Golf in Scottsdale

The courses you hear about

TPC Scottsdale is the headliner, with its main clubhouse on Hayden Road and the Champions Course on Bell Road. Grayhawk Golf Club sits on Thompson Peak Parkway, in the middle of Grayhawk. Troon North, off Dynamite Boulevard, is the boulder-country course in Pinnacle Peak and Troon that shows up on everybody's phone.

Talking Stick Golf Club is on the east side, on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land. McCormick Ranch Golf Club is the central option, right in McCormick Ranch, and it stays busy for a reason. Legend Trail is up north, past the crowds.

A couple of the area's best known names, like Scottsdale National and Troon Country Club, are the kind of place you need an invitation to play. Check before you get excited. Rates and tee times swing hard by season, so look at the course's own site.

Why the round stays sober

Clubhouses, carts, the parking lot and the fairway are all someone else's property, and the owner sets the rules. Golf carts count too. Arizona doesn't allow consuming while you're driving or riding in a vehicle used for transportation, and there's no reason to test how that applies to a cart.

The bigger reason is practical. Four or five hours in the sun, plus heat, plus a slow-building edible, is how a nice morning turns into a bad afternoon. Heat sneaks up on you, and being baked makes it harder to notice. Save it for the patio. Your scorecard wasn't going to improve anyway.

How the golf year goes

Winter and spring are peak everything. That's when snowbirds fill the tee sheets, the rates climb and the courses look like a postcard. Book early and expect company.

Summer is the local deal. Prices usually fall, the courses thin out, and the smart money tees off at dawn. Carry more water than you think you need, take the cart, and be done before the worst of the day. If you feel dizzy or confused out there, stop and get into the shade, and call 911 if someone's confused or passes out.

The Scottsdale by season guide has the month-by-month heat. If you've got a spring training weekend on the calendar too, expect the roads around Old Town and Talking Stick to slow down.

After the round

The clubhouse patio at Grayhawk is the classic place to sit afterward. Sesh at home first if that's your order of things, or go straight home and do it there. Then let someone else drive to dinner. The munchies guide sorts that part out by area, and the big post-round plan of fries, a shower and a nap needs no guide at all.