PHOENIX — Following its closure for restoration in late April, private Scottsdale community golf course Desert Highlands has reopened for play.
Pieces of the $9.8-million project included the following: enhancing hole design, reworking surrounding desert landscaping, reconstructing tee boxes, redoing turf, bunkers and greens and updating the club’s putting course.
The 1983 Jack Nicklaus-design was the original home of professional golf’s “The Skins Game” for 26 years, the competition making its long-awaited return on Black Friday in South Florida after its 2009 cancellation.
Chad Goetz, Nicklaus Design senior designer, said the renovations were done to preserve both “classic and timeless golf course the continues to be one of the best in the country.”
“We tried to design the course for all skill levels. Desert Highlands can be a very difficult course for high-handicap players, so we tried to implement small adjustments to improve playability for them,” Goetz said in a release. “Yet, we didn’t want to take away the challenge for better players.”
According to the release, Desert Highlands was ranked 11th by Platinum Clubs of America in its top 50 golf clubs of 2025-26.
The putting course, a par-41 design by Gary Panks, is still under construction, as it is being re-laid with grass and having new drainage installed.
Desert Highlands renovation details
Holes
Highlighted hole redesign features include adding a forward tee box on the fifth hole (for easier access to the putting surface) and multiple boxes to the 10th (to move golfers further away from the back of the practice area).
Concerning the short par-4 13th, the ridge that currently obscures golfers’ view of its alternate fairway will be eliminated. This elimination will force golfers to hit their tee shots a bit farther to reach ideal positioning and make it more of a risk-reward hole.
Additionally, a pair of saguaro cactuses sitting in front of the two tee boxes on 18 were moved and a third tee box was added.
Greens
All of the greens on the par-72 golf course were replanted with 007XL Creeping Bentgrass and the draining system was updated, too.
Some green contouring will also be adjusted so more pin locations can be made available for casual and tournament play. One of these affected greens will be on the par-4 eighth, with it to be “rotated more perpendicular” in line with the direction of the hole and nearby grass mounds to be brought closer to the back right portion of the green, according to the release.
Each green was enlarged between 500 to 600 square feet and was excavated to better fit the surrounding moguls, according to the release.
Tee boxes and turf
All existing tee boxes were “leveled, lowered and enlarged” to more sustainably upkeep those areas.
In terms of turf, the current 419 Bermuda grass was restored on all tee boxes, fairways and rough areas “without re-sodding.”
Bunkers
Every sand trap was “refined and properly reset,” in their shapes and elevation levels. To help keep the bunkers properly maintained, each was excavated and had new sub-surface drainage systems and contamination liners installed.
The current sand will also be replaced with a Caltega Pro Tour sand produced by Gillibrand Co. Inc.
Desert area
Desert vegetation throughout the course was reduced and overgrown areas were completely removed to improve overall look and playability.
General maintenance was done on about 55 acres of the land.
Pro shop also updated
Over the same seven-month period, the Scottsdale golf club spent $2.5 million on updating its pro shop and women’s locker room.
The new-look pro shop features an “expanded entrance and a relocated retail counter” and the locker room was touched up with “brighter finishes” on the walls and has a new “self-serve station” with a Pour-My-Beer tap system.
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