Looking for quality golf courses that are easy to get to? What about year-round sunny skies and shirt-sleeve temperatures (yup, even in the dead of winter)? Oh, and a place where you can buy your friends a round to celebrate your winning putt? Check, check and check. You’ll find all this and more, including a host of resident PGA legends, in Scottsdale, the world’s finest golf destination. Now the hard part – deciding where to play. Whether you’re looking for a traditional, tree-lined course or a desert, target-style design, Scottsdale has something for you.

We-Ko-Pa Golf Course

A six-pack pack of golf clubs that include The Boulders, Troon North, Legend Trail, Grayhawk, We-Ko-Pa and TPC Scottsdale reside on top of the heap, each offering its own spin on a tried-and-true formula of Sonoran Desert settings and sunshine. The golf courses at The Boulders snake their way through some of the most picturesque real estate in the state. Troon North is so beautiful it’s almost distracting. Legend Trail offers breathtaking panoramic vistas. Grayhawk’s rock ‘n’ roll attitude appeals to the Puma crowd. We-Ko-Pa is surrounded by unspoiled desert and nothing else. And at TPC Scottsdale, mere mortals can tee it up on the track where tour players compete each year during the Waste Management Phoenix Open, including the raucous 16th hole.

Eagle Mountain Golf Course

Scottsdale also offers other desert-golf superstars, such as Eagle Mountain and SunRidge Canyon golf clubs perched high in the McDowell Mountains, as well as the Audubon-certified McDowell Mountain Golf Club (formerly Sanctuary Golf Course) with a layout carved along dense desert scrub and wildlife-rich sandy washes.

While Scottsdale is best known for its desert golf, we’re also home to great traditional layouts. Camelback and McCormick Ranch golf clubs represent two of the best examples of Scottsdale’s more traditional courses that emerged prior to the desert-golf boom. They both feature shimmering water hazards and fairways lined by towering palm, pine and eucalyptus trees, in addition to views of nearby Camelback and Mummy mountains. Ocotillo and Talking Stick golf clubs are other examples of traditional experiences. And ASU Karsten Golf Course, located just south of Scottsdale on the Arizona State University campus, offers links-style golf. Taken together, these tracks offer an intriguing departure from the high-profile desert tracks to the north.

Kierland Golf Club

Most of Scottsdale’s courses are only minutes from the best nightlife, shopping and dining that the city has to offer. For clubs like Kierland and The Phoenician, it’s all about location, location, location. Although the golf courses stand tall on their own, the fact that they’re so close to the action is icing on the cake. In north Scottsdale, Kierland Golf Club is situated next door to both the Kierland Commons and Scottsdale Quarter shopping centers; and in south Scottsdale, The Phoenician Golf Club lays minutes away from the highly-concentrated restaurants, lounges and dance clubs of downtown Scottsdale.

With the quality and quantity of golf courses, the uniqueness of the Sonoran Desert and reliably good weather leading the way, it’s not surprising that the Scottsdale area plays host to 12 million rounds of golf each year. So, what are you waiting for? Pick your courses and plan your Scottsdale golf getaway today.