The Raven Golf Club - Phoenix (formerly Raven at South Mountain) provides an excellently laid out test of golf, always presented in great condition. The David Graham / Gary Panks layout blends plenty of golfing challenge and interesting features with the opportunity to score well if your golf game and course management are firing on all cylinders.

A hallmark of the course is its stylish and plentiful bunkering, combined with some of the quickest, toughest greens around. The pleasantly undulating fairways were created by moving plenty of earth on what was originally relatively flat terrain. Perhaps untypically for a Phoenix golf course, the holes are lined not by saguaro cacti (or real estate), but by smallish Georgia pine trees, which together with the mounding, give great definition to the holes.

With very little housing on or around the course, this is a layout that will appeal to golf purists. Although not too far from Phoenix's Sky Harbor International airport, and with a slight drone of traffic sometimes audible from nearby Baseline Road, these potential intrusions do not detract from the pleasures of a round on this excellent golf course.