Gold Canyon Golf Resort (Sidewinder)

Gold Canyon, AZ

ALERT: Aeration
Will be aerating the greens on the Sidewinder Course 7/8 – 7/12, reopening 7/13.
* Although Greenskeeper.org researches all alerts before posting, we ask that you please contact the golf course for confirmation.

Reviewed by: jciapa02, Mesa, AZ

My twosome played 11:03 am July 29 for $26.63 (with a $10 gift card given to us at arrival). The staff welcomed us as soon as we approached the club shop with a cart and directions. This course is tucked away in the Gold Canyon mountains, beautifully located in the mountain’s crevices. At the pro shop we checked in and were given the mentioned gift cards. The drive to the first tee of the Sidewinder is a bit convoluted but the cart guy gave us some solid directions and we arrived.

The Review

The carts are equipped with a small cooler, club/ball cleaner and a really nice touch screen GPS system. All of these prepared us to conquer the perfectly manicured resort course. The tee boxes were lush, well outlined with walk-up rocky paths that accepted a tee at any point of our pleasure. The course allows for five to six different tee off locations, with Gold being the tips and the newest (latest addition as the distances were listed on any of the hole’s mapping near the tee boxes). The fairways were soggy in FEW locations but otherwise very green and firm, lush in many areas without any bare spots to truly be seen. Though with no divot fill seed on the carts we didn’t notice many if any divots on the fairways. The greens were perfect, accepted literally any shot creating a pitch-mark (I drove a green with driver and the roll-out was MAYBE 15 feet after it’s crater of a pitch-mark). The roll was true whether it was from a putt, approach or one of many well manicured and fluffy bunkers. The rough was 1″-2.5″ inches but well manicured.

Some Advice

The course is relatively straight forward, could definitely be difficult for those who can’t consistently carry driver 175+. Can’t say there are any more than one or two memorable holes besides the 8th with a tree in front of the green in the fairway posing threat to any approach shots not placed off tee correctly; and the last par 5 18th that climbs up the slope nearby the Dinosaur’s first tee box.

The Final Words

A fun track that can twist and twine in between the suburbs and craters of the hilly mountain terrain well, I’d advise you take the trek out eastward and play this resort yourself.