Summary:   Value Rating = A+

I would definitely want to play this course again – very memorable. It has all the features I look for in terms of playability.

In terms of value, at the cost charged when we played, it was great value but that was a discounted rate. Regular rates are higher, especially during the peak playing season. This would lower the overall value rating.  Note that we paid a "re-opening" special green fee of $65 (US, excluding taxes) which influenced my value rating (2008) – recent rates were in the $75 range in October 2010 .  The peak season advertised rates (from January 21 through to April 12 – refer to www.vistosogolf.com) are $150 but $100 after 1pm.  For Canadians, consider the exchange rate to assess your view of value.

New feature – a short video clip of the course – to give you a better feel for Vistoso.  View my course preview video on YouTube.

Refer to my evaluation criteria.

Some Details: I've played Vistoso 3 times – all on great sunny days.  Vistoso is located north of Tucson (in the Oro Valley area).  It was no more than a 10 minute drive from our Oro Valley location.

Our green fee included a cart and access to the range which we took full advantage of.  The practice greens were very close in feel and roll to the real greens.  The practice greens lacked some of the subtle direction changes we encountered when the ball approached the hole, as we soon found out.

This is a desert course with plenty of desert scrub surrounding each hole filled with varieties of cactus, brush and desert wildlife.  You will see some wildlife including rabbits, lizards, Javelinas and Roadrunners.  We didn't see any snakes even though we did hit a few errant shots into the desert areas.  Signs regarding rattlesnakes were posted and we were very cautious given one of my buddies deep fear of the slithery creatures.  He can jump pretty high even when it is a harmless garter snake like we sometimes encounter back home.

The views from the course of the surrounding Santa Catalina and Tortolita Mountains are really beautiful.  There is nothing like standing over a shot with a spectacular vista in front of you.  Vistoso offers this to you on many occasions.

We played the silver tees – this matched up well with our scoring abilities and also complimented our graying hair.  The course offers tee blocks for all abilities.  I've shot 86, 88 and 92 on the course.  A few errant shots into the desert will cost you a stroke or two.

As with most courses I've played in Arizona, it pays to stay below the hole as the greens were in good shape, very consistent on the speed front, and had subtle bends as the ball rolled towards the hole.

After the round we enjoyed a few beers and snacks on the outdoor patio adjacent to the clubhouse.

My Evaluation Details:

Scenery – beautiful desert landscape scenes surround the course including wonderful views of the Santa Catalina and Tortolita Mountains.  If you like desert vistas you will enjoy the views.

Mix of holes – offers a great mix of long and short holes with a challenging blend of holes that bend left and right which will make you use all the clubs in your bag.  A number of the holes force you to play target golf – hit to a spot on the fairway which avoids trouble and provides you with a good next shot.

Consistency and condition – the place was in fabulous shape and offered consistent tee boxes, greens, fairways, rough and bunkers.  The consistency of all parts of the course was just fabulous.  You can land in the desert areas and still have a shot as long as your ball ended up in an open spot so it doesn't necessarily mean a lost ball or an unplayable lie.  I played a couple of bunker shots and was able to advance the ball without any problems.

Character – along with the features described above, the course has a lot of character.  Although it lacks big elevation changes, the course offers undulating terrain which complements the surroundings.  The greens provided a nice blend of straight and bendy putts.  The ball rolled extremely consistently around the whole course and it didn't take us long to adjust to the speed and roll of the ball across the greens.

Golf Challenge – the course offers a great blend of decision making places……

• tee shots – You do have to hit over desert areas of varying lengths on all tee shots but none of these were found to cause any problems, in other words there were no blind shots to unseen landing areas.
• fairway shots – Once in the fairway you will encounter decision points of when to lay up or go for the green or hit over another obstacle.  Holes #6, 11, 14 and 16 will make you think a little on what risks you want to take.  You can spray the ball a little and get away with it as the course gives you some extra room but you do have to control your game to keep out of trouble.  For the majority of the shots you will encounter reasonable flat lies.  There are some undulating areas where you will encounter uphill/downhill lies.
• pin placements – The day we played, pin placements were very fair.  A great mix of front, back, middle and side pin placements made you hit a variety of approach shots.  I used all aspects of my short game, limited as it is, to try and get the ball close.  I did get one birdie, a couple of shots at more birdies, and a handful of pars.  I certainly left the course feeling that it was fair in this regards for my ability – challenging but I wasn't beaten.
• putting – very consistent and we adjusted to the speed and roll of the ball quickly – within a couple of holes.  The practice greens were pretty close to what we encountered on the course and I would say the practice greens were a bit faster.  The greens were very smooth with hardly any bumps resulting in your ball rolling very smoothly towards your target.
• greens – on approach shots, the greens were receptive in that high iron shots landed with only a few feet of roll (since we do lack the ability to get a great deal of backspin on these types of shots).  When you tried bump and run shots or lower flight approach shots from the fairway, the ball rolled across the greens very evenly and consistently.  If you judged the speed and the touch needed correctly you were rewarded with a short putt.
• a chance to recover – you could play shots out of the desert areas as long as your swing or ball wasn't obstructed by a shrub or cactus.  It was very fair since you had a shot about 1/2 the time (based upon our experience).  The rough was very different from what we are use to regularly playing in Canada and it did take a couple of shots to adjust.  You could get a fluffy lie which could cause you to swing under the ball thus popping it up into the air or you could get the ball slightly buried which meant you had to hit down on it to move it forward a reasonable distance.  Once you got use to this feature, it wasn't a distraction.

Other Observations: The rule the day in mid to late October is cart path only so, as usual, we managed to have most of our shots land some distance from the carts.  A little more walking than we expected.  I'm not sure I fully understand why it was cart path only as the course appeared to be fully capable of handling the cart traffic – of course we aren't 100% familiar with the impact the carts have in the desert environment so I'm sure the course has it reasons for this.

The first hole provides a gentle beginning to your round because it provides a wide fairway and a relatively flat green.  Don't let this fool you as things get a little more difficult after the opening hole as you move on to the other holes.

My favourite hole was #14 – encountering it for the first time made me wonder what I was looking at because you do need to decide whether to hit a safe shot or try and aim for the green.  The hole is very picturesque as well which adds to making it a very memorable hole.  I did manage to hit my tee shot into the desert because I over swung which caused me to reload but my 3 off the tee was almost perfect and I chipped it close for a 1 putt and a bogey.

The photo below presents a view from the tee on 14.

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Here are some more photos.

Comments appreciated —– Lane Smith – lane@lifepast50.ca