Legacy Golf Resort

Few resort courses in the Valley of the Sun carry the pedigree of Legacy Golf Resort. Designed by Arnold Palmer and his design partner Ed Seay and opened in 1989, it was built on the site of a former farm in Ahwatukee, the southernmost neighborhood of Phoenix, and the Palmer team used that flat agricultural canvas to craft something deliberately strategic — wide enough to welcome resort guests, but with enough contouring, water, and bunkering to demand honest shotmaking from the better player.

The course earned genuine recognition early on, regularly appearing on Arizona's best-of lists through the 1990s and hosting a stop on the Buy.com Tour. Its par-71 layout plays as a test of varied shot shapes rather than raw length, and the finishing stretch around the water features is where rounds are typically won or lost.

Phoenix golf in this corner of the metro means big sky, the South Mountain Park backdrop, and that particular late-afternoon desert light that makes even an ordinary round feel cinematic. Legacy delivers the full Sonoran experience.