Cimarron GC, Surprise. Greg Nash, 2003.

The most recent of four courses in Sun City Grand and generally considered the toughest. This is pretty good for retirement community golf, but that’s a low bar. As with the other Grand courses, the corridors are wide, the bunkers big and flashy (but not too deep), and there’s basically no strategic interest anywhere.

Consider, for example, the first. The hole is plenty wide—the fairway is 45 yards wide, the turfed area is 80 yards wide, and should you get really wild the corridor between the homes is 100 yards wide. It’s not a long hole—under 380 yards from the back tees, under 340 from the white—so many may not even hit driver. There’s a bunker down the left side of the fairway, but there’s no reason to be on that side of the fairway, because the green is protected by a large bunker short left and the green is shallow from the left side. A drive to the open right side is much preferred. A bad hole? Not at all. But strategic? It’s not that, either.

Arizona 9th Decile [2010]