Summary: Value Rating = D

The setting where Ventana Canyon is located is very dramatic. You are nestled up against the edge of the Santa Catalina Mountains which provides spectacular views of the surrounding area. Ventana Canyon, Mountain Course is a memorable layout that I would like to play again. It has all the features I look for in terms of playability but from a value perspective it fails to offer great play for an affordable price. You can enjoy golf on similar courses in the area for much less despite the wonderful mountain views.

We played the course based on their twilight green fee of $127.32 (US, taxes in). The regular green fees for October play are much higher, over $200 if I remember their rates correctly. The resort in Oro Valley where we stayed did offer a discount off of the regular green fees but that was still more than we paid using the twilight rate. Refer to their website (www.thelodgeatventanacanyon.com ) for more information about the entire complex, including golf.  For Canadians, consider the exchange rate to assess your view of the cost and value.

Refer to my evaluation criteria – www.lifepast50.ca/topic-list/golf/reviewcriteria

Some Details:

We played the Ventana Canyon Mountain Course on October 30, 2008. The course includes 36 holes – the Mountain Course and the Canyon Course. The courses winds through the canyons and arroyos in this area of Tucson.

The Mountain Course offers liberal fairways providing room to spray the ball around – it is very playable. This makes the course a bit less challenging than some of the other courses but only slightly less challenging because you still have to keep the ball in play. If you end up off the course you have little chance to recover and will most definitely end up penalized.

The Mountain Course was very well maintained, manicured and watered – the fairways and rough are very lush and green.

Ventana Canyon is located in the north Tucson area. From our Oro Valley resort location, it took us about 25 minutes to drive to the course.

The course offers wonderful views of Tucson and Santa Catalina mountains. Due to the higher elevation the course offers more trees and bushes than we experienced at lower elevations. We also assumed that there was more water in this area as there was a lot more vegetation. We did not see as much wildlife as we noticed on other courses in the area.

We played the silver tees in the hope that we would play our round a bit quicker given our mid-afternoon start (twilight tee time). There is more than a 550 yard difference between the gold and silver tees – (6318 yards versus 5733 yards). I would have preferred to have played the course with a bit more distance (say closer to 6000 yards) but it is what it is. I was playing well and was 10 over par after 16, which included a penalty stroke on #7, when we were forced to stop due to impending darkness. Even if I doubled the last two holes I would have shot an 86 – two bogeys would have given me an 84.

You do need to keep your ball on the course. The dense vegetation along the edges make it difficult to find your ball as some in our group found out. The greens are large and it does pay to stay below the hole. The greens were very consistent speed wise and provided some undulations which mostly affected longer putts.

The club house and facilities are very nice. We did not hang around after our round so I’m not able to comment on those aspects of what the course has to offer. There were a lot of staff around the course facilities so we assumed this was a popular resort.

My Evaluation Details:

Scenery – There are a number of elevation changes which provide you with great views of the surrounding area. The views aren’t quite as grand as some of the other courses in the area but there are some very wonderful spots to spend a moment to gather the scenery in. As noted in some of the course advertising, hole #3 on the Mountain Course is a very spectacular par 3. Check out my photo later in this review.

Mix of holes – there is as great mix of long and short holes that include both right and left dog legs. Given we played from the silver tees, I didn’t use all the clubs in my bag. I did not have to use my 3, 4 or 5 iron. This was most likely due to playing the silver tees and the fact I was hitting the ball well off the tee.

Consistency and condition – the course was in tremendous shape and offered consistent tee boxes, greens, fairways, rough and bunkers. The consistency across all the holes was excellent. I only played one bunker shot and was able to advance the ball without difficulty.

Golf Challenge – The course offers a blend of decision making places but wasn’t as challenging in this regard as other courses in the area.

• tee shots – You do have to hit over some desert areas with your tee shot but from the silver tees, these areas aren’t a problem. The fairways provide a very decent amount of space to land your ball and you don’t have to worry too much about a specific target. This doesn’t mean you can swing wildly, but you do have some extra room for a fade or draw. Hole #3 is quite spectacular given you shoot across 100 yards of canyon.
• fairway shots – Typically the fairway narrows as you approach the green so it is best to fly the ball in as trying to run a shot up requires good accuracy. For the most part, keeping the ball in the fairway will provide you with a flat lie. There are some undulating areas where you can end up with an uphill/downhill lie.
• pin placements – The pin placements were very fair with a good mix of front, back, middle and side pin placements. Although I didn’t get any birdies I did shoot many pars and bogeys. The course was very fair.
• putting – the greens were very consistent, smooth with hardly any bumps resulting in your ball rolling very nicely towards your target. The greens were not cut as short as they could be so you did have to make a stronger stroke on longer putts.
• greens – the greens were receptive to approach shots – soft in most areas so a high shot landed with little roll. Bump and run shots as well as lower trajectory approach shots rolled evenly and consistently.
• a chance to recover – If you ended up off the course you most likely ended up with an unplayable lie or lost ball. The areas around the course had brush and trees. The rough was thick but not too deep. You needed to take a good strong swing at the ball to make sure you made good contact. From my experience most balls that I hit into the rough ended up 1/2 buried.

Other Observations:

The course had a great practice facility which we took full advantage of. We did arrive about 45 mintues ahead of our tee time in the hope that we might be able to get off a bit earlier but the course was busy and we weren’t able to move our tee time up. The practice greens were a bit faster that what we experienced on the course.

Given our twilight tee off time of 2:10 and the sunset time in the Tucson area in October, we thought we would be able to get the whole round in. Unfortunately on the last 2 holes there was a bottleneck and we weren’t able to finish our round. By the time we reached the 17th tee, there was already a foursome waiting on the tee, one in the fairway and another on the green. We could see the 18th and it was just as busy as the 17th so we decided there was no way to finish.

The pace of play was slow compared to the other courses we played on this trip, especially on the back 9. Given the number of golfers I saw on the course in front of us and behind us, I felt that they had overloaded things a bit. On the back 9 we had to wait on every tee prior to hitting our tee shots. We weren’t sure if there was one or a couple of groups in front of us that were slowing things down or just that there were too many golfers on the course.

As you will see from the photo’s below, the area is filled with a variety of desert vegetation including many Saguaro cactus, especially at the higher elevations.

They say hole #3 is one of the most photographed golf holes in the western US, so I’ve included two photos. One from the lower tees and one from the higher tees.

Mountain Course Hole #3 - Lower Tee View

Mountain Coures Hole #3 - Higher Tee View

Some of the other great views.

Mountain Course Hole 5 - View From Tee

Mountain Course Hole 11

Mountain Course - Mountain View 1

Mountain Course - Santa Catalina Mountains

reach me at Lane@lifepast50.ca