Verde River Golf & Social Club

In Arizona, if you’re willing to get in your car and drive, you can play some great golf courses. The latest example happened to me just the other day. One of my classmates at the Golf Academy works at Verde River Golf & Social Club in Rio Verde.

For the past several months, he’s tried to get me to come out there and play his course. It’s not that I didn’t want to play it, but part of me knew it was a haul to get out there, which made for an inconvenient out-of-the-way. But finally the stars aligned. We didn’t have Tournament Golf on President’s Day afternoon, so the date and time was set.

Verde River may have been farther away than even I had anticipated. I live in Chandler, which is basically southeast Phoenix. Verde River is in Rio Verde, which is basically northeast Scottsdale. There is no direct route. I hopped on the 101 and headed north to Pima Road. That took 30 minutes, and as I was about to find out, I still had about 30 minutes left to drive.

Verde River doesn’t misrepresent how far away it is from civilization. Their website claims “the community is located approximately ten miles east of the intersection of Pima and Dynamite in North Scottsdale… approximately 40 miles from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport; 30 miles from downtown Scottsdale, and ten miles from North Scottsdale.”

I turned right onto Dynamite Boulevard and kept going (and I mean kept going) past some of Scottsdale’s most iconic golf clubs: the iconic Troon North, Estancia, and Bob Parson’s swanky new Scottsdale National down the hill toward the Verde River. My buddy joked, “Big Trilogy entrance. Can’t miss it. If you think you’ve gone too far, you haven’t!”

As you head down into the valley toward the Verde River, which flows along the club’s eastern boundary, some stunningly beautiful views begin to come into focus. The course and surrounding community weaves its way across 850 acres of the rugged Sonoran Desert and the property sits adjacent to Tonto National Forest, overlooking the Mazatzal and Superstition Mountains as well as Four Peaks.

Since it first opened in 2007, it’s been called Vista Verde, Tegavah Golf Club, and now, after recently relaunching under new ownership, Shea Homes, it’s going by the name Verde River Golf & Social Club. I think the name is going to stick. I’ve always said there’s no greater economic indicator than new home construction, and there’s a lot of dirt being moved around out here. At Verde River, the economy is definitely back on the upswing, and they’re in a bit of a transition period.

But while you still can, you would be smart to book yourself a tee time online at GolfNow, where rounds are still only going for between $70-$85 during peak season! The course plays 6,922 yards from the Black Tees to a Par of 72, a course rating of 72.8, and a slope of 140. Here are some of the highlights of the round:

Holes Worth Writing Home About
As I was standing on the 1st tee, I was thinking to myself, “What does Verde River remind me of?” My first thought was Longbow Golf Club, which coincidentally, is another Kavanaugh design. But the real answer is, “Nothing.”

Sure, Verde River is a desert course, but unlike several of the other desert courses I’ve played, it’s not so penal that if you miss the fairway a little right or left you can’t find your ball and play it as long as you’re not afraid to scratch a club or two. It’s one of the best desert courses I’ve ever played. The whole course is overseeded, including the rough.

My favorite hole on the front nine, no contest, was the 126-yard Par 3 4th hole. There are two Par 3s in the first four holes on the front nine, which is a little unusual, but this one was awesome. The narrow green is surrounded by five big bunkers and is particularly tricky because like all the greens out here, it’s multi-tired and very undulating. I hit my ball just short of the back left pin, and it rolled down into a small bowl at the front of the green complex. I’m lucky it didn’t roll down into the front bunker.

One of the most aesthetically-pleasing aspects of Verde River is the bunkers. They frame the greens and fairways perfectly because they’re so sharply edged.

While the 18th and finishing hole is the only hole on the course with a water hazard, the hole that will have everyone in your foursome talking is the Par 5 17th. At 626 yards, it’s easily the longest hole on the course, and it’s a bear. Even after a great tee shot, there’s still no way you’re getting to the green on this slight dogleg left in two.

Usually, it plays directly into the wind, and your second shot has to be strategically placed to allow for a reasonable third shot – across a wash area and over a trio of greenside bunkers on the fairway side. Thank your lucky stars if you make birdie and walk away a happy man if you make your par. Remember, every putt will tend to break toward Four Peaks.

You’ll cling to your yardage book throughout the round, which thankfully, is included. It’s an amenity I’ve come to love about high-end courses. Don’t make me a pay for a yardage book!

Quiet Please…
Perhaps because of the overseeded perennial ryegrass, the greens were incredibly slow and couldn’t have been rolling faster than 7-8. Several of the putts we hit never even got to the hole and some came up embarrassingly short. That’s why you need two putters, I guess. A heavier, more lofted flatstick would have been a real asset.

My understanding is that they recently top-dressed the greens, but you could barely tell. There was little sand on the greens, and our ball marks were all but unrepairable. They were so firm you could barely get your divot-fixer into the turf.

When you go out to Verde River, you’ll see the same logo everywhere you look. It’s called the four eddy, and as Verde River’s website says, “Like the four points of a compass, the four eddies are both diametrically distinct, yet inextricably linked. Pushed any which way, the symbol will continue to stand – an indication of the strength and balance among the four elements… environment, adventure, culture, and unity. ”

In April, all but a few holes will be closing so construction can begin on a new, 30,000 square-foot clubhouse. It’s only a matter of time, as their website suggests, “until it’s reserved for just a fortunate few.” It’s semi-private now but is a private club by charter and design. Word on the street is that Verde River plans to go private in the next 3-4 years, on or around the time when all 1,200 home sites have been sold.

PGA Tour professional, former Ryder Cup Captain, and nearby resident Tom Lehman of Tom Lehman Design Group will also be working to improve the green complexes of the Ken Kavanaugh masterpiece (Longbow Golf Club in Mesa and Dell Urich in Tucson) as well as “recapturing some of the natural arroyos, in addition to ensuring that the spectacular sightlines to the nearby landmarks are incorporated into the course of play.”

There are also plans to re-route a few of the holes to accommodate the new clubhouse location: hole No. 8 will become hole No. 9, hole No. 9 will become Hole No. 1, hole No. 1 will become hole No. 2, and hole No. 10 will become hole No. 18. The routing of the course we played will look drastically different than what you’ll see in the coming months and years.

Oh, and you’re going to see plenty of wildlife at Verde River. A coyote darted across our moving golf cart early in the round, and then, as the sun was saying its final farewell and coyotes were howling in the background, another one popped its head out from behind a saguaro cactus just off the fairway behind us. Wild horses have also been spotted roaming the fairways from time to time.

The scorecard is in need of a little updating, but that can be overlooked given the number of renovations coming to Verde River in the next several months.

Fore!
The shot of the day came off the club of my classmate, Andrew Tyrholm. He hit a gap wedge on the Par 3 4th hole that, from our vantage point, looked like it hit the pin. When we got to the green, his ball mark was no more than two feet from the stick and tapped in for an easy birdie. It was a great shot, and for a moment, it looked like Andrew was buying us all drinks.

While We’re Young
We teed off around 2:40 and got back to the clubhouse as the sun was setting around 6:30p. We couldn’t have hit another ball, it was that dark. With the sun setting on the back nine, we couldn’t help but notice the majestic views of Four Peaks (with snow still on them) as they turned bright pink, even bordering on purple. No where on earth do you get sunsets like you do in the desert.

Next On the Tee
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a chance to play the Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale while the scaffolding’s still up. The Waste Management Phoenix Open was less than two weeks ago, and the scaffolding should take weeks to take down.