Arizona Golf Holidays

For many, many years, my Grandmother send me a subscription to Arizona Highways magazine. To this day, I’m not sure why. She was a Cherokee who grew up on a reservation in Oklahoma and who lived in Fort Collins, Colorado. But I loved the desert photos.

To this day I’ve never managed to get to Arizona—other than a quick drive-through at the Four Corners. The family did make it to New Mexico in the early 1970s, and I have very vivid memories of Navajo selling their wares off blankets in the heart of old town Sante Fe, and eating at the Pink Adobe restaurant. But I’m still in an Arizona holding pattern, after missing a good chance to go there for a cousin’s “destination wedding” a couple of years ago.

Arizona golf, however, may get me there. In the dead of a Michigan winter, a little desert warmth has a lot of attraction. The three major golfing areas in Arizona: Scottsdale, Tuscon and Phoenix offer a huge variety of courses

Scottsdale golf offers top rated courses like Troon NorthGolf Club’s Monument and Pinnacle, Grayhawk, Boulders, the Saguaro Course at We-Ko-Pa and the redesigned Champions Course at TPC Scottsdale. All are accessible.

Tuscon golf apparently offers a bit more of the natural feel, with tracks like Tom Fazio’s Ventana Canyon, Arnold Palmer’s Starrt Pass and Jack Nicklaus’ La Paloma. There also would be spas for Mrs. GolfBlogger.

Finally, Phoenix golf offers a bit more urban flavor, which would offer plenty for Mrs. GolfBlogger to do while I hack away at places like the Biltmore Adobe or the Raven at South Mountain.

I’m thinking hard on these ...