Scottsdale: Best Holes Ranked
Every course in the Scottsdale corridor has a hole that golfers remember on the flight home. A par 3 through a desert canyon, a par 4 framed by granite formations older than the game itself, a short hole that somehow produces more stories than the other seventeen combined. The best individual holes across the greater Phoenix market share a common quality: they ask a specific question, and the answer determines the score.
What follows is a ranking of nine holes across eight courses, chosen for the quality of the strategic test, the distinctiveness of the setting, and the way each hole uses the Sonoran Desert as a playing feature rather than mere decoration. Yardages are from the standard resort or white tees unless noted.
1. TPC Scottsdale (Stadium), Hole 16 — Par 3, 163 yards
The most famous par 3 in American tournament golf earns its reputation not from architecture but from context. During the WM Phoenix Open, temporary grandstands enclose the green entirely, seating 20,000 spectators who treat birdies like touchdowns. The rest of the year, the stands are gone, the desert is quiet, and the hole reveals itself as a compact par 3 to a well-bunkered green. The tee shot demands a precise mid-iron to a target that slopes gently from back to front. Playing it in silence, on the same green where Sam Ryder made his ace in 2022, produces a dissonance between spectacle and solitude that no other hole in the country replicates.
2. Troon North (Monument), Hole 3 — Par 4, 383 yards
The signature hole at Troon North places a massive granite boulder directly in the fairway, roughly 250 yards from the tee. The boulder is not merely visual. It bisects the landing zone and forces a decision: play left for a wider fairway and a longer approach, or play right for a shorter iron in but a tighter corridor. The green sits beyond a shallow wash, slightly elevated, and rejects anything that arrives without conviction. Tom Weiskopf built this hole to reward planning over power, and it delivers on that intent.
3. We-Ko-Pa (Saguaro), Hole 17 — Par 3, 178 yards
Coore and Crenshaw placed this par 3 on a stretch of open desert with sightlines extending to the McDowell Mountains, Four Peaks, and Red Mountain simultaneously. The green is firm, contoured, and accepts the ground game from a front apron that invites the bump-and-run. Club selection is the central challenge: the hole plays into the prevailing afternoon wind, and the difference between a five-iron and a six-iron here is the difference between birdie range and a recovery from the desert scrub below the green. The panorama is striking, but the shot demands are what elevate the hole.
4. Quintero, Hole 15 — Par 3, 206 yards
Rees Jones threaded this par 3 through a desert canyon, with the tee positioned on an elevated platform and the green sitting below amid rocky walls. The forced carry across the canyon floor creates a visual that makes the hole appear longer than its yardage, and the elevation drop adds roughly fifteen yards to whatever club the golfer selects. The green is deep and narrow, protected by bunkers on both sides. In afternoon wind, this is among the most demanding one-shotters in the Phoenix corridor.
5. The Boulders (South), Hole 5 — Par 4, 362 yards
Jay Morrish routed this mid-length par 4 directly toward the massive boulder formations that define the property. The tee shot plays through a corridor framed by granite walls several stories high, compressing the visual field and making the fairway appear narrower than its actual width. A mid-iron approach plays to a green nestled at the base of the formations. The hole is not long, and the strategic demands are modest. What it offers instead is a setting so geologically distinctive that no other hole in Arizona resembles it.
6. We-Ko-Pa (Cholla), Hole 7 — Par 5, 548 yards
Scott Miller's risk-reward par 5 presents a genuine two-shot opportunity for longer players willing to carry a desert wash on their second. The reward is a clear look at a green that sits slightly above the fairway, receptive to a well-struck long iron. The penalty for a misjudged carry is a lost ball and a number that can wreck the card. Played as a three-shotter, the hole is straightforward. Played aggressively, it becomes the most consequential hole on the Cholla routing.
7. Grayhawk (Raptor), Hole 17 — Par 3, 200 yards
Tom Fazio positioned this late-round par 3 over a desert wash to a green that is wider than it is deep. The carry is significant but not extreme; the real test is distance control on a hole that often plays into the wind. Bunkers guard both sides, and the green's contour funnels anything that lands long into a back collection area from which par becomes a good score. For golfers holding a number on the back nine, this is where the card tightens.
8. Troon North (Monument), Hole 17 — Par 4, 410 yards
The second Troon North entry on this list earns its place through late-round intensity. The tee shot plays to a fairway that narrows between desert scrub and a deep bunker complex on the left. The approach, typically a mid-iron, must carry a desert wash to a green that slopes sharply from back to front. Anything above the pin leaves a downhill putt that tests nerve. At the 17th hole of a course with a 148 slope, this is precisely where the round is decided.
9. Ak-Chin Southern Dunes, Hole 18 — Par 4, 438 yards
Brian Curley and Lee Schmidt's closing hole at Southern Dunes plays as a long, slightly uphill par 4 that demands a well-struck drive and a committed approach. The fairway undulates in a manner more reminiscent of links golf than desert target courses, and the green complex is the most demanding on the property. As a closing hole on a course located 45 minutes south of Scottsdale in Maricopa, it rewards the golfer who made the drive with a finish that lingers.
The Scottsdale best courses guide covers the full layouts in detail, and the Scottsdale destination guide provides planning logistics for building a trip around these holes. Tee times at most of these courses open 30 to 90 days in advance, and peak-season mornings fill quickly. Book early, and play the holes that made the list with enough attention to remember them clearly on the way home.