Troon North is one of several famous 36-hole public golf facilities in Scottsdale that showcase Arizona’s gorgeous Sonoran Desert.
Troon North Golf Club
Winter is coming, and golf courses across much of America will start shutting down in the next month or two or three. But if you love golf, don’t worry—Scottsdale and Tucson is waiting for you, the sun is shining, and it is the ultimate winter getaway. with the best of Arizona golf.
Because I have been writing on travel, and especially golf travel, for 30 years, a lot of friends and acquaintances treat me like their travel agent, and I get many questions about where to go for this and where to go for that, where to stay and where to eat. I don’t mind it at all, and because I love travel, I want everyone to take great trips and have a great time, especially my friends. Yesterday a buddy asked me about a winter golf trip, and we batted around a few ideas, but at the end of the day, it’s hard to beat Arizona. Here’s why.
Top Options For Winter Golf
The Tom Fazio-designed Canyon Course at Ventana Canyon in Tucson.
An Pham Photography
There are a lot of great golf courses in warm weather places like Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean. But it tends to be spread pretty thinly, and there are several Caribbean islands with one exceptional golf course, such as Nevis and Anguilla, but most people do not take a one course golf vacation. Even in the Dominican Republic, which has far and away the biggest and best concentration of great courses in the region, very few travelers go to Casa de Campo and Cap Cana and Punta Cana Resort & Club, they usually go to one or the other and limit their options.
Likewise, Mexico has a lot of luxury resorts with a great course, like Mayakoba in the Yucatan and several on the west coast and Baja Peninsula, but they tend to be self-contained, often do not welcome guests staying somewhere else, and in general, don’t mesh well together for a golf trip. Hawaii also has some great golf, but it’s mixed with some so-so courses and the good ones are spread out island to island and region to region, with just a couple of high density concentrations.
In the Continental U.S., even most of the South has unreliable winter weather, and if you’ve ever been stuck in an airport because of ice and snow in Charlotte or Atlanta, you know what I mean. You can often get away with it, maybe after a frost delay, but when you are on vacation there’s a big difference between toughing out a round at 50° and enjoying a day of golf in the sunny 70s. Many of the best destination golf resorts in the country close in winter altogether (Kohler, Sand Valley, Forest Dunes, Boyne MI, etc.), and for those that remain open such as Pinehurst and Bandon Dunes, winter is decidedly hit or miss.
The Sonoran Desert is the best ecosystem for desert golf courses.
getty
Many golfers choose Florida for their winter getaways, but I wouldn’t. There’s some pretty good golf in Florida, but while it has the most courses of any state, most are not worth the travel or high prices, with a high-level of mediocrity, and the standouts are few and far between. They are also very expensive in winter and geographically spread out with a handful of top resorts that most travelers are unlikely to combine, with the best found in the extreme southeast, rural dead center, west coast and Panhandle, rather than in close proximity to one another. And even though it’s the “Sunshine State,” weather is hardly predictable. One of my favorite places to play golf in Florida is the Panhandle, around the beautiful beaches of Destin and South Walton, but if I went to the Panhandle this January it would have been hard to find my ball under 8-inches of snow.
Arizona, on the other hand, has more reliable weather and tons of great public golf, all of which is logistically simple and easily combined in almost infinite permutations. It also is easy to get to, has many other attractions, fantastic food and a broad choice of lodging at almost every price point, but especially a slew of upscale and luxury resorts. It also has desert golf, one of the most beautiful and unique styles, more than any place else on earth, and in the very best ecosystem for it, the Sonoran desert.
The Best Of Arizona Golf: Why Arizona Is The Ultimate Winter Golf Getaway
An Arizona golf vacation is an easy decision, and the toughest choice you are going to have to make is Scottsdale (with neighboring Phoenix and suburbs) or Tucson?
Aerial view of the famous Stadium Hole par-3 at Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale.
Courtesy WM Phoenix Open.
For the golf obsessed, you cannot beat Scottsdale, which has more top courses than you could play in two weeks, all very accessible no matter where you stay, and for lodging you can choose from a big slate of excellent luxury resorts that each have it all: big pool complexes, tennis, multiple good restaurants, world-class spas, fitness, yoga classes, you name it. If spa is a big part of your trip, or your partner’s trip, Scottsdale has that in spades. The top resorts of Scottsdale feel a lot like the top resorts of Hawaii, expect that they are all near one another and most have multiple standout golf courses.
The selection of public urban golf in Scottsdale is almost too good to be true, by far the most of any city in the United States, and on top of that Scottsdale (and connected Phoenix) is a real city, with real city attractions, a lot of restaurants and activities, and is especially rich in sports. Go in the winter and take in an NFL or NHL game (or maybe the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl or in March the Final Four, all of which have been held here). There’s college football (ASU) and in late winter, Major League Baseball spring training is huge here, with the entire Cactus League centered around Phoenix. There is always something going on. There is also centrally located Old Town Scottsdale, the walkable, cowboy part of town with some boutique hotels, cool bars and lots of shops and restaurants, and some golfers prefer to stay here rather than at a golf resort.
