Club pros pick a jewel for their big event

By Rebecca Larsen, Contributor

PHOENIX - For the past several years, fabulous new golf courses have been built on Native American lands throughout the Southwest, and now the national spotlight is going to fall on one of the newest - The Twin Warriors Golf Club on the Santa Ana Pueblo, about 25 minutes north of Albuquerque (N.M.) International Airport.

That's because the 36th PGA Club Professional Championship will be held June 19-22 at Twin Warriors and aired on the Golf Channel for four days from 1:30 to 4 p.m. (PDT). Some 157 club pros are signed up to play in the event; the top 70 will make the cut for the weekend; and then the top 25 finishers get to go to the PGA Championship, last major of the season.

This 7,500-plus yard course was designed by a prominent Scottsdale architect Gary Panks, architect for such high-profile Arizona courses as the Talon course at Grayhawk in Scottsdale; the Raven at South Mountain in Phoenix; and the Devil's Claw and Cattail courses at Whirlwind Golf Club on the Gila River Reservation south of Phoenix.

The course, which opened in 2001 runs through a series of ridges on the reservation, on high-desert terrain covered with junipers and pinon pines. It has views of the Rio Grande Valley and Sandia Mountains and like many Native American courses offers a real getaway from it all feeling.

Exposure on the Golf Channel likely will attract more players, but the course could use them. About 20,000 rounds were played at Twin Warriors in its first full year; the top number that will ever play here is 35,000.

If you'd like to go to the tournament admission is free. If you want to play at Twin Warriors, green fees run from $80 in winter months to $125 in summer at the course located near Bernalillo. Call (505) 771-6155 for tee times or information. Or check out the Web site at twinwarriorsgolf.com.

To get to the course from Albuquerque International, take Sunport Blvd. West to Interstate 25. Go North on I-25 to Exit 242 (Highway 550). Go West (left) on Highway 550 to Tamaya Blvd (about 2.5 miles). Go North (right) on Tamaya Boulevard to Tuyuna Trail and the golf course.

Any golf school bargains out there?

When the weather heats up in places like Arizona, the golf prices come down, right? So shouldn't golf schools in the sizzling desert, like Arizona and Nevada, drop their prices as well, especially when the economy is a bit soft?

We called a few schools to ask that question and found few bargains out there:

Bird Golf Schools: Jay Ewing, who heads up Bird Golf Schools located in Nevada, Colorado, California, Tennessee, Arizona and Florida, said his school doesn't cut prices in 100-plus degree towns. "Our costs remain constant, so we really can't do that," he said.

He justifies the price that can range from $1,850 to $4,195 per person on the basis that his schools give very individual attention to students. "We have no more than two people per teacher. You can't put four people in a group together," he said. "Many schools that are headed by famous professionals have students taught by assistants. Our teachers are all professional icons."

In his three- to five-day schools, students are coached six to eight hours a day and stay in resort suite-type accommodations that have a rack rate of $400 to $500 a night. In Arizona, Bird Golf holds schools at Wigwam Golf Resort and Palm Valley Golf Club, both in the West Valley. Call (877) 424-7346 or check out birdgolf.com.

Butch Harmon School of Golf: Butch Harmon representative Shawn Callahan told us that the famed Harmon does not have hot-weather bargains at his school at Rio Secco Golf Club in Las Vegas where it's been hotter than Phoenix some days this summer. "We're busy as can be and there is often a waiting list," Callahan said.

And on the Harmon Web site, butchharmon.com, an "openings" page said that if you want to book three days with Butch himself ($4,800 per person), there are "no available openings at this time."

For three days with staff professionals ($2,800 per person), you'd have to wait until Nov. 20 or Dec. 11, 2003, for an opening. For one day with Butch Harmon working on your short game ($2,500), there was indeed a day available - Oct. 10, 2003. Those prices by the way include nights at the Rio Suite Hotel Casino, computerized video analysis, on-course playing lesson at Rio Secco, lunch each school day and transportation from hotel to golf school.

We can't guarantee that those openings still exist, of course, because the site is always changing. Prospective students are allowed to add their names to waiting lists on the Web site. Or call (702) 777-2444 for information.

John Jacobs' Golf Schools: One bargain option was John Jacobs who holds Summer Sizzler sessions in Arizona at Painted Mountain Golf Club in Mesa, San Ignacio Golf Club in Green Valley and at Stallion Mountain Country Club in Las Vegas. There are no end of options with Jacobs for the kind of package you want to set up, depending on how long you want to go to school and where you want to stay. So comparing winter and summer prices is a bit like comparing golf balls to baseballs.

At Painted Mountain, for example, you could get a two-day weekend school during the high season (Jan. 3-April 27) for $595 per person including hotel. During June, July and August, you can get a three-day weekend school for almost the same price - $645 per person including hotel.

In Las Vegas, you pay $895 per person for a three-day school from Jan. 26-May 29 while June-August, it costs $625.

Check out jacobsgolf.com or call (800) 511-1639.

How low can those green fees go?

Every course in the Valley of the Sun slashes green fees in the summer and here are some of the specials we spotted:

At one of Scottsdale's premier monuments to golf, Grayhawk Golf Club, you can play either the Talon or the Raptor any day of the week for $75 before 9:30 a.m. and $50 after 9:30 through Sept. 8. The wintertime green fee was $225. Check out grayhawk.com or call (480) 502-3128.

Dove Valley Ranch in Cave Creek, north of Scottsdale, where temps run a few degrees cooler, has green fees of $45 Monday through Thursday and $55 Friday through Sunday. If you can wait to go out in the peak heat of the day - after 2 p.m. - you only have to pay $30. This sleek course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. Call (480) 488-0009 for tee times.

For the very value conscious player, at Johnson Ranch Golf Club in Queen Creek in the Southeast Valley, rates drop on July 1 to $15 plus tax per person, including cart, Monday through Friday and after 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Winter weekend rates ran as high as $90. Web site: johnsonranchgolfclub.com. Call (480) 987-9800.

We were also pretty astonished to see an ad in the local newspaper recently for FREE GREEN FEES at the recently opened Sundance Golf Club in Buckeye, west of Phoenix. Of course, you had to have the ad coupon and had to pay a cart fee of $13, including tax. However, minus the coupon, you can play for $22 from 6 to 8 a.m., $20 from 8 to 11 a.m. and $17 after 11 any day of the week. These fees include cart. Winter rates at Sundance, designed by Greg Nash, are $35 weekdays and $45 on weekends. Call (623) 328-0400.

And yes, the TPC Stadium and Desert courses in Scottsdale once again will offer their ever-popular special: A chance to play the courses back to back - starting with the Desert - plus lunch for only $80 plus tax. The rate starts June 15 and can be used Sunday through Thursday subject to availability. Call (480) 585-3939 seven days in advance.

New baseball owner likes golf courses, too

Six months ago, Phoenix millionaire Arturo Moreno and a group of investors bought the financially troubled Thunderbirds Golf Club in Phoenix for $4.8 million. The club was later renamed Vistal Golf Club.

Now Moreno, who made his millions in a billboard advertising firm that was later sold to Infinity/CBS, has taken an even more expensive step into the sports world by buying the Anaheim Angels for $184 million last month.

June 2, 2003