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The Golfer’s Guide to
Spring Travel in Arizona Ways to have fun in the Valley of the Sun and Tucson
NO BASEBALL? NO PROBLEM. THERE ARE STILL PLENTY OF GAMES WITH NINE A SIDE IN ARIZONA.
Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club, Maricopa
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Spring Travel
Where the Pros Play and Stay NOW THAT ANOTHER Waste Management Phoenix Open—the “Greatest Show on Grass”—is in the books, the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course can return to playing host to visitors who want to test their skills on the Tom Weiskopf-Jay Morrish layout that challenges the world’s best. The heckler-filled coliseum structure surrounding the famous 163-yard par 3 probably won’t be up when you tee off, but the hole and the course are challenging enough without the distraction. Don’t miss taking a spin on the TPC Scottsdale Champions Course, a sensational 2007 Randy Heckenkemper redesign of the original Desert Course layout. Just be prepared for the repeated roars of private jets
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TPC Scottsdale Stadium
from Scottsdale Airport next door. The courses abut the magnificent Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, which sports 11 styles of accommodations, six pools, four restaurants (Bourbon Steak, La Hacienda, Toro Latin Restaurant and Rum Bar and Ironwood American Kitchen), the innovative Well & Being Spa (incorporating the largest Sisley-
Paris Spa in the U.S.) and abundant luxury. The location puts you near the exciting Kierland area, which pulses with shops and trendsetting restaurants such as The Mission. scottsdaleprincess.com; tpc.com/scottsdale; themissionaz.com
GO WEST
A buffet of events awaits at WestWorld, home to hundreds of equine championships and shows, rodeos. the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction and other happenings. westworldaz.com
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Finish your round at TPC with a bang at Toro Restaurant & Rum Bar. The Richard Sandoval restaurant features 150 rums, exquisite food and the show-stopping dessert known as “la bomba”—a huge chocolate bowl filled with scoops of ice cream, gelato, four types of berries, cheesecake bites, candied pistachios and sweet sauces—that your server dramatically drops onto your paper-covered table, shattering the shell so all may share its contents. scottsdaleprincess.com
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A 2018 renovation by architect Phil Smith (Flying Horse North in Colorado Springs) has transformed The Phonecian Golf Club from a 27-hole facility into an 18-hole, par71 resort layout that stretches from 4,418 to 6,501 yards. “While challenging, everything will be in front of the golfer,” Smith says. “No surprise bunkers or blind hazards.” golfthephoenician.com
Trooning Up THE FLAGSHIP of the Troon Golf empire with two 18-hole courses, Troon North Golf Club stretches through the natural ravines and foothills beneath Pinnacle Peak and weaves around the giant boulders and saguaros of the Sonoran Desert. Designed in 1990 by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish—with some deft recent remodeling by Weiskopf—the Pinnacle and Monument courses remain the hallmarks of daily-fee
E F desert golf, regularly earning high rankings from every national golf publication. Which to play? Do both. Play the first round on MondayWednesday and the second within the following five days and get a 20 percent off round two. The high standards continue at the club’s Dynamite Grille, perched above Pinnacle’s 18th, and minutes away at the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North. troonnorthgolf.com
COURTESY OF WHIRLWIND GOLF CLUB
Scott Miller’s innovative departure from the target-style Sonoran Desert course, Eagle Mountain Golf Club nestles in the ravines of the McDowell Mountains. The 6,800-yard layout winds through the natural box canyons, rolling hills and lush desert valleys southwest of Fountain Hills. eaglemtn.com
Located in the North Phoenix Mountains at the Tapatio Cliffs Hilton Pointe Resort, the 6,515-yard Lookout Mountain Golf Club lives up to its name with panoramas on every Forrest Richardson-designed hole. lookoutmountaingolf.com
