Stone Canyon Golf Club

Stone Canyon Golf Club sits in the Catalina Foothills on the northern edge of Tucson, where the Sonoran Desert meets the Santa Catalina Mountains. Jay Morrish designed the course in the mid-1980s, during a period when he was establishing himself as an architect capable of working sensitively within desert environments. The routing takes advantage of the natural terrain, moving through arroyos and across ridgelines with significant elevation changes that provide views of the surrounding mountain ranges and the Tucson basin below. The design philosophy emphasizes strategic options rather than forced carries, allowing players to navigate around desert hazards or challenge them directly depending on skill level and risk tolerance. Fairways are defined by the native landscape—saguaro cacti, palo verde, ocotillo, and desert scrub—rather than by heavy manipulation of the land. Greens are typically elevated and contoured to reward accurate approach play, with run-off areas that can leave difficult recovery shots. Stone Canyon operates as a private club and reflects the character of its desert mountain setting. The course remains relatively quiet in the broader national conversation about Southwestern golf, overshadowed by more prominent Tucson-area designs, but it represents the kind of thoughtful desert routing that became more common in Arizona during the 1980s. The layout requires course management and an understanding of how the ball reacts in the dry desert air and on firm turf conditions.