Shot List

An insider’s guide to the best golf courses in Tucson
| By Louie Christensen

As winter lingers in the northern half of the United States, thousands have to shovel themselves out of hazardous conditions. Here in Tucson, the only tool we ever need to escape our winter hazards is a sand wedge. When temperatures heat up, local golfers praise the earlier, later, and discounted tee times.

Tucson has a ton of top notch golf courses, making it difficult for visitors to feel like they are picking the absolute best spots for their limited time spent in town. So how do you possibly pick from the dozens of highly rated courses? To avoid any tee time regret, here are eight courses in Tucson that will make a big impression.

Omni Tucson National

RATING: 75.4, SLOPE: 136, LENGTH: 7,262

Home of Phil Mickelson’s first PGA Tour win and the PGA Champions Tour’s new Conquistador Classic, the Catalina Course allows you to test your muster against some of the best who have ever played the game.

While the Catalina course does provide views of the desert scenery, its design and style falls more in line with a classic country club course feel. Looking at the course layout, and its lack of desert-lined fairways, you may leave the course unsure of why you shot such a high score. But, you wouldn’t be alone. It is a tough course. You may not lose a ball to a prickly pear cactus, but the fairways are lined with enough tall pine trees and water hazards to keep you honest.

Ventana Canyon

RATING 72.8, SLOPE: 143, LENGTH: 6,898

Consistently rated one of the top courses in Arizona and among the best course conditions in the United States, Ventana Canyon is a must play.

Winding in and out of the high Sonoran desert at the very base of the Catalina Mountains, both the Mountain and Canyon courses provide holes worthy of any golf magazine’s front cover, but the most photographed would be the short third hole on Mountain. Hitting back into the belly of the mountain, the green on the short par 3 is more craggy cliff and desert than it is a safe target.

La Paloma

AVERAGE RATING: 72.3, SLOPE: 146, LENGTH: 7,034

Local lore says that when legendary golfer and course designer Jack Nicklaus came to Tucson for the first time to design La Paloma’s course, his hosts did not show him a very good time. Being known for his sarcasm, Nicklaus took it out on Tucson by making La Paloma extra challenging. The three aptly named nine hole courses dip in and out of the steep hills, canyons, and ridges of the Catalina Foothills, providing some of the most intimidating, risk-reward, corner-cutting shots in the city.

Each of the three courses has a personality all its own. Ridge is the shortest, narrowest, and most crooked, forcing long hitters to choose between playing smart or fearlessly. Canyon is the longest, and there are a few carries and elevation changes that will punish players who don’t correctly judge their carry distance. On Hill, Nicholas gives you the tee shot for free but will make you pay if you miss the green.

There’s a good chance you’ve actually seen this course. It was the filming location of the tournament where Kevin Costner’s character Roy McAvoy had to carry his own bag in the movie Tin Cup when heat exhaustion struck his caddy.

If you are daring enough to take on the Golden Bear’s diabolical interpretation of target desert golf, this will be a golfing experience you won’t soon forget.

Sewailo

RATING: 73.5, SLOPE: 138, LENGTH 7,283

The newest addition to Tucson’s golf scene made a big impression when it opened in 2015, bringing home the #8 spot on Golf Advisor’s Top 25 Course Conditions in the United States list. The course has remained on the Best of Golf Advisor list since then.  

The course plays long from the tips, but because the fairways are kept in living-room-carpet condition, you can get a lot of run if you catch one of the small swails correctly.

Where almost all of Tucson’s desert golf courses are located up against or in the mountain ranges that surround Tucson, Sewailo provides a completely different desert golf experience. The course sits in the wash basin on Tucson’s far southwest side, giving it an almost Las Vegas golf course vibe. There are water hazards on almost a third of the holes, which is very uncommon in water-conscious Tucson. While that may be many golfers’ personal nightmare, to others they will welcome the challenge and fall in love with the beautiful design and perfectly manicured course.

Arizona National Golf Club

RATING: 72.5, SLOPE: 143, LENGTH: 6,785

Named one of the Top 10 courses in Arizona by Golf Advisor, Arizona National provides a different look at desert golf. Located on Tucson’s east side, the softer mountain swailes are dotted with thousands of saguaros. The challenging course has played host to NCAA golf tournaments, and until recently was the home course for the University of Arizona teams.

Arizona National provides all of the desert golf course features that you’ll find at the nearby resort courses, but at a lower price. It’s hard to believe you can play a course in such great condition with such beautiful views at such low prices, but you won’t hear the locals complaining about it.

Starr Pass

AVERAGE RATING: 72.1, SLOPE: 141, LENGTH: 6,812

If you talk to someone about golf in Tucson, and they don’t mention Starr Pass, they clearly aren’t a golfer. This desert classic weaves through the rugged hills near southwest Tucson. One minute you’ll feel like you’re lost on the edge of the wide open West, and the next you’ll be looking down onto Downtown Tucson and the rest of the valley.

