Talking Stick Golf Club - Piipaash Course

It's a golf course. I didn't pay a lot to play it so I'm not heartbroken I was underwhelmed.

One of the rating criteria is staff friendliness. And I have to say that when I checked in, the staff member did not look at me address me say hello to me or say even one word to me. He just took my money and gave me my receipt and sent me to the starter. It really got my experience off on a bad foot. I felt like he was being kind of snobbish.

The single most annoying thing about this golf course is that the entire time a group of four drunks was riding around the course hitting golf balls blasting music from a boombox. I've never seen anything like it. And there was not even a staff member anywhere around that I could ask to ask them to be quiet. I mean this is not Dogpatch municipal. This holds itself out as a resort course in a resort destination. And it's really unacceptable to have that behavior go not only uncorrected but unaddressed entirely. It just doesn't belong on a golf course.

The course itself was just bland. Meh. Nothing sticks out in my memory, nothing made me go wow, I just remember it was 18 holes each one of them with the tee box at the beginning and a green at the end with a hole and a flagstick in it. So, it's a golf course, you can play 18 holes on it, but in my mind don't be expected to be overwhelmed. It's a very underwhelming course.

On a positive note, the practice facilities are excellent. It's one of the largest driving ranges I've ever seen. And the views on the back nine were fairly spectacular as the sun was setting. There was also a lot of wildlife to observe, we saw a herd of wild horses running through the desert, and a bunch of coyotes run across the golf course. That was pretty cool.

The scenery was beautiful. Fairway, rough and greens were in good condition, however, sand traps could be more sand. Nice driving range but putting green could have had more holes cut in.

Generous fairways, but uninteresting layout, not very memorable holes. Every hole seems much like the last. Great condition, but there are better alternatives for the same money.

We played at 2:18, got a decent rate. We were paired up with a father and son and as a foursome we waited on almost every hole. We played the back nine by ourselves and continued to wait on every shot. By 6:30 we were on the 17th hole and it got very cold once the sun went down. We did not finish our round. Left after completing the 17th hole. Had we finished, it would have been a 4.5 hour round.

The course was in excellent shape, great mountain views, very friendly staff and good pace of play. I like the convenience of the driving range and practice putting green where it is located between the 2 courses. Generally, wide fairways with the challenge being bunkers around the greens.

Over 4 1/2 hour round and groups in front of us didn’t rake traps when they were done. For the first round of the year it was just fine.