On Course: Arizona tees

SCOTTSDALE, AZ

Jay Morrish and Tom Weiskopf formed one of the most prolific design tandems in golf, creating some 17 golf courses from 1986-94. Their first year together they produced a number of award-winning courses that were stunningly attractive without sacrificing playability.

Fortunately for the PGA TOUR, among their early collaborations was a project for the Tournament Players Club Network, the TPC of Scottsdale, which happens to exhibit the characteristics that come to epitomize the pair's best work.

Set in the Sonoran Desert and surrounded by the majestic McDowell Mountains, this Tournament Players Club features two 18-hole golf courses. The featured layout is the Stadium Course, and like the original Stadium Course at the TPC at Sawgrass, the Scottsdale edition was designed to host a PGA TOUR event and cater to resort clientele. It is straight forward and maintainable, which Morrish favors, yet it has in it the straightforward shot values that Weiskopf, a former British Open champion and 15-time winner on the PGA TOUR, insists upon.

An honest golf course replete with spectator mounding - a necessity when some half-million people visit for a week to watch the Phoenix Open - the Stadium Course at the TPC of Scottsdale possesses the natural flavor of the desert that lends to its beauty. Saguaro cacti and mesquite trees dot the landscape, and one of the largest Palo Verdes trees in the state, measuring 42 feet, a dozen feet higher than normal, resides at the pleasing 15th hole. The Stadium Course, again like its predecessor, also radiates a contrived countenance (it began as a pancake-flat parcel) that lends to its challenge and six water hazards, which, of course, you just don't find in arid climates.

While the accompanying Desert Course, par-70, is a short, relatively flat, target-laden layout, the par-71 Stadium Course is spacious, with 28 acres of fairways, and long at 7,089 yards from the championship tees, though carries over the desert scrub are minimal. The greens are moderately large and most sit in an amphitheater setting, but their tiers and curves will not reward mediocre approach shots.

Contributing to the course's difficulty are the numerous mounds and bunkers, 72 of the latter, which, in conjunction with the desert areas, create a course of significant strategic difficulty.

Not that Mark Calcavecchia would agree.

With a view of famed Pinnacle Peak in the distance to the north, Calcavecchia climbed his own mountain in winning the 2001 Phoenix Open with a 28-under-par 256 total, breaking the 72-hole scoring record held for 46 years by Mike Souchak. Calcavecchia also set a record for most birdies in 72 holes, with 32 over four days, to win by eight shots over Rocco Mediate.

If anyone has intentions of scoring anywhere near the proficiency of Calcavecchia, it has to be accomplished on the easier (and more scenic) back nine. The finishing stretch, beginning at the scenic par-5 15th is particularly noteworthy for its attractiveness in terms of both golf and aesthetics.

The 15th, a par-5 of 501 yards, features an island green and presents an heroic design feature for those who find the fairway, since the temptation to reach the green in two shots will be strong. The par-3 16th hole garnered fame when Tiger Woods aced it during the 1997 Phoenix Open.

The 17th is a renowned and respected short par-4. Phoenix Magazine selected it for inclusion in its collection of "The Best 18 holes to play in Arizona." Just 332 yards, the hole can be driven from the tee, but danger lurks with water and sand. At the 2001 Phoenix Open, Andrew Magee took the perilous bunkers and water out of play--and used a bit of luck--as he drove the green to record the only par-4 double eagle in the history of the PGA TOUR. His tee shot deflected off of Tom Byrum's putter and rolled about 8 feet directly into the hole as Byrum was squatting down to look over his putt.

The 18th hole, 438 yards, par 4, is perhaps the most dramatic hole with a large lake along the left and sand on the right. The second shot into the green is no less demanding, with a deep bunker to the right and a slope protecting the left side and front.

Golf Digest ranked TPC of Scottsdale in the "Top 25 Best Courses in Arizona." Conde Nast Magazine named TPC of Scottsdale as one of the "Top 100 Golf Resorts in the World" over the past 10-year period. Golfer Magazine ranked TPC of Scottsdale in the "Top 100 Golf Resorts in the World."

The Stadium Course, which offers instruction from Nicklaus-Flick Golf Schools, was renovated in 1997, and the greens were rebuilt and resurfaced with tift dwarf bermudagrass. It hosts some 49,000 rounds per year.

Like most TPC courses, it has certification in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program.