Quintero Golf Club is a public Rees Jones course located in the Hieroglyphic Mountains northwest of Phoenix and playing a par 72 layout measuring 7,249 yards from the back tees and a slope rating of 148. It opened as a private golf course as part of an approximate $100 million housing development project, which failed. However, the golf course has stayed alive by opening its doors to all comers who make the trek. The golf course reopened on November 1, 2025 following its first-ever renovations.
It’s the slope number that you need to think about. A 148 is very hard on any course, and it’s the highest I have ever seen on a course that plays for less than $200 per round and accepts any booking at all.
The quick version
Here is everything most people want to know before they commit to the drive, in one place.
| What you want to know | The answer |
|---|---|
| Where it is | 16752 W State Route 74, well northwest of Phoenix in the Hieroglyphic Mountains |
| Is it public | Yes, fully public, though it opened in 2000 as a private club |
| Who designed it | Rees Jones with Steve Weisser, and Jones oversaw the 2025 renovation |
| Par and length | Par 72, 7,249 yards from the black tees, rated 75.3 with a slope of 148 |
| What it costs | Roughly $162 to $199 for non-residents, with lower rates for Arizona residents |
| How many tees | Up to nine tee decks on most holes, which is unusually generous |
| Recent work | A five-month renovation finished in 2025, with all 18 greens rebuilt |
| Phone | 928-501-1500, and note that is not a Phoenix area code |
| The catch | It is a genuine drive, and there is no quick way to get there |
It is not in Peoria as you picture Peoria
The mailing address reads Peoria, Arizona and fools nearly everybody when they search for the information. Peoria is a suburb of Phoenix. Quintero has nothing to do with Peoria.
The course is located on State Route 74 in the Hieroglyphic Mountains amid Bureau of Land Management lands, about one hour’s drive from the Sky Harbor airport. The phone number has 928 area code and not 602, 623 or 480 as one would have expected from metro Phoenix.
The isolation is the essence of this golf course. There are no houses around the golf course and there is no sound from cars because there is nothing to be seen other than mountains and desert. This isolation is the biggest problem of the golf course and also the reason why everybody visits Quintero deliberately.
How a $100 million plan fell apart
Gary McClung, formerly a Kansas City truck dealer, bought this land based on an audacious plan: two top 100 golf courses, with millions of dollars worth of desert residences for retired and seasonal homeowners.
He hired Rees Jones to build his first golf course that started operating in 2000 and made it into number 39 on Golfweek’s list of America’s best contemporary golf courses. It was quite a debut. Then he hired Greg Norman to design the second course.
At its peak, lots were selling for over a million dollars while membership cost $150,000. Sales slowed down until 2006 and then the collapse in the housing market sealed the deal. McClung defaulted on his loan worth about $50 million on a project estimated at around $100 million. He declared bankruptcy and had to answer criminal charges.
This is what came out of the plan.
| What was planned | What happened | Where it stands now |
|---|---|---|
| A Rees Jones championship course | Built and opened in 2000 | Still here, and the reason anyone knows the name |
| A second course by Greg Norman | Never built | The money ran out before it got started |
| A grand clubhouse | Never built as designed | A more modest facility, remodeled in the 2025 project |
| Multimillion-dollar home lots | Most never sold | The 2011 sale included 27 vacant lots and six homes |
| A $150,000 private membership | Collapsed with the development | Replaced by public access at a fraction of the cost |
In November of 2011, a group known as Infinity Capital Alliance, headed by Elliot Lewis, a managing partner, purchased the loan note on behalf of McClung’s lending institution instead of the actual club. As it turned out, the owners followed the expected course of action: they lowered prices and opened up the place. The club became semi-private and then totally public during the early 2010s when membership was set at a $500 activation fee and $350 per month for unlimited golf.
The results were swift. Lewis noted that the club experienced a record number of 165 players compared to the 25 to 50 daily the club usually attracted. Troon now runs it.
This is the detail that makes Quintero worth understanding rather than just playing. You are getting a course that was built to be sold alongside million-dollar lots, at a green fee set by a business that needs volume. The golf was designed for a customer who never showed up.
What the 2025 renovation actually changed
Quintero did not undergo any refurbishment for 25 years. This situation changed in 2025 with the scope of the work almost resembling a rebuild of the entire course excluding the routing.
Construction started on June 2, 2025, and the course was made available again on November 1. The work was supervised personally by Rees Jones, who was the original architect, and the company that contracted this work was Total Turf Golf Services.