Two stellar courses, both designed by Gary Panks, await at Whirlwind Golf Club at Wild Horse Pass south of downtown Phoenix in Chandler. The Cattail layout runs longer and boasts more water than the feisty Devil’s Claw, but both are worth the trip. whirlwindgolf.com
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Eagle Mountain Golf Club Fountain Hills
The Phoenician Scottsdale
Lookout Mountain Golf Club Phoenix
Whirlwind Golf Club Chandler
Spring Travel
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COURTESY OF WEKOPA CASINO RESORT
The We-Ko-Pa Casino Resort debuted in late 2020 with a 167,000-square-foot gaming facility replete with miles of table games, bingo, slots and live sports betting. Its 246 rooms include golfer, junior and executive suites for traveling foursomes. There’s the WKP Sports bar sports bar with an entertainment stage, and, for something quiet, the Amethyst Spa and Boutique. wekopacasinoresort.com COURTESY OF WEKOPA CASINO RESORT
Winning at We-Ko-Pa THE GRILLE OF IT ALL
Four miles from We-Ko-Pa, Fort McDowell Adventures is a 25,000-acre playground of Jeep and bicycle adventure tours, horseback riding, Segway Tours, cattle drives, hay wagon rides and more along the Verde River and through the Sonoran Desert. fortmcdowelladventures.com
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We-Ko-Pa Casino Resort augments its upscale gaming with Ember, a superb fine-dining experience featuring an award-winning wine list covering 17 countries, with 517 wines by the bottle and 26 by the glass. wekopacasinoresort.com
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Before, between or after rounds, head to the We-Ko-Pa Grille and Saguaro Grille for fare that’s as satisfying as the views from their dining rooms and patios. wekopa.com
“THIS OLD BONEY ground has some ‘sting’ in it.” Thus reads the plaque on We-Ko-Pa Golf Club’s Saguaro course. The quote comes from Ben Crenshaw, who with Bill Coore laid out the course in 2005, four years after the club’s Scott Miller-designed Cholla course debuted. Together, the two layouts pack enough “sting” to vault this property, owned by the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, to the top of every list of best Arizona public courses. The straightforward Cholla is less prickly than the wide-fairwayed and walkable Saguaro. No homes or developments interrupt the flow of the courses or the views of Red Mountain, the McDowells,the Superstitions and the Four Peaks from which We-Ko-Pa takes its name. A canyon-like breezeway divides We-Ko-Pa’s clubhouse into a grille and a golf shop, while architectural elements like stacked stone and wood beams suggest Yavapi heritage. wekopa.com
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UNSPOILED. UNRIVALED.
UNBELIEVABLE. 36 HOLES | PL AY SAGUARO & CHOLL A The Coore/Crenshaw-designed Saguaro course (No. 1) and the Scott Miller-designed Cholla course (No. 7) have made Golfweek’s Top-10 Best You Can Play for a decade. And you can experience both within a 3-day period with the 36-hole package. Located minutes from Scottsdale, Arizona in the pristine Sonoran Desert of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation.
CALL 866.660.7700 OR VISIT WEKOPA.COM
AN ENTERPRISE OF THE FORT MCDOWELL YAVAPAI NATION
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COURTESY OF AK-CHIN SOUTHERN DUNES
After a long day of golf and playing the 19th hole like a pro, one of the 500 rooms Harrah’s Ak-Chin Hotel could look very appealing. So could its 40,000 square feet of casino space, its pool and its live entertainment area. Owned by the Ak-Chin tribe, the hotel is managed by Caesars. caesars.com/harrahs-ak-chin NSTAGRAM.COM/HASHKITCHEN
Southern Exposure a White Truffle Mac and Cheese with house-smoked pork—all appear with a suggested adult-beverage pairings. Look into stay-and-play packages from the 300-room Harrah’s AkChin Casino Resort six miles south. akchinsoutherndunes.com
COLORADO PROUD
PGA General Manager Brady Wilson of Ak-Chin Southern Dunes is a Durango native and graduate of Fort Lewis College. He has spent the last 10 year at the Maricopa course.
