Yes, most of Arizona’s courses are challenging given their desert locales. Here, we highlight five notable exceptions—any of which make for a great start to a golf adventure. By Shaun Tolson.
Dynamically routed and dramatically set, the vast majority of Arizona’s courses bring golfers into the arid expanses of the state’s Sonoran, Mojave, and Chihuahuan deserts, where the surrounding cacti, sagebrush, and dry washes put considerable emphasis on accuracy. But there are exceptions to the target-golf norm. The five desert courses highlighted here are player-friendly and perfectly suited to a fun first round in Arizona.
Phoenix
The newest course at the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club is a comprehensive redesign of the club’s former Adobe Course. Executed by Tom Lehman, the transformation introduced sweeping bunkers with raised faces that force players to think strategically from the tee box. Almost all of the site’s 94 acres are grassed, which means creative shotmaking abounds across these 6,669 yards, but that also means golfers don’t need to prioritize loft on many of the approach shots. “You only have a forced carry when you choose to have one,” Lehman says.
Sedona
Gary Panks has designed almost 50 golf courses throughout his career, the vast majority of which are in Arizona. Of those, Sedona Golf Resort (main Image) may be his most famous, if only because the 6,646-yard routing delivers a continuous carpet of pristine winter rye grass, which meanders through a landscape of striking red rocks. It’s like playing golf through the Grand Canyon. The course may deviate from the typical desert golf experience, but elevated tee boxes, raised greens, and uneven fairways introduce plenty of challenging shots.
Williams
At this municipal course, set 7,000 feet above sea level, the climate alone defies many of the expectations that come with Arizona golf. The course, which is tucked within dense stretches of Ponderosa pines in Northern Arizona’s high desert, presents an equally unexpected atmosphere and playing experience. The amalgamation of two nines designed and built 10 years apart on topographically divergent parcels of land, the course shifts from narrow, shorter holes to more open and expansive ones that play considerably longer.
Tubac
Wide fairways let you tee it up with confidence, while tight angles into greens demand precision and test your short game. That’s what the three nine-hole layouts at Tubac Golf Resort & Spa offer, though they also deliver striking views of the nearby Santa Rita Mountains. Golfers who navigate these lush fairways—framed by centuries-old cottonwood trees—are also walking in the footsteps of a famous, albeit fictitious, golfer. Several of the golfing scenes in the 1996 film Tin Cup were filmed at Tubac, so if you ever wanted to try to par the back nine with just a 7-iron, this is the place to do it.
Scottsdale
The golf resort’s desertscape surroundings—including a handful of its interior holes—may give the appearance of a traditional Sonoran environment, but it won’t take golfers long to realize all is not as it seems. Some of the 27 holes feature punchbowl-like contours along their perimeters, which means the generously wide fairways are even more forgiving. The greens are also welcoming in size, though tricky contours offset their accessibility. That means players can largely enjoy the mountain views, while also appreciating the dry washes and stands of desert trees, knowing that if they find themselves in trouble, it’s only because the shot that put them there really was that bad.
PXG’s ultimate club-fitting experience may be limited to a select few, but it comes with access to one of Arizona’s premier private clubs.
Custom fittings for every club sold have been a core principle at PXG since Bob Parsons founded the company more than a decade ago. Over the years, PXG has built an ever-growing empire of standalone stores across the country; and while in-depth equipment fittings are offered at each of them, one experience stands head and shoulders above the rest.
For the ultimate PXG club fitting, you need to travel to Scottsdale; more specifically, through the gates of Scottsdale National Golf Club. However, as with a club membership, you must first submit an application—and be ready to part with $30,000 for your fitting.
The Xperience, as PXG and Scottsdale National refer to it, is the company’s VIP method of outfitting clients with the brand’s latest gear and apparel. It also effectively acts as an audition for membership to the highly exclusive private club, hence the lofty price point.
The experience—err, Xperience—starts with a check-in to one of the club’s spacious and extravagantly appointed villas. A tour comes next, followed by bespoke equipment and apparel fittings, each led by expert club-fitters and professional stylists, respectively. The following day is filled with unlimited golf played on any (or all) of the club’s three courses; salon and spa treatments; and a lavish dinner with sommelier-guided beverage pairings at the club’s chef’s table. The last day includes a tour of PXG headquarters. But aside from that, participants are free to enjoy the final day as they would like—and that includes as much golf as they’d like to play.
It’s an indulgent three days, to say the least. For those with the means, the Xperience ensures a memorable long weekend of golf and pampering, as well as stylish wardrobe additions and a bag of top-of-the-line new clubs. It will also get you a foot in the door at Scottsdale National, though membership at the club is by no means guaranteed. —Shaun Tolson
Not far from downtown Phoenix lies what many believe to be Arizona’s greatest golf-course duo.
to slide into a seat at the blackjack, pai gow, baccarat, or Ultimate Texas Hold’em tables at We-Ko-Pa Casino Resort is to accept the fact that the odds are not stacked in your favor. Step outside and onto either of the resort’s championship-caliber golf courses, on the other hand, and you’re guaranteed to feel like a winner.
