Braving the late afternoon heat in Phoenix.

I made the 5-hour drive to Phoenix for work this week and took advantage of the late afternoon rates to play a couple of times while I was out there. Though its still early May the heat made itself known, topping 100 degrees on the days I was there. Armed with sunscreen and bug spray I couldn't resist the chance to indulge in some Arizona desert golf.

The first course I played was Quintero Golf Club in Peoria, which is a little north of Phoenix proper. This is truly one of the higher-end places to go play in the area. Being just a couple of years old, the course is isolated from the city sprawl and naturally the heat kept nearly everyone else away. I pretty much had the place to myself as far as I could tell. Even the parking lot and clubhouse was isolated, it was a 5-minute golf cart ride to get the course itself.

I took a little time to warm up and to my relief my elbow didn't give me much trouble. I started out with no real drama, going par-par-bogey but then snap-hooked a 3-wood into the desert/hazard on the fourth and ended up with a double. I managed to bounce back with a birdie on the fifth, finally making a putt of decent length to do it. I was doing fairly well off the tee, though technically I was missing most fairways by just a couple of feet. I had my share of ugly ones over the course of the afternoon but overall it wasn't too shabby.

I finished up the front nine in 39 and started the back side with a bogey, then hit what I thought was a good drive on the 11th that somehow found the fiarway trap on the left. I had a clean lie though and hit a 7-iron to about 6 feet and managed to coax that one in for birdie. On the 12th I hit a solid drive but I virtually topped the approach shot. I'm not sure what happened, it almost seemed like I flinched when I finished my backswing. Maybe it was elbow-related, maybe it wasn't. I managed to bogey the hole so no major loss there. After a par on the 13th I came to the par-5 14th, which was playing very short, under 450 yards. Naturally I hit my drive right and into the desert/hazard. I had more room right than I thought, I think a little bit in indecision got me there. I did manage to save another bogey though.

From there my putter let me down a few times. I hit three of the last four greens in regulation but 3-putted two of them and ended up with an 80 for the day. Overall I'm happy with that as it was not an easy course (69.8/132) even though it was barely over 6000 yards. However the course played longer than that since quite a few of the par-4s and par-5s played uphill while all of the par-3s were downhill, sometimes massively so. This course might have the greatest combined drop in elevation on par-3 holes of any course I've played. Lets see if I have pictures...

The 169-yard 6th, plays more like 145.

The 139-yard 9th, played about a club and a half less than that.

The 157-yard 13th played more like 145.

The 189-yard 16th had the smallest drop in elevation but it still played about a club less.

Of course, I have more pictures of some of the other holes out there. I could have taken a picture on nearly every hole if I wanted to considering the surrounding scenery.

Hmm, my memory fails me here but I think this is the opening hole.

The view from my wedge approach on the par-5 second.

From the fairway on the par-5 eighth hole.

The view from the 14th tee.

The short par-4 15th hole.

The second track I played was Lookout Mountain Golf Club, which was near the hotel I was staying at. This course wasn't as good at Quintero (and not many are going to be) but it did have its share of visual appeal. In hindsight, I'm not sure I should have played. I made it though but the back nine was a little dicey. I shot 81 but had a quadruple bogey after hitting two out of bounds on the 13th. Its was a short, simple hole that shouldn't gave anyone too much trouble but again I duck-hooked that 3-wood off the tee. Those two swings felt... odd. It was almost as if I knew I was getting worn down and I tried to help it, causing me to come right over the top I guess.

Otherwise I did manage to hit a number of really solid drives, though one of which found a pot bunker that was strategically placed in the middle of the fairway on the par-5 fifth. I tried to play out, hit the lip, then barely made it out the second time and ended up with a seven there. Despite that, I scrapped my way for a frontside 40, managing to get up and down a few times to save par.

I started the next nine with two pars and then hot what I thought was a perfect drive on the 12th. However, when I go to chase my ball I don't see it. There was a desert/waste area that crossed the fairway there that I didn't clearly see, I can only assume its in there somewhere. If I could have found it I probably could have played it but that ball was no where to be seen. After the drop I hit it on the green and saved the bogey. Still, I hit that drive really well and I just hate it when something like that happens. I had a similar situation last week also. Oh well, thats one of the drawbacks of playing new courses all the time.

As I mentioned, I had that quad on the 13th, putting me 5-over for the side at that point. I got away with a weak tee shot on the 14th, barely wedged on from there and had to make about a 7-footer to save par. I then hit what might have been the best drive I hit over the course of both days on the par-5 15th. It was a bit downwind but I crushed it, leaving me with just a 7-iron approach. I gakked that to the right though with a terrible swing but got up-and-down from the bunker for birdie. With a par-bogey-par closeout I finished with an 81, despite having a 7 and an 8 on the card. It wasn't pretty in the end, I was kinda just finding ways to get from point A to B but we managed well enough.

I didn't take as many pictures of this place, especially early, but the back nine had some fun stuff :

The look from the 7th tee, a downhill par-5

The view for the very elevated par-4 10th tee

The par-3 11th

The view from the 12th (hmm, maybe I should have aimed a little more right...)

The short par-4 14th

With the Hawaii trip only three weeks away I'm still looking for more consistency from my game. I know I'm not going to be perfect or anything but I'm still not comfortable with the irons and the putter right now. On Monday I think I'm actually going to go to the doctor and ask about getting a cortizone shot for the elbow. While its not getting worse I just don't want to have it be an issue while I'm on vacation. The weather in SoCal is actually going to help me as its pretty shitty all of the sudden so that'll curb any temptation to practice. I'll be going to Virginia this coming weekend for family reasons so that will keep the clubs out of my hands also. I might try to play the Sunday after that trip, we'll take stock in everything when the time comes.