ARIZONA GOLF AUTHORITY

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  • SunRidge Canyon Golf Club – “Wicked Six” is Wicked Good

    SunRidge Canyon Golf Club – “Wicked Six” is Wicked Good

    From the Excellent Arizona Golf Adventures at the Arizona Golf Authority

    Put SunRidge Canyon Golf Club on your near-term play list and go enjoy one of Arizona’s most demanding, yet rewarding, championship layouts. Owners Don and Cindy Misheff, who purchased the club in 2010, have implemented some serious improvements during their stewardship and the results are spectacular.

    sunridge-canyon-golf-clubhouse

    First, the golf course. Long before the term became popular, avid local players respected Keith Foster’s 1995 “minimalist design” for its maximum challenge. The uphill climb home through holes 13-18, dubbed the “Wicked Six”, is one of the most memorable finishes in town.

    These six closers require precise play to score well, but whatever you post, the spectacular scenery you traverse while playing them always seems to pay off in spades when the last putt is holed, high atop the property on the 18th green.

    Looking down over the climb you just completed you’ll find within yourself a warm feeling of accomplishment and the quiet, rewarding sense of “a day well spent.”

    True to form, the Misheff’s used the summer season to raise the SunRidge Canyon playing experience to a higher level by converting all 18 greens to Champion Dwarf Bermuda. Be advised the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program Trials concluded that Champion achieved STMP meter speeds approaching two feet faster than other ultradwarf cultivar surfaces.

    Which is fine, since most players agree the “Can’t be too thin” and “Can’t be too rich” paradigm includes putting surfaces, “Can’t be too quick.”

    The layout remain the terrific test it’s always been: two precise shots over two transition areas at the picturesque par-4 seventh, an elevated, white-knuckle tee shot at the water-wrapped par-3 14th and the solid, uphill 18th closer. The elegant greens only enhance the experience of playing SunRidge’s artful design.

    sunridge-canyon-golf-patio-four-peaksAnd when the last putt drops, prepare yourself for more great fun: the new Wicked Six Bar and Grill at SunRidge Canyon.

    The hacienda-style clubhouse at SunRidge has always provided one of the best “local hang” spots in town, but now it’s been amped up with a new full-service menu, an engaging staff and a comfortably-modern decor.

    When you add in the elegant indoor-outdoor patio and that panoramic view of Four Peaks beyond, your card totals: great golf, good vibe, wicked fun.

    Visit SunRidge Canyon Golf Club at www.sunridgegolf.com for all the details.

    Click SunRidge Canyon Golf Course Review to read our AZGA player’s review of the golf course.

    It’s one more jewel in the treasure of “All Things Arizona Golf” at the Arizona Golf Authority.

     

  • Troon Privé Adds Pine Canyon & Torreon Clubs

    Troon Privé Adds Pine Canyon & Torreon Clubs

    From “Huff’s Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog by Bill Huffman at the Arizona Golf Authority

    After five years of relatively sluggish-to-no growth, or in some cases financial disaster, the private golf scene in northern Arizona seems to be on a bit of a resurgence. Amazing, when you consider that pretty much every club north of Payson but Forest Highlands in Flagstaff has been through the wringer.

    pine-canyon-clubhouse-flagstaff-photo
    Pine Canyon Golf Club, Flagstaff, Arizona

     

    Especially coming out of this economic funk in good shape are the Pine Canyon Club in Flagstaff and Torreon Golf Club near Show Low. One of the reasons I can say this is because both private clubs recently hired Scottsdale-based Troon Privé to manage their operations and agronomy. Troon Privé is the private arm of Troon, and includes about 40 elite clubs around the globe, including the Ocean Club in the Bahamas, Cordillera in Colorado, Pronghorn in Oregon, and Silverado in Napa, Calif., to name just a few.

    Both Pine Canyon and Torreon fit into that spectacular mold, perhaps Pine Canyon a tad more than Torreon. I say that because, if you’ve ever been to Pine Canyon, the clubhouse complex is off the charts. Located east of I-17 and south of I-40 on the outskirts of Flag, Pine Canyon would dominate any other small-city market if not for the presence of Forest Highlands, the pioneer of all that’s private about summer golf in Arizona.

    Still, Pine Canyon, which opened in 2004, has made its niche by being a little bit more family-oriented than its Flagstaff rival, and I’ll take Pine Canyon’s clubhouse any day over either of the two retreats at Forest Highlands. Some of my golf buds that are lucky enough to tee it up at Pine Canyon tell me it’s got a membership that is “really friendly,” and I think that’s a big deal if you’re in the market these days. Flagstaff, with its Northern Arizona University campus and lots of great eateries and breweries, also is nothing but fun for a mountain town.

    Rather than quote you a bunch of prices about how much property is going to cost at Pine Canyon, let’s just say plenty. I can be a little more specific about golf memberships, which range from $60,000 (refundable) to $30,000 (non-refundable) to $10,000 (sport membership with limited golf). There’s even a $40,000 (non-refundable) membership available to non-residents.

    Besides a new management company, Pine Canyon also has new owners. That would be Taber Anderson’s True Life Companies. If that last name looks familiar, it’s because Taber is the son of Lyle Anderson, who developed many of Arizona’s most influential private clubs, including Desert Highlands, Desert Mountain and Superstition Mountain.

