One of the coolest things we do at La Paloma every summer is the Employee Match Play Tournament. It’s an NCAA Tournament-style bracket (minus the seedings) open to any and all Country Club employees from inside the Golf Shop and down in Player Services to the guys over in maintenance. The random draw is a lot of fun and makes what would otherwise be a pretty slow summer a little more exciting. The winner-take-all purse isn’t bad either.
Because our Bermudagrass greens were aerated earlier this month and are still in recovery, I thought it would be great to play my first round match up the road at Tucson Country Club (TCC) if for only one reason: they have bentgrass greens. If I had my choice of greens to putt on, it would have to be bentgrass, and I think better players would agree. Bentgrass is like putting on carpet. It doesn’t really matter what the rest of the course looks like, if the greens are good and smooth, you feel like you can make putts and shoot low scores.
The PGA Southern Chapter of which I am now a Member recently had a two-day Pro Series event at the Country Club, and I knew the greens were good. To get to play good bentgrass greens in the summer anywhere in Arizona no matter how fast or how slow is a real treat. To play at this private facility would mean calling in a favor.
Aside from its greens, TCC is a gem in and of itself. It was designed and built by famed golf course architect William F. Bell (who also designed Dell Urich, Forty Niner Country Club, and Rolling Hills in Tucson as well as Papago Golf Course in Phoenix, and Torrey Pines in San Diego) back in 1947. Its classic, parkland-style layout has since hosted the 1964 Western Amateur, the 1982 USGA Senior Am, and the 1992 USGA Senior Women’s Am.
The course is easily accessible from just about anywhere in town and tucked far enough off of Tanque Verde Road that you hardly know you’re playing in the middle of a city if it wasn’t for the homes surrounding it. It’s a great place to go if you’re looking to get away.
Tucson Country Club plays 7,022 yards from the back or Platinum Tees to a Par of 72 (73 for the Ladies), a course rating of 72.9, and a slope of 128. But the Platinum Tees are better known as the Updegraff Tees for the Club’s most famous Member, Dr. Ed Updegraff.
On the amateur circuit back in the day, Dr. Updegraff was a force to be reckoned with. After earning his medical degree from the University of Iowa, the man affectionately known as “Dr. Ed”, started practicing urology in Tucson because he could play golf year-round.
And play he did, winning the Western Amateurs in 1957 and 1959, the first of his “major” amateur victories, the Pacific Coast Am in 1967, and the U.S. Senior Amateur in 1981. He tied for 44th at the 1966 Masters (his best finish in six appearances at Augusta) and tied for 4th at the 1969 Tucson Open but was disqualified for failing to sign his scorecard because he got distracted signing autographs.
Updegraff also played on three winning Walker Cup teams and captained another with Curtis Strange and Craig Stadler to a 4th, was a semi-finalist at the 1963 British Amateur, and received the USGA’s Bobby Jones Award in 1999. It’s the Association’s highest honor and recognizes an individual who demonstrates the spirit, personal character, and respect for the game exhibited by Jones, winner of nine USGA Championships. When you play these tees, you feel like you’re honoring greatness. Updegraff still plays occasionally despite the fact he’s 97! Here are some of the highlights of the round:
Holes Worth Writing Home About
The preferred way to play Tucson Country Club is on foot. It’s best played while walking because it’s so flat and the holes are so close together. And while there’s the occasional penalty area or Out of Bounds stake should you get a little overly aggressive, there’s almost no trouble to worry about. You just have to be able to flight your ball down if need be. Because it isn’t overly long, the course’s only defense are its small, elevated green complexes.
My favorite hole on the front nine was the Par 4 4th hole. Measuring just 369 yards from the tips, the play here for a right-handed player is a high draw off the right edge of the left fairway bunker for a more inviting approach into a green guarded by bunkers on all four sides. This is where I dropped a 25-foot uphill birdie putt to go two-up in my match, but my lead would be short-lived.
