My Quest to Check Off Golf's Best Experiences

What I enjoyed about Southern Dunes is that it was so much different form the other desert golf courses that I played at We-Ko-Pa, Greyhawk, and Troon North.  That's not a knock on those courses, because they were beautiful and enjoyable experiences, but this one felt a little more like a course out in the prairie, rather than in the desert.  A good design with good strategic elements, Southern Dunes is well worth the trip from Phoenix or Scottsdale, and for the price, is the steal of Arizona!

#17, "Footprint," Par 3, 170 Yards


Uphill to the green with a green surface that cannot be seen from the tee.  Three bunkers are in the front and one bunker in the back with tons of bailout room on the left half of the green as well as long right.

#18, "Champion," Par 4, 406 Yards


One last hole at Southern Dunes to finish strong.  Bunkers are on either side off the tee.  However, after the first shot, it's the one pond on the course that comes into the play to the right of the hole.  This is the same pond that you saw on the 10th tee.  If you're timid and don't want to risk going near the water, there are bunkers on the left waiting.  Not much of a bailout on this one, so hit a solid shot and you've earned your trip to the 19th hole.

#16, "Gopher Snake," Par 5, 515 Yards


A long bunker lines the left side of the hole off the tee and then the right side of the hole on the second shot.  The green is deep and narrow, with bunkers on either side.  If you keep the ball on grass, you can make a good number here.

#13, "Journey," Par 5, 507 Yards


A par 5 that bends softly and steadily to the right.  Bunkers line the right side off the tee.  On the second shot, a well-positioned bunker sits in the landing area, and sits in the ideal spot for a short chip into the green.  If you're not going for the green in two, you'll want to lay up as close to the bunker as possibly to have the easiest chip into the green.

#14, "Beautiful Surroundings," Par 4, 283 Yards


A really cool short par 4 here and really well designed.  If you're going to take driver, the left side is the safe line (over the right-most left fairway bunker).  However, it presents a nasty up-and-down for birdie.  Taking a more aggressive line right at the green presents an easier up-and-down but risks getting into a bunch of different bunkers.  Or, you can just hit an iron down the right side of the fairway and leave yourself a good angle in with a short club.  This one is short enough to tempt the crazy play, but laying up is probably smarter and still leaves a very reasonable birdie chance.

#15, "Quiet," Par 4, 430 Yards


A center-line bunker forces you to make a decision off the tee.  Hitting to its right is the tighter target, but leaves the better line into the green.  Left is the easy drive, but harder approach.  The hole is long, but ignoring the center bunker is very wide.  A desert wash area juts out across much of the fairway and must be avoided.  We saw a wild coyote strolling around to the left side of this hole.  Somehow, I didn't get a picture of this one.  A shame.

#12, "Zig-Zag," Par 4, 408 Yards


Hugging the fairway bunker on the left side will provide the best angle into the green of this dogleg left with bunkers guarding the front right of the green.  There's plenty of room out right to safely avoid the fairway bunker, but just be aware that you'll be approaching a green that is pretty shallow from that angle.  The more you take on the bunker, the deeper it gets from the approach angle.  A good strategic hole.


#11, "Little Turtle," Par 3, 160 Yards


The first par 3 on the second nine plays into a boomerang-shaped green that reminded me a bit of the 9th at Harbour Town, aside from the fact that there are no bunkers behind the green.

#10, "By the Pond," Par 4, 366 Yards


There is one water hazard at Southern Dunes and you'll see it in two holes.  The tenth is the first hole and then you'll see the same pond again on the final hole.  The pond must be carried off the tee on this first hole of the inward nine.  Playing safe and down the left side isn't a bad play and will leave a reasonable line into the green.  There isn't  much of an advantage to be gained by hugging the water line.  After the pond, there is a large fairway bunker than stretches the remainder of the right side until the dogleg into the green, which is bordered by two bunkers on each side of the green.

#9, "Halfway Point," Par 4, 415 Yards


Another relatively long par 4 to finish the outward nine.  This one is a dogleg right with four bunkers surrounding the green and three staggered fairway bunkers.  Plenty of room off the tee.  It's an uphill approach into the green, so bring enough club to get home.

#8, "Hardest," Par 4, 429 Yards


The name of this hole says it, as this is the #1 handicap hole at Southern Dunes.  Four fairway bunkers flank the fairway in the landing zone, so a straight tee ball is critical.  From there, it's a long approach into a green that runs diagonally away from the player to the left with two greenside bunkers on the left.  A draw is the ideal shape for the approach.

#7, "By the Border," Par 5, 530 Yards


This long dogleg right par 5 sits at the northern edge of the property.  Bunkers exist in the landing areas off the tee and then in the lay-up zone.  With two round and deep bunkers in the front of the green and one in the rear, an approach needs to be carefully judged to safely avoid the trouble.  This hole was my only birdie at Southern Dunes, so I guess I'd say it's an opportunity to score.


#6, "Bobcat," Par 3, 200 Yards


There is a good mix of par 3 lengths at Southern Dunes.  While the 4th hole is a workable 145 yards, this one stretches all the way back to 200 yards, and 245 yards from the tips.  Again, the view of the green is blocked in spots by bunker faces, and a well sloped green defends against an easy par even if you do execute a good tee shot onto the green.  This is the second-hardest hole on the front nine, by handicap.

