Trip Journal: Arizona Golf Trip 2014
Phoenix (Buckeye, Goodyear and Avondale) and Sedona; March 10 - 17
This year is was our fourteenth trip to the Phoenix area in the past fifteen years. Again this year we had an expanded group with eight hackers and also had some first timers for the trip with the addition of Phuoc Thai (substituting for Seablom) and Mike Chornak. The returning members of the cast were recent standard foursome (Corcoran, Haas, Swan and me) along with David Dress and Mark Melanson. So a good group of folks. It is always a concern when adding new guys to the mix, but Phuoc and Nak melded right in to the flow of the trip.
We again went with rental houses, but I had problems finding two suitable houses in the same area so we ended up all the way out in Buckeye. The houses were nice and only four doors apart from each other, but we were at the far western edge of Buckeye, so it was a longish drive to get back to most of the courses we were playing. There was nothing to the west of us; the houses overlooked wide open spaces. I think the next stop traveling west was Los Angeles.
One other change was that Haas and Corcoran wanted to come out a day early to make a little more time to get setup (travel on Monday so we would have Tuesday morning open for shopping, etc. before the rest of the guys arrived). Also due to the various flight schedules, we ended up with three vehicles this trip, which actually was a good thing as it provided us with a little more flexibility so that the group could split up as we wanted after golf each day.
The details for each day are listed below. There are also links to reviews for some of the courses and restaurants from the trip (these are also collected at the bottom of the journal along with a link to the photos).
Monday 3/10; travel day – Up a little earlier than usual to ensure that we are ready to roll by 6:20. The clocks were rolled forward an hour for daylight saving time this weekend, so I had that to deal with as well, but I guess that really just does not bother me as I was up at 0430 and had Lynn up and at’em at 0500. Shoot we were ready to head out at about 5:40, so 40 minutes to kill before picking up Haas. It was an easy trip to the airport, collecting Jeff on the way followed by a smooth check-in but the security line was humongous! Fortunately the premier access line was very short (there was one guy in front of me; go figure), so I was through in no time. Rich was waiting on the other side and the three of us waltzed down to the United lounge to take advantage of Jeff’s access via his high-end credit card. The place was packed when we arrived at 7:30, but we found a small table and grabbed some grub. I did give my seat up to an older couple with a guide dog, but returned once they left. Interestingly, the lounge cleared out about 8:00; I guess the early morning departures were on their way. We seemed to be on the fast-track as we had a very early arrival in Phoenix, only a moderate wait at the baggage claim and no waiting at the rental car terminal. Rich even wrangled an upgrade to a Ford Explorer which gave us more room and as we found later, room for four guys to cut down on driving during the week. Then it was on to our first golf course for the week.
Haas had scoped out a course that we had not played before, Aguila, a municipal course for the city of Phoenix. We had a 2:00 PM tee-time but arrived way early, so we had time to grab some lunch, hit the driving range and putting green and we still had a lot of time to kill. Haas filled us in on a new idea that is being touted by the golfing world, including Jack Nicklaus, about playing the course from the tees that best fit your game. Haas called it “Play it Forward” but it is actually “Tee It Forward” and the crux is to find a set of tees that gives the length of the course that fits how far the golfer hits the ball. Fine by me, I’m here to have fun and playing from the tips is not fun if you are hitting driver, three-wood, wedge into par-4s! Haas indicated that for most of us with an average driving distance in the 200-240 yard range that we should be playing from the tees in the 6000-yard range. Again, good by me. So we played the gold tees at 5952 yards today and also opted to just play and not keep score.
Well, we did not know what to expect from Aguila, having never played there and the fact that it was a muni course. But it ended up being a very nice facility. The club house was average, but there was a nice little proshop and a very good snack bar where we had lunch. The staff we encountered were all very friendly. In fact, one of the guys gave me a quick swing tip out on the range as he was passing by picking up the empty buckets. Seems I was hooking my shots at that time due to having all my weight on my left foot. I made a minor adjustment…and still hooked the next shot. But I now had something to work on.
We again went with rental houses, but I had problems finding two suitable houses in the same area so we ended up all the way out in Buckeye. The houses were nice and only four doors apart from each other, but we were at the far western edge of Buckeye, so it was a longish drive to get back to most of the courses we were playing. There was nothing to the west of us; the houses overlooked wide open spaces. I think the next stop traveling west was Los Angeles.
One other change was that Haas and Corcoran wanted to come out a day early to make a little more time to get setup (travel on Monday so we would have Tuesday morning open for shopping, etc. before the rest of the guys arrived). Also due to the various flight schedules, we ended up with three vehicles this trip, which actually was a good thing as it provided us with a little more flexibility so that the group could split up as we wanted after golf each day.
The details for each day are listed below. There are also links to reviews for some of the courses and restaurants from the trip (these are also collected at the bottom of the journal along with a link to the photos).
Monday 3/10; travel day – Up a little earlier than usual to ensure that we are ready to roll by 6:20. The clocks were rolled forward an hour for daylight saving time this weekend, so I had that to deal with as well, but I guess that really just does not bother me as I was up at 0430 and had Lynn up and at’em at 0500. Shoot we were ready to head out at about 5:40, so 40 minutes to kill before picking up Haas. It was an easy trip to the airport, collecting Jeff on the way followed by a smooth check-in but the security line was humongous! Fortunately the premier access line was very short (there was one guy in front of me; go figure), so I was through in no time. Rich was waiting on the other side and the three of us waltzed down to the United lounge to take advantage of Jeff’s access via his high-end credit card. The place was packed when we arrived at 7:30, but we found a small table and grabbed some grub. I did give my seat up to an older couple with a guide dog, but returned once they left. Interestingly, the lounge cleared out about 8:00; I guess the early morning departures were on their way. We seemed to be on the fast-track as we had a very early arrival in Phoenix, only a moderate wait at the baggage claim and no waiting at the rental car terminal. Rich even wrangled an upgrade to a Ford Explorer which gave us more room and as we found later, room for four guys to cut down on driving during the week. Then it was on to our first golf course for the week.
