SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA | Desert Mountain was little more than an outpost in the Sonoran Desert in 1986 when developer Lyle Anderson teamed up with Jack Nicklaus to create a golf community here. Located a mere 10 miles northeast of Phoenix’s city center, the property nonetheless felt as wild and worlds apart as the 2.9 million-acre Tonto National Forest that abuts it. And that caused many in that metropolis to wonder what Anderson was thinking.
To be sure, the setting was special, with rugged mountains, flowering cacti, arroyos that filled with running rainwater when it stormed and sweeping views to greater Phoenix, aka the “Valley of the Sun.” Roadrunners and Gambel’s quail skittered across the sere soil. Mule deer bounded through stands of ironwood and mesquite trees, and every now and then, red-tailed hawks snatched cottontail rabbits from the ground with their talons and then carried them away.
But beauty aside, to say nothing of near-perfect weather for more than half the year, one had to wonder who really would want to live all the way out here.
Thousands, it turned out.
Once homes and golf courses started to be constructed per a master plan conceptualized for Anderson by Taliesin Associated Architects, which had been founded by colleagues of the late Frank Lloyd Wright, folks began flocking to Desert Mountain in droves.
Nearly four decades later, the club that in many ways put Scottsdale on the golf map and ushered in the desert golf movement in the American Southwest occupies 8,300 acres with some 5,000 residents from 49 states and eight foreign countries living in 35 individual “villages.” Amenities include seven golf courses, six of which were designed by Jack Nicklaus; seven clubhouses; 10 restaurants; a 42,000-square-foot spa and fitness center; 25 miles of trails for hiking and biking; and nine tennis courts with three types of playing surfaces as well as bocce and pickleball.
Desert Mountain members also have access to a wine club, through which they may purchase highly rated and often hard-to-find bottles, as well as an international travel club for golf, tennis and outdoor-adventure enthusiasts. There is also a private, on-site health clinic for members and its 800-plus employees.
In terms of its size and the scope of its offerings, Desert Mountain has few if any peers.
As a business, it also stands out as one of the biggest and best-run in that realm, which may be its most impressive achievement given how difficult it can be for any golf or country club to prosper financially.
Last year, for example, Desert Mountain produced more than $100 million in revenue. That is a monster figure, and, according to CEO Damon DiOrio, about 10 times what the average club in the States pulls in annually.
The Renegade course was the first to open at Desert Mountain.
Another number worth noting is the $120 million that Desert Mountain allocated last year for a five-year, capital-improvement effort that included the building of a new receiving, laundry and recycling facility as well as two new clubhouses. Clearly, it is all about keeping current with its physical plant and the needs and wants of its nearly 2,300 members and making sure that the club allocates the necessary funds to do so.
In addition, Desert Mountain recorded some $800 million in real estate transactions in 2023, with the average home going for just under $2.5 million and some fetching as much as $20 million. Perhaps more than anything else, that speaks to the financial vibrancy of the property, which is almost completely built out and has only 150 open lots left, and the fact that people will pay dearly for a home here. So does the collective value of real estate, which officials put at roughly $6 billion.
Taken together, it is quite an operation. While Anderson is to be applauded for his initial vision and the genius of this development being more of a lifestyle play than one centered solely around golf, the people who run and finance the now-member-owned Desert Mountain deserve credit for not only taking it to the top of the club world but also keeping it there.
When he assumed his position at Desert Mountain, DiOrio brought much-needed professional management skills and day-to-day oversight to what recently had been a member-run club. He also introduced a concept that he called ROE.
The first course to open was Renegade. It came on line in 1987 and featured a unique two-greens-on-each-hole concept, with the course playing to the yellow flags being more difficult than the one playing to the whites.
Cochise, future site of The Tradition, which became a major championship on PGA Tour Champions, opened the next year. That was followed by Geronimo (1989), Apache (1996), Chiricahua (1999) and Outlaw (2003). The appellations evoked a sense of place as did the layouts, which feature almost 1,500 feet of elevation changes and give golfers the chance to commune with the desolate but decidedly beautiful desert landscape.
Alas, the success at Desert Mountain did not inure Anderson, who was involved in several other golf and real estate projects, from liquidity problems and other financial issues that arose during the dot.com bust of the early 2000s and later the Great Recession. Those difficulties eventually led him to sell Desert Mountain to its members in 2010.
No matter how you look at, Geronimo is a stunner.
Seven years later, DiOrio came on board as CEO.
A native of Rhode Island who had spent 29 years at Charlotte Country Club in North Carolina, where he worked his way up from waiter to chief executive officer, he well remembers the situation at Desert Mountain when he first arrived.