#4, "Willow Tree," Par 3, 145 Yards


The first one-shotter at Southern Dunes.  This one is slightly uphill to a green that is partly blind due to sharply cut sand-faced bunkers flashed back to the tee.  Like many of the holes at Southern Dunes, sand and green undulations are the primary hazards.

#5, "Wind Coming from All Directions," Par 4, 370 yards


The longest name for a hole I've ever seen!  This one bends a bit to the right with 7 bunkers strategically placed throughout the hole.  The best line into the hole will bring the right-hand fairway bunkers into play.  From there, the approach is a bit cleaner to avoid the pot bunker that is left of the green from that angle.  The farther to the safe side of the fairway, the move you'll need to actually carry a portion of that bunker depending on the pin position.  A good hole.

#3, "Wildhorse," Par 5, 467 Yards


From the Blue tees, this is a pretty short par 5, while it's 575 yards from the tips.  It's a soft dogleg to the left, with a well bunkered green to make you think when it comes to going for the green in two.  Avoiding the right fairway bunker off the tee is critical to setting up a chance to go at the green.

#2, "Trickster," Par 4, 310 Yards


This one is a short par 4 with the green dangling out there on the right side, over a large bunker.  I'm not long enough to consider getting home off the tee, so it was just a simple layup to a wide fairway.  In fact, the best angle into the green is from the safe line anyway, so even if I had been long enough to consider going for the green, it probably wouldn't have been the wise strategic play.

#1, "Good Day," Par 4, 382 Yards


A smooth dogleg right for your first hole of the day.  A bunker guards the shot-cut side of the fairway, and is around 230 yards to carry from the Blue Tees.  If you don't want to take on that bunker, there's more than enough room to play safe down the left half of the fairway, though it will leave a longer second shot into a well-protected green.  This would typically be good design strategy, though it's actually a bit odd on this hole as the best angle into the green is actually from the safe side of the fairway, on the left, which will open up a green with a large bunker front right and two bunkers flanking the rear.  You can see from the second picture below, which is taken from the opposite side of the left-hand fairway bunker, how the best line into the green is from the left side, which is the safe side off the tee.  A bit weird.

The Phoenix area is a very popular place for golf trips.  It's a bit tricky to find the number of golf courses in the Phoenix metro area, but by multiple sources, it exceeds 200.  Therefore, you could theoretically play every day for about 7 months (and weather would probably allow it!) and not repeat a golf courses.  Wow!  However, most people who play golf in the Phoenix area focus their attention on the famous courses in the Scottsdale area.  However, if you focus strictly on Scottsdale, you'll miss some great hidden gems.  Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club is one of those hidden gems.


Similar to nearby We-Ko-Pa, Southern Dunes is located in a Native American Community, the Ak-Chin Indian Community in this case.  The golf course is part of the attractions in this area that include a Harrah's casino.  However, that's where the similarities between We-Ko-Pa and most of the other desert golf courses in the Valley of the Sun end.  Southern Dunes is well south of Phoenix, and located in a reasonably rural area, which you will note right when you get out of your car.  There is a farm smell to Southern Dunes, and that smell is probably part of the reason that I was warned about the black flies that would be commonly found on the golf course.  I was warned to bring bug spray, and lots of it!  I came prepared, and they were definitely around, but I wouldn't say it was as much of a nuisance as I had been prepared for.


Due to the location, and perhaps the bugs, Southern Dunes is probably the biggest bargain and source of value in the area.  I played in early June, when the best bargains exist, for under $30 per person, including cart.  Even as I write this, in the middle of January and peak season in Arizona, it's only $99 to play Southern Dunes, while it's $200+ to play many of Scottsdale's most famous tracks like Troon North, Grayhawk, TPC Scottsdale and We-Ko-Pa.  Somewhat unique to Southern Dunes is the "Dynamic Pricing" model that they have, where greens fees will vary based on supply and demand.


So what do you get when you make the trek out of the city and down to Maricopa?  Well, pretty darn good golf really.  This is a very playable golf course for all players.  It doesn't have many of the target golf requirements that typical desert golf courses have.  In fact, as I said before, this isn't really a desert course at all.  The course claims Fred Couples as its designer and Schmidt-Curley Design as its architect.  It's well bunkered, and has more movement and undulation in the land than most courses in the area.  In fact, the course is respected enough that it often serves as a local qualifying site for the US Open.


Perhaps some of the reason why it can stand up to the requirements of a US Open qualifying site is the length of Southern Dunes.  In fact, I can't remember a time when I've ever felt as emasculated as at Southern Dunes!  I would usually choose a golf course that is somewhere around the 6,500 yard mark, and Southern Dunes was no different.  However, when I chose to play the Blue tees at Southern Dunes, which played to 6,493 yards, I was playing the fourth set of tees from the back!  Behind the blues are the Gold tees at 6,889 yards, the Black at 7,307 yards, and the Tips at 7,517.  All sets of tees played to a par of 72, with my Blue tees playing to a rating / slope of 70.6 / 126.  As I said, if you can keep it out of the ample sand, and pick the right tees, you can score here.  I'll refer to distances from the Blue tees below:

Southern Dunes Golf Club

Maricopa, Arizona



Checked off the Bucket List June 5, 2013


Golf Magazine:

#87, Top 100 Courses You Can Play (2012)

#5, Best Public Golf Courses in Arizona (2012)