After our round at Dinosaur Mountain we headed over to Longbow Golf Club for an afternoon eighteen. Longbow is in Mesa so it was a convenient stop on our way back to Scottsdale, where we were staying. When it comes to public courses in Mesa, most golfers will probably immediately think of Las Sendas Golf Club. Las Sendas is a dramatic and polarizing design not far from Longbow.

Besides being located in the same city, Longbow and Las Sendas have nothing in common. And, in my opinion, that is a good thing since I’m not a huge fan of Las Sendas. I think the chances are good that someone will like Longbow if they don’t like Las Sendas and vice versa. Overall, I’d compare Longbow to the Whirlwind courses in Chandler. Nothing too flashy, but a decent modern design.

Anyway, Longbow was designed by Ken Kavanaugh and the course lies on a flat section of the desert floor. The course is close to a local airport and one of the cool things about the round was seeing the smaller planes taking off and coming in for a landing. I know the constant buzzing sound from the propellers isn’t for everyone, but I enjoyed the four holes on the southwest side of the property – the holes closest to the airport.

As you’ll see in the pictures, Longbow is very flat but I don’t think that flatness takes away from the visual appeal. The course seemed to blend in with the surrounding landscape and the vegetation was grown up just enough to keep me guessing about the best lines to pick off the tees. There is usually something cool about the presentation of a desert course and Longbow is no exception. Just to be clear, I love the look of desert golf but not so much the playability! Ha. I do think more undulation in the fairways would make for more interesting approach shots.

I picked the black tees which play 72.9/134/7050. The course is a par-71, so it plays a little longer than the yardage indicates. Thankfully, there is plenty of width off the tee. There are only three par-5’s and they are the 1st, 15th and 18th holes. So once you play the 1st, which is 626 yards, you go thirteen holes before getting to another par-5. Between the 1st and the 15th are some long par-4’s so the course’s longer yardage is noticeable. I would have preferred that the 9th, a 474 yard par-4, play as a par-5 for non-tournament play.

The front nine has my two favorite holes at Longbow. The 4th is a tricky dogleg (429 yards) that turns hard left after the tee shot. The drive looks innocent enough, but I didn’t realize there is water to the left – until it was too late! The green sits close to the water as well and the left edge slopes down into the hazard. You’ll definitely want to favor the right side. The 8th is another par-4 and at 338 yards it could be driven by the longer hitters. The fairway is wide to receive layups then narrows and angles to the right near the green. I hit a great drive and ended up with precarious pitch shot over a greenside bunker.

The back nine is a little more plain than the front, although it does have a string of good closing holes. The 15th and 18th are two of those par-5’s I mentioned earlier and offer a chance to finish with a couple birdies or pars. The 16th is a long par-3 with visually deceptive bunkering and the 17th has a tree in the fairway.

The green fee was $60 this time of year and almost everything was in good shape – just as you’d expect from a course in the Troon portfolio. The tees and fairways were lush and the ball sat up in the fairways. The greens looked pretty good, except for a few worn edges, although they were quite slow. The sand in the bunkers was thin and crusty, so that needs attention.

Longbow doesn’t seem to be a course you ever hear much about – I’m not sure why though. It turned out to be better than I expected and I was surprised to learn that the course hosts a Symetra Tour event. The course’s website lists it as a top 20 course in Arizona. That is probably a bit generous by whatever site did the ranking, although my only criticism about the design is that many of the bunkers felt unnecessary. Overall, I think Longbow is a nice mid-tier course in the Mesa/Gilbert/Chandler area.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):