Foothills Golf Club

Golf Course Review Foothills Golf Club Phoenix Arizona

Reviewed by: jamesg18015, Phoenix, AZ

I played Foothills on New Year’s Day 2020, around 10:50am on a teeoff.com deal time for around $45 after promo code and tax. Paired with three other randoms on the same deal. POP was about 3.5 hours, the course was not busy at all, didn’t really catch anyone until the last few holes. Carts were fairly new, course does appear walkable but with maybe 2 longer green-tee hikes, and I did see a twosome walking.

This course and its “sister course” nearby, Ahwatukee CC, have a bit of a local reputation for being scruffy and water-starved under their current owner, who also owned the two other courses in Ahwatukee that closed down in the past few years (Club West and Ahwatukee Lakes).

The Review

The tees, fairways, and greens were actually in pretty good condition. One member of the group said he plays the course often, and it is in the best shape he’s seen it in after some serious conditioning problems in the past few years. The cart attendant had also mentioned they basically lost the greens last summer. They seem to have made a nice comeback. That being said, everything more than 15 yards off the fairways just looks awful and scruffy, even the retaining walls bordering the homes on the course all have peeling/missing paint, are falling apart, lots of weeds, etc. The dormant rough also does not extend very far out from the fairway on most holes and turns into sandy/weedy areas. These off-fairway conditions don’t bother me much, but I know they do turn off some people, especially if paying winter rack rate of $70+.

The greens were deceptively fast, and rolled smoother than their appearance would have suggested. One thing I did like about the conditioning is that they left the dormant rough cut fairly high around the greens, so one could easily get under the ball and hit high lofted pitches; most local courses shave these down (or they get matted down from traffic) and are like hitting off a sidewalk.

I’d play it again when in the area but probably would not make a special trip from my home 40 minutes away.