500 Club pin flag Arizona Brian Whitcomb Tom Sneva Indy 500 racing

Description

The 18-hole "500 Club" course at the The 500 Club facility in Glendale, Arizona features 6,867 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 72. The course rating is 71.5 and it has a slope rating of 121. Designed by Brian Whitcomb
So Whitcomb turned to a popular athlete who made his fame and fortune from competing on a different kind of track: 1983 Indianapolis 500 winner, and local golf enthusiast, Tom Sneva.
Together they created The 500 Club, a par-72 championship golf course that fits into the natural landscape of the Sonoran Desert, allowing golfers to enjoy a leisurely round -- there are no time trials, although the pace of play is quick -- through a golf course of doglegs littered with bunkers, water and the black rocks of the Hedgepeth Hills.
Sure, Sneva belongs to an exclusive club of Indy 500 winners, but the beauty of the isolated 500 Golf Club,
where "the only house you'll see is the clubhouse," is there are no memberships to this public course.
Sneva may have hung up his racing shoes for a pair of golf spikes (and an announcer's microphone), but he still was the first man to break the 200 mph barrier at the Speedway. Now, he just drives a golf ball instead of a high-speed racing machine.
The teamwork of Whitcomb and Sneva was only logical. After all, golf and racing are not strangers, with individuals competing against the track, the natural elements, and a pack of driven challengers before large crowds of people who wait in the sun all day for a glimpse of their favorites to finish closest to the (checkered) flag.
There's even a golf course that runs through the infield at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
But there aren't any daredevils racing around the perimeter of The 500 Club. A nearby go-cart track does provide a soundtrack of roaring engines throughout your round.
Nature provides the challenges on misplaced shots, with plenty of wildlife running around the course: rabbits, gophers and birds; coyotes and javelinas in cooler weather; and snakes when it heats up.
The fairways are wide enough for well struck drives. They're bordered with a hilly rough, often resembling the banked turns of a racing track. Transitional areas, featuring the native brush and trees on a hardpan with a slight gravely covering, generally allow for a decent chance at a recovery shot.
Sand traps are everywhere and is Whitcomb's fashion, often fingered and sunken. Grass bunkers also make an appearance on multiple holes. Water comes into play on six holes. An abundance of native trees and transplanted palms often gives the course a tropical feel.
The 500 Club is not that long from the white tees, at 6,203 yards, but the championship tees play 6,897 yards with some challenging lengths and a good risk/reward on the shorter par 5s. Most of the holes are bisected with a wash and the medium-sized greens are soft and run a bit slow, but have enough undulation to make them challenging. A few are tiered.
There is ample space to warm up (or practice on our game) with a lighted driving range, and chipping and putting greens.
The track starts off with a par 4 that offers a lot of the course's characteristics: A dogleg with plenty of bunkers in the fairway (trying to keep those hoping to cut the corner honest), deep traps around the green with the natural terrain to catch errant shots, yet not too severe where you can't play your way out of trouble.