    Kevin Betts, the new general manager at Pine Canyon, says that all of the newness has translated into lots of interest in his club. And while he’s just getting used to Flagstaff, “everything so far has just been awesome.”

    “Pine Canyon is a wonderful club, whether you’re talking about the golf course, the clubhouse, the pool, the membership, or just walking through the pines,” said Betts, who was the GM at The Phoenician for the past nine years.

    “I guess most perceive us as a summer club, but we’re year-round (with skiing in the winter). And with our new owner and their visions, the future could not look brighter.”

    As for the Jay Morrish-inspired Pine Canyon golf course, it boasts some picturesque holes although I’ve always thought it was more on par with the Meadows Course at Forest Highlands and not the Canyon, which is the highly-decorated, Morrish-Tom Weiskopf design that set the standard for mountain golf in Arizona way back in the mid-1980s. It’s a standard that no one has ever equaled.

    Sure, there are holes at Pine Canyon like Nos. 16 and 18 that give a little bit of that Augusta National-like feel. But the ones I always remember are Pine Canyon’s pair of “19s” – the 85-yard tee shot over water to an island green that ends your round (No. 19, the betting hole), and the traditional bar in the clubhouse. I can’t imagine a better way to end your round.

    Like I said, if you’re thinking about a place to play for the entire family that’s just a two-hour drive from the Valley, Pine Canyon looks pretty good these days. It’s basically established, and its financial problems seem to be in the rear-view mirror. You can check out other details at www.pinecanyon.net.

    Torreon, too, is all about the dad, mom and the kids, maybe even more than Pine Canyon when you consider they’ve dedicated 10 acres to family-friendly facilities that range from a trout pond to an equestrian stable, as well as Torreon’s 36 holes of golf.

    Yes, it’s about a three-hour drive from the Valley, or three-and-a-half hours from Tucson, but that will get you up to about 6,300 feet above sea level, which is the altitude you need to be at to receive noticeable relief from the heat.

    According to Joe Long, the general manager at Torreon, his club is no longer Arizona’s best-kept secret.

    “After four years of recession, we’re finally starting to bounce back, and a big part of that has been the arrival of Troon Privé,” said Long, who happens to be a tennis pro who somehow found his way into private golf.

    According to Long, Torreon always has been a stable club financially thanks to its long-time owners, Desert Troon. But the club had relied more on word-of-mouth than a major marketing campaign, which is why when the economic downturn came it dropped Torreon from 485 members down to around 400 members.

    “Troon Privé has got us back in the big picture, which is very important when you consider how many clubs we’re competing with for summer golf,” he pointed out.

    Long is right down the middle of the fairway with that assessment. And the difference between Torreon and Pine Canyon, besides 36 vs. 18 holes of golf, is that Torreon is more affordable. You’re talking about million-dollar-and-up homes at Pine Canyon versus homes at Torreon that boast more of a range, from $199,000 to $1.4 million.

    Memberships at Torreon are a deal, too, and the formula is simple: $20,000 initiation fee if you own property, and just $350 a month. Seriously, it’s hard to find those kinds of numbers for such quality golf.

    About the only drawback, Long added, is the nearby town of Show Low.

    “It’s our weakness,” he said, sheepishly. “The place is just a little too sleepy compared to Flagstaff, probably because we don’t have any college students.”

    That may be a plus or minus, depending on your view of college kids. And forget about Show Low, as Pinetop is just up the highway along with Sunrise Ski Park.

    Laurie McCain, who has been selling homes at Torreon since it opened in 1999, said there are numerous reasons why people love the club, which is located in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, where the pines don’t grow quite as tall as they do in Flagstaff’s Coconino Forest.

    “We’re affordable, casual, friendly and family-oriented, and it’s a mix of avid golfers from both Phoenix and Tucson, as we draw from both metropolitan areas,” McCain explained. “People really enjoy the atmosphere, and it’s easy to meet friends.

    “Plus, people really love to play our golf courses, both the husbands and the wives. I mean, we had a ladies day member-guest recently, and we had 144 players.”

    That’s impressive, when you can get 144 women to turn out to play golf at a destination golf course. But we’re not surprised, either, as Robert von Hagge’s two gems, the Tower (original) and Cabin, are dramatic and distinctive. The club itself designates four holes as signature – No. 8 and No. 15 on the Tower, and No. 9 and No. 12 on Cabin – but we would bet there are at least a dozen or more that could easily merit such status.

    I’ve always said that von Hagge, who died in 2010, was the van Gogh of golf course architects, and there were certainly moments of sheer brilliance at Torreon. In fact, you can check it out at www.torreon.com.

    So what’s it going to be: Pine Canyon or Torreon? The feeling here is, the time is right (again) and you can’t go wrong with either of them, especially with Troon Privé in charge.

    Click “Huff’s Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog to visit Bill’s complete golf blog archive at the Arizona Golf Authority.

    Then, before you tee it up, click Arizona Golf Course Reviews for our “Insider’s Playing Review” of every golf course in Arizona. All 325 of ’em!

    It’s just part of “All Things Arizona Golf” presented by the Arizona Golf Authority.

  • LPGA Women Take Center Stage Starting with Symetra Tour – “Huff’s Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog by Bill Huffman

    LPGA Women Take Center Stage Starting with Symetra Tour – “Huff’s Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog by Bill Huffman

    From “Huff’s Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog by Bill Huffman at the Arizona Golf Authority

    If you like women’s golf, the next month in the Valley of the Sun is going to shine when it comes to the ladies’ game.

