The Saguaro course at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club is one of the newer golf courses in Scottsdale’s golf resort corridor, and it is already trying to set itself apart from the pack with its Speed Carts.

That’s right, this Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design is made for walking, and these remote-controlled carts takes the concept of the Old School pull carts to the next level. They’re like a Segway for your golf clubs.

Gimmicks aside, the Saguaro is a stern test in Arizona golf, a course where you need to commit to each shot you hit. There are holes, like No. 6, when you are shooting directly uphill. There are holes, like No. 16, that hug the desert on every turn. There are holes, like No. 14, that literally have a split personality: In this case, a fairway split in two by huge cacti, giving golfers perhaps the most obviously risk-reward shot on the golf course.

Saguaro’s greens are excellently maintained, as is the rest of the course. It’s sometimes hard to remember you’re in the middle of the desert.

The Cholla course is the original course at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club near Scottsdale, designed by Scott Miller. Like its newer sister course, the Seguaro, the Cholla is routed through unspoiled Sonoran desert, full or wash, cacti, ironweed and natural boulders.

There are no houses to spoil the round of golf here (and no out-of-bounds stakes, either).

It is perhaps a more demanding golf course than the Seguaro, with the desert coming more into play on holes, which feature several intimidating forced carries.

No. 8, a 587-yard par-5, is a downhill dogleg that runs along a box canyon. Your approach must carry an arroyo waste area to a pint-size putting surface. The par-3s at Cholla are definite challenges: playing at 178-, 207-, 220- and 177-yards, respectively. The 345-yard, par-4 15th requires an accurate tee shot; anything short and left will be swallowed by the course’s largest arroyo canyon. No. 18 might be the course’s hardest, if it’s playing into the wind. This 432-yard par 4 is all downhill to a split fairway that is fronted by an arroyo forced carry and two huge traps. Then there’s the approach, carrying water.