Great Lengths

Twin Warriors Golf Club, the site of this week's PGA Club Professional Championship, is the longest course in the history of tournament golf. But Gary Panks, who designed it, believes that total driving will be the key to the winner's success.

Joseph Mark Passov
PGA.com Contributor

At 7,736 yards in length, Twin Warriors Golf Club -- the site of the 36th PGA Club Professional Championship, which runs Thursday through Sunday -- is the longest course in the history of tournament golf. But at an elevation of more than 5,000 feet, will it play that long for the current generation of big-bashing PGA Professionals?

Don't worry. "Length will definitely be a factor," says the designer of Twin Warriors, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based golf course architect Gary Panks. "Length is the most challenging aspect to this course. Even at this altitude, and with a number of elevated tees, this is a long golf course.

If some of the tees are elevated, then so are the stakes for the 156 PGA Professionals who earned their spots in the CPC field by virtue of their success in regional qualifying events. Among other things, the winner receives $56,000 from the $400,000 purse, six PGA Tour exemptions, a crystal championship bowl and his name engraved on the coveted Walter Hagen Trophy. Plus, he and the other finishers in the top 25 receive berths in the 2003 PGA Championship in August at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y.

"I predict that total driving will be the key to the week, that is, the combination of length and accuracy," he explained. "Although the landing areas are pretty generous, the fairway slopes and the 5-inch bluegrass/fescue rough will keep the big hitter honest."

Fortunately for competitors in the PGA CPC -- which is often referred to as the Super Bowl for PGA Club Professionals -- Twin Warriors' layout is more about character and shot-making opportunities than simply brute force. The fact that it's such a well-balanced layout in a unique, dramatic setting had more to do with The PGA of America selecting it to host one of its marquee events than the "challenging test" component. Nevertheless, if the wind blows as it usually does, this will be one tough track.

For The PGA to select a course barely a year old for such a prestigious championship speaks volume as to its merits. Situated in the high desert of the Santa Ana Pueblo Tribal Nation near Bernalillo, N.M., some 20 minutes north of Albuquerque and 40 minutes south of Santa Fe, Twin Warriors revealed exciting opportunities from the moment Gary Panks first saw the property.

"I've worked in the desert for 25 years," said Panks. "I knew right away that this was a special setting for golf."

Panks definitely knows his way around a desert. In 1988, his firm carved out the jaw-droppingly scenic Sedona Golf Resort in the high-desert, Red Rock country of northern Arizona. In 1994, with then-partner David Graham, the former U.S. Open and PGA Champion, he created Grayhawk (Talon) in Scottsdale, Ariz., former host of the Andersen Consulting World Match Play Championship.

His Legacy Golf Resort in Phoenix hosted an LPGA event in 2000 and his new Cattail design at Whirlwind in Chandler, Ariz., will host the Nationwide Tour in October. In November, Panks' Trilogy Golf Club at La Quinta near Palm Springs, Calif., will serve as the new home of the PGA Tour's popular Skins Game.

Be all that as it may, when Panks speaks about Twin Warriors, you can sense the pride he feels.

"I'm very proud of what we accomplished here," said Panks. "The routing is a good fit within the natural terrain, yet with minimal impact on cultural sites. Preservation was utmost in our minds. We were able to embrace Snakehead, the sacred mountain, yet at the same time build a buffer for it. By integrating the expansive desert-mountain setting and by preserving the ancient cultural sites, we created a truly distinctive golf experience."

One of Panks' fondest reminiscences was the rediscovery of an 800-year-old cave right up against the Snakehead ridge. Its entrance is just 35 to 40 yards away from the back tee of the rugged 244-yard, par-3 15th.

"The cave walls were blackened from ancient fires," said Panks, "and we found animal bones as well. The Bureau of Indian Affairs had these sites mapped, but I'm not sure that the developers knew this cave was here."

Panks believes that 15 will prove a pivotal hole in the tournament. "It's a stout one-shotter to a medium-size, two-level green, with trouble all around. To the left is the sacred Snakehead rock outcropping," he said. "Hit it long, and there's a small grassy collection area and desert brush. To the right is another grassy hollow. You've got to pick the right club on the tee and trust it."

Although the terrain is rolling, with nearly 200 feet of elevation change, Panks doesn't feel that awkward lies are going to affect play. "Although we're in a mountain setting, with sloping terrain, we graded the fairways so that you should have reasonable lies and stances.

"Ultimately, this is a resort course and we wanted golfers to have fun."

So, too, the bunkers aren't going to induce terror into sand-stricken golfers, but they will definitely force you to think before you strike. Slicers should tremble at holes six and seven, a pair of solid par 4s that have the same cluster of "deep, deep" traps menacing the right side of the landing area. Panks calls these bunkers "mean" and "unforgiving," but if you can crank out a 270-yard carry from the tips at the sixth, your reward is a fairly simple approach to a green set down at the base of a rocky knoll.

Another risk/reward, front-nine favorite is the 586-yard, par-5 eighth hole. "It's a downhill hole and downwind it's definitely reachable," said Panks, "but the green is a tough target for a 3-wood. It's well bunkered off the tee, and around the green and you have to shape it left to right. There's a deep arroyo filled with native brush to the left, so you need to be careful."

Panks also likes the 197-yard, par-3 fourth hole, because "it's just really pretty, with a cascading water feature to the left and a lake to carry," and the 208-yard, par-3 ninth, with its Redan-style green complex with steep falloffs and significant bunkering. He even predicts that the 563-yard, par-5 first hole could be pivotal.

"As with Olympia Fields (site of the recent U.S. Open), the first hole is a reachable par 5 with a flattish, good-sized green. I'm predicting there will be a lot of birdies here, but maybe a few 'others' as well."

On the back nine, Panks makes special note of the attractive, 483-yard par-4 10th, where an intimidating, deep desert arroyo must be carried with the approach shot. Unique is the 349-yard, par-4 11th, which features three separate islands of turf, yet under the proper conditions, can be driven.

"It'll take a carry of 270 yards or so to a blind target to be safe," says Panks, "but the lay-up can be a dicey proposition as well, because the fairway is narrow and slopes left to right."

The 186-yard 13th hole is an adventurous ridgetop-to-ridgetop par 3, while the tee at the 420-yard, par-4 14th boasts the highest elevation on the property, 5,250 feet. From a mile high up, you head downhill to an amphitheater green shoehorned into the base of Snakehead.

Panks considers the finish to be especially strong.

"Sixteen is a big par 5, 648 yards from the tips, but it's downhill all the way, with Snakehead to the left. Seventeen isn't a very long par 4, but it's well-bunkered and heads directly at the (Hyatt Tamaya) hotel," he said. "Eighteen is a good, stern par 4 of 488 yards. You're going to have to hit two quality shots to have a chance at birdie, and the green is one of the most challenging on the course. It's pretty big, with lots of movement and large, deep bunkers."

The people of Santa Ana believe that the Twin Warriors, Mase'ewi and Uyuye'ewi, showed them the path to the Yellow Light, the Upper World, along the banks of the Rio Grande. For competitors in the PGA Club Professional Championship, architect Gary Panks' Twin Warriors is a path as well -- a very long path to potential glory.