Under the Tucson Sun

6 Sonoran Desert courses that will blow you away

Chris Duthie | Photos © By Chris Duthie

Golf may have originated by the sea, yet few will dispute the game’s inherent splendor went up several notches when it ventured inland to Arizona’s Tucson Basin. With this week’s Accenture Match Play Championship coming to Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain, this surreal landscape of awe-inspiring Sonoran Desert will again enter the spotlight.

In addition to Dove Mountain, there’s no shortage of daily-fee offerings. Here are six “must plays”.

VENTANA CANYON (Pictured Above)
Everyone has a favored golf course, and for many it’s Ventana Canyon. The two Tom Fazio-designed layouts – brilliantly routed amid a delicate desert environment – are ranked among the American Southwest’s better venues. Bridled by steep, boulder-encrusted slopes and layered with Chilean mesquite trees, ancient saguaros and emerald green fairways, the 36-hole complex is the principal amenity for two world-class resorts: The Lodge at Ventana Canyon and Lowes Ventana Canyon. Staying at either gains preferred guest playing privileges. thelodgeatventanacanyon.com or 800-828-5701; loewsventanacanyon.com or 800-234-5117

ARIZONA NATIONAL
Arizona National is Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s take-no-prisoners progeny, an upscale, 6,785-yard daily fee that winds among shadowy arroyos, natural springs, rocky outcroppings and 200-year-old saguaro cacti. The target course is rife with dramatic elevation changes and desert-squeezed approaches, with wide fairways that invite heroic gambles into free-flowing greensites. arizonanationalgolfclub.com or 520-749-4089

VISTOSO GOLF CLUB
Vistoso is an imaginative, multi-option routing that eschews penal-oriented target golf. Credit Tom Weiskopf for the inspired neo and traditional design mix, including generous bail-outs, square tee boxes, illusory bunkering and massive, multi-tiered greens. The 6,932-yard layout includes a labyrinth of rattlesnake-infested cross hazards and gaping arroyos, plus Nikon-prompting mountain views where slopes are often dusted with mid-winter snow. vistosogolf.com or 800-828-5701

THE GALLERY GOLF CLUB
The Gallery is a former private club that features two daily fee courses ranked among the state’s best: the bold John Fought/Tom Lehman-designed North Course, and the equally capricious Fought-crafted South. Routed up and over the foothills of the Tortolita Mountains, the 7,412-yard North is punctuated by a stirring uphill climb followed by a majestic panorama of high desert. The 7,315-yard tradition-based South offers elevated, Donald Ross-styled greens that encourage nerve-tickling approaches. gallerygolf.com or 520-744-2555

OMNI TUCSON NATIONAL RESORT
Aficionados of parkland golf should book a round at the 36-hole Omni Tucson National, a former, tradition-steeped stop on the PGA Tour. The original Catalina Course offers a cagey, from-the-tips challenge of 7,148 yards stiffened by eight lakes, strategic sand bunkering and hollow grass bunkers that are as ornery as a cornered coyote. Plus, Lehman’s nine-hole addition to the 6,418-yard Sonoran Course is an engaging preamble to the area’s cactus-and-sage environs. omnihotels.com or 800-843-6664

SEWAILO GOLF CLUB
Notah Begay collaborated with Ty Butler and the Pascua Yaqui Nation to create the newest reason to bring your sticks to Tucson. Sewailo, which opened at the Casino Del Sol Resort in November and tips at 7,400 yards with five sets of tees, traverses lakes and streams and the colorful native vegetation from which the course’s name derives (“Sewailo” means “flower world” in Pascua Yaqui). The University of Arizona in December named the Troon Golf-managed facility the home course for the men’s and women’s golf teams. sewailogolfclub.com or 520-838-6623.

RELATED LINKS

Discounted Arizona Golf? Click Here!

Tucson Travel Planner is a Click Away

Where’s the 2014 Accenture Match Play Championship?

Chris Duthie is a contributor to Colorado AvidGolfer, the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.