Haas had scoped out a course that we had not played before, Aguila, a municipal course for the city of Phoenix. We had a 2:00 PM tee-time but arrived way early, so we had time to grab some lunch, hit the driving range and putting green and we still had a lot of time to kill. Haas filled us in on a new idea that is being touted by the golfing world, including Jack Nicklaus, about playing the course from the tees that best fit your game. Haas called it “Play it Forward” but it is actually “Tee It Forward” and the crux is to find a set of tees that gives the length of the course that fits how far the golfer hits the ball. Fine by me, I’m here to have fun and playing from the tips is not fun if you are hitting driver, three-wood, wedge into par-4s! Haas indicated that for most of us with an average driving distance in the 200-240 yard range that we should be playing from the tees in the 6000-yard range. Again, good by me. So we played the gold tees at 5952 yards today and also opted to just play and not keep score.
Well, we did not know what to expect from Aguila, having never played there and the fact that it was a muni course. But it ended up being a very nice facility. The club house was average, but there was a nice little proshop and a very good snack bar where we had lunch. The staff we encountered were all very friendly. In fact, one of the guys gave me a quick swing tip out on the range as he was passing by picking up the empty buckets. Seems I was hooking my shots at that time due to having all my weight on my left foot. I made a minor adjustment…and still hooked the next shot. But I now had something to work on.
We really liked the layout of the course and the scenery. The tees were in good shape, the fairways were fairly wide, there were no houses lining the track and the greens rolled pretty well (well, except for the last three or four which had been recently aerated, but even those were not too bad). We agreed that this was a keeper and a better first day course than Falcon (which we had been using as our lead-off course since 2009) as it was a prettier course, a more interesting layout, in better condition and had better scenery with the mountains as a backdrop. Granted we did not get the private airshow from Luke AFB that you see at Falcon, but that was more than made up for with all the birds that we saw (at least I thought the birds were a bonus). Verdin, Gambel’s Quails, Great-tailed Grackels, American Widgeons, Coots, Roadrunners and a variety of other song birds and waterfowl. I got a few good photos of the birds and the course.
We were all enjoying the course. It was a beautiful day; blue sky without a cloud in sight, just a slight breeze and temperature about 80…so much better than what we left behind in Cleveland. I think we were on about number 13 when Haas suggested that we should ditch the round at Falcon tomorrow and just have the guys meet-up here instead. Sounds like a winner, so I called the clubhouse to check for reservations, got us set with tee-times then canceled Falcon. We didn’t keep score this round, which was fine. I was struggling the first couple of holes, but figured it out after a few holes and certainly had it going on the back nine. I reckon I shot around 50 on the front, but cut that to about 40 on the back. Overall, a great first day of golf. |
We were done at Aguila (review) about 6:30 and on the road to Buckeye. It was about an hour drive to the house at the far edge Buckeye. It was starting to get dark, so we could not check out the backyard, but the inside of the house was nice; nothing special, but great for a base for the trip. As it was getting late, we decided to hold off until tomorrow to do any shopping and just headed to the local sports bar Filiberto’s . The service was very good, the food was just OK and the beer selection was poor (typical, mass produced stuff). The server was friendly and the manager was eager to please. Nice atmosphere; there were plenty of TVs and the staff gladly changed the channels to get the game we wanted to watch. Rich and I had carne asada quesadillas; I like mine well enough, but Rich said his were tough. Jeff had the sliders which he liked. Overall, just sort of an average place. I would not expect that we would return as there are better places in Goodyear, but we did eat here later in the week with the rest of the crew.
Tuesday 3/11; Return to Aguila – Coming out a day early really worked out well. It was great having the morning to relax and do some shopping. I was up at 5:00, and down downstairs about 6:00 to set up the laptop. Yikes, the machine is not charging! Tried a couple outlets but no joy. Ah-HA. I have a HP laptop, but the power cord is from Dell; must have picked up the wrong one. That could be the issue. We’ll there is an office Max in Buckeye so I can always get a universal adapter. We’ll add that to the list of errands. Once the guys were up we got a plan in order. First stop was Denny’s for breakfast then over to Walmart for supplies and finally Office Max for the laptop charger. Walmart was good for everything we needed except beer, so that will have to wait until we hit a proper grocery store. Once back home with our loot, I tried the new power adapter with the laptop…back in business. Haas and I also went over to investigate the other house (house 1). It is nicer than our place. The house is about the same, but the backyard space is MUCH nicer. Our backyard was overgrown and the pool was not inviting at all; the yard at house 1 was larger, well maintained and was just a better place to hang out. After all that, we still had a few hours to kill before golf today. Yep, the day early arrival was a good idea.
We finally lit out for Aguila about noon so that we would have time to grab some lunch at the course before we teed-off. We heard from the rest of the crew as we were driving east. They were all in Phoenix and on the way to the course. The plan is coming together….
Here’s my nomination for the Mr. Nice-guy award: When I paid for my lunch at the course snack bar, I gave the young lady a 10-dollar bill to cover my $8 lunch, but she gave me back $12 in change. “I’m pretty sure that I gave you a ten, not a twenty” but she had already put the bills in the drawer. However, she said that she could count the drawer to find out. Sure enough, after the count, she determined that I had paid with a ten, so I refunded her the extra change. She was quite grateful, as she would have had to make up the difference out of her pocket.
It was another great day at Aguila. Nearly perfect weather. We did try the “Tee It Forward” concept, as one group played the gold tees and the other played the longer sliver tees (6400). I was in the silver tee group with Swan, Mark and David. We all played pretty well at times. Swan in particular had a good round and jumped out to a quick lead on the birdie count. Considering that I have not played since last June, I was extremely pleased with my play; maybe it helps to go in with low expectations!
