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Getting To Know: Longbow Golf Club

An Insightful Interview With Jay Larscheid, General Manager

By Brian Weis

Whether you have played a course 20+ times a year or looking to play the course for the first time, insights from an insider can help enhance your golf experience. Below is an interview with Jay Larscheid who shares some valuable tidbits about the course, memorable holes and must eats and treats at the 19th.

Give Our Readers An Overview of the Golf Course/Property
Referred to as the "Essence of Arizona Golf" Longbow Golf Club is a desert links style golf course. Longbow Golf Club is core golf with no housing or buildings around it. With 4 to 5 different teeing grounds on each hole it gives players of all quality the ability to play the course. The course can be played from 5800 to 7050 and Longbow Golf Club also features Family Tees.

If Someone Was Looking To Golf In The Area, Why Should They Play Your Course?
Experience. The is the word we can guarantee is the overall experiene will be worth the visit. You will not find a better option on where to chose to spend your money.

What Tips or Local Knowledge Would You Provide To Help Them Score Better At Your Course?
Everything is pretty much in front of you with no secrets. Greens are undulating and are true and fast. Don't short side yourself.

Recent Awards or What You Are Most Proud About The Course?
One of the Top 20 Courses in Arizona
Golfweek's Best Courses You Can Play
State by State, Public Access
2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Top 100 Resort Courses Nationwide
Golfweek's Best Resort Courses
2009

Best Courses Near You
Golf Magazine
2010

Course of Distinction
Golfweek Magazine
2011

4 out of 5 Stars
Golf Digest Places to Play Guide
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

What Is The Signature, Most Talked About, or Most Photographed Hole?
Longbow Golf Club features tremendous views of Red Mountain, the Superstitions, and Usery Mountain ranges. With just a core golf course and now housing or buildings around the view come into play on most every hole. Our 6th hole features a beach bunker with white sand which circles most of the holes. We also have a bronze statue of a Medieval Archer and his Longbow that is a conversation piece off of our patio area.

What Is Your Favorite Hole? Any Tips to Play It?
Among my many is #5 with plays to a 416 yd par 4. With a majestic back drop of Red Mountain you can play his hole in a couple ways. Playing aggesive you can try to carry the bunker on the right which if done successfully can leave you a very short yardage in. I drive not played perfectly with this option however will end up rolling into the desert transition which guards the right side of the hole. A more conservative play is to lay up to the left of the fairway bunker and short of the transition leaving yourself a mid iron into the green. When the hole location is in the front I will hit my three wood into the layup area and hit a 9 iron in.

Must Have Dish or Drink after the round at the 19th Hole?
Pre Round - Longbow Breakfast Burrito is a must. Skip the range balls and warm up with this crowd favorite.

Post Round - Either the Bow Burger or Classic Reuben Sandwich. Wash it down with a Longbow Brew. Our weekly craft beer featured on draft.

Who Holds Course Record and What Was Their Score?
Mens - Ryan Hogue & Trevor Murphy 60
Both players made a bogey during their round

Womens - Lindsey Weaver 64
Was shot in the final round of the 2012 AJGA Winn Grips Heather Farr Classic to come from behind and win the tournament

Back Tee Stats
Par: 71
Yardage: 7050
Slope: 132
Rating: 72.7

More Information
Longbow Golf Club
5601 E Longbow Parkway
Mesa, AZ, 85215
480-807-5400
www.longbowgolf.com

Revised: 12/15/2012 - Article Viewed 39,331 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.