Encanto 18 — Attraction in Phoenix

I used play Encanto few years ago (around 2019-2022) and it's sad seeing the state of the course now (2025).

First off, there is no starter on the starting hole, so there is no organization/funneling the players into cohesive grouping. What this lead to when I played couple of weeks ago are the following groupings - 4 some, then 1 player, then another 4 some, then a 3 some...talk about stupidity and inefficiency.

The course has not been maintained at all. So there is gravel where there should be a cart path, mud where there should be grass, greens that are higher than the fairway (I swear I thought I was putting on the fairway sometimes) AND poorly maintained fairways that are damaged/blended in with the rough that it was just not a fun experience to play. It's not like the course is going through major renovations, it looks like the easiest/cheapest solution was picked to fix the many problems.

I understand this is a city course so the budget maybe tight, but I don't see that with other city courses (although I heard Cave Creek is now a war zone - not sure if they are going through renovations).

Anyway, I can't recommend this course at all. It's a shell of what...

The course is only 6400 yrs from tips, however, it plays quite a bit longer because it is only a par 70 golf course. The course bills itself for being suitable for the average player. I don't know about that. Our foursome has scoring indexes in the 14-16 range. We played from the white tees which had a distance of just over 6000 yards. Still, this was a brute of a course with several par fives that were well over 500 yards and several par 4s in the 400 yard range.

Greens are sloped with very few level putts. Typically guarded by bunkers on each side. They were pretty quick and balls rolled smoothly.

A lot of tees are really close to other greens. The green from one hole was only about 20-30 feet away from number 9 tee. Number 5 is especially dangerous because it is the line of fire for persons hitting to number 4 and number 7 greens. A ball from number 7 actually landed on our tee as we were about to tee off. Further, on a couple of occasions, guys came into our fairway as we were about to hit with no regard to golf etiquette. Not a bad track, but given the issues above, we will...

For a city course this is worth 5 stars... Of course in the great state of Arizona and city of Phoenix so many better courses but for what it is, this place deserves it!!

Guys in the pro shop are all over it and very friendly, good sized bar

Large putting green always in great shape and rolling true

Driving range is all you need

Golf course layout overall you'll have room to miss, but OB is in play around the perimeter and it'll sneak up with firm conditions, water hazards also are here and there, we'll placed bunkers in the fairways and around the greens, some greens do have quite a bit of undulation... Cart girl paid attention when players/playing which is always good and drink...