Great golf is just the beginning at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale

In this golf-given land of Arizona, there is golf and then there is great golf.

Mountain vistas and vally views are plentiful playing golf around Phoenix, but this was the first time the beautiful scenery took over my golf game. 

My husband and I were playing  with the director of golf at Desert Mountain in North Scottsdale. High in the Sonoran Desert in the Cave Creek area, is what must surely be North America’s largest private country club. It has six Jack Nicklaus-designed golf courses, six clubhouses and restaurants.  

We were  on the foothills of the Continental Mountain Range, on the Chicicahua course with elevations over 3,600 feet. You could see straight down the Phoenix valley to Old Town Scottsdale and Camelback Mountain. 

Shawn Goben warned us to mind our ball speed on the greens as it would change noticeably depending on whether we were putting “up mountain” or “down valley”.  He wasn’t kidding. It was like a giant magnet under the soft greens was controlling my ball. Four holes later, I began to figure out how much harder I had to hit uphill and how lightly I needed to tap the ball when sending it towards the city below.

But as they say here at Desert Mountain, great golf is just the beginning. Click on to see why.

Great golf is just the beginning