Played Mountain Shadows yesterday morning and this course was actually the reason for my trip. Course architect, Forrest Richardson, saw my blog some time back and personally invited me out to join hi... Continue »

Played Mountain Shadows yesterday morning and this course was actually the reason for my trip. Course architect, Forrest Richardson, saw my blog some time back and personally invited me out to join him for a round here. It's his home course and he redesigned it several years back, so he set up the whole thing. We had a 7:30 tee time but teed of a little later because we grabbed breakfast first at the bar and the chef showed up a bit later than normal. No worries. Fortunately we got off ahead of some slower groups on a busy day and we breezed through in around 2.5 hours walking. This is a great walking course, at least in season.

The course was in spectacular condition. The tee boxes, fairway/run-up areas and rough were all perfectly lush and basically immaculate throughout the course. They sure take nice care of this place. The greens were firm-ish, but receptive enough. A little grainy and a touch slower than you'd want them to be. They had a tough time this winter with several greens because of the colder/wetter winter, but they are working hard to get them all in great shape. I thought they were generally very good other than just being a tad slow. The bunkers were also excellent, and Forrest mentioned a unique fact that there are exactly 18 bunkers on the course (four of them are on one hole, which means several have no bunkers and most only have one or two).

As far as short courses go (Mountain Shadows is 18 holes with only par-3s), this will rank among the best I've played. The conditions were great and the scenery is fantastic at the base of Camelback Mountain. Each hole offers something different. You have some very short pitch and putt holes mixed with somewhat longer holes, so it's a pretty good mix of distances overall and there are several tees to choose from. The green complexes stand out as fun, unique and challenging with lots of slopes, shelves, dips and undulations. They were designed to be able play slopes on your tee shots and putts, allowing you to be creative and have fun. Then, there is a bonus par-2 putting hole between holes 17 and 18 (called "The Forrest Wager," that you can use as a challenge, bet or tiebreaker hole for your group). This is just a fun short course that anyone with a pulse should be able to enjoy. Admittedly, I got a unique experience playing with the architect and hearing the stories behind every hole and green, so that makes it easy to appreciate any interesting features and quirks. Forrest couldn't have been a nicer guy, as well, and the staff here is fantastic. The prices here are a bit much for a par-3 course, but everything is way too expensive in AZ this time of year and the conditions yesterday rivaled Troon North from the day before.