Desert Hills vs Las Barrancas: Price, Location, Layout and Which One Fits a Weekly Rotation

Desert Hills vs Las Barrancas is a choice between Yuma's walkable city course, 11 minutes from downtown with walking rates and punch cards, and the hillier Foothills course 26 minutes out at a flat $65 with a cart. For a winter stay, Desert Hills suits volume and Las Barrancas a weekly round with views and elevation.

Both are public, both are solid layouts, and they suit different parts of a Yuma stay. This comparison uses the city's posted rates, Las Barrancas' rate page and live tee sheet, the USGA tee ratings and routed drive times, all checked in October 2026.

Quick facts

• Location: Desert Hills is in town, 11 minutes from downtown. Las Barrancas is in the Foothills, 26 minutes from downtown.
• Price, Jan-Mar morning: Desert Hills $75 with a cart or $55 walking; Las Barrancas $65 with a cart.
• Cheapest regular round: Desert Hills after 1 PM, $40 walking (Jan-Mar table).
• Harder course: Las Barrancas, 73.1 / 127 from the back tees, against 72.2 / 121.
• Passes: Desert Hills sells 10-play punch cards; Las Barrancas publishes none.
• Walking: allowed at Desert Hills at all times; not published at Las Barrancas.
• History: Desert Hills hosted the Yuma Open (Ben Hogan and Nike Tour) in 1990-93.

Desert Hills vs Las Barrancas at a glance

Desert Hills' Jan-Mar table carries no year and has been unchanged since at least April 2026; its November-December 2026 table had not been posted. Las Barrancas posts one in-season rate for October 1 to April 30, and a separate January-March rate is not published. All rates were seen October 23, 2026 and change.

Price: where the gap is widest

For a golfer who rides in the morning, Las Barrancas is $10 cheaper ($65 against $75). For everyone else, Desert Hills usually wins:

• Walkers save $20 a round at Desert Hills in the morning ($55 against $75 riding), and $40 buys an afternoon round.
• Afternoon golfers pay $49 with a cart after 1 PM at Desert Hills. Winter sunset is around 5:30 PM, so take a time early in that window if you want to finish.
• Late-day golfers have one more option at Las Barrancas: its live sheet on Saturday, October 24, 2026 showed $35 from 3:00 PM and $25 later, below the $55 twilight on its rate page.
• Juniors play free with a paying adult at Desert Hills (2025 pages); Las Barrancas charges juniors 15 to 17 $10.
• Military and first responders pay $50 in season and $30 in summer with a cart at Las Barrancas.

Desert Hills' older tables show how its prices move through the year: November-December 2025 ran $65 riding or $45 walking before 11 AM and $40 or $25 after 1 PM, and the last official summer table (July-October 2024) started at $49 riding. Summer play also earns a Beat the Heat card: play 12 rounds between June 1 and September 30, pay a $20 fee, and every round drops one rate tier all year. Las Barrancas publishes no summer rack rate.

Punch cards and a sample week

The Desert Hills cards are valid January to March: $500 for ten walking rounds ($50 each) or $650 with a cart ($65 each), plus a $150 ten-play cart card valid all year. The walking rate is not valid with a cart card.

A sample January week on posted rates: three walking rounds at Desert Hills on the punch card ($150) and one Las Barrancas round ($65) comes to $215 for four rounds. Riding the three Desert Hills rounds on the cart punch card instead would make it $260. These are arithmetic on the posted numbers, not a package price.

Location and where to stay

The two courses are on opposite sides of Yuma, and over a month, location decides the choice as often as price does.

Routed estimates from the site's drive data. If Desert Hills will be your main course, stay on the 16th Street or central I-8 side; if Las Barrancas and the other Foothills courses will be, base in the Foothills. Our guide to where to stay in Yuma for golf covers the trade-offs.

Layout and difficulty

On layout, it is open parkland against hilly desert.

Desert Hills is a desert parkland municipal course with rolling terrain, some elevation change, palms, open fairways and large undulating greens. The scorecard diagram shows ponds at #3, #7, #17 and #18. A new irrigation system went in during 2025, funded by a state water-infrastructure grant, and some turf was replaced with native landscaping. The course site says local readers have voted it Yuma's best golf course 19 of the last 20 years.

Las Barrancas sits at the base of the Gila Mountains, with elevation changes unusual for Yuma, rolling fairways, washes and mountain views. Reviewers describe the back nine as having forced carries and multi-tier greens. Conditioning reviews are mixed.

Rating / slope from the USGA file. Women's par at Desert Hills is 73. The middle tees are very close; the difference shows at the back, where Las Barrancas' slope is six points higher.

Desert Hills also carries the area's tournament history: it hosted the Yuma Open four times in February 1990 to 1993, a Ben Hogan Tour event (1990-92) and a Nike Tour event (1993), not a PGA Tour stop. The Yuma Open golf tournament guide has the winners and scores.

Booking, overseed and pace

• Desert Hills: each date opens online at 12:00 AM eight days ahead on the city's TeeItUp page, and the golf shop takes calls 6 AM to 6 PM at 928-373-5220. Fivesomes are allowed, carts follow the 90-degree rule, and personal coolers are not allowed. The USGA pace rating on the card is 4 hours 18 minutes, but spring 2026 reviews reported slow play at busy times, one at 5:15, so take an early time.
• Las Barrancas: 7 days ahead on Quick18 or by phone (928-342-7130), maximum four players, pay at the course, cancel by phone at least 24 hours ahead. Tuesday (Silver League) and Wednesday (Women's League) mornings carry league play October to April.
• Overseed: Las Barrancas reopened all 18 on October 24, 2026. Desert Hills published no 2026 dates; on October 23 its online engine showed no times through October 31 and a message asking golfers to call the pro shop to book. In 2024 it closed September 30 and reopened about October 25. See Yuma golf overseed.

Which fits a weekly rotation?

For a month or a season, our answer is both, in different roles:

• Desert Hills as the base course. Walking rates, punch cards, a good-value after-1 PM rate and an 8-day online window make it the default for playing three or more days a week. The city's 18-hole Arroyo Dunes Par 3 is part of the same operation for short-game days.
• Las Barrancas as the weekly treat. Book it on a Monday, Thursday, Friday or weekend to avoid the league mornings, and add a Trackman session before the round.

Our snowbird golf schedule for Yuma builds that into a full week, and Las Barrancas vs Mesa del Sol compares the two Foothills headliners. For each course on its own, read our guides to Desert Hills Golf Course and Las Barrancas Golf Course; the scorecard data is in the Desert Hills course guide and the Las Barrancas course guide. For the cheapest rounds of all, see cheap golf in Yuma.

Plan it on the map

Desert Hills and Las Barrancas sit on opposite sides of town on the 3D map, with drive times from every hotel, RV park and rental. The plan can cover a whole winter stay with a weekly rotation that uses Desert Hills for volume and the Foothills courses on their quieter days.