Jason Straka was the lead designer. The work began with Hurdzan-Fry, then Jason and Dana broke away and the job seemed to follow them. When we interviewed for this work back in 2007-08 the short list was us, Hurdzan-Fry and Schmidt-Curley. It was a hard one to lose out on as my mentor Arthur Jack Snyder had created the Indian Bend for Marriott back in the early 1970s…at a cost of $400,000…and in an impossible location…the bottom of the Indian Bend Wash. (Backstory: Roger maxwell, then Director of Golf for Marriott, said in the opening ceremony: "Jack, you have created a wonderful layout for us…and Marriott gave you both an impossible piece of land and an equally impossible budget…the next great site in the Marriott Family will be yours as our appreciation for what you have accomplished here…" That never materialized. Jack died in 2005 thinking positively that I might get to carry out work to make good on Roger's comments. BTW, Roger gave Jack an original 1st Edition of Golf Architecture in America, still cherished here in our library.)
At the time (1970s), the Army Corps of Engineers had never really encountered a golf development in a major drainage basin, at least not in the desert with our flash floods. Jack created an interesting course that was very links-ish for the time. Unfortunately, Marriott demanded (Jack's words) 1000s of trees and, guess what, they all grew up!
From about 1995 to 2010 the course went wayyyy downhill. It was a shame to see it fall apart — literally. But, the plans to rebuild were ambitious and set, even though delayed by the economy and other factors.
I am very interested to see how the native grass plantings do in this area. Phoenix has never seen positive results on plantings other than native, drought tolerant shrubs and cacti. Watering creates too-dense areas of grass…and reducing water creates a fire hazard, or dead native grass. One project that looked great was Seville, east of Phoenix (Gary Panks). But today I hear reports that much of the native grass plantings have given way to managed turf or decomposed granite with true native plants — not grasses. I hope Marriott is successful as it will give us another option here in the desert.
One of the drivers of this work is (was) the planned Ritz Carlton Resort that Marriott will have a stake in. This new resort will (might) be built a mile east of the courses. It is approved, but still not started. Ultimately the two 18-hole courses at Camelback Inn (which are located away from the resort itself by 2 miles) will serve the Marriott Camelback Inn and area resorts with a tee time agreement. They also have several hundred non-equity members plus timeshare and other play privileges.
From what I can see the work has come out well. The environmental permitting was handled by a close associate who just recently told me that despite some rain and washouts during construction, it all went very well. She also reported that this time around (she was not even born when the course was originally built!) the approvals were much easier based on Jack's ground-breaking work in the 1970s. What Jack accomplished in the 1970s was to prove that golf could coexist with flood control. The course was continually held up as an example of positive reclamation — putting recreation (golf) in flood plains where it would stabilize soils and still serve as a floodway.