In my experience when you venture out to play a Coore-Crenshaw course you are not likely to be bowled over by the dramatics of the design, rather you are going to be nudged and tugged by the subtlety of the presentation. Guys like this from what is now coined the “Minimalist School” impress you with their eyes not their shovels. It is the composition of the holes, what they saw in the ground and chose to draw out and emphasize, not manufactured features to stun your senses and distract your attention from the real task at hand.

The Saguaro Course at We-Ko-Pa is about flow and feel and how it engages your golf decision making while allowing you to appreciate the marvelous setting within which it lies. Driving up to this location from the flats of Scottsdale you realize that you are engaging the mountains not just seeing them as a backdrop canvas. Taking in the surroundings as you pull up to the clubhouse you sense that the topography will have influence on how the ball responds once on the ground, the minimalists will make sure of that, and so your strategic choices will require proper weight to consequence of one position or one route over another in playing each hole. As Ben said, “This old boney ground has some ‘sting’ to it” and they found it without having to produce a swarm to prove it.

The approach to the first melds a dry bed creek into the challenge

The width of the long Par 4 opening hole sets a tone for the day-you think you can hit it just about anywhere and have a look at the green. Yet as you can read in the hole-by-hole detail in the link below the shape of your tee ball can determine how to get up the fairway and give yourself the best approach line to a perched green complex still a ways away. Oh, did I mention they drew in a dry creek bed traversing the fairway which may put some doubt in your mind whether you can reach at all if you don’t hit the drive with enough intent.

The full flavor of Saguaro is revealed on the second tee-you figure out where to hit it!

Step on the tee of the quasi-drivable second and it is full desert static with scrub to carry off the tee and sand and more wilderness encroaching your playing path. Throw in a dramatic backdrop of an entire mountain range in the near distance and it becomes pretty hard just to sort out your choices for proper play. The course they present defies playing script or sequential rhythm. Each hole presents choices and requires your reaction. How you choose to react on one challenge drastically changes the next one.

A bit of superstition imposed upon the view of the Par 4 6th.

As you get into the middle of the outward half the topography gets more severe and the ground influence on your shot making grows accordingly. Now you feel the mountains start to hover above the course rather than just frame the target. The sixth is a good example of this, you drive from teeing pods set in the hill over a high ridge in the fairway that completely masks the landing area. Standing next to your tee ball in the fairway the influence of the promontory peak of Superstition Mountain just beyond the green complex is firmly in your mind before hitting the approach or making your first putt. The coolest part about this minimalist thing is that everything matters. If it comes into your minds eye then it is worth considering.

The roller coast ride on the Par 5 8th ends in this station

A fine sandwich with kettle chips awaits behind the 9th green.

Coming off the long and serpentine Par 5 eighth, the front side finishes with a short uphill pitch into a green with the playing width of a two-lane country road. The contrast in shots required in a two-hole stretch is not lost on those with proper awareness. Don’t miss the tuna or turkey sandwich with the home made kettle chips at the turn. It will refill the tank and make the challenges that come next all the more manageable.

The Par 3 15th, at well over 200 yards, adds to the challenge of the next stretch.

With only one five par on the inward half, three Par 4’s over 400 yards, and a one-shotter well over 200 yards the scoring opportunities will be few and far between. The stretch of big holes from twelve to fifteen give this side it’s distinct character.

The drive area on the 13th looks confined but it is really quite generous but precision is required to set up an aggressive approach to a minimalist green complex.

The back-to-back long Par 4’s at twelve and thirteen give you wide scale driving areas with greens with minimal bunker coverage. Yet both require precise driving to get the best angle to manage the long approach beyond the single greenside bunker. Good news is they provided wide expanses of short grass around these greens so recovery with a crafty short game can still keep par in play.

For architecture aficionados their tribute to the Lido Hole will feel quite familiar.

The closest thing to design shock is the view off the tee on Bill and Ben’s risk-and-reward testimony to the Lido Hole on the long Par 5 fourteenth. You are offered two different fairways to which to impart your drive-the narrow one on the right shortens the hole considerably so for the long baller this will be tempting. The more sensible play is a wide berth on the left fairway which will still leave you with two kitchy plays as the hole doglegs sharply to the right. Even a well place lay-up into the narrowing area at about 100 yards out leaves a very challenging pitch into a long and narrow putting surface perched in a corner to the right. Your plays on this hole will revisit you in bed at night between sheep counts.

