Buckeye - Paradise Lost

Sunday was another beautiful June day in Phoenix. The temperature was in the mid 90s with little or no humidity or wind; a perfect day for golf! The Gardener and I trekked out to The Raven at Verrado Golf Club in beautiful Buckeye, Arizona, to play golf. I have been talking about going out to this course for some time, but this is my first time playing the course. I have played The Raven at South Mountain a number of times and the Raven courses are known for their great customer service.

Verrado is a large master-planned community developed by DMB Associates, Inc., one of the premier developers in Arizona. In the early and mid-200s Buckeye was the center of the Arizona real estate market. Every major homebuilder was building homes in Buckeye and land prices and home prices were increasing daily. Verrado was the showcase project in Buckeye. Homebuyers would line up a day or more in advance for the opportunity to participate in a lottery to buy lots in Verrado. Verrado was planned to have that midwestern small town look and feel with a Main Street and houses with front porches and wide residential streets with kids playing ball in the street. The elementary schools and local market are within walking or biking distance and there are parks for family picnics and nice ballfields for Little League. Verrado is still a very nice project but housing prices have dropped by 50% or more, many homeowners lost their homes and the banks are either trying to sell the homes at very reduced prices or renting them. There is little or no new development and large portions of the project have not yet been developed.

The Raven at Verrado Golf Course was designed by Tom Lehman and John Fought. Lehman and Fought also designed The Gallery North Course in Marana, which hosted the 2007 and 2008 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. The Raven is 7,258 yards from the tips with a course rating of 73.8 and a slope rating of 132. We played from the silver tees which are 6,833 yards with a course rating of 71.6 and a slope rating of 126. The course has very wide fairways and huge greens. Unfortunately, the greens had just been aerated and sanded so they were bumpy and slow.

I hit the ball from tee to green as well as I have ever played. On the front 9 I was hitting my driver well but I was 20 to 30 yards behind my playing partners. There is a small crack along the top of the clubhead of my driver and it was growing like the crack in a windshield in Arizona in the summer. Finally, at the turn I put the driver in my golf bag for good. In violation of USGA Rules, I used the Gardener's driver on the back 9. He has a TaylorMade Burner driver with a graphite shaft that is a few years old. I started hitting his driver and I was at least even with my playing partners on most of my drives. On the 449 yard par-4 16th hole I outdrove everyone by about 50 yards and was less than 150 yards from the green! As good as my ball-striking was, my putting was equally miserable. I had 39 total putts, including 5 3-putts. Part of the problem was that I was not hitting the ball near the flagstick and I had a lot of long putts. The other problem was that I was never able to figure out the pace of the greens with the holes punched in the greens and the greens sanded. I shot a 44 on the front 9 and a 45 on the back 9 with only two double bogeys and a lot of bogeys.

The Gardener is a good golfer, but he is tinkering with his swing and it has gotten into his head. He drove the ball pretty well all day but his iron shots were erratic to say the least. He was taking a short backswing closing down the clubface and pulling the ball left on some shots and he was late through the ball with an open clubface and hitting it right on other shots. Once in a while he would make a nice full turn and a smooth pass at the ball and the golf ball would fly high and true to the green. The Gardener shot a 47 on the front 9, but came back with a 43 on the back 9 for a 90. Once he finds his old swing, the Gardener will back back shooting in the low to mid 80s.