I lived in phoenix for 4 years, but Ive never been to LA, so take this with a grain of salt.
Phoenix has a few good courses, which i recommend, but not enough to justify that long of a roadtrip. The problem with AZ, is there are courses in Tucson, Phoenix and Flagstaff, but nothing in between, so if you wanna travel to other courses from phoenix, its either a 20min drive to local ones or a 1.5-2 hr drive to one of the other hubs.
LA looks like it has courses spread all over, so I would recommend LA over phx, even tho ive never been to CA at all. Hope that helps. Plus, LA would probably be a shorter drive from where u are