Dobson Ranch Golf Course

Terrible experience! My family was harassed on the course and had the cops called on them because they were driving on the rough to get to their ball (2 of the players were handicap). The office apologized, but that doesn’t help that the golfing experience was ruined and $ 200 down the drain. Thanks for the horrible experience, we’ll never be back.
Please don’t waste your money here!

I am a member of the Arizona Business connection; we had our weekly meeting there for years. With that said, I go there often and always have great service and good food, I got into eating Oatmeal and I had asked if they had Raisins, «No» said the server, next week when I order Oatmeal and small cup of Raisins were serviced to me! Friday night Fish Fry is Awesome! There is a Bar that is separated from the Restaurant. Great Place!

The course itself is very nice, well maintained. They booked the whole day very tight though, and the people playing had no manners – played into twice, even though there were two groups of four in front of us, no one was going anywhere anytime soon.

NEVER go to Dobson Ranch Golf Course –based on customer service. Or the lack thereof…
1.) We were shoved in with another 2 players although we had our own tee time reserved the day before & we arrived 30 minutes early. They overbooked & that is NOT our fault.
2.) I was proudly keeping good time even as a noob, so when the ranger ever SO rudely told us to golf faster, we kindly explained we had to wait at each hole for the people in front. He then proceeded to get mildly aggressive & ruder and told us «well they aren’t there anymore, so you need to keep up regardless». (but we were keeping up– even waiting– just saying)
3.) We immediately stopped our game & complained at the front desk. The desk guys said they couldn’t refund us for 9 extra holes because they don’t have a rate for that.
Tough luck basically. RUDE RUDE RUDE. I asked for some sort of refund & they gave me a cart fee back… I give them a negative star & we will never go there again. Also it wasn’t very well kept for the options you have in this city.

This course is in very good shape after the overseeding, and has the best rates in the valley for the winter months! It is not a very difficult course, however the greens are EXTREMELY difficult here!
I’ve played many of the hard courses in the valley including We-​Ko-​Pa, Las Sendas, and Troon North. But Dobson has by far the hardest greens that I have ever seen. Almost all of them are 2 tier greens, or have an extreme slope on them. So unless you can stick all your iron shots to 5 feet, your going to have a lot of ²⁄₃ putts automatically. I think the greens are too difficult and unrealistic here. But I like the layout and the distance the course plays at. You have to use every club in your bag here.
Nice course, good shape, terrific rates, challenging layout, but not a fun putting experience.

I played today on a Tuesday. Play was a little slow at first but picked up. Course was in good shape. Pro shop staff was friendly. I would play here again.

Golf course was in far condition and the pace was decent. Didn’t feel rushed by people behind or ahead of us. The course is pretty open and forgiving so you don’t need to be a pro. The cart girl came around quite frequently and they also have a snack shack on hole ¹²⁄₁₆ with food and refreshment which is very nice. They are also Packer fans at the snack shop so that’s a plus too!
There is a huge driving range that is always packed, so if you are looking to work on your swing this range is a great place to come!

Played here yesterday. Cheap and fun golf, but the staff (particularly the ranger) was extremely rude and unprofessional. Went out of his way to flex his muscles and ridicule us.
Been playing a lot of golf in the area recently. My advice is to head down the road to Ken McDonald in Tempe. Similar value, just as fun, and a professional and courteous staff that respects their patrons and is interested in people having a good time.

Came here for Mother’s Day brunch at Dobson’s Restaurant. Our waitress was the worst. She did things like not bring cream for coffee when kindly asked. I had to get up, and go grab coffee creamer for my mom at their beverage station. My wife ordered french toast and specifically asked for whipped cream to be excluded from the order. Ya. whipped cream all over. She was nowhere to be found most of the time, but when she was around, the bitch was fucking something up.
Food was weak. Totally not worth the 30 bones per person for buffet. Milk and OJ are extra. Prime Rib, Eggs Benny, and Salmon Wellington were the main foods. None were good. Nothing I ate made me say, «This is why they charge 30 bucks.» Everything I ate made me say, «I wish we had gone somewhere else.» I shelled out 100 dollars for 3 people to eat shitty food, and experience shitty service.
My wife pointed out a dead cockroach as we were about to leave. Yuck.
Fuck this place. Do not eat here. I want my 100 dollars, and 2 hours back.

