The Buzz: Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish created a masterpiece in the Monument, which was Golf Digest’s “Best New Public Course’’ when it made its debut in 1989. It was a revolutionary moment in Arizona golf, as the Monument’s dramatic landscape and impeccable conditions raised the bar for public golf for the entire Southwest. Weiskopf still chuckles about what he and former partner Morrish wrought. “What’s funny was that back then there were people who thought a daily fee of $80 or $90 would never fly,’’ he said. “Now they’re charging over $200 and people are standing in line to play the golf course.’’
Hole #15 at Troon North's Monument Course
The Monument’s original 18 holes no longer exist, as its front nine was combined not long ago with the original front nine of Troon North’s Pinnacle Course, another Weiskopf production (without Morrish). Still, the front nine on the Pinnacle was the better of those two nines and when you combine them with the course’s signature hole – the one-of-a-kind, par-5 third hole nicknamed “Monument’’ (what else?) – this course remains a “must play’. FYI, the Monument was the flagship course that launched Troon Golf.
Arizona Golf Authority AZGA Golf Course Buzz: Of the 29 courses that make up the PGA Tour’s TPC chain, the TPC Scottsdale is generally ranked just behind the signature TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, FL, home of the Players Championship. But the Stadium does something that Sawgrass will never do: provide seating and unobstructed views of the action for over 100,000 fans per day on its ubiquitous mounds which provide a natural amphitheater on almost every hole.
#15 Hole at TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course
Playing golf at the site of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, one of the PGA Tour’s longest-running events, has plenty of appeal, but even without that distinction, the Stadium Course stands as one of the best daily-fee facilities in Arizona.
The front nine is a stern test and the back nine is an ever thrilling ride home, especially the closing stretch at 15, 16, 17 and 18; it’s considered one of the great risk-reward tour finishes in the professional game; more on that later.
The Stadium Course opened for play in 1986 and was built at the urging of then-tour commissioner Deane Beman, who wanted an “arena” layout that could host the massive half-million a week Phoenix Open galleries the tournament attracts; it’s the best attended golf tournament in the world.
Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish teamed up to create the design and delivered a championship layout beyond everyone’s expectation. They began with a flat piece of land adjacent to the Central Arizona Project Irrigation Canal and moved several million cubic yards of earth to create the undulations that define the course and mounding where the 100,000 fans per day cheer on the best players in the world.
Although the course resides in the Arizona Sonoran Desert, the Stadium Course features a traditional design with the nearby McDowell Mountains as a backdrop. The generous fairways are a tee ball bombers dream and the pros card some of the lowest scores of the tour season rota during their competitive week here; but it’s no pushover for the weekend warrior.
The Stadium plays to even par 71, but is rated at 74.6 with a slope of 138 at the 7,216-yard professional tees. Three additional tee boxes are available at 6,525, 6,049 and 5,455.
Weiskopf, a local resident, has returned to “tweak” his setup several times and says, “It’s playing now just like it was meant to play in the beginning”.
The front nine plays a few shots tougher than the back, for amateurs and pros alike. The 554-yard par-5 third offers an enticing, deep but narrow, green complex elevated above and beyond an arroyo that gobbles up any miss-hit second or third-shot approach. The par-4 fifth is 453 yards of O.B. right and lush desert left; the approach must carry a natural desert area fronting the green. The eight, a par-4 stretching 470 yards, is just a workout due in part to the fact that once you leave the tee box, the next level lie you find on this hole is at the bottom of the cup.
The Stadium’s greatest appeal though is the four hole finishing stretch where the Waste Management Phoenix Open is often decided on Super Bowl Sunday afternoon. It all starts at the 552-yard par-5 15th with water left and the island green. Any reasonable tee ball makes the large island seem reachable, a generous apron fronts the green and safety-net bunkers are positioned right and left. But the island target often proves elusive with a fairway metal or long iron.
That’s followed by the now-infamous par-3 16th, where tens of thousands of fans are collected together in stadium-style seating which completely encircles the 162-yarder. The player-fan interaction here is unique, not only in golf but in the history of professional sports. The atmosphere is electric, it’s exciting for fan and sportsman alike, and it’s always managed in the spirit of good, clean fun.
