Mesquite Golf Club

If you're looking for a course where you don't have to pay an arm and a leg, don't mind average conditions, and you want to have a relaxing round and score well, then head on over to Mesquite Golf Club. This city owned course has three sets of tee boxes, is short at 6280 from the tips, and it's easy to shoot a great round here.

The fairways are flat to gently rolling, generally wide and forgiving, and a few are side by side with a line of trees down the middle. When we played in January the fairways and greens were dormant and not in very good condition. The good news was you got a lot of roll which helps your drives. We asked a couple people if these were normal conditions and the answer in both cases was "it's generally in a little better condition."

The layout of Mesquite Golf Club is "ho hum" and lacks character and variety. In fact, the holes start to look and play the same as you hit your way through the course. For example, on the back nine all of the par 4s are within 40 yards of each other ranging from 332 to 378 yards. The back nine does seem a little better and the last three holes are fun – 16 is a good par 5 dog left that heads gently up hill, 17's tee box is elevated giving you a long downhill drive to the green straight ahead, and then 18 takes you straight back up the hill.

If you can hit the ball fairly straight, then you can score well here. There are no traps, no hidden gotchas, and the small creek that crosses the fairway on 4 holes is pretty easy to avoid. If you do spray the ball, it's easy to find and a chip will get you back to the fairway. You don't have to worry about course management or target golf here – go out and smash the ball and have a good time. Because it's easy, the pace of play was excellent – we had to wait a little bit on a couple holes but were finished in 3 and a half hours.

The greens are a different story and can be a challenge. They seem a little smaller than normal, most have some steep slope, and they don't want to hold your chip shots – so you need to play the roll. When we played they were not in good condition – rough and bumpy and slow – is this the normal condition? Although the greens have a lot of slope, it's not hard to read how the putt will break and 3 putts were uncommon for us.

Bottom line, if you don't need great conditions, want to save some money, and just need to get out and enjoy a relaxing round where you can walk into the bar boasting about a good round, then Mesquite Golf Club is where you need to play. By the way, I was 3 over on the back – very unusual for this hacker! Mesquite Golf Club also has a great deal for lunch – $6.50 for a burger, fries, and a large drink.