Scottsdale, Arizona, has all the time been a preferred golf trip vacation spot. No main U.S. metropolis rivals this thriving sizzling spot — and by extension neighboring Phoenix — relating to accessible, high-quality public golf programs with considerable sunshine that enables for year-round play.
Sure sufficient, summers in Arizona are extraordinarily sizzling, however costs regulate accordingly, typically dropping by 75% or extra and making a uncommon “if you can take the heat” discount for top-quality venues.
Whether it’s for a enterprise journey or a non-golf household trip, Scottsdale has many constructive attributes for these with the time and inclination to squeeze in a spherical or two.
What makes Scottsdale particular?
Unique desert structure
Perhaps Scottsdale’s best attraction is its Sonoran Desert ecosystem. There are numerous completely different deserts, from the darkish crimson sands of the Australian Outback to the towering dunes of Namibia, however the Sonoran is the stuff “Road Runner” cartoons are fabricated from, with the distinctive “don’t shoot, my hands are up” saguaro cactus and an limitless number of smaller cacti and vegetation.
It recollects the varied, fantastical fantastic thing about the ocean ground with its reef-like rock formations. A kind of cactus or bush will mirror nearly each sponge and coral you’d see diving.
The phrase desert evokes starkness, however that is nature at its most lovely, and there are solely a handful of locations, and no different main cities, the place you’ll be able to play nice golf within the Sonoran Desert, which extends from the Southwest down Mexico’s Baja peninsula. For this motive, your complete architectural model generally known as desert golf was invented and has flourished proper right here.
“If you haven’t played in the Arizona desert before, it’s a mind-blowing experience. You just don’t get that scenery anyplace else, and it’s definitely the best setting for desert golf,” stated Robert Pedrero, founder and former writer of The Golf Insider journey e-newsletter.
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Sustainable approaches
Water was all the time scarce, so lengthy earlier than latest droughts and sustainability considerations, desert golf targeted on a “limited turf” method and minimized the footprint of water-intensive grass by planting solely the place it was wanted for tees, greens and fairway touchdown areas.
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Exposed desert waste areas not solely enhance performance but in addition showcase the area’s magnificence. Instead of tee-to-green and tree-line-to-tree-line plush grass carpet discovered elsewhere, you may have islands of grass set within the desert — the place you play from one to the subsequent — with numerous sandy, rocky, cacti-strewn cross hazards.
The result’s typically referred to as “target golf,” however it’s much less difficult than it sounds. Few water hazards, no forest to lose your balls in, and waste areas typically mean you can discover your ball and recuperate again into play. You get pleasure from eye-opening landscapes in every single place you look, as programs typically sit in valleys between boulder-strewn hillsides.
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Access and availability
Golf programs in Scottsdale are additionally conveniently positioned and comparatively straightforward to get to, not like in lots of cities the place they lay within the suburbs — within the case of New York, one, two and even three hours from the metro space.
Even with out advance planning, you’re probably to have the ability to spontaneously tee off on a standout course right here, and in city areas, that’s not often the case.
It appears like a personal membership, however it’s open to all
New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles are flush with extremely rated and historic golf programs, however they’re virtually totally extremely unique personal golf equipment that are nearly unattainable to play with out understanding a member.
Troon North was one of many nation’s first “high-end every day charge” or “member for a day” programs, the golf trade’s thought to duplicate the service and amenities of a personal membership for most people. Troon grew to become a worldwide golf administration powerhouse, and because of this, the service ranges, course situations, clubhouses, meals, membership leases, apply ranges and all golf-related facilities have remained at a really high-quality degree within the area.
It’s regular to indicate up and be handed a little bit reward bag and complimentary yardage ebook, which you’d be charged $20 further for at Pebble Beach.
Finally, virtually the entire higher golf programs in Scottsdale are at 36-hole amenities, so that you all the time have a selection of two programs below one roof, and wherever you keep you’re prone to be near one among these.
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Bargains abound
One different factor many vacationers don’t understand is how wonderful the summer season offers are. Play programs just like the Boulders in peak season and it’s near $300 a spherical. Almost all the highest layouts are within the $250-plus vary, however in summertime you’ll be able to play them for $55-$60. We’re speaking reductions over 75%, and it’s the identical for rooms, even at luxurious accommodations.
The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess often has summer season stay-and-play packages that embrace a resort room, lunch and golf for 2 for simply over 300 bucks complete, and that’s what it costs in winter only for one particular person to play golf, with no lodging or extras. There are virtually no different choices for enjoying high programs on this nation for below $70.
Fortunately, the height winter season is brief right here, from January to mid-April, and even spring and fall see vital (roughly 35%) worth reductions with glorious climate and values in late April, May and October to December.