My family paid a ridiculous amount of money to take me to Dobsons Restaurant. for the Mothers Day brunch. The service was terrible, not much of a food selection. The prime rib was tasty but it was so thin you could see through it. The kids liked the chocolate fountain but then what kid
doesn’t like that. Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse, we spotted a dead cockroach on the floor. Oh… but the Mothers in the group were presented with a limp, wilted rose on our way out. We definitely won’t be back… ever!

So far agree with the customer service. These guys should go find another job.

A very busy golf course during weekend!

This was the 2^nd time I’ve golfed at Dobson Ranch. The first time we decided not to go back. They cram too many people on the course, which just makes the day drag along.
This time the course wasn’t busy but when we get there we find out that they are over-​seeding so tee-​boxes can’t be used, and that the carts could not leave the path. And to top it off, no cart girl on a day it was 98 degrees.
Wow, that would have been important information when the reservation was made a week or two prior. I went in a group of 9 (a group of 2, 4, and 3) for some birthday golf, which is the only reason I came back to this place. We had 2 seniors behind the group that called to complain so from early on we had rangers busting our balls.
Rather than try to get us to enjoy their miserable course and conditions, they decided to make it even more obvious that a group spending $ 200 ($ 28per person for a round) on golf and another $ 100 at the bar/​restaurant on a Tuesday was not worth their time. They should have been throwing vouchers and coupons at us to come back and apologizing for the conditions and the lack of notice but they didn’t do that. This place lacks even mediocre customer service. They cater to the guys golfing with a senior discount. If you are looking to have any fun (ie talking, socializing, smiling) and not take your golf so serious, go elsewhere.
Memo to Dobson Ranch. If you want us to take our golf as serious as a professional, start treating customers professionally, and have a respectable course. I would prefer any of the several muni’s in the area that give you twice the value, and twice the service.
Icing on the cake is that hole 1 and 10 are right next to the range. There is no net to keep the multitude of range balls from littering the course. Do they care? No. Literally every place we took a shot from, the sprinkler went on. This happened to both groups. We think they were doing it on purpose (conspiracy? maybe), it was crazy how they would go on and off as we would get closer and farther away from them. We had to run back to the cart several times to save phones/​cameras. The cherry on top was when I went in to get a cup of ice from the bartender after our round and she tried charging me 50 cents even though the guy she just replaced was giving them to us at no cost all day.

If I could there would be two reviews here. The golf course its self would be an easy 4 star based on price and condition. Customer service would be a 1 star.
Don’t bother trying to be friendly with the pro shop staff, these folks are just going to through the motions of taking your money and doing the least possible to get their paycheck. But since the golf is such a great value and people will continue to flock to this place in droves I don’t see them needing to hire people with personalities any time in the near future.
The front 9 cart girl is friendly as is the lady working the snack shack on the back.
Another thing that didn’t impress me was being a walk on, renting a cart and being told that they already had 2 carts in that group. I am used to being able to have my own cart instead of riding with a person I don’ t know and being subjected to their cart skills or lack there of. Turned out okay but just struck me as odd.
I will continue to go back for the great value but I hate to reward bad behavior.

Ya, not the best golf course I’ve been to. The grass needs lots of work, and there are tons of pigeons! I hit 2 with balls! I felt really bad, because they would get hit, lose feathers, and fly away scared. I am not into animal cruelty and I have no idea why I had the luck of hitting 2 of them, but toooo many birds on the range. I will go again because it is close to my house, but I have been to much better courses for sure. Sorry Dobson! I have to say it like it is.

