Grayhawk Raptor to host 2020-2022 NCAA Championships

[One_Putt_Blunder]

Interesting news coming from the NCAA today. They have selected Raptor to host 3 consecutive NCAA golf championships starting in 2020.

http://golfweek.com/...ayhawk-in-2020/

 

 

Of course Grayhawk has had its share of tournament exposure before with the Fry's and Anderson Consulting World Golf Championships a precursor to the WGC Matchplay.

 

I think the course will set up very well for the NCAA and offer a fair but solid test of golf with the possibility of some very good risk reward set ups with a couple short par 4's and if they leave 18 as a par 5 can be a tremendous closing hole. The big question I have is what are the going to do with 15-17 after the recent re routing? I think 15 and 17 are serviceable as they sit but 16 seems like an afterthought and while I love short par 3's this is a very bland hole that will present little to no challenge to the best of college golf.

 

Here is a couple shot of the course and new holes http://www.golfwrx.c...holes-15-16-17/

 

Some more pics of the course http://www.golfwrx.c...2#entry15314562 and http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/873082-share-your-personal-course-pictures/page__st__780__p__14231470#entry14231470

[Skydiver22]

I just saw this as well... had to laugh when they stated that ASU will be the tourney host. I bet Papago just loves that...

[herbygolf21]

Those guys are going to go LOW out there!

[One_Putt_Blunder]

Those guys are going to go LOW out there!

 

I think it will be entertaining once they get to the team matchplay event.

[nocarts83]

In general, how does it compare post-reno? I haven't played it since they redid those holes, but even then I liked Talon a hair better. When I played Raptor, I was with some members that weren't too thrilled with what they were going to do. I took that with a margarita glass full of salt, though, since any change probably wouldn't be welcome.

[One_Putt_Blunder]

In general, how does it compare post-reno? I haven't played it since they redid those holes, but even then I liked Talon a hair better. When I played Raptor, I was with some members that weren't too thrilled with what they were going to do. I took that with a margarita glass full of salt, though, since any change probably wouldn't be welcome.

 

On their own merit 15 and 17 are not bad holes and once the vegetation grows in on 15 it will fit right in and wont stand out much. 16 however is a waste, I love a good short par 3 the problem is 16 is not a good short par 3. Very very straight forward and not enough challenge for what is a PW or GW off the tee. The bigger problem is when you compare the new 15-17 to the old 15-17. The original 15 and 16 were such good holes it was impossible for them to replace them and not have complaints. I like the new shorter 17th over the old long one. Green complex is still the same and it is a good risk reward green for a short par 4

[nocarts83]

In general, how does it compare post-reno? I haven't played it since they redid those holes, but even then I liked Talon a hair better. When I played Raptor, I was with some members that weren't too thrilled with what they were going to do. I took that with a margarita glass full of salt, though, since any change probably wouldn't be welcome.

 

On their own merit 15 and 17 are not bad holes and once the vegetation grows in on 15 it will fit right in and wont stand out much. 16 however is a waste, I love a good short par 3 the problem is 16 is not a good short par 3. Very very straight forward and not enough challenge for what is a PW or GW off the tee. The bigger problem is when you compare the new 15-17 to the old 15-17. The original 15 and 16 were such good holes it was impossible for them to replace them and not have complaints. I like the new shorter 17th over the old long one. Green complex is still the same and it is a good risk reward green for a short par 4

Sadness. Oh well. It's not a huge deal for me as I'm only there once or twice a year and probably wouldn't have picked Raptor on an average day anyway, but it's too bad for the regulars.

[QMany]

Having played Grayhawk, it will be fun to see it featured on TV.

 

But it seems like too much of a competitive advantage for ASU to host here for 3 years. U of Oregon got home-field advantage last year and won, but this takes that to an extreme.

[jewofgolf]

Having played Grayhawk, it will be fun to see it featured on TV.

 

But it seems like too much of a competitive advantage for ASU to host here for 3 years. U of Oregon got home-field advantage last year and won, but this takes that to an extreme.

 

Can ASU really afford a bunch of practice rounds at grayhawk though?

[ClarkGrswld4]

Having played Grayhawk, it will be fun to see it featured on TV.

 

But it seems like too much of a competitive advantage for ASU to host here for 3 years. U of Oregon got home-field advantage last year and won, but this takes that to an extreme.

 

Can ASU really afford a bunch of practice rounds at grayhawk though?

 

hopefully that was sarcasm. This is a big step down for the NCAA compared to other recent venues for the Championship

[nocarts83]

Having played Grayhawk, it will be fun to see it featured on TV.

 

But it seems like too much of a competitive advantage for ASU to host here for 3 years. U of Oregon got home-field advantage last year and won, but this takes that to an extreme.

