Kierland Golf Club Dec 14, 2009
. This is a wonderful course centrally located in North Scottsdale AZ, with beautifully designed holes and wonderful greens. They have added a very clever feature there. One transportation option they give you, in addition to walking (and not many places allow you to walk around here) or riding a cart, is taking a segway. You have probably seen these around, maybe even tried one. You stand on it and with the shifting of your body weight you get it to move forward, backward and turn from side to side. The ones there are even set up with hardware to carry your golf bag… Pretty slick.
We started with about ½ hour of training, learning how to get on and off and steer and adjust the speed. Hills are a challenge, especially side hills, but after a few holes I was completely comfortable on it and had a blast using it on my round. Unfortunately we were still a couple weeks from not being cart path only for the season. I think this would be much more fun and practical when you can take it on the fairway. Learn more about these at www.segwayofscottsdale.com.
The practice facility is outstanding with plenty of well-marked targets and practice green that seems to run at a similar speed to the rest of the course and a good short game area, which many clubs seem to overlook.
Kierland is centrally located in north Scottsdale and has 27 holes of wonderful golf designed by Scott Miller, one of the leading golf architects here in the Phoenix valley.
The clubhouse is stunning and even has a locker room, which very few public clubs have here in the Phoenix area, so if you need a shower before you dash to the airport, you can do that here. The proshop is a work of art in itself and has won several “ top 100 golf shop” awards
We played the Acacia and Ironwood nines (there is a Mesquite too). There are more than 300 bunkers on these courses and plenty of water to make it a most picturesque golf course. One of the things that sets it apart from many golf courses here in Phoenix is that if you hit a wayward tee shot, it may end up in an adjacent fairway rather than lost in the desert. But don’t let that fool you into thinking this is easy. There is plenty of challenge around the greens and the greens are tricky to read.
We played it from 6300 yards but for the big hitters, it can be stretched to almost 7000 yards or just under 5,000 for the ladies. One nice thing, is there are only a couple of forced carries over the desert, so it’s quite friendly in that way.
If you need help with your game, Mike and Sandy LaBauve run the instruction academy here and both are top 100 instructors. I have not taken a lesson from either, but their reputations are stellar.
This course is affiliated with the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa which features 735 rooms and all of that great Westin quality.
They also feature a fore-max golf fitness program which I am hoping to try and write about in my next article
You should check the rates on the website because they vary so much, but they range from$140.00 in the fall to as high at $215 in the winter, but they do have some more affordable twilight rates as well. For more information:
http://www.kierlandgolf.com
phone 480-922-9283
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