The front nine and the back nine are nearly identical with their Par 5, Par 4, and Par 3 holes to start, but the 13th hole is where the course really starts to get fun. No. 13 is a pretty straightforward, reachable Par 5 if you’re willing to take on the water short and right of the green. During Day 1 of the Pro Series event, the guys I was playing with had the stones to hit it over that water and then watched as their shots rolled down to the right into the bowl in the middle of the green where the pin happened to be situated.
After 13, you have two short Par 4s, the 332-yard 14th followed by the 319-yard 15th. It’s a really cool stretch of holes with the Tanque Verde Creek wash to the north and mature mesquites on either side of the fairways. The 14th is my favorite. It’s a dogleg left while the 15th is a dogleg right. Thread one over the trees and over the fairway bunker on the left and you’ve got yourself a 60-70 yard wedge into the three-tiered green.
Just for fun, I had my match play opponent attempt to drive the green, and he hit it just short into the right greenside bunker. Not a bad place to be with a chance for eagle. If I designed a golf course, I would make sure that there was a driveable Par 4 somewhere on the back nine just to add a little drama.
Quiet Please…
Another nice amenity at TCC is its practice facility. There’s a large, flat Bermudagrass driving range you can see from the parking lot and next to that, a huge bentgrass putting green with several hole locations. The practice putting green overlooks a short game areas with two practice bunkers and two large, closely-mown areas from which to practice chipping, pitching, and approach shots.
I told you what a treat it was to play on really good bentgrass greens in the summer, but keeping those greens alive is a costly venture. Tucson Country Club pays to rent the giant industrial fans stationed on trailers around all of the green complexes. They’re noisy, visually unappealing, and expensive. I heard a rumor that they cost in the low six figures for the summer! That’s a pretty hefty expense for golf’s low season in Tucson.
While most of them were off during our match, they were definitely on during the Pro Series event, and we could barely hear each other when we were on the greens. If you wanted to hear birds chirping or water trickling, you can forget it! We had to play them as immovable obstructions because they were right off the fringe.
But boy are those greens good! So good, in fact, that I was shocked to learn they had been aerated with 1/2″ tines just 16 days prior to the Pro Series. You couldn’t see a single blemish, which I thought was really impressive.
About the course’s only sore spot is the sand in the bunkers. It just goes to show how spoiled we are at La Paloma. The sand at TCC is like concrete — crusty on the top from being watered in the morning and hard on the bottom. It’s like the bunkers at most of the courses throughout Tucson, but it’s also a recipe for bouncing your wedge into the back of the ball and skulling it across the green.
Fore!
The best shot of the day came at the short Par 4 14th when I asked my buddy to try and drive the green, but it came up just short. That was the leader in the clubhouse until I hit my ball into the water just off the fairway on the dogleg right Par 4 15th. Like I told you, you can find trouble if you’re looking for it.
My ball had just barely rolled in, and because of where we stood in our match, I really had no choice but to play the ball wearing my white pants and all. Off came my shoes, socks, glove, and hat. As I stepped into the penalty area to take my stance, I could see the ball oscillating at my feet. That was awkward! But because of the new Rule, I was also able to ground my sand wedge in the water just behind my ball before I attempted to splash it out.
Out came the cell phones to try and capture the moment, and I didn’t disappoint. I was able to splash the ball out in one shot without getting too wet! I lost the hole and the match as a result, but even the guys I was playing with said, “Well, now we have a story.” It wasn’t quite as slick as the shot Bill Haas pulled off to win the 2011 Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup, but it was still cool to pull it off.
While We’re Young
We were only a threesome, and we flew around the course in about three hours and 20 minutes. We groaned when we saw some Members cut in front of us at the turn, but we never saw them again. This is a common occurrence.
Not only is TCC incredibly walkable, it’s very common for Members to come out late in the afternoon to walk the back nine regardless of whether or not there’s anyone getting ready to turn off the front nine. Yet, it doesn’t really seem to be much of an issue, and the pace of play is unaffected. To play this private course with such awesome greens three times in less than two weeks was a real treat!