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Ritz-Carlton ,Dove mountain Az |
| Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort at By Oliver McCann “If you’re blue and you don’t know where to go to Why don’t you go where fashion sits Puttin’ on the Ritz” So sang Fred Astaire in the film Blue Skies. The song Puttin’on the Ritz, written by Irving Berlin in the 1920’s referred to the famous Ritz hotels founded in The Ritz in Nothing has changed in the meantime it seems, and The Ritz continues to attract the discriminating traveller more than a century later. The Today, the name continues to conjure up images of unimagined luxury on a grand scale. And so it is with the Ritz - Using the spectacular backdrop of the Add to this heady cocktail a championship golf course that is right out of the top drawer, and you have the ingredients of a world class resort. The location, in the canyons of Much much later in 1926, the area was rediscovered by a Fast forward sixty years and enter resort developer David Mehl. He acquired the land from What changed his mind? Perhaps the success of other projects he undertook, such as the hugely successful Westin La Paloma resort in Hotel The 250 room Ritz-Carlton hotel is beautifully designed to fit into the natural landscape of Indeed, according to Director of Sales and Marketing Stephen Deucker, the precise location of the hotel had to be moved some 20 yards to avoid moving, a giant 30 foot saguaro. Such giant cacti are protected by law in the State of The saguaro now holds pride of place just outside the Ignite lounge and Bar which by the way stocks 175 brands of whiskey –at last count! So, while sampling the whiskey, beware of the cactus! Beautiful as it may be during the day, the experience gets even better at night. Under a full moon or with the night sky coming alive with zillions of stars, the stillness of the night is broken occasionally by the cry of a prowling coyote. This is an awesome experience and one to savour. Nowhere in the While it may be barely visible on the local landscape, the Ritz –Carlton Resort which opened its doors in December 2009 stepped further into the world spotlight in February this year when the top 64 golfers in the world arrived to contest the WGC Accenture World Match Play on its championship golf course. Resort facilities · 250 lavish guest rooms including 24 individual casitas.(Mexican style cottages) · The Ritz-Carlton Club Level and suites offering views of the expansive desert vistas and the golf course. · There are four restaurants from gourmet to casual poolside grill, including al fresco dining to enjoy desert vistas and sunny all year round weather. The sun shines here 365 days of the year – 366 this year! · Outdoor swimming pool with a centre tanning island. · Twenty miles of hiking trails winding through the mountain terrain of the ancient Hohokam Indians. Wood burning fire pits warm the late evening and provide a unique opportunity to watch the sun set over the desert mountains. If you have never experienced this sight, it is worth the trip all on its own. · Unlimited opportunities to explore the area including jeep tours and horseback riding. · For heavenly bodies there is a stargazing programme. For the sports minded tennis, and golf, a 235 ft water slide, biking and a range of children’s programmes. · For heavenly bodies of a different kind, there’s’ the 17,000ft Spa and fitness centre featuring an array of relaxing body treatments including massage therapies, facials and salon services inspired by natural indigenous desert elements. Saunas, steam rooms, whirlpools and relaxation lounges plus a full fitness centre that includes Yoga and Pilates. So, a perfect venue therefore, to renew mind and body. Ritz-Carlton Golf Club. For the golfer, this is where it all begins. Just couple of hundred yards down the canyon from the hotel is the Ritz –Carlton Golf Club. It is hard to put into words just how spectacular this golf course is. Set in a canyon among thousands of saguaro, and high desert rock, its setting is unique. The rolling lush fairways and greens in stark contrast to the high Sonoran desert. It is indeed a sight to behold. After more that three years in the making, it opened for play in January 2009, just in time to host the Accenture World Match play Tournament. And what drama that event conjured up with the last minute comeback of Tiger Woods from knee surgery. Obviously still a bit rusty he succumbed to A Jack Nicklaus Signature Design, the course was fashioned to test the top golfers in the world, yet it has a Tee strategy that allows the average handicap player to compete on equal terms. “It is a very playable course for any golfer once you pick the right