Weiskopf placed his trademark drivable par-4 of 332 yards in the 17th position at the Stadium Course. Water noses out beyond the leading edge of the green on the left and wraps around the entire backside. Tee balls placed short or right of the green require a tricky pitch from a very tight lie to one of several unique pin placements on an enormous green. With only one hole to go on tournament Sunday, it’s a professional gambler’s dream. The best? Andrew Magee’s hole out from the tee still stands as the only par-4 ace in PGA Tour history.
The par-4 438-yard 18th demands precise placement of the drive between water left and bunkers right. The green is modest in size and falls off to chipping areas both in front and on the left side; tricky chips. Two bunkers guard the right; they’re deep, avoid them. You approach this green from the south, Phoenix and the Salt River are behind you which is where the ball wants to go. Keep your approach shot between you and the hole, that’s under the hole; you can make it from there.
As you would expect, the practice facilities here are stellar and several local resident tour players hone their trade here. The 27,000 s.f. clubhouse is a showpiece and the TPC Grille prepares some of the finest steaks and seafood offered in Scottsdale. Libations on the patio at sunset are a great way to ease into the evening as well.
But mostly, people come out to play and appreciate where Phil Mickelson won twice, Mark Calcavecchia won three times and Tiger Woods hit the modern-day “shot heard ’round the world” at the 16th. Yeah, it really is fun to play where the pros play.
Be sure to read the Arizona Golf Authority AZGA Course Buzz for the Stadium’s sister course TPC Scottsdale Champions Course.
Arizona Golf Authority AZGA “Local Hang” for the TPC includes the Clubhouse TPC Grille and Four Peaks Grill and Tap, located just south of the course in the retail center on the southeast corner of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and Hayden Road.
Arizona Golf Authority AZGA Golf Course Buzz: Randy Heckenkemper, who assisted Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish when they built the Stadium Course at the TPC Scottsdale, came back to redesign the Champions Course in 2007. Heckenkemper’s redo turned out so well that many in the Valley of the Sun consider the Champions as the most reasonably priced golf course in the Phoenix-Scottsdale area. Without a doubt it does deliver views, variety and value, coming in with a green fee that can be less than half the cost of its big brother, the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course.
Tournament Players Club of Scottsdale – Champions Course
Even though it’s tighter and shorter than the Stadium, the Champions is a stern test, evidenced by the fact that the Arizona State Stroke Play Championship is held here each year and it gives the best amateurs in the state all they can handle. The challenge starts early too.When you tee it up on the 371-yard par-4 1st now, you’ll be playing what was originally the 10th. In those days, the green hugged the pond that borders the left side of the fairway.
The green has been relocated away from the water, elevated and placed above and beyond a desert arroyo that cuts across the fairway. Your first drive of the day must be placed between the water, left and a series of deep, menacing fairway bunkers on the right. Welcome, to the Champions Course.
At the 477-yard par-4 5th, you’ll be tempted to cut the right-to-left dogleg and launch your tee ball directly over the native desert foliage toward an inviting landing area peninsula glistening in the distance, located left of the primary fairway. That’s fine, just be prudent in the amount you choose to bite off; all those plants have stickers and needles of one sort or another. The green is elevated above the fairway and anything short or left will run down the slope, into the lush desert growth. Putts on this green, as is common in this part of town, move northeast to southwest, towards downtown Phoenix and the Salt River.
The Champion’s course provides an uphill workout in the home stretch as well. The par-3 16th plays 215 yards and a bit uphill; doesn’t look like it, but you’ll find it’s a tough par.
The 17th continues up the hill, which your eyes can now perceive. The 605-yard par-5 travels due west, directly into the prevailing breeze in this locale. Two serviceable shots will bring you to the real test here, your crucial third. You’re still looking somewhat uphill at the green and the horizon beyond provides no definition, so depth perception and your “feel” for the yardage can be problematic. Trust the yardage markers and add a bit for the slope when you pull your club.
No. 18 – TPC Scottsdale Champions Course
You’ve completed the climb when you reach the tee box at the 460-yard par-4 18th, but this finisher requires two perfectly placed shots, each threatened by water. The lake on the left is in play from the tee and extends all the way home to hug the entire left side of the green. Your tee ball must be fit between it and a large bunker in some mounding pinching the right side of the fairway landing area. Find the right side of the fairway and your second is an all-turf carry to the green, a tee ball in the fairway’s left side leaves a thrilling all-water carry, especially when the pin is set in tournament Sunday’s back-left position.
