SunRidge Canyon - Man Up!

I am beginning to get writer's block on this blog! I can now truly appreciate the effort and work that goes into coming up with ideas and writing a blog or column every day. Although my blogging has been disappointing my golf game seems to be getting a little better. I played this weekend with Chad Feldheimer and Slim Whiskey at SunRidge Canyon Golf Club. SunRidge Canyon is located in Fountain Hills, about 35 minutes from central Phoenix. It is considered one of the more difficult public golf courses in the Valley. We picked a heck of a day to play this course. The high temperature on Sunday was 96 degrees, which was only 4 degrees below the record for that date. As you can tell by the name, SunRidge Canyon is located in a canyon and the temperature in the canyon had to be well over 100 degrees.

Notwithstanding a little whining from Slim Whiskey, we "manned up" and played from the black or championship tees. The course is only 6,823 yards from the black tees but the course rating is 72.6 and the slope rating is 142. The signature hole is the par-3 209 yard 17th hole. All three of us started off par - par and we looked like we knew what we were doing. I also parred the 3rd hole. The front 9 is 3,536 yards but many of the holes are downhill and downwind. After getting off to such a great start I was nine over par on the last 6 holes and finished with a 45. I hit the ball really well, but a small mistake on this course can lead to a double or triple bogey. If you miss the green by more than a yard or two, your ball nestles in this gnarly grass. Normally, I would putt the ball from that close, but I had to chip instead and it was very difficult to get the club to and through the ball. The greens were also very shaggy so you really had to whack the putts to get them to the hole. I never did get a good feel for the speed of the greens. I three-putted 3 of the final 6 holes and I probably lost another stroke or two chipping and pitching on the front 9.

As we made the turn, Slim Whiskey told us that the back 9 was shorter and easier. Like the dummies that we are, Chad Feldheimer and I believed him! Since we played the front 9 down from the ridge into the canyon, we now started to play our way out of the canyon. Each hole was uphill and into the wind and, after the short par-4 10th hole, long. The par-4 holes are all over 420 yards and the par-5 holes are 533 and 578 yards. I was hitting 1, 3 and 4 hybrids from the fairways, including my third shot into the par-5 holes! I do not think that I took my 5, 6 or 7 iron out of the bag the entire round. I parred two of the three par-3 holes and one of the par-4 holes on the back 9, but had a lot of double and triple bogeys and shot a 47 on the back 9 and a 92 for the round. Although I really would have liked to break 90 on this course, I was pretty pleased with my score. I hit the ball solidly all day and only had a few errant tee shots and approach shots. I lost a lot of strokes on and around the green and turned a couple of bogeys into triple bogeys by blading a chip shot or chili dipping a pitch shot or misjudging the speed of the greens.