    Symetra Tour - Arizona Golf AuthorityFirst up is the VisitMesa.com Gateway Classic at Longbow Golf Club. They like to say that the road to the LPGA starts on the Symetra Tour, and for over 100 young women who’ve got game that is certainly true. Young up-and-comers like Tiffany Joh, Mallory Blackwelder and Tucson’s Sara Brown will be competing on what is the LPGA equivalent of the men’s Web.Com Tour. And the winner of the $100,000 event at Mesa’s Longbow Golf Club on Feb. 22-24 will get an exemption – the ultimate opportunity – at competing in the upcoming RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup.

    The Founders Cup, which takes place March 14-17 at Wildfire Golf Club in northeast Phoenix, is the showcase of the best women players on the planet. And we literally mean everywhere on Earth. The LPGA tournament, which is dominated by international stars, the largest foreign contingent being from Korea, sports a $1.5 million purse and is being held in the Valley for a third consecutive year at the course associated with the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa.

    LPGA Founders Cup - Arizona Golf AuthorityIn between the Symetra and the LPGA tournaments, fans of the female game also will have a chance to see some rising stars at a collegiate invitational known as the Clover Cup, which is being hosted by the University of Notre Dame in conjunction with Visit Mesa and also being held at Longbow on March 7-10. The 54-hole tournament, which tees off with a college am-am, features 16 schools including the Irish, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Oklahoma, Northwestern, Texas and SMU, to name a few. Just as cool, the nation’s No. 1 women’s college player who just happens to be a freshman at Notre Dame, Scottsdale’s Lindsey Weaver – “Little Ms. 59” – will be in the field.

    Such a flurry of female golf talent is unprecedented around these parts. And it comes none too soon, as along with juniors, the National Golf Foundation recently reported that the chief reason we’ve lost 5 million golfers in the last five years is that women and juniors are disappearing in record numbers –and that’s disturbing.

    For those not familiar with the Symetra Tour, it once was called the Futures Tour, but changed its name two years ago when it added the new sponsor. What’s special about the Symetra is that the top 10 money winners each year get to earn playing cards for the upcoming season of the LPGA. Last year, Scottsdale’s Esther Choe was the leading money winner, meaning Choe will be a rookie playing in three weeks at the Founders Cup.

    Of those playing the Symetra event at Longbow, Brown probably is the most well-known. Her claim to fame came on the Golf Channel’s “Big Break Sandal Resort,” where her bubbly personality made her a Big Break favorite. In fact, she had such a big smile that the Golf Channel invited her back for its series from the Dominican Republic. She was a rookie on the LPGA in 2011, did not keep her card – something that is extremely tough for LPGA rookies to do these days with such a limited schedule – and won an event on the Symetra Tour last year. Unfortunately, Brown finished in 12th place on the Symetra’s money list, and is back on the fledging tour after having married her long-time swing coach, Derek Radley, who is now the assistant women’s golf coach at the University of Arizona.

    Blackwelder, the daughter of former LPGA player Myra Blackwelder (1980-97). has played one season on the LPGA (2010) and is back on the Symetra after overcoming an elbow injury. She also might be best remembered for her role on the Golf Channel’s “Big Break Ireland,” and she, too, now calls Arizona home.

    There are others in the VisitMesa.Com Gateway field that fans of women’s golf will recognize, including Birdie Kim, the winner of the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open when it was played at famed Cherry Hills outside of Denver. Joh was a four-time All-American at UCLA who captured two U.S. Women’s Public Links Championships (2006, 2008). And Blair O’Neal, a former Arizona State player who almost won the Golf Channel’s “Big Break Prince Edward Island” series in 2010, although O’Neal might be better known for her several appearances on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit calendar.

    As you might have noticed, two of these upcoming tournaments we’ve mentioned take place at Longbow, which has long been associated with women’s and junior golf. After all, one of Longbow’s biggest events every year is the AJGA Heather Farr Classic, which takes place at the East Mesa club on March 28-31.

    But it goes even deeper than that, as Longbow also will host the WAC Conference Championship for women in April and the Women’s National Junior College Championship in May. And in the past, Longbow has been the host for the Women’s NCAA Division II Championship.

    Asked why Longbow hosts so many women’s and kids’ events – it’s also a First Tee facility — the course’s owner, Bob McNichols, said it had a lot to do with the fact that “the people who play our golf course on a regular basis love to see these types of events, and they even volunteer to help us out with all of them.”

    McNichols also noted that his Longbow “regulars” actually draw comparisons to their own games from the women’s game.

    “The average guy, he probably can’t relate to the Phil Mickelsons and Tiger Woods and (Rory) McIlorys, who are driving it out there 350 yards. But he probably can relate to the women, who are watchable, approachable and are smooth and long with their swings.

    “Like the other day, when Martha Blackwelder was out here for a practice round with her caddie. Now she has a great swing to watch.”

    I’ve heard this before, and I can relate. Not just because my golf swing is only about 100 mph, but because the women are so much nicer and, as McNichols suggested, approachable when you play with them in pro-ams. That’s not to say that the guys are just ugly, surly, 800-pound gorillas. But if you’ve ever played in both types of pro-ams – with Tour guys or LPGA gals – you, too, probably know what we’re talking about.

