Rio Salado Golf Course

Rio Salado sits along the Salt River corridor in Tempe, one of the East Valley cities that make up metro Phoenix's dense, year-round golf market. The Salt River bottom — "río salado" in Spanish — is a defining feature of the landscape here, a broad, sandy wash that for much of the year runs dry but shapes the terrain and ecology of this stretch of central Arizona. Tempe itself borders Phoenix and Scottsdale, putting this course in the thick of one of the most golf-saturated regions in the country.

Municipal and public-access golf has a strong tradition in this part of the Valley, where flat desert terrain and reliably sunny winters have made the game accessible to everyday players for decades. A course in this setting typically draws a loyal base of locals who play it regularly rather than tourists chasing resort marquee names.

Without deeper records on the specific layout, what's clear is the context: affordable, accessible desert golf in a genuinely urban setting, with the character of a community course where regulars know every bounce and the tee sheet fills early on winter mornings.