The Kierland Westin Golf Club, kierlandresort.com
6902 E. Greenway Parkway, Scottsdale
(800) 354-5892

The Kierland Westin Golf Club is one of the newer kids on the Scottsdale golf scene. This 27 hole Scott Miller design opened in 1996 to rave reviews and was immediately nominated"Best New Public Course" by Golf Digest. It is comprised of three separate nine hole courses: Ironwood, Acacia and Mesquite which surrounds the massive (700 acre development) Westin resort complex. It is also purported to be the course most favored by Bob Uecker during spring training.

According to one of the friendly staff members in the clubhouse, the course superintendent determines the amount of play each course will get on a daily basis, so it is recommended that you call ahead if you have your heart set on a particular combination of the three.

We played the Ironwood/Mesquite 18 on a gorgeous breezy Saturday afternoon. In this configuration, the course was just over 6,300 yards. The starter was encouraging and gave us some course management tips during a brief and informative chat at the first tee. Undulating rye grass fairways threaded with copious bunkering dominate the layouts of both the Mesquite and the Ironwood. The general feel of this 18 was a sort of an interesting mash-up of the emerald greens we encountered at the Raven with sand and desert grasses of Viastal.

The contrasts of color and the geography which it is set upon has the affect of forcing your eyes on the course rather than the beauty of the surrounding mountains in the distance. Because there are only a few strategically placed trees it also has a vague feel of links golf. There are water hazards on or alongside a few of the holes, but the main threats to a lower score are the aforementioned bunkers.

Since it is a rather wide-open design, it is a welcome relief for the mid to high handicapper from the often punitive nature of Arizona golf. Errant shots are generally findable and more importantly, playable. The ample Bermuda grass greens are very fast, but rolled true, and were a great test of a players pace and ability to read them. As we were leaving the course in the last snatches of twilight, a huge mesquite bonfire glowed outside the clubhouse. All golf aside, the wafting smoke and the earlier scent of the freshly blooming lilacs at the tee box on 5 made the visit to Kierland worth the trip alone.

Tournament Players Club, tpc.com
17020 N. Hayden Rd., Scottsdale
(480) 585-4334

On the docket for the last round was one of the crown jewels of the Arizona golf experience: The Stadium Course at Tournament Players Club.

The TPC is the host course of the Professional Golf Association's raucous FBR Open which annually break its own PGA attendance record, this year admitting 538,000 plus patrons through its turnstiles. This early February tournament is always one of the most popular stops and watched on the Tour. The massive crowds get the players jazzed and there is a distinct "buzz" surrounding the play during the Open that is palpable even over the airways 2,000 miles away.

Unlike any other tourney on the Tour, the TPC has cultivated something that fans of other sports can appreciate, vocal and steady fan support.

In the days preceding our round, no opportunity to chide each other about a poor swing or unforced error was missed.

"Yeah brah, don't think that shot is gonna make it at the TPC."

"The caddies going to break a blood vessel in his face trying to hold in his laughter at the TPC."

"If you're lucky, maybe a rattlesnake will bite you so you won't have to embarrass yourself at the TPC."

All of it tipped our giddy enthusiasm about playing a round on Scottsdale's most hallowed course.

The place has almost as many accolades as attendees to its tournament. Golf Digest has listed it in it's annual "Top 10 Golf Courses in Arizona" and Golf Week has called it "One of America's Best Courses," it is recognized as an Audubon Sanctuary by the Sanctuary Society. Conde Nast has listed it among the top 50 golf destinations in the U.S. and is played regularly by more than 40 touring pros (more on that later).

Oddly enough though, its entrance is unassuming marked by small and tasteful signage, which we missed. The next 10 minutes were spent frantically driving around the edges of the course, catching glimpses here and there of the vivid greens and bumming because we were missing out on range time. This speedy searching was a mixture of anticipation/dread/impatience that every golf adventurer feels when they can't seem to find the clubhouse.

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