We were sitting in Starbucks in Scottsdale Arizona at 9pm with nowhere to park Dodgy.
And then a random act of kindness, one that epitomizes our year to date occurred when Tod, who was working at Starbucks, invited us to park up for the night in his driveway. Unprompted. He just saw we were looking for somewhere to stay and said come on down. Tod was a great guy who had worked in the media industry on the West Coast but shifted to Arizona to enjoy the weather here. And from our short experience it is pretty good weatherâ?¦ warm and sunny about 8-9 months of the year so they say, with a couple of months where it is just too hot, and the occasional dust storm hits. Check one out on youtube â?? a remarkable natural phenomenon.
At 520am Tod knocked on the window of Dodgy to wake us. He had cooked breakfast and we sat in his house chatting and enjoying the most amazingly fresh breakfast of eggs and fruit. Pinching ourselves at the generosity of this chap from Starbucks who did not take much to golf but was just a beautifully kind human. Â Â It is moments like these that weâ??ll look back on in years to come and say wow, how amazing is thatâ?¦
So after realizing that Arizona is not all guns and immigration problems, we took to TPC Scottsdale in the most positive frame of mind, and with a few decent hours sleep in dodgy under our belts.
Joining us for the day was kiwi pro, Steve Alker who plys his trade on the Nationwide Tour. Steve was shifting into a new place that afternoon but still snuck out for our 650am tee time to join us for 9. Which became 11 when he realized we had clear sailing and were making great time.
We started on the 10th hole at the TPC Scottsdale and the back nine here is quality tournament style stadium golf. The course is long, there is no place for 2 irons here, unless you want to have a 4 iron in for your second. And the features are large. For example the huge waste bunkers in the middle of the fairway on the par five 13th where if you take the aggressive line between it and the water you can reach the green but if you bail out left of it the fairway is much wider and the hole is unreachable.
The greens and conditioning of this track were pure. You could see how the proâ??s go around it in about 20 under over four days. Maybe more some years.
The course is famous for a few holes towards the end of the back nine. The 15th is a par five with water all down the left, and then the green sits out in the water, surrounded from all sides except the back. An island green for your approach from 250 yards is one of those challenges we strive for. I tried to crack it with my 2 iron, which was do-able but my duff 150 yards down the fairway ended up being a perfect lay-up. Youâ??ve got to have a crack but the percentage play on 15 is to lay up where any chump with a decent wedge game would make birdie. Not Jamie and I though on this occasion.
Then the 16th â?? the famous par three which is completely surrounded by grandstands which the locals fill up for the entire tournament, drink far too much and heckle the players like they are the away team at a local derby football match. This is the most electric hole in tournament golf â?? and you should watch this video of Tiger playing it a few years back. Jamie and I both hit to the fat of the land on the green from only 160 yards out. This would have been greeted with an almighty boo from the crowd and comments that cannot be repeated on this blog but would be along the lines of â??girls blouseâ??. Steve was trying to re-enact some of this atmosphere when we playedâ?¦ No actually he was a real gentleman and great company. We heard about his career playing over here and how he has tried his fortunes at the European Tour and Nationwide tour over the last few years. He also won the PGA Championship at Clearwater a few years back, which got him a bit of mileage in the Nationwide tour standings.
Before I forget â?? the 17th hole is another goodâ??ie a short par four which you just have to have a crack at. And itâ??s not too long either so a good drive should give you a decent return, unless you 3 putt for par as I learnt.
Jamie played some good golf with a few birdies and a round somewhere in the mid to late 70â??s. Not bad going considering the course had a slope rating of about 140 odd and a course rating of about 76. But I can see how the proâ??s shoot 20 under here with the greens rolling pure and conditions still. I think if we played our golf here for a couple of weeks and the Course Rating of 76, our handicap indexâ??s would quickly move to around 0 â?? so long story short itâ??s a long course with heaps of hazards but if you can give it a whack (and the fairways are wide) itâ??s great fun to score around.
After golf, we drove. And drove, and drove. In Dodgy. Please meet Dodgy by watching the video below.
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