Chosen the #1 public course in Arizona by Golfweek Magazine, the Saguaro Course was designed by renowned course architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the design team behind highly-regarded courses, including Bandon Trails in Bandon, Oregon, Sand Hills in Mullen, Nebraska, Friar’s Head in Baiting Hollow, New York, The Golf Club at Cuscowilla in Eatonton, Georgia and Barnbougle Lost Farm in Bridport, Tasmania Australia. Incorporating design elements rare to the desert golf experience, the layout promotes walking as opposed to carts and is similar to older, more traditional courses, where greens are close to tees and the course follows the natural topography of the land. Those who choose to walk the Saguaro course may take advantage of manual speed carts.
Cholla Design Philosophy
The Cholla course was designed and built in 2000 and 2001 by noted golf course architect Scott Miller who tutored for ten years as a design associate with the Jack Nicklaus Design firm before starting his own design firm in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1988.
It was Scott who selected a tract of land that is dominated by a series of natural desert washes that originate in the nearby McDowell Mountains. And it is within these washes that Scott chose to route the majority of his golf holes either “up or down” these native waterways and displayed an amazing imagination in moving some 500,000 + cubic yards of material to create the wonderful course we enjoy today.
