The Duke at Rancho El Dorado — Attraction in Maricopa

Course was in good shape for May, and layout is unique and fun. However, customer service was lacking. Flew into town for a family members college graduation, and only had intentions on golfing once, so I did not bother with the hassle of traveling with my own bag. Arrived at course and inquired about rental clubs, was told the price for a rental set was $65. This included 2 sleeves of Callaway Supersofts. The rental clubs were a recent model Callaway set. The set was decent, but I decided the $65 price tag was not worth it, and I would just use my buddies clubs that day. Mind you, I did bring my putter, as putting around the green would be slow, so I had pace of play in mind. The gentleman in the pro shop told me I was “required” to have my own set of clubs and that I could not share, that I would be “required” to purchase their rental set in order to golf that day. He mentioned that it would tremendously slow the pace of play. I kindly stated that it would not alter the pace of play. Now I had mentioned earlier in the review that I only intended on golfing once this trip, but the day prior (Friday) my buddy had the day off of work, so we golfed that morning. We shared clubs that day, which I feel necessary to mention, was a rather busy Friday morning. There were multiple groups firing off before and after us. We finished the round 35 minutes ahead of pace of play. With this previous experience, I believed that the Saturday round here at the Duke would be fine as far as pace of play goes. Long story short, I ended up purchasing the rental clubs for $65 + tax, because I had no other options since we drove an hour to golf there. We finished our round in 4 hours and 20 minutes, which for a Saturday morning was perfectly normal. However, my group had to wait 5-10 minutes at each tee box, and there ended up being 3 groups on each hole, 4 on the Par 3’s. I understand courses have their rules but the Duke does not have it written anywhere that having my own set of clubs was required. Nothing on their website, nothing on their tee booking system, nothing in their pro-shop. The only rules they have in writing are on the digital and physical score card. Those rules include no carts near the green, play the correct tees, dress code, no outside food or drink, etc..Had they had it in writing that having my own clubs was required, I would have happily obliged. The real problem is golf courses taking advantage of how popular golf is, and booking tee times in 8 minute intervals. That’s what actually slows the pace of play. At the end of the day, it is what it is, but the issue I had was the gentlemen in the pro shop telling me it’s “required” and arguing with me regarding pace of play. Do with this information what you will, I just wanted to share my experience. To course magement, maybe put it in writing somewhere that having your own set of clubs is a...

Met some friends here for dinner, friday night fish fry. They were golfing and loved the course. I have not been here since last Mother's Day because the quality of food, in my opinion, was low. I went in with an open mind since its a fish fry. Our server was nice and attentive. They did not have ingredients to make certain drinks. The tap water tasted very much like chlorine. I asked for bottled water instead and got a plastic bottle of Dasani. I wish they would try Mountain Valley at least for dinner service. That's when i knew the food would probably be disappointing. We waited 55 minures for fish fry and coconut shrimp. The cole slaw was lukewarm and dripping like it had sat out. The. Fries were also lukewarm and soggy like they sat too long in too much grease. I got griilled fish which was just ok. Not very succulent. More like frozen fish they reheated. Its such a nicely decorated place and a nice course from what I hear but if they are making any money, they are not putting it into their food quality and it shows. Maybe some people only know this type of food quality but for the price, maybe order some fresh food for dinner service and better training for the kitchen staff. its a great location and great to have a sit down restaurant in town, I hope it improves some day as far as food quality. We probably would have ordred more, like appetizers or another course to share, if we had a good experience in rhe first 10 minutes there. Lastly, we paid $5 for carrot cake and were provide with a sliver of cake. I'm not sure if that was intentional or poor training again. I look forward to trying it again in a few months or maybe under new management one day. I have high hopes that they care about this community and making it a place people want to bring their...

The course itself is in great conditions and is reasonably priced. The poor review is for the consistently rude, untimely service from one of the bag/cart boys. My buddies and I have played this course 5 times over the last 2 months and the same bag boy has been at the bag drop off every time. We pull our car up, bag boys doesn't move, we tell him our tee time, he says you'll be in the two carts all the way over there and then just stands there. When we purchase range balls before the round you're instructed to walk the receipt back out the the bag boy for the bucket of balls. We did this our first time out and a different bag boy grabbed the bucket, filled it with balls and put it in our cart. The 2nd and 3rd time we did this we encountered said bag boy, he pointed to a pile of empty buckets and said the ball are in there, let me get your receipt and walked away. WHAT IS THE POINT OF YOUR JOB?!?! WHY DO YOU COME TO WORK?!?! You dont touch bags, balls, or carts to my knowledge. Not to mention his appearance is anything but professional. He is an older gentleman, always unshaven, moderately overweight, his shirt it has yet to be fully tucked in to his pants that are sagging below his butt with a belt that's two notches two loose. Sad to say, 5 of the 6 of us who have played there over the last 2 months are Gold Card member holders but ultimately, we will most likely not be renewing for 2017 unless the service issues are quickly fixed. There are too many great courses in the Phoenix area to put up with this...