The members’ club under Black Mountain
Not every private club in north Scottsdale is a monument. Terravita is a gated neighborhood of 823 acres at the foot of Black Mountain, a few minutes from Carefree and Cave Creek, built around one 18-hole course and run by its own members, with a volunteer board and the management company Troon.
The course was designed by Billy Casper, the Hall of Fame player with 51 PGA Tour wins and three majors, with the architect Greg Nash, and opened in 1994. In 2022 it was rebuilt from top to bottom by Phil Smith, who spent much of his career working with Jack Nicklaus, and reopened that November at 7,112 yards, par 72.
What distinguishes it from the far-north clubs is the tone. Terravita sells itself on its community rather than its rankings, opens golf membership to people who do not live there, and lets members drive their own golf carts, a privilege the club points out is rare even among the best clubs nearby. It is private; you play it as a member’s guest.
How it plays
The rebuilt course keeps Casper and Nash’s routing through the desert below Black Mountain with new USGA-spec greens, recontoured fairways, modern tee boxes and a new irrigation system. Five sets of tees and nine combinations stretch it from about 4,860 yards to 7,112.
Reviewers of the original layout pointed to three holes that the routing still carries: the 3rd, a long, winding double-dogleg par 5 of about 608 yards from the back; the 10th, a par 4 with a pond around the green that is the course’s only water; and the 12th, a par 5 with a sandy wash in front of the green and, at least before the rebuild, a tree in the middle of the hole about 100 yards out. Casper and Nash, unusually for the desert, kept trees in play.
The club
The renovation came with a new modern clubhouse, the center of a busy social calendar, plus a fitness center, a pool, tennis and pickleball, and a two-sided range with short-game areas and a teaching and fitting program. Terravita has also served as a regional qualifying site for the U.S. Women’s Open.
Nearby
The nearest tables anyone can book are in Carefree, at the Boulders and the Spotted Donkey Cantina, and in Cave Creek. The Black Mountain Summit Trail climbs the peak behind the course.
A different kind of private
Terravita belongs to the same era as Desert Mountain’s middle courses, but not to the same idea. Where Desert Mountain and Desert Highlands were built as statements, with Jack Nicklaus courses and national television, Terravita was a neighborhood with a good course, designed in 1993 and opened in 1994 by a Hall of Fame player and a working architect. It became member-owned, and it has stayed close to the ground: a board of volunteers, a management contract with Troon, and a membership that does not require a house.
The 2022 renovation was the club’s big investment. Phil Smith, who had worked with Nicklaus on Chiricahua at Desert Mountain and with Tom Weiskopf elsewhere, kept the original layout and rebuilt the parts that wear out: greens, fairways, tees and the irrigation beneath them. The club says Golf Digest and Golf Course Architecture praised the result.
We have not found a published history of the community’s development or its original developer that we could verify, so this guide leaves that part out.