Tuesday 3/11; Return to Aguila – Coming out a day early really worked out well. It was great having the morning to relax and do some shopping. I was up at 5:00, and down downstairs about 6:00 to set up the laptop. Yikes, the machine is not charging! Tried a couple outlets but no joy. Ah-HA. I have a HP laptop, but the power cord is from Dell; must have picked up the wrong one. That could be the issue. We’ll there is an office Max in Buckeye so I can always get a universal adapter. We’ll add that to the list of errands. Once the guys were up we got a plan in order. First stop was Denny’s for breakfast then over to Walmart for supplies and finally Office Max for the laptop charger. Walmart was good for everything we needed except beer, so that will have to wait until we hit a proper grocery store. Once back home with our loot, I tried the new power adapter with the laptop…back in business. Haas and I also went over to investigate the other house (house 1). It is nicer than our place. The house is about the same, but the backyard space is MUCH nicer. Our backyard was overgrown and the pool was not inviting at all; the yard at house 1 was larger, well maintained and was just a better place to hang out. After all that, we still had a few hours to kill before golf today. Yep, the day early arrival was a good idea.
We finally lit out for Aguila about noon so that we would have time to grab some lunch at the course before we teed-off. We heard from the rest of the crew as we were driving east. They were all in Phoenix and on the way to the course. The plan is coming together….
Here’s my nomination for the Mr. Nice-guy award: When I paid for my lunch at the course snack bar, I gave the young lady a 10-dollar bill to cover my $8 lunch, but she gave me back $12 in change. “I’m pretty sure that I gave you a ten, not a twenty” but she had already put the bills in the drawer. However, she said that she could count the drawer to find out. Sure enough, after the count, she determined that I had paid with a ten, so I refunded her the extra change. She was quite grateful, as she would have had to make up the difference out of her pocket.
It was another great day at Aguila. Nearly perfect weather. We did try the “Tee It Forward” concept, as one group played the gold tees and the other played the longer sliver tees (6400). I was in the silver tee group with Swan, Mark and David. We all played pretty well at times. Swan in particular had a good round and jumped out to a quick lead on the birdie count. Considering that I have not played since last June, I was extremely pleased with my play; maybe it helps to go in with low expectations!
For dinner, we just hit a local taco shack called Gorda’s (review) on 35th. It was a very poor substitute for Chipotle but it was food. Then we loaded up and made the trek back to Buckeye for the night.
Wednesday 3/12; Palm Valley – Our trip to Palm Valley has become a standard part of our Arizona golf trip, but this year we are doing it with a twist. We generally start with the short course, but today we have an 8:10 AM tee-time on the regulation Palms course followed by an afternoon round on the executive Lakes course.
Well, another great day in paradise. More blue skies and warm temperatures. And the course looked to be in great shape. After a little putting, we headed down to the number one tee. Swan requested the “old crew” as a foursome for this round, so, Haas, Rich, Swan and me for this round. We had the starter get a team photo on the first tee (just like last year). Then it was off and running. Those of us who have played the course for a few years prefer starting on the old number 1, but regardless it is still a fun track. Again we embraced the “tee it forward” mantra and played the white tees (6160 yards) which were where we usually played anyway but it still made for a comfortable distance. The course was lush and green; maybe the best shape I’ve seen in over the time we have been playing here. Of course there were bloody Marys flowing once the guys found the beverage cart. The cart girl was a cutie, so bonus (hey, if you read my Ireland trip journal you would know that I'm a dirty-old-man-in-training). This was the tenth year that we've played the course, granted only once a year, but it is odd that we really do not remember the entire layout as a whole, but once we get to each tee box the common phrase is "I remember this hole!"
Wednesday 3/12; Palm Valley – Our trip to Palm Valley has become a standard part of our Arizona golf trip, but this year we are doing it with a twist. We generally start with the short course, but today we have an 8:10 AM tee-time on the regulation Palms course followed by an afternoon round on the executive Lakes course.
Well, another great day in paradise. More blue skies and warm temperatures. And the course looked to be in great shape. After a little putting, we headed down to the number one tee. Swan requested the “old crew” as a foursome for this round, so, Haas, Rich, Swan and me for this round. We had the starter get a team photo on the first tee (just like last year). Then it was off and running. Those of us who have played the course for a few years prefer starting on the old number 1, but regardless it is still a fun track. Again we embraced the “tee it forward” mantra and played the white tees (6160 yards) which were where we usually played anyway but it still made for a comfortable distance. The course was lush and green; maybe the best shape I’ve seen in over the time we have been playing here. Of course there were bloody Marys flowing once the guys found the beverage cart. The cart girl was a cutie, so bonus (hey, if you read my Ireland trip journal you would know that I'm a dirty-old-man-in-training). This was the tenth year that we've played the course, granted only once a year, but it is odd that we really do not remember the entire layout as a whole, but once we get to each tee box the common phrase is "I remember this hole!"
I think this may have been the best that I have scored on the Palms course, with a 92. Lots of pars and bogies and no real blow-ups. Swan lit up the back nine with a 38. The only disappointment for me was number 18, the long par 5 with water along the left. I hit a nice drive down the right edge of the fairway, then a layup along the right to just inside the 150-yard marker. Since I was in the rough I took a little extra club and hit 7-iron right at the flag in the middle of the green. I reckon I should have hit an 8, as my ball must have rolled through the green and into the lake. Bummer. Oh, well, that’s golf. Still a nice round.
