Tonto Verde

During this time of year, as one would expect, golfing in Arizona can become a very expensive habit.   While it may be considered a weak sister to its relative down the road, Vista Verde, the Ranch track at Tonto Verde is a great golf course for a great price.   I would imagine Tonto Verde's other offering, the Peaks course, is just as good albeit a bit pricier.  

The Ranch was in excellent shape and has matured nicely from the overseed in October.   The course is very straightforward; in fact, I cannot recall a single blind shot.  Fairways were lush and the tee boxes were impeccable.  The greens were in excellent shape and rolled fast but true.  As others have noted, the fairways are wide and very forgiving for the higher handicap golfer.  But don't be fooled:  Strategically placed bunkers can and will wreak havoc on errant shots.  At 7,000 yards from the tips, the course offers a wide variety of long and short par 4s and par 3s and plays for the most part as target golf.

The service at Tonto Verde was very personable and attentive.  As with most resort courses, the staff does all the work, from placing your bag in the desired cart to cleaning up your clubs after the round. The clubhouse is very nice and the locker rooms are well kept and clean.  Rangers do show up from time to time to chart the pace of play.

Verdict:  Go and play the Ranch course at Tonto Verde.

Played the Peaks course and the greens were rock hard so nothing held, not even little chips. I didn't mind the layout so much but make sure you get a map of the course from the pro shop if this is your first time around because there is a lot of blind shots. This course is targety and has many split fairways that end in desert. The greens putted really nicely, very fast and smooth. I wasn't super impressed with the starter who questioned me about my HCP like I was being interrogated by the police. I guess he was concerned I wasn't a low enough handicapper to play off the blue or black tees which is silly because the course isn't tough from any tee. He also told us to speed up because we had a hole and a half ahead of us but when  we teed off we never saw a group ahead of us and people weren't waiting behind us so he did the typical ranger power trip and ended up disturbing myself and my group by making us speed up when we didn't need to.

Make extra time to play the putting course out front, 18 holes and very fun.

I payed $30 for a cart, round and all the practice I want, not a bad deal for this time of year I guess if you like a drive out in the middle of no mans land.

Played there a couple of days ago. Not impressed to say the least. Facility is in fantastic shape for oversseding this time of year. (mid october) We showed up at 6 am for our 640 tee time. (that's plenty to get warmed up, get a cup of coffee, and use the bathroom before teeing off.) Clubhouse was empty. Ya know that xmas story when they say... "Nothing was stirring, not even a mouse?" Yea, that's what it felt like. Finally, after siiting around for 30 mins, the pro shop opens. We pay for our rounds, and get 10 mins to hit some balls.

*10 mins later*

We get to the tee box, no starter. Even the groundskeepers were running behind. Not a big deal, the guys were cool. With my limited spanish I was talking to one gentleman, and he was talking about how one course is down, and its a lot of work for them at the moment. I get it. They're busy, it's my day off, no big deal. The pace of play was slow, because each tee box we got to were being groomed, the tee boxes were on the side of the tee box, so we had to slow down a bit. Whos fault was that? Ours, of course. Golf course was in great shape, the views are amazing (I like Sun Ridge Canyon more, personally.)

*4 hours later*

Get done with the round, go inside for some food. Order drinks... 1 coke, an arnold palmer, a lemonade and a water. Server got 2 of 4 wrong. awesome! We order food, and the server says "Would you like to take care of that with a credit card or membership?" Well, in the REAL world, we wait till after our food arrives to usually pay... if you want a good tip anyways. Maybe I am in a different country it's otherwise... I answer I'll take care of it with cash. Here's his god to honest answer.

"We do not accept cash."

What?

Last time I checked, this is America, and it's safe to accept legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve, buddy.

Get the food, fries were the best part.

Get the check and the 20% is automatically added. Wow. We had a party of 3... not 8 or 10, 3.... Three. no wonder there was bad service.

TL-DR?

The service all around needs to be stepped up if. It's too far to be treated that way. But then again, if memberships is all they want, maybe they've found their niche. Old people all around, a nd a lot of people who don't care. Nice business plan, guys!

I'll pass next time.