Lake Powell National Golf Course in Page Arizona
Check out the scenic beauty of Lake Powell National Golf Course in the remote town of Page in northern Arizona.
PAGE, Ariz. — You see the colors, but they really don’t pop until you go back to look at your photos. The greens, browns and blues contrast each other on the landscape. These deep, dark hues are colors on a canvas with distinct borders where they meet.
The green is Lake Powell National Golf Course. The brown is the natural sandstone terrain. The blue? Well, the blue is the sky, and it’s as blue as blue gets. Toss in some white from the clouds and you get an amazing array from the color palette at this tiny town of about 7,000 people in northern Arizona.
It’s a town that didn’t even exist until the late 1950s, when the Glen Canyon Dam was built. The multi-year project needed workers, and they lived in tents for a while until a town sprouted up. When the dam was complete, water started to rise, thus the creation of Lake Powell, which provides hydroelectric power for states in the Southwest. It also spawned a boater’s paradise.
Page is near the center of the Grand Circle, which is made up of a series of popular tourist destinations in the American Southwest, including Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Mesa Verde, the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest. If one were ambitious enough, the Grand Circle’s routing through Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico, which covers about 1,500 miles, could be traversed in about 14 days by car.
Page is most certainly a part of the Grand Circle, with Instagram-famous locales of Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend just minutes away.
So a town known for recreation, sightseeting and boating now certainly includes golf. Lake Powell National Golf Course opened Sept. 1, 1995, and was designed by Bill Phillips. The holes are laid up, down and across the landscape, with elevation changes galore and views for miles.
The golf course measures 7,030 yards from the tips, but have fun and play the blues (6,415 yards) or even the whites (5,812). Those views are much more enjoyable if you’re not searching for a stray ball on every hole.
“You get spectacular views of the Vermillion Cliffs, Horseshoe Bend, Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell, Kaiparowits Plateau,” said Jake Hunter, the golf course manager. “There really are 360-degree views.”
The third green is the first such vantage point. This 390-yard par 4 goes uphill, and when you get to the green, you may want to grab your camera before your putter.
The sixth hole, a downhill par 3 that drops about 120 feet from tee box to green, is “the hole that everybody wants to play,” says Hunter. From the tee box, you’re about at the highest point on the course, with 360-degree views and those blue skies all around. It’s probably a 7-iron for most people and the ball seemingly hangs in the air forever after a well-struck shot.
When this golf course is viewed from high above, the colors and the contours take on a whole new life.
Hunter has intimate knowledge of not only the golf course but also the town. He was born and raised in Page and played the course all the time in high school. It opened during his sophomore year. After playing college golf at Wyoming, he “chased mini tours for a while but then it was time to come home,” finally doing so 12 years ago.
Business at his course is booming.
“We’ve seen a really nice increase over the last six years,” he said. “When I started, the course was only doing about 12,000 rounds. This last fiscal year we exceeded 20,000 rounds, so we’ve been on a really nice trajectory.”
Being on the TaylorMade rental set program, Hunter said, is a huge deal, ensuring that any passing tourist with a wandering golf eye can make a round of golf possible.
“It’s a hidden gem,” said Hunter. “The area is known for Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon, but I think golf should be right up there with those because this is a special golf course.”
