After a fun day at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club we had another full day of golf planned at another 36-hole facility – Whirlwind Golf Club. We were hoping to minimize the travel time between rounds and it worked well for us to play a morning round on the Cattail course followed by an afternoon round on the Devil’s Claw course.
We booked a package deal through the course for $125, which included both rounds, carts and a $50 gift card that we could use in the proshop/restaurant. All things considered, I thought it was a good value and ended up with some nice proshop merchandise.
Whirlwind is south of Phoenix, close to the Loop 202 and I-10 intersection. With the recent extension of the Loop 202 it should be much easier to get to Whirlwind from cities west of downtown Phoenix. The facility is out in the desert landscape but still convenient to much of the metro area.
Both of the courses at Whirlwind are designed by Gary Panks, who is a name that I became familiar with on this trip! He/his design firm do good work in my opinion. The Devil’s Claw course seems to be the more highly-regarded course at Whirlwind, but my group enjoyed the Cattail course (which I’ll be reviewing here). Cattail was the second course to open, in 2002.
The two things that I’ll remember about Cattail are a nice collection of water holes and a presentation (at least on certain holes) that reminded me of TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium course. The opening and closing holes on Cattail aren’t anything special as they transition away from and return to the clubhouse. However, I thought the middle block of holes were good.
The front nine is highlighted by the 3rd and the 5th. The 3rd is a shorter par-3 that was playing 147 yards from the gold tees. Water guards the front of the green and loops around to the left of the green as well. The 5th is a driveable par-4 with more water to the left. Its distance and lost-ball trouble offers you multiple options when trying to secure your par or birdie.
On the back nine the stretch from the 10th through the 14th reminded me of the Stadium course, where the PGA Tour plays. Mesquite trees dot the edges of the fairways and there is a risk-reward par-5 (the 12th) that in a small way felt like the Stadium course’s par-5 15th with water up near the green.
We played the gold tees which are 71.0/127/6725. From these tees the yardages vary and the course was friendly to play for the amateur golfer. While a few holes can bite you the fairways are wide and there is a safe spot to miss on every shot.
Cattail is Troon facility and after playing both courses it seemed that Devil’s Claw gets more of the maintenance attention. Honestly, I hoped for more from Cattail, even in the off-season. The greens were nice surfaces and rolled well. Everything else was very dried out and below the high-quality Troon standards. There were ground under repair spots in the fairways and plenty of thin areas of turf.
While I enjoyed Cattail, I found it to be very average in most ways. It isn’t a bad course and if the conditions are good then it is worth pairing with Devil’s Claw, as we did. If you are considering Whirlwind your golf focus should be Devil’s Claw.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):