I grew up with no pets. My mom does NOT like any type of animal and because of this, I never had a dog, cat or anything growing up. The only pet I can remember for an extended period of time was a tank full of fish. My wife on the other hand LOVES dogs so when we got married, it wasn’t “if” we were going to get a dog, but more of “when” we were going to get a dog. This terrified me because I was more like my mom, afraid of animals because I did not know how to handle their unpredictability and how to interact with them.
Fast forward 6 months into marriage and we adopted the sweetest little puppy named Raelynn. She is a Mini (VERY Mini) Australian Shepard, a parvo survivor and loves her tummy scratches. My wife did an amazing job training her and over the years she has grown on me. I enjoy how dogs are always excited to see you, have individual personalities and can bring a smile to any strangers face when going on a walk around the neighborhood. Why do I bring up my dog in a space that is normally reserved for golf? Because I want to get some help with Dogs on golf courses.
Pictured is my dog, Raelynn. Isn’t she the cutest?
I personally think dogs should be allowed on golf courses for numerous reasons. My biggest argument for dogs on a golf course is actually a question, why not have dogs on a golf course? Assuming the dog is well behaved and the owner picks up after them, what harm is the dog doing? It would be nice to have a “friend” on the golf course and also allow for me to walk the dog while doing something that I love. Golf courses are nothing more than large manicured lawns with hundreds of acres of space, a dog’s dream.
The only courses that I know that allows dogs is The Links at Lawsonia and Sweetens Cove however I would like to find more. Specifically I want to find one in Minnesota. In my preliminary research I have not found a course in Minnesota that allows dogs on the course so I pose the question to my readers. Is there a golf course that allows dogs in the State of Minnesota? If there is, please let me know.
The week of blog posts ends tomorrow and I have had fun writing up short little daily posts for you guys. If you like what you read, please consider subscribing. It is free of charge and also helps you guys stay up to date when I release a post. Also consider following me on Twitter and instagram (@aspoiledwalk) for more content. Using social media allows me to connect with you guys and would love to have some good golf conversation.
As has been discussed on this blog, I love golf course architecture. Growing up as a caddy at a Raynor (heavily designed in the 60s unfortunately) I got to see world class architecture up close and personal. I got to see how width and angles can affect strategy as well as how large green complexes can make for scary approach shots. I have fallen in love with architecture so much that I continue to read books about it as well as apply to small local firms in the Twin Cities area for internships or jobs.
Due to the Covid19 quarantine, we are all stuck inside and in Minnesota that also means no golf courses are open. So I decided to make my own golf course and I thought it would be cool to share where I am at currently and what I did step by step.
The first step that I did was find a piece of land. That’s right, this golf course is designed on a real piece of land that is for sale. This piece of land is located in Swift, MN and would run someone about $575,000. It is located just 10 minutes south of Warroad, Minnesota along Highway 11 and is 295 Acres. That is plenty of land to build a quality golf course on.
You can search Real Estate sites for large swatches of land for sale.
Once I found the land, I carefully traced the property lines, located the trees and wetlands and also looked up topographic maps. Once I had all of these combined on a site map, I double checked everything was to scale and made copies.
I found a website online that compiles old topographical maps. I superimposed it over the property line found on the Real Estate SiteThe green shaded areas indicated heavily forested areas.
After that, I started laying out different routings taking a lot of things into consideration. How many trees were going to have to be removed? What land was the best land for golf? What was the ideal location for the clubhouse? Are there any cool features of the land that should be used? Below are some pictures of the final layout that I created but if you want to see a more complete set of pictures including the yardages, head over to my instagram (@aspoiledwalk).
If you are ever trying to make drawings to scale, I recommend a ruler. It is a lot easier than a tape measure but you use what you can.
As fun as this has been, there are numerous reasons why this course would never be built. The first reason would be that this course is in the middle of nowhere. We are talking under a half an hour to Canada and almost 6 hours from the largest metropolitan area in the entire state of Minnesota. The second reason would be because of all the densely wooded areas of the north. The cost of removing all of the trees and associated brush would make this project’s cost increase all too quickly. To try and alleviate this, the last 5 holes are routed super oddly and that is to attempt to limit the amount of tree removal. I really enjoyed this exercise and still need some help. Are there any good Names for this place? Let me know if you have any creative and fitting names for this little layout.
