SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – I live in one of the warmest places in America: Florida. In my part of the state, from mid-May through most of October, the temperature practically never drops below 75, and neither does the humidity. When the mercury tops 90, it’s like living in a sauna with a broken switch.
So why would I make a summer trip to play golf in a place where the heat is known to be as bad, or even worse?
It’s hotter than a furnace fan out in Arizona /
110 ain’t nothing when you live out there you see /
Stars come out you scream and shout “Hey it’s good to know you” /
If you’re going there and you don’t mind say hello for me.
Robert Earl Keen, “Furnace Fan”
I went to Arizona to satisfy a longtime curiosity: Would the claim that “It’s a dry heat!” hold water, at least to me? Knowing how crowded and expensive the Phoenix/Scottsdale area’s golf courses have become in the winter peak season, how viable could a summer trip be for golfers who want to play those courses but are shut out or priced out from November to April?
Having returned from the dry heat to the humid heat, I think an Arizona golf trip in the summer is 100% doable, especially in light of the legitimate chance to save thousands of dollars off of peak rates. If you protect yourself from the elements properly, summer golf in the desert is very tolerable.
And to reiterate: on a trip of more than a long weekend, it’s not a stretch to say you could conceivably save thousands of dollars over peak times.
Two and a half years after my first visit to the Valley of the Sun, I ended up honing in on a who’s who of top courses that Scottsdale-bound golfers tend to gravitate to. I arrived to 108-degree afternoon highs and sweated out 18 late-afternoon holes on the Cholla Course at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club. The Scott Miller-designed course was the facility’s first, opening in 2001, with the Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw Saguaro Course opening five years later. Cholla is a fairly classic desert golf course, with tee boxes isolated from fairways and greens by forbidding desert. Landing areas are of decent width, but spraying the ball typically means reloading.
The scenery at We-Ko-Pa is some of the best in greater Phoenix/Scottsdale. Both courses sit on the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation Reservation. Views across thousands of acres of undeveloped desert, towards faraway mountain peaks, inspire throughout the round. I personally prefer the Saguaro – fewer forced carries, more interesting greens – but I wouldn’t steer anyone away from Cholla, either.
My second Scottsdale-area round resulted in some solid insider intel. I headed up to the town of Carefree, which sits at 2,400 feet above sea level, nearly 1,300 feet higher than Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The climb is so gradual that it can be hard to notice as you head north on North Scottsdale Road, but I could definitely feel some of the edge taken off of the heat when I got out of the car in the parking lot. The Boulders is home to two Jay Morrish golf courses, North and South. The South Course is the better-known of the two, with rocks so big they look like movie set props behind the first and fifth greens, and many more in view on other holes. It’s the layout that resort guests and the general public can play, with the North Course reserved for private club members. The exception to this rule is on Tuesdays in the summer, when the South Course is typically closed for maintenance.
The North Course is scenic in its own right, if somewhat less bombastic than the South. Morrish’s cunning is on display early and often on the North Course; tee shot views that feel claustrophobic often open up into generous landing areas and par-3 green sites. An early-week summer golf trip to the area opens up the rare opportunity to play both of The Boulders’ courses, and to enjoy a small but precious reprieve from the area’s most searing heat.
Built in the early 1990s, with two courses by Tom Weiskopf, Troon North Golf Club helped pioneer the upscale daily-fee golf concept and remains a worthwhile Arizona desert golf destination. I played the Monument Course, which will co-host the 2025 U.S. Mid-Amateur alongside the private nearby Troon Country Club. The name of the game at the Monument is staying in play off the tee; there’s really no playing from the surrounding desert. Although the rough is not much to worry about, fairways tend to pinch in at around the 280 mark from the tips; about 220 to 240 from the middle tees. It’s one of many signs of how equipment has led to golfers hitting the ball farther over the last 30-plus years. Weiskopf likely didn’t intend for players to need to hit less than driver as often as is prudent around Monument. However, the course’s two reachable par 4s – the 6th and the 15th – are exciting, and the par 3s are stout.
Despite the searing late-afternoon temperatures, my favorite round of the week was the O’odham Course at Talking Stick Golf Club. Though it may be flatter and less photogenic than the other courses I played around town, its strategic design and incredibly crispy, firm fairways and greens made it one of my favorite tests of golf encountered in recent years. Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw’s perfectly-placed bunkering and just-slightly raised greens show just how modest great golf can be with the proper conditions. It’s no wonder the pair got the commission to restore Pinehurst No. 2 in 2010; Talking Stick O’odham is a bit of Pinehurst in the desert. I could play the course every day. Best of all, I could just about afford to; the green fee for my 2:57 pm Thursday tee time was $54. I don’t know of many better golf values in America than that.
I found each of the courses I played to be in good to very good shape, with summer green fees a fraction of their winter peak. In fact, I might prefer summer golf in Arizona because the lush overseed most courses install in October make them play slow, soft and a bit one-dimensional. I much prefer bits of burnout brown and thinner turf in places to aesthetically striking but golf-unfriendly green grass. If this describes you, you might be game for a summer golf trip to the desert.
