Construction crews have finished shaping all of the fairways and bunkers on We-Ko-Pa Golf Club’s new Saguaro (pronounced sa·hua·ro) Course, a Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design scheduled to open for daily fee play this December. Installation of the course’s irrigation system is 70 percent complete and by the end of May, hydra-sprigging will begin on the fairways and tees with 419-tif Bermuda grass and the greens with tif-dwarf grass.
Architect Bill Coore, who personally contours and finishes all 18 greens prior to sprigging, sees the course really taking shape. “The way this ground moves and flows, it felt like a golf course the first time Ben and I stepped foot on property more than a year ago,” Coore says. “Now that we’re about ready to grass the course, I think we’ve got something pretty unique for the desert. It’s not target a golf course like many courses you find in the desert, but one that will accept and require all types of shots be played. If I were asked to draw a comparison, I’d say Saguaro really has the feel of a classic, walk-able private club you’d find back east where greens are close to tees and the course just follows the natural movement of the land.”
In addition to naming the Coore and Crenshaw-designed course “Saguaro,” the Club also named their existing Scott Miller-designed course, which opened in December 2001, Cholla (pronounced choi·a).
“Ever since We-Ko-Pa opened, we’ve celebrated our pristine desert golf course and our rugged natural beauty,” says club general manager Jeff Lessig. “After mulling over literally hundreds of possible names for our two golf courses, the choices were pretty obvious in the end. The saguaro and cholla cacti that dot the terrain are part of what make We-Ko-Pa special.”
The Austin, Texas and Scottsdale-based architectural team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have been together since 1986. Their courses include Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen, Neb.; Friar’s Head in Baiting Hollow, N.Y.; The Golf Club at Cuscowilla in Eatonton, Ga.; Bandon Trails in Bandon, Ore. and Old Sandwich Golf Club in Plymouth, Mass.