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FEATURES |
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On Target in Phoenix/Scottsdale
by Karen Misuraca
As seen from the slopes of Camelback Mountain, a vast expanse of rugged Sonoran Desert and twenty glittering cities sprawl nearly to the surrounding rims of the McDowell and Superstition Mountain ranges. Anchored by metropolitan Phoenix and Scottsdale, this is known as the Valley of the Sun, where a Shangri-la of vacation resorts lure "snowbirds" south to Arizona to spend the winter under sunny skies, in swimming pools and on more than 200 golf courses.
Golf lovers dream of playing in the dramatic desert settings where the world's top architects have created what has become a unique style of course design--target desert golf--which was pioneered in the 1980s when water restrictions limited the amount of turf that could be irrigated.
Jack Nicklaus kick-started target desert golf in 1983 with his revolutionary design for the Desert Highlands Golf Club, sited at 2,400 feet in elevation at the foot of landmark Pinnacle Peak on the north end of the valley. Between building-sized boulders, the looming arms of saguaro cacti and ball-grabbing sandy washes, Nicklaus set aside only eighty acres of turf for the fairways and greens. He said, "This is a golf course unique among any I've been involved with. Desert Highlands begins with probably a greater and denser variety of desert foliage than I've ever seen. Added to this are the rocks of Pinnacle Peak and the views that are outstanding during the day and breathtaking at night. The course is built with a concept of harmonizing the course and the desert vegetation in a design format not used to this extreme before."
The private Nicklaus course was soon followed by Troon North in the highlands of north Scottsdale, where PGA pro and Scottsdale resident, Tom Weiskopf, along with Jay Morrish, laid out the Pinnacle and the Monument, which quickly stacked up awards as "Arizona's No. 1 and No. 2 Daily-Fee Courses". This October saw the completion of a 20th anniversary redesign of the 36-hole facility by Weiskopf, who blended the two courses, changing the original sequences in which the holes are played, resulting in an even closer marriage with the natural landscape, the flora and the monumental granite boulders.
 Just down the road from the golf club, the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North is an intimate hideaway of Pueblo-style casitas, each luxuriously appointed with kiva fireplaces and deep soaking tubs. In the evenings, guests wander the romantically lit botanical gardens, and peer through telescopes at a dome of sparkling stars over the pitch-black desert.
Play Where the Pros Play
No golf junket to the Greater Phoenix area would be complete without a round at the Tournament Players Club at Scottsdale (TPC), where the Stadium Course was built to host the best-attended golf tournament in the world, the FBR Open. About half a million fans show up to perch on the fairway-lining mounds to watch their favorite stars. In 1997 on the 16th, par-three hole, 21-year-old Tiger Woods' hole-in-one set off a banshee yell from the thousands of spectators, who tossed their beer cans in glee.
The largest palo verde tree in the state stands on the 15th hole, which has an island green, while the 438-yard 18th is a relentless finisher bordered tee-to-green with a lake on one side and a Sahara of sand on the other. Along the 7,216 yards of the course, the 72 bunkers, some seven feet deep, were redefined in a recent upgrade. Fortunately for mere mortals, free Pinehurst-trained caddies are offered, to help with some of the toughest holes on the PGA tour. The shorter, less demanding and quite pretty Desert Course here recently emerged from a complete renovation.
Adjacent to the TPC, après golf refreshments are pleasant in the cottonwood-shaded courtyards of the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, where nail-studded treasure chests and portraits of Spanish royalty recall the Colonial heritage of the region.
Big Saguaro, Little Turf
Another prime example of target desert golf is the Faldo Championship Course, designed by three-time British Open winner, Nick Faldo at Wildfire Golf Club, a 36-hole facility at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa, the state's largest hotel complex. No natural or artificial water features are on hand to cool the 106 dazzling white sand bunkers, including some deep pot bunkers, or the prickly battalions of century-old saguaros. Although a whopping 7,145 yards long, the (Arnold) Palmer Signature Course here offers a more forgiving golf experience.
 Players on the desert courses are often asked for near-perfect accuracy and some forced carries over natural terrain from the back tees, as exemplified on the North and South courses at the 5-star resort, The Boulders.