    I can still remember the late Karsten Solheim explaining to me why PING supported four different LPGA tournaments once upon a time – one in Phoenix, one in Tucson, one in Portland and the Solheim Cup. As the PING founder put it, the women didn’t get the prize money that the men did. And then he added with his affable, straightforward approach to common sense, “And the women are just a lot more fun to play golf with than the men.”

    Exactly, and if you would like to find out for yourselves, play in the Symetra pro-am Feb. 21 or the Clover Cup college-am March 7 or the Founders Cup pro-am on March 13. It’s a guaranteed good time.

    Click “Huff’s Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog to visit Bill’s complete Arizona Golf Authority golf blog archive.

    Then, read an AZGA player’s review for each of Arizona’s 350 golf courses – click Arizona Golf Course Reviews for an “insiders” playing review of every golf course in Arizona at http://s167282.gridserver.com/coursedirectory/.

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

  • LPGA Returns to Wildfire Golf Club for RR Donnelley Founders Cup March 14 – 17

    LPGA Returns to Wildfire Golf Club for RR Donnelley Founders Cup March 14 – 17

    RR Donnelly LPGA Founders Cup - Arizona Golf AuthorityFor the third consecutive year, the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup will be played March 14-17, 2013, at Wildfire Golf Club on the grounds of the centrally located JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa.

    This full-field, four-day event will be televised live on The Golf Channel all four days and features a $1.5 million purse, with $225,000 going to the champion.

    Karrie Webb won the inaugural RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup tournament in 2011, while two-time Rolex Player of the Year winner Yani Tseng captured the title in 2012.

    The tournament is contested on a golf course we daily fee players can’t play; it combines the back-nine of the Palmer Course with the back-nine of the Faldo Course, producing a unique 6,613-yard par-72 test.

    The tournament honors the 13 original Founders of the LPGA Tour and helps provide a future for the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf Program, which has received more than $1 million from tournament proceeds in the last two years.

    Daily tickets for the event are $25, and weekly badges are priced at $75.

    To purchase tickets for the 2013 RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup, go to www.LPGAFoundersCup.com or call 1-888-LPGATIX.

  • Dr. Bob Rotella’s 10 Rules For Amateurs Preparing To Play Tournament Golf

    Dr. Bob Rotella’s 10 Rules For Amateurs Preparing To Play Tournament Golf

    Courtesy of Dr. Bob Rotella with Alan Pittman and Golf Digest Magazine

    Tournament Players Club of Scottsdale – No. 16 Stadium Course

     

    Don’t Be Seduced By Results – I teach my players to “stay in the present.” How did Trevor Immelman get to the 18th green of the final round of the 2008 Masters and not know where he stood in the field? He refused to allow himself to be seduced by a score, got lost in the process of executing each shot and accepted the result until he ran out of holes.

    Sulking Won’t Get You Anything – When things don’t go well, don’t get down. Feeling sorry for yourself or thinking the golf gods have conspired against you means you’re not focused on the next shot. The only thought to allow in your mind is always – what’s the best way to get my ball in the hole?

    Beat Them With Patience – In tournament play, the rough is thicker, the pins are tougher and the greens are faster. Each time you feel the urge to make an aggressive play, choose a conservative one. The moment a player becomes impatient, bad things happen; stay patient and let others defeat themselves.

    Ignore Unsolicited Swing Advice – Your partner and well-meaning friends will insist on giving you advice. Don’t accept it. In fact, stop them before they can say a word. You’ve prepared to play; commit to your game and stay confident.

    Embrace Your Personality – When it’s time to play, dialogue with yourself or socialize with your partner and competitors; it’s up to you. You know what’s best for you, so stick with it throughout the round.

    Have A Routine To Lean On – Follow your mental and physical routine on every shot; it’ll keep you focused on your task and nerves won’t have a place in your mind. Doesn’t matter what it is – it’s what you do, so do it every time.

    Choose Peace On The Course – Competition causes many to become panicked practicers, over-trainers and swing rebuilders. You enjoy golf, so see the golf course as your sanctuary and not a place to be afraid of messing up.

    Prepare With Stroke Play – Gross stroke players can thrive in match play events, match-play players can have mental lapses when they must count them all. Prepare with some stroke play rounds, you’ll be tougher mentally.

    Find Someone Who Believes In You – A partner, a friend, a coach, an acquaintance, it doesn’t matter much. What does matter is that you find someone who believes in you, someone who sees you doing things you can’t see yourself doing – yet. Their support provides a foundation for your own self-confidence; no champion arrives alone.

    Believe You Can Win – Watch your “them” play. They can hit it farther, they hit it straighter, their bunker play is fantastic, they chip it and putt it better than you do. But choose to believe that if those guys can win, so can you; then get to work improving yourself – the belief is the first step down that path.

  • Symetra Tour Winner to Earn Exemption into RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup

    Symetra Tour Winner to Earn Exemption into RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup

    From the Arizona Golf News Desk at the Arizona Golf Authority

    The Road To The LPGA Tour starts next week with the VisitMesa.com Gateway Classic to be played at the Longbow Golf Club, February 22-24!

    Compliments of Visit Mesa, admission is free for all tournament spectators.

