Mickelson National Golf Club

For the money laid out you should expect better. Greens were punched and sanded, driving range was closed and the fairways were pretty thin on grass. Some greens are terribly unfair…Phil must think everyone carries a 64 degree wedge and can flop straight up. Beside some greens there are mounds impossible to get over and then hold the green. Not sure why designers think gimmicky is better. Anyway, won’t be back unless I get a 2 for 1 pass.

Played Mickelson National for the first time yesterday. First impressions were not great. Showed up for an early tee time to find the building locked. A couple of kitchen staff were in the parking lot so called their supervisor. Fortunately, the cleaning staff was around to let them in but the building remained locked to golfers until the pro shop staff arrived. We were the second time out so pace of play was not an issue. Course was in good shape. Fairways were nice, very few bare spots. Greens were extremely fast and received shots reasonably well for a new course.

It’s an impressive design when you consider how much earth had to be moved to make a parcel of flat land play like rolling hills. The vistas are very nice as the mountains are viewable in the distance. What our group didn’t like was the extreme design features. Bunkers were very deep - even in the fairway. The contours of the greens were likewise extreme with many ridges and mounds that directed balls sometimes away from the hole and sometimes toward it with dramatic results. Fairways were generous if you could avoid the bunkers. Unfortunately, playing it for the first time we had no idea how far away things were, where the trouble was or how to avoid it. All we had was a very plain score card that listed hole yardages. It would have been nice for the price they asked to have a GPS or a pocket pro to help guide us around. Several times one of our group would hit what appeared to be a good shot into the green only to see it find some unseen swail that pushed the ball many yards from the hole.

The starter was a friendly fellow who also came out and marshalled the course. We gave him our thoughts that the course would have made a much nicer experience if they made the bunkers half as deep, the green contours half as steep and the fairway slopes half as severe. There were a few design features that we could charitably describe as “hokey”. We decided to tag the overall design as “Mickelson Mouse”. We were told that Mickelson designed it to suit his game. I would suggest that anyone who wants to play it invest in a 64 degree wedge and learn to hit dinner sized plate targets with a sufficient amount of spin to achieve an effective shot.

Would I recommend this course to friends? Only if there are lower handicap, have an extra bag of balls they wish to lose or get a free pass to play the course. This is not what I would call a friendly course. It has potential but not in its current form. I would give it a miss given other courses in the area and proximity to the courses in Banff/Canmore. Definitely not for the casual golfer.

This spring the Alberta Golf Tour announced that they would hold one of their tournaments at Mickelson National so it was one of the first ones I signed up to play.

My last visit here was in Aug/2019 when management offered the general public a sneak peek of 10 holes that were ready for play.

It's great to see the progress that has been made as all 18 holes are now open. The ranch style single-storey clubhouse is in varying stages of completion. Staff were friendly and attentive. The driving range and short game practice area is also coming along nicely.

I found the main parking lot to be extremely small (about 35 vehicles were jammed into a 25 vehicle lot), but there was an overflow lot that was capable of handling the extra traffic that today's tournament brought to the course.

The ancient EZ-GO golf carts of two years ago have been replaced with a fleet of the worst ergonomically designed golf carts on the market...Club Cars. Had the club bought Yamaha carts, I might have been inclined to give them an extra star.

Mickelson National offers a course that should appeal to golfers appreciative of both classic and modern design. The six sets of tees on each hole means golfers of every ability is served. It has wide, rolling fairways that let you hit bombs. The blow out style bunkering is reminiscent of Chambers Bay. I'm not sure why some of the bunkers were filled with white sand and others had brown sand. The numerous elevation changes and vistas compliment the surrounding scenery. Each hole seemingly has a character of its own.

The green complexes are heavily contoured and well thought out. Today's green speeds were faster than greased lightning. Don't ask me how many putts I had, but if I my last name was DeChambeau, I probably would have had a meltdown and thrown a fit.

The course is coming along nicely and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this course to any golfer. It's just a whole lot of fun to play.

WOW, what a fantastic course!

