Few settings frame a golf hole like the desert: emerald fairways carved through saguaro and arroyo, mountains on the skyline and a dry, reliable sky overhead. From the Sonoran Desert around Scottsdale to the dunes of Dubai and the ocean cliffs of Los Cabos, here are the ten desert courses we rate most highly, ranked, with our verdict on each and how to play it.
Photograph: We-Ko-Pa Golf Club, Chad Fisher, via Google
Desert golf is a discipline of its own. The best examples use the harshness of the land as the hazard, routing lush corridors of grass through cactus, rock and dry wash so that the edges of the playing field need no rough at all. Arizona, and Scottsdale in particular, is the world capital of the genre, where Tom Weiskopf, Jay Morrish, Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Fazio have all built across the Sonoran Desert, much of it open to the public. Dubai built the first grass course in the Middle East and turned the Majlis into a glamorous winter stop, while in Los Cabos the desert tips straight into the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez to produce some of the most dramatic golf anywhere.
We weighed architecture, the drama of the setting, conditioning and how realistically a travelling golfer can play each, leaning toward courses that take visitors. A handful of the very best are private, so we flag access where it matters. Every designer and opening year here was checked at the time of writing, and where a detail could not be confirmed we describe the course by its verified character. The order and the verdicts are our editors' view, so reasonable people will reorder the top of the list. If you want any of these built into a costed trip, that is what our concierge does.
The purest desert course you can play, a Coore and Crenshaw design opened in 2006 on Yavapai Nation land east of Scottsdale, with no houses, no cart paths in view and nothing but the Sonoran Desert and the McDowell Mountains. Wide, firm and endlessly strategic, it rewards angles and the ground game in the classic Coore and Crenshaw style. The connoisseur's choice and our pick for the best desert course in the world.
The course that brought grass golf to the Middle East, a Karl Litten design opened in 1988 as the region's first eighteen hole grass course and long time host of the Dubai Desert Classic. Routed through dunes and desert landscaping with the Dubai skyline behind, it climaxes at the par five eighteenth beside the famous tented clubhouse. Glamorous, immaculate and the anchor of any Dubai golf trip.
The most famous desert course in America, a Weiskopf and Morrish design opened in 1986 and home of the WM Phoenix Open, golf's rowdiest week. The stadium par three sixteenth, fully enclosed by grandstands, is unlike anything else in the sport, and the drivable seventeenth and reachable fifteenth keep the closing stretch electric. A genuine bucket list public round, best played in winter.
For many the definitive Scottsdale daily fee desert course, a Weiskopf and Morrish layout opened in 1990 named for the boulder strewn outcrop that frames the third hole. Fairways thread between giant saguaro and dry washes beneath Pinnacle Peak, with the conditioning and service you expect from a flagship resort course. Pair it with its sister Pinnacle for a full Troon North day.
Desert golf at its most theatrical, a Jack Nicklaus design at the very tip of the Baja peninsula where holes climb across clifftops, beach and desert with the Pacific crashing far below. The elevation changes and ocean exposure make it a thrill ride, served by some of the best halfway houses in golf. Access runs through the Pueblo Bonito resorts, exactly the kind of door our concierge opens.
Tiger Woods's first opened design, the inland desert course at Diamante above Cabo San Lucas. Wide, firm and ground game friendly, with cactus strewn corridors and an emphasis on angles and the run of the ball, it is more playable and strategic than fearsome. A fascinating window on how Woods thinks about architecture, and a fine desert counterpoint to the resort's coastal Dunes course.
A Sir Nick Faldo design at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge resort in north Phoenix, set over roughly 6,800 yards and defined by some 140 bunkers, including the vast waste areas Faldo loves. It plays relatively open off the tee with generous landing areas, then asks precise approaches, and the resort setting makes it one of the most accessible high quality desert rounds in the Valley.
One of southern Arizona's most acclaimed desert courses, a private layout in the foothills of the Santa Catalina and Tortolita Mountains above Tucson, routed through boulder fields, canyons and stands of saguaro. The land does the heavy lifting, with dramatic elevation change and a back nine that climbs into rock strewn high desert. Private and tightly held, so a round is arranged rather than bought.
The tougher of Grayhawk's two championship layouts in north Scottsdale, a muscular desert test that has hosted high profile professional and collegiate events including the NCAA Championships. Generous off the tee but demanding into firm, well defended greens, it is impeccably conditioned and easy to combine with a Scottsdale itinerary. Daily fee and visitor friendly, with a clubhouse and practice ground to match.
The signature resort course at The Boulders in Carefree, named for the giant twelve million year old rock formations the holes weave around. Tumbling desert golf among the boulders and cactus, with the resort's adobe casitas and spa making it a relaxed luxury base north of Scottsdale. More scenic than savage, it is the desert round to pair with a wellness and golf escape rather than a pure test.
Designers and opening years verified June 2026 where stated; courses without a confirmed detail are described by their verified setting and character. Several leading desert courses are private. Course profiles are added across the site as the directory grows. Always confirm access and fees directly before booking. Check tee time availability.
Tell us whether you want the Sonoran Desert around Scottsdale, the glamour of Dubai, or the ocean cliffs of Los Cabos, and roughly when. One concierge arranges the tee times and the resort and costs the trip to the head, with no obligation.
Coore and Crenshaw's Saguaro Course at We-Ko-Pa near Scottsdale is the most highly rated public desert course, a minimalist layout with no homes in sight, while Dubai's Emirates Majlis and the cliffside Quivira in Los Cabos are its closest rivals on a world list. Reasonable people reorder the top three depending on whether they want pure architecture or pure drama.
Arizona, around Scottsdale and Tucson, has by far the deepest concentration of great Sonoran Desert courses, many of them public, which makes it the heartland of desert golf. Dubai offers fewer courses but a very high standard and a glamorous resort base built around the Majlis. Los Cabos blends desert with ocean cliffs. Arizona suits a buddies golf trip, Dubai and Cabo a golf and luxury holiday.
In Arizona and Los Cabos the prime season runs from roughly November to April, when daytime temperatures are pleasant and the courses peak, while high summer is brutally hot. In Dubai the season is similar, October to April. Summer rates fall sharply in all three, but early tee times are essential. Always confirm conditions before booking.
Many of the best are resort or daily fee courses that welcome visitors, including We-Ko-Pa, TPC Scottsdale, Troon North, Wildfire, Grayhawk, the Emirates Majlis and the Diamante and Quivira layouts through their resorts. A few, such as Stone Canyon and The Boulders membership, are private or semi private, so access there is arranged rather than bought. Always confirm directly before booking.
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Researched and written by the GolfForKings editorial desk. Course designers and opening years verified June 2026 where stated. Last reviewed June 2026.