Troon North Golf Club — Pinnacle Course

The Pinnacle Course arrived six years after the Monument, in 1996, and it occupies the more dramatic terrain of the two Troon North layouts. Where the Monument borrows from British links principles, the Pinnacle leans fully into desert target golf. Steep arroyos cut across fairways, native washes separate tees from landing areas, and saguaro forests line the corridors between holes. The visual impact is immediate and sustained across the round.

Weiskopf and Morrish routed the course to maximize exposure to the natural desert features without making them gratuitously penal. The forced carries are calibrated to the forward tees as well as the tips, and golfers who play from the appropriate markers will find the carries manageable. What the Pinnacle demands is commitment: standing on a tee with desert scrub between you and the fairway requires trusting your swing, and the course asks for that trust repeatedly.

The signature hole is the par-5 16th, which measures 609 yards and runs through a natural desert wash. The length alone makes it a three-shot hole for nearly everyone, and the wash creates a decision point on the second shot that defines the hole's character. The aggressive play carries a portion of the wash to a narrow landing area that shortens the third. The conservative play lays up to a wide zone that leaves a longer but less obstructed approach to the green. Both strategies are viable, which is the mark of a well-designed risk-reward hole.

The greens are set into the desert terrain rather than elevated above it, a design choice that allows the approach shot to use the ground. The contours are less severe than those on the Monument but still demand attention to pin placement. The putting surfaces are well maintained and consistent across the 18 holes, reflecting the same maintenance standard that supports the Monument's higher-profile reputation.

At $255 to $325 in peak season, the Pinnacle sits below the Monument in pricing, though the quality gap is narrower than the price difference suggests. Golfers playing both Troon North courses over two days will find that the Pinnacle holds its own as the afternoon round or the second-day experience. The courses share a clubhouse, practice facility, and staff, and the combined experience covers two distinct expressions of Sonoran Desert golf from the same architectural team.

For first-time visitors to Scottsdale choosing between the two, the Monument is the more strategically demanding round. The Pinnacle is the more visually dramatic. Both are worth playing, and the preference between them says more about what a golfer values than about any objective quality difference.