Seven Canyons Golf Club in Sedona occupies one of the most dramatic settings for golf in the American West. The 18-hole course, designed by Tom Weiskopf and opened in 2003, has been called ‘the Imax of golf’, such is the drama of the natural setting and the powerful ways in which the holes sit against the backdrop of Arizona’s legendary Red Rocks.

The long views are all the more impressive because millennia of erosion have exposed the layering of the underling volcanic rock – flecked with iron and seemingly luminescent. It forms a theatrical staging for outdoor recreation that has made the region world famous.

At most golf courses, you have inspiring interior views or long, exterior views outward of the surrounds. What makes golf at Seven Canyons so exhilarating is that at every turn you have vistas in both orientations. Golf at 4,600 feet above sea level is an entirely different matter than at ground level, and not simply because the ball travels further. Pursuing pars and bogeys in such an exposed terrain as Seven Canyons’ is a breathtaking experience, one that demands you focus on the shotmaking options presented while also indulging in the deep sense of wonderment that only a bold natural landscape can offer.

Rocky creeks and ravines come occasionally into play, but with options short, long and laterally so that you don’t have the stress of all-or-nothing forced carry. Towering conifers – pinyons, junipers and ponderosa pines – also line the holes to create a sense of defined journey while making golfers feel they are embedded in Coconino National Forest, which in fact they are, since the protected woodland borders immediately along the golf course.

When Seven Canyons opened, it made an immediate impact on the sensibility of golf course evaluators, who soon placed it on the Golfweek magazine Top 100 Modern Courses list. A subsequent financial downturn limited investment in the property; only in 2022-23 was new ownership able to invest in a major renovation and upgrade of the golf course – everything from bunkers, turfgrass, tees and the entire land plan.

That renovation, overseen by former Weiskopf design associate Phil Smith in conjunction with Seven Canyon’s superintendent Andy Huber, also yielded a new sequencing of the holes, one that flows easily, is readily walkable, and that starts with a bang by taking golfers on the first hole right to the foot of the mountainous rock.

The club assembled an expert team, including the return of Wadsworth, the construction firm that created the original layout, as well as CapillaryFlow for bunkering (16 on fairways and 39 greenside) and Toro equipment for irrigation. The final result is a par 71 which can play from 5,143 to 6,858 yards, with 27 acres of fairway and an average green size of 5,650 square feet.

Along the ways, golfers undertake a visually thrilling experience. On holes that might look narrow off the tee, the fairway opens up very wide – an example of what is known in landscape design as ‘compression and release’. The effect has a powerful emotional component, one which culminates at the launch pad tee of the downhill par-three fourteenth hole, where you play from the highest point of the property.

With the upgrade work now complete, it can truly be said that Seven Canyons is back.

This article first appeared in the January 2025 issue of Golf Course Architecture. For a printed subscription or free digital edition, please visit our subscriptions page.