January in Arizona
Pic, right, Grand Canyon & Colorado River.
A fantastic holiday, with golf on some great courses and a superb road trip in the middle to the majestic Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon both of which surprised us by being covered in snow.
The journey to and from Phoenix was a wee bit fraught with flight delays due to extreme weather and then luggage going amiss though the golf bag made it through on both legs of the flight! This helped in Scottsdale as we were pre-booked, through GolfNow.com, to play at three courses on the first stage of the tour: Camelback, Wigwam and the Cholla Course at We-Ko-Pa.
The bags with our clothing did not turn up next morning so a trip to a mall for essentials plus a few purchases in the excellent golf shop at Camelback and we are standing on the 1st tee, in new golf rags, a couple of swishes of the 3 wood to loosen up and off we go...golfing in Arizona.
I had made the decision prior to arriving that we play a couple of medium priced courses to start, get accustomed to playing golf in the sun, in January, and then hit a 'name' desert golf course. Camelback Golf Club's Padre Course was a perfect place to begin being less than 10 minutes from our hotel, the InterContinental on Lincoln Drive, a good shop for golf gear, welcoming staff and a good course. We matched up with Bob, a single golfer playing behind us, on the third hole and had an enjoyable round in good company...scored so-so with 43/44 = 87. Could & will do better!
Our second round was on an older course, established in 1936, called Wigwam Golf Club, designed by Robert Trent Jones Snr.
Boyne at the first tee of the Wigwam golf course.
The name ' Wigwam' obviously grabs the wee boy in me and I find myself on the golf course where Annika Sorenstem won her first professional event in America.
Boyne's sweeping drive on the 18th at Wigwam.
This pedigree is good enough for me and it proved to be a delight with lots of dog-legs left and right along with raised 'Donald Ross' like greens, which were astonishingly fast and fun to putt on.
The scoring was improved upon with Boyne shooting 42/42 = 84 (net 73 with my 11 hdcp). As usual my putting got me out of some difficulties with 15 on front nine and a regulation 18 on the back, total = 33. Pretty obvious where my game needs improvement...got to hit a few more greens in regulation!
Our second round was on an older course, established in 1936, called Wigwam Golf Club, designed by Robert Trent Jones Snr.Boyne at the first tee of the Wigwam golf course.
The name ' Wigwam' obviously grabs the wee boy in me and I find myself on the golf course where Annika Sorenstem won her first professional event in America.
This pedigree is good enough for me and it proved to be a delight with lots of dog-legs left and right along with raised 'Donald Ross' like greens, which were astonishingly fast and fun to putt on.
The scoring was improved upon with Boyne shooting 42/42 = 84 (net 73 with my 11 hdcp). As usual my putting got me out of some difficulties with 15 on front nine and a regulation 18 on the back, total = 33. Pretty obvious where my game needs improvement...got to hit a few more greens in regulation!
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