TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course

The verdict

The TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course is one of the most recognizable layouts in American golf, even to people who have never swung a club, thanks to the spectacle of the WM Phoenix Open. Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish designed it in 1986 as a true stadium course, mounded for spectators, and it has hosted the PGA Tour event since 1987. Weiskopf returned for a renovation in 2014, and it now plays as a par 71 of about 7,261 yards.

It is owned by the city of Scottsdale and managed by the PGA Tour, which means the same course that draws the largest crowds in golf is open to the public for a daily fee. The desert setting, framed by the McDowell Mountains, is handsome and generous off the tee, but the scoring tightens around the water on the closing stretch. The headline, of course, is the sixteenth, a short par 3 entirely enclosed by grandstands that becomes the greatest show on grass for one week a year.

The holes worth the trip

The Stadium Course rewards confident driving and sharp wedge play. Weiskopf and Morrish gave it generous landing areas befitting a course that hosts enormous galleries, so the premium is less on finding the fairway than on attacking the right portions of greens that are firm, sloping and quick. The bunkering is deep and well placed, and the desert waits beyond the manicured corridors for anything wild.

The closing stretch is where the tournament and the green fee round alike are decided. The driveable par 4 seventeenth tempts the bold with water guarding the green, and the par 4 eighteenth, with a long carry over water down the left, is a demanding finish in front of the clubhouse. It is a true risk and reward conclusion, the kind that produces eagles and double bogeys on the same hole.

And then there is the sixteenth, a short par 3 of about 162 yards that for fifty one weeks of the year is a pleasant one shotter, and for one week becomes the coliseum, fully ringed by grandstands holding tens of thousands of fans at the best attended event in golf. Playing it on an ordinary day, with the empty stadium towering around you, is a bucket list thrill in itself. Played as part of a Scottsdale trip, with dozens of desert courses nearby and the Fairmont Princess next door, the Stadium Course is one of the most entertaining public rounds in the country.

Where to stay nearby

The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess sits right next to the Stadium Course and is the natural base, a large resort with golf packages and a short walk or shuttle to the first tee. Beyond it, Scottsdale is one of the great golf resort towns in the United States, with hotels at every level across the desert and the old town.

For a wider Scottsdale itinerary, the area packs in dozens of championship desert courses, from the second TPC layout next door to Grayhawk, We Ko Pa and many more, enough for a week of golf without repeating a course. Phoenix Sky Harbor airport is about thirty minutes away and well connected across the country, which makes a Scottsdale golf trip one of the simplest premium breaks to build in winter.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts across Scottsdale.