In light of the recent thread about desert golf, here's a course which merits some attention.
Has anyone played there?This Schmidt-Curley design, with some help from Fred Couples, is hosting this years AZ Open. Opened as a men only club a few years ago, it has slipped under the national radar for architecture buffs. It now has an open membership. I haven't seen a review until now and have not played there yet.
www.southerndunesgc.com Here are some excerpts from the article in today's Arizona Republic by John Davis:
Amateur won't be day at beach
Players face challenge of Dunes' sand
John Davis
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 21, 2005 12:00 AM
Golfers playing in next week's Arizona Amateur Championship will find a different and difficult challenge when the event is played for the first time at Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa.
The private club, designed by Valley architects Brian Curley and Lee Schmidt in conjunction with PGA Tour player Fred Couples, is reminiscent of Australian Sandbelt layouts, and "sand" is the prominent theme.
Southern Dunes features 80 bunkers, which isn't an unusually high number, but many of them are massive, covering a combined 12 acres of land, about quadruple the normal amount for that many bunkers.
"I think it might be the only course of its type in Arizona, so it definitely will provide a different setting than golfers are used to seeing for one of our championships," Ed Gowan, executive director of the Arizona Golf Association, said.
"It was a unique approach they took with the design, and I think they might be onto something because it works really well in the desert. It has a bigness to it like some of the old courses back in the East and Midwest that had unlimited land available when they were built."
Avoiding the endless bunkers will be difficult, and that becomes a greater challenge if the wind blows as it commonly does on the wide-open layout that is devoid of structures.
"There are no buildings around and virtually no trees, so that definitely brings the wind into play," five-time Amateur champion Ken Kellaney said. "They can stretch it out and make it play pretty long, too.
"It's always tough in the state amateur, and I'm sure this year won't be any different."
From the tips, the course can be stretched to 7,500 yards, and approach shots over bunkers to tiered, undulating greens are no bargain either.
When the Grey Goose Gateway Tour played an event at Southern Dunes this year, the average score during one round was 78. Ironically, Brian Kontak set the competitive course record of 66 the same day, so it offers birdie opportunities and fairways ample enough to satisfy long hitters.
When it opened three years ago, Southern Dunes had a male-only membership policy, but it no longer has any gender restrictions. The club has 242 members, including tour player Mark Calcavecchia, who holds the non-competitive course record of 64.