I grabbed my trusty cohort Leslie and we headed down south of town to the edge of the Gila River Reservation to play Whirlwind Golf Course. While this course is just across the highway from Foothills GC, there is little similarity. Foothills has some elevation while Whirlwind is built in a flat area. Whirlwind is also a Troon managed club so there is a bit more uppity swank to this course than you will find across the way. If you have a Troon card then use Troon's portal to book your tee times. There are two 18 hole courses at Whirlwind, Devil's Claw and Cattail. We played Cattail. These are both courses designed by Gary Planks. The course is adjacent to the Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass which is an enormous resort with the pools and water features running along some of the fairway.

Scenery: Because you are butted up to the Gila River Reservation, you can see for miles and miles in most directions. The resort has attractive architecture that blends into the surroundings as well. If you are familiar with We-Ko-Pa Golf, then think of this as a slightly less hilly version of that course. There are no houses along the course, just fence-line into the reservation. Unfortunately, there are a few spots visible from the fairways, across the property lines, where there was some garbage (possibly just trucked in from the wind) which dilute the experience only slightly from Sensational, to Sensatio...oh.

Service: The service was excellent from bag drop to beverage cart. I was a bit confused at bag drop because the guy grabbed my bag and did not really communicate with me where to go or what was going on. Most of that was pretty self explanatory, though, once I started looking around. Note, you can rent Phat Scooters here (we did not) which looked like a ton-o-fun. The foursome behind us all were on them, and even though they looked like some pussy-collared-shirt bike gang rolling down the fairways, they were all grinning ear to ear.

Variation: This is a good, challenging course. The fairways are large and the hazards are somewhat forgiving with minimal water, but I still found it a tough track due to the length and the location of some of the hazards. If you play from the tips you are at approximately 7300 yards. They did a good job of creating some false elevation on the course to obscure some of the approaches, but for the most part, larger hills were all that was lacking.

Maintenance: Troon = good maintenance. Overall ths course was in excellent shape. The traps were clean with good sand, the fairways were smooth and shorn, and the greens were fast and consistent.

Value: While I went using a Troon card which saved me $40+ from the base rate, it was around $150 for peak times. For winter rates, this was actually very good. Similarly priced times at We-Ko-Pa (in my opinion comparable but still better) are as much as $265! It is a bit of a trek from Scottsdale (maybe 40 minutes) but well worth it.

In summary, this is a great course that I will definitely play again and the price for what you get is at the top of the game.