Pictured is one of my favorite parts of the routing. A shared fairway between 9 and 10. The course also has the greens of 12 and 7 close to clubhouse making several smaller loops. That way you can sneak out after work or before dark and play just 3 holes if you want.
As always, thanks for reading. The blogs have been lacking length and editing this week as I am writing daily this entire week. This was a personal challenge I imposed on myself to keep me accountable to writing as well as working the “writing muscles” in my head. So thank you for the grace in that. If you enjoyed, please share with your friends, subscribe to the blog or follow me on twitter or instagram (@aspoiledwalk) and let’s talk some golf. I always want some good social interaction surrounding the game, especially in a time of quarantine.
One thing that is a big turn off for people getting into golf (or even for people who are already into golf) is the cost of everything. You need to buy the equipment, the ball to play with, pay to play, pay to practice (driving range) and even pay to buy clothes depending where you are playing. It is no shocker then that for most Americans, golf is not played because it is unaffordable. For me, obviously I play golf, but I have been limited in what I have done in golf due to my current financial situation. That said, let me clarify something that hammers home the expensive cost of golf even more, despite having limitations about what I would like to do with golf, I am very well off financially. I own a home, make a modest salary as a Mechanical engineer and for the most part I am debt free. Given all of this, there are still things in golf that are unobtainable for me based on money alone.
So for this blog post, I do not want to focus on the socio-economic issues of the cost of golf rather I want to have some fun with this. I want to pretend just for now that money is not an issue for golf and put together a wishlist of things that I would do if I had the money to do them. So without further ado, here is my “money free” golf wish list.
5. A Custom set of Irons from National Custom
As described in the intro, equipment is a part of golf that can be very expensive. For me, I have been rocking the same sticks for the most part since 2012 which is ancient for some people standards. Back in 2012 I also was not fitted so my clubs are just off of the rack generic clubs that any person could’ve bought. National Custom on the other hand is a company that makes irons and do it just as their name suggests, custom. I have read reviews online and heard from people and they are pleased with the online fitting for their irons. I have also been rocking forged irons for quite a long time and would like to make the jump to blades. Overall, I would just love a new set of irons and know that they were dialed in for my game and tendencies.
4. Join a Country Club
I have written briefly about my involvement with Somerset Country Club as an employee and one thing I have alway felt working there is jealousy. I am jealous of the community of golfers, the practice facilities, the endless golf and the tournaments that are organized by the club. Not to mention, a good portion of the top clubs in the United States are private, robbing the public of the ability to play top notch golf courses. So my fourth wish is join a country club and take advantage of all of the perks that come with it. I am not sure exactly what course locally I would choose but top 3 picks would be White Bear Yacht Club, Town and Country and Windsong Farm.
3. Update my Golf Wardrobe
This one is a little more generic because I do not necessarily know how or what to update my attire too. Recently I have gotten a new polo and a couple other stylish items but I am talking about a WHOLE wardrobe. I still have polos from highschool where the fabric has sagged over time and have hats that are stained by sweat on the brim. I would love to mimic my style after someone like Erik Anders Lang or consult with someone about trendy and stylish clothes to get ahead of the curve.
2. Golf Trips
One thing that I really like to do is travel but traveling can be expensive. Add some golf into the mix and now you’re talking very expensive. You have to pay for the checked bag on the flight and typically the bucket list courses you want to travel too are expensive. Places like Bandon Dunes Resort, Pinehurst Resort or even Pebble Beach are a minimum of $200 a round. That doesn’t even include lodging or food and drink. So with all of these deterrents laid out, if money was not an issue I would love to have the Pinehurst Experience. Stay at the resort, take advantage of the brewery and play all of the courses. I would love to get absolutely destroyed by Pinehurst No. 2 right now!
