Starfire Golf Club

The Hawk at Starfire Golf Club is an Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay design that opened in Scottsdale in 1999. Palmer and Seay collaborated on numerous desert courses throughout Arizona during the 1990s, and this layout reflects their approach to working with the Sonoran Desert terrain—integrating native vegetation, natural washes, and elevation changes into a playable but strategic routing. The course occupies rolling desert landscape in north Scottsdale, with fairways framed by saguaro cacti, palo verde, and ocotillo. The design features generous landing areas off the tee but demands precision on approach shots, where greens are often elevated or protected by desert carries and bunkers. Water comes into play on several holes, and the routing takes advantage of natural elevation shifts to create variety in hole character and sightlines toward the McDowell Mountains. Starfire operates as a semi-private facility, offering both member and daily-fee play. The club includes a second eighteen, the Raptor Course, also designed by Palmer and Seay and opened around the same time. The Hawk tends to be regarded as the more challenging of the two layouts, with a longer yardage and more dramatic use of the property's topography. The course serves as a tournament venue for local and regional amateur events and provides a representative example of Palmer-Seay desert golf architecture from the late 1990s Scottsdale development era.