Best layout in the Calgary area.

The amount of earth moved to shape this course has got to be up there with a Pete Dye gem....fantastic sight lines from the tees, beautiful bunkering, and very challenging course set up which requires the correct shot shape.

The overall design reminded me a lot of some Scott Miller tracks in the Scottsdale area and the bunkering reminded me a lot of Nick Faldo courses in Scottsdale and Montana(links style).

The only knock i have is with the price.....you can’t charge premium green fees when your course isn’t there yet! I understand it’s gonna be private and that You can’t bag on a course that is brand new in a smaller market......it’s gonna take time for this course and amenities to get there, but the price should reflect its infancy.

Great track by Mr Bombs!

This course is definetly beautiful but it is run by an extremely unethical management. They have no commitment or loyalty to their members. Phil Mickelson would be ashamed that he lent his name to such a group. The current management is so uneithical that they won't even honor the commitments made by their own top management guys.

This course is many years away from being ready to play.
No clubhouse, driving range is a joke - not even a yardage marker on it.
Now to the course... fairways are like rock and the extreme mounding everywhere bounces the ball all over the place. Many waste areas near the greens are nearly unplayable. The green complexes are extreme and they will not even hold a well struck iron. Mounding around the greens are ill designed. Watching a ball roll 80 feet on the green and then into a hazard... not really golf I would want to experience again. I had heard that the greens were of good quality... after playing there today, I can assure you they are not.
I highly doubt that this course will be around for too long, as once you play it, it is not likely you will ever play it again.
I simply don’t understand the design... maybe just trying to make a Disney style golf course. The Windmill Group blew this design, in my opinion.
My advice would be to stay away from this place as I would not play it again... even if they paid me to play it!

Very disappointing experience we played in September 9th and were surprised when we reached the first green to find that it had been punched and sanded, the green were completely unplayable , there was no mentioned of the greens being aerated when booking the tee times or checking in, generally green fees are reduced to compensate. Very greedy of the course to charge full price and give no warning. The tee boxes should have hammers so one may put a peg into the ground . Overall it appears this course is not ready enough for play at this point. Give it ten yrs with new experienced maintenance and grounds crew ,Golf value is - 40-50$ , We were taken for 110$. Additionally the golf cart rattles like old cart and no signed for distance on the driving range

This is a new golf course and you can tell. 8:30 am tee off on a beautiful day.The layout is unique on 3 maybe 4 holes. A lot of our groups tee shots funnelled to the middle of the fairways where the divots are .It is an easy walking course. The tee boxes should have hammers so one may put a peg into the ground . The greens were quite bumpy from all the ball marks or lack of repaired ball marks. You will have a 12 ft put and have to fix 4 or 5 ball marks. Grass is not growing in several areas of the course. The sand in the bunkers is magnificent! However there is also mud in them aswell. Signage and direction is nowhere to be found. Overall it appears this course is not ready enough for play at this point. Give it ten yrs with new experienced maintenance and grounds crew ,and this will be a nice course to host a great tournament. Golf value is - 30-40$ , I was taken for 115$ And didn’t lose a ball , Unless I have to play in a tournament here, I will give it quite a few years before I go back. Hopefully it improves immensely.

,,,,Then again what course wouldn’t?

I’m a scratch golfer here and I’ve played and travelled across North America and competed junior golf.

I will start with the positives:
This course is unbelievable for what they have done and made in such a short time. Let’s not forget this course was built out of flat land. When you play and see elevation changes, just keep that in mind. It’s remarkable and often really overlooked.

It’s a long and difficult course but they have cut the rough down to make it more enjoyable.

They are moving extremely fast to make this course proper. What I mean by that is they opened the course early and in a matter of 3 months. Built a full blown driving range, temp clubhouse is coming up, all bathroom/shacks are being built, pairing of asphalt is going in. It’s great to see this happening so quick.

It’s extremely long, and such a great variations in shots. This is a course where I used almost every single club in my bag and that speaks for itself. Real golfers knows what that means.

