Played Vista Verde Sun Mar 25th. VV is remote, but it is a great value option for the high quality of surfaces, great views, and very interesting course layout.

As others note, there is no clubhouse. You check in at the small office trailer near the turn off of Rio Verde Dr. It’s no problem to figure out where to go. The only restrooms are portable toilets. Our cart had 4 gratis bottles of water in the cart’s ice chest. We saw the cart girl 3-4 times during our round.

Range balls are included with the green fee, and with an all grass range, the balls are nice and clean. There is an ample chipping and sand practice green, and a somewhat smaller, but large enough putting green.

VV has something of a reputation for fast greens, but on this day I would say that they were a little sluggish. However, the practice green seemed to be quite fast. I’d say this discrepancy caused our group some trouble on the greens, and also made for some difficulty reading breaks as the slow greens seemed to help putts hold their line instead of fall with the slopes. While a bit slow, the greens were in terrific condition.

I wish I had tested the sand in the practice area. I don’t know if it varies from what’s on the course, but I found the sand in the three bunkers I was in on the course to be very soft, giving way so easily that blasts came up quite short.

VV is a course that offers a lot of challenges in the landing zone off the tees with bunkers, washes, and desert coming into play on many tee shots. Lots of choices to make. It’s got that same quality all over really, with many wash crossings in front of greens too. It’s a course that is a bit unclear the first time around. A nice course map is complimentary, however a couple of the distances shown to bunkers in the fairway seemed off.

This is the most crowded time of the year in AZ, and we went off with not much room for error on getting 18 in. The ranger was active in helping move things along. We completed our round in 4:45.

Overall, Vista Verde is a top shelf public access course in AZ.

Vista Verde Golf Course Review
Rio Verde Arizona Golf Course Reviews

Played PM Sat 3-17-12. Notable that there is no driving range. Also, first hole is HC #1 with water in the RH slice zone, and it’s easy to drive through the first fairway’s dog leg, which goes right. Makes for a difficult start with no range to warm up. 2nd shot is much less foreboding, however.

Course eases up after #1. Flat track, but with some modest elevation changes and plenty of trees and dog legs to keep things interesting.

Surfaces were fine, although our group found the greens to be inconsistent; some faster, some slower, some broke hard, some didn’t break like it looked like they would. I wasn’t in the sand, so no comment on that other than to say that there aren’t really a lot of bunkers on this course.

A couple of fairways are narrow and a bit house-crowded.

Par 70 with the odd par 37 front and par 33 back arrangement. Finished in just under 4 hours. Overall, a fine course in fine shape.

Painted Mountain Golf Resort Review
Phoenix Arizona Golf Course Reviews

Played AGR Mar 11, 2012. I've played this course about half a dozen times in the last couple of years. It's always played as a reasonably-priced well-conditioned course. It's board flat, and while that does cut into the interest level some, the dog legs and length along with plenty of mature trees add to the difficulty.

On my recent round all of the manicured surfaces were in fine shape; tee boxes, fairways, and greens. There were a few areas of sogginess due to overwatering. As per usual, off the manicured surfaces there's plenty of hardpan, but there's also a lot of good quality grass in the periphery of this course. I was in two sand traps and looked over another couple, and they had good workable sand.

This course gives you a small bucket gratis with a round, which is nice.

I've eaten at the restaurant before, and I've always thought the food was good and the ambiance looking over the course is very nice.

One thing I always notice about this course is that it's among the quietest courses I play. It snakes through houses. I find it a little tight in spots and very wide in others.

A fair gripe about this course is that of the six par 3 holes, four of them play to a similar 210ish yardage and two play to a similar 170ish yardage. I typically use only two different clubs on their par 3s, although #4 was at 230 last week, so that had me pulling my 3 wood.

The par 5s are slightly short at 480-505, but I don't typically reach them in two. The par 4s are all over 380 yds, so no drivable par 4s. Very little in the way of forced carries on this course; one par 3 goes over water. In general, the water hazards are not difficult to avoid.

Overall, this course is and will remain in my regular rotation. It isn't a course that will inspire effusive compliments, but it's solid.

Arizona Golf Resort Review
Mesa Arizona Golf Course Reviews