Matt: There will be 3 new courses on the west side of PHX opening this winter. Raven at Verrado(Fought/Lehman)www.verrado.com- Trilogy at Vistancia(Panks) and CorteBella(Nash)www.cortebella.com
All are housing development courses so play there before the houses get built. Another course on the west side that is getting good reviews, although I haven't played there yet, is Estrella Mountain Ranch(Nicklaus II) I'll try them out in March during my annual visit with some friends who have memberships at Desert Highlands,Quintero and Mirabel. Steve
Here is an article from
www.golfarizona.com:
West side story
takes off
in Phoenix golf
By Rebecca Larsen, Associate Editor
PHOENIX (Oct. 1, 2003) -- If you want to play the newest and best thing in daily-fee courses in the Valley of the Sun this winter, you'd better head west, far west.
Two of them, the Raven at Verrado and Trilogy at Vistancia, are set to open in a few months with green fees anticipated to be in the $120 to $130 range in the high season and $50 to $60 in summer.
As is often the case in the Phoenix area, these new places to play will be the centerpieces for giant housing developments. But both offer high-quality golf, a cut above the average subdivision course.
First to open in late January or early February will be the Raven at I-10 and Verrado Way in Buckeye, a town that is about 20 miles from downtown Phoenix. The par-71, 7,300- yard course is being designed by architect John Fought and PGA star Tom Lehman. Although it's billed as a desert-style course with a target flavor, the Raven at Verrado will have generous landing areas, says Ben Keilholtz, marketing manager for Intrawest, the firm developing the course and also managing it.
"It's going to be tough for golfers when they get around the putting surfaces," Keilholtz says. "The greens have a lot of undulations and there are challenging bunkers."
This new Raven winds up and down through the foothills of the White Tank Mountains where golfers can see the Phoenix skyline on clear days. Some 1,600 native trees were salvaged during building and are being replanted to give the course a lush feeling.
The course bears the signature brand of the "Raven," a logo that Intrawest, a Scottsdale firm, uses to label its premier offerings. There are six Ravens across the country; one other is in Phoenix - the Raven at South Mountain.
"It's possible that future courses could be built in the Verrado community, but for now, there's only the Raven," says Keilholtz.
Verrado itself is an 8,800-acre community with elevations of up to 3,600 feet. It's expected to have 14,000 homes at build-out with 2,000 popping up in the first phase. The master-plan developer is DMB of Scottsdale, also developer of DC Ranch in that town; Lehman makes his home at DC Ranch, by the way. DMB's goal is to make Verrado resemble an old-fashioned small town that will have a city center with housing, office, retail stores, schools and entertainment. For more on the development, check out verrado.com.
The other new course opening in February is Trilogy at Vistancia, also managed by Intrawest. This course, actually northwest of Phoenix, is located in Peoria and is being laid out by Gary Panks of Scottsdale, acclaimed for his designs at Whirlwind Golf Club on the Gila River Reservation and the Talon Course at Grayhawk in Scottsdale.
"This course has a very different style," says Keilholtz. "It's a links design with tall fescue lining the fairways. It's going to be 7,200 to 7,300 yards in length and will be very challenging."
Vistancia has a 7,100-acre site near the reservoir of Lake Pleasant and at buildout will have 17,000 homes. The first phase, Trilogy, will be a community of 2,500 homes for active adults and another 1,100 for families. The location, about 20 to 25 miles from downtown Phoenix, is roughly bordered by Carefree Highway, Jomax Road and 113th and 163rd avenues.