    Watch Mallory Blackwelder, Sara Brown, Blair O’Neal, Birdie Kim, Tiffany Joh and other Symetra Tour stars, the future LPGA Tour players, tee it up at Longbow Golf Club playing for their share of the $100,000 purse and an exemption into the LPGA Tour’s RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup.

    The RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup will be played March 14-17 at Wildfire Golf Club at JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa.

    “It is important for the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup to continue its support for both the local communities and the development of young aspiring golfers,” said RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup Tournament Director Chris Garrett. “We are excited to partner with the VisitMesa.Com Gateway Classic, which is right down the road from our event, to offer the opportunity for a Symetra Tour player to get LPGA Tour experience.”

    The RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup marks the first domestic event on the LPGA Tour’s 2013 schedule and gives the Symetra Tour winner an opportunity to compete alongside former winners of the event including Rolex Rankings No. 1 Yani Tseng and LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame member Karrie Webb.

    “The Symetra Tour is the best avenue for players to reach their dreams of playing on the LPGA Tour,” said LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan. “This exemption will give the winner an opportunity to compete alongside the world’s best golfers at the RR Donnelley Founders Cup. This is just another example of how the Symetra Tour is truly the Road to the LPGA.”

    The exemption into the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup falls directly in line with the Symetra Tour’s mission of preparing the world’s best young women professional golfers for a successful career on the LPGA Tour. Since the Symetra Tour began in 1980, this season marks the second time the Symetra Tour will award 10 fully exempt LPGA Tour cards to the top-10 on the season-ending Volvik Race for the card.

    Arizona Golf Authority

  • COOL CLUBS – Scottsdale AZ – Amateur Golf is Good; Visiting the Expert Club Fitters at Cool Clubs Makes it Even Better

    COOL CLUBS – Scottsdale AZ – Amateur Golf is Good; Visiting the Expert Club Fitters at Cool Clubs Makes it Even Better

    Cool Clubs Scottsdale, Arizona

    From the Excellent Arizona Golf Adventures at the Arizona Golf Authority

    SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — We can’t play golf every day, so what’s the best way to get better on your day off?

    A visit to Cool Clubs will give you the opportunity to play more enjoyable golf, immediately. Right now. The next time you tee it up – Now.

    We just watched it happen again, yesterday, although CEO Mark Timms and his professional staff have been working this magic in Scottsdale since 2000.

    After two days of recreational play to get loose, we delivered an avid 16-handicap sibling from Chicago to the Scottsdale studio and the compassionate care of Justin Nelson, National Director of Club Fitting for Cool Clubs.

    In under an hour, Mr. Nelson had our player hitting tee balls farther, in a tighter pattern, with less spin at launch and more roll-out in the fairway. Same player, same swing, but when armed with a proper tool for his move: Better golf shot!

    After only 20 minutes in the fitting studio, Mr. Nelson had assessed our player’s current equipment, swing characteristics and tee ball flight. He selected three drivers from Cool Club’s enormous inventory and put our man to work striking drives with each club.

    Twenty minutes later, the results of those shots produced a clear clubhead winner.

    Working with that clubhead, Mr. Nelson spent the next 15 minutes analyzing our player with three different shafts to find the optimal configuration for his golf swing. Once again, the shots produced a clear winner.

    And in less than one hour, Mr. Nelson tallied the results and presented our player with three options: good, better and best. The Best: PING G25 clubhead with a stock, stiff shaft.

    The other clubheads analyzed included the Callaway X-Hot, Taylor Made RBZ and Nike VRS-9 with various shaft combinations, but overall, the G25 performed best for our player.

    “It’s really quite simple,” shared Mr. Timms, “There’s an awful lot going on in a full-shot golf swing. To diagnose all that and ask an amateur, who doesn’t play every day, to commit the time necessary to fix their move is asking a lot.

    “It’s much more efficient to precisely match a clubhead and shaft to their unique swing and produce a better golf shot. It’s a whole lot quicker, too.”

    Cool Clubs has over 25,000 current club and shaft combinations available in their high-tech studio so there’s no chance the unique swing you show them will require something they don’t have in their toolbox.

    Cool Clubs - Scottsdale - Custom Putters“Putting is a little bit different,” TImms noted. “Because it’s such a short, low-impact stroke, we can make a small adjustment to a players’ technique that, together with a properly fit putter, results in more holed putts right away.”

    Cool Clubs’ putter fitting studio analyzes each putting stroke with 8 separate high-speed video cameras, so there’s no guesswork involved here, either. And everybody knows, professionals and amateurs alike, the quickest way to lower scores is holing more putts.

    Lee Trevino said it years ago, addressing his amateur playing partners, and it’s as true today as it’s ever been: “I have the skill to take any bag of clubs and manipulate the clubface to produce the ball flight I want; you don’t. It’s more important that your clubs fit you, than mine fit me.”

    On your next day off, schedule a visit to Cool Clubs and get fitted. You’ll play better, more enjoyable golf, right away, which is what an Excellent Arizona Golf Adventure is all about.

    Visit http://coolclubs.com or telephone 888-284-9292. Cool Clubs studios are also located in Dallas-Ft. Worth TX, Irvine CA, San Francisco CA, Stamford CT, and Tokyo, Japan.

  • Mickelson Wins Third Waste Management Phoenix Open “Huffs Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog by Bill Huffman

    Mickelson Wins Third Waste Management Phoenix Open “Huffs Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog by Bill Huffman

    From “Huff’s Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog by Bill Huffman at the Arizona Golf Authority.

