Desert Highlands in Scottsdale, Arizona, has reopened its Jack Nicklaus Signature course following a $10 million renovation project by Chad Goetz of Nicklaus Design.
Goetz worked alongside golf course builder Heritage Links and the Desert Highlands golf course maintenance team, led by director of agronomy Cody Horstman. The project has focused on design tweaks to several holes; rebuilding greens, bunkers and tees; desert landscape work; and regrassing tees, fairways and rough.
“Desert Highlands is both a classic and timeless golf course that continues to be one of the best in the country,” said Goetz. “We were very careful to maintain the spirit and preserve as much of the original design as possible while updating the golf course for the members today. We tried to design the course for all skill levels. Desert Highlands can be a very difficult course for high-handicap players, so we tried to implement small adjustments to improve playability for them. Yet, we didn’t want to take away the challenge for better players.”
Goetz restored bunker shapes and elevations – many bunkers were made smaller to reduce maintenance and enhance playability. Subsurface drainage and liners were replaced, with bunker floors lined with Flexxscape. Bunkers that interact with the desert landscape are now enclosed with turf to create a more natural transition to the desert and ease maintenance.
Chad Goetz of Nicklaus Design says his work at Desert Highlands has been to “preserve as much of the original design as possible while updating the golf course for the members today” (Photo: CJ Gershon)
Every tee was enlarged within the same footprint and re-sodded with new turf. Most tees were also lowered, except the thirteenth which was raised to improve the visibility of the landing area. New tees were created on the tenth to move players away from the back of the range, while an additional back tee was built on the eighteenth.
All putting surfaces across the course were reshaped and re-sodded with 007 XL creeping bentgrass. The internal components (drainage, gravel and engineered growing medium) were excavated and replaced, and the green elevations were reset with each green enlarged, on average, by 500 to 600 square feet.
A key part of the project has been the renovation of the eighth hole. Work has been completed to provide players with a better view of the green from the landing area. The green has been rotated to be more perpendicular to the line of play and sloped more from back to front to open up views of it. And the mounding was brought closer to the right and back of the green to allow some shots to bounce onto the putting surface.
The renovation also included tree removal, removing organic matter from fairways, and improving soil health through topdressing and fraise-mowing. Several trees were relocated to allow for the planting of new and less intrusive vegetation. “Over time the course had become overgrown, blocking views of key elements of the holes as well as long-range views,’ Goetz said. “So many great views were restored – that was one of the most notable results of the project.”
Desi Speh, general manager at Desert Highlands, said: “We are thrilled at the result of this extensive golf course restoration project. This milestone marks the culmination of literally years of work and dedication from many past and current members, and many dedicated members of our management team, Nicklaus Design and especially Cody Horstman and his team. This golf course restoration project also represents Desert Highlands’ continued vision of providing world-class amenities to our current members and future generations who will call this club and community home.”