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Mark Twain maligned golf as "A good walk spoiled." Obviously he never played here.

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Camelback : Desert King

Championship-course golf plus a male-friendly spa equal a royal guys’ weekend.

By: Mark Huber
May/June 2007 , Page 66

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It’s one of those places where you expect to see 1950s cowboy-movie icon Randolph Scott strutting across the lobby in full Western regalia or hear Frank Lloyd Wright holding court at the bar. And yes, the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona — a stone, wood and stucco bastion ripped from the 1930s — does evoke a time when well-heeled vacationers first arrived in the Sonoran Desert. The place was a favorite of ’30s and ’40s glitteratti such as Jimmy Stewart, Bette Davis and Clark Gable; Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower played cards at a corner table by the fireplace.

But Camelback’s draw these days isn’t the kind you take while playing gin rummy. Rather, it’s a whole different kind of game — or at least a new way to play it. Sitting in a golf cart on Camelback’s 6,903-yard Resort course, I find myself staring at the buggy’s 10.4-inch Informer Global Positioning System screen (just like the multifunction display on my instrument panel). Informer presents holes and ranges, continuously calculates distance to the pin, keeps (or mis-keeps) score and even allows you to order food and drinks. Tapping through the touch-screen menu, I can’t find a “wagering” option or a recalculation button for mulligans — but I figure they have to be there (using the Informer isn’t exactly cheating, but it sure feels close).

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If one can judge a resort by its golf carts, Camelback is a major destination, particularly, for anyone who wants to indulge in championship greensmanship. And to supplement its course offerings, the Inn also has a few other peripheral indulgences: a world-class spa and top-notch restaurants, for starters.

The 453-room Inn dates to 1936 and retains most of its original architectural charm. Set on 125 acres that slink up the base of Mummy Mountain, the complex is a sprawling collage of low-slung villas surrounded by lush flowering fruit trees, vegetation, fountains and waterfalls — the perfect vista for spectacular desert sunsets and cool morning walks. Marriott acquired the Inn in 1967 and began a program of improvements that included the multimillion-dollar golf complex, updated rooms and, in 1989, the Spa at Camelback Inn, which received an $8 million renovation in 2003. I check into a spacious bi-level suite with high-beamed ceilings, a living room loaded with overstuffed furniture, a kitchenette/wet bar, walk-in closet, one and a half luxe bathrooms and an open sleeping loft. Off the loft, a private sundeck looks out on Camelback Mountain, which I catch at pink twilight.

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The rooms come fully stocked with the usual high-end amenities, though being dinged an additional $10 per day for in-room Internet — and not wireless at that — at a resort where rooms rent for up to $700 per night seems a bit, as they say on the course, out of bounds.

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