1. Golf Lessons
Now depending where you look, you actually can find affordable golf lessons. However what I want on this wishlist is a swing coach, a high quality golf instructor. Someone that can take the structure of my swing, tear down all of the impurities and help build me up my swing from there. No quick fixes but I want the long term fix that would take my game to the next level! Personally, I do not hit the ball far at all and would love to have an instructor help build up my swing speed because I think that would help my game the most.
So that is my Golf Wishlist, did I miss anything that you would have on your list? What are your top 5 items on your wishlist? Tweet at me @aspoiledwalk, that’s right you read that correctly, tweet at me. As of today I am on twitter and look forward to interacting with you and the surrounding golf community. As always, please subscribe to the blog to stay up to date with the latest posts. Appreciate the love!
This is it, this is the beginning of the week of blogs. This is an exercise that only this reading audience and my wife can keep me accountable to, to write a blog every day this week. What better thing to write about than to highlight a small business? Especially in a time where small businesses are impacted by this virus and need a little uplifting.
A little background on my family is that my wife and I LOVE candles. Personally, I am very keen on smell. For whatever reason, smell is one of the first things that is associated with rooms and memories. The smell of a freshly mown golf course, the smell of coffee in the morning and the smell of Lilacs in the spring are three of the smells that I have great memories associated with. In addition to that, I will obsessively do laundry in order to remove certain smells from our bed sheets or clothes. Similarly, my wife is obsessed with smell. She always has candles going in her studio, the bathroom and around the living room. It is always great to come home to a well scented house or walk into a pleasant smell when coming up from the basement.
So with all of that background, it is obvious that smell is very big in our house. Candle’s need to meet a certain threshold in our house to be bought and burned. My wife loves candles from Anthropologie, Target, and other expensive candles from big national chain stores. So one day when I nagged her to let me buy a candle from this small company I found on instagram, you can understand why she was reluctant. LIke anything, you want to know that you are getting a good product and “test” the good you are purchasing whenever possible. So when you purchase candles online you are obviously robbing yourself of the trial sniff in the store and making sure you are happy with the smell.
The company that I found on instagram was Out of Bounds Candle Company. Of course the first critique from my wife was I just wanted a candle because they were a golf oriented company to which I responded, “You’re right.” The company advertises the idea to associate parts of the game with certain smells. After I convinced my wife to let me purchase one, I bought the scent ‘Locker Room’. Upfront, it sounds like it would be disgusting. For a nongolfer, a locker room is a place that is sweaty, damp and reeks of body odor but in golf, a locker room is very different. It is an area to take a load off, a place to collect yourself after the round and is usually a high class area. So fittingly, this candle smelled of cedar wood, tobacco and other warm, manly smells. My wife and I loved it (admittedly, me more than her) and this candle was our go-to when we were looking to light a candle. Because of this, it was gone rather quickly. Which obviously led to us getting a second candle called ‘Dew Sweeper’. A dew sweeper is someone who is the first out on the golf course removing all of the dew as they play. So this candle smells like coffee and tones of bright vanilla underneath. It is a sweet candle that my wife and I will look forward to burning in the morning. It just adds an intensity to the coffee aroma already in our house.
Something about warm candles, scotch on the rocks and journaling that make for a nice evening in.
Unintentionally this blog post has kind of unraveled into a long winded review of Out of Bounds Candles, I personally do not really care. When you find something that is praiseworthy, you can’t help but express that satisfaction publically to others. That is what I do with golf, my wife and many other things that I delight in. So if you are in the market for a new candle or looking to support a golf orientated company in a time where small businesses are hurting, I would advise you to check out Out of Bounds Candles at https://outofboundscandles.com and on instagram @outofboundscandles.
As always, thanks for reading the Good Walk Spoiled Blog. Be sure to subscribe to stay up to date on the latest postings, follow us on instagram @aspoiledwalk and stay tuned for more news. We appreciate the support.
