Golf in Scottsdale, Arizona: A Local Guide
Scottsdale is one of America's great golf destinations, with more than thirty courses from the city's lakeside south to the high desert of the north. A guide to its courses, its climate, its overseeding season and why the ball flies farther as you head north.
Few places in the world have as many good golf courses in as small an area as Scottsdale. The city stretches about 30 miles from south to north, from its older neighborhoods next to Tempe to the boulder-strewn high desert below Pinnacle Peak and the McDowell Mountains. Our database lists 33 courses within Scottsdale alone, plus dozens more in neighboring Phoenix, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills and Carefree. Many are resort or daily-fee courses open to visitors; north Scottsdale is also home to a large number of private clubs.
The Courses
A few of Scottsdale's best-known public and resort courses:
- TPC Scottsdale: the Stadium Course, designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish and opened in 1986, hosts the PGA Tour's WM Phoenix Open every February. Its par-3 16th hole is surrounded by grandstands during the tournament, making it the only fully enclosed hole on the PGA Tour. The neighboring Champions Course is shorter and more relaxed.
- Troon North Golf Club: two desert courses, Monument and Pinnacle, set among giant granite boulders below Pinnacle Peak in the far north of the city.
- Grayhawk Golf Club: two courses in north Scottsdale, Talon (Gary Panks and David Graham, 1994) and Raptor (Tom Fazio, 1995).
- Talking Stick Golf Club: two Coore & Crenshaw courses opened in 1998, the open, links-style O'odham and the tree-lined Piipaash, on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community at Scottsdale's eastern edge.
- Resort courses such as Kierland, The Phoenician and McCormick Ranch, with green, lake-and-palm layouts closer to the center of the city.
See all 33, with a playability forecast for every tee time, on our Scottsdale golf courses page, for example TPC Scottsdale Stadium, Troon North and Grayhawk Talon. Our golf course map shows them all at a glance.
The Climate
The National Weather Service's 1991–2020 normals for Scottsdale Airport show an average high of about 67°F in January and about 104°F in July, with about 8.7 inches of rain a year. North Scottsdale is a little cooler and wetter: at Carefree, at about 2,500 feet just beyond the city's northern edge, the averages are about 65°F in January, 103°F in July and 12.6 inches of rain.
When to Play
- Winter and spring (December to April): peak season, with highs in the 60s and 70s, green overseeded courses and the highest green fees of the year. In February, the WM Phoenix Open brings huge crowds to the Stadium Course and makes tee times across the city harder to find.
- Summer (May to September): hot, with highs regularly above 100°F, and the lowest prices of the year for golfers willing to start at first light. Monsoon thunderstorms (June 15 to September 30) usually build in the afternoon.
- Autumn (October and November): courses reopen after overseeding and conditions improve quickly. The courses stagger their closures: in 2026, for example, TPC Scottsdale's Champions Course closed from September 14 to 30 and the Stadium Course from September 28 to October 18, while Grayhawk closed Talon from September 28 to October 12 and Raptor from October 12 to 30. See our article on Arizona's 2026 overseeding season for more dates, and always confirm with the course.
Why the Ball Flies Farther in North Scottsdale
Scottsdale's courses climb from about 1,200 feet at Coronado in the south to more than 3,300 feet at Desert Mountain in the north. That 2,100-foot rise is enough to change your yardages. Our carry model, which adds about 1.7% more carry per 1,000 feet, estimates that on the same 80°F day, a 7-iron that carries 150 yards at sea level would carry about 154 yards on a south Scottsdale course and about 160 yards at the top of north Scottsdale. On a typical January afternoon the figures are about 153 yards in the south and 157 in the north; in July, about 158 and 163.
Our altitude distance calculator works out the effect for your own clubs, and our course pages estimate it for every tee time.
Getting Started
For the best conditions, plan a Scottsdale golf trip between late October and April, book well ahead in peak season and especially around the WM Phoenix Open, and check the overseeding dates if you are coming in the autumn. For the wider Arizona golf year, see Golf in Arizona: A Season-by-Season Guide, and for a neighboring East Valley city, Golf in Mesa.
Sources: course details from TPC Scottsdale, Grayhawk Golf Club and GOLF Stay and Plays; climate normals from NOAA's Applied Climate Information System; overseeding dates from the Arizona Golf Association.
Photo: McCormick Ranch Golf Club and lake, Scottsdale, Arizona, by Hunter Trick, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized from the original.