After lunch in the clubhouse, we headed back out for our afternoon on the Lakes course. We debated formats for the afternoon and finally went with a two-man scramble. We made the pairings based on the morning round scores (1 with 8, 2 with 7, etc.). Nak and I were the middle scores and paired together and played along with Phu and Mark. |
Well, this was a high-stakes game; the two high-score teams have to buy the low-scorers a beer. Good think as Nak and I just did not gel as a team; we came in dead last and bought Haas and David a beer at dinner. But we had fun and that was the point. The Lakes course was a little ragged, particularly when compared to how nice the Palms course was conditioned.
After a long day on the course we headed to Majerle’s Sports Grill (review) for dinner. The place was hopping, but we god lucky with a table for eight on the patio. I enjoyed a couple of large Alaska pale ales and the taco salad with chicken. Good eatin’ and great service. It made for a great ending to a nice day.
Thursday 3/13; Coldwater and The Tribe – Early start to get to Coldwater for our 8:00 tee-time; we were on the road from Buckeye at 0700. An accident on the highway slowed our progress a bit, but we still made it in plenty of time. We warned the other group of the traffic and they were able to get off the highway and took the back roads to the course, but the GPS they were using gave them bad data, so we actually arrived ahead of them. I had to work with the guy in the proshop to get the internet booking rake, but he bought off on it.
We got our groups together and again figured in the “tee it forward” philosophy and picked the “vintage” green tees at 5800 yards. Now that made for a fun day with no stress off the tee. I rode with David and paired up with Haas and Mark. We all played pretty well. Haas shot 80 and I had an 81 (39-42). The wind picked-up a little during the back nine, but it was not a big issue (one club at most). Otherwise the day was ideal and the course was in stellar condition. Last year the course was looking a bit run-down, but this year it was green and in good shape. The greens were a little grainy; we figured the Bermuda was starting to come in over the other grass.
There were more birding opportunities on the course today with the highlight being a Burrowing Owl that I spotting on a culvert outlet as we were driving to the tee on number 11. Pretty darn cool. So great weather, nice course, I played well and saw some interesting birds. Another great day and it is only noon!
After the round the group split up. David, Mark and Phuoc decided to play more golf and were able to get an immediate replay. The rest of us loaded into the Explorer and headed to the Goodyear Ballpark for some Indians spring training baseball. We bought the cheap tickets (berm seating, which means you can sit in the grassy area behind the outfield or just hang out in the above the seating sections). Swan and I just sort of meandered around the park. First stop was for a Philly steak-and-cheese and the next stop was for a beer. They had Dale’s Pale Ale in a large can, so I tried that. Not bad at all. Haas, Rich and Nak had taken up a position around one of the light poles behind the homeplate seating. Since Haas was decked out in bright orange, it was easy to keep track of him from just about anywhere else in the park. Swan and I made a couple laps around the park. We grabbed a couple of empty seats that we got kicked out of one set of seats but were offered seats in a less populated section which we sat in for an inning or so. Tribe won a high scoring affair over the Royals.
Tonight we congregated at “house 1” where the other guys were staying. Phuoc was hell-bent on cooking dinner, but we talked him down from that. But he still made salad and dessert. We ordered pizza from a place in Verrado, which ended up being a bit of a drive for not a lot of pizza. So we hit Fry’s then the pizza joint then back to the ranch for dinner. Phuoc’s bananas foster was by far the highlight of the meal.
After a long day on the course we headed to Majerle’s Sports Grill (review) for dinner. The place was hopping, but we god lucky with a table for eight on the patio. I enjoyed a couple of large Alaska pale ales and the taco salad with chicken. Good eatin’ and great service. It made for a great ending to a nice day.
Thursday 3/13; Coldwater and The Tribe – Early start to get to Coldwater for our 8:00 tee-time; we were on the road from Buckeye at 0700. An accident on the highway slowed our progress a bit, but we still made it in plenty of time. We warned the other group of the traffic and they were able to get off the highway and took the back roads to the course, but the GPS they were using gave them bad data, so we actually arrived ahead of them. I had to work with the guy in the proshop to get the internet booking rake, but he bought off on it.
We got our groups together and again figured in the “tee it forward” philosophy and picked the “vintage” green tees at 5800 yards. Now that made for a fun day with no stress off the tee. I rode with David and paired up with Haas and Mark. We all played pretty well. Haas shot 80 and I had an 81 (39-42). The wind picked-up a little during the back nine, but it was not a big issue (one club at most). Otherwise the day was ideal and the course was in stellar condition. Last year the course was looking a bit run-down, but this year it was green and in good shape. The greens were a little grainy; we figured the Bermuda was starting to come in over the other grass.
There were more birding opportunities on the course today with the highlight being a Burrowing Owl that I spotting on a culvert outlet as we were driving to the tee on number 11. Pretty darn cool. So great weather, nice course, I played well and saw some interesting birds. Another great day and it is only noon!
After the round the group split up. David, Mark and Phuoc decided to play more golf and were able to get an immediate replay. The rest of us loaded into the Explorer and headed to the Goodyear Ballpark for some Indians spring training baseball. We bought the cheap tickets (berm seating, which means you can sit in the grassy area behind the outfield or just hang out in the above the seating sections). Swan and I just sort of meandered around the park. First stop was for a Philly steak-and-cheese and the next stop was for a beer. They had Dale’s Pale Ale in a large can, so I tried that. Not bad at all. Haas, Rich and Nak had taken up a position around one of the light poles behind the homeplate seating. Since Haas was decked out in bright orange, it was easy to keep track of him from just about anywhere else in the park. Swan and I made a couple laps around the park. We grabbed a couple of empty seats that we got kicked out of one set of seats but were offered seats in a less populated section which we sat in for an inning or so. Tribe won a high scoring affair over the Royals.
Tonight we congregated at “house 1” where the other guys were staying. Phuoc was hell-bent on cooking dinner, but we talked him down from that. But he still made salad and dessert. We ordered pizza from a place in Verrado, which ended up being a bit of a drive for not a lot of pizza. So we hit Fry’s then the pizza joint then back to the ranch for dinner. Phuoc’s bananas foster was by far the highlight of the meal.
