Hello,

Im looking for some insight on a few gold course that I will be playing while in Arizona for a week, just looking to know mainly about the greens and how they are. my live up looks a little like this

1) The Raven at Sun mountain
2) Devils Claw at Whirlwind
3) Cattail at Whilwind
4) Desert Mountain
5) Ranch at Tondo Verde
6) Vista Verde at Tondo verde
7) Silverleaf
8) Talon at Grayhawk
9) Raptor at Grayhawk

What can I expect from these courses?

Thanks for the help

I have played both Whirlwind courses within the last three weeks and both are in great condition. Greens were faster than your typical resort course, but very playable. I can't speak to the other courses on this list.

Every course you're playing will have great conditions, especially Silverleaf and maybe Desert Mountain - depending on which course you play.

How are you getting on Desert Mountain?

You didn't say when you were coming... I'll assume it is in the next month or so? As for putting surfaces, everything is overseeded with rye for the winter and should be in good condition.

The Raven at South Mountain - in my opinion is the weakest of the group. Boring design that is always overwatered and soggy. I would skip it. (-)

Whirlwind - two core golf courses, no housing, nice conditioning. (+)

Desert Mountain - 6 Jack Nicklaus signature designs to choose from. Very private. I've never played there but I'm sure you wont be disappointed.

Tonto Verde - Two Gary Panks layouts I've not played. Real estate golf.

Vista Verde is one of the top courses in the valley yet virtually unheard of. None of the infrastructure is yet in place, so you will have no amenities. If this is important, you may be disappointed, but if you are a fan of great golf course design, you will like VV. Great views, no housing. Ken Kavanaugh (++)

Silverleaf - private course, not played. Weiskopf.

Grayhawk - Raptor is the better course. Grayhawk sets the standard for high-end public daily fee golf. It is surrounded by housing, so that diminishes the experience from my view, but generally superb conditioning and top amenities. (+)

If you are able to add/subtract any, I would recommend dropping the Raven and adding We-Ko-Pa Saguaro. Hands down the best public course in the state.

Enjoy!!

Gold Canyon Dinosaur course. Very peaceful up in the mountains and for the price, it is half of what the resort courses charge.

Grayhawk is great.

But I will say that the Raptor course is a far better course. Longer, challenging, better groomed IMO. The Talon course is a nice course, but compared to Raptor it was shorter, more bland with the exception of a few gimicky holes that I did not care for. Good course, just not up to the same level as the Raptor course. Also, the Raptor course hosted a pro event either in 2007 or 2008, don't remember.

Sunridge Canyon was also an amazing track and in perfect condition when I played there a couple of years ago in March. Also played Grayhawk and loved it...super fast greens when I played.

... Really, you liked Sunridge? Possibly my least favorite course out of all SunCor establishments. What did you like about it?

I'm playing all three courses at Tonto Verde this next weekend... Ranch, Peaks, and Vista Verde.

The Ranch and Peaks are "target" courses playing in and around a real estate development, at least for half of the holes on each course. Both courses are reasonably tight with lots of transition areas to get into trouble. The courses are always in great shape this time of year.

Vista Verde is a great tract, but as mentioned above, there are ZERO amenities on the course. All three of these courses are heavily underrated IMHO.

I thought Sunridge was a really good track from the back tees. The greens were very fast and I thought it had some of the nicest par 3's- all of them were pretty damn good.

Short update on the courses at Tonto Verde.... Ranch, Peaks, and Vista.

All three courses are in great shape, but they have watering restrictions in force (or maybe it's the economy?!) so they did not completely overseed the rough with Rye this year. It doesn't impact play at all and actually helps to frame the fairway and greens a little better.

There has been a lot of rain so the desert areas are full of lush green growth so errant balls will be more difficult to find. The grounds crew has done a good job keeping the transition areas free of grass.

The greens are in fantastic shape and remember the local rule, 99% of all greens break towards Four Peaks.

Lastly, they have dropped the greens fees about 30% from past years. We paid $75 to play Vista Verde. Have fun!