Scottsdale Real Estate

Grayhawk Golf Club's Raptor course, designed by Tom Fazio, offers a thrilling challenge that commands a player's respect through a daring, high-stakes game of risk and reward.

Stretching 7,135 yards from the back tees, the par-72 Raptor Course meanders over the gentle hills and across shaded natural washes that are typical of this picturesque corner of the Sonoran Desert. Raptor offers players panoramic views of Scottsdale's rugged McDowell Mountains as it surrounds them with towering Saguaros, Palo Verde, Ironwood and Mesquite trees that were preserved in creating the golf course.

Typically, Raptor's fairways are generous, however, strategically placed fairway bunkers can quickly transform an offline drive into a scramble for bogey. The greens tend to be large, with a fair amount of undulation. Wayward approaches are duly penalized as most of the greens are perched above deep bunkers and grass collection areas. Fazio utilized water sparingly, but where it does come into play, he created intriguing hazards that add drama as well as aesthetic value to the golf course.

The Raptor course is generally considered to be one of the finest daily-fee golf courses in Arizona and is listed among the "Top 100 You Can Play in the U.S." by Golf Magazine. No stranger to professional golf events, Raptor was recently announced as the site of the 2007 Fry's Electronics Open, a Fall Series PGA Tour event to be played October 15-21, 2007. Other events held on Raptor since opening in 1995 include the inaugural Williams World Challenge; the semi-finals and finals of the Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf; Tommy Bahama's Desert Marlin; AJGA Thunderbird International Junior; the National Team Championships presented by Golf World; Antigua Team Challenge; FBR Open Pro Ams sponsored by Honeywell and Xerox; and Grayhawk Golf Club Charity Day Presented by Scottsdale 101 Auto Collection.