Quintero Golf Club

The verdict

Quintero is the round Phoenix locals reach for when they want a desert course that feels a world away from the city grid. Rees Jones laid it out in 2000 across a remote tract in the Hieroglyphic Mountains north of Peoria, and the drive in tells you what to expect, the last few miles climbing into empty desert with not a house in sight. It was conceived as a private club, and the championship pedigree shows in the scale and the conditioning, but today it plays as a public course, which makes it one of the best value premium rounds in the state.

It is a par 72 of about 7,208 yards with a course rating around 75 and a slope near 145, so it asks real questions from the back tees, yet the generous landing areas keep it fair for the visitor who plays the right markers. The greens are pure, the bunkering strategic rather than punitive, and the mountain backdrops on hole after hole give the round a sense of seclusion few desert layouts match. For a traveling golfer, it is a course to build a day around.

The holes worth the trip

Jones used the natural valleys to route Quintero so that almost every hole sits in its own pocket of desert, framed by the rocky ridges of the Hieroglyphics. The front nine eases you in across rolling ground, while the back climbs higher into the hills, where the elevation changes and the long views toward the valley floor make the closing stretch the most memorable.

The par 3s are a genuine set, asking for committed mid and long iron play to greens defended by desert and well placed sand. The longer par 4s reward a drive that holds the correct side of the fairway, opening the angle into greens that fall away if you are short sided. The par 5s tempt the bold to go for it in two, with risk and reward clearly drawn rather than hidden.

What ties the round together is the conditioning and the quiet. The bentgrass greens are kept among the smoothest in the Southwest, the turf firm and true, and the absence of houses or traffic lends the place a calm that feels much further from Phoenix than the forty minute drive suggests. Quintero is desert golf at its most expansive, and it consistently earns its place near the top of Arizona's public rankings.

Where to stay nearby

Quintero sits out on its own, so most visitors base in the wider Phoenix and Scottsdale area and make the drive out for the round. The northwest valley around Peoria and Glendale keeps the course closest, while the Scottsdale resort corridor, around forty five minutes east, pairs Quintero with the desert courses to the north for a full week of golf.

For a focused trip we usually anchor a Scottsdale or north Phoenix base, slot Quintero in as the standout remote round, and build the rest of the itinerary around the courses you can reach without long transfers. Phoenix Sky Harbor is the gateway airport, and stay and play packages can bundle lodging with the tee time.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts in the Phoenix and Scottsdale area.