Like cool mirages at 2,500 feet in elevation above the Valley, these two tracks are notorious for their wild canyons and arroyos and the startling displays of massive red and gold rock formations. Cooing doves, speeding roadrunners, fat Gila monsters and the occasional bobcat and coyote roam the groves of cacti and the rocky streambeds that cross the fairways. The tee time starter hints at some interesting indigenous fauna: "You are welcome to hit out of the rough, but, bring a stick. And, the coyote rule allows you to replay a shot without penalty when a coyote grabs your ball."
Director of Golf at The Boulders, Tom McCahan said, "Players have the perception that desert courses are narrower than traditional parkland layouts. In fact, the landing zones may be just as wide--it's the rough that's different. Instead of your ball flying into trees and shrubs, or pine thatch or native grasses along the sides of the fairways, you may end up in on a gravelly, uneven, crushed granite surface along with a couple of cacti and whatever wildlife is out there."
Views of the Verde River, the Four Peaks and the McDowell, the Red and the Superstitions mountains are distracting backdrops for the Cholla and Saguaro courses at Yavapai-nation-owned We-Ko-Pa Golf Club. Zagat Survey 2007 gives Cholla its highest rating among Arizona courses, while Golfweek ranks Saguaro as the #1 public access course in the state. Notwithstanding the numerous towering cacti, rock outcroppings and serious elevation changes, target style golf is playable at We-Ko-Pa, yet if your luck runs out, there is always the comforting 19th hole in the architecturally stunning clubhouse, and, across the road, the Fort McDowell Casino.
Hundreds of cacti, and mesquite, ironwood and palo verde trees add to the specter of deep box canyons on the Talon and the Raptor at Grayhawk Golf Club, home of the Fry's Electronics Open and the Accenture Match Play Championship. Players looking forward to their tee times at Grayhawk can calm their nerves by taking an online video tour of the club as presented by former PGA Champions Tour pro, Gary McCord, and get tips for hitting out of the desert and in deep-faced bunkers. Private and class instruction is state-of-the-art at the Kostis/McCord Learning Center at Grayhawk, headed by McCord and CBS golf analyst, Peter Kostis.
 Relaxing Parkland and "Hybrid" Courses
Traditional parkland courses, and hybrid combinations of wide grassy fairways with some intrusion by the desert, are also on the golf menu in the Valley of the Sun, notably the 27 holes at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa at Gainey Ranch; at Talking Stick in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, and at Octillo Golf Club in Chandler, where 27 holes of Troon-managed golf are pure pleasure in a sea of green, a lush, oasis-like environment graced with waving palms and waterfalls.
Up against the rugged southern slope of Camelback Mountain, the golf complex at The Phoenician is comprised of the Oasis, the Desert and the Canyon nines, each abloom with banks of flowers and awash with ponds and lakes. A legendary luxury resort for more than two decades, The Phoenician is as showy as an Italian palazzo. Hundreds of palms are reflected in lagoons draped with blooming vines. Swimming pools are lined with mother-of-pearl and a tiered series of waterfalls creates a liquid paradise.
Another historic resort destination, Wigwam Golf Resort and Spa in Phoenix is fresh from a multi-million dollar 75th anniversary renovation and the addition of a new Red Door Spa. The rustic-luxe, Southwestern style casitas were all redone and a Jim McClean Golf School was launched. Fifty-four holes of championship golf, including two courses designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., have been brought up to 21st century standards. At 7,430-yard long, with a 74.5 rating and 135 slope, the Gold Course, nicknamed "The Monster" awaits the player who dares.
And More Golf
Can't get enough of the world of golf? Save a couple of hours to browse In Celebration of Golf on North Scottsdale Road in the Seville Plaza. The 15,000-square-foot bastion of all-things-golf houses an emporium of golf apparel and equipment, books, jewelry, furniture; rare, autographed memorabilia, hole-in-one plaques, an art gallery and even on-site instruction, a golf concierge services and an artist in residence with annexes at Kierland Commons and at the airport.
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