The good-value 18 in the middle of town
Silverado is the course Scottsdale golfers mean when they say they want “a normal round.” It sits on Indian Bend Road in the middle of the city, near the Greenbelt and a few minutes from McCormick Ranch, and it is built for people who play for fun: a par 70 of 4,896 to 6,313 yards, with flat, generous fairways loosely lined by trees, shallow bunkers and medium greens you can bump the ball onto.
It is not a desert target course, and it does not pretend to be. The front nine is easygoing. The back nine has more roll, a few elevated tees and the better views, Camelback and Mummy Mountain to the west and the McDowells and Four Peaks from the patio. It ends on the hole people remember: the 18th, a 157-yard par 3 from an elevated tee to a green nearly surrounded by water and guarded by four bunkers.
The price is the point. Rates float, but in the fall and winter of 2026 a weekday morning with cart ran about $119 to $139 and an afternoon about $55 to $70. That is resort-course money cut by more than half, ten minutes from Old Town.
Booking, rates and what is (and is not) there
Tee times are online through the club’s site, which promises its lowest price there, or at (480) 778-0100. The online rate includes the cart; walking is not offered on the booking page, so call if you want to walk. Checked in October 2026:
- Late October: about $69 to $119 on a Thursday, up to $179 for a Saturday morning.
- Thursday, November 12: about $55 to $129.
- Tuesday, December 15: about $59 to $129.
- Wednesday, January 20, 2027: about $59 to $139.
The low number is the late-afternoon twilight end; the high one is mid-morning. The course was open and selling tee times through late October 2026; it does not post its overseeding dates online, so call before an early-October trip.
The Grand Slam Pass is the deal for anyone here for a season: $199, on sale from October 4, 2026, valid to September 30, 2027. The first round costs the cart fee only, every green-fee dollar earns a point, and 700 points buy another cart-fee round. Buy it in the shop or by phone.
Practice is limited: a putting green, chipping area and warm-up area, no full driving range. If you need to hit a bucket, go early to the covered TrackMan bays at Scottsdale Country Club on Hayden.
Rentals are Ping G430 sets at $79. Juniors 5 to 16 have the Silver Pony tees in the late afternoon. The dress code is relaxed by Scottsdale standards, which reviewers mention approvingly.
The Silverado Grille is the part locals use without clubs: open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, breakfast until 11:30 and lunch until 4, a patio looking up the 18th, and a burger the club calls one of the best clubhouse burgers in the country. Happy hour runs 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday through Thursday from October to June, with Taco Tuesday from October to May and a Friday fish fry from October to April.
What kind of course this is, and who it is for
Silverado’s booking profile says the club debuted in 2000 and “quickly became one of the Arizona golf mecca’s most popular and most affordable places to play.” The club does not credit an architect, and the course does not need one to explain it: it is an accessible, well-kept layout that “everyone can handle without getting beaten up,” in the profile’s own words, which is the most honest sentence a golf course has ever written about itself.
That honesty is the appeal. Scottsdale’s famous golf is up north, on desert courses where a missed fairway means a lost ball and a $300 tee time. Silverado is the opposite proposition, and a useful one for a visitor: the course you play on the day you arrive to find your swing, the round you book for a mixed group, or the one you play three times in a winter on the Grand Slam Pass. It sits among the central courses the golf without a membership note points locals toward, alongside Continental and Coronado to the south and the rebuilt Scottsdale Country Club to the north.
It also suits a day in this part of town. The Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt path runs nearby for a ride before or after; The Vig McCormick is up the road for dinner; and The Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch is the closest full resort if you want to stay central and play the cheaper courses all week. If the round goes well and you want the bigger stage, the TPC Scottsdale Champions Course is the next step up in both difficulty and price.