FROM SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

Chapter 4: Grayhawk Golf Course in October

SCOTTSDALE, Dec 7, 2005 - This is what the golf course looked like back in October, when I decided to buy my new home...

Views toward Pinnacle Peak... (above)

Grayhawk Golf Courses in December

SCOTTSDALE, Dec 3 - And now... here's an update from this first week of December.  All of the photos that follow were taken while biking around the two Grayhawk golf courses (Raptor and Talon, each with 18 holes; I live in the Talon part).

The Raptor golf course starts at the club house... (above)

A close up of some of the desert flowers that grace the golf course, these ones around a tee on the Talon golf course close to where I live.

Another pastoral scene from the Talon golf course... visible in the background are McDowell Mountains.

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SCOTTSDALE, Dec 6 - Today (Tuesday), I spent over two hours biking to the Club and back all around the two golf courses.  Here's a selection of photos from the ride...

The rugged natural beauty of the desert provides a stark contrast to the mellow and cultured outlines of the golf courses (see below).  It's like a desert version of yin and yang.

The above photo should give you a good feel as to how far I've moved.  I used to live on southern foothills of Camelback Mountain, whose faint outline is visible in the distance from the Raptor golf course.  It's about 20 miles by car, less as the crow flies.

This is the view a golfer has from the 14th hole tee. The beautiful vista is enough to distract even the pros, let alone the duffers.

Here's again Pinnacle Peak, as seen from the Raptor course.

Another pretty vista, this time looking at the McDowell Mountains behind the Talon golf course.

The "desert twins" would be my caption for this photo.  For those of you to who are new to the desert, here's a little quiz: which of the two saguaros is older?  How can you tell?

PERTH, Dec 7, 2005 - Peter Campbell, my friend from Perth, Australia, was the first to take a stab at the quiz.  Here's my answer to him:

Actually, the older one is the one on the left, with more "branches" (arms).  It takes about 60-80 years for the first arm to grow out.  So that should give you an idea about how old these guys are, as well as about the approximate age difference between them.  They remind me of the Western Australian "black boys" in that respect (longevity)... (oops, I understand that is now a non-PC term... alas, I know no other).  :-)

The Cachet town homes (a part of Grayhawk near me) also lie on the golf course.  Which was my last shot before the sun set.  It was time to recharge one's batteries and go to an evening yoga practice...

Epilogue: Feedback

SCOTTSDALE, Dec 7 - The following reaction to the above photo essay came from the "frozen north" - Canada.  Branko Miokovic, a childhood friend of mine and an accomplished artist, gallery owner and architect, sent me the following shot of his country home north of Toronto, Ontario:

It's quite a juxtaposition to the sunny Scottsdale golfing scenes, isn't it?  Yet it is also beautiful.  Only differently.  Every season and locale has its charms.

Another  interesting response came from Charles Ansley, a Texas-based friend of mine and an avid golfer.  He sent me the following film about what sets golf apart from other sports after he had seen the above photos (before you click on the "Golf Truisms" title, a fair warning to those of you who are still using a dial-up connection to the Net... it's a 1.9MB *.PPS file):  

And that's my new life, so far...

"Golf Truisms"

Also, to see the answer to our quiz about the age of the twin saguaros, click here.

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