    With his wire-to-wire win at the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Sunday, Phil Mickelson joined some famous names in the tournament’s history. But asked what it meant to move alongside legends like Arnold Palmer and Johnny Miller, Lefty took the more practical approach rather than the philosophical.

    Phil Mickleson WMPO 2013 Champion - Arizona Golf Authority“I’m sure later on I will think about it, but all I cared about was getting a win because I was nervous,” admitted Mickelson, who became the first player since Rory McIlroy in the 2009 U.S. Open to hold the lead after every round, and the first player since Steve Jones in 1997 to do so at the Phoenix Open.

    “I hadn’t won in a while, I hadn’t been in contention, and I know how guys – look what happened last year when guys were in the lead. It’s very easy to start to seeing what you don’t want the ball to do and hitting it there. Early on (Sunday), I hit a couple of shots like that.

    “So to be able to regain control of my thoughts, to see where I want the ball to go and direct it there and to hit the shots that I hit on the back side, which was enough to win the golf tournament, that’s what I take away from this tournament more than any of those records.”

    Yes, things did get “practical” during for the final round for Phil even though he never fell below a three-shot advantage over Brandt Snedeker at the TPC Scottsdale. And, yes, there were some records that were achieved along the way, although Lefty let a bunch slip away after his closing 4-under-par 67 left him in a tie with Mark Calcavecchia for the lowest total in tournament history – a 28-under 256.

    Not that the fans minded such an average performance from the Valley’s favorite son. Hey, you place Mickelson atop the leader board for four straight days in a dominating performance, add four consecutive days of good weather with temperatures around 70 degrees, and you’ve got the successful formula that was adhered to by the Thunderbirds for the tournament’s 78th edition.

    The only surprise that popped up on the final day was that the weekly attendance record wasn’t shattered after Saturday’s record throng of 179,022. But only 58,791 spectators turned out to witness Phil’s victory parade, which moved him alongside Palmer, Calcavecchia and Gene Littler as those who pulled off the Phoenix Open hat trick. Still, the total for the week was 525,281, or 12,075 short of the still-standing record of 538,356 who showed up in 2008.

    Maybe Mickelson’s six-stroke lead entering the final round over Snedeker was a gate crusher, or maybe the Super Bowl’s marquee of San Francisco vs. Baltimore kept people from coming out to see Phil’s victory parade, or maybe it was some gray skies that spit up a little rain from time to time. Whatever the reasons, it was pretty quiet for the final 18 holes after three raucous days.

    The only real drama came when Mickelson birdied the 17th to move to 28-under and into a tie with Calc, who set the 72-hole standard in 2001. Mickelson has had his problems on the 18th hole, including a double bogey there in Round 2 and a one-hole playoff loss to J.B. Holmes in 2008. But he made a routine par — after he got a free drop out of the hospitality area — to secure his share of tournament lore.

    Mickelson hadn’t won since the 2012 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a span of a little over a year, and hadn’t been in contention after two outings this year. But as he has often done in the past, he went from nowhere to “da man” in just a few days, as he opened with a record-tying 60 that came within a lip-out of being 59, and then added rounds of 65 and 64. Asked how he does it – find his game quickly – he smiled big.

    “You can find something quickly,” he said of his drives that averaged 305 yards for the week and the fact he has now gone 96 holes without a three-putt.

    “I certainly found something from (instructor) Butch Harmon, who I saw earlier this week.”

    Mickelson said he had been “fractionally off” with his take-away. But you never would have known it as he boomed big drives down the middle of most every fairway but the 18th, and made a boatload of putts, especially when he had to turn back Snedeker, who was the runner-up for a second straight week following his second-place finish to Tiger Woods in San Diego.

    Most years, Snedeker’s 24-under score would have been good enough to win. And when you close with a 65, as Snedeker did, that will make up some ground. But not this time, a fact that Scott Piercy (61, 23 under) and Ryan Moore (65, 22 under) also discovered. Then again, who would have guessed that the TPC would play so easy, as the average score for the week was a record-breaking 68.5.

    “It was a ton of fun to be in the last group with Phil,” said Snedeker, who at No. 7 in the world was the highest ranked player in the field.

    “I’d have liked to have put a little more pressure on him, but Phil played unbelievable. Then again, I played great all four rounds, Phil just played better.”

    Not only did Mickelson get his third Phoenix Open win, but he also posted his sixth career victory in Arizona, which tied him with Miller. “The Desert Fox,” who was here doing his first Phoenix Open broadcast for NBC, had four victories in Tucson and two in Phoenix, while Mickelson has now won in each city three times.

    What were the keys for Lefty’s record-tying romp? Well, the opening 60 went a long way in establishing his third career wire-to-wire win. But he owned the par 3s, as he was 9 under on them for the week, or two strokes better than anybody had ever played them since the TPC opened in 1987. Of course, four of those 2s came during that 60, which happened to be a career best.

    If there was ever any doubt that this Phoenix Open was all about Mickelson, it came early on Sunday at the par-3 seventh hole, where Mickelson faced a roller-coaster putt from 56 feet. Forget about the fact it was a birdie putt; Mickelson’s putting line was boxed out to the cup and he had to take the putt onto the fringe and then back to the putting surface because of the narrow angle.

