Sewailo: "Begay ordered construction of 17 waterfalls, dug out space for 14 acres of lakes, and created a meandering path for a mile-long creek."
Thanks to reader Douglas for taking me back to the 90s with this Greg Hansen story on Notah Begay's newly opened $25 million design near Tucson.
Only, the course was not built in the roaring, in-hindsight-hideous 90s, but actually opened in 2013 in a game legitimately worried about water usage and accessibility.
Sewailo--loosely translated as Say What?--sounds like a poster child for the 90s will not be remembered fondly. Only, this course opened in December, 2013.
Begay ordered construction of 17 waterfalls, dug out space for 14 acres of lakes, and created a meandering path for a mile-long creek.
The stonework to support those waterways cost an estimated $4 million.
This is the type of course you’d build at Hilton Head Island, S.C., the type of eye candy you see while watching PGA Tour regulars at Kapalua in Maui.
Location, location, location does not apply here.
Begay built Tucson’s latest “world-class golf course” a few hundred yards from the Casino del Sol resort — address: Middle of Nowhere — at a time Tucson needed another golf course the way it needs another Modern Street Car.
He built it during a period in which the golf industry in Southern Arizona borders on funereal, in which two established golf courses, Canoa Hills and Santa Rita, have been shuttered, and three others, Forty Niner, San Ignacio and Arizona National, were temporarily closed, foundering with cash-flow trouble.
He built it when two muni courses, El Rio and Fred Enke, had their necks in a financial guillotine.
You can drive for miles on West Valencia Road and see neither a flower nor a green piece of turf, yet Notah Begay and the Pascua Yaquis named this $25 million venture “Sewailo.”
Flower world.
And Hansen said this about the difficulty:
Undeterred, Begay, a Stanford grad, stood at Sewailo’s 10th tee last week — it’s a ridiculously brutal 638-yard par 5 — and winked when someone asked him if “six golf balls” would successfully get him around the course.
“You might hit six water balls on the first few holes,” he said, laughing.
Saturday, December 21, 2013 at 10:09 PM
Reader Comments (29)
I haven't played any of the "back to the dirt" courses that are being designed the last dozen years but there is something about the movement that really appeals to someone in the thoughtful class. An emphasis on the environmental impact durng construction and maintenance, and an emphasis on walking for those who are able. Of course they are too expensive for a young bloke raising a family but I think the sport is finally starting, barely starting, to head in the right direction. The most inspiring golf photo I've seen in forever was of the speed golf championships at Bandon. These guys looked like Olympic athletes. And they were golfers!
The owner, who laid out the cash, may be the stupid one.
On the other hand, the owner may know the casino player market that he is after.
Tme will tell...
$100 green fees on a $25 million course, sounds like some shady casino stuff going on.
As for NB3, I am sure he gave the casino owners exactly what they wanted. As mentioned above, time will tell whether it is a good business plan. This course was clearly not built primarily for the local population - it was built for visitors to the area. If the local courses are having difficulty, that is a more local issue and problem as none of the courses mentioned are really travel destination courses (other than maybe Arizona National a while back). The customers targeted by Sewailo and Fred Enke are quite different, much like the customers for a Ford Focus and a BMW 7 series are quite different. I'll give Sewailo a play in the spring and make up my own mind whether to ever play it again. I do note that Traveling Joe Passov sure liked Sewailo, and he knows everything as Golf Magazine tells me each week he's an insider!
Most developers really need to be saved from themselves. It’s hard to believe that anyone building golf courses today aren’t following the minimalist approach and ground game.
I totally missed January to March.
And shooting 5 under your handicap will be easy!
He worked with Ty Butler, a RTJII alumnus. The site states it a Notah "signature" design. Looked at the layout and its got lots of water to carry. I wonder what the slope rating is? Likely 144 from the blue tees.
Casino or no casino, what you want is a course that people want to play again and again, that builds your business. Overly difficult courses have a high number of guests who play it once and say "thanks but I don't want to get beat up everyday and lose 5 golf balls doing it."
If they are prepared to lose money on the golf investment, they have gone about it the right way. The amount of repeat business from locals with be very low. They can comfortably rest assured because guests won't spend too much time on the course and instead will stay in the casino and lose money.
"Hey what about another round tomorrow?"
" No thanks, no balls left in my bag, I'll just play blackjack tomorrow"
Black Mesa is affiliated with the Santa Clara Pueblo (and is located on their land) and they own a casino/hotel in Espanola, just north of Black Mesa. Black Mesa is advertised on the casino website and there are stay/play deals. The reason I said originally "owned" or "affiliated" was mainly for Black Mesa - I am not totally sure of the relationship between the course and the reservation. All the others are clearly owned by the pueblos. Black Mesa may be some sort of private relationship with the pueblo.
If you don't like downhill par 3's, the PaaKo isn't the place to go, for sure. All 7 par 3's range from "slightly downhill" to "severely downhill". I agree with you on holes 19-27; I wish they had used the downhills in one or two cases as part of a par 4 or 5 rather than having all the par 3's be so similar. Out of the three courses you mentioned I play Twin Warriors the most as it is the closest to my house. PaaKo and Black Mesa are several times a year treats, and we do what you did - play them all twice/day. Glad you liked Black Mesa - many people hate it due to the number of blind shots. At least the first time they play it. Oh, and I have gotten used to the waterfall on #4 at Twin, even though it looks so out of place. The waterfall at Sandia is just awful.
also, the article reads like squidward from spongebob wrote it
I have not heard that, but that would be fantastic news! There was talk a few years ago about building a second 18 at Sandia that would be a private members course. Supposedly they had some initial plans and economic studies done, but then the late 2000's happened and it wasn't feasible to be private. I've heard nothing more since then about any new course in New Mexico; however, I have heard that Sierra del Rio in Truth or Consequences, NM (down towards Las Cruces in the southern part of th estate) is having serious $$$ issues and may close, as the real estate development around it has not materialized to the extent the backers were counting on. Nice course to play on the way down to Cruces/El Paso area.