It has almost been a whole month since my last blog post and everything between then and now seems like it is a bad dream that we all want to end. If you do not recall, my last blog post was a brief introduction to what was going to be the first ‘Spoiled Walk Open’ located at Sweetens Cove. The inaugural tournament was originally going to be me and five of my closest friends. We were all excited to travel down to Chattanooga, TN to take in the city, the hiking, the food and the golfing. But obviously what has transpired since then prevented this trip from actually happening. With the exception of one Chicagoan, we are all based out of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) metro area and since my last blog post, we have seen our home state institute public gathering limitations as well as a shelter in place as of last week. What this means for us, is to stay home because all non essential businesses have been shut down. In our Sweetens Cove group, we are all fortunate that we have the ability to work from home or have kept our jobs. But our hearts obviously go out to all of the people that lost their jobs or are being impacted by the loss of loved ones due to this crippling virus.
For me personally, this has been a tough stretch of time for a multitude of reasons. Upfront one reason that it has been tough is because of the cancellation of the trip. I know that sounds extremely selfish and self centered with everything else going on in the world, that people would be battling for their lives and health and I am complaining about the cancellation of a golf trip. It is just disappointing because it was going to be a special time with ones that I loved, escaping the Minnesota winter for warmer weather and it had been planned since last July. All of these things made cancelling the trip extremely difficult. In addition to that, it has been tough adjusting to working from home and adjusting to one income. My wife unfortunately is out of work in the foreseeable future so we are living currently off of just my income.
Despite all of this craziness and what appears to be dark times, there is still a lot to be thankful about. I have a house with a yard that I can still escape too, I still have my job, I have the ability to work from home, I have a beautiful wife and dog to be quarantined with, and I have my health. These are just a few of the things that I have to be thankful for and I think focusing on the good in these times is important. I would encourage everyone reading this to try this exercise, to write down things that you are thankful for right now.
To end this brief update I want to update you guys on what I expect for this blog going forward. This week (April 5th-April 11th) I am challenging myself to post everyday. Some posts might be shorter than others but I am going to post daily this week about a variety of golf topics. After that, I will stick to the weekly post schedule and trip to sprinkle in some weeks where I may post twice. In addition to that, I want to be more active on social media. This means more instagram posts and maybe this week introducing some new platforms to the mix. For now, it would mean a lot if you followed me on instagram (@aspoiledwalk). I thank you all who read and support me and stay tuned for new blogs this week.
Late March means that everyone’s favorite tournament is just around the corner. You can picture it now, the beautiful southeastern United states, the first sign of spring and the exciting team format. Wait what? Of course we are talking about the Spoiled Walk Open! What famous iconic golf tournament were you thinking about?
I am excited to announce at the end of this month is the inaugural Spoiled Walk Open which will take place at Sweetens Cove. The purpose of this event is to create an inviting environment for people who aren’t big golfers, to experience unique course architecture, the camaraderie that takes place during a round of golf and partaking in some fun competition. The invite will be a 36 hole tournament between 3 teams in a best ball Stableford scoring system.
At this point Sweetens Cove is a bandwagon course for golf fanatics that thrives in the deep trenches of the golf internet so I will spare you the details of the course (all joking aside, the course is amazing and one of a kind and you should check out this NLU’s video about Sweetens Cove – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdiG2HkF2jI). This course was chosen because it is an affordable escape for midwesterns to experience some warmth in the dead of winter but also because of the exciting and welcoming culture that Sweetens invokes.
Follow along as more information surrounding the event comes to the surface and keep your fingers crossed along with us that we will have cooperating weather for the trip. The whole extended forecast looks to be rain so hopefully the course isn’t underwater when we arrive. Be sure to leave a comment with any recommendations in the Chattanooga Area and Follow us on instagram @aspoiledwalk.
According to my friends and family, I recently have fallen in love with Golf Course Architecture but in actuality, I have always loved golf course architecture, I just didn’t know that I loved it. I have always recognized good golf courses and knew what places were architecturally special but I didn’t have words to describe to anyone aside from using cliche words like fun and nice.
