Golfing on the (Oiled) Sands in Apache Junction
APACHE JUNCTION — There are almost 200 golf courses in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Snake Hole Golf and Country Club isn’t one of them because its members march to the beat of a different five-iron.
It’s a nine-hole, par 29 course, the longest hole is just over 100 feet, and all its greens are small. And they’re all brown because they’re made of sand, not grass. In fact, there’s no grass anywhere on the course.
Only sand because it’s located on five acres of desert.
Membership is limited to residents of the Countryside RV Resort, located just across the road so the golfers don’t have to put a lot of miles on their carts.
And because there’s no grass, there’s no need for professional greenskeepers. The members take care of upkeep and since the greens are sand, they have to oil them so the wind doesn’t blow them into the next county. They get the used oil from fast-food outlets in the area, which often leads to the question: “Would you like fries with that double bogey?”
The course is on Idaho Road just north of the Superstition Freeway.
I think Roscoe G. Willson did an “Arizona Days and Ways” column on this course back in the day. I may be wrong about which course it was, but I seem to remember that it was in the Apache Junction area and rattlesnakes were one of its hazards.