The finest public golf programs in Scottsdale
Fairmont Scottsdale Princess — TPC Scottsdale
This luxurious full-service resort might be the one enterprise vacationers are most probably to search out themselves at for a conference or such. Its golf membership can be pretty centrally positioned for these staying in downtown Scottsdale.
The huge deal on the Fairmont, although, is that the TPC Stadium Course is house to the one most attended golf event on the earth, the WM Phoenix Open, aka “The Greatest Show on Grass.” With live shows, late-night get together tents and nicely over 600,000 annual reside spectators, it’s to skilled golf what Mardi Gras is to city festivals: the most important and loudest of all of them.
As a end result, nearly all golf followers have seen it on tv — and golf followers love taking part in programs they’ve seen on tv. It’s this familiarity and long-running event historical past that makes it fascinating, greater than the standard of the course itself.
Because it’s a Tournament Players Club, or TPC, course, it was constructed particularly to host tournaments and accommodate numerous spectators, and the result’s a bit flat and boring. But it has its highlights, and the most important of those is undoubtedly the par-3 sixteenth, the one gap on the PGA Tour performed in its personal stadium, an enclosed amphitheater with stands the scale of a Major League Baseball subject. It is without doubt one of the most iconic golf holes on the planet, and the place Tiger Woods as soon as famously wowed the gang with a hole-in-one.
The second 18 at TPC Scottsdale is the Championship Course, even much less attention-grabbing, and its principal attraction is as a summer season add-on when charges drop and bargain-priced “replay” rounds can be found for these desirous to sort out 36 in someday.
The Phoenician
The subsequent most probably place enterprise vacationers would possibly discover themselves, this luxurious resort is the closet to pedestrian-friendly Old Town Scottsdale. It’s additionally essentially the most handy for golfers staying in Phoenix, because it sits near the border between the 2 cities.
For years The Phoenician had three nines, however it has completely shifted from 27 to 18 holes. The golf course is a hybrid design, a desert setting that performs extra like a parkland course, with no blind pictures, hidden hazards or scary surprises.
It is superbly maintained, and whereas it lacks the epic Sonoran drama many come for, it’s a enjoyable and high-quality golf expertise, welcoming and the least difficult or intimidating of all these programs. If you’re staying right here or close by it’s a simple selection.
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We-Ko-Pa Golf Club
Scottsdale’s 36-hole temples to abandon golf are the place the actual motion lies, and that is the perfect of the perfect. With a barely farther-flung suburban location, it is essentially the most easterly of the highest amenities.
We-Ko-Pa is owned by the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and it additionally has an on-site on line casino resort, of the humbler selection, and is a bit remoted. It is the highest-ranked Scottsdale duo by Golf Magazine, and each designs — named for cactus varieties — have landed within the nation’s high 50 public programs.
If you’ll be able to solely play one, the slight edge goes to Cholla, which can come as a shock to visiting golfers as a result of it’s the work of little-known architect Scott Miller; the Saguaro course was the work of acclaimed duo Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, who persistently ranked among the many world’s finest and most well-known designers. Both programs concentrate on strategic worth and mix the perfect of the native desert magnificence panorama with quite a few risk-reward choices.
These are programs for the pondering golfer and on virtually each par 4 or par 5 you’ll be able to select from a number of golf equipment, teeing off with all the things from low iron to fairway wooden — they’re undoubtedly not “just grab the driver again” programs. They are additionally essentially the most walkable in a area the place carts are prevalent, so should you wish to stroll the course, it’s another excuse to decide on We-Ko-Pa.
Both programs are distinctive, and all 12 months spherical We-Ko-Pa presents a 36-hole bundle to play each in someday, which ranges from $600 within the peak season right down to $165 in the summertime.
Talking Stick Golf Club
Talking Stick is one other very high-quality 36-hole and on line casino resort combo, however this one is rather more targeted on lodging and facilities, and the resort is top notch all the best way, with nice eating places and leisure.
Between the lodging and programs, it’s arguably the nation’s finest on line casino golf resort exterior Las Vegas. It’s additionally essentially the most centrally positioned of all the standard choices — proper in the midst of Scottsdale, simply off the freeway — and simpler to get to from most lodging.
Both programs at Talking Stick Golf Club have been designed by Coore and Crenshaw (and they’re managed by Troon Golf) and the result’s a particularly nice and constant expertise.
Because it’s nearer to downtown Scottsdale than the standard desert programs farther north (Grayhawk, Boulders, Troon North), the terrain is completely different. Instead of desert target-style golf, these flatter programs each characteristic wall-to-wall turf with virtually no bushes.
Unlike the blind pictures over rocky ridges, right here what you see is what you get and, in true Coore-Crenshaw model, there are loads of risk-reward decisions, however they’re extra delicate than at We-Ko-Pa and also you don’t need to be a pupil of the sport to like a spherical right here.
