Verrado Golf Club (Victory): Member Reviews

4242 North Golf Drive
Buckeye, AZ 85326 • (623) 388-3000

LOCAL WEATHER

Buckeye, AZ (85326)

72°F
Sunny

[Full Forecast]

Humidity: 13%
Wind: N at 5mph

Sunset: 6:43 pm
green Sunrise: 6:25 am

COURSE LINKS

Verrado GC Website

SUBMIT

pages: 1 2

« previous | next »

11. UNCLEDDBOY23

Posted: 10/31/17 7:35a
Member Since: Jun 15, 2014
From: Peoria, Arizona

Overview: The Victory Course at Verrado reopened about 2 weeks ago after being closed since about Mother's Day. Verrado wanted the course to mature and they felt the best way to do it was to close the course for the summer. With over seed now complete and of course with the golf course being "cart path only" for only another week, I decided to go back out and see what changes (if any) have been made during the closure over the summer. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the temporary trailer for the pro shop is now gone. In its place is the "Cliff House", which is a small bar/pro shop with outdoor seating over looking the 18th hole of the course. It's a very nice set up, but I was led to believe that it was going to be larger in size. Course Conditions: As mentioned earlier, the course will be cart path only until Mon 11/6. The course is in nice shape and the greens were in excellent shape and had good speed due to the fact that the greens were not over seeded. Verrado has a new form of Bermuda on the greens that does not need to be over seeded during the winter months. The only thing that was mentioned was that the greens will definitely have a brownish color to them by January or February. Will have to check back and see what that looks like ... I wonder if our winter visitors will be happy with that? Finally: The course has two distinct nines with the front nine playing closer to the White Tank Mountains and it looks like home sites will be fairly limited on the front nice, while the back nine will play more through home development. I really enjoy the last 4 holes because it plays back toward the mountains and the last hole is a very nice par 5 over water and doglegs back into a small box canyon. The only suggestion for 18 is that they add a tee box between the silver tee box (548 yards) and the white tee box (470 yards). A good number would be at about 510 - 520 yards. Verrado Golf Club is now 36 hole golf complex that people can enjoy when they come to the "Valley of the Sun".

All Reviews by UNCLEDDBOY23

12 Likes.

Rated
7.3 Conditions

12. sixpez

Posted: 04/21/17 10:34a
Member Since: Oct 16, 2003
From: Rancho Mirage

I took advantage the early preview available at The Victory Course yesterday. You can see UNCLEDDBOY23's review for some details about the new course. The price was $89, but did include a bounce back voucher to come back and play either Verrado course in December for just $25. By then, The Victory Course, clubhouse, etc. should have a more "complete" feel, though I expect home construction around the course to be going on for awhile. I booked a 6:30 time through their site and was paired with three resident-members, who gave me a lot of insight and advice. One guy left after nine and we finished all 18 in about 3.5 hours. Temp pro shop, but nice grass driving range and circular practice green (reminiscent of Robinson Ranch's in its heyday). Plenty of drinking water stations on course and saw cart girl a couple times. Conditions are a little tricky being that it is a brand new course and the turf has a lot of maturing to do. Also, it plays a little differently on the back nine than the front because most of the back nine holes were built earlier as they were selling the first houses. Tee boxes had good grass throughout, but the ground was very hard underneath. Very difficult to get tees in the ground. The fairways were also firm underneath, which provided a lot of roll-out. However, the grass on top was lush, green and great to hit from. The rough on the front nine was overseeded, so it is lush and green. Cut low and easy to play from, though. Most of the back nine rough was not overseeded, so it is more of a semi-dormant look. Really shaved down and easy to play from. I wasn't in any bunkers, but they appeared to be decent. The greens are tough because they are really, really firm (again a little more matured on the older back nine holes, but still very firm). Approach shots and chips were really tough to hold. However, they were slow-ish on putts and speeds were also inconsistent at times. Basically, it's a new course and the greens will take awhile to mature. All in all, they were well-kept and will only get nicer with time, so I will give the greens a pass for now. Victory is a very different course than the Founders/Raven/original course at Verrado. I like that the two courses offer something different from one another. Overall, it's a flatter course with only some minor changes in elevation throughout. However, it has a lot of character with ample undulation in fairways and greens, unique boulder outcroppings brought into play and some links elements worked in. Very wide/forgiving fairways and huge greens that reward local knowledge and strategy (especially when playing so firm). A number of short risk/reward par-4s. Unfortunately, I thought the par-3s were all kind of bland and underwhelming given the landscape. 18th is a sweet par-5 finisher! I enjoyed Victory overall, but wasn't as blown away as I wanted to be. I think it will continue to get better with time (much of front nine is a construction war zone right now) and it is worth checking out. Something a little different in the middle range of AZ course, and a welcome addition to the rather small list of courses on the far west side of the valley. I look forward to seeing it evolve in the next few years. It was fun to play a new course/site that is still in a fairly raw state. Pix coming soon!

