Mike — 500 Club is an anomaly reserved for the bold and adventuring golf course critic. Rather home-grown. Built by Brian Witcombe, PGA (now retired) along with Indy 500 Winner, Tom Sneva. They asked us to help design and we, well, felt it "not perhaps the right fit..." I later did work for Tom Sneva on Coldwater (also Phoenix), but contracted design control. One of the great decisions on my part!! Eventually Tom dropped out and I finished that project working for Landscapes Unlimited, who came in to "buy" the project and ultimately the course itself.
The 500 Club has some interesting features, but overall it's a shame not to be better. I've not played it in years...maybe 20 by now.
Encanto is just quirky, and it's Wm P. Bell c. 1937. A flat site, but one can "see" the Bell bunkers had they ever been preserved. They were quite dramatic — his "sheet on the ground" work if I were to guess. Few photos remain, but I've seen some over the years. The City of Phoenix has systematically ruined the course over the years, taking great 'care' to erode the charm and classic nature at every turn. None of the current City managers did this — so I'm 'free' to express my views. What the former City Manager was saying, was that Encanto has the potential to be the greatest — it's just north of downtown Phoenix and represents a great pre-WWII City Park. If given the correct does of care, it would be awesome. We have created several plans over the years...all for groups looking to "right the wrongs" in similar patronage to work you've done, and of others.
Among my favorite features are the canals on the front nine. Still historic throwbacks to the days when the area was all in citrus production.