“The economy had been terrible, and the club had just spent a lot of money to buy the club,” DiOrio said. “As a result, there had been a lot of deferred maintenance on our assets that we needed to catch up on. We also needed to grow membership, which was not quite full at that point, and develop a strategic plan. Putting money in the bank was a priority as well.”
When he assumed his position at Desert Mountain, DiOrio brought much-needed professional management skills and day-to-day oversight to what recently had been a member-run club. He also introduced a concept that he called ROE.
Just as pleasing was the overall design of all three layouts, though I did have some quibbles with the degree of difficulty of the opening holes at Outlaw.
“Companies in the private sector focus so much on return on investment,” he said. “But in the club world, we also need to pay attention to the return on experience, or ROE. That means making sure whatever experiences you offer your members meets and hopefully exceeds their expectations. It also has to do with the depth and breadth of the activities we provide, as our members are very, very active.”
I acquired a good sense of that concept and how it is applied during a visit last fall to Desert Mountain.
There was the excellent conditioning on the courses that I played – Renegade, Outlaw and No. 7, an 18-hole, par-three track that opened in 2019 and was designed by Bill Brownlee and Wendell Pickett, both of whom are Desert Mountain Club members.
Just as pleasing was the overall design of all three layouts, though I did have some quibbles with the degree of difficulty of the opening holes at Outlaw. The pace of play was good, which enabled us to complete our rounds on Renegade and Outlaw in less than four hours and on No. 7 in about 2½. I was especially smitten with the short course and the way it had me dreaming about how much my iron game might improve if I were able to tee it up there a couple of times a week.
I sampled an equal number of eateries at Desert Mountain and was impressed by those experiences as well.
First, there was the diversity in cuisine, with Constantino’s at the Chiricahua clubhouse specializing in food and drink from Tuscany, Apache serving superb steaks and seafood and the indoor-outdoor gastropub at No. 7 offering very elevated bar fare.
As for the quality of the dishes, it will be a long time before I forget the e cacio e pepe (“cheese and pepper”) appetizer I savored at Constantino’s and the earthy aroma that wafted over the plate from the white truffle shavings scattered on top of the pasta. Or a wine tasting at Apache that paired a sublime Sea Smoke “Ten” pinot noir with a bit of orange sesame duck and an Inglenook “Rubicon” cabernet sauvignon with a rye crostini that featured bleu cheese mousse, a small slice of perfectly broiled ribeye steak and candied onions. And I found lots to like about the smash burger with wagyu beef that I devoured at the No. 7 clubhouse, and the glass of Caymus cabernet that accompanied it.
I also noticed that whenever I finished a glass of wine – whether before, during or after a meal – someone was pouring me a new one.
But even more remarkable was the service throughout my stay, beginning with the fact that people seemed to know my name wherever I went.
I also noticed that whenever I finished a glass of wine – whether before, during or after a meal – someone was pouring me a new one. Food and drink orders were quickly filled, and empty plates picked up immediately.
“Our staff is one of our greatest assets,” DiOrio said. “And a key to having an exceptional one is to provide a dynamic workplace for people and take care of them. That ensures that we are always fully staffed and always able to take care of members and their guests.
“For example, we did not furlough anyone during COVID,” he added. “We also opened a while ago an on-site health-care facility for the exclusive use of our members and employees. In addition, we offer generous compensation and benefits packages to our staff, and we try to recruit really good people.”
But how is it that every employee I encountered at Desert Mountain, from locker room attendants to sommeliers, seemed to know who I was?
“We Google all our guests for their pictures so we may address them all by name,” DiOrio said. “And we data-mine our members. If your favorite drink is a gin-and-tonic with two limes, we do not ever want you to have to ask for those limes. We want our bartenders to know that is how you like that drink.
“It’s all about the details and taking the time to know and appreciate them,” DiOrio said. “And details are what separates a great club from one that is truly extraordinary.”
Today, Desert Mountain has a waiting list for members. The initiation fee is $200,000, and dues for golf members run roughly $2,200 per month.
DiOrio and his crew have Desert Mountain in a very good place. He is the first to concede that the club benefitted from the pandemic and the way that members not only were drawn to the wide-open spaces of Scottsdale when COVID hit in the winter of 2020 but also compelled to stay there for weeks and months on end. Business prospered as a result. But there is no denying that DiOrio had put the property on a good path in the years before.
Today, Desert Mountain has a waiting list for members. The initiation fee is $200,000, and dues for golf members run roughly $2,200 per month. Those who have been able to join play nearly 200,000 rounds on its courses. In 2026, the club will play host to the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship; three years after that, it will stage the women’s version of that USGA event. And no matter where one goes here, there seems to be a bustle of activity.
The return on experience seems very high, indeed.
Photos: Courtesy Desert Mountain; click on side-by-side images to enlarge.
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