Troon North, golf trip

[Nomar]

Planning a golf trip to Scottsdale, AZ. Planning on playing 3 rounds of golf, at least one at Troon North.

Any advice on other courses ?
Places to eat ? bars ?
Best place to stay ?
Course tips ? shoot for the water tower on number 7 ?

[tuq]

If this gets moved to the Travel forum I will seriously go postal.

I will post some ideas later, I live in the area and definitely have an opinion. But it being such a popular tourist destination I'm sure you'll get plenty of good suggestions.

[offTopic]

I've mentioned bits and pieces of this trip in other threads, so I'll try and condense here.

My wife and I went to Scottsdale over Christmas last year. We played We-Ko-Pa (Cholla), Troon North (Monument), and Talking Stick (North). Since we're on 2p2, I'll also mention that I played low-stakes LHE at Fort McDowell and Casino Arizona.

After a quick jaunt to Sedona, we came back and spent a couple of days at Gold Canyon, playing one round each at Dinosaur Mountain and Sidewinder.

Rating the courses (in order of preference):

1. We-Ko-Pa - Beautiful course, and it wasn't built out. A fair amount of desert target-style golf, but there were usually ample bailout areas. Close to Fort McDowell Casino.

2. Dinosaur Mountain - Gold Canyon was 45 mins (?) east of Phoenix, and is a resort. This course was (from memory) the top-rated public course in Arizona, and was very fun to play (although it was fricken freezing the first 16 holes). More of a mountain course with lots of elevation changes.

3. Troon North - tuq said they've rerouted, so I don't know how different it is now. The course itself is very nice, again desert golf, but the reason I ranked it lower is because it's built out so much (I felt like I was always playing next to someone's back yard) and when we were there, the conditions weren't great. By far the most expensive, too, something like $215.

4. Talking Stick - Odd layout - I guess it's supposed to be links-y? Wide, wide open fairways with most greens elevated and next to no rough. The conditions were great here, but I felt like I was playing on a driving range. Close to Casino Arizona.

5. Sidewinder - The second course at Gold Canyon, it doesn't have the benefit of the best real estate (most of it takes up the low-lying areas around the resort. Don't get me wrong, it's not a dog track, but it doesn't offer the scenery of DM, and is largely quite flat.

The only restaurant of note that we went to was Don & Charlie's...they'll give you a free appetizer if you tell them this is your first time there. The food was good, not great. The baseball memorabilia all over the restaurant is pretty cool, though.

The LL action was far, far better at CA than Fort McDowell.

Who's next?

[J_V]

I'm in on this trip too. Restaurants, nightlife, and most importantly course information, weather tips etc. My tip to Nomar is to fix his duck hook and bring more Full Tilt Pro V's. Thanks for the help so far.

[tuq]

oT as usual made a good post. I'll try to expand upon it.

The renumbering thing happened last month and annoyed me. The reason is, the Monument course opened last decade to rave reviews and awards. The Pinnacle course opened earlier this decade to pretty decent accolades, but the general consensus is that the Monument is a way fairer course, whereas Pinnacle had the better views but was fairly goofy in spots.

With the renumbering they basically took two different courses and mashed them together. I can't remember which is which now, but the one on the clubhouse side of the course is probably the better of the two, because the original Monument back nine was probably the best of the four nines, and is still the back nine after the changes.

Course tips aren't necessary with yardage guides and such.

As for other courses, We-Ko-Pa is the easy pick. Either course is fine, if you want to try walking a round then try their newer course, it's slightly flatter and they will give you pretty cool motorized pull carts and the course was designed with the walker in mind, as there are grass transitions between every hole and the next tee. Set on an indian reservation, there are no homes on the course, although it is adjacent to Fort McDowell casino. This course is probably the best high-end value in Phoenix and residents with AZ drivers licenses are given pretty substantial year-round discounts.

The other courses that oT mentioned aren't Best in Show to me. Gold Canyon is stellar but is WAY out there. Fact: they used to have only 18 holes, which is now holes 9-16 and 18 of Sidewinder and holes 1-4 and 14-18 of Dinosaur Mountain, but additional land acquisition and development allowed them to add 18 more holes and blow it out to two courses, one of which is clearly preferable to the other.

Not sure what your budget is for the other rounds, and if you would like a departure from relentless desert golf. If so consider a course like Raven @ South Mountain, which is lined with pine trees, or a place like McCormick Ranch, which is a fairly challenging old school course with very mature trees and two courses with fun layouts. Or a place like Gainey Ranch, adjacent to that one with three pretty fun nines and a fairly forgiving layout.

Probably the best course that you won't play is The Boulders, a resort course with two stellar courses and unbelievable scenery. At the least you should look into it. It is a few miles up the road from Troon North.

All that said there are far more courses I would recommend avoiding because I don't see the value than ones I would suggest, so feel free to PM me with any questions you may have.

Food: in Scottsdale or nearby there is about every high-end chain restaurant imaginable and plenty of non-chains that are stellar (Mastro's, a chop house up near Troon North, is beloved by the locals). oT's take on Don & Charlie's is spot on, it's not the best but it's local flavor. There are so many places to choose from it would be impossible to recommend unless you narrowed it down.

Bars: same thing here, but one annoying thing is that in Scottsdale, where most of your time will be spent, the cops are very DUI-zealous. And they have plenty of customers, since it's the party center of the Phoenix area. Just be careful. Post what kinds of bars you're looking for and it will be easier to recommend.

Place to stay: can't really help much on this one since I live here. If you're only playing three rounds I guess your stay won't be long enough to consider renting a condo for the week or whatever. However if your golf ends up all being in the Scottsdale area then you should consider one of the many resorts in this area with a focus on the McCormick/Gainey Ranch area as it is halfway between both the bustling Downtown Scottsdale area and the newer hopping district up in the Kierland/Scottsdale Airport area, both of which have plenty of nightlife. So an example would be to stay at the Hyatt Gainey Ranch or whatever it's called (would allow you easy access to that course), or Resort Suites Scottsdale, or Camelback Inn (and access to another traditional and fairly decent course), etc. Plenty of choices.

This was no doubt way long but I'll just hit send and hope it ended up being helpful.