Almost each gap presents a tighter driving line that pays off with a a lot simpler method shot. The thought is that you would be able to make straightforward bogies by taking part in it protected off the tee and seize birdies by taking dangers. Many holes on each programs characteristic one massive and outstanding bunker within the fairway that it’s important to determine whether or not to play in need of, over or round.
The O’odham Course is taken into account the marquee format, however the high quality distinction is slight. However, it’s noticeably more durable, with closely bunkered greens and thicker brush surrounding the fairways. The Piipaash Course is extra scenic, various and enjoyable, with a few water hazards (uncommon within the space). The O’odham is totally dry.
Lower handicappers ought to lean towards O’odham, larger handicappers Piipaash, however it’s higher should you can play each as they actually complement one another.
Grayhawk Golf Club
Another well-known Scottsdale 36-hole facility, Grayhawk is conveniently positioned for a lot of guests, simply north of the Fairmont and its TPC Courses, and weird in that it has no related lodging.
Both its programs, Talon and Raptor, have hosted high-profile occasions, together with the Fry’s Electronics Open, received by Masters champion Mike Weir, and the Williams World Challenge, received by native legend Tom Lehman. On three events, it is also performed host to the Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf, received by Barry Lane, Greg Norman and Colin Montgomerie.
Raptor was designed by famous person architect Tom Fazio and stretches simply over 7,000 yards, with beneficiant fairways and huge greens protected by deep greenside bunkers and water. Talon was designed by US Open and PGA Championship winner David Graham and golf architect Gary Panks, a Southwestern desert specialist. It is thought for its massive multitiered greens, which give room for error however place a giant premium on accuracy in an effort to rating nicely.
Grayhawk is among the many space’s hottest daily-fee amenities. These huge, in-your-face programs are supposed to show desert shock and awe, with creeks, ravines, elevation modifications, mountain vistas, deep pot bunkers and do-or-die heroics. There’s even an island inexperienced on Talon. In phrases of technique and architectural design, Grayhawk sits beneath stars We-Ko-Pa and Talking Stick, however they’re onerous programs in a memorable and dramatic approach, and just about everybody has loads of enjoyable and loves the problem of taking part in them.
Four Seasons Scottsdale, Troon North
The programs on the Four Seasons predate the resort, and also you do not need to be a visitor at this luxurious property to play right here.
Troon North was the unique high-end public course that put administration firm Troon Golf on the map. Both programs provide frequent views of native landmark Pinnacle Peak and are visually gorgeous, identified for showcasing big granite boulders and eerie rock formations with steadily elevated tee containers, and there’s a stunning quantity of elevation change.
Both programs are ranked within the high 100 by Golf Magazine. Monument was the unique course conceived by Jay Morrish and Tom Weiskopf, the design that put Scottsdale’s desert programs on the world golf radar. It is legendary for its iconic namesake towering boulder in the midst of the third fairway.
The second course right here, Pinnacle, was not as beloved. It had a protracted hole between two holes that made it unwalkable and a decade after it opened, the 2 programs have been rerouted.
Today, many of the two authentic entrance nines kind Monument and many of the two backs are Pinnacle, so you may have two walkable layouts of comparable high quality, and may’t go flawed. Golf Magazine really ranked the brand new Pinnacle larger, however most visiting golfers can not resist the prospect to sort out Monument’s photogenic signature gap.
The Boulders Resort & Spa Scottsdale
One of Scottsdale’s northern suburbs is aptly named Carefree, house to one of many area’s longest-running luxurious resorts, the 1,300-acre Boulders Resort & Spa, a Hilton Curio Collection resort.
The resort bought a large, multimillion-dollar renovation in 2017, and the golf programs have been improved to the tune of $4 million in 2022, with all new greens, bunkers and cart paths.
Interestingly, one new addition is an non-compulsory caddie program, uncommon within the area and enjoyable when you’ve got by no means performed caddie golf earlier than.
As its title suggests, The Boulders embraces its rocky, rugged desert setting, and all lodging is in irregularly formed freestanding adobe casitas that appear like they have been dropped in from “The Flintstones.”
The Boulders Golf Club is without doubt one of the farthest from town middle and sometimes missed by guests not staying right here, however shouldn’t be missed. The North and South programs are classics of Sonoran Desert golf, each by an architect very skilled within the style, Jay Morrish. Even earlier than the latest facelift, they have been identified for his or her lovely, strategic designs, which have been extraordinarily nicely maintained and featured beautiful greens.
It’s robust to decide on between them. Both showcase 12-million-year-old rock formations, with towering stacks of boulders set behind greens to border method pictures. Boulders North is usually given a slight edge, and whereas the South is a little bit bit shorter, it has extra water hazards, and they’re each difficult. The resort additionally has a standout apply facility.