For a municipal course, Dobson Ranch is tops. This is the place to go for a good, cheap afternoon round of golf during the summer. It’s a well maintained traditional course, with large trees lining the fairways, and grass everywhere. Dobson Ranch is great for beginners, as the ball is playable from anywhere that is not in someone’s backyard. It’s slice-​friendly too, with most of the out of bounds areas sitting to the left of the fairways.
Dobson Ranch is a standard par 72, except instead of having 4 par 3s, 10 par 4s, and 4 par 5s; it has 5 par 3s, 8 par 4s, and 5 par 5s.
At only $ 10 to walk on a summer afternoon, this is one of the best values in the Valley.

Being a midwest transplant, Dobson Ranch is the kind of course I grew up playing on, though without the elevation changes. Fairly self contained site so you’re not playing between peoples backyards on both sides the whole way, with lots and lots of big old trees. Very forgiving if you’re used to that. I’d rather have to navigate a shot through the woods than have to take a drop because I’m in desert rock, cactus or somebody’s pool. And as it was pointed out below, ahh, that lovely cooling shade.
As a bonus, they have drinking water fountains every couple few holes, and each one was ice cold which is much appreciated
Shorter for an 18, but still plenty distance to give your driver a workout, and great accuracy practice trying to land your fairway woods and long irons on the green
The summer rates are fantastic right now. $ 26 on a weekend with cart, $ 23 during the week? Especially nice during the week because you can be off in less than 3 ½ hours

Let me start by saying that I love playing golf and I have probably played nearly 50 different tracks in AZ. I love playing at Dobson Ranch, it is a great course. For the money, it doesn’t get much better.
The reason why I am giving them one star is pure and simple because of customer service. The guys that work in the pro shop are ridiculously rude, every time, no exceptions. I called to try and set up a tournament for my work with over 50 players. The total cost was going to exceed $ 60!!! That included the round, range balls, lunch and a gift card of some sort, plus the ridiculous $ 1 cart fee. It didn’t matter if we didn’t want lunch or the gift card, it was non negotiable. This was more expensive that courses such as Legacy, The Raven and The Foothills.
For someone who works in the customer service industry, there is nothing more important that treating customers the right way and Dobson Ranch failed miserably in my book.

Having grown up on muni golf courses, I constantly look for the best dollar value around.
I am a very active member of the Dobson Ranch Golf Association, this course has become home for me.
Dobson Ranch offers one of the best values in town. Not too mention a very well kept and quality municipal courses. A challenging course that requires some accurate drives to avoid trees, some lenghty Par 3’s when played at the tips, and some tough greens, you won’t find a much better value.

I’ve become a big fan of Dobson Ranch golf. At first I just tried it out several summers ago and figured it would be a good budget course to check out when I couldn’t make it to a higher end track. Now, though, I’m down to play Dobson whenever.
As the previous reviewer said, it’s only 6600 from the tips, but I’ve never seen all the back tees tipped out, so it’s probably closer to 6300. But it’s not the length that will get you here. These greens have some serious slope to them. I know we’re not talking about Augusta or Oakmont here, but this is definitely a course where it helps to have played the course several times and know what spots on each green you need to hit it to if you want to have a good run at birdie. Put it this way: I hit ¹⁴⁄₁₈ GIR on Monday and had ONE somewhat flat putt, and that wasn’t until #18. Luckily, it’s slow Bermuda grass, or else most greens would be a three-​putt waiting to happen.
Most all the holes have some good character to them, the rates are very reasonable, staff is friendly enough, lots of trees to provide shade in the summer, some of the best (if not the best) twilight specials in town, and the course is always in at least above-​average condition. That is saying something for a muni.
My only complaints:
— Don’t come here during peak days and times. It’s a guaranteed 5+ hour round. I know that’s typical muni golf, but the rangers sitting on their hands not doing anything adds to the irritation.
— They should take a cue from Papago’s renovation plan and remove several dozen trees. There’s too many unsightly dead pines and eucalyptus. Plus, even if all the dead/​dying trees were removed, there would still be plenty of trees for both scenery/​shade and strategic purposes.