Arizona Golf Authority AZGA Golf Course Buzz: Located about 40 miles southeast of downtown Phoenix, Seville offers a true country club experience at base of the San Tan Mountains, which provide a serene visual backdrop for the club.
Built in 2001, the layout was created by Gary Panks, one of Arizona’s best-known course architects. Mr. Panks has a particular knack for taking a relatively flat piece of property and shaping it into something special, and that’s what he did with this former citrus grove acreage. Many of those trees were transplanted and incorporated into the Seville course along with oaks and jacaranda, which line the fairways and bloom brilliantly in the spring.
Seville plays to level par of 72 and offers five sets of tees with the tips set at 7,060 yards and the front tees at 5,765. From the back, the course is rated at 72.8 with a slope of 128. The layout has a traditional feel although there is mild desert terrain in the transition areas that adds to the challenge when recovering from an errant shot.
Panks allows the player plenty of room in the primary landing areas on most tee shots; you won’t face the visual intimidation of forced carries inherent in desert target golf designs here. You will face several thrilling golf shots as you make your loop.
Highlights of the front nine are a pair of dogleg-right par-5s. No. 2 plays at 555 yards from the back tees and requires a tee shot over right-side fairway bunkers to reach the green in two. The wide, shallow green wraps around a front-bunker that collects most “run one on” attempts.
At the shorter 530-yard 5th, any attempt to reach the green in two must carry the corner of a sizable lake and bunker guarding the right side of the green. Three-shot players can lay-up left and ignore the lake altogether with their approach.
But the most memorable portion of a round at Seville is always the three-hole finishing stretch. The par-4 16th is just 315 yards but a lake defining the dogleg right fairway forces you to decide how much you can bite off and still clear the water. The green complex is elevated and includes a multi-tiered putting surface; great fun here.
In the middle of the lake you just finished playing around sits the par-3 17th. It’s a touch of TPC Sawgrass in Arizona; a 145-yard carry to a true island green that requires a high, soft, precise yardage tee shot. The putting surface is generous from front to back, and plenty wide as well; it just doesn’t look like it when you’re over the shot. Trust it’s big enough, remember to breathe and play away – as many times as it takes.
The 18th is a thrilling, risk-reward 5-par playing at a tempting 520 yards. You must thread an accurate tee shot between fairway bunkers short-right and long-left. For your second shot, your choice is whether to lay-up short of the water, or try to clear a lake that wraps around the left side of the green. Birdies are abundant here, although 7s are carded just as frequently.
Seville Golf and Country Club offers golf and non-golf memberships and has a wide range of amenities available to its members, including tennis, a fitness center, spa and swimming pools. Seville also offers fine dining at Bolero’s Restaurant and lighter fare at Tapa’s Bar, both of which are open to the public. Seville is affiliated with the Club Corp. Network; members receive preferred access and discount pricing at more than 150 private clubs around the country.
Read the Arizona Golf Course List AZGA Player’s Arizona Golf Course Review for every golf course in Arizona at www.arizonagolfauthority.com/coursedirectory.
It’s “All Things Arizona Golf” from the Arizona Golf Authority.