It was my pleasure to meet Mark, Andy and Jerry. Enjoyed the company and the golf on a postcard Arizona winter day - sunny skies mid/upper 60's. I took some photos and will try to post them as soon as I get them uploaded and resized.
My third visit to AS, and I love the course but must echo the sentiments that the maintenance is disappointing. By no means however, was it bad enough to affect my enjoyment of the experience. As a lifelong muni rat, I'm fairly tolerant of rustic conditions. The ruggedness to some extent, may be part of the package but a few things can be a bit frustrating.
About the course - a delightful journey away from civilization and into the wild Arizona high desert. Each hole essentially isolated from any other, it is rare to see any other humans and the only sounds are the wind rustling the bushes and the occasional screech of a soaring hawk. The routing seems to take perfect advantage of the terrain and each hole seems to have been laid upon the topography with a minimal touch from the hand of man.
I can say that I have observed that ongoing maintenance does appear to be happening, although I wonder if any true professional is directing the efforts. The turf problems that I saw on some of the greens during my visit in October are being addressed. About half of the tenth green has been regrassed, the new part a totally different color and not yet cut down to green height. At first, I wondered if they could have used a different grass, but then I noted some rolled up tarps which I surmise may be used to cover the new turf to prevent frost damage and thus the different color ?? Some other bad spots have been resodded, providing some entertaining putts. Overall, the greens are in much better condition than my first visit in October of 2007.
I believe that the old fairway turf issue has been resolved. From my understanding, the original choice of turf did not work out and the fairways had been regrassed with bermuda. An occasional bare spot will be encountered and some rough edges are really not a big issue. No winter overseed occurs, so Saturday's visit was played on a dormant bermuda which offered a fine and perfectly playable fairway surface.
Some returfing of the teeboxes is ongoing, as Andy mentioned, some totally dead teeboxes were noted, others have been resodded, but oddly, it seems different grasses have been used. While most of the tees are bent (I think), some of the tees have been resodded with bermuda.
Bunker maintenance is sketchy at best and conditions range from acceptable to nonexistant sand. In 2008, we had a pretty wet winter and summer monsoon season which seems to have promoted the growth of tumbleweed (?) in the desert areas. Where my first visit found fairly cleared out desert areas, the off turf surroundings are now clogged with dead brush making pretty much any foray into the natural surroundings lost ball or unplayable.
Not to sound like I am bitching, the conditioning issue comes up and I merely want to provide some observations. I find the course a superior layout in a scenic environment and an enjoyable test of golf. The conditioning by no means would prevent me from returning. It is rustic but no more so than the average muni.
AS remains in my AZ top ten public list and a recommended play if you are visiting the area.
Tom