Tuesday, March 25, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
FOUNTAIN HILLS, Ariz. -- The biggest challenge facing golfers visiting the Phoenix area is choosing which of the 70 daily-fee courses to play.
Golf course architect Keith Foster has made that task a little easier with the addition of his latest design, SunRidge Canyon Golf Club. Located east of Scottsdale, about 30 minutes from downtown Phoenix in the sleepy community of Fountain Hills, SunRidge Canyon combines the natural beauty of the Sonoran Desert with the challenge of a contemporary desert-style golf course.
Unlike some desert courses that seem to be forced into the landscape, SunRidge Canyon Golf Club fits nicely into the hillside master-planned community. And that, according to Foster, was no accident.
"Opportunities like SunRidge Canyon don't come around too often," Foster said. "The terrain there is incredibly beautiful. What I tried to do at SunRidge Canyon was to actually discover the golf course in the land -- to find the holes as they naturally exist.
"That's the way golf courses were created many, many years ago."
Open for less than two years, SunRidge Canyon actually plays like two golf courses in one: The front nine winds its way downhill into a canyon while the more difficult back nine plays uphill, climbing more than 300 feet in elevation back to the clubhouse.
The challenge of SunRidge Canyon is that the front nine can lull a golfer into a false sense of security with its relatively short holes, limited forced carries and wide fairways.
On the return trip, however, the course tightens up, plays longer because of the uphill grade and presents more forced carries over the various washes that wind through the course. With four sets of tees on each hole, however, the course can play extremely fair for golfers of all abilities.
The most dramatic hole on the back nine is the 533-yard, par-5 16th hole that climbs uphill to a partially hidden, heavily-bunkered green.
One of the more unique holes at SunRidge Canyon is the par-3 17th, which offers golfers two separate sets of tees -- and two different angles of attack. Played as a 209-yard hole, the hole is all carry over a deep ravine to a deep but narrow green. Played from the 152-yard tee, the tee shot must carry a large bunker to a wide but shallow green.
Ranked among the top 50 in Golf Magazine's "Top 100 Courses You Can Play," SunRidge Canyon features immaculate Bermuda fairways and subtly undulating Penncross bentgrass greens.
From from the tournament tees, the par-71 SunRidge Canyon plays to 6,823 yards and offers even the best golfers a stiff challenge. The back tees measure 6,403 yards; the middle tees play to 6,004 yards and the forward tees play to 5,122 yards.
As enjoyable as it is scenic, SunRidge Canyon is a high-end, daily-fee course ($125 from Dec. 20 to March 30), but the greens fees drop to a more reasonable $65 from May 27 to Aug. 29. At that price, SunRidge Canyon Golf Club is well worth the trek to remote Fountain Hills.
Chip shots ...
* UPCOMING EVENTS: The PGA Tour remains in Florida this week for the $3.5 million Players Championship at the TPC at Sawgrass. Fred Couples is the defending champion. ESPN and ABC will televise. ... The Senior PGA Tour is in San Antonio for the $800,000 Southwestern Bell Dominion at Dominion Country Club. Tom Weiskopf won last year's event. ESPN will televise. ... The LPGA Tour is in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for the $900,000 Nabisco Dinah Shore at Mission Hills Country Club. Patty Sheehan is the defending champion and ESPN2 and ABC will televise. ... The Nike Tour resumes this week with the Louisiana Open at Le Triomphe Country Club in Broussard.
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