Phantom Horse in Phoenix has reader unhappy

All of the reviews I have read praised Phantom Horse Golf Club in Phoenix highly, which was the only reason I was willing to pay the expensive greens fees, so maybe it was just bad timing (the week before they shut down to overseed) that made this course a lousy golf experience.

When we arrived, there was nobody manning the bag drop. We dropped off the clubs and went to check in. I asked for a yardage book but they said you didn't need one because they had GPS on the carts (which is really useless if the fairways are roped off or you can't drive to your ball). The driving range is a complete joke: fake golf balls and a hitting area that looks like somebody just mowed the field next to the junk yard.

The fairways were all burnt out - unlike all of the other courses we played while we were in Phoenix. Without an intimate knowledge of the course, the GPS wasn't very helpful telling you which direction to hit off some of the blind tee boxes, so you kind of hit in the direction you think you should, only to find fairway bunkers in the landing area, or desert creeping into the area the hole diagram on the screen made look like it was wider or farther away.

I shot a crappy score and maybe there are some sour grapes in this rant but I wouldn't play this course again without a yardage book, and the price reduced to about half what they are asking. Their crew could take lessons in customer care from the crew at Karsten's. It was pretty obvious that the kid handling the bags expected to be tipped but wasn't really interested in providing ANY customer service.

On the positive side, most of the holes are pretty interesting and the layout was challenging. I don't mind the challenge if you have a fighting chance.

If you don't know the area and are looking for a place to play golf, Karsten's at ASU and the Legacy course in the South Mountain area are both better choices than Phantom Horse.

Doug Stiles,
Rochester, N.Y.

October 26, 2005