Cologuard Classic 'to make the fan experience even better' at hilly La Paloma Country Club

The hilly landscape of the golf course at La Paloma Country Club, the first-year host of the Cologuard Classic by Exact Sciences, is one of a kind.

It’s a rarity for PGA Tour Champions players to use carts for all 54 holes of a tournament. However, the Jack Nicklaus-designed course at La Paloma Country Club, a par 71 that stretches 6,884 yards, isn’t the most walker-friendly layout in comparison to the parkland-style and flat Omni Tucson National, which was the home of the Cologuard Classic for the previous nine years.

Most of the field at the Cologuard Classic, which concluded on Sunday, used carts for the three-day tournament. The only two players who walked all three days were Paul Goydos, who led for most of the opening day, and Michael Wright.

A spokesperson from PGA Tour Champions said “course layout” was the reasoning for the bulk of the players using carts to navigate through rounds. The last time majority of the field used carts that wasn’t due to inclement weather was Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship in Kapolei Hawaii.

If the walking conditions are tough for professional golfers, imagine how it was for spectators willing to walk with a group for the entirety of a round — constantly catching up to watch players using carts.

“There’s some undulation walking from point A to point B, but those are for the diehards that go from (holes) 1-18,” said Geoff Hill, executive director of the Tucson Conquistadores, which has organized the Cologuard Classic since 2015. “I wouldn’t recommend that, but the majority of the people hover around the last four or five holes, so that’s how we curated the landscape. It worked out pretty well, I think.

“A lot of people were concerned with the layout and getting around this place initially when we first announced the routing. But ever since they got to experience it, they enjoyed it.”

In the stretch between the area that has practice putting greens, the La Paloma clubhouse and vendors, and the driving range that is kitty-cornered with the first and 10th tee box, there are two 45-degree hills. One anonymous fan said, “some husbands were helping out their wives, and some wives were helping out husbands,” walk up the hills.

“It’s tough walking for older guys,” said Tucson resident and former Air Force serviceman Joe Stead. “For younger guys, they’re going to have no problem.”

Added Stead: “Maybe the more years here, we’ll be able to navigate where to go and where to watch. But we went (to Omni Tucson National) over the years and knew what tee boxes they had, where they were playing, so you walked down there easily and followed everybody. All in all, I’m giving La Paloma a little bit of a chance and then our expectations will be the same as they are at Omni.”

Bill Thobee, who accompanied Stead at the “Patriot’s Outpost,” a hospitality suite on the 15th hole (par 4) that served complimentary food and drinks to active or retired military members, said La Paloma is “a beautiful course and a great place to have it except for the walking experience.

“It’s tough on older guys like us,” he said. “It’s a great course, it’s just not a good walking course and that’s why the players are riding (carts). It’s not a good walking course. ... I actually like Tucson National better to walk around, but this is a nice event course, too.”

To counter the strenuous trek through the first 13 holes, the Tucson Conquistadores set up an amphitheater-style setting for the final five holes at the Cologuard Classic, including the Patriot’s Outpost.

The objective for the tournament that raises awareness for colorectal cancer screening, according to Cologuard Classic chairman Joe Hickel, was “to get everybody in one area, so they can centralize themselves in one day and not strain themselves walking the front nine and enjoy themselves.”

The grandstand setup for the final stretch “is very nice and you don’t have to walk that far,” said Stead.

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“It’s similar to what they did at Dove Mountain for match play,” he said. “It’s a desert course and there’s a couple guys you can see walking on the green and then teeing off.”

Justin Jimenez, who moved his family to Tucson over a decade ago, has attended every Cologuard Classic since 2015 and said La Paloma “is nice, but a lot of walking.”

Unlike Omni Tucson National, “you can’t go hole-to-hole and bounce back-and-forth, you gotta walk tee box to next fairway to next green to next hole — you kind of have to walk it like you play it rather than bouncing between three or four holes at a time. Omni was great. It had about four or five holes in a bunch where you can bounce back-and-forth. You could watch three or four groups at a time.”

Some spectators, like Patrick Irish, didn’t venture to the 13-hole portion of the course “because it looks like a lot of walking, and I’m not into that today.

“If you want to walk, you’ll get your steps in,” Irish said. “Me and my friend were here yesterday and walked 16,000 steps just walking in here (between the last five holes). ... But how can you not come out to something like this? It’s pretty cheap. Why not? You can’t do this anywhere northeast. Here, it’s nice and warm. This is perfect.”

Tommy Berneth, who has taken his wife and son to the Cologuard Classic over the years, said this year’s tournament was “dull.”

“The overall experience is a lot more contained compared to what it was at the Omni last year,” he said.

Golf fans and spectators had mixed reviews of the Cologuard Classic’s new location, but most of the feedback Hickle received this weekend “from La Paloma membership have been positive.”

“Everybody loves the look of the golf course, how it looks on TV. It’s been great,” said Hickle. “Walking is a little bit of a challenge, but I think everyone knew that coming into, so I think everyone is enjoying themselves.”

La Paloma “has been such a great partner, very collaborative” in hosting the Cologuard Classic, Tucson Conquistadores president Arun Rao said on ESPN Tucson this week.

“The whole tournament feels re-energized, partly because of (La Paloma’s) excitement to have this event,” Rao said. “It’s been a pretty awesome experience so far. The course is beautiful. It’s probably one of the most beautiful places in Tucson.”

Cologuard “is head over heels for this place and the bones of this place have turned out very well for us,” Hill said.

“We definitely have a couple tweaks. I would give ourselves a quality A after the first year, which is a lot to say,” he said. “We’ve gotten great feedback from our title sponsor, from the (PGA Tour Champions), from the Conquistadores.

“We’ll make a couple tweaks to make the fan experience even better, but I think we have some good bones in place for the next three years.”