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8 Arizona Golf Courses Worth Owning or Hanging

Writer: shopgolfmaps
shopgolfmaps
Oct 5
6 min read

By Marcus Bell, Tour News Editor

October is when Arizona golf wakes back up. The summer heat breaks, courses come out of fall overseeding at their greenest, and tee sheets start filling with golfers escaping colder states. By winter, prime tee times at the top Valley courses push past $200 and can approach $500 around spring training, according to the Arizona Republic.

We already covered California. This time we're heading to the desert, where the best courses share a few things: saguaros, giant boulders, mountain backdrops and bright green fairways cut through brown desert. That contrast looks great on a wall.

A quick note on rankings: the public-course rankings below come from Golfweek's Best 2026 list of Arizona courses you can play, published in June 2026.

1. We-Ko-Pa Golf Club (Saguaro), Fort McDowell

Golfweek's No. 1 public course in Arizona for 2026. We-Ko-Pa sits on Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation land northeast of Scottsdale, and there are no homes, roads or businesses anywhere on the property. Just desert and mountains.

The 15th hole on We-Ko-Pa's Saguaro course, with saguaros in the foreground and mountains beyond. Photo: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Click to enlarge.
The 15th hole on We-Ko-Pa's Saguaro course, with saguaros in the foreground and mountains beyond. Photo: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Click to enlarge.

Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designed the Saguaro course, which opened in 2006. They moved very little dirt, kept greens close to the next tees so the course is easy to walk (rare in the desert) and left most greens open in front for run-up shots. Its sibling, Scott Miller's Cholla course (2001), is the more traditional target-style desert test, and it came in at No. 8.

2. Quintero Golf Club, Peoria

No. 2 on Golfweek's Arizona list. Rees Jones designed Quintero, which opened in 2000 as a private club in the foothills of the Hieroglyphic Mountains north of Phoenix. After an ownership change in the early 2010s, it went semi-private and then fully public. Jones's firm returned in 2025 for a renovation that included rebuilding every fairway and greenside bunker.

3. TPC Scottsdale (Stadium Course), Scottsdale

The most famous course in the state, and No. 3 on Golfweek's list. Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish built the Stadium Course in 1986, with Tour pro Howard Twitty consulting, and they designed it for crowds from day one. The Phoenix Open moved there in 1987. Weiskopf came back for a 2014 renovation that added new green locations on four holes.

The hole everyone knows is the 16th, a 163-yard par 3 that becomes a fully enclosed stadium during the WM Phoenix Open. Tiger Woods' hole-in-one there in 1997 is still its signature moment. The rest of the year, it's a public course anyone can book.

TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course Acrylic Wall Panel (Par Edition) from Shop Golf Maps
TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course Acrylic Wall Panel (Par Edition) from Shop Golf Maps

If the 16th is your hole, our TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course acrylic wall panel shows the full routing, with the par for every hole printed along the bottom.

4. Troon North Golf Club, Scottsdale

Two public courses at the base of Pinnacle Peak. The Monument opened in 1990 (another Weiskopf and Morrish design) and takes its name from a boulder of roughly 25 feet sitting in the middle of the par-5 3rd fairway. It couldn't be removed, so it became the hole's landmark. The Pinnacle course followed in 1995. Golfweek ranks them No. 10 and No. 11 in the state.

Timing tip: Troon North is in the middle of fall overseeding right now. The club lists the Pinnacle as closed through October 8 and the Monument through October 24, 2026. Check any desert course's overseeding dates before you book a fall trip.

5. Papago Golf Club, Phoenix

Every great golf state needs a people's course, and this is Arizona's. Papago opened in 1963 below the Papago Buttes. It's owned by the City of Phoenix, and it was designed by William F. Bell, the same architect behind San Diego's Torrey Pines. Golfers used to sleep in their cars to get a weekend tee time here. It hosted the 1971 U.S. Amateur Public Links.

A 2008 restoration led by Billy Fuller, a former Augusta National superintendent, brought back Bell's greens and bunkers. Since 2018, Papago has been home to Arizona State's men's and women's golf teams.

Papago Golf Club golf towel with the course map, from Shop Golf Maps
Papago Golf Club golf towel with the course map, from Shop Golf Maps

Papago is the kind of course people get sentimental about. A Papago golf towel with the course map on it is a small gift that actually ends up in the bag.

6. The Boulders Club (South Course), Carefree

Jay Morrish called The Boulders his "first real job by myself," and the setting made his name. The South Course's signature is the Boulder Pile, a cluster of giant rocks that rises about 200 feet and wraps around the par-5 5th green on three sides. Lay up and hit a wedge in and you'll probably be fine. Go for it in two and the rocks get a vote.

The North Course went fully private in January 2023, so the South is the one resort guests play.

7. Desert Forest Golf Club, Carefree

This is the history pick. Desert Forest is private, so most of us will never tee it up. But it opened in 1962 as the centerpiece of the new town of Carefree, and Robert "Red" Lawrence's design is widely considered the first true desert golf course. Lawrence fit the holes between the harsher parts of the desert instead of bulldozing it, and the club is often credited as the forerunner of modern desert golf.

The 17th hole at Desert Forest Golf Club, Red Lawrence's 1962 design in Carefree. Photo: Desert Forest Golf Club, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Click to enlarge.
The 17th hole at Desert Forest Golf Club, Red Lawrence's 1962 design in Carefree. Photo: Desert Forest Golf Club, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Click to enlarge.

It has hosted the 1990 USGA Senior Amateur and the 2007 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur.

8. Ventana Canyon (Mountain Course), Tucson

Tucson gets a spot because of one hole. Tom Fazio's Mountain Course opened on December 1, 1984, in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains, and its 3rd hole plays just 107 yards across a cactus-filled canyon to a small green set into the rocks. Fazio has called it "the shortest par 3 I've ever built, and maybe one of the most expensive too," because the tees and cart path were built by hand.

The club bills it as one of the most photographed holes west of the Mississippi. Ventana Canyon is a member-owned club with its own small lodge.

Bringing the desert home

Desert courses make some of the best-looking maps you can hang, because the shapes are so clean. Green fairways, white bunkers and plenty of open desert around them.

At Shop Golf Maps, we make course maps and course-themed gifts for places like TPC Scottsdale and Papago. And if you'd rather have the desert in a jar, our sister shop Course Candles makes a We-Ko-Pa candle for the golfer who just got back from Fort McDowell.

Enjoy the start of desert season.

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