A look at a portion of the green on the 5th hole at Firerock CC
When I was growing up and caddying, members would always call out special shots and explain to me why the shots they were playing were special. I was beginning to understand that bunkers and water don’t make for a fun, strategic and difficult hole, rather it was green complex, angles and elevation changes that made for special golf. I remember realizing this entirely at the old fourth hole at Somerset (the Raynor course I grew up caddying at).
The old fourth hole was a par 180 yards (from the mens tees). Left of the green is a deep drop off basemented by a bunker that runs the entire length of the left side of the green. The left side runs at an angle away from the tee box meaning the further in to the green you went, the more carry you added to the bunker. However the main feature of the fourth hole was the green. It sort of looks like a biarritz green, even though the Raynor classic biarritz hole is later in the routing and this fourth green is in fact, NOT a biarritz green. The main feature of this green is the giant knob that is protecting the front of the green. The entire green slopes from front to back and this knob acts as a railroad switch, deflecting balls either left or right depending on your bounce and hitting accuracy.
The magic of this hole (and ultimately golf course architecture) came to life when I was caddying in a four ball match featuring a team of older gentlemen and a team of newer young guns at the club. During this match, there was a back left pin at the fourth hole meaning the flag was roughly 210 yards away. Due to the difference in game and playability, I witnessed the two ways to play this hole and also saw the hazard that each way to play the hole takes on. I saw the young guns grab their210 yard clubs and try to fly it to the back corner. The trick of the design as stated earlier is that the further back the pin is, the more of the bunker you need to take on. The two results were one with a 15 foot putt for birdie and one that was stuck in a bunker where the next shot was going to be blind below the green. The second way to play this hole was demonstrated by the seniors. They opted to use their 150 yard club and play it off of the knob in the front of the green. Similarily I saw the two ways that shot goes. One shot rolled all of the way down the hill (over 50 yards) off of the knob to rest within 10 feet of the hole and one took the knob the other way making leaving a down hill, left to right bender that was over 40 feet. This was fun, diverse golf!
This is the moment that catapulted my love for golf course architecture. Whenever I play a course I have played before, I try to evaluate and look for nuance that I have missed in the past and when I play new course, I always try to take mental notes on shots that scared me or required me to think. On my trip to Arizona there was one shot that did both. As discussed in the previous blog post, I had the privilege of playing Firerock Country Club in Fountain Hills Arizona. If you have not read that blog post yet I highly recommend you go back and check it out as it highlights the course in full. It was during this round at Firerock that I was faced with a fascinating shot.
The hole that I am talking about is the fifth hole. The fifth hole is a 540 yard Par 5, which meant for me, a short hitter, that this was a three shot hole. I didn’t mind, because the Par 5 first was very gettable and the fifth comes sandwiched in between a Par 4 and a Par 3. This early routing provided a lot of variety and different shots in just the first 6 holes which made for a very fun round.
The tee shot is very straight forward on the fifth hole. There is nothing intimidating and there is plenty of space in the landing zone of this par 5. I was pleased when I hit a well struck ball right down the middle, I could not have been more in the middle of the fairway. However it was after this shot that I was faced with what was a thought provoking and scary lay up shot. This shot was scary for a combination of a well placed bunker, the angle of the green and elevation changes. This is the part of a well written essay/blog post where a teacher or professor would like 3 distinct paragraphs of the 3 facets of this shot but that is impossible. To do so would do this beautiful shot an injustice because it is actually the perfect marriage of bunkering, angles and elevation that made this shot so memorable.
The green is protected by a sizable depression to the left with a false front that funnels the left half of the green towards the drop off. In addition to the depression, there is a bunker on the right portion of the green. So depending on your angle of attack of your 3rd shot, you either need run a shot up a hill and beyond a sloped hill, clear a bunker on your carry yardage or if you have a proper layup, you have a straight shot with the depression to the left and the bunker to the right. As you can imagine, if getting to this location for the clear shot was easy, this would be a poorly designed hole.
Above is the other half of the putting service of the Par 5th. As can be seen on the left half of the picture, the green slopes away out of frame to a collection area.