Friday 3/14; Return to Vistal – So Haas was itching to try one of our old courses again and make a return to Vistal. This is actually the site of the first course we ever played on an Arizona golf trip, the now defunct Thunderbird Golf Course. That first trip was plagued with airline schedule issues, so we lost the first day due to delays and were late getting in the second day and just rushed the closest course we could find, which was Thunderbird. It was sort of an interesting layout, although there was one corner of the course that was a bit odd and tore-up. The next year I figured out that the course had closed and was being remodeled and a couple years later I found that Vistal had been build on the site of the old Thunderbird. Many of the holes at Vistal follow the old layout, but the odd corner had been redone and the entire layout was upgraded. New clubhouse and practice facilities made this a very nice facility. The last time we played the course back in 2007 was when we got the tip about Palm Valley from one of the locals. Anyway, it was due for a return gig.
We were not in hurry this morning as our tee-time was not until 8:20, so we made our way to the course at a leisurely pace. We arrived at our old stomping grounds in plenty of time to check in and warm-up. There were fresh chocolate chip cookies in the pro-shop which were very tasty. I noticed that no one visited the driving range; I think we all feel that we need to conserve our energy and our bodies a little.
A little chilly today with some overcast skies; it actually spit rain at us for a few seconds as we started the round. But the temperatures gradually warmed and the skies cleared a bit so that we did have another wonderful of golf.
The course was in good shape and the track was as interesting as I recalled. The course is very playable with only a few holes lines by desert that is completely unplayable (mainly the par threes). There is a little water on the course (holes 3, 9 and 18 for sure). I escaped the water on number 3 as I hit a simply horrible skull-shank-WTF-was-that (worst shot of the trip) that I was begging to skip off the pond and onto the green. Well through some sort of Divine intervention, the ball actually hit dry land over the pond, skipped up onto the green and held. Leaving me a 30-foot putt for birdie that I lipped-out leaving a tap in par. As the man said, I would rather be lucky than good!
We were not in hurry this morning as our tee-time was not until 8:20, so we made our way to the course at a leisurely pace. We arrived at our old stomping grounds in plenty of time to check in and warm-up. There were fresh chocolate chip cookies in the pro-shop which were very tasty. I noticed that no one visited the driving range; I think we all feel that we need to conserve our energy and our bodies a little.
A little chilly today with some overcast skies; it actually spit rain at us for a few seconds as we started the round. But the temperatures gradually warmed and the skies cleared a bit so that we did have another wonderful of golf.
The course was in good shape and the track was as interesting as I recalled. The course is very playable with only a few holes lines by desert that is completely unplayable (mainly the par threes). There is a little water on the course (holes 3, 9 and 18 for sure). I escaped the water on number 3 as I hit a simply horrible skull-shank-WTF-was-that (worst shot of the trip) that I was begging to skip off the pond and onto the green. Well through some sort of Divine intervention, the ball actually hit dry land over the pond, skipped up onto the green and held. Leaving me a 30-foot putt for birdie that I lipped-out leaving a tap in par. As the man said, I would rather be lucky than good!
I generally played pretty well today, except for the par threes. I pared the first one (the miraculous hole described above) and the last one, but took a 5 and a 6 on the other two. I was having a little problem with my right hand; middle finger was really sore from all the swinging. I taped it for the day, but in hindsight I’m not sure that was the right thing to so. I was really struggling with it during the afternoon scramble.
I like the course (review). The layout is fun and fairly open. There is a nice variety of holes and some elevation change for good measure. The scenery is pretty nice (mountains to the south and views of Phoenix to the north). There were again a good number and variety of birds on the course as well. The conditions were also very good. The small clubhouse is also nice and serves very good food. We had lunch on the patio. They have a grill there and make good sandwiches. I think everyone enjoyed their burgers or BBQ or whatever. I know that the grilled chicken with a southwest flare was very tasty.
After lunch most of us headed back out for a 3-man scramble. Nak and Rich bailed on the afternoon round, so that left Swan, David and me against Haas, Mark and Phuoc. The course was not very crowded ; I do not thing there was anyone behind us (if there was, they certainly were not pushing us). We played a few holes as a sixsome. It was a lot of fun but in the end we ended up owing them a beer. |
We gave Rich and Nak the action to find us a good place for dinner. They came up with Filiberto’s. Really? That’s the best you could do? But it was actually pretty good. Good friends, good food, good…no, the beer was still lame; two out of three ain’t bad. Check out the reviews for Vistal and Filiberto's.
Saturday 3/15; Zen in Sedona – Today is THE course for the trip, as we took a road trip to Sedona to play one of my favorites, the Sedona Golf Resort. We had a leisurely day planned since we did not tee-off until almost noon. So a little extra sleep this morning, breakfast along the way and then onto Red Rock Country. Since we had some time this morning, I started the house search for the 2015 trip. While the houses we have this year are nice (except for the jungle in our backyard), the location is just too far from civilization. We just need to be closer to the Goodyear area as there are more courses and more dining options. I found a few in the Palm Valley area which would be perfect; now I just need to wait for the owners to reply.
Wheels up to day at 0745. Good move to save the road trip for Saturday to avoid the traffic woes around Phoenix. The house 1 guys were on point, so they were on the look-out for a breakfast spot, They opted for the Cracker Barrel on 101 and I-17. I’m not a Cracker Barrel fan, but it is hard to screw-up breakfast. I kept it simple nevertheless with a nice bowl of oatmeal and a muffin.
Back on the road, we had a pleasant drive north along I-17 to the Sedona area as we climbed steadily to about 4500 feet from about 1100 feet at Phoenix. The day was shaping up to be another beauty. We arrived at the course with time to spare so we had time to look around the proshop, do a little putting and get team photos taken on the putting green, courtesy of Phu. Then we got our groups in order. I requested that David, Mark and Haas be in my group and we also got to be first off.
