Want to Play Where the Pros Play?

Nevada and Arizona Have the Goods

Chris Duthie

Teeing it up where the touring pros play has become an increasing popular pastime for Colorado’s avid golfers. Nowhere is this better experienced than in Nevada and Arizona, where certain premier golf courses offer explosive and memorable extensions to a waning 2014 golf season.

NEVADA

1. This week the PGA Tour returns to Sin City for its second stop of the 2014/15 season at the TPC Summerlin (pictured above). Its sister venues, the TPC Las Vegas and TPC at the Canyons, are both former hosts to PGA Tour and Champions Tour events.

Photo credit: TPC at the Canyons, © Chris Duthie

2. Also in Vegas’ picture-perfect surrounds, golfers might opt for either Spanish Trails Country Club or Las Vegas Country Club (pictured below), both of which welcomed the PGA Tour’s Las Vegas Invitational in the 1980s.

3. Fans of the Re/Max World Finals Long Driving Championships in nearby Mesquite might not know that the event’s pro-am tournament is scheduled Nov. 3-4 at Las Vegas Paiute Resort. Get your licks in quick before course designer Pete Dye considers making some major course adjustments after this long-ball spectacle.

ARIZONA

1. In January, the PGA Tour gets wild and crazy at the TPC Scottsdale, which has just completed major course and clubhouse renovations in anticipation of another extraordinarily popular Waste Management Phoenix Open. While here, play at the nearby Grayhawk Golf Club, a superbly crafted 36-hole facility that has hosted a number of high-profile events including the Frys.com Open.

2. Fans of the LPGA Tour will want to stay in Scottsdale at the sumptuous JW Marriott Desert Ridge and play the resort’s 36-hole amenity, Wildfire Golf Club, home of the JTBC Founders Cup. Also worth experiencing is historic Papago Golf Course, which in 2009 hosted the J Golf Phoenix LPGA International.

Photo credit: Wildfire Golf Club, © Chris Duthie

3. Another deep-pocket connection will be needed to play Scottsdale’s über-exclusive Desert Mountain’s Cochise Course, which regularly hosts the Champions Tour’s Charles Schwab Cup and was a longtime venue of the senior players’ major tournament, The Tradition.

Photo credit: Desert Mountain, © Chris Duthie

4. Although the event recently was relocated to San Francisco, the WGC Match Play Championship racked up a ton of great memories at the Golf Club at Dove Mountain in Marana. The 36-hole facility is made even more spectacular when combined with overnights at the five-star Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain Hotel.

5. In Tucson, world-class golf is a given. There are also three former pro tour courses in the area, including the Omni Tucson National and Starr Pass Golf Club, respective hosts of the PGA Tour’s Tucson Open, and venerable Randolph Park, once favored by the LPGA Tour.

Photo credit: Omni Tucson Natuonal, © Chris Duthie

Photo credit:Starr Pass Golf Club , © Chris Duthie

RELATED LINKS

Go For Broke in Las Vegas

Golf in Mesquite

Nevada Golf: A Heavenly Oasis

Praising Arizona Golf

Love the Dove (Dove Mountain)

Tucson: Lifestyle in Old Pueblo

Chris Duthie is a contributor to Colorado AvidGolfer, the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.