Resorts at Ventana Canyon: Loews and The Lodge

First, let me say it’s a beautiful course, great condition and lightning fast greens that were immaculate. Definitely a challenging course and the Mountain Course’s signature Par 3 is really cool. I highly recommend playing it at least once.

With that said, here’s my beef on the experience. If you book online, you’re forced to check in at the Loews Resort area and not at Ventana Lodge. It’s further up the road and not convenient for the golfer. Plan on being there at least an hour prior and more if you like to spend time on the range.

Checking in at Loews Resort requires patience and time or lugging your clubs a long way through the parking lot and down a couple flights of stairs. If you’re patient, a shuttle will eventually pick you up in the parking lot then drive down a dilipidated cart path down around the cart barn and then you can walk up a couple flights of stairs past the pool and tennis courts to check in.

Upon check in, the staff in a little hole in the wall pro shop knows why you’re there and treats you the same. You’re the discount golfer and not a resort guest.

Then you walk back down to your cart. Nothing like a good cardio workout before your round!

Upon completion of your round, you better hope staff is available to shuttle you and your clubs back up to your car, if not you’ll be lugging them up a couple flights of stairs and to your car.

Again, beautiful course but be aware how you’ll be treated. 2nd Class.

Enjoyable round of golf, was neither pushed or had to wait for anyone the entire round. course was in great condition, greens were fast but true. Altogether an enjoyable round of golf.

PLAYED WITH MY SON. STAFF WAS GREAT. PACE OF PLAY WAS PERFECT. COURSE WAS IN GOOD SHAPE EVEN AFTER THE STORM THE DAY BEFORE. COULD NOT ASK FOR A BETTER WAY TO SPEND FATHER'S DAY.

staff not friendly. staff person at pro shop by the resort very unwelcoming. I wanted to buy some merchandise and asked it as I could not find the tag. he said something to the effect of 'keep looking' and offered not help. he cart attendant - and there was no one else there- asked if I'd been in contact with my party, I had not and told him so. asked by me why, he said ' you may have to come back here to pick him up. the range/clubhouse is a long way to the cart pick up and I'm the paying guest, so why would I have to do this? just a bad taste in my mouth. several employees that certainly aren't going to help Ventana earn my golf buck.

Ultimate golfing experience! Mountain course is an awesome layout with spectacular views that will bring you back for another round of golf. This course is on my must play list when visiting Tucson.

This golf course was very disappointing, as five greens did not have pins or flagsticks and irrigation was running on numerous greens. I mentioned this to course management and they could care less and wouldn’t give a refund. Very disappointed.

Greens near perfect, and fast. Fairways nice and firm for a good rollout. Rough trimmed to very playable length. Bunkers pristine.

The fairways were fine, with extra watering on some brown spots cause of the heat. Greens had been aerated a while ago and still had evidence of that, making them very difficult to read and putt. Even small breaks seemed to be magnified which was difficult. Ventana is a walk in a garden to play. It's very beautiful and a fine experience every time.

Hmmmm...well needless to say it was difficult to find pro shop. Once you get your cart you have to drive a mile or so to the driving range. It was a cluster since everyone there was on a shotgun start. We had to drive, again, to our starting hole...what a trip. The course itself was ok to play. No yardage book or gps. I have to say I remember most about driving to hole to hole then the course itself. The pace of play was sloooooooow. No marshall.....after driving back up to hole #1 my partner and I decided to call it a day.....with 4 holes to play...I will skip this course next time down and pay a few more dollars.....

started playing as a single, me, and a rider, my wife. there were NO reps on the entire course with towels, drinks or info. but the worst part was when we finished the 18th, found our way to the proshop, it was closed at 2. ok where is the the valet when we got there at 3pm? we waited , we looked, where do we go with our clubs? we had passed an employee going the opp way and he didnt say a word. 10 minutes later he arrived. well, not fair to leave people not knowing where the help is and waiting when it was 106 degrees. we didn't know how to get to our car with our clubs expected better from this facility.

I really enjoyed this course. It helped considerably that I was paired up with someone who had played the course before. The course did not have a yardage book and the layout posted on the cart was difficult to read. BUT, the course was very well maintained and interesting to manuever through. The greens were a challenge to putt and to hold an approach shot since they had recently been aerated. The course does not lend itself to fast play since in very few instances do you go from green to the following tee in less than a couple of minutes: it took 10 minutes in a cart to go from the 9th green to the 10th tee. The pro shop was difficult to find, but the playing experience made it worth the hunt.

The mountain course was awesome, fairways were awsome! The greens were aeriated recently so they were bumpy! The views were Incredible! We played the round 4HRS &15minutes. Not to bad for first time on the mountain course. Would play once a week if i lived closer.

The draw back to this whole review is there is NO guidance to entrance of the course and No bag drop! NO SIGNS LEADING YOU TO THE COURSE! VERY VERY DIFFICULT TO FIND HELP TO GUIDE YOU.

Green were very grainy. Poor service. At 3:00 there was no one around to clean clubs or help getting club to parking lot. No what you expect from a resort course.

it was a fun day. the greens were recently aerated so putting was a challenge and we has not been informed of the green condition.

I always enjoy playing either the Canyon course or the Mountain course, especially after May 1 when the prices drop. Both courses have always been in very good shape for the desert. The guy in the pro shop who checked me in owes me 3 bucks.

Had a friend in from Illinois and wanted to show him a nice course. I've played there a few times before and enjoyed it. Not this time. We got there and the guy in the pro shop was very aloof. Got out to the course and found out that all the greens had just been sanded. If I'd had known that in advance, I wouldn't have played the course. It was like putting on the beach. If that wasn't bad enough, we had a five hour round. Saw the ranger once and he said the course was backed up. Really!. How'd you like to wait on every shot for five hours in 100+ heat. I won't be back.

The course was in great condition and challenging.