Tucson has far less golf overall, but it is all pretty good golf, there’s more enough to round out a solid week, and the smaller city is more manageable. The tipping point for Tucson is golfers who are also foodies: it is one of only two UNESCO Cities of Gastronomy in the United States, and the food is absolutely off the hook. I went there to do a food story earlier this year and was blown away (you can read my more in-depth piece on Tucson’s golf and gastronomy here at Forbes). Tucson is also home to the exceptional Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, a must-see attraction for first-time visitors.
Tucson’s famous “must-try” dish, Quesabirria
Visit Tucson
Many of the authentic Mexican dishes I had were better than I have had in Mexico, and I have been to Mexico a lot, but it makes sense because until 70 years ago Tucson itself was in Mexico, and a lot of residents are of direct Mexican descent, with countless households full of culinary traditions. At the same time, a new generation of highly focused chefs have embraced hyper local ingredients and use products found almost no place else.
There are a handful of places like Scotland where you can play stunningly good golf every day for weeks, but there are not many of these places. Similarly, there are places where you can eat stunningly good meals every day, like Italy or Tokyo, but not that many, and Tucson is one. To be fair, Scottsdale has plenty of great restaurants and celebrity chefs but it has more of the “regular” great dining you expect in upscale resort destinations, like top shelf steakhouses and sushi, while Tucson offers a unique, indigenous array of flavors many visitors have never experienced.
Both have great weather and in both you can base yourself at a cushy golf resort while also playing other top courses nearby. Which one you visit is up to you, but you won’t go wrong with either. You could always do one this winter and the other next winter.
The Best of Arizona Golf: Scottsdale In a Nutshell
I’m going to be brief because I could write forever about the array of golf in Scottsdale. It’s hard to put a precise number on this, as many lists mix private and public and there are many adjacent municipalities, but the city’s excellent visitors website, ExperienceScottsdale.com, which has lots of golf info (and lodging, activities, food, etc.) goes with “more than 200 golf courses in the Scottsdale area.” I wrote about golf travel in Scottsdale here at Forbes earlier this year and you can dig deeper in that piece.
This is the Cholla, one of two exceptional golf courses at We-Ko-Pa in Scottsdale
by Lonna Tucker, courtesy We-Ko-Pa Golf Club
What Scottsdale has as its main attraction is a core group of exceptional 36-hole facilities, most with onsite lodging. There are a lot of places that have two courses with one standout and one hanger on, often not worth your time, but all of these have two courses you’d be happy to play. In my personal opinion the two best are those at We-Ko-Pa, a casino resort, both among the best desert courses you will ever play, anywhere. Rare for the region, they both allow walking as well, which I am a big fan of. The lodging at We-Ko-Pa is especially affordable, but it is definitely not at the fancier end of the spectrum. The best balance of exceptional lodging and golf can be found at the Boulders, a luxury resort with two excellent and just extensively renovated desert courses, and the Forbes 4-Star Four Seasons at Troon North, with two of the most famous courses in Arizona.
If you want two great golf courses and the best casino resort in town, head to Talking Stick, with two layouts by arguably the hottest designers in the world, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, whose names bring in green fees of several hundred dollars at places like at Bandon Dunes, Pinehurst, Big Cedar Lodge, Sand Valley, Kapalua and many others. But very few places have two, none have two in the desert, and none are attached to a cool, upscale casinos resort like this one, with lots of dining and entrainment on site, in the middle of the city. These courses can also be walked.
Historic Old Town Scottsdale is one of the city’s biggest tourism attractions.
Jordan Banks/JRNY Magazine for Experience Scottsdale.
I think the TPC Scottsdale Courses are bit overhyped from their high-profile TV exposure, but the TPC does host the most attended golf tournament on the planet, the Waste Management Open, with its famous Stadium Hole, and I totally get why many visitors want to play it. It’s another 36-hole facility, with an excellent hotel anchor, the Fairmont, which has some of the best restaurants of any resort here, and a great spa. It would be worth staying even if you weren’t playing TPC, but if you are, it’s right out the door and even the clubhouse dining is a standout. The Phoenician is another top luxury hotel, which includes the boutique Forbes 5-Star Canyon Suites, and the main Phoenician, which earns 4-Stars, as does its spa. The Phoenician has just one 18-hole course, but it’s a good one and solidly fun to play.
A wildcard is the Sheraton Grand Wildhorse Pass, which I haven’t stayed at (I’ve been to everything else above) though it is high on my list. It is probably a touch less fancy than the Four Seasons and Phoenician, earning a Forbes “Recommended,” but it has the only Forbes 5-Star spa in the city—and the only Forbes 5-Star restaurant, Kai. It also has the impressive Whirlwind golf club, another 36-hole desert stunner. Finally, there is Grayhawk, yet another renowned 36-hole high-end public golf facility, but without lodging.
Scottsdale is also full of luxury golf resorts such as the Four Seasons at Troon North
Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North
So, if you were counting, that is 15 marquee golf courses and six standout full-service resorts, any of which I would happily play or stay at tomorrow. And honestly, that’s just scratching the surface of Scottsdale golf.