    Bam! Center of the cup for an unlikely birdie that got Mickelson to 25 under and held off Snedeker, who had just made a second birdie in a row. Lefty called the putt “crazy good,” and of the nine 2s on his scorecard for the week, that one had to be the best.

    “I had to putt 20 feet through the fringe. The challenge of that was to judge the speed where half the putt is through the fringe and half is on the green,” he said. “I got lucky to have made it, obviously.

    “I was just trying to two-putt it. With Brandt in there close, that was a big momentum change for us.”

    Mickelson said he never expected Snedeker to go away, and realized that even though he had never lost the lead since Day One that there would be challenges on Sunday.

    “The back nine, I needed to birdie 13, 15 and 17, because I’m planning on Brandt making birdie on those holes,” Mickelson said of his game plan. “I thought if I can do that and not give those shots away, I should be able to maintain the lead.

    “Hitting a good tee shot on 13 and on 15, and one on 17 that was marginal but got lucky (stayed out of the water), those were important birdies.”

    Mickelson also had some PGA Tour records in his sights, but those did not materialize. He did extend his current streak of 10 consecutive seasons with at least one victory, with the next-best player on that list being Dustin Johnson with six seasons in a row. Unbelievably, Mickelson has won at least once in 19 different seasons, with the only players to have done that more being Jack Nicklaus (24) and Sam Snead (21).

    And just to add a little more Tour trivia, Mickelson is only the second player in history to record 60 twice, joining Zach Johnson in that department. But giving him a little individuality, Mickelson is the only player to shoot 60 on the same course, as his other 11-under effort came in 2005, when he won his second Phoenix Open.

    The victory kept the 42-year-old Mickelson in ninth place on the all-time list with 41 wins, or four short of the 45 recorded by No. 8 Walter Hagen. Besides Tucson, he also has won the Masters three times, Pebble Beach three times and the Bell South Classic on three occasions.

    Asked to assess his game now that he’s getting a little past his prime, Mickelson never hesitated, thanking the technicians at Callaway for making “a driver that spins this low with this much loft for me,” and noting that now that he doesn’t have to tilt his shoulders for his driver, he’s hitting his irons better, too.

    “I don’t know if that’s why they call it Xtreme, because it’s such an extremely low-spinning driver or not, but it’s been months in the works,” Mickelson said. “When I hit it Tuesday, I saw an immediate difference.”

    “Now that I’m able to make the same swing with my irons as the driver and not to have two different ones, I feel that’s going to make a monumental difference in my game and that I could potentially play some of the best golf I’ve ever played.”

    How that all works out is anybody’s guess, because after all, he’s Phil, as in “What will Phil do next?” But all of his good fortune related to the Phoenix Open and Arizona once again brought up the question about Mickelson returning to the Valley, where he lived for 12 years before moving back to San Diego, where he grew up. And he didn’t necessarily nix the idea, although whether or not he would abandon California over its high tax rate, as he suggested recently, never was mentioned.

    “I’m not sure what we are going to do at the end of the year, but I really enjoy and miss the people and the friendships that we have here,” said Mickelson, who still has close working relationships with Grayhawk Golf Club, where the 19th hole is named Phil’s Grill, and Whisper Rock Golf Club, where he built the lower course and remains a member.

    “I have all these ties. Plus, my brother is now the golf coach at ASU. There is a lot of great things about his community that lure me, and certainly I come here three, four times a year to go to an ASU game, golf, see my friends and what have you. I don’t know what’s in the cards for that.”

    One thing we know for certain — if that’s possible when it comes to the popular Mickelson! — is that such a return to the desert would come with a hero’s welcome.

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  • Arizona Golf – Ready or Not, Big Changes for 2013 “Huff’s Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog by Bill Huffman

    Arizona Golf – Ready or Not, Big Changes for 2013 “Huff’s Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog by Bill Huffman

    From “Huff’s Stuff” Arizona Golf Blog by Bill Huffman at the Arizona Golf Authority.

    All four of Arizona’s survivors from PGA Tour qualifying school – Matt Jones, Jin Park, Chez Reavie and Aaron Watkins — get to start their seasons at this week’s SONY Hawaiian Open, meaning perhaps the 2013 season won’t be quite as ominous as first predicted — despite last weekend’s wacky weather at Maui’s highly acclaimed Kapalua Plantation!

    Still, many are referring to ’13 as “unlucky.” So many things are going on this year – a shortened season, a new season, an unpredictable season — it’s hard to get a grasp on all of the changes. The biggest, we guess, is trying to comprehend how the final event of the 2013 regular season will end in mid-August and the 2014 season will begin in early October. Yes, October of 2013!

    With seven tournaments eliminated from last year’s schedule in order to accommodate a new four-tournament, end-of-the-season playoff between the top 75 money winners from the Web.Com Tour and the lower echelon guys from the PGA Tour (Nos. 125 to 200 on the money list), 2013 had been predicted to be more of a mile run than a marathon.

    Guys like Watkins, a former Mesa Red Mountain High School standout who starred at Kansas State, and the ex-Arizona State trio of Jones, Park and Reavie, were expected to get into approximately 15 tournaments. Watkins told azgolf.org that Hawaii was a question mark along with much of the West Coast.