tees” says Head Golf Pro Jeff McCormick. “On the Tournament course we have five sets of tees, one of which will suit every golfer”. From the back tees the course measures 7,900 yards making it the longest on the PGA Tour. From the ladies tees it measures just over 5000yards. “In between, there are three other sets of tees which we believe will cater for golfers of all standards” he continued. What a great way to give the club golfer an opportunity to enjoy a championship course played by the top professionals, and on their own level. That Jack Nicklaus was enthralled by the terrain that lay in front of him is reflected in the number of visits he made to the course and the amount of time he spent there. His strategy was playability and his way to achieve this was to design a course that challenged the good golfer but played fair with the average player as well. Water is not a strong feature of the design, coming into play on just two holes. A number of holes however do have what I would call a dry gulch feature. These are essentially dried up rivers which come into their own during the monsoon season in July and August and are quite common in desert golf courses. These areas tend to have the most vegetation and are places you do not want to be. One of the more interesting features is in the design and bunkering of the greens. Nicklaus strategy here was to make it easier to get on the greens, and once on, to present a new challenge to the golfer. The greens are not heavily bunkered but rather in a strategic way, thus allowing a variety of ways to play approach shots. It is possible for the golfer to bump and run shots, much like on the great links courses of While getting on greens in regulation will not be the main problem for golfers at the Ritz-Carlton, putts in regulation might be the issue. The greens are enormous and have a range of contours and undulations that will certainly test your ability with the short stick. A good example of the effect these can have was provided in the Accenture last year in the match between Kevin Sutherland and Geoff Ogilvy. All square in their first round match after 18 holes they arrived at the 19th green in a sudden death play off. Sutherland was comfortably on the green in two albeit about 40 ft away. Ogilvy was in the greenside bunker and exploded to 4 feet. Sutherland had a putting line that resembled a roller coaster ride. The ball caught one of the contours and just kept on going ending up15 feet past the cup. He missed the one back and Ogilvy holed his, and went on to win the Tournament. On such matters championships can turn. What Jeff McCormack describes as “the most memorable moment in my life” was when Jack and his son Jackie played the course while explaining to an enthralled local gallery his philosophy and strategy on each hole as he played it. What an insight into the thinking of the great man this must have provided, and one which thousands of Tour players would love to have shared with him during his playing career. It calls to mind the comment of golfer Tom Weiskopf watching Nicklaus on the 16th tee at Of course there are the traditional Nicklaus design features. Generous fairways, but the further you drive the ball the less generous they get. Hidden and not so hidden fairway bunkers, it is difficult even in the As you can guess, the par fives are long. The shortest at 574 yards and the longest, the 11th, measuring a whopping 659 yards. Nicklaus spent a lot of time on the design and build phase of the golf course construction, perhaps mindful that the end result would come under close and instant examination from his peers- the top 64 golfers in the world. And, as a rule, professional golfers are not known for their reticence when it comes to offering their opinions on all matters relating to their playing pitch. And they did not disappoint. Any par 5 that does not favour getting it there in two shots often draws the wrath of the players. And so it proved. The location of some fairway pot bunkers, just short of the green on a couple of par fives, provoked a heart rending cry from the Tour pros. They also felt a little uncomfortable with contours on some of greens. Jack Nicklaus was not too impressed with their plight. In responding, he gave an interesting insight into his design strategy. Jack’s design thoughts. So,following the 2009 Accenture event, Jack came back to Jack: “This golf course has turned out spectacular; it has got great visual excitement. I think it tells you what to do off the tee. And it tells you how to approach a green visually. The greens have a lot in them and the reason is that as far as these guys hit the golf ball today, your only defence of a golf course any more is its greens”. He continued “we could have gone out and created the same old thing, but instead we created something special here, a golf course for a match play Tournament and for club golfers. We tried to make it a bit more difficult to get to the cupping areas on the greens for the Tournament, but also allowed easier pin positions for regular club play. On one of the greens, the Tour asked if we could broaden a little bump area a little bit here, because the guys couldn’t stop a 280 yard 3-wood on a one-degree slope. I said, please, give me a break” “Basically golf was never meant to be a fair game, and it certainly isn’t. You are going to get bad breaks and good breaks. Part of doing a golf course is that you are going to get some bounces that are not perfect. There are going to be pin placements that you can’t just throw anything you want at it every time. On the par five bunkering,” Certain holes are designed as three shotters; I design a three shot par five so that the player would be forced to play the strategy. He has to make up his mind whether to take on the bunkers and possibly make a two shot hole out of it given favourable conditions, or lay up and have a 100 yard wedge shot playing the strategy. You might have to end up actually having to think a little bit to play these shots” “To me I always felt that the game of golf, sure it’s physical- it’s hitting the golf ball- but there’s also a big mental part of the game and a big thinking part of the game. And I promise you, I don’t want anybody playing my golf courses if they don’t want to think” He continued “To me, thinking is part of the game and being able to play intelligent. If the wind is blowing and you’ve got high dry sky and the shot is going to get away from you, you can’t throw the ball at the pin. You should play the ball to the conservative side of it”. About the modern game;” There’s no relationship to how far they hit the ball and where the club player hits it. When I was playing, I used to be able to make a good game with a club champion. I’d come to a golf course and we would go play it off the back tees and I might hit it 20 yards further, but he knew the golf course and we would have a good game. I’ve played lots of exhibitions where I was beaten by the club champion. Today could you imagine a club player coming out here and playing Tiger or Ogilvy off the back tees and see what kind of game they make? You don’t make a game of it”. On greens speed “You try to design a green for its maximum tournament speed, in this case 11and a half or 12.I think is plenty fast enough. You can then adjust for conditions and for Tournament play. So we try to design for tournament speed and then anything less than that makes it easier for the club membership. That’s what I try to do” So, a barely concealed distaste for indulging the whims of the Tour players and a more sympathetic ear for the club golfer. The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club comes with 27 holes. Three nines named appropriately Tortolita, Saguaro and Wild Burro. The match play Championship course is the par 72 Saguaro/Tortolita combination measuring 7900 yards. Enjoy it if you get the chance, there’s a lot going on out there. Ritz The Clubhouse itself comprises 50,000 sq feet of comfort facilities with full service guest locker room and pro shop. An interesting feature here is that the lockers bear the names of the world’s top sixty four golfers. So if you want to see what is in Tiger’s locker, just ask for the key! On second thoughts perhaps not. Close by is a 12 acre practice facility with multiple full swing and short-game locations and several practice putting greens. Both cart and caddie facilities are available from the Pro shop. Cayton’s, the Clubhouse signature restaurant and bar offers American cuisine with a Southwestern flair and lots of cold beers! While the golf courses eventually will be accessible only by resident members and resort guests of The Ritz-Carlton, Factsheet: The 6501 Boulder Bridge Pass. Marana As 85658 Tel: 520-572-3500 Fax: 520-572-3501 www.ritzcarlton.com/dovemountain Course: Par 72 Length: Yardages from 7900-5283 Grass: Greens-Bent grass Fairways, tees, rough-Bermuda Head PGA Pro Jeff McCormick Caddie services available 2010 WGC Acenture Matchplay Championship So what drama will play out at the 2010 event (February 17-21) It will be interesting to see if golf’s latest pin up boy Rory Mc Ilroy can go one better this year .He only just lost out to Geoff Ogilvy in the quarterfinal last year on the 17th hole. Ogilvy had to play at the top of his game to win, sinking unbelievable putts in the process. Now that Rory has joined the PGA Tour he will play a lot more in the So, lots to look forward to at Ends: |