Phoenix - Best Of - Best Golf Course to Gawk at the Scenery - Gold Canyon Golf Resort's Dinosaur Mountain Course6100 South Kings Ranch Road, Gold Canyon480-982-9090 (2000)

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Best Golf Course to Gawk at the Scenery

Gold Canyon Golf Resort's Dinosaur Mountain Course
6100 South Kings Ranch Road, Gold Canyon
480-982-9090

You know your game is going to suffer when you find yourself discussing light and composition rather than club selection. Perhaps that's what makes the Dinosaur Course so difficult: It keeps you blathering on about Asher Durandesque panoramas as you thoughtlessly plunk drive after drive into the saguaros.

The immaculately tailored course wraps in around a little desert nub called Dinosaur Mountain. The aesthetic power, though, comes from how the foreground of twisting lime green fairways and desert prospects frame the Superstition Mountains just to the north. The color and gentle forms of a championship golf course play against the brutal majesty of the Superstitions. Such contrast dazzles the eye and . . . ARGHH! There went another two strokes!

If you want to score, keep your head down.

If you're not filthy rich, you can play the Dinosaur Course on off-season weekdays for $39. Even in August, the heat is bearable, thanks to winds whipping down from the mountains.

In season, though, greens fees will run you around $150, same as many of the Phoenix area's best courses.

So don't forget your camera -- and a couple dozen balls.

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