The course hosts the Champions Tour qualifying tournament for the 50 and over crowd each year. Another cool thing about the Champion’s course – it’s often paired with the Stadium Course at a very reasonable price for a 36-hole day ; it’s the best high-quality golf 1-2 punch you’ll find anywhere!
Be sure to read the Arizona Golf Authority AZGA Golf Course Buzz about the Champion’s famous big brother across the street TPC Scottsdale Stadium Golf Course, the home of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Arizona Golf Authority AZGA “Local Hang” for the Champions Course is the TPC Grille, across the street at the TPC Stadium Course Clubhouse and Four Peaks Grille and Tap, located in the retail center just south of the course on the southeast corner of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and Hayden Road.
The Buzz: Located in Scottsdale’s northernmost area, this is the centerpiece of the Terravita development, a master-planned community that was developed in 1993 by Del Webb/Pulte Homes and has been owned and operated by members since 1998. Significant infrastructure investments have been made since 2007, upgrading the quality of the facility. PGA Hall of Fame golfer Billy Casper and Valley architect Greg Nash designed this private non-equity course, which has five sets of tees, ranging from 5,283 to 7,075 yards, and is rated at 73.3 with a slope of 141 from the tips. In other words, if you choose to play it all the way back, you’ll have both hands full.
It is a desert-style layout with homes and some rugged terrain in the transition areas, so accuracy off the tee is important in scoring well here. The course offers some excellent views of Black Mountain, Boulders and other mountain ranges, and its bentgrass greens are among the area’s best. It is annually ranked among the Best of Arizona Business Magazine’s listing of the state’s top 10 private golf courses. Practice facilities include an expansive, two-way driving range and two chipping, sand and putting practice areas.
Casper and Nash took advantage of the many washes, rolling hills and native vegetation found in the Sonoran desert making Terravita the first course to open in Scottsdale under the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Ordinance adopted by the city in 1993. In its first year of operation, Terravita hosted U.S. Open qualifying and the Southwest Section of the PGA of America championship.
Highlights of the front nine include the third hole, a double dogleg at 610 yards from the back tee to one of the largest greens on the course. Depending on pin position, it could be a three-club difference on approach and if you end up on the wrong tier, a three-putt looms. The ninth is one of the most picturesque holes and the shortest par 4 at 358 yards, but the elevated green is virtually surrounded by bunkers.
Right behind it is the No. 1 handicap hole, a 442-yard par 4 with a desert transition area 240 yards from the tee. A lake wraps around the right side and back of the green and a series of four bunkers guard the right side with a large bunker guarding the back left.
Membership to Terravita Country Club is included with the purchase of every home, which includes dining, the fitness center, pool and spa facility, tennis facilities and the Desert Pavilion community center. Members must pay monthly dues. Optional golf memberships also are available, with packages designed for singles, couples and families. There are about 1,400 households in the gated community just south of Carefree, which spreads across 823 acres, offers high-end amenities in an elegant setting and takes its name from the Latin words terra (land or earth) and vita (life).
Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore built two terrific layouts for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community at Talking Stick Golf Club. Due to their location on the reservation, water is plentiful and course conditions are lush and manicured.
The South Course is the pure application of a traditional golf course upon desert land; wide and tree-lined all-turf fairways with rough extend from tee to green. The fairways are routed around bunkers, in the traditional locations, and deliver you to raised and bunkered green complexes. No forced carries over desert or pond here, but to achieve par 71 on the 6,833-yard South Course you might consider a few.
Talking Stick Golf Course
Messrs Crenshaw and Coore created an entirely different experience at the North Course. It’s the same piece of property, same designers, but a completely different type of golf.
The 7,133-yard par 70 North course approximates links golf in the desert. The course is mown tight and the ball runs all over the subtle contours built into the fairways. Don’t be surprised when you find your ball in a bunker you thought you couldn’t reach, or appeared to be nowhere near the spot you landed your ball. The greens take subtle to an even higher level. As your putt loses speed approaching the hole and drifts left or right, just enough to miss, you’ll realize that you need to look a little closer at that next “straight” putt.
Play them both, more that once if you have time, and revel in the rich contrast we so often find in the game called golf.
