AS DESERT MOUNTAIN CELEBRATES ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY, THE GOLF JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER
May 24, 2007
As Desert Mountain celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, the north Scottsdale golf and recreational community has never been more vibrant or more relevant to today's golfer.
With six private Jack Nicklaus Signature courses – the most anywhere in the world – all designed to offer a distinct playing experience, Desert Mountain continues to earn critical praise from the country's most respected golf critics.
Members today have the fortunate honor of not only calling one of the world's foremost golf course communities their home course but also of having five of their six courses ranked among the nation's 100 best golf experiences.
From the strong Geronimo course to the links-inspired Outlaw, golf club membership at Desert Mountain means having myriad playing choices available on a daily basis while also allowing for members to test their proficiency with every club in their bag.
Long drivers are put to the test on Geronimo, where elevated tees elongate each hole and call for bombastic opening drives. A golfer's short game comes into play on Outlaw's rolling greens and Apache's inviting approach shots. Cochise and Chiricahua offer “risk/reward” holes that challenge any player’s shot-making ability. And the
community's inaugural course, Renegade, offers dual pins placements on each green along with multiple tee combinations, allowing the golfer to set the course up to his or her own playing preferences.
With so many playing options, it's little wonder that today Desert Mountain counts some of the country's top players (the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur champion Philip Francis calls Desert Mountain home) and top executives as members.
As well as the dynamic golf experience, members enjoy other golf amenities including the annual Golf Festival where more than 90 golf equipment vendors and manufacturers display and sell the latest in equipment, apparel and accessories to members at discounted prices.
Each course at Desert Mountain also leaves a distinct impression on those who have the privilege of playing the designs, the way it was first intended by developer Lyle Anderson and Jack Nicklaus.
Back in the early 1980s when Lyle first surveyed the six ranches that would eventually become Desert Mountain, the only golf that existed was a nine-hole course designed by Roy Dye, brother of legendary golf architect Pete Dye. Realizing that the property only got better as it ascended north into the Continental Mountains, Lyle believed Desert Mountain could easily accommodate more than one world-class golf course.
Bringing in Jack, who had helped Lyle put desert golf on the map with Desert Highlands four years earlier, the two removed the Dye design and set out to create golf courses that would inspire and challenge fans of the game.
Lyle’s initial vision called for three golf courses, a plan that was revised as the popularity of both the community and the game exploded in the 1990s. Along the way, spectacular, award-winning clubhouses - six in all - were also included in the amenity package, as was a tennis complex that included grass, hard and clay surfaces and became known as the "Wimbledon of the West."
Crescent Real Estate Equities, which became Lyle’s partner in 1997, expanded the club amenities even further, pioneering the concept of having two high-quality restaurants, the Apache Steakhouse and Constantino’s, available in a private community.
Today, five themed clubhouses complement each course (Cochise and Geronimo share a spectacular 52,000-square-foot clubhouse situated between the two courses) while the Sonoran clubhouse offers fitness center and spa amenities that rival any health club or resort.
But with the game’s greatest player as course architect, golf always came first. Extra attention was given to each course, with Jack personally walking each course and creating elements distinctive to Desert Mountain, from the shared island green on Cochise to the “funneling” effect created from tee to green on Chiricahua.
Today, the community's courses are unparalleled. Golf is a game of numbers and the numbers on Desert Mountain tell the true success: 18 national golf course awards in the past three years, prompting Jack to declare, "I don't think there's a better golf complex in the world than Desert Mountain."
According to Jon Underwood, president of Desert Mountain Properties, what the community has become has surpassed even what Lyle had originally imagined. "Let's just say that the reality has exceeded the vision," Underwood said recently. "The most impressive thing about Desert Mountain is how we've been able to blend the golf courses and the clubhouses with the residential community to create a wonderful and unique lifestyle. As far as I know, there is nothing like it anywhere in the world."
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