The following is what was done and its significance for a current player.
| What was worked on | What was done | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| All 18 greens | Complexes rebuilt and resurfaced with 007XL bentgrass | Bermuda had crept into the old bent surfaces over the years |
| Green surveys | Resurveyed and stripped back to the original design | Pin positions lost over 25 years of top dressing came back |
| All 65 bunkers | New drainage, new liners, and Augusta white sand | Roughly a third of the sand came out and faces hold better |
| Bunker depth | Made shallower, with some removed entirely | A fairer test for the public golfers who now play here |
| Every tee box | Laser-leveled and resurfaced with 419 Bermuda | Level stances on a course where flat lies are otherwise rare |
| Sightlines | Overgrowth cleared to widen holes | You can now see where you are going on more tee shots |
| Practice area | Tee leveled, practice green rebuilt in the same bentgrass | You warm up on the same surface you will putt on |
| Buildings | Golf shop, clubhouse and nine stay-and-play units remodeled | The facilities were the weakest part of the experience |
The bunker changes represent the biggest difference in the playing of the course. The reduction of a third of the sand, flattening the bunker faces, and eliminating some of the bunkers altogether means this is definitely an easier course than the one that was designed for a private club. That’s because of the nature of the players that play it.
On a practical note if you’re going to book just after your friends who played the course before you do: the golf course operated on cart path only for a few weeks after opening until the overseeding of rye became well established.
Why the slope is 148
Rating and Slope represent two entirely different concepts. A 75.3 rating means that a scratch golfer averages something like a 75 off the back tees. The 148 slope indicates that everybody else finds this substantially more difficult and 148 ranks right up there among the highest you’ll ever see.
Why? Terrain, not distance. Fairways are tilted, so a level lie is relatively uncommon. Greens are sloped and speedy. Quite a few holes play either shorter or longer than the yardage indicated because of the change in elevation. Three of the par 3s are severely downhill, something most recreational players don’t usually practice.
The only logical way around this problem is with the tee sheet. All holes provide up to nine tee decks, which is a very generous number and probably the best thing about the course design for recreational play. This is how the principal tees compare.
| Tee set | Yardage | Rating | Slope | Who should be playing it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 7,249 | 75.3 | 148 | Low single figures only, and only on a good day |
| Gold | 6,875 | 73.1 | 143 | Strong players who still want to find the ball |
| Silver | 6,437 | 70.7 | 137 | The honest choice for most mid-handicap men |
| Copper | 5,807 | 68.4 | 127 | Higher handicaps, seniors, and anyone playing for fun |
| Jade | 5,043 | 70.8 | 126 | Forward tees with ratings set for women |
The usual visitor mistake is playing the gold because the silver sounds short. On canted fairways into fast greens, 6,437 yards here plays longer than 6,800 at a flat resort course.
The holes worth knowing about
A few holes come up in nearly every account of a round here.
The 8th, a 586-yard par 5
It is the most difficult hole on the course and also the hole that destroys all hope for low scores. It goes uphill, and there are big bunkers on the right side of the lay-up position, punishing the natural bail-out option. Getting three good shots and a par/bogey is a win.
The 9th, a 212-yard par 3
The signature hole and the one in most photographs. Long, exposed, and with the kind of green complex Rees Jones built his reputation on.
The 6th, a 219-yard par 3
Played from a high tee that takes a chunk off the real yardage. Judging how much is the whole hole, and most first-timers take too much club.
The 3rd, a 406-yard par 4
A tempting hole rather than a hard one. There is a lake down the left, and flirting with it leaves a significantly easier approach. It is the clearest risk-reward decision on the front nine.
The 16th and the 18th
The 16th is a 190-yard par 3 with no bailout options, and by that point in the round, it is a tough request. The 18th ends with a downhill finish to a raised green with a waterfall and lake behind it, which is the picture everybody takes upon entering the property.
What it costs to play
Rates move with season, day and tee time, and the club prices in a way that rewards planning ahead. These are the published figures.
| Who you are and when | Pay online | Pay at the course | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-resident, before 8am | $162 | $171 | The early slot is the best value on the sheet |
| Non-resident, 9am peak | $188 | $199 | Weekend mornings sit at the top of the range |
| Arizona resident, before 8am | $144 | $153 | Needs a valid Arizona license or ID at check-in |
| Arizona resident, 9am peak | $167 | $178 | The discount covers the cardholder only, not the group |
| Weekday and twilight | Below peak | Below peak | Late slots are cheaper but may not allow a full 18 |
There are two surprising aspects. First, the Arizona resident pricing is done on a per-person basis, meaning a group of four with one Arizona resident will pay for three visitors. Second, it’s more economical to book in advance through the website, which you can do 90 days before your visit.