Located 30 minutes northeast of Scottsdale’s Old Town neighborhood, We-Ko-Pa Golf Club rests on the periphery of the Four Peaks Wilderness Area. The club’s two courses are routed across a Sonoran Desert landscape that is devoid of homes and other evidence of civilization. Additionally, both layouts offer unobstructed views of the Verde River Valley, as well as the Red and Superstition mountain ranges. That’s largely where the similarities between the two golf courses end.
The Cholla Course, a Scott Miller design, came first. When it opened, in 2001, the 7,225-yard track immediately became the poster child for target-oriented golf—Arizona’s quintessential style. And yet, Miller was tactical in his design of the course, making sure to line many of the fairways with manufactured waste areas to mitigate the desert’s penal nature. “When you’re playing a traditional course out East and you get in trouble in the rough, you can either be a hero and hit through the trees or you can chip out to the fairway and take your penalty,” he explains. “But when you hit into the brittle bush in the desert, it’s often just unplayable. That’s why we give players saving bunkers. We give them the option of strategy. We all like to be challenged, but we want enough area to play.”
Four years later, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw debuted their own interpretation of desert golf at the resort. Set north of the Cholla Course, the Saguaro Course notably reflects the landscape’s natural topography, as the duo moved a negligible amount of dirt while carving out its 6,966 yards of playable terrain. As Crenshaw once quipped, “This ol’ boney ground has some sting to it.”
Most significantly, when the course opened, in 2005, it introduced Golden Age ideals to a contemporary environment. In particular, many of the green complexes flow directly into teeing areas for the subsequent holes, which makes the course easily walkable—a rare find in Arizona. —Shaun Tolson
Local chef John Martinez gives us the scoop on the city’s red-hot food scene.
By Gina DeCaprio Vercesi.
For Chef John Martinez, food is about more than what’s on the plate. A third-generation Tucsonan from a large Mexican-Irish family, he grew up cooking by his grandmother’s side in Barrio San Antonio. “We all got together to eat at least once a week, and I was always in the kitchen helping,” he recalls. “I love food, and that came from those shared moments at the family table.”
Today, Martinez is the chef-owner of Tito & Pep, an inviting neighborhood bistro in midtown Tucson where he blends the global influences he acquired during nearly a decade working for celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten with the culinary traditions of his upbringing. “I always wanted to come home and cook the food I love,” he says. “Not necessarily the exact dishes I grew up with, but food rooted in those flavors.”
At the heart of Tito & Pep’s kitchen is the mesquite-fired grill—the thing Martinez missed most during his years away from Southern Arizona. “When you think about all the people and cultures who have inhabited the Tucson Valley, there’s one thread that ties them together, and that’s cooking over wood,” he says. “The smoke bathes whatever you’re cooking. Our grilled New York strip steak with charro beans, grilled onions, roasted chiles? That was Sunday afternoon for me growing up.”
Outside of his kitchen, Martinez champions the local food scene—one that gained national attention after Tucson was named the country’s first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2015. “You’ll find delicious food here whether you’re standing in a parking lot or sitting in a place with white tablecloths,” Martinez says. One of his favorite examples is chef Juan Almanza’s El Taco Rustico, which started as a food stand at the Tohono O’odham Swap Meet before moving into a brick-and-mortar spot on North Oracle Road. Martinez is also excited by Bata, where chef Tyler Fenton highlights local, regional, and native ingredients, as well as Anello, chef Scott Girod’s minimalist, wood-fired pizzeria. For traditional Sonoran hot dogs, Martinez heads just around the corner from Tito & Pep to El Sinaloense. “When you look at the Sonoran dog, there are various elements that need balancing out—the tomatoes and onions next to the beans, the mayo, mustard, salsa verde, and the freshness of the bun. El Sinaloense has the best balance, and that puts them on the top of my list.”
Martinez can often be found at Time Market, picking up pastries made in the in-house viennoiserie or fresh-baked bread with his daughter, or heading down to Todd and Kelly Bostock’s Dos Cabezas WineWorks in Sonoita for wine and pizza after a day in the high desert. And when he’s craving traditional Sonoran Mexican food, he stops by El Minuto Cafe, a Tucson institution since 1936. “It’s the place I grew up going to,” Martinez says. “Go there and eat some carne asada, have some menudo, eat some grilled beef and a beautiful flour tortilla. That’s as classic as it gets.”
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Volutpat lectus leo in eu sagittis
Follow Us On
