NOTE WELL: when I searched for and found this link it triggered a rash of virus warnings from my Kasperksy, so there's that . . .
Moreover, it's a little irritating and confusing they have 10 years worth of Plaques claiming to have been voted "Best Public Golf Course in Greater Fountain Hills".
I mean I like the course, but let us keep our heads here . . . with Sunridge Canyon, We-Ko-Pa, Eagle Mountain . . . I wanna know who's voting . . . 8^D . . .
They Reversed-the-Nines, some of the several changes that I noticed, and will report . . .
#1 Par 4, nee' #10
#2 Par 3
#3 Par 4
A heinous dogleg around two tall mature hardwoods. . . 'd take a truly gifted long-hitter to go for the green . . . the downhill tee shot makes the hole play shorter than its posted yardage . . . but going by the 150 yd barber pole seemed to have the same effect on this and several other holes. Not an easy two-putt once you're on the green.
#4 Par 5, downhill, short enough to be a good eagle opportunity, or at least birdie, but that must've been several years ago por moi . .. 8^D . . . so there I was just short of the bunker fronting the long thin green, and just wanted to lob a little gap wedge over the bunker and let the ball roll towards the hole . . . it rolled and rolled and rolled . . . I couldn't figger . . . .
then I looked at my club . .. it didn't say "G" it said "9" with a line underneath it, but in the odd script used by club makers they looked like a dyslexic mirror image . . . but I thot, "I don't remember making that mistake before . . . " Several holes later I realized I was carrying 2 9irons . . . 8^D . . ."What the heck?"I exclaimed to Mr Science, I must've picked up a lost club and forgotten to turn it in!" Our playing companion said, "Wait! What is it?" I said, "You musta put your club in my bag in our cart by mistake!" . . . 8^D . . . but he figgered I had picked it up off the green . . . 8^D . . . His 9iron didn't look anything like my cobra 9iron, but it DID look like my G-wedge . . .
#5 Par 4, flat & unamusing . . .
#6 par 4, flat and unassuming . . .
#7 par 4 much more interesting than previous 2 . . .
#8 Par 3
#9 par 4, makes you appreciate the move of reversing the nines . . . not nearly as interesting finishing hole as the-now #18 . . .
#10 nee' #1 par 4 . . . a downhill driveable par 4, but the trees on the left make it more challenging than just having the length . . . I drove this green and had a missed-eagle putt last time (6 years ago)
#2 par 4 . . . this is one of the holes I feel they changed, I wisht I'd talked to the pro about it . . . I *think* they moved these tees 7.5 yards straight left . . . the look into the fairway seems much more open . . . used to be, seems to me, that those big hardwoods on the right usta block off the fairway much more . . . I remember hitting 5woods thru the dogleg trying to avoid those big trees.
Now I just powerized a towering drive past the shadow past the 150 pole
hit a 9iron 7 ft below the hole and railed the birdie . . . never played a hole so perfectly in my life . . .
it was after this our partner realized i had his 9iron so that exchange took place, then mr science sez, "Hey you didn't use that club did you?"
"I sure did, on that par 5 where i thot it was my g-wedge and pitched past the hole"
"Well, we're gonna have to tack on 2 strokes on your birdie, and all the holes back to there, for having more than 14 clubs!" . . . 8^D . . .
#12 Par 5, PBFU . . .
dang, I didn't get a picture of the green . . . but I SWEAR there was a big bunker on the right side of the green, where now there is a large mound . . .
#13 Par 3
It seems to me that they have changed the tees and shortened the hole . . . but that could be faulty memory on my part, for sure . . . .
#14 Par 5
the hole itself is not too tough, but when they put the pin in the back of the green, there's a bowl effect up there that makes 3 putts more likely . . . that's always been there . . . .
#15 par 4, HCP #1 -- long uphill, tough
#16 Par 3, w-a-a-a-a-a-a-y downhill . . .
#17 Par 4, dogleg right, uphill, elevated green . . . .these last two holes are bugger-bears for elevated greens at the tops of hills . . . 8^D . . .
the fairway comes down from the green in a couple of waves . . . so that . . . if one does not get his drive fairly up on the middle tier, it rolls backwards from the green down to the lower tier . . . but if you try to challenge the corner there are big trees blocking the flight-path . . . tricky . . . we wound up on that lower tier, 110 - 120 yds away, but it is so far uphill that is not an easy shot . . .
#18 par 4, same deal . . . desert trash all down the right side inside the small dogleg, and if you go left on to the flat part of the fairway you have a short wedge up a huge hill . . . it is possible to carry that trash on the right . . . i hit a majestic windblown fade that got over but the ball just kicked left back down the slope so that I had the even harder half-wedge shot up the same hill over that bunker guarding the green's left side.
by Pete Dye
#1 Par 4
#2 Par 3
#3 Par 4, HCP #1
#4 Par 3
#5 Par 5
#6 par 3
#7 par 4
#8 par 4
#9 par 5
#10 par 5, HCP #2
#11 Par 3
Railroad ties everywhere . . . this looks like the only time I stopped and took a picture expressly at a railroad tie feature. To compare to the bunkers at Laughlin Ranch, where they seemed to be melting in the landscape might not seem fair, but then again, if one has a certain amount of skepticism about the efficacy of railroad ties on a golf course hole that is not a water hole, those traps in Laughlin weren't so bad, at least where there was still enough sand to get a wedge underneath the ball.
#12 Par 4
#13 Par 4
#14 Par 4
#15 Par 3
#16 Par 4
#17 Par 5
#18 Par 4
6 7s on the front nine . . . back 9 only marginally better in that my last two drives actually looked like golf shots and my irons actually had *some* trajectory . . . so maybe my opinion is not valuable on this course . . . but I professionally claim that my score (good or bad) will not affect my journalistic integrity in assigning a rating on our Scottsdale Scale . . . aka, the Kokopelli Scale . . . I think Mr Science would agree with me that it ranks a strong 2 . . . one of the most interesting Pete Dye courses I've ever played on . . . it has many elevation changes . . . one might object that the course seems a little "tricked up" by layering a Pete Dye Punitive Layout over a rather mountainous layout or that the desire to plunge the broken-in-anger haft of one's putter thru the architect's thorax can only be soothed by a cool beverage in the 19th Hole, which is not free . . . if you see how I mean . . . 8^) . . . .
