Bad Little Nine

Bad Little Nine is a short, par-27 executive layout set within the Troon North community in Scottsdale, offering nine holes across 972 yards of desert terrain. The compact course provides a quick playing option for residents and guests while delivering the natural Sonoran Desert surroundings typical of the Troon North development.

The Bad Little Nine occupies a singular position in American golf course design—a nine-hole par-3 course that opened in 2016 at Scottsdale National Golf Club with the stated ambition of being the hardest par-3 course in the world. The course is part of a larger two-course private facility owned by Bob Parsons, the entrepreneur who founded GoDaddy and Parsons Xtreme Golf (PXG), and his wife Renee. Scottsdale National itself was assembled when Parsons acquired the former Golf Club of Scottsdale in 2014 and transformed it into an ultra-private facility with membership capped at a small, invitation-only roster. The Bad Little Nine was designed by Jackson Kahn Design—the firm of Tim Jackson and David Kahn, who along with their colleague Scott Hoffman had all trained under Tom Fazio before establishing their independent practice.

Jackson Kahn had already worked on Scottsdale National's Other Course when they received the commission to create the par-3 layout, and they approached the assignment with an architect's determination to push par-3 design to its extreme limits. The course plays to 1,051 yards across nine holes, with greens that vary wildly in size from 900 to 10,000 square feet—a deliberate design choice that creates radically different challenges from hole to hole. Some greens are postage-stamp targets demanding precise carry distances; others are sprawling, tiered surfaces where putting the ball in the wrong section can make bogey feel unachievable. Bunkers are extraordinarily deep by any standard, with shaping more extreme than virtually anything encountered at conventional golf facilities.

The designers created a course that rewards precision to a degree that makes the standard par-3 experience seem almost forgiving by comparison. The concept aligns with Parsons's broader philosophy at Scottsdale National, which is to provide the fifty or so members with golf experiences impossible to find elsewhere. The membership includes professional golfers—Phil Mickelson, Tim Herron, and Billy Mayfair among others who were members in the club's early years—alongside the businessman members who support the facility's operating costs. The Bad Little Nine quickly gained a reputation within golf circles as among the distinctive and testing short courses ever built, a concept piece that demonstrates what is possible when constraints of accessibility, playability for average golfers, and commercial viability are removed from the design equation.

It is a pure expression of par-3 golf taken to its logical extreme: beautiful, dramatic, and uncompromisingly difficult.