Day 7 Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, AZ

3/14 - Day 7 Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, AZ

It was snowing when I left Flagstaff this a.m., after it had snowed a bit yesterday while I was in my room catching up on the blogging. It was right at 32 degrees when I left and the snow wasn't sticking to the highway. Flagstaff is WAY up there in elevation (over 6900 feet) so I used caution until I had dropped a few thousand feet, and voila (Don't you love it when I write French!), the snow stopped. I wasn't in any hurry as I knew I'd have some time on my hands when I got to the golf course.

I've driven down HWY 17 to Phoenix many times and never seen so few trucks on this route. Maybe it was the time of the morning, I don't know. But I'm not complaining!

The Francisco Grande Resort was built in the late 1950s by Horace Stoneman. Stoneman owned the New York Giants baseball team and when he moved them to San Francisco, he wanted a place for them to have spring training in the west as opposed to Florida where they had been conducting spring training rituals.

The hotel has 9 floors (one for each inning or position?) and used to have a dozen baseball (now soccer) fields. The golf course was built to give the players something to do with their off time. At one time it was the longest golf course in Arizona. John Wayne was a frequent visitor and other celebrities stayed there (rumor has it many held court in the bar!) from time to time. After the Stoneman family sold the Giants they eventually moved their spring training site to the Scottsdale area. I do not know what the Casa Grande area was like in those days, but if you like the weather in Arizona and hate the crowds of people in Phoenix/Scottsdale/Mesa this is a good place to be. It's less than 45 minutes south of Phoenix and an hour north of Tucson. The subdivisions are sprouting up all over the place around here & Eloy.

The Francisco Grande Resort Golf Course always gets lukewarm ratings and reviews so I wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the course and it was packed! It took a little over 4 hours to play and the biggest holdup holes on the course are the par threes. None of the four of them are easy and two of them are the number 1 & number 2 handicap holes, which is very unusual! They are fairly long carries over water, so there may be reloading to do and yes, I put one in the water on the last par three!

The course is fair & fun. My only complaint is the practice putting green was a pretty good speed and the greens on the course were quite slow by comparison. I had a hard time getting the ball to the hole, even on downhill putts. The bunkers hadn't been raked in a while and the sand was packed down firm in some of them. I will play this one again when Margaret is with me. I think she would like it.

Best part of the day was my playing companions, Dennis & Linda from Kansas City, Kansas. They made sure I knew Kansas, not Missouri. They said they lived on the "GOOD" side. Really nice people, they would fit in at Clarkston very well.

Tomorrow I have an 8:12 at Mission Royale, also in Casa Grande and another course with lukewarm ratings. I hadn't exactly planned to play either of them, but canceling two days in a row because of weather made these courses the right fit. After golf I'm driving to Tucson to have dinner with Doug Mattoon & his family and the Green Valley area. Looking forward to it.

I tried (failed?) to capture what #16 (par 3, #2 handicap hole) looks like off the tee. The other picture is Dennis & Linda.