All Reviews by sixpez

12 Likes.

Rated
7.5 Conditions

13. UNCLEDDBOY23

Posted: 03/15/17 10:38p
Member Since: Jun 15, 2014
From: Peoria, Arizona

Overview: The Victory Course at Verrado Golf Club opened on Fri 2/10/17 and will be open for "preview" play until the end of April. The course will then close until the "grand opening" in October/November of 2017. At that point in time the clubhouse will be built and will be open to the public. Verrado Golf Club now has 36 holes of golf, but the courses are roughly 1.5 miles away from each other. Rates at Victory right now are $99 before 1:30 pm, $79 after 1:30 pm (twilight rate) and $49 after 3:00 pm (super twilight rate).

Clubhouse and Practice Area: Temporary trailer right now. and there was a little bit of merchandise in the pro shop. The golf shop assistant was very friendly and wanted our opinion of the course after we finished our round. We played after 1:30 pm, so the rate was $79, but my friend lives in Verrado so they gave me the $10 discount too. Very surprised that they did this, and she said "no problem at all". Practice balls were include in the rate.
Practice area was expansive and of course was in great shape. An opportunity here would be to get some practice balls that were not hard as rocks. They were brand new Taylor Made balls, but could not tell what type, but were very hard. Drove up to the practice putting green and it was very nice. It reminded me of the practice putting green at Wickenburg Ranch. A lot of undulation and the greens were rolling at about a 9 on the stimp. The greens ran about the same on the course, but this was to be expected because they want them to mature before they cut them to a faster speed.

Course: A tremendous layout that will only get better in time. The course is set up in the White Tank Mountains and gives you great views of the West Valley, Downtown Phoenix and the University of Phoenix Football Stadium. The course starts by going straight east for the first five holes and then turns back toward the northwest and almost right up against the White Tank Mountains. I think that holes 6 thru 9 are the best grouping of holes on the course, and 18 is a great finishing hole. The course has boulders on each of the holes and I like how the architect (Tom Lehman) incorporated boulders on the side of many of the bunkers. People might call it unfair that bunkers might have large rocks on the outside of them, but it brings a unique touch to the course. Fairways were in very good condition and the rough was not very penal. The greens, as stated earlier were a little slow, but they need to mature and develop a good base before they are cut to a faster speed. The greens had good grass coverage and often had false fronts, sides or backs. The wind will be a consistent test because it seems like it always blows 10-15 miles or higher in the Town of Buckeye.
I would have to say that my favorite two holes were the par 5 8th hole and the par 5 18th hole. The 8th hole is a double dog leg that aims right back up the Whitle Tank Mountains and is the highest spot on the course. This 18th hole is also a double dog leg that encourages you to cut off as much water as you want on the tee shot and then forces you to shoot to the green that sits in a little bit of a box canyon. The clubhouse is going to be built right above the 18th green. It should be a great theater setting when the sun is going down and people are coming up the 18th fairway.

Final Thoughts: Could not use your GPS because the course is not set up for that yet. Nice yardage numbers on the fairway and some of the rough sprinkler heads. but no yardage blocks on any of the tees. I felt that this was very strange and mentioned this as an opportunity. So you had to use the tee markers and the score card yardage together and then you could "eye ball" the yardage. This is something that will be fixed by the fall grand opening. I believe that Tom Lehman did a great job in designing the course and believe that it will only get better as it matures. Take a look at the video that I took from the 18th tee looking back up to the green. I have it on my Instagram site ... same name as my greenskeeper.org name.

All Reviews by UNCLEDDBOY23

15 Likes.

Rated
7.4 Conditions

SUBMIT

pages: 1 2

« previous | next »

Playing Conditions
8.25
Great