SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA | There is strength in numbers, even in golf, which is why I am always up for traveling with my sticks to this city in south-central Arizona. That’s because Scottsdale boasts some 50 courses, with another 150 or so layouts scattered around metropolitan Phoenix.
The variety is immense, with everything from a PGA Tour venue (TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course) to an 18-hole par-3 that was a true trendsetter in short courses, having come online in 1959 (Mountain Shadows). So is the roster of architects who fashioned them, including Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw as well as the late design partners Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish. A number of the layouts are open to the public, and most offer multiple sets of tees to accommodate golfers of all skill levels and allow them play the best course for their games.
Then, there is the scenery, starting with the rugged mountains that serve as backdrops, the tawny-colored mesas and brown-red buttes that rise throughout the region, the saguaro cacti looking like they are being robbed by desperadoes from days gone by and the ribbons of emerald fairways that seem especially lush against the sere soil that borders them.
The wildlife here is special, too, whether mule deer or roadrunners, jackrabbits or cottontails, or coveys of blue quail darting in different directions.
And what’s not to like about a spot in the northern reaches of the Sonoran Desert where the sun shines 330 days a year – and where rainouts are even rarer than hole-outs. In addition, golf in Scottsdale, which in 1894 was named after a retired army chaplin, Winfield Scott, is so very accessible, with courses within easy driving distance of the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and the area’s best hotels. The place also possesses a robust food and craft-beverage scene; the “desert laboratory” that architect Frank Lloyd Wright dubbed Taliesin West and established in what was his winter home for a couple of decades before he died in 1959; and superlative hiking, mountain biking and hot-air ballooning.
I only wish that I could get out here more often.
My latest visit lasted only four days, but I was nonetheless able to cram in five rounds of golf, while also making time to enjoy more than a few off-course activities. Suffice it to say, I was happily sated at the end of each day.
There are two courses at Troon North – Pinnacle (for Pinnacle Peak) and Monument (for Monument Rock). Both tracks are Weiskopf creations, with some input from Morrish. And in many ways, they fit every player’s image of what desert golf is all about. Verdant tees set on top of rock outcroppings. Massive boulders that sometimes come into play. Saguaro cacti that shouldn’t be but are nonetheless embedded with golf balls from errant shots. Stands of mesquite trees and stretches of flowering bushes. And sweeping views of terrain that is barren yet beautiful.
Houses abound at Troon North, but I never forgot during my time on Monument that I was still somewhat in the wild. Especially when a bobcat the size of a large Labrador retriever suddenly emerged from a thicket off the right side of the ninth fairway in hot pursuit of a cottontail as I prepared to hit my second shot just 10 yards away. The bobcat pounced but just missed his prey, and they both dived into the brush again. There was lots of rustling of branches and leaves, and then the bobcat reappeared, empty-handed and clearly not pleased.
I took equal if not somewhat more sedate pleasure in the different shots I had to hit on that course and the varying distances of my approaches on each of the holes. The greens seemed to be on the big size, which meant they were not too difficult to hit. But they demanded some pretty good flatstick play if I wanted to make some pars.
As good as that round was, the après-golf at the Dynamite Grille at Troon North may have been even better, thanks to a spicy mango margarita that was as piquant as it was potent.
My base of operations for this trip was the recently renovated Phoenician Hotel, a AAA Five Diamond property that opened in 1988. It has all the necessary amenities, from comfortable and spacious guest rooms that overlook a vast, multi-tiered pool complex to a Forbes Five Star spa with an extensive menu of treatments and eight dining venues.
Perhaps most importantly, the Phoenician also boasts a golf course, in this case an 18-holer that architect Phil Smith created from what had been a 27-hole facility. I found it to be an interesting and fun track that was easy to get around in 3½ hours. The front side is a bit flatter and more open than the back, most of which is routed among hills and knolls that not only add a bit of spice to that part of the layout but also some vantages from which to admire views of Phoenix to the southwest.
Next up was the Papago Golf Club. Opened in 1963, this municipal course is located in the same park as the Phoenix Botanical Gardens and Phoenix Zoo, which means there is much about the setting to commend it.
But what really grabbed my attention was Papago’s history as a golf venue. In addition to hosting the 1971 U.S. Amateur Public Links, it also was where future tour professionals Billy Mayfair and sisters Heather and Missy Farr often played when they were juniors. The course continues a connection to high-level, competitive golf these days by serving as the home track and training center for the Arizona State men’s and women’s golf teams, with the flags on each green bearing the school’s colors of maroon and gold. And next month, it will be the venue for the women’s Pac-12 golf championship.
The golf cred at Papago, which records some 55,000 rounds a year, appealed to me as much as the course design, with lots of good looks off the tees and a variety of approach shots into the greens. I liked the sense of place it gave me as well, and it was nice to be playing a place populated mostly by locals as opposed to another resort course full of traveling golfers.
That afternoon, I checked out another venerable Scottsdale layout, the 18-hole, par-3 Mountain Shadows. It, too, has a rich history, dating to its opening in 1959 and to the days when the likes of Bob Hope, Sammy Davis Jr. and John Wayne teed it up on occasion. Tour professionals such as Weiskopf played there, too.
Routed at the base of Camelback Mountain and originally designed by Jack Snyder, the course was revamped in 2017 by a protégé of the architect, Forrest Richardson. What he produced was a mix of holes that range in distance from 50 yards to 193. And there are some good ones, especially the Biarritz on No. 4 and the Punchbowl 10th. But what really sold me on the course was quite accidentally running into a friend who has family in Scottsdale and is able to play pretty much anywhere he wants in town. And here he was with three guests at Mountains Shadows.
My last day in Scottsdale took me north of town to the We-Ko-Pa Golf Club, which is an enterprise of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation. The two 18-hole courses here – Saguaro, designed by Coore and Crenshaw, and Cholla, a Scott Miller creation – are among the best public-access courses in the state. They are also two of the most beautiful, due to there being no housing around them. It’s wide open and wild at We-Ko-Pa as a result, and maybe the truest desert golf experience in all of Arizona because there is nothing else here but desert.
I teed it on Cholla, which is laid out on property so perfectly suited for golf that Miller says he came up with 30 different routings on the land he was given before settling on the course he eventually built.
It’s a gem. Like so much of the golf here.