Ancala Country Club

Ancala Country Club is an 18-hole private desert course in northeast Scottsdale, designed by Perry Dye and opened in 1990 in the shadows of the McDowell Mountains. The 6,815-yard, par-72 layout is a target-style desert design featuring indigenous Sonoran vegetation, desert ravines, several lakes, and five sets of tees on each hole, earning a course rating of 73.5 and slope of 145 from the championship Gold tees. Perry Dye's design at Ancala is considered among the most strategically demanding championship courses in the Scottsdale area.

Ancala Country Club opened in 1990 on the eastern slopes of the McDowell Mountains in northeastern Scottsdale, the product of developer Rich Barton's vision to create one of the Phoenix region's most outstanding family lifestyle clubs. Barton engaged Pete Dye and his son Perry Dye to design the golf course — the Dyes collaborated on the layout, with Perry Dye taking the design lead — and the resulting course quickly earned recognition as one of the best championship layouts in Arizona. Perry Dye inherited his father's design sensibility while developing his own architectural voice. At Ancala, he created a course that works sympathetically with the native Sonoran Desert landscape, routing fairways through corridors of saguaro cactus and desert wash vegetation while providing generous landing areas that invite aggressive play.

Bermuda grass greens and Bermuda 328 fairways provide the playing surfaces throughout. The combination of desert character, strategic challenge, and visual appeal established Ancala as a benchmark for the new generation of Scottsdale private clubs that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The club's setting in the shadow of the McDowell Mountains provides dramatic mountain backdrops for multiple holes, particularly on the back nine where the terrain rises and falls in ways that create natural elevation changes unusual for the relatively flat Valley floor. The Sonoran Desert vegetation that frames the routing — with the McDowell Mountain ridgeline as a constant backdrop — gives the course an authentic desert character that distinguishes it from heavily manicured resort courses built in the same era.

Barton's commitment to full-service family club amenities distinguished Ancala from the golf-only or golf-primary facilities that characterized many Arizona private clubs of the era. Tennis, swimming, dining, and social programming were integrated into the club's identity from the outset, creating a community hub that served members across generations. The club's guard-gated residential community is located at 11700 East Via Linda in northeastern Scottsdale. Ancala is a member-owned institution, preserving the governance structure that gives members a direct stake in the facility's direction and long-term investment.

Periodic improvements to the course and clubhouse have kept the facility competitive with the many outstanding private clubs that have opened in the Phoenix metropolitan area through subsequent decades of real estate development.