What golfers actually say
The review record is strong but not uniformly so, and the pattern tells you what kind of day to expect.
| What is being rated | Score | What that reflects |
|---|---|---|
| Layout | 4.8 | The design is the thing nobody argues about |
| Conditions | 4.6 | Strong, and the 2025 work should push this higher |
| Friendliness | 4.6 | Staff come up repeatedly as a reason people return |
| Value | 4.3 | Good for the golf, held back by the fee and the fuel |
| Pace of play | 4.1 | The weakest area, and worth an early tee time |
| Amenities | 4.1 | The historical soft spot, addressed in the 2025 remodel |
Overall, the course averages about a 4.6 out of 5 based on more than 1,300 reviews, where almost nine out of ten golfers recommend it. However, one could say that the repeated term is something along the lines of “worth the drive,” a compliment as much as an acknowledgment of it being one.
The historical ranking performance of the course deserves honest consideration as well. For instance, GolfPass ranked it the best in Arizona for 2019 and third-best for 2023 but only 23rd for 2024. Ranking on review basis is very sensitive, and the bermuda invading bentgrass greens targeted by the 2025 renovation would be exactly the kind of problem that influences scoring. It remains to see if the renovated greens help bring it back up the ranks.
Is it worth the drive
For a golfer interested in architecture, absolutely. There are few courses like this one in the United States that were designed and constructed to the ambitions of a non-existent private membership at such a low cost and without any connection whatsoever.
For a golfer searching for some quick golf near a Scottsdale hotel, absolutely not. It takes the drive, the course is far out there, and the commitment is more than half of the day. If you are doing four rounds on the trip, do one here but pack the rest of them closer by.
The reality of the situation is that the Quintero course is a destination course not an option. Those who travel out there knowing all about it leave with satisfaction. Others who choose it based on the web photos and did not check the map will be pondering their decision for an hour into the drive.
Final take
Quintero Golf Club is one of those few occasions when an example of failure in development became even better than expected. It didn’t build its houses because of that; that’s why you only see desert in the fairways here. Its private membership failed too; that’s why it is open for everyone now.
Use the silver tees unless your handicap forces you not to, pick an early tee time for cheaper prices and quicker rounds, take an extra club for the downhill par 3 holes, and make sure you leave an hour on the road either way without complaining about it. The golf course which resulted from all those troubles turned out to be pretty good despite everything.
Frequently asked questions
Is Quintero Golf Club public or private?
Fully public. It opened in 2000 as a private club with memberships selling for $150,000, but after the surrounding development collapsed and the property changed hands in 2011, the new owners moved it to semi-private and then fully public access. Anyone can book a tee time today.
Where is Quintero Golf Club?
At 16752 W State Route 74 in the Hieroglyphic Mountains, surrounded by Bureau of Land Management land, about an hour northwest of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The mailing address says Peoria, but it is well outside the suburb that name suggests.
How much does it cost to play Quintero?
Non-residents pay roughly $162 before 8am and up to $199 at peak times, while Arizona residents with a valid state license or ID pay about $144 to $178. Booking and paying online in advance is cheaper than paying at the course, and the booking window opens 90 days ahead.
Who designed Quintero Golf Club?
Rees Jones, working with Steve Weisser, with the course opening in 2000. Jones also oversaw the 2025 renovation, which means the original architect approved the changes rather than a different designer reworking his course.
How hard is Quintero Golf Club?
Very. It plays 7,249 yards from the black tees at a 75.3 rating and a slope of 148, which is among the highest slopes of any public course in Arizona. The difficulty comes from canted fairways, fast sloping greens and heavy elevation change rather than from raw length.
What happened in the Quintero renovation?
All 18 green complexes were rebuilt and resurfaced with 007XL bentgrass, all 65 bunkers were rebuilt with new drainage, liners and Augusta white sand, every tee was laser-leveled and regrassed, and the practice area and buildings were upgraded. Work ran from June 2 to a reopening on November 1, 2025.
Why was there never a second course at Quintero?
Greg Norman was hired to design a second course as part of the original plan for two top-100 layouts. The housing market collapsed before it was built, the developer defaulted on a loan with a balance of around $50 million, and the project went into bankruptcy. The Norman course was never started.
How long does it take to drive to Quintero from Phoenix?
About an hour from Sky Harbor Airport, and slightly more from most Scottsdale hotels. Plan for a full half-day once you include the round. The remoteness is the main drawback people mention and also the reason the course feels the way it does.
Which tees should I play at Quintero?
Most holes offer up to nine tee decks, so there is a set that fits almost anyone. Mid-handicap men are generally best served by the silver at 6,437 yards, which plays longer than the number suggests on this terrain. The black tees at 7,249 yards are for low single-figure players only.
Does Quintero have accommodation on site?
Yes. There are nine stay-and-play units, refurbished during the 2025 project with updated kitchens, bathrooms, flooring and furniture. Given the distance from Phoenix, staying on site is a reasonable option if you want to play more than one round.
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