Some courses get lucky and land on a “best of” list once. We-Ko-Pa Golf Club has made Golfweek’s annual rankings a habit — the kind of habit that stretches across nearly two decades and doesn’t show any signs of breaking.
Located on Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation land just minutes from Scottsdale, We-Ko-Pa is home to two of the most celebrated public layouts in the American Southwest. Golfweek’s panel of 850+ expert raters — some of the most experienced course evaluators in the game — score every course on ten criteria including routing, variety, shot options, memorability, and conditioning. Year after year, both We-Ko-Pa courses rise to the top.
The Saguaro Course, designed by the legendary duo Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, has claimed the No. 1 spot among Arizona’s best public courses in 17 of the last 18 years. It also appears on Golfweek’s national Top-100 Resort Courses list and Top-100 Public Access list — a double honor that puts it in elite company by any measure. Wide fairways, a walkable layout, and uninterrupted views of four surrounding mountain ranges make it as visually stunning as it is strategically rewarding.
Its sister course, the Scott Miller-designed Cholla, has held a Golfweek Top-10 position in Arizona nearly every year since it opened in 2001. Where Saguaro is flowing and contemplative, Cholla is angular and aggressive — a completely different test of your game. Together, they make We-Ko-Pa the only destination in Arizona where two courses at the same facility both crack the state’s annual Top-10. No other 36-hole property in the state can say that.
What makes this streak remarkable isn’t just the rankings themselves — it’s what they reflect. No homes border the fairways. No roads cut through the property. No development of any kind interrupts the round. Just desert, mountains, and golf the way it was meant to be played.
Rankings are a measuring stick. The round itself is the reward. Come find out why Golfweek keeps pointing here.
