The Raven Golf Club at Verrado provides a unique all-inclusive golf experience. Players enjoy true “member for the day” status with: unlimited golf, unlimited use of the practice facility, two full meals (breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner ordered from Verrado Grille), golf car, and on-course snacks and non-alcoholic beverages.

Built on the old Caterpillar bulldozer proving grounds, this course is located in the foothills of the White Tank mountains, 25 miles west of downtown Phoenix. It's an upscale desert layout designed by John Fought and Tom Lehman that opened for public play in January 2004. The golf course is like two layouts in one, with the front nine playing along a mostly level terrain with wide fairways leading to relatively flat green complexes that are very player friendly. Some holes feature short carries, and the desert consistently defines the playing area. The back side plays into the mountains, with holes 11 through 14 featuring significant elevation changes and rolling fairways. Many of the views on this side, from the tee areas and from many green complexes looking backwards, are of postcard quality.

Where The Raven will eat you alive is in the bunkers. Some bunkers are hard to carry, others collect wayward shots. But the fairways are wide enough to avoid trouble, and what appears to be the safe shot off the tee will often bring greenside bunkers more into play. So pick your poison. The total experience at this property is reminiscent of that at its sister course in Phoenix, the Raven at South Mountain.

The Raven at Verrado is step one of the West Valley's first big-time development that is sure to start a trend in the Phoenix metropolitan area, and is centerpiece of the 8,800-acre Verrado master-planned community being developed. Although, construction for the adjacent Verrado housing community is ongoing, it's presence does not detract from the golf experience in the least. Actually, the opposite is true. The traditional Southwestern architecture of the community can be felt throughout the golf environment.