As I mentioned on my kirstenmortensen.com blog, I had the great pleasure of a short golf trip to Arizona earlier this month. I posted some trip pics there. Now for some pics of the courses we played

First up: Dove Valley Ranch in Cave Creek, a Robert Trent Jones II-designed course. We played this the day we flew in — drove from the airport, quick pit stop at The Boulders to check in, then straight to the course. Changed from our New York State duds into warm weather clothes right in the course parking lot — no time to waste, we wanted to squeeze in our first 18 holes before dark!

It was the warmest day of our trip, mid 70s — what a change from home. The sun felt fantastic, and I loved the desert views.

Here’s another hole a little later in the round (sorry, didn’t keep track of which hole is which!):

The back nine of the course is the most interesting. It winds along Willow Wash, so you’re crossing through a lot of Arizona-style waste areas. Balls don’t get lost as easily as in the east, because a lot of the ground is bare — but beware the flora, it’s got thorns galore!

Saw our first jackrabbit — this will give you an idea of what the waste areas are like:

I’d have to say, the sunshine was probably the highlight of this round — that, and just being out on a course again. Of course, there was also this sweet tap-in birdie on number 12. My partner had a great up and down on that hole too too! We both shot very respectable rounds, in fact

Next up: Longbow Golf Club . . .

Posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 at 1:54 pm, filed under Courses I've played, and tagged: Arizona golf courses, Dove Valley Ranch. RSS 2.0 Subscribe. Reply, or trackback.