Tubac Golf Resort, Tubac. Red Lawrence (1959) with new holes and changes by Ken Kavanaugh (2006).

Since I played here years ago, they’ve added nine more holes (including an island green) and made other changes that I can’t comment on since I haven’t seen them in person. But whatever is left of the original Red Lawrence course was a real treat—the kind of course you have always heard good things about, but still surpasses your expectations. In particular, the old back nine, which started down by the river, then crossed it and played up on a hill for a few holes, was wonderful. (I think that’s holes 1-5 and 9 from the current Rancho Nine, plus 6-8 of the Anza nine, but it’s hard to tell how much they may have changed.

The movie “Tin Cup” did some significant filming here, and they walk right up to the line of implying that this course includes the infamous final hole from that movie. It doesn’t. (That hole was actually filmed at the par 4 fourth on the Deerwood Course at Clubs of Kingwood in Texas. In other news, I know too much golf trivia). They even have a “Tin Cup plaque” on the old 16^th hole (I believe it is now 4th on the Rancho Course), which is a hole where at some point after the movie they built a pond in front of the green to make the hole play like the one that sunk Roy McAvoy! So meta.

Not rated, since the course I played doesn’t fully exist anymore [2003]