Grand Old Dame

I played Papago Golf Course on Labor Day. Papago is one of the great municipal courses in the United States. It was designed by William Francis (Billy) Bell, who also designed Torrey Pines in San Diego. Papago Golf Course opened in 1963. It hosted the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in 1971 and a number of Phoenix Open qualifying events. In its prime, more than 100,000 rounds were played annually. Players would get to the course at 4 a.m. or earlier to get a coveted weekend tee time. When I first moved to Phoenix in 1984 we used to play Papago frequently, but I had not played the course in 15 years. By the mid-2000s the grand old dame had lost her luster and was in a state of disrepair.

In 2008, the City of Phoenix hired the Arizona Golf Association to restore the golf course and the AGA engaged Billy Fuller for the job. Fuller was golf course superintendent at Augusta National and a member of the Cupp-Fuller Design team before forming his own golf course design company. As part of a $5.8 million restoration project, a new irrigation system was installed and the greens, fairways, bunkers and tee boxes were all re-done. Overgrown trees were removed or thinned, but the original layout was not drastically changed, except that the course was lengthened from 7,068 yards to 7,333 yards from the championship tees. The course still has beautiful views of the McDowell Buttes and downtown Phoenix. The renovated course plays to a course rating of 75.0 and a slope rating of 130 from the black (championship) tees. We played from the blue tees, which are 6,771 yards with a course rating of 72.0 and a slope rating of 125.

I played with the Gardener (he is permitted to play every other week). The staff was very gracious and the starter provided all kinds of information regarding the course. He also explained something about the golf cart beeping, stopping and going in reverse if you got too close to the greens, desert or hazards. I kind of spaced out on this part of the discussion thinking that I know how to drive a golf cart around a green. After my debacle Saturday, I was nervous about my game, but I played really well on the front 9. I had 4 pars and one double bogey and shot a 43. The Gardener also shot a 43 on the front 9. Since it was our first time playing the course in a long time, we did not remember the layout of the holes. The course is really designed for walking and it has very few paved cart paths, which is nice if you are walking, but makes it difficult if you do not know the course layout. Also, if you got within 30 feet of the desert area or any water hazard the cart started beeping and then stopped completely (interestingly, I think that you could drive over the tee box without repercussions) . The only way to then maneuver the cart was to go backward. It reminded me of the shopping carts at the grocery store where the wheels lock if someone tries to take it off the property. I am not sure why you were not able to drive in the desert areas. Most of those areas were simply dirt with a little brush. It was nice because you could generally find and hit your ball out of the desert, but if those areas were vegetated, the course could be even prettier, especially when the desert is in bloom.

When we made the turn, I had double-bogeyed No. 10 but I was one under bogey through 4 holes. I fell apart on the last 5 holes, which included a 232 yard par-3 and 416 yard and 441 yard par-4s, and shot a 48 for a score of 91! The Gardener was playing beautifully. He was driving the ball straight and hitting his irons like lasers onto the greens. He shot a 39 on the back 9 for an 82. I had two holes where I hit good drives and the ball was on the edge of the fairway blocked by a big tree. On one hole, I tried to draw a 1-hybrid around the tree and I hit it really well, but the ball clipped a different tree and bounded into the desert. On the par-3, 232 yard 17th hole my tee shot was pin high and to the left of the green. I tried to hit a flop shot over the greenside bunker and left it short in the bunker with a downhill lie and made a triple bogey.

By the middle of the back 9 I was frustrated with my golf game and really frustrated with the b[l]eeping golf cart. I had just hit a poor shot and was driving the cart toward the green and following the directional signs to the left toward the water hazard when the cart started beeping again. I was now stuck between the green on the right and the water hazard on the left and the cart was not moving at all. I was ready to drive the cart into the water but it would not go forward so I left the cart sitting there as I went to find my ball. I would have walked the final few holes but the Gardener was able to maneuver the golf cart like a rat through a maze to the next tee box. This is a case of municipal golf overkill. Instead of simple signs saying do not drive in the desert or into the water hazard (you dummy), the golf cart manufacturer designs a Machiavellian device to drive the rational and sane golfer (that may be an oxymoron) crazy.