34631 N Tom Darlington Dr, Carefree, Arizona 85262, US
(480) 488-9009
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About The Boulders Resort & Spa Scottsdale

Located in Carefree just north of Scottsdale is the Boulders Resort, a Curio Collection hotel by Hilton. This 1,200-acre resort and community features striking, millions-year-old boulder formations and two, 18-hole golf courses that encircle them. The resort is a village compound with spacious casitas with private balconies, as well as a handful of villas and homes for rent. The golf club features two courses, the North and South, as well as a driving range and golf academy. Boulders is well known for its Golden Door Spa with 33,000 square feet and 24 treatment rooms, plus a wide variety of fitness classes and programming. There are five dining concepts, highlighted by the Spotted Donkey Cantina, well known locally for its Mexican fare. The beauty and tranquility of the Sonoran Desert is on full, luxurious display at the Boulders Resort.

Facts

Price Range$$$$, $$$
Property Class★★★★★
Acres1200
Year Opened1985
Number of Units100-300

Amenities

RestaurantsFine, Bar, Casual
Room TypesSuite, Villas/Casitas
PoolAdults Only
TennisYes
Fitness CenterYes
Practice FacilityYes
Golf School/AcademyYes
Banquet SpaceYes
SpaYes

Services

Room ServiceYes
ConciergeYes

Rules

Is the resort pet friendly?No
Is resort stay required for a tee time?No

Golf courses at The Boulders Resort & Spa Scottsdale

Reviews

4.1
1253 Reviews (1253)

Reviewer Photos

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Overall Rating
Recommended
Handicap
Age
Type of Golfer
Gender
Played On
Reviews 392
Handicap 0-4
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
First Time Playing
Hot weather
Used cart

Worth playing on the one day a week it’s not private

For the overwhelming majority of visitors, the South Course is what people associate with the Boulders. But on Tuesdays, when the South Course is closed for maintenance, the usually-private North Course welcomes visitors and resort guests.

It is somewhat less flashy than its sibling, but as an end-to-end golf experience, it is delightful, with several holes that feel intimate but provide plenty of room to play, and several greens with diverse hole locations that can change things up nicely one day to the next. In other words: a near-ideal members’ course at a fantastic overall facility.

Conditions Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 43
Handicap 15-19
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Quebec Advisor
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart

Still an awesome course

Played this course for the first time since 2018, and it is still fantastic and a blast to play, not to mention beautiful!

Regular prices have gone way up, but the occasional hot deals are reasonable for a Scottsdale area golf of this caliber, and everything is included.

Nice pace throughout and friendly staff, course was in great condition, except the greens which were burnt out; putts were still fast and true, but approach shots could not bite at all, making them less pleasant than other courses in the area.

Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
Played On
Reviews 4
Handicap 10-14
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Used cart

Boulders South--Updated Info

Recent reviews about long rounds were concerning, however, South is OFF cart path only and a marshall was on hand. 4.5 hr round which is expected given distances between tees, etc. All good!

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
Played On
Reviews 3
Handicap 5-9
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Used cart

Great Day, Great Course

The surroundings were beautiful. The course was in great shape. Fast greens. Hard to read. The course is extremely challenging, because your tee shot is either in the fairway or out of play. Not much in between.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Difficulty Extremely Challenging
Played On
Reviews 22
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Boulders

This is an awesome course with great views and a wonderful layout. Always a pleasure to play here.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 12
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 8
Handicap 15-19
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart
Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
Played On
Reviews 22
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Boulders

Great course with friendly staff. Beautiful views will make you forget bad shots.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Boulders is a must!!

If you are anywhere near Phoenix Boulders GC is an absolute must!! Great course, Scenery and Staff!!

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 4
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Fantastic vistas, tough layout for a first timer

Absolutely beautiful aesthetically speaking. However, for a first-timer, the course design makes it super hard to know where to hit and the software in the cart is not great to help you. Without a range finder in your bag, you will need some luck out there.

