The Mine Shaft Course

Want to start a friendly argument? Ask members and guests to pick their favorite place at Scottsdale National Golf Club. Choices abound, but one popular answer would be the 16th tee of The Mine Shaft Course. From an elevated perch built into the side of Fraesfield Mountain, this par 3 tumbles downhill with a memorable panoramic view that includes both the McDowell Mountains straight ahead and Four Peaks in the Mazatzal Mountains to your left. It’s just one of many highlights on a course originally built in 2003 but renovated by Bob and Renee Parsons after they bought the club in 2013.

The Mine Shaft Course also touches one of Arizona’s natural wonders, just to the left of the par-5 fifth hole on the Club’s most northern edge. There sits a part of the 40,000-acre McDowell Sonoran Preserve that will never be developed, adding to the solitude and privacy of Scottsdale National Golf Club. Determined to elevate the playing experience to new heights, Parsons has enhanced The Mine Shaft Course in many ways, most notably on the par-5 15th and par-4 17th holes, where both aesthetics and strategy have been improved considerably.

As for the distinctive course name? You’ll find its primary source, a devilish nod to Arizona’s extensive mining history, just behind the green on the uphill 15th hole. There sits an infamous 13-foot deep bunker that must be avoided to maintain any hope of preventing bogey or worse. Its construction includes wood planking supporting the walls around a small surface of sand, bringing to mind the shaft entrances miners would enter in search of fortune. That was brutally hard work. Playing The Mine Shaft Course at Scottsdale National Golf Club is an infinitely more pleasant experience.