Once out on the first tee, the feeling of Zen just took over. The amazing red rock vistas, the blue skies, lush green grass and the warmth of the day just made for a wonderfully relaxing feeling. I have been looking forward to this round of golf for months and now here we are in this surreal place. I was feeling great, my hand had healed and my mind was clear. Ah, Sedona. First swing of the day and I placed my tee-shot down the right side of the fairway, avoiding the bunkers. Hardest shot in golf. I went on to par the hole; off to a great start. I finally registered a birdie on the par-3 number 7. This has been a good hole for me over the years as I have birdied it most of the times I have played the course.
Probably the only disappointment of the day occurred on hole 4 when the beverage cart finally came along. Turns out that the cart girl was a dude! Oh, well, at least a male beverage cart driver will know more about beer, so he pointed out that there was a good pale ale available, the Hop Knot American IPA from Four Peaks Brewery out of Tempe. Pretty darn good and the only beer I had on a course all week (well, except for the Hop Knot I drank on the back nine this afternoon). Good beer just added to the overall great day.
Saturday 3/15; Zen in Sedona – Today is THE course for the trip, as we took a road trip to Sedona to play one of my favorites, the Sedona Golf Resort. We had a leisurely day planned since we did not tee-off until almost noon. So a little extra sleep this morning, breakfast along the way and then onto Red Rock Country. Since we had some time this morning, I started the house search for the 2015 trip. While the houses we have this year are nice (except for the jungle in our backyard), the location is just too far from civilization. We just need to be closer to the Goodyear area as there are more courses and more dining options. I found a few in the Palm Valley area which would be perfect; now I just need to wait for the owners to reply.
Wheels up to day at 0745. Good move to save the road trip for Saturday to avoid the traffic woes around Phoenix. The house 1 guys were on point, so they were on the look-out for a breakfast spot, They opted for the Cracker Barrel on 101 and I-17. I’m not a Cracker Barrel fan, but it is hard to screw-up breakfast. I kept it simple nevertheless with a nice bowl of oatmeal and a muffin.
Back on the road, we had a pleasant drive north along I-17 to the Sedona area as we climbed steadily to about 4500 feet from about 1100 feet at Phoenix. The day was shaping up to be another beauty. We arrived at the course with time to spare so we had time to look around the proshop, do a little putting and get team photos taken on the putting green, courtesy of Phu. Then we got our groups in order. I requested that David, Mark and Haas be in my group and we also got to be first off.
Once out on the first tee, the feeling of Zen just took over. The amazing red rock vistas, the blue skies, lush green grass and the warmth of the day just made for a wonderfully relaxing feeling. I have been looking forward to this round of golf for months and now here we are in this surreal place. I was feeling great, my hand had healed and my mind was clear. Ah, Sedona. First swing of the day and I placed my tee-shot down the right side of the fairway, avoiding the bunkers. Hardest shot in golf. I went on to par the hole; off to a great start. I finally registered a birdie on the par-3 number 7. This has been a good hole for me over the years as I have birdied it most of the times I have played the course.
Probably the only disappointment of the day occurred on hole 4 when the beverage cart finally came along. Turns out that the cart girl was a dude! Oh, well, at least a male beverage cart driver will know more about beer, so he pointed out that there was a good pale ale available, the Hop Knot American IPA from Four Peaks Brewery out of Tempe. Pretty darn good and the only beer I had on a course all week (well, except for the Hop Knot I drank on the back nine this afternoon). Good beer just added to the overall great day.
The golf course generally works uphill on the front nine. Only the short par three number 7 is slightly downhill. The signature hole is number 10; a 170-yard, par 3 with Cathedral Rock providing one of the best backdrops on any golf course. We waited on the tee for the rest of our troop for the official team photo. The wind at picked-up at this point, sort of hurting from the left. So the 170-yard hole was playing closer to 200 yards. I hit a great 7-wood right along the left edge of the hole, but the wind did not push the ball back to the green as I had thought it would. One bounce off the cart path and I was on the hill behind the green. I hit a nice pitch back across the hill that took the expected roller-coaster ride right down to the hole and a manageable two-putt par. Not too shabby. The contour in around and on the greens is a typical feature on this course. There were a couple of times during the round that I purposed hit the ball long into the hill behind the green so that the ball would roll back onto the green.
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After number 10, the course turns around and goes back down hill. The wind was generally at our backs at this point so we had a wild ride on several of the holes. Still it was a LOT of fun. The birding theme continued throughout the round as well. Western bluebirds were plentiful. And there was a variety of waterfowl on the ponds coming down the back nine, include a few Ring-necked Ducks. Sedona Golf Resort review.
After the round, we did a little shopping and swung a deal with the proshop since we were buying a bunch of shirts. Then we had a beer in the clubhouse and discussed the 2015 trip and looked into dinner options. Someone in the proshop suggested an Italian joint near the course in the Village of Oak Creek, but we wanted southwest. Elote, Barking Frog and Javelina Cantina were the top picks. We opted for Javelina since the young lady serving our beer said it was her favorite and it had a nice view.
I reckon we rolled into Javelina Cantina (review) about 5:00…without reservations. The bad news was that they could not accommodate a party of 8 for at least an hour, but the good news was that it would only be a 20 minute wait for two groups of four. The outdoor seating was unavailable as the evening was getting cool; too bad as the view was stellar. But the red rocks were still center stage through the glass wall. The service was great and the food was excellent. A great feast following a fine day on the links. Since I was not drinking at dinner, I drive home. Rich and I carried on dialog covering beer, food, golf, Cleveland sports…just anything to make sure we stayed awake. But it was a fun drive and we were home about 9:20. Can’t wait to get back to Sedona…
Sunday 3/16/14; Last Round – Last full day of the trip and we have an early tee-time. Fortunately we do not have far to drive as we are playing in Buckeye at Sundance. Another beautiful day is in store; this has been nearly a perfect week is terms of weather. Once we got checked in we determined the pairings for the morning. Swan and I rode together and played along with Nak and Phu in the lead-off group.
