Golf Digest Honors Trilogy Golf Club at Vistancia as its Only Five-Star Course in Arizona

By Brian Weis

In Golf Digest's most recent 2008-2009 edition of its Places to Play guide, Trilogy Golf Club at Vistancia was one of only 23 golf club's nationwide - and the only golf course in the state of Arizona - to earn the publication's coveted 5-Star designation. The 5-Star designation is determined by combining the opinions of official Golf Digest raters with the feedback provided by the general public on Golf Digest's website. Golf Digest defi nes the 5-Star rating as "Superb. Golf at its absolute best. Pay any price to play at least once in your life."

"I'm humbled by this honor," said Greg Ellis, director of golf for Trilogy Golf Club at Vistancia. "When you look at the list of 5-Star recipients it truly is the best of the best in North America. Having Trilogy Golf Club at Vistancia chosen among these elite courses is a huge honor to our staff for the hard work they put in to ensure this golf course delivers the very best golf experience possible. We are also truly grateful to our guests for enabling us to be honored in this way."

The other esteemed golf courses to which Ellis is referring include a list of many of the most storied public facilities in the country: The Black Course at Bethpage State Park (host of the 2002 and the 2009 US Open), Pebble Beach Golf Links (host of five US Opens, including the 2010 US Open) and the Stadium Course at the TPC Sawgrass (host of the PGA Tour's Players Championship).

The honor, which was admittedly unexpected by much of the team at the facility, was nonetheless not a complete surprise. When the course opened in 2004 it was somewhat overshadowed by another prominent opening in Greater Phoenix's West Valley, Raven Golf Club at Verrado, a Golf Magazine "Top Ten Best". However, the team at Trilogy at Vistancia knew they were a part of something special, and would soon see their desert gem recognized as well.

That's because Trilogy Golf Club at Vistancia isn't simply another Arizona golf course; it's a completely unique golf experience in the Grand Canyon State. Crafted by renowned Arizona golf course architect Gary Panks (Grayhawk's Talon Course, Raven Golf at South Mountain, and others), Trilogy at Vistancia's championship-caliber golf course plays to nearly 7,300 yards, and is accented by tall native grasses as well as breathtaking views of the surrounding desert and nearby mountains.

Making strong use of the natural flow of the terrain, Trilogy Golf Club Vistancia rewards careful planning and precise execution. However, the design is flexible enough to be enjoyable for players of all abilities. It's little wonder that Trilogy at Vistancia has been the choice of many a discerning player over the years.

So will this new-found prominence go to the course's head? It doesn't appear so. "We'd like to continue to position ourselves as an affordable alternative to many of the traditionally known courses in the
Scottsdale area", says course marketing director Jack LaRue. "The West Valley now has a nationally recognized golf experience at Trilogy at Vistancia - and at Raven at Verrado for that matter - available
just a short drive away and for half the price, so we're hopeful a lot of people will be able to put a check mark next to us on their 'must-play' lists."

More information - including how to reserve your tee times days in advance and save money through Trilogy's "Early Rewards" program - is available online at TrilogyGolfClub.com or by calling 623-328-5100.

Article Tags: Trilogy Golf Club at Vistancia

Revised: 05/11/2010 - Article Viewed 33,044 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.