Conditions Good
Value Fair
Layout Average
Friendliness Good
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 20
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Conditions Good
Value Average
Layout Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Average
Played On
Reviews 4
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
1.0
Previously Played

Overpriced... Slow play ..no course ranger

. Do not play this course if you have other choices. It's overpriced compared to every other premium public course in Scottsdale. It took over five hours to play around. We waited on every shot at the turn, the staff told us to hurry up, we said where ? The final insult injury was they don't give you any bottles of water. There are none available in the course and you can buy a bottle of water for 9 dollars. I used to love the boulders. No more.

Conditions Fair
Value Poor
Layout Average
Pace Poor
Amenities Fair
Played On
Reviews 14
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Beautiful site

The course was absolutely picturesque and very challenging!

The cart path only rule made it a long round. Over 5 1/2 hours. Still a great place to play, if you get the chance

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 15
Handicap 10-14
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
3.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Hot weather
Used cart

Playing the Boulders south during overseeding

Would not play the course with overseeding and no driving range for warm up. The 14.00 dollar beers was extreme too.

Conditions Fair
Value Poor
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Poor
Difficulty Fairly Easy
Played On
Reviews 3
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Boulders

Excellent layout with great backdrop of boulders on South course. Varied hole layouts make for interesting round.

Conditions Good
Value Average
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Played On
Reviews 2
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
2.0
Previously Played

Not worth it, Customer Experience is NOT their priority

Second time playing The Boulders, and the course layout and landscape is second to none in the PHX area, but that's about where the good times end. Tee times are already expensive, but F&B is way too spendy, feels like I'm at a stadium and they're trying to rip you off. Our drinks and breakfast burritos to start the day was over $200... Our 8:30 AM round took 5 1/2 HOURS! Groups severely backed up on every tee box, it's cart path only this time of year, which really sucks, but they need to space out the times better so it's reasonable to play without waiting for every shot.

We didn't see the beverage service cart until hole 11, (3 hours into the round) but the worst part of all of it was THERE WERE MAINTENCE CREW ON EVERY SINGLE HOLE. Mowing, blowing, digging, pulling weeds, and being extremely noisy without any regard to the golfers. Horrible ettiquite. They continued to run their machines while we were putting, oftentimes the mowers drove right past us in the fairways, followed by multiple guys with leaf blowers 50 years away.. and on one par 3, the mower didn't stop mowing the fringe the whole time we were teeing off. It felt like I was at Top Golf trying to hit the guy grabbing the balls...

Overall, an awful experience. We talked to the director, John, after our round to bring up our concerns, and his response surprised us at the time, but looking back, seems par for the course out there. He said he would "do some research" and email me... To which today I got his email saying "next time you come out, let me know and I'll see what I can do."

Customer Service starts at the top buddy, and your staff clearly gets their attitude from you. There won't be a next time for us, unfortunately.

Conditions Good
Value Poor
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Fair
Pace Poor
Amenities Average
Played On
Reviews 6
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
3.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Visuals still the only draw

The Boulders has unprecedented real estate which will continually draw golfers to pay terribly high rates for a look at the views. This course needs some serious attention and updates. The golf carts and on-cart technology is from the 90’s, worked about 4-5 holes of my round and my cart had 4-5 large holes in it. The course, though in overseeding and beautiful green color, was years behind in its upkeep with improper edging around bunkers and greens that had long lost their original shape and design. I hate to speak this way about The Boulders as the terrain and views are beyond compare, the rest of this enterprise is lost in the 90’s.

Conditions Average
Value Fair
Layout Good
Friendliness Average
Pace Fair
Amenities Average
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Played On
Reviews 15
Handicap 10-14
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
3.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Hot weather
Used cart

Cart path only

If Innew it was cartpath only and no driving range, I would have cancelled my TTime and went somewhere else.

Conditions Poor
Value Average
Layout Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
Played On
Reviews 2
Handicap 10-14
Skill Advanced
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Used cart
Conditions Excellent
Value Average
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Good
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
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