The weather during the final round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open earlier this month was less than ideal as Rickie Fowler had to slog his way around TPC Scottsdale in rain gear and with hand warmers, but that’s nothing compared to what hit the Phoenix area this past week.
Typically one of the few weather-proof golf destinations in the country, Arizona was hit by a snowstorm that left many of the area’s top-rated courses under a blanket of snow.
“It was a significant storm,” Marvin Percha, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Arizona, told Golfweek.com. “We saw trace dusting amounts as low as 2,000 feet and significantly more as you go above 3,000 feet… It’s probably upwards to 20 years since we’ve seen significant snow at levels that low.”
Troon North, which boasts two of Golf.com’s Top-100 Courses You Can Play, was one of many under snow last week. Sam Brookman, the director of golf at Troon North, said that 15 players attempted to brave the elements as the storm began on Thursday, but some 300 other tee times had be canceled on Friday and Saturday as the course was forced to close.
Brookman said that members of the course reported not having seen anything like the snowfall in decades.
However, one of the perks of living and playing golf in Arizona is that while a round may have been snowed out on Friday or Saturday, only a slight frost delay held back golfers from playing courses on Sunday.
Troon North reported that the course drained well and there wasn’t even much excess water on the course following the two inches of snow that covered the course the day prior.
The biggest cleanup project? Carrots on the driving range from the snowmen the members built.
