A canyon, and six holes back up it
SunRidge Canyon is the course Scottsdale golfers bring up when someone says desert golf is too easy. It sits in a canyon of the McDowell Mountains on the Fountain Hills side, at 13100 N SunRidge Dr, and it is public.
It is one course, par 71, 7,002 yards from the black tees, designed by Keith Foster. The routing is the whole idea: the front side descends gradually down the canyon, and the back side turns and climbs back up it. The club bills it as desert links, with stacked sod bunkers and Champion Bermuda greens, but the reason people remember it is the finish.
The Wicked 6 are holes 13 through 18: two par 5s, two par 4s and two par 3s. Every one but the par 3s plays uphill, usually into the breeze that blows down the canyon, and they would be long even on flat ground. The club compares them, with a straight face, to Augusta’s Amen Corner and PGA National’s Bear Trap. After the round you drink at a bar named after them.
Booking it, and what it costs
Tee times can be booked up to a full year ahead, online through the club’s tee sheet or app, or at 480-837-5100. If your time is gone, the club runs a free waitlist that alerts you when it opens.
What it costs. On the club’s tee sheet in mid-October 2026:
- Late October: $170 to $196.
- Early November: $187 to $204.
- Mid-December: $165 to $182.
- Mid-February 2027: $175 to $202.
- Mid-March 2027: $180 to $216, the top of the season.
The afternoon discount was small on those dates: a 1 p.m. time in early November was $170 against $187 to $204 in the morning. Summer times weren’t on the sheet yet.
The Players Card, $199 plus tax after October 1, 2026, gets the card’s discounted rates for the holder and up to three guests a day: $125 Monday to Wednesday and $135 Thursday to Sunday in late October 2026, and $150 to $160 in February and March 2027. If you are in town for more than a couple of rounds, do the math.
Practice. The range is only for annual pass holders and golfers playing that day; there are no range passes. The club is also home to a Cool Clubs fitting center, with TrackMan bays and a testing robot.
Overseeding. The course closed for overseeding and maintenance in September 2026 and reopened on October 1. Expect a similar September window each year.
Getting there. It is about half an hour from Old Town by Shea Boulevard. In fall 2026 construction on Palisades Boulevard meant a signed detour by way of Golden Eagle, Desert Canyon and SunRidge Drive; allow ten extra minutes.
The holes to know. The 13th, a par 5, starts the Wicked 6 with a tee shot to a fairway sloping toward a wash, a lake to the right and an elevated green you won’t reach in two. The 14th plays downhill from tees cut into the canyon wall to a green lined on its right by water. The 15th is an uphill par 4 with bunkers down the left. The 16th, a par 5, threads its second shot between two rocky ridges and over an arroyo to a punchbowl green. The 17th alternates daily between two tees, a long one over desert and a short elevated one, to opposite sides of a shared green. The 18th doglegs left and climbs to a dramatically raised green; take an extra club or two.
Afterwards, the Wicked 6 Bar & Grill in the clubhouse serves burgers, wood-fired pizzas, steaks and wings, with live music on the patio from 5:30 and bagpipes on select days. For a bed, ADERO is on the ridge nearby and the Inn at Eagle Mountain is a few minutes south; Eagle Mountain makes the second round of a Fountain Hills golf day.
The course with a reputation
Fountain Hills, founded in 1970 as a real-estate venture around its famous fountain, sits on the far side of the McDowells from Scottsdale, and its golf has always had to work harder to get visitors over the mountain. SunRidge did it with a canyon and a finishing stretch.
Keith Foster routed the course down the canyon and back up so the elevation change does the work: gradual enough that the front side lulls you, steep enough on the back that the last hour decides the round. The club likes to say the course wasn’t so much made by a bulldozer as carved over ages by wind and water, and the routing follows the land rather than fighting it.
Tournaments followed the reputation. SunRidge hosted the USGA Team Championship in 1997 and the PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada in 2014, and it has turned up in golf infomercials and an Under Armour commercial featuring Jordan Spieth, Gary Woodland and Hunter Mahan. Phoenix New Times named it to its Best of Phoenix list in 2016.
The Wicked 6 became the brand: the name of the bar, the name of the stretch, the thing people talk about in the parking lot. It is a little bit marketing and a lot true. The last six holes play uphill into the wind, and they are where the round is won or lost. Which is, the club would tell you, exactly what a great finishing stretch is supposed to do.