Un-FORE-gettable Tucson Golf Courses

Tucson Golf Courses Challenge and Captivate

Visit Tucson

Take Your Best Shot on The Best Tucson Golf Courses

Tucson, Ariz. – Let the surroundings surround you on Tucson's award-winning courses that are situated in nature and designed by some of golf's biggest stars, including Tom Fazio and Jack Nicklaus. Take your best shot on a challenging desert golf course, or enjoy a more traditional links-style layout. Tucson's desert golf experiences are out of the ordinary and just a bit off the beaten path.

The choices and challenges here captivate even the most discriminating golfers, and along with the mild climate, make Tucson a favorite golf destination. Some of the sport's biggest stars – Rickie Fowler, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson – have either competed on or designed Tucson area golf courses. The legacy of professional golf tournaments played here, from the first Tucson Open in 1945 to the current World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, chronicles a longtime love and respect for the game.

Come February the eyes of golf fall on Southern Arizona. The Golf Club at Dove Mountain is home to the WGC – Accenture Match Play Championship, where the world's top 64 golfers try to etch their names into the history books. Billed as the cornerstone of the World Golf Championships, the five-day tournament takes place in the suburb of Marana – just north of Tucson.

For decades, the Omni Tucson National Resort has enjoyed hosting prestigious PGA Tour events where legendary champions such as Nicklaus, Trevino and Palmer have graced the fairways and battled for glory.  As host course for the PGA Tour's Chrysler Classic of Tucson and the Southern Arizona Open, the Omni Tucson National Golf Course takes center stage. Its traditional-style fairways cap a bluff overlooking the beauty of the Santa Catalina Mountains. The PGA pros rank the 18th hole as one of the most challenging finishing holes on the tour.

Nature plays a big part in many area golf course designs. Dubbed “the most photographed golf hole west of the Mississippi,” the third hole, a short par-3, of The Mountain Course at Ventana Canyon is tucked into the rugged rocks of the Santa Catalina mountains and plays across a canyon of cacti.

The area's newest golf course, Sewailo at Casino del Sol Resort features large lakes, flowing streams, waterfalls and plush landscape blending with the desert environment to create a wonderful “oasis” effect. The course, designed by Notah Begay III, transitions through both desert terrain and the oasis environment, while taking full advantage of the surrounding mountain views to create an exciting and unique golfing experience. Sewailo will also offer the first Jack Nicklaus Academy of Golf in Arizona, one of only a handful in the U.S.

Tucson's municipal golf courses include two long-time tournament courses. Randolph North was set up for PGA Tour and then LPGA events so the greens vary greatly in slope and size, and present a real challenge for the serious stick. The adjacent Dell Urich course hosted LPGA tournaments in 2003 and 2004, and proved to reward strategic play. El Rio dates back to the 1930's and was the original site of the PGA's Tucson Open and Silverbell Golf Course is a championship layout located high upon the west bank of the Santa Cruz River. 

Just a short drive south of Tucson, the courses at Green Valley, Tubac and Rio Rico offer rolling hills and buildings with Spanish colonial flair. Hollywood shot scenes for the 1996 movie Tin Cup at Tubac Golf Resort's Rancho Nine course. It's easy to recognize the par-5 fourth hole there with its menacing pond protecting the green. For more information or to request the Tucson Golf Guide, call Visit Tucson toll-free (800) 638-8350, or go to visittucson.org

 

RELATED LINKS

VIDEO: 2014 Accenture Match Play Championship

WGC Website

Westin La Paloma's $35 Million Upgrade

 

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.