AZ Golf Guides

NORTHERN AZ

Oakcreek Country Club

SEDONA

Oakcreek Country Club lingers in players' minds as a day spent in Sedona's worldrenowned beauty—not to mention the tranquil flow of traditional fairways lined by mature stands of pines, firs, cottonwoods, and willows. The course offers golfers the challenge of par in a pictureperfect traditional setting, where cozy ponds framed by weeping willows and cottonwood trees are rarely in play and only add to the comfort of playing golf in these famed surroundings.

Set in the timeless grandeur of Arizona's famous Red Rock Country, Oakcreek Country Club stands as a classic testament to Robert Trent Jones Sr. and his enduring contributions to golf-course architecture. Jones has been viewed as a maverick himself, but his creations have withstood nobly the test of time and ensuing trends in golfcourse design.

The idyllic golf course unfolds in the Village of Oak Creek (seven miles south of Sedona on Arizona Highway 179), playing at the very foot of the majestic sandstone buttes with close-up views of Bell and Cathedral Rocks.

Built in 1968, this calm and beguiling layout represents some of Jones' finest work from the mid-1960s. His son, Robert Trent Jones Jr., also had a hand in the project, though accounts vary as to the degree of his involvement. However, there's no doubt that the elder Jones was clearly at the helm.

Jones Sr. was a master of sublime course strategy. His philosophy held that a properly designed layout should make par a difficult objective but allow an easy bogey. He was careful to incorporate any penalizing characteristic fairly, to allow guests to walk off the 18th green with good feelings about their round, as well as about the golf course.

The Robert Trent Jones Sr. trademark design elements are all in place at this semiprivate facility, including elongated runway tee boxes, shallow-but-crafty fairway bunkering, and strategic green complexes. In fitting tribute to the architect, a recent renovation restored the fairway and greenside bunkers to the master's original specifications, recapturing the look, feel, and challenges as he intended. The updated cart paths are now concrete.

From short par 4s to long par 3s, the course presents a rhythmic mix of holes of varied difficulty. More than a few command careful placement at the doglegs and require enough club to clear bunkers and reach elevated greens.

While every hole is a gem, Numbers 4 and 5 are quintessential "golf in the Red Rocks." The 4th is a 185-yard par 3, flanked on the left by a red rock ridge that frames the massive, well-bunkered green. Number 5 is a strong and striking moderate- length 375-yard par 4. Set below a towering butte and playing uphill to an elevated, double-tiered green guarded by bunkers in front, this hole offers one of the best tests on the course.

Given its reputation and natural beauty, Oakcreek Country Club manages a low profile and enjoys a relaxed, semiprivate ambiance—even more reason to make the drive for a classic day of golf in Northern Arizona's astounding geography.

DAVID HUBBARD