Sidewinder Golf Course at Gold Canyon Golf Resort (Gold Canyon/Scottsdale/Phoenix, AZ):
This is the less expensive easier sister course of Dinosaur Mountain, about 40 minutes southeast of where we stayed in north Scottsdale (~$40 Uber on a Saturday morning). You have views of the Superstition Mountains and Dinosaur Park/Mountain and the drive had some nice views and let us look at huge $20M+ houses on Zillow we saw on the way. I was hesitant to pick this course instead of shelling out the $235 to play Dinosaur Mountain, but it was a really fun round with great views and I’m very happy to have saved a little money during their peak season. The first course I play next time I’m in AZ will be Dinosaur Mountain because if it beats Sidewinder, it probably will be in my top 3 courses anywhere. We got paired with a single who was an older retired member who laughed at everything we said and was great to play with. He told us Dinosaur Mountain is tougher and weaves through the mountains more with more elevation and different views than Sidewinder, so I’m excited to play there next time.
We played here this past Saturday after hunting around for a higher rated course under $200 since December-March rates are all jacked up 50-100% of fall/spring rates and all of the courses I had heard of were fully booked or out of our price range for this trip. I actually booked the tee time Friday morning at about 5:45am while boarding my flight to Phoenix, and almost had a panic attack when I realized I had sleepily not changed the date and booked it for Friday right around when I was going to be landing. My girlfriend was already in AZ for work and called them while I was mid-flight and they had no problem pushing it to Saturday. It was cool to cold and probably around 50 degrees out but the sun came out and I never felt cold during the round.
Ratings:
- Price: $-$$ - Cart Girl: Yes - Views: 8.5/10 - Difficulty: 5.9/10 - Course: 8.7/10 - Overall: 9.1/10
- Price: $-$$ ($130-165 on 1/21 and I’m assuming $65-90 in the spring/fall if the peak season rate premium is similar to other Phoenix area courses). To compare to some other courses in January, Dinosaur Mountain was $235, TPC was $525+, Troon North was $430+, McCormick Ranch was ~$200, Raven Golf Club was $200-220, We-Ko-Pa was $280+, McDowell Mountain was $219, Quintero was $333-388. I think Sidewinder could charge more and I think it still would be priced at $130-165 year round if this course was in Michigan even without the backdrop of the mountains. It honestly gets hurt by being the “sister” course of Dino Mountain. Awesome value.
- Cart Girl: Yes, and there is a snack bar with bathrooms behind 9’s tee boxes near the clubhouse and range where you started. Brats were good and loaded with jalapeños and other peppers. Don’t tee off on 9 expecting to get food at the turn like normal - make sure to stop there before 9.
- Views: 8.5/10 - tough to give a good rating since I haven’t played other Phoenix area courses yet, but we constantly were pausing to look around and appreciate the backdrop on most of the holes. There were a few elevated tee boxes if playing the golds, blacks, and sometimes blues and whites, but I know Dinosaur Mountain and I’m sure some of the other big name courses have more elevation.
- Difficulty: 5.9/10 - this is a fairly short par 71 course and felt pretty easy after I started this year at some tougher FL courses where I’ve played awful and struggled with Bermuda grass. There is plenty of desert/wash (dry rubble/desert areas where rain collects and drains but you can still play your ball out of there), which is what I was hoping for vs a manicured lush resort style course, but I only ran into it once with a hook off the tee that derailed my round a little on the back 9. I shot a +2 73, which is just above my handicap, with 3 birds on the front 9, which is definitely the easier of the sides. The greens were in great shape but weren’t crazy fast and I saw quite a few flat putts. They don’t water the rough other than near greens, and it was mostly kept pretty short so approaches weren’t difficult.
The first hole (picture 7/11 with gold and black tees circled) is an easy handshake hole with a little teebox elevation that I didn’t realize was a par 5 at first since it was marked 477. I hit a hybrid off the tee to lay up short of water on the left and hit a 5 iron from ~230 to ~20 feet where I didn’t realize I was putting for eagle. You immediately have nice views and it’s very nice to get gifted a birdie to start a round.
