Verrado Golf

Verrado Golf~Raven at Verrado

: Raven at Verrado

Designed by John Fought and Tom Lehman,The Raven Golf Club at Verrado opened in 2004. .The Raven at Verrado set in a dramatic mountainside environment with mountain, desert, and city views. Built on the old Caterpillar bulldozer proving grounds, this course is located in the foothills of the White Tank Mountains, 25 miles west of downtown Phoenix. The golf course is like two layouts in one, with the front nine playing along a mostly level terrain with wide fairways leading to relatively flat green complexes that are very player friendly. Some holes feature short carries, and the desert consistently defines the playing area. The backside plays into the mountains, with holes 11 through 14 featuring significant elevation changes and rolling fairways. Many of the views on this side, from the tee areas and from many green complexes looking backwards, are of postcard quality.

Verrado Clubhouse~Verrado Grille

The beautiful clubhouse is the jewel of the Verrado residential community, and features a golf shop with men’s and women’s locker rooms, plus an incredible restaurant and lounge called the Verrado Grille. We had an opportunity to enjoy lunch, which was of extremely good quality. The 18th green is situated immediately in front of this expansive clubhouse, which affords wonderful views from inside or from the nicely appointed outdoor patio.

Course accolades include:

Golf Magazine, February 2005 “Top Ten New Golf Courses You Can Play”
GolfWeek, June 2005 “America’s Best 2005, Top 40 New Courses”
Golf Digest, May 2008 “Power Ranking 4 1/2 Stars”
Golf Digest, 2008/2009 Best Places to Play 4 Stars

The practice facilities include a large putting green, a short game area with sand bunker, and a grass range with complimentary range balls. On course golfers will find yardage blocks visible on the fairways at 100, 150 and 200 yards (250 on par fives) and sprinkler heads that are measured to the center of the green. Daily pin placement information is provided, and each tee area also has yardage blocks. Tiff Dwarf – one of the best strains that can be utilized on desert courses – is used on the large, mildly undulating putting surfaces, with Bermuda fairways, tees and rough. Five sets of tee boxes spread out the yardage quite evenly, allowing golfers to choose a set that suites their game. Scratch players can air it out from the 7258 yard Raven tees, which are sloped at 132. The silver tees play to 6833 with a 126 slope, and average golfers will enjoy the 6228 yard white tees that play to a 119 slope (131 for women). An alternate (gold tees) set is sloped at 111/118 and the forward tee areas measure 5402 with a slope of 113.

Where The Raven will eat you alive is in the bunkers. Some bunkers are hard to carry, others collect wayward shots. But the fairways are wide enough to avoid trouble, and what appears to be the safe shot off the tee will often bring greenside bunkers more into play. So pick your poison.