Sewailo Golf Club

Review & Rating of Sewailo Golf Club in Tucson Arizona

Sewailo Golf Club is a new addition to a portfolio of excellent Tucson area courses and it's a beauty and must play if you're in the area! 

Sewailo means "flower world" in the Pascua Yaqui language and the course plays through the natural desert and includes more than 30,000 plants and native flowers plus native cacti and brittle brush. Planted trees include pine, Texas mountain laurel, weeping willows, palo verde, mesquite and flowering evergreen.  In early spring the course is alive with a variety of colors from the blooming cacti, brittle brush, over 500 rose bushes, and 80 pyracanthas.  Couple all of that beauty with multiple cascading streams and creeks with four waterfalls, several ponds, and the mountains and Casino Del Sol as the background for several holes – it just doesn't get much more scenic for a desert course.

The Pascua Yaqui Tribe wanted to work within the land and honor its natural gifts and wonders in their golf course design and as such they hired fellow native American Notah Begay (a PGA Tour player, an NBC Commentator, and a noted golf course designer) and Ty Butler to create a masterpiece that some would describe as a parkland desert oasis!  And to manage the course they hired the undisputed worldwide leader in top-shelf golf experience – Troon Golf. 

Sewailo is a well manicured and groomed 18 hole 5209 to 7283 yard par 72 course that's fun, challenging, in near perfect condition, and home to an excellent layout that will test your game by throwing a lot at you – doglegs both left and right, lots of huge treacherous bunkers, ponds and creeks, forced carries, minor elevation changes, and demanding green complexes.  But Sewailo is fair and has 7 yardage options to choose from – so pick a yardage that fits your game and if you don't bite off too much you'll have a fun and very enjoyable round that you won't want to end.  It's not surprising that Sewailo was named in the Country's Top 10 Golf Courses by Golf Advisor and ranks in the 25 Best Arizona Courses by GolfWeek.

The course is home to several excellent holes each of which is a little different from all the others and here are just of few of our favorites:

• #1 gives you a little taste of what to expect during your round – a 364 yard par 4 with a sparkling pond on the left side and a natural area on the right side of a huge fairway, a creek to cross at 95 out, and a huge green (a double green big enough to have its own zip code) surrounded by four bunkers
• #3 is a beautiful and short 155 yard par 3 that's all carry over the lake to a 38 yard deep green with a huge bunker on the left and right and the Casino Del Sol Resort and rugged mountain peaks as a backdrop
• #4 is 407 yards with a wide fairway that takes a sharp dogleg left past four huge bunkers followed by an approach shot that needs to avoid a creek crossing the fairway, a pond on the right front, and two bunkers in back of the green – a great risk reward opportunity off the tee box to carry the lake and two bunkers and hit a narrow fairway for a short shot to the green
• #6 is a fun 548 par 5 with a wide landing zone and fairway that takes a sharp left and then snakes its way between five bunker leading to a green surrounded by four huge bunkers

The back nine is a couple hundred yards longer and a little tougher thanks to the bunkers, native areas, ponds, and tough approaches to challenging green complexes.  Every hole is outstanding but here are a couple that we loved:

• #10 is beautiful and challenging – a 638 yard par 5 that takes a sharp turn right around a pond and a landing zone off the tee with three bunkers waiting for your drive if it's long plus a cascading creek from the left of the green down and across the fairway to the pond and a huge 45 yard deep green with three bunkers, two of which pinch the green in the middle
• #17 is fun – a 455 yard par 4 with a mound that cuts way into the fairway forcing you to try and fly it or stay right where a creek leads from near the tee box to a huge pond that cuts into the fairway at 90 out and guards the front and right side of the green
• #18 is 390 yards that's all carry from the back two tees (a fantastic risk reward opportunity to carry more the lake to get very close to the green) over a lake stretching from the tee box to in back of the green or a straight shot from the forward tees but the lake is waiting on the right and two bunkers on the left – a beautiful waterfall is off the back of the green

When we played, the fairways at Sewailo were in perfect condition.  They range from wide open off the tee to a tad tight in other places and the rough is wide but a little dense and challenging.  Miss the fairway and the rough and you're with the cacti, desert sand, brush, and wildlife.  You won't find any homes, barking dogs, or sirens (in fact it's so quiet that you can hear the cascading waterfalls from several holes) and every hole is framed by the Resort or several rugged mountain peaks. Everything, including the desert near the fairways, is perfectly manicured and well maintained. 

The Sewailo greens range in size from 33 yards to 67 yards deep (most are huge in the 36 to 40 range) and they are a variety of shapes.  All but one of the greens are guarded by one to four treacherous bunkers and they all have some combination of slope, tiers, ridges, or valleys.  They were running at a great speed of 10 or so, were surprisingly soft for being so new, and putted very true.  Some are raised and others offer a good bump and run opportunity.  Practice putting before you head out.

The Sewailo Golf Club bunkers range from small to huge multi-fingered monsters but the good news is the sand is excellent (soft, light, and thick) and the lips are manageable.  A joy to hit from. 

Bottom line – it just doesn't get much better!  And the adjacent Casino Del Sol is a luxurious, 215-room resort with lots of restaurant choices, plenty of ways to win or lose some money, an Oasis pool, a spa, and very reasonable rates.