As you wend your way back to the house the short sixteenth will tempt your boldness off the tee but the best scores here are likely with a wedge and a putt. Seventeen is a serene tumbling affair, very soothing to the eye after all the mishugas of the last five holes. The home hole is a monstrously long Par 4 with a full desert buffet yet kindly it somehow plays much shorter and less harrowing than it appears from the tee.

My guess is you will agree agree with Ben’s sentiment when you are done.

As you settle in for an Arnold Palmer in the clubhouse bar after play you are going to be struck by how fatigued you are from the day’s golf decisions. There were no single challenges that seemed overwhelming but the relentless requirement to think two shots ahead has a way of wearing on you. Coore and Crenshaw’s design approach got this one right-they made a bold statement without raising their voices.

Fountain Hills, Arizona

Architects: Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw ( 2006)

Par   Rating   Slope   Yardage
Saguaro     71       72       137       6966
Purple        71      70.2     132       6603
White         71      68.8     125       6252
Comp. (L)  71      72.0     128       5786

(Click to see the hole-by-hole detail of the We-Ko-Pa Saguaro Course)

Grayhawk Golf Club has been the home many prestigious events including the PGA’s Waste Management Open and the Anderson Consulting Match Play and will be the site of the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Championships from 2020 through 2022.  The Raptor and the Talon Courses, laid out in the flat terrain of the Sonoran Desert with the stunning backdrop of the McDowell Mountains in the distance, are the epitome of desert golf in the American Southwest.

The McDowell Mountains stand in stark contrast to the flat contour of the Sonoran Desert but it is breathtaking to behold.

The Talon Course, a Gary Panks/David Graham creation from the 1990’s, gives you are particular narrow driving theater on almost every hole.  Many drives are over sand and scrub which mask the landing area of your tee balls and the adjacent desert in it’s natural state obviates the need for rough at all.  Get yourself a yardage book in the golf shop, you are going to need some corroborating visuals to find you way around here.  (You can get a printable PDF of the hole-by-hole descriptions through the link at the end of this posting).

The first hole, named in memory of LPGA Pro Heather Farr, shows the demanding driving required right out of the gate.

“Bogle”, the short Par 4 2nd hole, gives you the full array of desert scrub, sand, and trees.

To me this makes for corridor golf so you must control your driving and approach lines to stay out of the snake and scorpion retreats.  The tightness of the track and the unrelenting penalty of the desert’s encroachment make a good medal score hard to come by. Make sure you set up a match with your buds if you want to enjoy this golf experience.

The “Three Sisters” bunkers that give the Par 5 3rd hole it’s name a feature you don’t want to contend with.

“Sentinel”, the first of the three pars, uses an ocean of desert sand to create a forced carry.

The back nine in particular wends around and through a series of canyons making for unexpected elevation changes and severe drop-offs into sand wilderness for wayward shots.  The sprawling fairway and greenside bunkering works well with the desert scrub helping to define the strategic lines of the holes.  These bunkers present some intimidating challenges but with careful planning it is possible to negotiate your way about relatively unfettered.  The bunkers are deep with ash tray sand but very playable to a normal escape if you avoid the bad thoughts.

The short 13th is called “Heaven or Hell”….you get to choose which after you see the result of the dicey tee shot you chose to play.

Green complexes throughout the course are very varied and make for some significant tactical choices on approach lines.  Many of them are large, multi-tiered surfaces set in a dell depression for effect.   There are considerable short grass scapes adjacent to these putting surfaces so your pitch and run save game will get a good workout today.  The scale of the green complexes puts an onus on making approaches into the flag section of the day or you will be constantly battling to avoid the three putts.

The “Deception” on the Par 4 16th is enhanced by the ethereal backdrop of the mountains.

Talon’s most memorable feature is the combination of the natural desert floral set against the backdrop of the towering grey mountains in the distance.  Often times through the round you will find it hard to concentrate on a target dwarfed by the scale of the back drop.  Bring your camera for the Kodak moments-some of your most lasting memories of the day will be in those landscapes.

Not all the flora is happy about the presence of golfers…this seems like it is giving them the bird.

Scottsdale, Arizona

Architects:  Gary Panks/David Graham   ( 1994)

Par     Rating  Slope  Yardage

Talon               72        73.3     146      6973

Palo Verde      72        70.8     134      6430

Terra Cotta      72        68.3     122      5867

Heather           72        69.3     118      5143

(Click here to review the hole-by-hole detail of the Talon Course)

Click if you want to read more about Phil’s Grill at the Grayhawk Golf Club Resort