This is course that you go to when you are going on a. Golf trip. I haven’t experienced this until I went to my destination course. It gives that vibe to me when I play here. It just feels special.

The negatives and areas of improvement:
— like the person below said, early in the season the fairways were tough. The grass and dirt foundation was not there earlier in the year. But that is “expected” for a new virgin course. Now a better way to approach it is to delay the opening. But honestly I appreciate them rushing this out
- Cost, you pay to play one of the courses in the country.
- non members coming to the course. Obviously they are trying to create the hype. I respect that, Calgary is going through a tough time.
- initially the greens weren’t holding any balls (May). I just played again after 3 months off and now the greens are really nice and holding. I do agree, there is 2 hole where the digits on the greens are not repaired by the players. This comes with non-members and people who are just trying to mess around the course. But the course should give free divot repair tools to the lower level golfers.
- cart fees are standard but like there a bit of stretch
-trees need to mature.

Sounds like I have more negative than positives but I want to show the negatives for the course to see and improve on.

The initial plan for a course at this location was born in 2003. That idea was resurrected in 2014 by the Windmill Golf Group and together with five time major winner Phil Mickelson, that long awaited vision will come to fruition in 2020. Located a few miles west of Calgary, the Mickelson National Golf Club offered a sneak peek of their course to golfers this past summer. I wasn't about to let the six hour drive be an excuse not to take them up on this offer a second time around.

To bring this course to life, it's evident that a lot of "earth" was moved to make this little piece of "heaven". I can't help but believe that this stadium like layout may very well have been crafted and inspired to some extent by the majesty of the Rocky Mountains to the west.

The score card offered for the days round indicates that this track plays from 4938 yards and reaches out to a lengthy 7372 yards from the tips, although the final yardages have yet to be written in stone. The fairways tumble and roll throughout the entire course. Phil is an enthusiastic driver of the ball and the design of this course allows players to demonstrate their driving abilities (or lack of) and "hit bombs" on every hole but the par 3's. A wonderful collection of blowout style bunkering is found everywhere and the placement of these hazards are as strategic as they are aesthetic. These well shaped bunkers are either filled with tan colored or brilliant white sand. Shots finding the rough appeared to come out with some predictability but if you found the tall thick fescue, you were in a world of hurt. Water can be found on the course but the fairways should be easier targets to hit. The routing of the course felt seamless as the holes flowed nicely from one to the next.

Plenty of thought went into the making of the greens and green complexes, they are magnificent. Most are protected by stout bunkering and slopes that will bump missed approach shots away from the putting surfaces. The greens are large, well contoured and putts rolled consistently. Holes 16, 17 and 18 were great fun and made the finish to the round very satisfying.

I did stray from the 10 designated holes that were open for play and had a hurried view of the rest of the course. It wouldn't come as no surprise if Mickelson National finds its way onto some one's list of "best new courses". Members will certainly have something to look forward to come the spring of 2020 when all 18 holes of this stunning new playground are opened.

It's not often that the average golfer has an opportunity to play a new course before it officially opens. This past summer, the Mickelson National GC, operated by the Windmill Golf Group allowed early access of this otherwise private course to the general public from June through September, 2019. Ten of the 18 holes were open for play. Located just west of Calgary on the Trans Canada Highway, the Mickelson National GC is expected to open all 18 holes in time for the 2020 golf season.

The first hole introduces you to the rolling terrain that runs throughout the course and is interrupted by fantastic blow out style bunkering. The fairways are generous and framed by playable rough and then by unbelievably thick and treacherous fescue (hint...stay out of the fescue). There are a few elevation changes on the course, nothing dramatic, but just enough to make you think through your club selection on a few of your approach shots.

The greens offer an exceptional variety of sizes and shapes and are protected by false fronts, greenside bunkering and the occasional water hazard. The greens are well contoured and rolled perfectly.

Although this review is only based on the 10 holes that were available for play, I think Phil has delivered a bold and modern design that compliments the surrounding views. It's a wonderful mix of rolling parkland with a strong linksy feel to it.