Ancala Country Club

Overview: Ancala Country Club is an 18-hole, par-72 course in the foothills of Scottsdale's McDowell Mountains. Perry Dye's design stretches to 6,815 yards from the back tees and uses a target-style approach, asking players to choose lines carefully rather than relying on distance alone. The desert setting is an active part of the course, with fairways and green complexes shaped to make precision, trajectory and recovery decisions matter throughout the round.

History: Current course references describe Ancala as opening in 1990 and identify Perry Dye as its designer. An earlier club golf guide dates construction to 1989, so those two dates are kept distinct rather than collapsed into a false precision. The course has since remained part of Scottsdale's private-club landscape, with five sets of tees that preserve the strategic character while allowing different levels of challenge.

Did You Know? Ancala's official course information describes five tee sets, with the back layout at 6,815 yards and shorter options reaching much less. That spread is important on a target-style course, because the best line is not always the longest one. The setting also changes the visual reading of the holes, with the McDowell foothills and Sonoran Desert framing the fairways rather than serving as distant background.