There’s also the question of cost. In the summer, Arizona golf courses charge a fraction of the green fees they command in the winter. We-Ko-Pa’s standard summer rate is $99. In a few months, it will peak at $299. Dynamic pricing prevails at many courses like Troon North, where premium winter rates surge past $500. On the morning I played, a tee time could be had for $161. My last-minute jaunt around Talking Stick represented a more than 80% discount on its winter green fee. If you can manage the heat, playing golf can feel like stealing.
In addition to obvious protective measures like good golf sunglasses and sunscreen (reapply at the turn), water is at the center of any heat-beating strategy. You need to drink as much of it as you can because you simply cannot feel how quickly the dry heat saps you of moisture until it is too late. Take a big swig between every shot you hit, and mix in electrolytes as needed.
There’s a water-related cheat-code, too: cooling towels. While living in South Carolina years ago, I bought a bright-blue absorbent cooling towel for about $10 and it has been a constant companion during hot rounds of golf ever since. I dunk it in cold water, place it on the back of my neck and instantly feel like I can handle whatever heat comes my way. I usually take it off to hit full shots but chipped and putted with it on several times during the week.
Distance control. I live at sea level, and even being a couple of thousand feet high in Arizona made my iron yardages feel wonky. I settled on just about every full shot playing half a club shorter than the number.
Shoulder season. Even though the heat is manageable, I still would avoid the middle of the day. Try and tee off before 8 a.m. or after 2:30 p.m. in the summer. Night golf is also a possibility; Grass Clippings down in Phoenix has been popular since it debuted in 2023.
Monsoon in the desert? The Phoenix/Scottsdale area gets about half of its rain in July and August. It’s not generally enough to rain you out of a round of golf, but don’t be surprised if you experience the odd rain squall, though these mostly happen at night.
Limited options. Because of reduced traffic from golfers, multi-course facilities will often close one course down for extended periods of time during the summer and concentrate play on the other(s). Troon North’s Pinnacle Course was closed the week of my trip, as was Talking Stick’s Piipaash Course. As always, you should confirm aerification plans with the course(s) you plan to play so as to avoid surprises.
Grass. Many Phoenix/Scottsdale golf courses have Bermuda greens, but some sport bentgrass. It’s impressive that bentgrass can stay alive amid temps of 100-plus, but the putting surfaces at Troon North and The Boulders North (Boulders South converted to TifEagle Bermuda recently) were fantastic when I played – medium-fast, smooth and surprisingly firm.
Let it go. It’s not worth tussling with a snake over a lost golf ball in dense desert.
My main base during my exploration of Scottsdale’s summer golf was the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. I’ve been fortunate enough to stay at three different Fairmont properties (in Scotland and San Diego) and found Scottsdale’s outpost as enjoyable as the others, with predictably gracious service. A treat this time around was the opportunity to stay at Privado Villas, a resort-within-the-resort with large villa rooms and suites, private check-in location and concierge services as well as included valet parking and chauffeur services to the nearby Scottsdale Quarter shopping and dining district. For my purposes, a very comfy bed and strong air conditioning were the two most important traits of my freshly updated room.
Overlooking the 4th and 5th holes on TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course, Privado also has an exclusive pool area for its guests. Fridges stocked with water and sodas plus midday build-your-own-trail mix and warm mesquite-tinged chocolate chip cookies in the evening in the lobby area were tasty extra touches.
As with area golf courses, lodging rates swing significantly during the year. Room rates within Privado seem to settle around $350 per night in the summer, rising near $700 in the peak times of the year. This is the second factor into potentially significant savings on a golf trip to the area (even less-expensive hotel rates vary considerably). Let’s do some quick, informal math around a hypothetical 4-night, 4-round Scottsdale golf trip:
We-Ko-Pa (Cholla)
Summer: $99
Winter: $299
The Boulders (North – only accessible on Tuesdays in the summer)
Summer: $133
Winter: $250+
Talking Stick (North/O’odham)
Summer: $54
Winter: $300
Troon North (Monument)
Summer: $161
Winter: $500+
Summer: $350 per night
Winter: $675 per night
Summer: $1,887
Winter: $3,999
Lodging @ FSP Privado: $2,700 (4 x $675/nt)
Golf: $447 ($99 + $133 + $54 + $161)
TOTAL: $1,887
Winter: $3,999
Lodging @ FSP Privado: $1400 (4 x $350/nt)
Golf: $1,299 ($500 + $250 + $300 + $299)
TOTAL: $3,999
DIFFERENCE: $2,112 (52.8%)
This is not to say that winter golf in the Arizona desert is substandard or a bad value; the popularity of the area’s golf courses from November through April is proof of its deserved status as one of the world’s best winter golf destinations. But if you’re looking to experience some great Arizona golf at a considerable break and you’re willing to brave the heat, don’t sleep on Scottsdale.