Talking Stick Golf Club — Piipaash Course

The Piipaash Course at Talking Stick, formerly the South Course, is the more traditional counterpart to its sibling the O'odham despite sharing the same Coore and Crenshaw architects and the same tribal property. Where the O'odham is flat, open, and links-inspired, the Piipaash is tree-lined, more enclosed, and more parkland in its demands. Fairways run between rows of mature trees that narrow the corridors and put a premium on driving accuracy. The greens are raised, which changes how you have to land approaches.

Coore and Crenshaw designed both courses simultaneously and the contrast appears deliberate. Playing the O'odham in the morning and the Piipaash in the afternoon takes you from open links golf to traditional parkland golf without leaving the same facility, and the combination is one of the more illuminating architectural double-headers in the Scottsdale area. The Piipaash is shorter at 6,833 yards but the slope of 126 and the tree-lined corridors create a different kind of difficulty. Length matters less than accuracy. Keep it in the fairway and you will score; miss fairways and you spend the round playing recovery shots from under tree canopies. Raised greens further punish wayward approaches, since misses long or to the wrong side often leave downhill chips to surfaces running away from you.

It will not generate the same architectural conversation as the O'odham, but it tests a different set of skills on a well-conditioned, well-designed round.