So, I was looking at heading to Scottsdale for a bit of a golf getaway, you know? Figured it’d be easy to find a good list of courses, maybe a decent map showing where everything is. Boy, was I wrong.
It was just… a mess. Bits of info here, outdated lists there, and don’t even get me started on trying to figure out which courses were actually in Scottsdale versus, like, Phoenix-next-door. Drove me nuts.
After a few hours of clicking around and getting nowhere fast, I just threw my hands up. I thought, “Right, if you want something done properly, sometimes you just gotta do it yourself.” So, that’s what I did. I decided to make my own map, or at least a clear guide, to the golf courses in Scottsdale.
My Little Project Kicks Off
First things first, I just started jotting down every course name I could find that claimed to be in Scottsdale. You’d be surprised, or maybe not, how many pop up. It’s like every other patch of green is a golf course out there!
Then, the real “fun” began. I had to actually verify locations. Some websites are great, others look like they haven’t been updated since the early 2000s. I spent a good amount of time on online maps, just dropping pins and trying to get a feel for the layout of the land, so to speak.
- Public, Private, Resort? That was a big one. Had to try and figure out which ones I, or anyone really, could actually play. Some are super exclusive, you know.
- North, Central, South? I tried to roughly group them. Scottsdale is bigger than you think, and knowing if a course is way up north or closer to Old Town makes a difference.
- Any standout features? Didn’t go too deep here, but if a course was famous for something, or I saw a lot of comments about its difficulty or views, I made a little note.
Now, when I say “map,” don’t picture me with drafting tools and cartography software. Nah, this was more about creating a structured list, something you could actually use to plan a trip without pulling your hair out. I wanted to see it all laid out, clear and simple.
I basically ended up with a big document, then I started to organize it into what made sense to me. Tried to make it so you could easily see, at a glance, what’s what and where’s where, roughly. It’s not perfect, but it’s a heck of a lot better than the scattered mess I started with.
What I Learned Along the Way
Honestly, the sheer number of high-quality courses is pretty staggering. Scottsdale really is a golfer’s paradise, no doubt about it. But it also means it’s easy to get overwhelmed by choice. That’s why I felt a proper list, a sort of “lay of the land,” was so needed.
And, you know, not all “Scottsdale” courses are created equal in terms of actual location. Some are right in the thick of things, others are a bit of a drive. That became super clear once I started plotting things out, even just mentally.
So, there you have it. That was my little adventure into making sense of Scottsdale’s golf scene. It took a bit of doing, a fair few evenings of sifting through stuff, but I ended up with something I think is pretty useful.
I figured if I was having this much trouble, other folks probably were too. So, I wanted to share my process and what I put together. Hopefully, it saves someone else the headache I went through. It’s not an official, all-singing, all-dancing map, but it’s a real person’s attempt to bring some order to the chaos. And sometimes, that’s all you need, right?
