Today the golf world lost perhaps the most famous and well known golf course architect in history, Pete Dye. Pete Dye is famous for his, shall we say, “creative” architectural ideas like the island green 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass (photo below of me teeing off about to lose 3 balls and shoot a 9), or his “volcano bunkers” at the Dye Course at French Lick Resort (other photo below of me standing atop a volcano bunker). Most famously Dye loved to use railroad ties to border terrain features and create more intimidation for the player. It worked.
Dye has produced many proteges who in their own right are very successful course architects.
I’ve had the pleasure (and pain) of playing a few Dye designs including TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, French Lick Resort’s Dye Course, and my favorite: Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic (photo below). There’s even a Dye course here in northern Utah, about 30 minutes east. That one has a hole that’s 805 yards. Driver mid-iron… Right.
It’s surely a sad day for the golf world, but the good news is these memorable courses will live on, and continue to remind us about how unique, creative, and innovative Pete Dye was.
Sad to say I never had the opportunity to meet the man. Wish I had.
RIP
As of tomorrow, I’ll be 10 months removed from shoulder surgery for a torn bicep tendon, torn rotator cuff, torn labrum and bone spur removal. I was in a sling for about six weeks following the surgery, and did rehab for about six months. During the course of my recovery I developed “frozen shoulder,” a condition where scar tissue and inflammation builds up causing extreme soreness and stiffness. That condition can take up to several years to subside.
The majority of the injury happened in the summer of 2018, but there seemed to be damage occurring in the previous year or two before that. I’d experienced shoulder pain dating back to early 2018 and through until November 2019. Having been in pain for so long, I’m happy to report that as of about 2-3 weeks ago I haven’t been noticing any. It can still be stiff if I push it working out or doing activities which stretch the limits of my arm’s mobility.
It has now been 13 months since I played golf. If I try the motions of a golf swing I can tell that I don’t have much in terms of release. Release meaning the extension of the golf swing following impact. Once my arms get about 1/3 of the way to the finish I can feel that frozen shoulder tightness. That’s not great, but a few months ago I could not have gotten to that position.
I also had a little boo boo this summer while hiking. I fell and dislocated my other shoulder. That one has a torn labrum and an indented ball, the ball part of the ball and socket. That means it will likely dislocate easier. I could have chosen surgery to fix the damage, but I’ve opted to try and build up strength first and see how that goes.
Winter is here in northern Utah, so I wouldn’t be playing any golf this time of year anyway unless I traveled south. So not a huge loss in terms of golf at this point. I’m hoping that after the 5-6 month winter my flexibility will have improved enough to start trying to make some golf swings. I doubt I could hit a ball farther than 40-50 yards at this point.
That’s all fine. I’m in full on SKI mode now. Bring on the powder. I’m working on a new site for skiing (and other mountain sports). It’s under construction, but the site “Hike.Ski” is somewhat up and running. It’s an interesting domain. Not a “dot com.” Just type in Hike.Ski into the browser URL. The full site is https://hike.ski.
I’ll report again when there are new developments on the shoulder. Thanks for your patronage.
Winter is in full swing here in northern Utah. Ski resorts are humming and there’s snow on the golf courses. Happy holidays! For those like me who may want to get out of the cold and play some golf in some warmer weather, I’ve got some suggestions for you in the Phoenix/Scottsdale Arizona area. Here’s where to play and where to stay!
Play
Here’s a short list of awesome golf courses in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area I highly recommend. Below is my top five, but there are many more great courses one can experience.
Quintero Golf Club
Quintero is a par-72 Rees Jones design roughly a 45 minute drive from Scottsdale. Rees Jones is the son of one of golf’s all-time greatest golf architects, Robert Trent Jones.
Quintero is a mountainside course featuring challenging and scenic elevation changes. Rees Jones does a great job with desert/mountain golf course terrain. The fairways are generous but strategic bunker placement puts a premium on accuracy.
Boulders Golf Resort
The Boulders Golf Resort offers fantastic golf and resort accommodations, renowned as one of the best in the U.S.A. Boulders features 36 holes of golf, the North Course and South Course.
The North Course was designed by Jay Morish and features dramatic panoramas as it winds through huge boulder formations. The South Course, also Jay Morrish, is slightly more challenging than the North. The South requires more accuracy off the tee and better course management.
We-Ko-Pa Golf Club
We-Ko-Pa Golf Club offers 36 holes of highly popular and challenging Arizona golf in the Cholla and Saguaro courses. We-Ko-Pa is located on Indian land and the natural terrain is the foreground to views of the area’s mountains in the distance. No homes on the courses.
Cholla is designed by Scott Miller and provides a tough test with narrow fairways and thick desert to eat up errant shots. The Saguaro is the newest course, designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore. “Crenshaw and Coore” are two of the top modern golf architects whose style tremendously routes their courses through natural, rugged styling. If you haven’t had a chance to play a Crenshaw/Coore course, you really should do it. They’re fantastic.
