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.
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.