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If you haven’t been to Phoenix’s Papago Golf Club recently, you’re in for a treat. The revitalized home course of Arizona State University has an impressive new clubhouse and restaurant that is attracting golfers and nongolfers. papagogolfclub.com
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Hashtag-shaped donuts, over-thetop hashes, eggs, pancakes and build-your-own Bloody Mary Bar make Hash Kitchen’s five shrines to brunch an instagrammable way to start your day, hashkitchen.com PAPAGOGOLFCLUB.COM
A SPRING TRAINING favorite of low-handicap golfers who happen to play professional baseball, Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa is well worth the 40-minute drive from Scottsdale. Even after a 2014 “playerfriendly” renovation removed nearly two acres of bunkering and shortened a number of holes, the 7,546-yard design by Brian Curley, Lee Schmidt and Fred Couples remains a test worthy of Golf magazine’s Top 100 U.S. Courses You Can Play and an annual U.S. Open qualifier. No homes intrude on this Australian Sandhills-inspired course owned by the Ak-Chin Indian Community and managed by Troon. Unlike most clubs, Ak-Chin Southern Dunes serves breakfast, lunch and dinner at its Arroyo Grille, and the dinner menu selections—which include a delicate grilled salmon to
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Spring Travel
Tucson’s Course Load WITH MORE THAN 40 courses, Tucson’s vibrant and varied golf scene ranges from its five municipal layouts (including former PGA TOUR sites El Rio and Randolph North), to the magnificent Robert Trent Jones Jr.designed Arizona National Golf Club next to the Coronado National Forest, to The Stone Canyon Club in Oro Valley, which Phil Mickelson just added to his golf-property portfolio. Most, if not all, of the best layouts in the area are attached to resorts. The showpiece of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe-owned Casino Del Sol hotel, the stunning Notah Begay/Ty Butler-designed layout at Sewailo Golf Club is the University of Arizona Wildcats’ home course. A former home of the Tucson Open, the
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Sewailo Golf Club
JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort boasts three nines (Coyote, Road Runner and Rattler) designed by Arnold Palmer, while the Westin La Paloma and the erstwhile WGC Match Play site at Dove Mountain Golf Club at the RitzCarlton (in nearby Marana) both feature 27 Jack Nicklaus-designed holes. In the Tortolita Mountains of Marana,
virtually adjacent to Dove Mountain’s Tortolita, Wild Burro and Saguaro nines, lie the North and South 18s at The Gallery Golf Club. In Oro Valley, the Cañada, Conquistador and nine-hole Pusch Ridge layouts comprise a scenic 45 holes at El Conquistador Tucson, a Hilton Resort. visittucson.org
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This Feb. 25 – 27, the Omni Tucson National will again host the PGA TOUR Champions Cologuard Classic on its tree-lined Catalina Course. cologuardclassic.com
Ventana Golf & Racquet Club spoils members and guests of the boutique Lodge at Ventana Canyon with two stunning Tom Fazio-designed championship courses, the Canyon and the Mountain, which both blend magically into the natural features of the Santa Catalinas. Guests of Loews Ventana Canyon, which borders the Canyon’s 18th hole, have limited playing privileges. thelodgeatventanacanyon.com
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Built on the site of the 500-acre Otero Ranch, Tubac Golf Resort’s bovines are as iconic to the course as the scenes from Tin Cup that were shot there. A marker on the Rancho nine’s 568-yard 4th tempts players to imitate the 3-wood shot “Roy McAvoy” (Kevin Costner) hit onto the green in two after “David Simms” (Don Johnson) laid up with a 7-iron. tubacgolfresort.com
ORIGINALLY DESIGNED in 1959, the Tubac Golf Resort & Spa is a classic that has only improved with time. In 2006, the original Robert “Red” Lawrence 18hole design was augmented by another nine, courtesy of Ken Kavanaugh. The Anza, Otero and Rancho each present their own beguiling challenges, featuring stately old growth cottonwoods and mesquites throughout. Of course, there’s more to the resort than golf. Its 3,000-square-foot earth-inspired
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Back to Tubac spa offers multiple treatements, integrating botanical oils, desert earth elements and fragrant candles to create a uniquely Arizona experience that even includes a rehydrating eucalyptus steam room. The resort also is home to 98 luxury hacienda-style accommodations and three dining options—Stables Ranch Grille & Patio, Stables Bar and La Cantina. It also features a recently updated swimming pool with spacious cabanas. tubacgolfresort.com
Elvira’s
Tucson is a foodie mecca, and its oldest Mexican restaurant, El Charro, turns 100 this year. In Tubac, the place to go is Elvira’s, which started 90 years ago in Nogales, Mexico, and still greets patrons with a free “Hola!” Tequila shot and a variety of traditionally prepared meals served in a delightful setting. elvirasrestaurant.com
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALAN GONZALES
The head pro at Tubac Golf Club, Kristie Fowler, is a native of Grand Junction. Named the 2017 LPGA National Professional of the Year, she grew up on Tiara Rado Golf Course—which was built by her dad—Tom Kolacny, and won the women’s 1984 State Match Play and ’85 Stroke Play titles.
The quaint, one-square-mile village of Tubac abounds in galleries overflowing with paintings, sculptures and crafts. It also features Pancho’s Resource and Design, a home-décor candy store brimming with one-of-a-kind Southwestern furnishings. panchosdesign.com
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