Protecting this location for the perfect lay up is a bunker and a hill. The left half of the fairway is higher in elevation than the right side. Perched atop the hill is a bunker with a high lip that has a bit of a landing zone in front of it. If you follow the slope down to the right, you will find land that will funnel you into the rough and more importantly a blind 3rd shot from the right side of the fairway. Additionally from this right side you are bringing the bunker on the right side of the green back into play. So you have to pick your poison and decide what you are comfortable with hitting and weigh the risk reward with this delicate shot. Your shots are as follows.
You can sit back and not take on the bunker or the hill but you will leave yourself over 150 yards in on a Par 5.
You can club up and try to hit it past the bunker and hill into the choked down fairway beyond the bunker.
You can layup comfortably trying to get as close to the right side of the bunker without falling down into the ravine.
It is this conundrum that faced me and made this hole memorable. It was a fun shot and I would love to play it several times with several different pin positions to see what solutions and routes fit best with my game. But alas, this was the only time that I was going to be playing Firerock. In my round, I tried to cut close to the bunker but my shot rolled down the hill into the ravine. Leaving my next shot blind. I found the collar of the green and was able to 2 putt for par.
The view from my Tee shot on the Fifth hole. Here you can clearly see the bunker on the left side of the fairway as the fairway slopes towards the right to what is a blind shot on the right half of the fairway.
It is shots like these that fascinate me with golf, weighing the risk and reward but at the same time knowing your limitations as a player and calculating what best fits your game. Shots like these can display different types of genius in golf ranging from artistic to athletic, both valid approaches to this game. I hope that this stuff interests you, if it does, I would encourage you to follow me on instagram (@aspoiledwalk) and subscribe to this blog by submitting your email because I want to have dialogue about golf and create a community for people who share this same love as me. Thank you for reading the “A Trip to the Desert” series. Big things and another trip planned moving forward. Stay Tuned.
After wrapping up in Green Valley and playing Canoa Ranch, my wife and I spent some time together in Scottsdale. This was the only portion of the trip that I did not play golf. It was spent exploring the Scottsdale area, the Botanical Garden and enjoying the awesome shops and restaurants that the city offered.
Who doesn’t love a good picture of a mountain and a picture perfect golf hole?
It was after this small break in Scottsdale that we made the trip out to Fountain Hills for the last portion of our trip. Fountain Hills will always hold a special place in my heart. Starting in 2008, I would spend a weekend there with my Grandpa and we would golf 36 holes every day. We played local courses like Eagle Mountain but I also had the privilege of playing Talking Stick and We Ko Pa (both of those two courses are Coore and Crenshaw design) during the day and then watch the conference tournaments for college basketball at night. This was a tradition all the way until graduating college and since then, I have not been out to Arizona.
Fast forward 5 years to now and I was finally going back, only things would be a little different this trip. The biggest one being that my grandpa would not be there. He was the man that taught me to golf (more on that in a future post) and not having him was going to be a bummer to say the least. In addition to that giant change, we would be staying in his new house with his girlfriend and not playing any of the regular courses I had played growing up. It was a lot of change from what used to be a tradition for me.
Pretty hard to complain about life when you stay at an amazing place like this! Enjoyed sipping coffee and watching the sunrise in this spot.
My grandpa’s girlfriend was the best host. She was inviting, treated us to cool destinations in town but also still gave my wife and I our space to swim or be on our own. But in addition to those things she also took me golfing and my wife got her much needed time to relax by the pool. Before I go any further, I should say this course is private so unfortunately unless you have an in, you most likely will not be able to play this golf course.
The course I got to play was called Firerock Country Club (not to be confused with world famous Firestone in Akron, OH) and it is a Gary Panks design. Similar to the last course, carts were strongly encouraged but not required which leads to a long drawn out routing. As you would expect, that meant long distances from green to the next tee and also meant severe elevation changes at times. In addition to this type of routing, the 9th hole ends up across the road from the club house but is relatively close to 10 which makes for a tough time to make a pit stop at the turn. But who can fault Panks with this layout? Like all Real Estate projects, there is constant arguing over what land is going to be used for houses and what land is going to be used for golf. The houses surrounding this course are massive and have large swatches of land which I am sure was a conflict when routing this course.
