The Golf Club at Dove Mountain
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Hole #3 of Saguaro course | |
| Club information | |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 32°28′16″N 111°06′18″W / 32.471°N 111.105°WCoordinates: 32°28′16″N 111°06′18″W / 32.471°N 111.105°W |
| Location | Marana, Arizona |
| Type | Private |
| Total holes | 27 |
| Tournaments hosted | WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship (2009–14) |
| Designed by | Jack Nicklaus |
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The Golf Club at Dove Mountain is a golf course in Marana, Arizona, designed by Jack Nicklaus. From 2009 until 2014, it served as the host course of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, which is a match play tournament for golfers on the PGA Tour and the European Tour. The club was known as Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, carrying co-branding from Ritz-Carlton, which operates the hotel facilities at the club, from its opening until 2012; however the co-branding was removed before the 2013 WGC event for unknown reasons.
This course holds the distinction for being the longest venue in PGA Tour history, playing at a length of 7,849 yards. The club boasts the designation as a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course with 27 holes. In an effort to preserve and protect the surrounding lush desert, club makes use of numerous "green" technologies. Efforts include everything from using reclaimed water for the courses and landscaping to preservation of natural washes as havens for wildlife.
The course's green complexes were heavily criticized by players during the 2009 Accenture Match Play, the first to be played on the course, due to their subtleties and the effects of various natural landforms on the pull of the breaks. This led to several top names demanding the reconfiguration of the greens, including Tiger Woods suggesting that Dove Mountain "blow up" the putting surfaces. This eventually led to a massive renovation project after the tournament, completed in time for the 2010 event. However, scorn from players continued, with the course consistently ranking near the bottom on the PGA Tour's annual player poll ranking the Tour's venues. Each year, one or two top players would routinely skip the event. This issue came to a head in 2014, when Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott (three of the top 4 players in the world at the time) all chose to skip the event, with Scott in particular saying he would be more likely to play if the event were staged at a different course.[1] This would turn out to be the final edition of the Match Play staged at Dove Mountain, with the WGC moving to California the following year.