After the round, we did a little shopping and swung a deal with the proshop since we were buying a bunch of shirts. Then we had a beer in the clubhouse and discussed the 2015 trip and looked into dinner options. Someone in the proshop suggested an Italian joint near the course in the Village of Oak Creek, but we wanted southwest. Elote, Barking Frog and Javelina Cantina were the top picks. We opted for Javelina since the young lady serving our beer said it was her favorite and it had a nice view.
I reckon we rolled into Javelina Cantina (review) about 5:00…without reservations. The bad news was that they could not accommodate a party of 8 for at least an hour, but the good news was that it would only be a 20 minute wait for two groups of four. The outdoor seating was unavailable as the evening was getting cool; too bad as the view was stellar. But the red rocks were still center stage through the glass wall. The service was great and the food was excellent. A great feast following a fine day on the links. Since I was not drinking at dinner, I drive home. Rich and I carried on dialog covering beer, food, golf, Cleveland sports…just anything to make sure we stayed awake. But it was a fun drive and we were home about 9:20. Can’t wait to get back to Sedona…
Sunday 3/16/14; Last Round – Last full day of the trip and we have an early tee-time. Fortunately we do not have far to drive as we are playing in Buckeye at Sundance. Another beautiful day is in store; this has been nearly a perfect week is terms of weather. Once we got checked in we determined the pairings for the morning. Swan and I rode together and played along with Nak and Phu in the lead-off group.
This is another fun course and we once again exercised the “tee it forward” plan playing from the combo tees at just over 6100 yards. Like Palm Valley, none of us remember the layout of the entire course, but once on the tee of each hole we have that ah-ha moment, which is good as course knowledge is important at Sundance. The course is fairly level, but has some roll to it. It is also pretty forgiving off the tee in terms of the width of the fairways, which is good as once you get into the desert there is a high likelihood that the ball will find a shrub of some sort. What you do have to watch for off the tee are the lateral swathes of desert that bisect the fairways on several holes. You either have to lay-up or play to one-side of the fairway where these desert excursions cut diagonally across the fairway.The course was in great shape. The tees were not tore-up, the fairways were lush and the greens were rolling well. More importantly, I played well. I shot 43-42 for an 85, which was the lowest net score in the group. One double on each side then the rest were bogies and pars, so good shooting overall all. I ended on a high note in the par-5 18th with a decent drive down the middle (not very long, however), hit a nice three-wood down the right side that came to rest on the cart path (there was some worry that it made the desert, but it stayed well in play). I reckon I had 115-ish yards to a front pin, so I put a good swing on the pitching wedge and sent it right at the flag from the right rough. The ball ended up deep on the green, so a long birdie putt that I snuggled up close for a tap-in par, but the fact that I hit the last shot of the trip solid and straight was great. Good way to end the golf for the trip.
Oh, and in addition to the great time playing, there were more birds to be seen. Added a Black-necked Stilt to my list. It seemed to me that we played at a pretty fast pace. The course was not too crowded this morning (there was a tournament that went out on the back nine, but they never impacted our pace of play). However our second group said after the round that the group behind them hit into them a couple of times; that’s never fun, and uncalled for particularly since the flow on the course was pretty darn good. Go figure. I mean, we teed-off at 7:28 and were done before 11:30, so just under 4 hours for the round; no one should complain about that. After the round, we discussed options. More golf at Sundance was out as the course was booked full for the afternoon. Rich declared that he was craving In-N-Out Burger and said that he had scoped one out back toward Goodyear. OK, fast food is not my preference, but what the heck, I’ve never had a burger from In-N-Out. So we mounted up and off we went. We brought all three vehicles this morning to give us some flexibility for the afternoon…good thing we did. So we get to the burger shop and it was PACKED. I have never seen a fast food place so crowded (review). It was not like it was the only place in the area either. There was a Taco Bell right next door and other dining options across the road. But the parking lot was completely full, there were cars circling the lot and the joint was packed. As we circled, we saw folks picnicking in the parking lot since there were no tables left inside. David and I were in his car following Rich and Haas. After one loop around the lot, we got a call from Mark from the mini-van. They had bailed and were across the street at Mimi’s Café (review). David said that was a good choice, so we bailed as well. Rich and Haas had succeeded in finding a parking slot, so Rich could satisfy his craving. But I think the rest of us got the better meal, sitting at the bar in Mimi’s. The service was great, but the kitchen was a little slow (Mimi’s was also crowded), but they brought plenty of bread before the meal and gave us a discount afterward, so that’s all good. I had a club sandwich with a side of fruit; very tasty! |
We were back at the ranch about 2:30. I walked down the street to inspect the old Ford F-100 that was parked on the road. We had been passing by it every morning and I finally took the opportunity to walk down and snap a couple photos. I could not get a great shot due to the lighting and the background “noise” but it was still a very nice old truck. The jackass hood ornament was a nice touch.
Ahhhh….shower….feels sooo goooooood….. After getting cleaned up, I worked on the 2015 houses for a while. Many of the best options were already rented or required a month-long rental. I did talk to one lady who had two houses for rent but required a Saturday-to-Saturday rental. OK, that’s an option.
We all headed over to house one for the rest of the afternoon. I finally cracked open one of the Stone IPAs that I had bought earlier in the week. The backyard area there was much larger and much nicer than what we had at house two (more room, better pool, nice furniture and a covered patio area). We did discuss the 2015 trip and agreed to go with the Saturday to Saturday plan and the dates of March 7 through 14 for the next trip. OK, now that this is settled, it is just a matter of finding houses.