Dramatic house and steep land movements are staples at Firerock Country Club.
Aside from these minor complaints, I thoroughly enjoyed the course. After shaking out the rust from my previous round, I decided to get the whole experience that Firerock had to offer. I played it all of the way back which puts in just over 7100 yards. However, this was a more friendly 7100 yards than I am used to. In Minnesota, rain and heavy soils tend to reduce the amount of roll you recieve on shots, especially when you have a high ball flight like I do. So when playing at Firerock, it was enjoyable and made for a tamer course with all of the roll out I was getting. This was due to the dry conditions and the rock hard fairways that get baked out in the Arizona sun.
The greens are Firerock were exceptional. Putting is normally the strongest part of game but at Firerock, my knees were knocking with every putt outside of 6 feet. Just like the fairways, due to the dry climate and beating sun, the greens were baked out. Add to that a fresh cut and roll and you have for lightening fast greens. Normally I am all for fast greens but coming from Canoa Ranch where the greens were not even sniffing 8 on the stimp made for a BRUTAL day. I had to log four three-putts for the round.
With the greens as fast as they were, these false fronts were intimidating all day. If you look really close you can see a ball clinging on for dear life, trying not to take the slope down to a collection area.
Immediately after this round, I rushed home, threw my clubs in the travel bag and my wife and I darted to the airport for our returning afternoon flight. This was the conclusion of our trip to Arizona. It was by no means a perfect trip but it is always good to spend time with my wife and play golf. However despite this being the end of the trip, there is still one last blog post for this Arizona trip. There was one specific thing at Firerock that I wanted to mention so stick around for the finale (PT IV) of the Arizona blog later this week.
As you recall from part one of my Arizona blog post, the first part of my trip to Arizona was to Green Valley, Arizona. Green Valley is a small retirement town located 30 minutes south of Tucson and home to over 6 golf courses that are loaded with Senior play.
The mountains were a scenic staple for the en
The once course that I played was called Canoa Ranch Golf Club. Canoa Ranch was designed by Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley and has a sister course across town called Torres Blancas. Canoa Ranch Tips out at just over 7,000 yards and features bent grass greens with bermuda grass everywhere else. When I played it, It was my first round since the end of September so I played it up at just under 6,700 yards. My wife’s uncle invited me out to play in his Senior League where we played best ball low net and had a skins game, a ten dollar buy in for all the action.
Early in the round, the tone is set at Conoa Ranch. This Par 5 on the front nine embodies the culture of easy golf and taking in the beauty of the mountains. Pictured are Wide fairways, open rough that filters back to the center and cart tracks, evidence of a high concentration of senior play.
When I played Canoa Ranch, there were two things going against which I will try not to hold against it. One thing was the weather. As mentioned in the previous blog post, my wife and I got much colder weather than one would expect to get in Arizona. This entire round was played in under 50 degree weather with very consistent 20 mile an hour winds with gusts near 30. The second thing that was unfortunate about the timing of playing this course was the greens. Recently Conoa Ranch is in a transition period between owners and this has left some sort of disease running rampant through the greens. I would say less than half of the greens were impacted by this disease but that ones that were affected were in brutal shape. Lots of skipping putts and lots of putts that were thrown off line by bare patches of ground.
Aside from those two things, Canoa Ranch was a great experience. It was a very inviting and open course to allow me to shake off the winter rust from my game. It was everything a course should be in a town densely populated by seniors. There were multiple green complexes that allowed for shots to me run up and the greens were soft (well watered) and rolling no more than a 7 or 8 on the stimpmeter. Additionally the course was very cart friendly and actually it was required that you take a cart (However in a future blog post you will learn that I am very Anti-cart in golf for multiple reasons but I will not hold it against this course. Just know that I actually really hated having to take a cart). That was because the distance between green to tee was sometimes a good 30 second to minute long cart ride. These long cart rides did not bother me though because it was during this time that I was able to soak in the views of the mountains. There were endless views of the mountains on this course and that is something that I was thankful for. I loved taking in the beautiful scenery.
