Arizona Golfers Guide Featured Course Stories

Superstition Mountain is set to host the top juniors in the state at the Arizona Junior Boy’s and Girl’s State Championship, Presented by the Arizona Golf Association and sponsored by the Vogel Family Foundation and Southwest Section PGA. This two round event is set to be played on July 7-8, 2009 on the Nicklaus-designed Prospector Course.

The Junior State Championship is an invitational event for boys and girls ages 13-18 whom are JGAA competition members. The field is limited to only 60 boys and 30 girls whom have qualified for the event via prior finishes and local qualifying events held in June. 

The first big break for Hall of Fame golf course architect Robert Trent Jones came shortly after World War II when he teamed with the one and only Bobby Jones to create Peachtree Golf Club outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Before his death in 2000, his career culminated with the construction of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, which spans almost the entire state of Alabama.

In between, the legendary designer built about 500 golf courses in at least 40 U.S. states and nearly three dozen countries around the world. Today, his sons, Rees Jones and Robert Trent Jones Jr. carry on the family tradition of producing top-notch golf courses. The careers of Senior and his sons did overlap, but not very often.

In 1969, Junior and Senior headed west to Sedona and in the shadow of the city’s beautiful and inspiring Red Rocks they collaborated to create the breathtaking Oakcreek Country Club, one of only a handful of golf courses in the world ever designed by the father-son team. 

Memorial Day is widely considered the “unofficial” start of summer and for most golf aficionados, summer means travel. Travel to a second home or to some must-play course is a requisite.

Before you plan your next trip, allow me to introduce you to Ultimate Escapes.

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Increased exposure from both cable and network television in the form of more live hours of golf coverage has helped to raise the profile of desert golf in the past decade. Specifically, golf fans have become enamored with desert golf while watching popular events such as the FBR Open and the Accenture Match Play Championship, now both annually held in Arizona.

But before the FBR’s 16th hole became the amphitheater of professional golf, and Tiger Woods made his long-awaited return to the game just north of Tucson, Troon North Golf Club set the standard for desert golf, building a reputation as the roadmap others would follow, the blueprint by which they would build and the guiding light should they get lost. By most accounts, Troon North is the forefather of desert golf, and remains its high water mark.

Some would even argue that Troon North was a pioneer, not only for desert design and operation, but for all public and semi-private clubs that aspire to provide luxury amenities and championship-caliber golf to their customers.

The participants at the Accenture World Match Play Championships are not only battling each other, they are competing against The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain.

Currently 27 holes (The Saguaro, The Tortolita and The Wild Burro -- which is not being utilized in the 2009 WMP rotation) this Jack Nicklaus Signature Design facility presents unique challenges and distinct character, blended naturally among noble saguaros that line the local mountains. Quite simply, it is championship golf in an elegant high-desert setting.