Golf Now when I reserved a tee time.