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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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Central Arizona Scottsdale

Talking Stick Golf Club – North & South Courses

Talking Stick Golf Resort and Casino in Scottsdale, Arizona
Talking Stick Resort

Arizona Golf Course Buzz – Arizona Golf Authority Golf Course Guide:

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.

Arizona Golf Course Guide List Directory - Talking Stick Golf Course - Arizona Golf Authority Arizona Golf Course Reviews
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.

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Northern Arizona Prescott

Talking Rock Golf Club

Arizona Golf Course List - Talking Rock Golf Course - Arizona Golf Authority
Talking Rock Golf Course

Arizona Golf Course List – Arizona Golf Authority Golf Course Guide

Arizona Golf Course List - Talking Rock Golf Course - Arizona Golf Authority
Talking Rock Golf Course

This private country club layout, among the last designed by Jay Morrish, is the centerpiece of a sprawling 3,500-acre master-planned community that recently was ranked as one of the top 50 such communities by Where To Retire magazine.

Located northwest of Prescott, Arizona in the Williamson Valley, an area where Phoenix area residents often go to escape the summer heat, it offers a peaceful, serene setting where tees and greens appear to float on a sea of native grasses. The course winds through pinion pine forests, with mild desert terrain in the transition areas highlighted by wispy native grasses.

“The developers offered me the opportunity to design the course wherever I wanted it on the entire property, as long as it appeared as natural as possible,” Morrish said. “When you have that, you can do some pretty special things.”

The course is defined by generous landing areas, deep, strategically placed bunkers and aprons that allow golfers to run shots up to greens – a feature typical of the Scottish links-style courses that Morrish favors.

Among other high-caliber events, Talking Rock has hosted the Southwest Section of the PGA Championship event and from the tips it can be a beast, but golfers have plenty of options here to pick their pleasure or their poison.

Morrish provided six sets of tees, stretching to 7,350 yards from the tips, but plays at just 5,105 from the forward tees. From the back, the par-72 layout is rated at 73.7 with a slope of 136.

The front nine is the more level of the two, winding through pine forests with excellent views of local peeks such as Granite Mountain. The back nine climbs to higher elevations with rugged terrain and even better mountain settings.

Deep bunkers provide the most significant obstacles as there is water in play on just three holes and the par 5s are particularly strong. Those include the never-ending sixth, which stretches to 641 yards, and the 11th, which plays at “only” 563 yards and has a creek cutting across the fairway near the green that adds a risk-reward element.

The ninth and 18th holes, which play at 589 and 542 yards, are separated by a large lake near the end of their two fairways. Both fairways and greens are heavily bunkered.

Talking Ranch offers golf and non-golf memberships and those members enjoy first-class amenities such as fine dining, entertainment, an extensive trail system, outdoor activities and state-of-the-art fitness, tennis and swimming facilities.

Visit our Arizona Golf Course Directory List and read the AZGA Player’s 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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Central Arizona Mesa

Superstition Springs Golf Club

superstion-springs-golf-club-photo

Superstition Springs Golf Club – Arizona Golf Course Reviews

superstion-springs-golf-club-photoSuperstition Springs is a public golf course, opened in 1986, that is generally regarded as one of Mesa’s best, but then golfers tend to differ when it comes to layout appeal and the assessments often vary.

Some consider it the finest design from the Greg Nash and Jeff Hardin team in Arizona, while others think a few holes are a bit too contrived for the PGA Tour qualifying tournament once hosted here. Bottom line is you’ll have to judge the design for yourself – we say Superstition Springs’ overall experience definitely makes it worth a visit.

You’ll find four sets of tees, with the tips set at 7,005 yards, a rating of 73 and slope of 128 (down from a one-time high of 135) and the front tees at 5,296 yards with marks of 66.3 and 109. The layout  offers wonderful views of the Superstition Mountains and features ample landing areas in the fairways, considerable fairway mounding, undulating greens, expansive bunkers around those greens, mature palm, pine, willow and eucalyptus trees lining the fairways and water in play on 11 of the 18 holes, although that isn’t as daunting as it sounds if you use your head and a wee bit of course management.

The par-3 holes can be a handful with three of them measuring more than 200 yards from the tips and there are several risk-reward holes that can make or break your round. All things considered, it’s a course that can leave you licking your chops or shaking your head, and that means a fun challenge.

Both nines feature a memorable stretch of holes. On the front, that starts at No. 5, a drivable par 4 that plays uphill to a green heavily guarded by bunkers. Right behind it, the sixth hole and the No. 1 handicap, is the longest on the course at 610 yards and features a partially hidden pond on the left and a green complex with a formidable bunker on the left side. No. 7 is both gorgeous and demanding as a 228-yard par 3, and the No. 5 handicap, where anything short or long-right will find water. Many consider the ninth, a sharp dogleg left par 4 of 425 yards with a huge lake running down the left side, to be the signature hole.

On the back-9, players usually love or hate the 14th hole because of its beauty and difficulty with a lake that can be reached off the tee and a green perched on a ridge with another water hazard guarding the front and left. Right behind it is a 231-yard par 3 with another lake on the right, a 424-yard par 4 to a green laced with bunkers and mounds and a 537-yard par 5 to a green with water hazards squeezing the end of the fairway and green on both sides.

No. 18 is an excellent par-4 closer of 455 yards with a creek that cuts across the fairway twice, a small waterfall, a well-bunkered green and a gorgeous mountain backdrop. Amenities include a spacious restaurant and outdoor patio, locker rooms with showers, a large putting green, chipping green and grass range with target areas. The course offers several memberships, is female friendly as a member of the “Women on Course” program. It is part of the Eagle network, which offers discounts at about 60 courses around the country to cardholders.

Visit our Arizona Golf Course Reviews and read the AZGA Player’s 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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Central Arizona Mesa

Sunland Village East Golf Course

Arizona Golf Course List – Arizona Golf Authority Golf Course Guide

Designed by Milton Coggins, Sunland Village East, is a semi-private executive course which opened for play in 1987. The course offers a very basic golf experience with three small ponds in play on the front nine, no water on the back and little bunkering throughout.

The golf course offers two sets of tees, 3,689 and 3,270 yards, and plays at par 62 with a rating of 56.8 and slope of 80. The course is routed in an L shape with homes running along the interior and perimeter. Ten par-3 holes range from 112 to 149 yards and there are eight par 4s, with the longest being the 16th at 337 yards.

Among the better holes are the 285-yard, par-4 fourth and the 109-yard, par-3 fifth, both of which are guarded by ponds. The course is member-owned but open to the public and features some of the area’s lowest green fees. It has a driving range, putting green and the Hens and Chicks Café that is open for breakfast and lunch.

The Sunland Village East course is part of a large Mesa community for active adults with a population of more than 4,000 and some nice views of the Superstition Mountains. The community offers numerous indoor activities and the location puts it in close proximity to plenty of outdoor activities.

Visit our Arizona Golf Course Directory List and read the AZGA Player’s Review for every golf course in Arizona at www.arizonagolfauthority.com/coursedirectory.

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