Our first visit to The Legend at Arrowhead started with a guy coming over the loud speaker and telling us to return from the first tee to pay for a ride-along. Seriously? Over the loud speaker. It happened to be the first place in the valley (in the midst of the pandemic) that was no longer allowing people to have their own carts. Leslie dumped me off and drove back to the clubhouse to pay her $15 to ride along fee and got called "darling" by a troll hanging out at the pro-shop counter (not an employee). Who would have thought getting called darling would set someone off, but Leslie drove that cart like a bat of hell the rest of the day. This is why she would be dangerous with a club in her hand.

The Legend is an Arcis Golf affiliated Arnold Palmer designed golf club. If you have an Arcis card you get 20% off your green fees when setting up a tee time with them. I spaced out that I actually had the Arcis card and booked on Golf Now. Missed out on the discount and paid service fees. Special note for people coming to town to play... Find your tee-time on GolfNow and then call the club directly. No need to pay the service fees on GN when most every course in the valley will take your reservation over the phone. And now back to the course itself...

Scenery: On the front nine there is a bit of elevation as you climb up to the #5 tee box. It is actually a really nice view of the surrounding hills (see the photos). I did not see any wildlife other than some turtles and carp in the ponds. Some of the carp could probably eat your golf ball whole, so be careful while reaching for that ball. Speaking of the water hazards, do not expect to find your ball as the water was murky and had quite an algae layer on top. Good for the fish, not so good for the golfers.

Service: On our first visit I wanted to strangle the guy at the pro-shop counter. Seriously, announcing over the loud speak that you have to return to the clubhouse to pay extra? On this more recent visit the guy in the pro-shop was actually very nice and helpful. He was trying to help me figure out how to cancel my purchase with Golf Now and just pay The Legend directly so I could get my Arcis card discount. I decided it was not worth it in case GolfNow was a pain in the ass to cancel (which they can be). Not worth somehow paying twice. But where were the beverage carts? Not a single one for 4.5 hours... maybe they got abducted along with the sand???

Variation: While there are some very challenging holes, a few of them feel like an exact repeat of previous holes. Same gentle dog leg with water on the right. The greens were a mix of varying roll, but for the most part consistent speed and attackable. The sand traps were demoralizing. I had a couple of approach shots that came up 6 inches short to find the trap. On most courses you could still scramble for a sandy, but not at the Legend. The rock hard sandless traps were automatically 2-4 additional strokes. If you do launch one out you may possibly cross the green to land in another one. This may be an Arnold Palmer course design trick to always have the launch trap and the catch trap across the green. Keeps you on your toes.

Maintenance: This course feels neglected. The fairways were a bit dried out and sunburned in places, the carts paths were sometimes rougher than the fairways, some of the tee boxes had big lumps in them and, the big kicker, someone stole their sand! There was no risk of water in the traps, much less a single grain of sand. At the end of our round, the cart fella told us they were expecting a big shipment of sand in June, but in the meantime you get to play bunkers that are solid as a rock. If I come back will the greens fees be doubled because more of the course will be playable? Who knows...

Value: In summary, The Legend at Arrowhead is a quality course and a decent value. A small amount of investment into staff and grounds maintenance would make it a top tier course. I have submitted an inquiry with Interpol to find out where their sand went; hoping to hear back soon.