    But there he is along with other Valley residents like Ricky Barnes, Tim Clark, Pat Perez, Kevin Stadler and, Kevin Streelman, hoping to enjoy Hawaii. And just to prove that SONY’s 144-man field is a little more wide open than one might have originally believed, Web.Com graduate Doug LaBelle II of Phoenix also will get his first start, too.

    “Last time I was out on Tour (2009), I got to play in about 20 tournaments, and I think I missed the cut in eight of them by a single shot,” said the 30-year-old Watkins, who had has been to the finals of nine Q-Schools while earning his card twice.

    “This time around, I’ll probably only get into about 15 tournaments, which can make it tough to hold on to your Tour card. So it creates a different mentality in how you approach the season in that each opportunity becomes that much more valued.”

    Watkins said his confidence level is up considerably after playing the past three years on the Web.Com and Nationwide tours. And he’s doing a “lot more little things” he feels will help him make more cuts in the coming eight months.

    “Earning my card at the last Q-School of all-time, that was special,” said Watkins, who is paired in an all-Arizona threesome with Park and Watkins for his first two rounds of his 2013 debut.

    Yes, with no Q-School to gain direct entry into the PGA Tour at the end of this year, it’s another strange twist that everybody has been talking about. It’s a decision that has split the rank and file of the PGA Tour right down the middle. The playoffs between the Web.Com grads and the lower wage earners on the Tour has taken its place expect Q-School still lingers, but this time in the form of a venue to Web.com rather than the major league.

    There are other developments beyond the dastardly trick the weather played last week – postponing the 2013 season’s start for three consecutive days at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, which led to an abbreviated, 54-hole tournament Monday and Tuesday won by Dustin Johnson. Even though everybody is talking about Rory McIlory, DJ could be a sneaky story this season. He’s young (27), extremely talented and playing the new TaylorMade RocketBaldez Tour irons, which he claims finally fit him to a “T.” And the horizon seems unlimited, according to Steve Stricker, the veteran Johnson beat by four strokes to win the T of C.

    “He’s very athletic and he’s just going to continue to get better. . . . He’s fun to watch (because) you never know what he’s going to do,” said Stricker of Johnson, who is second when it comes to active winning streaks on Tour to Phil Mickelson, who has gone nine consecutive seasons with at least one win a year.

    Still, it’s hard to look past McIlroy, who is expected to ink the 10-year, $200 million super-deal with Nike next week. Last year he was not only the POY on the PGA and European Tours, the Northern Irishman also won $11 million globally, or almost $4 million more than his next closest pursuer, Justin Rose.

    Of course, McIlroy, Luke Donald, Tiger Woods and Rose, currently the top four players in the world, were nowhere to be found in Hawaii these first two weeks. Nor were marquee players like Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and Mickelson, who all could have played in the T of C if they had wanted to start their seasons “early.”

    Just imagine next year, when the traditional “season opener” comes three months into the season? Yeah, this once-proud event that has a history stretching back 48 years has fallen on seriously hard times.

    There are other stories that will play out in the next month and shortened year that will make for lots of headlines. Like next week, when McIlroy gets his new sticks and the European Tour is expected to name its captain that will to toe-to-toe with Tom Watson at the 2014 Ryder Cup. Hey, Watson was such an out-of-the-box pick by the PGA of America that the Euros, who have dominated these biennial matches by winning five of the last six (seven of the last nine), might go back to Colin Montgomerie rather than select a new pilot in Darren Clarke or Paul McGinley, as previously believed. And “Monty” is certainly out there.

    Still, there are other storylines developing, like how many times the word “cheater” will be screamed out by unruly fans that are taking note of the R&A and USGA’s proposed ban on anchoring the putter against the body, which doesn’t go into effect until 2016. And just to add some spice to the latest controversy over the anchoring/long putter issue, Carl Pettersson, Sweden’s best player ever, has called the proposed ban a “witch hunt” and talked about taking action (legal?) if golf’s ruling body takes his broom-handled device away after using it for 16 seasons.

    It makes you wonder what surprises lie ahead in the major championships, where Bubba Watson will defend his green jacket and serve who knows what for the Champions Dinner. (“When you show up for dinner Tuesday night, that’s when you’ll find out,” the Scottsdale resident said recently.)

    We’ve also got the U.S. Open at teeny-tiny Merion, a short (6,500 yards) but storied layout where Bobby Jones completed the game’s first-and-only Grand Slam in 1930. Merion also was the U.S. Open site in 1950 for Ben Hogan’s comeback from a head-on car wreck in Texas that nearly killed him.

    It also will be interesting to see what happens at the British Open when it returns to Muirfield, an all-male club that is certain to stir some debate. Now that the heat is off Augusta National for its two female members, Muirfield would seem like the next-most likely place for potential confrontation regarding women’s rights as they relate to the game. Then again, the R&A has been an all-male club since 1735.

    So ready or not, here we go with 2013, and lucky or unlucky, it will be entertaining. That includes your Waste Management Phoenix Open, which for the first time perhaps ever will not have any sponsor’s exemptions due to a PGA Tour edict for the shortened season. That decree requires the Thunderbirds to take players off the Web.Com/Q-School list until its field of 132 players is filled.

    Too bad, because this would have been a great year to give an invite to Scottsdale’s Tom Lehman, the 2000 Phoenix Open champ and the 2012 Champions Tour player of the year — the only guy ever to win Player of the Year awards on all three tours.

    But it won’t happen, and that’s a bit unlucky.

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