The Best of Arizona Golf: Tucson In A Nutshell
At the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort in Tucson, the golf and lazy river pool sit side by side.
JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort
Before I get to golf I have to say a bit more about Tucson food, because it is so good. One thing you absolutely have to try here that you have probably never had (or seen on a menu) is the quesabirria, a flour tortilla filed with birria (slow braised shredded beef) folded closed, then fried until crispy, so you pick the whole thing up without holding it together, almost like an empanada. This is served with a dipping bowl of consommé from the birria braise, an amazing combination, sort of a taco take on a French Dip sandwich. You will find it around town but the best place to have it is at Amelia’s Mexican Kitchen, which has won Best Quesabirria in Tucson the past two years running. Chef-owned Amelia’s is a culinary must-try, with a lot more great food, and Chef Jose Contreras was a 2025 finalist for the ultra-prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest.
I also highly recommend Seis Kitchen, with multiple locations, and a laid back vibe, and unlike Amelia’s, the hottest reservation in town, it’s easy to get into. You order at the counter and can eat in or takeout if you want to take something back to your hotel or rental. It’s family-owned, named for the six culinary regions of Mexico, has exceptional breakfast in addition to lunch and dinner, does a great quesabirria, and everything from sauces to chips to tortillas to horchata are handmade from scratch, with mostly organic ingredients. They also have an impressive list of Mexican wines and cocktails. For visiting golfers, the myriad street food taco stands and trucks in food-crazed South Tucson make it hard to go wrong.
It’s hard to beat the delicious breakfast at Tucson’s Seis Kitchen, including classic chilaquiles.
Jackie Tran for Visit Tucson
My favorite upscale golf resort would be Ventana Canyon, with two standout Tom Fazio-designed 18-hole courses. There are also two lodging options, the full-service Loews Ventana Canyon resort with nearly 400 rooms and suites, and the Ventana Canyon Club & Lodge, more residential, with lodging in 50 spacious suites. Both have pools, tennis, fitness and spas. Courses are high-quality desert golf with lots of elevation changes, exposed rocks, and a few dramatic signature holes, most famously the third on the Mountain course, a short par-three with a tee on a cliff and the green atop a rocky butte. The Mountain is usually rated the top public course in Tucson, but its sibling the Canyon is also quite good. I got an excellent look at large bobcat sunning itself alongside one of the greens here, something I have never seen on any other golf course, and there are a lot of road runners.
The other luxe 36-hole choice is Omni Tucson National, which for years was the host of the PGA Tour’s Chrysler Classic. It has two very different courses, the Catalina, a more traditional resort-style layout, and the Tom Lehman-designed desert-style Sonoran Course. The Omni also has a full spa, pools and multiple dining venues.
Jack Nicklaus course at the Westin La Paloma in Tucson, site of the PGA Champions Tour Cologuard Classic
Westin La Paloma
The Westin La Paloma is another of Tucson’s full service golf resorts, with large spa, pool complex, lots of dining and one of the best fitness facilities I have ever seen at a resort, plus large tennis and pickleball complex. It also houses an indoor TopGolf suite. It has a 27-hole Jack Nicklaus course that hosts the PGA Champions (formerly Senior) Tour Cologuard Classic on the marquee routing, the Ridge/Canyon nines.
Starr Pass is another high quality 27-hole golf course with its own full service upscale resort, the JW Marriott Starr Pass, which just began a $70 million upgrade program, and is family friendly with a huge lazy rievr pool complex.
El Conquistador is the biggest golf resort here, with two eighteens and a 9-hole layout, plus lodging in a Hilton Resort with large pool complex, spa and multiple dining outlets. Like the Omni it mixes and matches, with the desert-style Conquistador and the more parkland Canada Course with several water hazards. But the seasonal Pusch Ridge, a full-sized 9-hole layout that allows walking, is closed in winter.
While the Casino del Sol only has one course, it’s one of the best in Tucson, and a great choice for a home base. The upscale full-service gaming resort has two different hotels, one fancy and one mid-range, the biggest slate of food and beverage options of any Tucson resort, a large spa and several live entertainment venues that draw big name performers. The Sewailo course, designed by former PGA Tour star Notah Begay III, made Golfweek’s Top 200 U.S. Resort Courses, Top 50 Casino Courses, and has been ranked as high as eighth in all of golf-mad Arizona. It’s not a typical desert course, with wide fairways and lots of water, but is very well maintained.
That is ten good options for golf, and five places to stay, more than enough for a delicious winter golf vacation, and all easy to combine, as Tucson is very manageable in terms of size. There are also other public courses and Golf Digest says Tucson has 26 public courses within a 15-mile radius—and that 15-miles is full of amazing things to eat and drink.
Like Scottsdale, Tucson also has a very helpful tourism website with golf, food, lodging and activities, and between the two cities, you can enjoy the ultimate winter getaway and the best of Arizona golf.
