A beautiful Friday afternoon for golf. Not a cloud in the sky and a light breeze to mellow the 97 degree heat. I heard lots of good things about Estrella and they were all pretty much on point. Wide rolling fairways, minimal water hazard, and an abundance of sand traps.

Scenery: The scenery would have gained an extra star if I was a bigger fan of massive power line towers. The course has mountains and hills surrounding the course and viewable from every hole. The houses are set back enough to not distract from those wild slice drives and they are all nice and clean. There was a lot of new home construction but it did not impose on the course at all. If you are a fan of military jets you may also get a nice view of some F-18s and 16s cruising over in formation.

Service: Met by the a super happy guy at the bag drop. Loaded us up and gave us directions to the starter to be found over on the first. Pro shop was quick in and out, no issues. Beverage gals were a bit stacked. Not a reference to their bodies, a reference to the fact that we saw the first beverage cart on hole number two and then saw the second gal on hole number three. I said she may want to stagger out a bit and she thought it was beneficial to the golfers that she would be right behind the first gal. I guess if we were doing shots that would make sense. Minor note. They were both very pleasant and we saw both of them three times each. That is unheard of on most courses where sometimes you wait 6 or 7 holes to grab a beer or bottle of water. Estrella is a Troon managed property and it does have a slightly higher air of fanciness you will not find at most public courses.
 
Variation: The course has length, over 7100 yards, and plenty of elevation changes and rolling terrain. Would have loved to encounter a few more water hazards and a few fewer sand traps, but overall a nice mix of obstacles. This is a Nicklaus Designed course and has the features one should expect.

Maintenance: While not HD-TV detail, the course was in excellent shape. Tee boxes level, trimmed and elevated. Fairways nicely trimmed and greens fast and consistent. The native areas were somewhat left native. Like they went through, cleaned out the brush and garbage and generally just left it looking clean. Good for finding your ball, but it was usually propped on top of jagged rocks or stuffed in a ground squirrel hole. Most of the sand traps were eroded as if in the middle of an archeological dig and the sand was very firm. The areas at the edges of the fairways just blend into the native which plays well, but looks a bit bleh.

Value: Estrella is a good value course. While it is a pretty good haul from Scottsdale (40+ minutes) it has the level of quality and scenery that most golfers would be willing to pay for.

In summary, if you live in the West Valley you should be frequenting Estrella, period. Great views, great golf, good people.--except for the jackass in the group behind us cranking Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" at full blast when we were ready to tee off-- all good people, except that guy.