I found golf to be a great value in Tucson, with the City Card discounts and the holiday food bank collection discount ($5 off with two cans donated), award points, the quantity/variety of courses, availability of tee times and course conditioning it was very enjoyable.
In addition to playing the 5 city courses, each one more than twice, but some more often than others, once I had my preferences determined, I played only one other course. It was called Fourty Niner Country Club. My friend John, that I met at Randolf thought I would like it. I played there with one of the fellows from Tucson Meadows, who the others said was one of their best golfers. From my perspective he was just average. I wasn't that impressed with the course. It was considerably more expensive than the city courses and was in no better condition. It was surrounded by homes, which the city courses aren't. It had some blind shots so playing again would help my score, but I'm not that keen on returning.
My ranking of the Tucson City courses is as follows:
#1 Fred Enke, because it was the most like a desert course and happened to be close to where I was staying. It has some elevation changes and interesting holes. I think it is a very fair test of golf and requires you to play every club in your bag. I had a round in the 60's there playing on my own. I like most everything about the course except the cart paths could use some smoothing out.
#2 Randolf Dell Urich, I like the contouring on the course, it adds to the appearance and helps direct slightly wayward shots back to the fairway. There are some nice views of the mountains. Most of the holes were interesting and some required course management/risk reward choices. There is a pond with a $1 million (1996 cost) wall around it. (The good news is it is still in very good condition.) The Randolf complex was the next closest to where I was staying and closest to John's house, so it was easy to meet up with him there for rounds.
#3 Randolf North, the oldest of the city courses having been built in 1925. It has hosted a number of professional events, both on the PGA and LPGA tours in the past. It has suffered a loss of trees similar to El Rio and the holes are a little more boring than the preceding two courses.
#4 Silverbell was the furthest from where I was staying, and seemed to be a favorite of John's friend George, so we usually played it on Friday's with him. It is somewhat similar to Randolf North but a bit more challenging. There is a ruin of an adobe building on the course. I really feel the designer missed the mark when he as laying out the holes. I may have played it more if it was situated closer to where I was staying.
#5 El Rio is old, tired and a little less well kept. It was the 2nd furthest from where I was staying. Most of the city courses had the tees, fairways and greens over seeded, but not the rough. El Rio was the exception where I don't thing the fairways were over seeded, but rather just spray painted green, and I didn't particularly like the shade they chose. There are a lot of back and forth holes. The first time I played there was a party going on in the nearby park and all you could hear was their music and announcements. It was a major distraction from an enjoyable round of golf.
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