Desert Mountain Club
Scottsdale, Maricopa County, Arizona · North Scottsdale golf market
- Access
- non equity
- Holes
- 117
- Architect(s)
- Jack Nicklaus
- Gated
- Yes
Thinking About Living in Desert Mountain Club?
Get connected with a local real-estate specialist who understands Desert Mountain Club and the surrounding North Scottsdale golf market.
Desert Mountain Club is an 8,300-acre private, guard-gated golf community in the far-north Scottsdale/Rio Verde foothills, developed beginning in the late 1980s around a partnership with Jack Nicklaus. It is the only private club in the world with six Jack Nicklaus Signature Championship courses under one roof (Renegade, Cochise, Geronimo, Apache, Chiricahua, and Outlaw), plus the Constellation short course, seven clubhouses, and ten dining venues spread across the property's varied desert and mountain terrain.
For a golf-oriented buyer, Desert Mountain represents Arizona's largest private golf ecosystem by course count, but access is not automatic: club membership requires a separate application and approval process, and most homes are sold without membership attached. A meaningful subset of listings (real-estate sources reported roughly 80 as of late 2025) are marketed with pre-qualified 'membership access' that lets an approved buyer begin club membership at closing rather than facing the standard waitlist — this is a real, material distinction buyers should verify listing-by-listing rather than assume applies community-wide.
Golf & Course
Nicklaus personally designed all six full-length courses over more than a decade of expansion (Renegade and Geronimo as the earliest, through later additions), each routed through a different character of the property's high-desert terrain — saguaro forest, boulder outcroppings, and mountain-view corridors. The seven-course, 117-hole footprint (counting the short course) is unmatched by any other private club in Arizona.
Membership & Access
Does buying a home here include club membership?
Buying a home in Desert Mountain does not by itself confer club membership. Prospective members apply and are approved separately, and the reported Full Golf initiation fee is $250,000 for 2026 per third-party club-cost trackers (the club does not publish pricing). A distinct, lower-cost Lifestyle (social, non-golf) membership is also reported. A defined subset of homes for sale carry pre-qualified 'membership access,' letting a buyer begin membership at closing instead of a standard queue — confirm this status for any specific listing rather than assuming it.
Costs & Fees
Figures below are labeled Current only when the source itself frames them as presently accurate. Everything else is labeled Historical — a source checked today does not make an old fee a current one.
Golf membership initiation
Current$250,000
Full Golf membership initiation reported at $200,000 (2024), $225,000 (2025), and $250,000 (2026) by real-estate/club-cost aggregator sources; the club itself does not publish pricing. A Lifestyle (social, non-golf) membership is separately reported at roughly $123,000 initiation.
Interested in Homes in Desert Mountain Club?
We can connect you with a local real-estate specialist who knows the community, nearby golf communities, and the North Scottsdale market.
What Buyers Should Verify
- Confirm current initiation fee and dues directly with the club — third-party figures ($250,000 for 2026) are not from an official published schedule.
- For any specific home purchase, confirm in writing whether that listing carries pre-qualified 'membership access' or requires the standard separate application.
Notable
- Only private club in the world with six full-length Jack Nicklaus Signature courses under one membership.
- 8,300-acre footprint makes it the largest private golf community by acreage/course count in Arizona.
Related Comparisons
Considering a Move to Desert Mountain Club?
Whether you're comparing Desert Mountain Club with another North Scottsdale golf community or you're ready to start looking at homes, US Golf Living can connect you with a local real-estate specialist.
US Golf Living provides independent real-estate research and can connect consumers with real-estate professionals. Golf membership, availability, fees and approval are determined independently by the applicable club.