Survey Finds the Best Arizona City for the Golfers

Five of the top 25 golf towns in the U.S. are in Arizona. Scottsdale, Arizona, is number one on the list. Lawn care company LawnStarter did a study on the best cities for golfers. They rated the 200 biggest golf cities based on things like the number of golf courses, the quality of those courses, and the number of training options.

Golfweek, for example, named seven courses in Scottsdale as among the 30 best golf courses in Arizona for 2023. This shows how good the golf is in Scottsdale. The WM Phoenix Open event is held every February on the best course, TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium course. There’s even a new mini golf theme park called PopStroke, which was created by Tiger Woods.

LawnStarter looked at the golf options in the 200 biggest towns in the U.S. based on six factors:

• Public course: Cities were graded on how many public and city courses they had for every 100,000 people who lived there.
• Premium course: For each city, the amount of private courses, courses praised by groups such as the Golf Tournament Association of America, Golf Magazine, Golf Digest, and Golfweek, PGA courses open to the public, and golf resorts were all taken into account.
• Training: Scores were based on how many driving ranges, indoor and virtual golf facilities, golf equipment shops, and PGA golf coaches and facilities offering lessons there were per square mile and for every 100,000 people who lived in the area.
• Course quality: Each city got a score based on the average rate from all reviews, the average number of holes, the average number of yards, and the average par.
• Community: Scores were based on the amount of golf meetup groups and amateur golf tournaments.
• Climate: The historical averages of the number of very cold and very hot days, the proportion of sunny days each month, and the average amount of rain each month were used to rate the cities.

Survey of Best Cities for Golfers

Scottsdale came in first place for both public and premium course access, as well as for training availability and course quality. It was the second best place to live for golf, only Sacramento, California was better.

It was only ranked No. 47 for temperature, though, probably because of how many very hot days there are there. When it comes to weather, San Diego, Escondido, Oceanside, and Chula Vista were all tied for first place in California.