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| - Well it would be tough to come out of here feeling like you got a good "value" out of your round at $300 a pop during high season. Nevertheless, they really make the effort to make every facet of your round the best it can possibly be at the Stadium Course, and it comes through.
First: the forecaddie. Every foursome gets one, and I cannot imagine navigating this challenging course without the guidance of our forecaddie, Wally. Wally knew every inch of the course, and gave us the requisite hole previews, sprinted out into the fairways to find our tee shots, saved us from hazardous cacti in the desert, gave us detailed yardage measurements, and read greens when necessary. Every read was spot on; he must've saved me at least 5 putts over the course of the round.
The course itself is exquisitely manicured, even just a couple weeks after the WM Open. The greens are gorgeous, and quite fast but not incomprehensibly so. Every cut of fairway and rough is pristine, but the coolest part is definitely the desert patches all around (and sometimes within!) the fairways. The desert contains all manner of exotic cactus and is a veritable nature reserve of itself. There are also a ton of jackrabbits, chipmunks and birds who are all astonishingly friendly and unafraid (but also unthreatening).
Obviously the final four holes here are the golfing highlight, and they didn't disappoint (despite causing me to make an "other" on the par five 15th). This is one of the most gorgeous four-hole stretches I've ever played, and I would love to have the opportunity to play it again some day. But for the moment I'll have to settle for watching them on TV next January.
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