We had some incredible courses picked out for this Arizona trip which included a 36-hole day at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club. We-Ko-Pa is one of the best public golf facilities in the nation and home to two top-100 courses over the years – Saguaro and Cholla.

I played the Cholla course ten years ago and fell in love with We-Ko-Pa at that time. It is crazy to think that this is my first golf trip back to Arizona since 2010! Anyway, I normally put Cholla in my personal top-15 favorites so I was quite excited for our Saguaro and Cholla experience on Sunday.

We booked the 36-hole special for $125 and got started with a morning round on the Saguaro course. We then played Cholla in the afternoon, although we could have booked a morning round another day with the 36-hole special. I’m not sure the winter pricing, but for $125 We-Ko-Pa offered a great value!

Saguaro is designed by the duo of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and opened in 2006 (Cholla opened in 2001). If you follow golf course design then you’ll know that Coore and Crenshaw’s work is highly regarded. I’ve played a couple other of their courses and enjoyed my rounds, however I think their work sometimes can be overrated. But, I do get some pleasure out of a contrarian view in life!

We played the purple tees which are 70.2/132/6603 (par-71) and Saguaro is a very good course! My favorite things were the mountain views and the rolling desert landscape, but the design is top-notch as well. We-Ko-Pa means “Four Peaks” and you get a look at this summit from Saguaro’s back nine. Most of the holes on Saguaro look like something you’d find in a painting. When you get to the 14th and 15th holes make sure you have the camera ready!

Saguaro has a lot of design elements to like – including beautiful bunkering, plenty of width, a mix of yardages and minor elevation changes. I found the course very playable. The bunkers have clean edges and jagged tongues, which stand out against the rugged landscape. Also, the greens seemed to have just the right amount of sculpture.

The course opens and closes with two tough par-4’s (I wish the 18th was a short par-5 instead of a long par-4), but there are four short par-4’s which are good scoring holes with multiple options. These short par-4’s range from 299 to 322 yards and potentially could be driven. The 10th is the 322 yard hole and has a green that is guarded by a couple bunkers. One of those bunkers causes the green to form a small horseshoe around it. That could make short game shots there tricky!

The conditions at We-Ko-Pa were very nice. The courses are owned by a Yavapai reservation and I believe the reservation usually has greater access to water for maintenance than many Phoenix-area courses. Conditions on Saguaro were lush and soft thanks to all that water. The greens rolled well, but were slower than most courses on the trip.

Saguaro gets more recognition than Cholla in the golf community, but I’d give the edge to Cholla. To me, Saguaro felt more sterile and almost as if it was designed not to offend anyone. On the other hand, Cholla had a brashness to it that I enjoyed. In my opinion both We-Ko-Pa courses are top-100 public quality courses and I’d highly suggest playing both of them to make up your own mind!

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):