Dove Valley Ranch Golf Club

Overview: Dove Valley Ranch Golf Club is a public Robert Trent Jones Jr. design in Cave Creek, north of Phoenix. The course opened in 1998 as the central golf amenity in an 850-acre master-planned community, and current USGA data lists par 72 with 7,095 yards from the black tees. The layout moves between panoramic desert openness and more intimate areas of lush foliage, using saguaro, mesquite, lakes and natural topography to create a varied Sonoran setting. Unlike a purely target-style desert course, it gives players some room to recover from imperfect lines, which helps explain its broad visitor appeal.

History: Dove Valley Ranch was developed as an upscale daily-fee facility and received early recognition as one of Arizona’s best new public courses. The design team worked to preserve and relocate existing vegetation, including a substantial revegetation programme that moved native plants into undisturbed and newly shaped areas. The course’s history is therefore about fitting development into the desert rather than clearing the site and rebuilding it as a blank canvas. Its Cave Creek location also places it within one of the Phoenix area’s most popular golf-travel corridors.

Did You Know? The 18th hole is a 538-yard par five that finishes beside a waterfall and stream. It gives the round a memorable final image and shows how the course combines desert landscape with more deliberately shaped water features.