Overlooked Golf Courses: Gold Canyon and others you may not know
By Bill Felber
Arizona Grand, Phoenix, Ariz., 6,288 yards, par 71
If you don’t believe a competitive course can be built at barely a few steps over 6,000 yards, the Arizona Grand is a wonderful place to test that proposition.
You may never play a serious regulation course with a shorter finish: The three closing holes measure just a combined 742 yards. No touring pro would play them with anything longer than wedge… or dare to. All three are bitingly tight.
There are few more deceptive holes in the world of golf than the 16th, a 255-yard par 4. Going for it? Feel free; your target green is merely 15 paces deep and not much wider, with the Arizona desert looming on three sides.
The smart pro, perhaps distressingly, will hit wedge-wedge.
At 300 yards, the par 4 17th isn’t much longer…and this green is reachable, albeit again with desert punishing misses on three sides. On this hole, though, hitting the green isn’t the primary challenge; getting close is. The putting surface at 17 is mammoth, measuring 58 yards from front to back, putting a premium on club selection with your drive or — for the conservative — your approach. The green is also invisible from the tee…just to make things more devilish.
The 18th is a par 3, unusual enough for a finishing hole on a serious course. At 187 yards it’s not imposing in length. What is imposing is the tee, perched well up on South Mountain, leaving the player gaping well down on a green that’s just 26 paces square.
As challengingly tight as the finish is at Arizona Grand, the most-talked-about hole probably would be the 13th, which the course fondly refers to as “The Jailhouse Steps.” It measures 449 yards, the final 50 of which are straight uphill to a 58-yard deep green protected by three sand traps.
Arizona Grand protects itself against the assaults of bombers with a phalanx of defenses: the desert, unforgivingly narrow landing areas, those elevation changes and water on four of the first eight holes.
Next. When Fan Behavior Crosses the Line and Turns into Abuse. dark
We know today’s best can tame a 7,500-yard track…how would they do on a layout that was only 6,000 yards long… but collectively a mere 100 or so yards wide?