 

Can ASU really afford a bunch of practice rounds at grayhawk though?

 

hopefully that was sarcasm. This is a big step down for the NCAA compared to other recent venues for the Championship

 

I know Rich Harvest Farms is highly ranked, but it didn't look very fun to play. Maybe it's different to actually play vs. watching on TV (highly plausible), but it looked like a root canal to play.

[Thrillhouse]

Are they going to re do the course for this?

 

Don't get me wrong, I love grayhawk, I used to practice there back in the day and I've played both courses a ton. But I'm not really sure that raptor is a good enough course to just park the NCAAs there for 3 consecutive years. It's ok, but it's not even remotely close to being the best course in the area. Whisper rock would make more sense (but they'd never do it), the courses down south where they played the match play the last few years would make sense, and desert mountain would make a lot of sense, but I'm not really seeing this. Then you have the additional issue of desert golf not being really great to begin with (it's more about the weather than the quality of the courses).

 

It will be good for grayhawk to market the course through the NCAAs, I just think the NCAA could have picked much better venues for this.

[One_Putt_Blunder]

I would imagine they make some changes in the next 3 years. The number one hole that sticks out to me is number 16. It should be blown up and start from scratch. The intriguing thing for me is there is a ton of set up options out there. If they want to protect par they can get tough with pin positions and drop it to par 70 as there are two par 5's in the shortish range with greens that would hold long approaches to make it somewhat fair. Or they can go for low scores leave it as par 72 play around with the tee choices and with a couple very good short risk reward par 4's and reachable par 5's could see some fireworks. There is a lot of movement in many of the greens and certain pin positions will make holes play .25 to .5 strokes higher if they really want to. I think from a match play point of view it will be more intriguing with the different risk reward options. Stroke play will probably be a birdie fest.

 

One thing to remember is they host a few very big nationally recognized junior events so many of the players will be familiar with it from their JR days too.

[Thrillhouse]

I would imagine they make some changes in the next 3 years. The number one hole that sticks out to me is number 16. It should be blown up and start from scratch. The intriguing thing for me is there is a ton of set up options out there. If they want to protect par they can get tough with pin positions and drop it to par 70 as there are two par 5's in the shortish range with greens that would hold long approaches to make it somewhat fair. Or they can go for low scores leave it as par 72 play around with the tee choices and with a couple very good short risk reward par 4's and reachable par 5's could see some fireworks. There is a lot of movement in many of the greens and certain pin positions will make holes play .25 to .5 strokes higher if they really want to. I think from a match play point of view it will be more intriguing with the different risk reward options. Stroke play will probably be a birdie fest.

 

One thing to remember is they host a few very big nationally recognized junior events so many of the players will be familiar with it from their JR days too.

 

Yeah I know, the AJGA thunderbird, the frys was there briefly as well.

 

Thing is it might be tough to protect the scores. The gateway tour got bounced from there after 2005 or so because they lit the place up and the course (I guess) figured it was bad for business to have that out there. The leader shot 61-61 after two days, second was 61-62, and so on. And that tour tucked pins worse than anything I've seen because it's the only way you could protect the courses from the guys at the top of the field in those things.

[One_Putt_Blunder]

Really Southern Dunes is the best tourney set up just cause they can get it back to 7500ish whereas Raptor is limited to just over 7k in its current configuration. That place (Southern Dunes) can get lit up too I think course record is down to 61 or maybe 62. If they really wanted to they could actually grow some rough out too. Desert golf for good players is inherently easy if you can drive the ball reasonably straight. Short of a tricked up course with forced layups that could not be carried by even the longest hitters I really dont think there is much out here that is going to keep the elite players scores up.

 

Speaking of Gateway set ups I played on the heels of the Gateway tour championship a few years back hit the ball great all day. Fired at every single sucker pin just to see what would happen. Super firm greens tucked and protected pins I shot like 82 hitting 13/14 fairways or something like that. Realistically had I played conservative to center green taken my two putts and moved on I would have shot 74-75. Low round on gateway was 64. I was a 1 at the time. I like to use this example when people (random hacks I get paired with) think I am a good player and should try playing for money lol.

[Thrillhouse]

Lol yeah those pins are crazy, I have a pin sheet where 16 of the pins are cut 4 from the edge, one is 5, and one is 3 (I didn't even know you could do that!)

 

Protecting scores on desert courses is next to impossible, but the way they set up raptor for frys I think only 20 under or so was winning, so not too bad.

[One_Putt_Blunder]

Honestly i think after Rich Harvest Farms a course that may look good on TV but was a train wreck for actual strategy and play NCAA would rather play at a place like Grayhawk that can provide lower scores and some fireworks.

 

I love the TV coverage and I think we've reached a point where birdies and low scores drive ratings more than a slugfest and for that Grayhawk should be great theater