The beauty of this portion of the property is failed to be captured in this photo. As you make the turn on to the back nine you are faced with this awkward Par 5 that snakes between two ridges that run through the property. Despite the uncomfortable layout, it was cool to see Schmidt and Curley use this natural feature.
Something that became a theme for the trip was my inability to chip out of the baked out, dormant bermuda. Playing golf in the midwest I am used to chip shots sitting up on some fluffy green grass or having it settle down in heavy rough. Both are shots that I am very comfortable hitting. In fact, chipping is usually one of the strongest parts of my game. However in Arizona, I really struggled to hit the proper chip shots. The ball was flat on the rock hard ground and required a clean pick in order to hit the proper shot. A majority of these chips were skulled by me as my wedge “skipped” off the dirt and through impact causing me to thin multiple wedge shots. This is something I got better at by the end of the round but I think that I will need to continually work on as I travel to play golf in different environments.
Despite the inconsistent greens, there were some healthy complexes as shown above.
One final thing was the pricing of the round. They have dynamic pricing to accommodate the fluctuating play that seniors provide but with that said, the average round is still somewhere near $70 with a cart. As someone who has grown up playing local municipal golf courses, that is too much money for me. I understand that the rate includes a cart but to me, to cross the $50 dollar threshold a course either needs to be in immaculate shape or needs to hold my attention architecturally. Unfortunately Canoa Ranch did neither of those things for me but that does not mean I did not enjoy the course. The course accomplishes what it should and that is to provide an easy inviting environment for seniors to play golf.
As much as I like living in Minnesota, the winters tend to be brutal. The lashing cold, the constant need for a cup of tea or coffee to warm up, shoveling the driveway and most importantly the lack of golf, are all bummers of the snow. Despite Minnesota’s rooted identity in the cold, my wife and I were delighted when we took off last week for our planned vacation to Arizona. We were fantasizing about overdosing on vitamin D, playing golf and relaxing by the pool. It wasn’t but one day we realized these dreams of a warm vacation were off of the table. We were battling record low temperatures and in fact, one day that we were there, it was actually warmer back home in Minnesota.
Despite these freezing temperatures, we still made the most out of our vacation. The trip was broken into 3 different legs. Our first leg was in Green Valley. If you have never heard of Green Valley that is because you are probably a millennial. 30 minutes above the Mexico Border, Green Valley is a senior living town that requires all tenants and residents buying land to be older than 55 years old. We were visiting Green Valley because my wife has family down there. Her family was nothing but gracious to us giving us a place to stay, making us hand squeezed Orange Juice every morning and even throwing one of the best Super Bowl Parties my wife and I have ever been too (old people know how to party). During the day I golfed with my Wife’s uncle (covered in a future blog).
The next leg of our trip was a personal one between my wife and I. No family, just us and exploring the greater Phoenix Area. We drove by Ping Golf Headquarters (I recently applied to some jobs there) to check it out as well as adventuring through all of the shops and restaurants of Scottsdale. The highlight of this part of the trip for me was walking around the Botanical Garden. It was this day that the weather started to get warmer and it was cool to walk around some scenic trails with my wife. Big shoutout to my wife because it was also during this walk around the garden that I learned my favorite sports team, The Minnesota Timberwolves, just acquired DeAngelo Russell. It was an exciting time and I may have spent a little too much time texting about it that day.
The final portion of the trip was spent in an upscale suburb of Phoenix called Fountain Hills where we stayed with my Grandpa and his girlfriend. It was an amazing house with a beautiful view of the mountains. We were treated to lovely rounds of golf (covered in a future blog), lounging by the pool and elegant dinners. They even took my wife and I to a local play which was surprisingly one of the highlights of the trip.
Overall, it was a good, much needed vacation for my wife and I. It is hard to go back to work and more importantly, the wasteland that is winter. This blog was a little more personal and less about golf, but I wanted to explain my prolonged absence by debriefing the trip. This post is the first of 4 in my Arizona Series.
A Good Walk Spoiled 