Desert Mountain Cochise Golf Course

Few private golf communities anywhere in the American Southwest carry the reputation of Desert Mountain, and Cochise — the first of Jack Nicklaus's 6 championship courses built on this sprawling Scottsdale preserve — set the standard the others would follow. Opened in 1987, it plays through the high Sonoran Desert at roughly 3,000 feet of elevation, where the air is noticeably cooler and cleaner than the valley floor and saguaro cactus, desert scrub, and raw volcanic ridgelines define every sight line. Nicklaus routed Cochise to move with the natural contours of the land rather than against them, producing wide, strategic playing corridors that reward thoughtful shot-making over raw power.