Ancala Country Club

Pick the environment - A train. Cab. Elevator. Theatre. Can of sardines. Keeping that thought in mind (one of claustrophobia), I always recall golf courses that were built upon too little land, often times shoehorned into developments where the game was viewed in a secondary fashion. Long dead Turtle Creek Country Club in San Antonio was one of those. Yet Willinger's Golf Club in Minnesota and the original design of Longbow, in Mesa... these are (or were) all designs that actually make you feel pressured by a lack of space and that's simply because the designers used so little turf to play upon. Years ago, I had a chance to play a few rounds at Sahalee, outside of Seattle. This was where Colin Montgomerie said: "From above, I'm sure it looks like you can only walk single file down the fairway." While it was true as to the tightness of the course due to the trees, it was STILL playable. That CAN NOT be said about Ancala. This is quite literally Red Mountain Ranch's Soul Mate. Nut and Bolts: Website - Spool up the website and the first thing you see is a pop-up that offers the next TEN GOLF MEMBERS a $3500 discount and complimentary cart fees for the next 6 months. Click on the Learn More button and what do you get? Hmmm.... Dye-Design Golf. LOL. Uhhh, that ain't Pete, by the way. ARCIS Golf. Ooooff. Not a good gig there, either. Nate Oberhofer is the Head Golf Professional and THAT is the one HUGE positive that this membership has going for it. Driving - Pete's son Perry Dye designed this course, thus the Dye-Design moniker. For the most part, the driving is pretty tight. Looking at the yardages below, you can see that taking a 3 metal or hybrid, even a long iron on many of these tees will just make sense. Approach shots - Tees at 6800, 6250 and 6000 with slopes at 139, 133 and 130. You choice will dictate what the loft will look like for the incoming iron play. The greens are notoriously firm, so keep that in mind. Green Complexes/Surfaces - Small to very small. Most often there is open area to play the ball on the ground into the greens, but, again, the surface areas are minimal. Turf conditions on the surfaces have never been to my liking. Not sure if it is simply a cost-driven consideration or if the club wants hard, firm, fast on small, hard to hold greens. Their call, not mine. Staff and Membership - This is one of those places where the ego is allowed to run rampant. The members are terrifically proud of their course and often that mind-set is amplified by the Staff. Pride is one thing. Hubris is another. That has ALWAYS been the case with Ancala. I'm not sure if a propensity for haughtiness and arrogance is included in the membership review (and given a big green check mark), but there are a few clubs in the Valley that suffer from it. As Kurt Vonnegut would say in his book Slapstick: "Hi Ho!" Experience it once and tell me I am wrong.

Ancala is a private course that features a golf course that is incredibly tight. The tee shot is the hardest shot on each hole which gets rather repetitive. The course feels too packed together as the houses are very close to the fairways and seem like they bear down on you. A few holes on the course are simply dumb, like number four. The course plays extremely short as it is always as hard as a rock. Greens are normally decent but also rock hard so not too playable for an average player.

Private course with a great staff. I played a complimentary round and they were very accommodating. Course was in great shape (especially for the summer in Scottsdale, AZ). The course is very narrow and the greens are often protected with bunkers or have false fronts. Ancala defines Desert Golf to a tee (no pun intended). It's a challenging course but if your accurate of the tee box you will be fine. I would definitely recommend this course to a friend.