The Boulders Golf Club

The Boulders Resort takes its name from the ancient, tumbled granite formations that give this Carefree enclave, just north of Scottsdale, its otherworldly look. Architect Jay Morrish routed the resort's golf directly among those twelve-million-year-old boulder piles, and his North Course opened in 1985 as an early, influential example of minimalist desert design that let the raw landscape dictate the holes. A companion South Course followed in 1993, giving the resort two full eighteens winding through saguaro, wash, and rock. Morrish's restrained style, working with the terrain rather than against it, helped define the aesthetic that Scottsdale-area desert golf became famous for. The courses have remained a signature draw of the acclaimed resort and spa, and periodic refinements have kept the layouts current while preserving their dramatic, boulder-strewn character and mountain-desert views.