Talking Stick Golf Club - North Course

Review & Ratins of Talking Stick North Course in Scottsdale

Talking Stick Golf Club is home to two championship 18 hole courses – North and South.  The Golf Club is owned by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and Arnold Palmer Golf Management operates both golf courses in the true spirit of Arnold Palmer – with pride, consideration and honor.  And from our perspective they do an excellent job – the course is in near perfect condition and very well maintained.

Each of the 18s at Talking Stick has it's own personality and unique playing characteristics.  According to Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the designers, "Talking Stick Golf Club’s North Course, with its broad, angular holes, rewards thoughtful play through the rise of its many options according to one’s level of skill. Its low profile, slightly crowned greens and close-cropped approaches encourage running as well as aerial assaults.  The South Course with its tree lined fairways and raised greens defended at the sides offers a more straightforward style of play. It presents its challenge and strategy in an open and clear-cut fashion."  Crenshaw and Coore sculpted the course out of the flat desert sandy terrain with scrub trees and brush, lots of wild life (coyotes, ground squirrels, road runners, and more), and no homes.

Some of the awards and accolades include:

• Golfweek Magazine listed Talking Stick as: the #1 Public Golf Course; Best Casino Golf Course; Top 100 Modern Courses; and #11 Best Courses You Can Play in Arizona
• Golf Digest gave both 18s 4.5 stars
• Golf & Travel Magazine rated Talking Stick in the Nations Top 40 Courses You Can Play

The North Course is a links style design with huge wide open fairways and big greens and it's longer and a tad harder than the South Course which is a traditional tree lined course.  The McDowell Mountains provide a beautiful background frame for the course.  The North Course is a par 70 with 2 par 5s, 4 par 3s, and 12 par 4s and 3 sets of tee boxes ranging from 5532 to 7133 yard plus a combo yardage of 5945.  

The front nine of Talking Stick Golf Club is your opportunity to warm up, relax, enjoy your round, and end the nine with a good score.  Most of the homes are straight ahead of the tee box and you can see what you're up against – which is some huge natural and sand bunkers.  The fairways are flat which gives you some extra roll, the fairway landing zones off the tee box are huge, and the greens are flat to a small false front (great for a bump and run) and putting surface is typically relatively flat but with subtle breaks.  That said, you need to avoid the bunkers and stay in the fairway.  A couple of the holes that we liked on this nine included:

• #3 a 450 yard par 4 with a string of 8 bunkers lining the fairway in you landing zone off the tee and 5 more bunkers between there and the green which has 3 of the 5 gurading it
• #5 is a 391 yard par 4 with a deep bunker splitting the fairway at 150 yards from the green which is gently raised and surrounded by bunkers left, right, and front – a natural sand area lines the entire right side from tee to green

The back nine on Talking Stick's North Course has some roller coaster fairways, better variety, some very interesting holes, and greens that are much tougher than the front thanks to severe contour (like a roller coaster around the fringe and some steep slope).  Some of the holes that we really liked on the North Course include:

• #12 is 392 yards (#2 handicap) with a great risk reward opportunity off the tee box thanks to a dry pond area – you can try to fly the pond and nail a small fairway in front of the green or bite off as much of the pond as you feel comfortable and land on a large fairway but then you have a very tough approach over a dry gully in front of the green with no room for error
• #13 is another risk reward opportunity to try and fly more of the long natural sand bunker to get closer to the green or play safe and left to a wide landing area and the green is a big sloping surface with a roller coaster ride around the edge
• #18 is a great finishing hole with a big landing zone for your tee shot (you've got to miss two big bunkers and a green set off to the left with a big natural area and 3 bunkers

Talking Stick's North Course is home to huge greens (27 to 41 yards deep and 18 to 31 yards wide) that range from flat with subtle breaks to steep slope, ridges, and lots of contour.  Bunkers around the greens put a premium on your approach shots and the normal speed of around 12 can make putting a tad difficult.  The greens were in excellent condition, a little firm, and ran true.  A joy to putt.

The bunkers at Talking Stick help define the course and make it challenging.  Most of the bunkers are huge, steep and deep.  The sand varied from thin to thick and deep and fluffy.  In addition to the traps you'll need to stay out of the natural sand bunkers and the dessert sand and sage.

The fairways are very generous off the tee at the North Course of Talking Stick and they were in excellent condition when we played.  The front fairways are mostly flat while the back has some fairways with lots of contour.  The is no rough – the fairways end in the desert's natural sand and scrub brush.