Grayhawk
Grayhawk boasts 36 holes of fantastic Arizona desert golf in the Talon and Raptor courses. The Raptor course was designed by famed golf architect Tom Fazio and features large fairways and highly undulating greens. The errant approaches at the Raptor are often met by deep bunkering. The Talon Course was designed by David Graham and Gary Pranks. The Talon is ranked as one of the “Top 100 in You Can Play U.S.” Tee shots are very challenging at the Talon, especially in the back nine which features many holes in box canyons.
Grayhawk is also known as professional golfer Phil Mickelson’s home course in Arizona.
Troon North
Troon North features two courses, the Monument course by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish, and the Pinnacle Course by Tom Weiskopf.
Below is a shot of the Pinnacle course from one of the last HOG World Tour Arizona trips.
The Monument is rated the #1 public golf course in Arizona. Both courses epitomize Arizona/desert target golf. The Pinnacle course is rated the 3rd best course in Arizona.
Stay
I recommend staying at Sanctuary at Camelback Mountain in Paradise Valley, Arizona. The resort is tremendous, featuring spacious individual accommodations, restaurants, and nearby activities including hiking, swimming, golf, tennis and more.
Above is a photo of my fantastic accommodations from the last HOG World Tour trip to Sanctuary. Winning.
Put It All Together
Scottsdale is a great golf destination, with year-round great weather and very enjoyable and interesting golf courses. Get out of the cold this winter and join your golf buddies for a fantastic golf trip to the desert. If you don’t want to go through the hassle of putting your trip together, I recommend taking advantage of one of the Scottsdale golf packages from Phoenix Scottsdale Golf. Not only will they help you put together a great golf buddy trip to Scottsdale, they’ll save you money.
I often find myself in situations in the golf world and other worlds I live in, where I need a padlock. In the golf world I’m often in golf club locker rooms where a lock would come in handy. I also find myself needing padlocks when I’m traveling. Often at high end golf resorts I need a padlock for the spa or pool area lockers, and gym lockers. My last lock was a rotary combination lock, and it actually fell apart. That’s not going to keep my stuff safe.
Unlock Via Fingerprint, Bluetooth, Morse Code!
I’m thrilled to have put a Tapplock Lite into the bag. The Tapplock Light fulfills all my padlock needs plus I’ll NEVER forget the combination or lose the key. The locking mechanism is activated by either my own fingerprints, or bluetooth from my mobile phone.
Oh, there’s another way to unlock it as well, via morse code! That’s great for people who need to unlock their lock but have had their phone stolen and all of their fingers chopped off.
I would say you can put the Tapplock Lite on your golf travel bag as well, but not when it is checked in at the airport. They’ll just cut it off. But lock the back up when it’s stored at the hotel or golf course for sure. Nice to have some extra protection. Always have protection.
Users
One nice thing about the Tapplock is it can work with multiple users. So if you want to give access to a family member or golf buddy you can. Access levels and times can be set on a per-user basis. For instance, you can grant someone temporary access between say 6-8 in the morning, when someone needs to get your gear for you.
Colors
Tapplock Lite comes in three color options: black, red, yellow (pictured).
Final Thoughts
Having a padlock that I can use without having to remember a combination or keeping a key on hand is fantastic. The $50 Tapplock Liet works great and provides terrific options for unlocking. What a cool idea. Hats off!
When I’m not golfing, I’m either skiing or hiking. I live in an awesome place (Utah) for sure. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone though. It’s getting too crowded. Since I had the shoulder surgery, I’ve been only hiking and skiing but I’m looking forward to playing golf soon.
In the hiking/skiing world I’m going to be opening a new website, similar to this one. It will be dedicated to going up and down mountains, and all that comes with it. One of the products I’ve had my eyes on in that world is Arcade Belts.
Arcade Belts are made for outdoor activities. The belts are made to stretch and move with the movements of the person wearing them. I think they’re a great crossover for golf, as we golfers end to make quite a bit of movement during the golf swing, and walking the course. I’ve been sporting these three belts which were sent in for review by Arcade. I loved the belts so much I bought two other ones.
These belts are coming in very handy at the moment. During the course of this year I’ve bumped up my physical training for the upcoming ski season, and for my general health. I was carrying some extra weight. This year I’ve dropped about 35 pounds. Wooo! The problem is that now none of my pants or shorts fit me. They all fall off. Thanks to the flexible nature of Arcade Belts, I can milk some more wear out of these pants/shorts, without sacrificing comfort.
I’ll be posting a review soon, so stay tuned. And watch out for my new site coming soon. It’s called Hike.Ski, and that’s the URL: http://www.hike.ski
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