Posted on

GK Guru Recap The Boulders (NORTH) Carefree Arizona

The Boulders (North)

Carefree, AZ

ALERT: Overseeding
Will be overseeding 9/17 – 10/7, reopening 10/8 and likely cart path only for 2-3 weeks after reopening.
* Although Greenskeeper.org researches all alerts before posting, we ask that you please contact the golf course for confirmation.

Reviewed by: JohnnyGK, Thousand Oaks

Golf Playing Conditions 6.70 GOOD
Golf Playing Conditions 6.70 GOOD

Great time on Friday teeing up with GK’ers Daveygolf123 and rjmart at The Boulders Resort North Course. Since there was very few golfers playing, we joined up at times to make a fivesome (not allowed) with GK’ers sixpez and mpisarski01. Tons of fun.

Regarding the golf course, I think we caught the perfect storm…at the wrong time. The place got absolutely slammed the night before by monsoon rains/micro bursts. It was very wet, there were busted branches, washed out bunkers, downed cactus, and areas being cleaned up after flooding. To the golf course’s credit the grounds crew members were hustling and all over the place. Also you could tell the fairways were being less tended to with overseeding approaching (not uniformly lush as expected). So I need to circle back and play this track again. It was however in very good shape. Greens being the highlight mostly smooth, firm and moderate speed. Something tells me had they been able to cut and roll the greens instead of dealing with storm damage they would have been much better.

I’ve seen photos of The Boulders for years, however those signature pictures are almost all taken of the South Course, not the North “members” Course we played. The North course is still a very good fun layout but does not have the “wow” effect of the South Course. I snapped a few pics anyway.

GRG - GK Review Guru GoodService was excellent. The Clubhouse feels like a country club and they even have a separate looker room for The Boulders members. The breakfast burrito was outstanding, thank you GK’er rjmart for picking that up for me. I did not get a chance to use the driving range but it looked nice, all grass and lush. Word of advice, use the bag drop. The members parking takes up the majority for the front parking lot and the walk from the back lot to pro-shop is long (especially in the summer).

To repeat, I need to play this place again and catch it when it’s in its typical condition. I also need to play the signature South Course. Maybe 36 in one day? That would be a blast.