Category: Cave Creek

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Cave Creek Central Arizona

Tatum Ranch Golf Club

Tatum Ranch Golf Club - #7 348-Yard Par-4

Arizona Golf Courses – Arizona Golf Authority Golf Course Reviews

Designed by highly-regarded architect Bob Cupp, Tatum Ranch Golf Club opened in 1986 as a public facility but was converted to a private club in 2002 after the multi-million dollar clubhouse, complete with a swimming pool, and other enticing amenities were added.

Tatum Ranch Golf Club - #7 348-Yard Par-4

The championship layout features rolling fairways, strategic bunkering, greens that are large and undulating and plenty of native cacti, mesquite and palo verde trees. While making your loop, you’re treated to some nice views of the surrounding mountain landscape prevalent in this part of the Cave Creek/North Scottsdale area.

Despite the visually-intimidating desert transitions, Tatum Ranch is a player-friendly layout that is very accommodating to golfers of all abilities due to the generous landing areas off the tees. And with seven sets of tees, golfers are able to bite off just as much as they wish to chew that day. From the tips, the par-72 plays at 6,856 yards with a rating of 72.7 and slope of 135 and will test any skilled player’s game. The front tees are set at 5,081 yards.

The signature hole is the seventh, which happens to be the only hole where water is in play. The short, 348-yard par-4 features a lake running along the entire right side of the fairway to threaten the tee shot. The short second-shot approach is over the lake to a contoured, elevated green complex that hugs the water’s edge. It’s all about accuracy and ball control for birdie here.

Highlights on the back nine include two par-4s, the short 12th and the 18th finisher. No. 12 is drivable for big hitters at just 305 yards from the back tee, but it’s a risk-reward proposition. Mounding hides the green from the tee, and the green pitches away from you as well. A lot more birdies result from a lay-up in the left side of the fairway and a well struck wedge approach shot.

No. 18 can be a brute of a finish at 467 yards, with a slight dogleg left. Fairway bunkers pinch the fairway in the landing area and the enormous green runs away from the player; three front bunkers gobble up any second shot that comes up short, one behind grabs everything long. Par here deserves a well-earned reward in the elegant clubhouse libation area.

Tatum Ranch Golf Club offers complete practice facilities and professional instruction. The Club’s members enjoy all the amenities including casual and fine dining, fitness center, swimming pool and private locker rooms, all of which are available via a well designed variety of affordable membership programs.

Read the Arizona Golf Course List AZGA Player’s Arizona Golf Course Review for every golf course in Arizona at www.arizonagolfauthority.com/coursedirectory.

It’s “All Things Arizona Golf” from the Arizona Golf Authority.

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Cave Creek Central Arizona

Rancho Manana Golf Club

#4 hole at Rancho Manana Golf Course in Cave Creek, AZ
#4 Rancho Manana Golf Course

The Buzz: Contrary to popular belief, mañana doesn’t mean “tomorrow’’ in Spanish. It means “not today.’’ But considering you’ve come all the way to Arizona to play awe-inspiring golf, why wait when the Bill Johnston-designed Rancho Manana is calling your name? Actually Johnston was a bit of a miracle worker, as he carved Rancho Manana out of a mere 60 acres back in 1989, when it was originally called Eagle Creek. After it languished for years, Johnston rebuilt it again and the course was reborn as Rancho Manana even if the tight fairways and short par 4s and 5s didn’t get much larger.

#4 hole at Rancho Manana Golf Club in Cave Creek, AZ
#4 Rancho Manana Golf Club

Still, Rancho Manana is what it is, a short, fun, quick round of golf with amazing views in every direction. The setting is straight out of the wild, wild West, which is poetic justice considering the golf course site served as an outpost for the U.S. Calvary and the Pony Express, and the small brick building where riders dropped for a fresh horse and a beer and a shot still stands today. In the early 1940s the golf course was a dude ranch called – what else? – Rancho Manana.

The signature hole is No. 4, a 300-yard par 4 that runs up the hill all the way up the hill with an arroyo slashing across the fairway at about the 200-yard mark – perhaps the shortest No. 1 handicap hole in Arizona. Of the two nines, the front is prettier while the back packs more of a punch. If you’re “right down the middle of the fairway,’’ Rancho Manana is a good walk not spoiled, and you can score.

But if you’re the least bit wayward, the best score comes after golf at the tasty Tonto Bar & Grill, one of the better cantinas associated with golf anywhere in the world.

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Cave Creek Central Arizona

Dove Valley Ranch Golf Club

It isn’t always mentioned among the prominent courses in this area of north-Phoenix, but this layout created by Robert Trent Jones Jr. stands just fine on its own merit, and at green fees lower than you will find at many of its neighbors. To some golfers, Jones has a reputation as a designer of the diabolic, but those who think so are in for a pleasant surprise at Dove Valley Ranch, because this one has plenty of playability sandwiched in and around the meat of its challenges.

Its routing shifts gently between open, panoramic views to intimate lush foliage along Willow Wash, with petroglyph-etched boulders marking each hole. The design places a premium on strategy with its variety of holes and was considered Arizona’s best new course when it opened in 1998. It is built on land occupied as early as A.D. 300 by the Hohokam people, who opted for a peaceful existence below Black Mountain and were known as the first farmers of the Southwest. Shards of clay pottery still are found today by golfers in search of errant shots, and Dove Valley’s elegant clubhouse has numerous relics on display.

It essentially is a desert-style track but with many hints of traditional design, including ample fairways, and subtly contoured greens. There is plenty of room off the tees, but a premium on approach shots and course management. The highlight of the front nine is the second hole, a par 4 at 447 yards from the back tees that is aptly called “Fatal Attraction.” This is a quintessential Jones risk-reward hole, a sharp dogleg right with water running down the entire right side and a large bunker guarding the left side of the green. No. 9, called “Watering Hole” is a 419-yard par 4 with a lake running down the left side and the ideal tee shot is to challenge that water, leaving a better angle to the green.

The back nine is much tougher and tighter, highlighted by dense desert vegetation and has several memorable holes. Included are the short par-4 12th with a split fairway, the par-4 14th with a sharp left dogleg and double arroyo and the 17th, a 539-yard par 5 with a left dogleg and a wide arroyo separating the fairway from the green.

Many consider 18 to be the signature hole. The 401-yard par 4, called “Bird bath,” is a slight dogleg right with water running down the entire right side and four large bunkers surrounding three sides of one of the smallest greens on the course. There are four sets of tees, ranging from 5,336 to 7,011 yards and the course is rated at 72.6 with a slope of 128 from the back tees. Dove Valley has excellent practice facilities, GPS-equipped carts, the Kirby yardage marking system in place and a full-service restaurant.

When your round is finished, no matter what roundup you might be headed to next, allow some time to visit nearby Cave Creek’s western-style watering holes. Among the most popular are the Buffalo Chip Saloon, Silver Spur Saloon, Harold’s Corral, Cartwright’s Sonoran Ranch House (“Hoss” will be there in spirit) and the Horny Toad. If ya’ don’t mind sawdust on the floor and brew in a mason jar, these are great spots to settle “yer” bets. And you should demand handicap strokes if you know what Hoss’ real first name was on Bonanza. Made ya’ look it up, didn’t we?