{"id":2799,"date":"2011-03-12T10:22:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-12T17:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robertfagan.com\/?p=2799"},"modified":"2011-11-21T09:19:34","modified_gmt":"2011-11-21T16:19:34","slug":"course-review-we-ko-pa-golf-club-cholla-course-fountain-hills-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/course-reviews\/2799\/course-review-we-ko-pa-golf-club-cholla-course-fountain-hills-arizona","title":{"rendered":"Course Review: We-Ko-Pa Golf Club Cholla Course, Fountain Hills, Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The wonderful par-five 8th at We-Ko-Pa's Cholla Course<\/p><\/div>\n

The We-Ko-Pa Golf Club has two terrific courses and this review will address the older one, the Cholla Course<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

How this for a quick jump out of the box?\u00a0 Sports Illustrated<\/em> named the Scott Miller-designed Cholla Course at the We-Ko-Pa Golf Club one of the \u201cTop 10 New Golf Courses in the World” just two days after it opened.\u00a0 Often such lofty ratings are difficult to live up to.\u00a0 Well, the Cholla Course is pretty darn good and actually I consider it still among the best desert golf courses you can play in Arizona.<\/p>\n

Owned by the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, the Cholla Course opened in 2001.\u00a0 It plays in an unforced way across desert washes and atop ridges that command expansive views of the Verde and Salt River Valleys, and the Red Mountains and Superstition Mountains.\u00a0 It is this expansiveness together with Scott Miller\u2019s routing that imbues each hole with a separate naturalness that captivates me.\u00a0 Green sites are tucked into desert arroyos and hillsides that create a naturalness to the challenge.\u00a0 Here you will find no out-of-bounds stakes and nary a house in sight \u2013 a welcome change from the housing-oriented layouts that populate the Phoenix-Scottsdale area.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The 7th is one of four holes with middle-of-the-fairway obstacles.<\/p><\/div>\n

Speaking of challenge, Miller provided plenty of it on a layout measuring more than 7,200 from the tips.\u00a0 Besides the gorgeous vistas, gnarly cactus and bunkers adjoin the usual landing areas and even a few middle-of-the-fairway obstacles.\u00a0 There are several beastly holes such as the 469-yard fourth, the virtually unreachable par-five 8th<\/sup>, and the 472-yard sixteenth, but there are birdie holes as well.\u00a0 All along there is a natural simplicity to the design that tempts you to take chances, but a more conservative approach is usually recommended if you want to win your match at Cholla.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>

The 5th on the Cholla Course.<\/p><\/div>\n

Fagan Grade:\u00a0 B+<\/strong> The Cholla Course is usually ranked among the top two or three best public courses in Arizona and a Top 100 Public contender nationwide.\u00a0 I agree and highly recommend the layout. With its younger sister course, Saguaro, it combines for a most impressive offering \u2013 my favorite combo in the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The We-Ko-Pa Golf Club has two terrific courses and this review will address the older one, the Cholla Course. How… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":2800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2247,3913],"tags":[5202,5958,5959,440],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-course-reviews","category-scottsdale-cvb","tag-we-ko-pa","tag-scott-miller","tag-cholla","tag-arizona"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2011\/03\/cholla5.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6250,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions\/6250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}