We debated about dinner and finally split into two groups by house. House one wanted to go out and mentioned Filiberto’s; ixnay! That settled it for us house two guys. We just ordered pizza from Papa Johns. Do we know how to live or what!?!
Monday, 3/17/2014; Heading Home – Well we’ve reach the end of another great week in Arizona. This should be a relaxed morning, just packing, grab a little breakfast and head to the airport. The problem is we can’t drive to the airport if we don’t have keys to the Explorer. Seems that Rich cannot find the keys and he’s been looking since last night (I thought I heard him banging around downstairs as I was drifting off to sleep). He tore the house apart last night and according to Haas went into the garage 125 times looking for the keys. So there was frantic search for the keys this morning. We knew they had to be in the house since we drove the Explorer home. The only thing that Hass and I could figure was that David must have picked up Rich’s keys by mistake. As it happens, that is exactly what happened. Mystery solved.
Wheels up at 0730 as the group headed to Denny’s for our last meal together for this trip. Simple but good. Haas got his 15% AARP discount, so all’s well. We said our good-byes to David and Mark then we loaded up and headed toward the airport. We cruised through all the lines and the CLE crew ended up in the United lounge (turns out that Phuoc and Haas were both able to bring two friends into the lounge, so that worked out well).
No issues with the trip home. Soon we were back to the reality of winter. Why did we leave Phoenix? Oh, well. I guess that’s why we are already planning the return trip in 2015.
Epilogue - This was an outstanding trip. No fuss, no issues, great weather, the courses were in great shape, and the guys all had a great time. By the time we left Arizona, we already had dates locked on for the 2015 trip and I had a good start on locating houses for next year (which were reserved within a few days of getting back home). We’ll be located in Goodyear for the 2014 trip, so closer to the courses we like to play, the ball parks and more dining options. Buckeye was nice, but just too far to drive each day.
I did the audit on the scoring once I was home. I decided to calculate handicaps for everyone based solely in the Arizona trip scores and roughly based on the USGA methodology. That seemed like the fairest way to do things. So after all the pencil whipping the final tally on scores are listed below:
Ahhhh….shower….feels sooo goooooood….. After getting cleaned up, I worked on the 2015 houses for a while. Many of the best options were already rented or required a month-long rental. I did talk to one lady who had two houses for rent but required a Saturday-to-Saturday rental. OK, that’s an option.
We all headed over to house one for the rest of the afternoon. I finally cracked open one of the Stone IPAs that I had bought earlier in the week. The backyard area there was much larger and much nicer than what we had at house two (more room, better pool, nice furniture and a covered patio area). We did discuss the 2015 trip and agreed to go with the Saturday to Saturday plan and the dates of March 7 through 14 for the next trip. OK, now that this is settled, it is just a matter of finding houses.
We debated about dinner and finally split into two groups by house. House one wanted to go out and mentioned Filiberto’s; ixnay! That settled it for us house two guys. We just ordered pizza from Papa Johns. Do we know how to live or what!?!
Monday, 3/17/2014; Heading Home – Well we’ve reach the end of another great week in Arizona. This should be a relaxed morning, just packing, grab a little breakfast and head to the airport. The problem is we can’t drive to the airport if we don’t have keys to the Explorer. Seems that Rich cannot find the keys and he’s been looking since last night (I thought I heard him banging around downstairs as I was drifting off to sleep). He tore the house apart last night and according to Haas went into the garage 125 times looking for the keys. So there was frantic search for the keys this morning. We knew they had to be in the house since we drove the Explorer home. The only thing that Hass and I could figure was that David must have picked up Rich’s keys by mistake. As it happens, that is exactly what happened. Mystery solved.
Wheels up at 0730 as the group headed to Denny’s for our last meal together for this trip. Simple but good. Haas got his 15% AARP discount, so all’s well. We said our good-byes to David and Mark then we loaded up and headed toward the airport. We cruised through all the lines and the CLE crew ended up in the United lounge (turns out that Phuoc and Haas were both able to bring two friends into the lounge, so that worked out well).
No issues with the trip home. Soon we were back to the reality of winter. Why did we leave Phoenix? Oh, well. I guess that’s why we are already planning the return trip in 2015.
Epilogue - This was an outstanding trip. No fuss, no issues, great weather, the courses were in great shape, and the guys all had a great time. By the time we left Arizona, we already had dates locked on for the 2015 trip and I had a good start on locating houses for next year (which were reserved within a few days of getting back home). We’ll be located in Goodyear for the 2014 trip, so closer to the courses we like to play, the ball parks and more dining options. Buckeye was nice, but just too far to drive each day.
I did the audit on the scoring once I was home. I decided to calculate handicaps for everyone based solely in the Arizona trip scores and roughly based on the USGA methodology. That seemed like the fairest way to do things. So after all the pencil whipping the final tally on scores are listed below:
Looks like Mark is the sand-bagger of the year, I mean, low-net
champ for 2015. Seriously, Mark had the
most consistent set of scores for the week, which is what it takes to win the
low-net, so a job well done.
Swan jumped out to an early lead on birdies, but Nak came on strong at the end and those two tied with a total of eight birds each. Haas had seven to win Miss Congeniality.
I included a sampling of the photos I took during the trip in this journal, but there were a few more. Here’s the link to the entire photo collection. There are also more details on some of the golf courses an our dining options in the reviews.
Swan jumped out to an early lead on birdies, but Nak came on strong at the end and those two tied with a total of eight birds each. Haas had seven to win Miss Congeniality.
I included a sampling of the photos I took during the trip in this journal, but there were a few more. Here’s the link to the entire photo collection. There are also more details on some of the golf courses an our dining options in the reviews.
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