At the end of April I went on a golf trip with my closest family and friends. We were a group of 7 on a quest to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Arizona and hit a few balls. The trip started out badly with delays at the airport of course. Most of the guys had already arrived in Tucson, but my best friend and I traveled separately. We got to Phoenix  late and decided to grab our bags and get a rental car to Tucson. Once we arrived in Tucson we picked up our TORO rental truck. The truck was great and we only had a few weird sounds while using it. Unfortunately we missed the afternoon round but decided to stop and have a big steak to make up for the aggravations of the day.

We arrived at the VRBO around 7 p.m. and it was as expected. Awesome place with plenty of room for 7 people. The place had a movie room, arcade room, small pool, hot tub, and a pool table. I will say it was tucked away in the mountain scenery pretty well.  It seems that everything we did was about 35 minutes from the house. I felt like the traffic really wasn’t too congested even during rush hour.

We had an early tee time at the Arizona National Golf Club on Monday morning. It is nestled in the foothills of Santa Catalina Mountains. The place was easy to find and the bag drop was staffed with great guys. They got our clubs loaded up while we payed for the round. The greens were beautiful considering all the mountain terrain and sandy areas. As a group we played decently. I even won 100 dollars for the day from a few bets we placed to make it more interesting. This was a great course to play and I would recommend giving it a shot. This is a Robert Trent Jones designed course, with 6,785 yards.

We finished up the morning round and rushed straight to the next round with a 1 p.m. tee time. We arrived at El Conquistador Golf Club and it was just as beautiful as the other. It is in the heart of Oro Valley. This course is off the beaten path but is surrounded by beautiful homes and scenery. It was designed by Greg Nash and Jeff Hardin. We had a great round and again enjoyed the beautiful scenery. All we kept saying at every hole was how beautiful and serene this experience was. Even though it was very hot the humidity is far different than the East coast of N.C. I enjoyed golfing without being soaked in sweat. This course should be on your list of stops while golfing in Tucson.

At the end of the day we were all pretty beat. 2 rounds a day in the heat sneaks up on you. We found a great little Italian/pizza place to eat called Rosati’s. We sat and reminisced about the day and had a few drinks. Once done it was time to head to the house, shower and rest up for the next day.

Tuesday morning we loaded up and headed out for some trail riding on side by sides. We arrived at Oracle Adventure Rentals around 8 a.m. to get checked in. We received our safety briefing and got the map layout for our rides on the GPS. The staff were great and joked with us about not flipping the vehicles over. Once on our way we came to the first cattle guard fence and the dusty fun began. We rode 78 miles for the day. We saw mountains, creeks, old structures to include buildings, train bridge, and many animals. The cows gave us a good stare down when we passed. It was super dusty and the mouth coverings came in handy. When we got to the top of the mountain we stopped for an early lunch  and photo opportunity. We had coolers that were packed with Gatorade, water and sandwiches. We were all in agreement this was one of the coolest things we picked to do outside of golfing. I highly recommend using this establishment if you want to ride in the wild.

We headed back to the house to shower for our dinner reservation at 6 p.m. We ate at El Charro Cafe Downtown. I was not impressed at all and the service was horrible. We had at least 5 different people waiting on us throughout the meal. You would think this would be great but all it did was cause full on confusion for them all. We got our meal before we even got the queso dip for our chips we received when we sat down. The food was definitely charred! Mine was so bad I couldn’t finish it. My beer was just above room temperature. I would not recommend eating here.

Wednesday morning we headed over to Starr Pass Golf Club for our first round of the day. It was set in the sanctuary of the Tucson Mountain Park. It features 27 holes of Arnold Palmer Signature Golf. This course opened in 1986 and has been visited by some of the legends of golf. Bob Cupp, Craig Stadler, Arnold Palmer, and Phil Mickleson. We were greeted with smiling faces and the staff helped us load the bags onto the carts. I will say the scenery here was stunning. The course was in great shape and the greens were perfect. I was having a hard time reading the green for my putts. With the lay of the land and the angle of mountains, it was very difficult the read. I felt like every putt went the opposite direction that I read.  It was a bit frustrating but that’s part of the game. My round wasn’t the best for this course, but it was very challenging. This course isn’t for a beginner. If you do play this course bring plenty of balls. Oh yeah watch out for snakes! We saw a rattlesnake between 7 to 8 feet long.

We loaded up and rushed over to Stone Canyon Golf Club. This is a hidden gem nestled against the picturesque Tortolita Mountains in the town of Oro Valley. It is a Jay Morrish designed course. It has been ranked in the TOP 100 golf courses in America. I will say this is the hardest course I’ve ever played! It is named perfectly. I hit many balls that ricocheted off big stones. Some out of play and some luckily in play. We had 2 holes that were blind tee offs. This course will definitely humble you. We spent just over 4 hours playing and had dinner reservations for 6;15 P.M. at the club restaurant. This was everyone’s favorite course for toughness and beauty. While we had dinner and drinks we watched the sun set against the mountain skyline. I could have laid in a chair all night looking at that view. Out of all these courses play this one. You will not be disappointed.

We all had early flights out the next morning so we wrapped it up and headed to the house. Travel home was much better than coming and we had no delays. This will be a trip for the record books. we have already started talking about the next trip. I highly suggest golfing and outdoor activities if you get to visit Arizona. It was well worth the money. Thanks for reading and enjoy your golf outings.