Maricopa | Arizona Golf Course Reviews

Southern Dunes – Arizona Golf Courses
Fred Couples is the architect of record at Southern Dunes, a former all-men’s club near the small farming community of Maricopa, even if most of the work was done by local architects Brian Curley and Lee Schmidt, a super-solid tandem that hails from Scottsdale. Couples has collaborated with Schmidt-Curley on six golf courses around the country and Arizona’s Southern Dunes Golf Club is the most recent, as well as the best of the lot.

Located southwest of Phoenix off Interstate 10, Southern Dunes is a top-notch championship golf course ranging from 6,000 yards to a whopping 7,517 yards, although a set of forward tees at 5,102 yards is now in place. The original concept of a private, men’s club has been retired and Southern Dunes now welcomes public play, after being purchased by the Ak-Chin Native American Tribe, which also owns the Harrah’s Casino just a few miles down the road.

Managed by Troon Golf, which does not oversee “average’’ golf courses, Southern Dunes is fun, fair, fast and furious. If you think you can play a bit and wish to test your metal, Southern Dunes is a great venue – tee it up from the tips and you’ll learn quite quickly if and where you stand in the elite players gang.

Southern Dunes is a regular venue for U.S. Open qualifying events in the southwest region, and hosted PGA Tour qualifiers back when the Tour selected its members that way.

The fairways are wide and rolling and meander between the namesake dunes, while the greens are big and subtle with lots of bunkering. If you choose to play it back, you definitely need length off the tee, but precise approach shots to the elegant green complexes at Southern Dunes are a test everyone can enjoy.

The round begins with a sweeping, left-to-right uphill par-4 and never lets up, especially as it makes the turn. Be prepared: the 10th, 11th and 12th holes are a par 4-3-4 back side opening, jab-jab-right cross knockout punch that finds many players picking themselves up off their own backside as well.

You’ve been warned to be prepared and it’s easy to do your homework before you play; here’s your tutorial – the Video Course Fly-over of each hole at Southern Dunes.

Some feel the 18th, a scenic uphill par-4 to a water-guarded green is the coup de grace, but the truth is Southern Dunes starts with a bang and the fireworks never stop, which is why national publications rank it near the top of their lists of best public golf courses in Arizona – now that it’s open to general public play, that is.

The 8,000 s.f. clubhouse is rustic cowboy-cool, with a genuine a ranch house vibe, and together with the full-service Grille 109 is great spot to relax after the round. If you’re going to try the grub, have them rustle you up the pulled pork sandwich and a draft or two.

AZGA Arizona Golf Authority “Local Hang” for Southern Dunes Golf Club includes the Club’s Grille 109 and, if you want a little “action” along with your libation, visit the Ak-Chin tribe’s Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino just down the road from the golf course.

Read the Arizona Golf Course Review for every golf course in Arizona. It’s just one part of “All Things Arizona Golf” at the Arizona Golf Authority.

The Buzz: The late John Wayne was more concerned with dogies than bogeys when he owned ranches in the area, but the legendary actor provided the right theme for this course designed by David Druzisky in Maricopa. A western feel fits nicely with The Duke, an 18-hole public course that opened in 2003 and was acquired in 2010 by Ahwatukee Golf Properties.

The player-friendly layout has four sets of tees, ranging from 5,137 to 7,011 yards, and plays to par 72. It is rated at 72.6 with a slope of 126 from the back tees. Construction crews had to move 3 million yards of dirt to create housing sites around the course, in the process creating contours and subtle shapes to define the layout that began as a flat piece of land. The Santa Rosa Wash, which snakes through the property, accents several holes. This was farming country, which included the Red River Farms owned by Wayne, first as a cotton farm and later as a cattle ranch.

In keeping with the western theme, tee markers are made of sawn-off pieces of train rails and bag tags are in the shape of a boot with a spur on the back that spins around. A 6,000-square-foot ranch-style clubhouse is reminiscent of an Arizona territorial lodge with its rustic steel roof and a stallion sculpture at the front entry. Inside, it is decorated with Western-inspired paintings, horseshoes, branding irons and spurs, and the Silver Spur Grill serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner. No, Wayne never dined here, but he often visited the Table Top Tavern in nearby Stanfield, where he shared many a toast with local farmers. He was a beloved figure in this area southeast of metro Phoenix, and the Duke course runs along a road renamed John Wayne Parkway.

Druzisky was careful not to trick up the course with unnecessary hazards and obstacles that some designers can’t resist. That doesn’t mean it is without challenges, especially for those who try to lasso it from the tips. “The Duke was designed to give the golfer a sense of arrival and discovery,” Druzisky said. “I wanted to accommodate different styles of play by giving golfers conservative and aggressive options.”

The par 3s are particularly strong. No. 5, which is considered the signature hole, plays at 177 yards over water to an island green ringed with palm trees and a mountain backdrop. The par-3 16th, at 225 yards, is tougher with an elevated tee where the target line is a giant bunker that protects the left side of the green and almost completely blocks the view of the green. The par-4 12th and par-3 13th also are memorable holes with their dynamic bunkering, where Druzkisky emulated a Pine Valley look. The finishing hole is a 523-yard par 5 with a left dogleg, plenty of native vegetation and water running down the left side.

Druzisky chose the name “Duke” for the course because of Wayne’s history in the area and its “rough and tumble” sound. But he also presented a very playable course with wide fairways, large greens and mild desert transition areas. Golfers who play here won’t ride off into the sunset feeling beat up.