Golf in Arizona

Arizona is one of the most active golf states in the country, with a concentration of resort and residential courses that take advantage of the Sonoran Desert climate and the dramatic terrain of the American Southwest. The Phoenix metropolitan area, centered on Maricopa County, has developed into a nationally recognized golf destination, with Scottsdale at the core of a corridor of resort, luxury, and daily-fee facilities that attract players from across the country and abroad. The combination of warm winters, dramatic desert terrain, and an abundance of high-end facilities has made the greater Phoenix area one of the defining golf destinations in North America. Tucson offers a parallel but distinct golf experience in Pima County, with a combination of resort facilities, residential clubs, and public courses set against the Santa Catalina and Rincon Mountains. The high-country zones of Coconino and Yavapai Counties offer a completely different setting—cooler temperatures, ponderosa pine terrain, and courses in the Flagstaff and Prescott areas that operate at 5,000 to 7,000 feet elevation. The White Mountains in Apache and Navajo Counties provide yet another experience, with forested high-altitude courses in communities like Pinetop and Show Low that see cooler summer conditions than the desert lowlands. The retirement community belt stretching through the northwestern Phoenix suburbs—including Sun City, Sun City West, and Surprise—has a concentration of age-restricted communities with their own extensive golf infrastructures. The Colorado River corridor along the western state line, from Yuma through Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City, provides warm-weather play year-round in a river-corridor desert setting. Southeastern Arizona has a distinct sky island character, where mountain ranges rise from the surrounding desert and give communities like Sierra Vista and Douglas a cooler, higher-elevation character. Arizona golf benefits from a dual-season market: low-elevation desert courses attract winter visitors from colder climates, while high-country courses see peak play in the summer when temperatures in the desert valley are at their most extreme.