The course is designed (by Bob Cupp, Ed Seay, and Arnold Palmer) to allow the rougher edges of the desert to bump directly up against the course, providing a challenging obstacle for golfers of every skill level.

Tee boxes are carefully positioned to allow golfers of all swing speeds a chance to not only challenge themselves, but the hole itself. This allows even the shortest of drivers to feel like they can enjoy and not struggle through a round of desert golf while still allowing longer hitters to let the big dog eat by simply bumping back a tee box.

The Preserve

RATING: 72.5, SLOPE: 139, LENGTH: 7,006

Don’t let its location within the Saddlebrook retirement community fool you, this course is no walk in the park. The desert sits just yards off of every fairway and rolling elevation changes provide nerve-racking carries over washes and high desert scrub. But, thanks to the stunning views of the Oro Valley side of the Catalina Mountains commanding the scenery, you can lose a whole sleeve and still walk away with fond memories.

Regulars will stress the need to play to the course’s condition. Those hills, doglegs, and island fairways may serve as eye candy, but you can also easily roll off the end of a fairway and into the desert if the course is playing a touch fast. You’ve been warned...this isn’t your grandpa’s retirement community course.

The Views Golf Club at Oro Valley

RATING: 72.5, SLOPE: 13, LENGTH: 6,715

If you’re looking to enjoy some desert golf but you don’t want to leave the course feeling beat up...The Views is the perfect course for you. With phenomenal views of the Catalina Mountains, The Views take the high intensity of most desert courses and dials it back a few notches, allowing for a more relaxing golfing experience.

You can also get a good look at some rather affordable golf course adjacent neighborhoods, and dream of enjoying the beautiful desert weather for years to come. Not a bad place to be while all your golfing buddies back home are practicing their swings in their garages.


Hector the Loneliest Saguaro


Kathryn Humphrey’s move to Tucson inspired her new children’s book

| By Amanda Oien
| Photography by Brielle Farmer

Sunshine and scorpions surround Kathryn Humphrey, who is embracing her new home in Tucson, Arizona—with the help from a secluded, yet resilient, saguaro.

Kate, an illustrator hailing from the glitz and glam of Los Angeles, has called Tucson home since 2015. She moved here with her Air Force husband and five rescue dogs. Trying to find her bearings on what she calls “a different planet,” Kate wrote her first children’s book, Hector the Loneliest Saguaro.

When Kate first moved to Tucson, cactuses were just another desert oddity. But the closer she looked, the more intrigued and attached she became.

On a road trip through Southern Arizona, saguaros decorated the dramatic landscape that encompassed her. But Kate noticed something. A lone saguaro, separated from the rest.

And just like that, Hector, the loneliest saguaro, was born.

On the anniversary of her mother’s passing and surrounded by her new environment, Kate remembered the secluded saguaro: alone in the desert but still standing strong and proud.

Kate remembered her mother’s advice: When you are feeling sorry for yourself, go help someone else. So Kate began to write.

“I didn’t intend to write this story,” Kate said. “But I had an idea and I wrote it first word to last in one hour.”

Kate’s children’s book, Hector the Loneliest Saguaro, takes kids on a journey of overcoming feelings of not belonging, remaining strong, proud and true to who they are—just like Hector.

But it isn’t your average kid’s book.

“It’s a more sophisticated language,” Kate said. “When I grew up, books didn’t insult kids. I wanted to write a cool story that sounded pretty.”

Kate said she’s always spoken to kids like adults and she wasn’t about to change that when she wrote her book.

Hector the Loneliest Saguaro not only guides kids through some of life’s challenges, but teaches them about Hector’s own challenges in a sometimes unforgiving Sonoran desert.

Kate Humphrey holds a photograph of her mother.

Bees, butterflies, and woodpeckers accompany Hector on his educational adventure through the desert’s ecosystem. Kate intended her book to be for 7–12 year olds and read aloud to little ones.

“I address the seasons a lot in the book,” Kate said. “It’s a big part of our ecosystem. The seasons here are all so different.”

Kate is excited to get the book into the local market. Hector the Loneliest Saguaro is printed by Arizona Lithographers, a Tucson green printer that uses 100% renewable resources.

For Kate, Tucson couldn’t have been a better place to create her book.

“It’s the perfect size market,” she said. “It’s big enough to where there’s a lot of things going on and a lot of resources, especially for artists. But it’s not so big that you just get lost in the crowd.”

With her mother’s advice wrapped around her, Kate continues to spread Hector’s story and fall in love with her new Sonoran desert home.

Order Hector the Loneliest Saguaro by Kathryn Humphrey at hectorthesaguaro.ecwid.com.