However, 18 (picture 8/11) is another par 5 that also is only about 480 from the black tees, but it plays much tougher since the fairway gets narrow where you would land a longer drive, its green is elevated and narrow front to back with front and back bunkers so mid irons have to be perfect to reach in 2 if you lay up off the tee, and the entire front and right of the green is a fairly steep slope off into desert/wash/brush that you’re in if you miss the green at all (picture 6/11). I blocked my drive into the brush, hit my second into that greenside hill that rolled into the desert right and below the green, and almost broke a club trying to get back on to the green. Also of note: its gold tees are like 10 feet off of 16’s green (picture 5/11), which is the closest I’ve ever seen a tee box to a green. I waited in the fairway for a while staring at some guys at that teebox thinking they were the group in front of us just hanging out next to the green.
5 (picture 10/11) is a short par 4 dogleg left ~330 from golds and blacks, but they force you to lay up because the teeboxes point right/at the fairway before the bend, it’s a half blind shot, and the only direct line to the green is an intimidating high drive directly at a bunch of condos’ windows along the left side of the tee box. You would have to hit a draw starting maybe 100 yards right of the green to avoid the condos if you can’t launch it absurdly high. If you can only work the ball left to right from those tees, you’re killing an old lady on her porch or you’re hitting something like 150 off the tee to the start of the fairway to avoid the condos. It’s not that hard if you can work it right to left about 225-250.
So there are plenty of holes that force you to lay up like above, or they make you lay up if you can’t carry it 320+ (I can’t), and they protect a few greens with trouble in front. But I also wasn’t playing that great and managed to score pretty well so this has to be on the easier side. If you get wild off the tee and get stuck in the desert areas then I can see this being tougher.
- Course: 8.7/10 - range balls included, but mats only on the side of the range near the clubhouse. They intentionally don’t have rakes at bunkers but the sand isn’t too fluffy and footprints weren’t an issue - the member joked that they’re doing this to try to be Pine Valley. Nice clubhouse and grill/restaurant with a ton of gear you can buy. Most of their clothes have a dinosaur logo on it, which is corny, but I like it for some reason. You see plenty of rabbits, different types of birds, coyotes, and I was told there were a few bobcats/mountain lions roaming around one green around Christmas.
I already wrote plenty about a few holes and made note of the greens being pretty easy in the Difficulty section above, but most importantly, there weren’t any boring holes that I hated or couldn’t remember, which is what I really care about for a good course. I also never felt cheated or felt that a hole or green was unfair, and the conditions were great throughout the round. There were a couple tee boxes on the back 9 that I thought should be flattened a little more, but there was never a time where I couldn’t find a flat spot to tee off. I planned for fliers out of the rough since the ball often was propped up, and greenside chipping and pitching felt like butter. There was never a concern with digging like with FL’s grabby Bermuda grass.
I like long courses and can move it pretty well, but I thoroughly enjoyed this course and had no problem with it being a little shorter. If you’re someone that needs really tough greens, 3 woods/DODs into par 5 greens, 220-250 yard par 3s, and a Rolex clock near the putting green then this course probably isn’t for you, but I still think you’ll enjoy it for the views and will appreciate the value. I had to work the ball both ways, I had to plan my shots, and I was punished when I took on too much risk or got wild, so it’s still a very good course in my mind. Course quality might be similar or a hair below something like Hawk Hollow, but it has the add-ins of desert and shrubs instead of trees, a beautiful mountain backdrop, and some elevation that makes the course more fun to me.
- Overall: 9.1/10 - this is my 6th ranked course out of 61 logged on the Grint, behind Forest Dunes at #5 and in front of Broad Run (West Chester, PA) and several very good MI courses like Eagle Eye, Harbor Shores, Shepherd’s Hollow, Timber Ridge, Eagle Crest, Coyote Preserve, and the Garland and Grand Traverse courses.
The price compared to the rest of the 4*+ rated courses on Google Maps in the Phoenix area was great for peak season and it had pretty much everything I wanted from an AZ course. I’m sure other bigger name courses in the area are nicer, more manicured, and more challenging, but they’re probably courses I just want to play once or twice to experience while Sidewinder is a place where I’d love to play in a league every week. I’m someone that has Pilgrim’s Run ranked ahead of Forest Dunes because I just flat out really enjoy that course, and Sidewinder is another example of a course that I just really had fun at. My girlfriend didn’t play very well for her standards but was in agreement - she couldn’t put her finger on what made her like the course so much, but it was great. I would play here all the time if I lived close by, especially given its price relative to the area.