Muirhead's Pine Course
at McCormick an early,
satisfying look inside a
mad golf design mind

By Chris Baldwin,
Senior Writer

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (May 9, 2005) - There are toothpicks larger than that fairway. Is that a green or a thimble? Those are two thoughts that spring to mind navigating the Pine Course at McCormick Ranch Golf Club. And then you step up to the 15th tee and are rendered speechless.

Not in wonder. The hole doesn't wow as much as it hits you with the sheer audacity of it all. This 470-yard, par-4 is shaped like ... well, like a sea monkey with a large gut. As ridiculous as the description sounds, it's the only one that really fits. And you get the idea that Pine Course architect Desmond Muirhead would want it that way. It is easy to picture Muirhead, plotting out this track in the early 1970s, smiling as he imagined stodgy golf traditionalists having to use a lark of a creature traditionally ordered from the back pages of Mad magazine (almost always to disappointing results) to capture the essence of the hole.

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Muirhead wasn't known as the Mad Scientist for nothing after all.

The Pines Course at McCormick gives you a glimpse into the genesis of this maverick designer. It is something of a history lesson with perfectly manicured greens and hundreds of pine trees sticking out in the desert. Muirhead doesn't do anything too crazy at Pines - sea monkey with protruding gut aside. It was only 1971 when he designed this course and its even more traditional sister Palms Course. Muirhead wasn't going full mad wild back then.

Still there are signs of the budding tinkering experimenter. From the narrow takes on fairways to postage-stamp-size greens, you can see Muirhead beginning his run into creative (or depraved, depending on your view) golf architecture. The guy Golf World called "the most innovative golf architect of the last 100 years" has clearly put his mark here.

"It seems like this nice, little average course," said vacationing Chicago golfer Chris Price. "And then you get to a hole that makes you scratch your head and think, 'How the heck, I'm I supposed to play this thing?' "

This is the type of course that sneaks up on you. If you just drove around the Pine Course in a cart, you'd think there was nothing to it. This is not a visually intimidating course, it will not scare from the pages of a golf magazine. It takes swinging a 5-iron into some of the tight, tree-lined openings to grasp the difficulty of your situation.

Muirhead's start adds to the illusion. He gets the golfer going with three straight, short par 4s -- all less than 400 yards from the back tees. It is easy to begin on a roll at the Pine Course. In fact, if you're not feeling good about your game after this opening trio, it may be time to put away your clubs for good.

Of course, once your bravado is up, once you've made a bet you probably shouldn't have with an experienced Pine player, Muirhead starts chipping away at the veneer, little jab after little jab. A dastardly placed bunker here, a lake in the middle of the fairway there (No. 6), a fairway shaped like a sling blade, narrowing the farther up you get, ahead (No. 7). Before long you're ready to fling your clubs into the nearest man-made lake.

Not because you're playing one of your worst rounds. Because you think you should be playing so much better on this course.

It is all a matter of perception at the McCormick Pine Course. Things look so deceivingly easy, the challenge hits a golfer with the force of a pop quiz on a sunny spring fever day.

It is not the strength of the humiliation here, it is the unexpectedness of it.

"The resort guests probably prefer the Palms Course as a general rule," McCormick Golf Director Mike Lindsey said. "It plays about three shots easier and doesn't have as many hidden little tricks to learn.

"The Pine Course is a favorite of those who want a little tougher, distinctive test."

Muirhead's Pine is not one of those courses that's going to make you run through four month's budget of golf balls in four hours. Despite the narrowness of the fairways and the skimpiness of the greens, the Pine Course is fairly wide open. A golfer who misses his fairway is liable to land in a decent lie on a neighboring fairway, and getting back isn't as daunting as it sounds. The bunkers are as shallow as Tara Reid and as easy to get over. This in spite of a reported toughening, deepening bunker revamp five years ago.

Of course, that all fades away once you step up to 15.

The man-made lake's bigger than the fairway through most of this hole. It starts out with a forced carry over a small brush area or a little slab of the lake (your choice). This places you on the gut of the sea monkey. From here, the best approach is going for it, across the lake and right at the green. With the green semi-raised on a ridge and water on three sides, that's much easier said than done, however. There is also the skinniest of fairway approaches for the truly water-leery.

Of course, the land opportunity is an Muirhead illusion. It's much easier to find a splash trying to tiptoe along this peninsula than actually just going for the lake clear.

"Fifteen is my favorite," said Amanda Blumenherst, a Duke-bound top-ranked junior player whose golf game grew up at the McCormick complex. "It tests your game in a lot of different ways and the lake looks nice."

On this day, a college couple fishes off the far side of this desert illusion, looking up now and then at the golf ball plops that send their targets scattering. It is easy to forget you're in the middle of a desert city here. Muirhead makes sure you know you're playing one of his courses though.

The Verdict

The Pine Course at McCormick Ranch would be worth playing if only for the look at Muirhead's architectural evolution. This course stands on its own merits though and surpasses any history lesson. In a Scottsdale area obsessed with spectacular desert shows, Pine sticks out as an almost unique take.

Muirhead shows that target golf does not have to mean a ton of forced carries and desert brush everywhere. Just setting a traditional track up in the right way can produce a fair, tough test of shotmaking.

The service at McCormick gives the Pines another boost. This is a truly friendly place, which anyone who's spent a lot of time around golf courses knows is not nearly the case as often as it should be. The staff goes out of their way to please and even though this place is often packed, it never feels like an assembly-line setup.

This is one Scottsdale course that the locals actually play. You see tons of women and youngsters out on the course, probably because both groups are encouraged here rather than given tee-time hassles. The Pine is tough, but it's not intimidating or limiting to the shorter hitters. One of the joys here is that everyone is likely to struggle equally on their own scale.

Muirhead may have been ahead of even his own time on this one. This isn't the extraordinary course you would build a vacation around. But it is something memorable to play between the firework rounds.

Places to eat

It's short drive to Old Town Scottsdale area and many of the best restaurants in Arizona. Chef Nobuo Fukuda works wonders with his counter-side tasting menus at Sea Saw ( (480) 481-9463), producing dishes every bit the equal of New York's more famous Nobu at a third of the cost.

For a happening, mingling spot, you only have to go down the alley behind Sea Saw and open the unmarked door to the Kazimierz World Wine Bar ( (480) 946-3004). Sure, this forced, faux mysteriousness is a little cheesy, but once you get inside the comfortable place where the Phoenix area's thirty and 40-somethings relax with a selection of 1,800 wines to choose from, you'll forgive it. Make sure you try the Country Pate.

Places to stay

The Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort ( (602) 997-2626) is far enough away from the hustle and bustle to provide a relaxing getaway retreat and close enough to easily reach all the areas you want to visit. This sprawling complex includes a meandering, slow-raft-lounging pool and a putting practice course. There are a half dozen golf courses within a 10-minute drive.

The Scottsdale Resort & Conference Center ( (480) 991-9000) provides distinctive, comfortable accommodations at cheaper rates (still well over $100) than some of the surrounding resorts that aren't as nice. This is an especially good place to get a last-minute deal. Another bonus is that most of the rooms have balconies to enjoy the area's temperate winter weather.

Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management. The information in this story was accurate at the time of publication. All contact information, directions and prices should be confirmed directly with the golf course or resort before making reservations and/or travel plans.