Nice People, Great Food, Quality Golf
"Black Jack Pershing camped here. Pancho Villa marched on it.
Mammoth bones were found here and the W.P.A. built it.
Welcome to Turquoise Valley Golf, Restaurant & RV,
where we’re Nice People, Great Food & Quality Golf." Matt Ferrence
Located in Historic and Sunny Naco, Arizona, Turquoise Valley is
the oldest continuously operated golf course in ...
the Grand Canyon State, it's first to reach 100 continuous years of
age --and still going strong!
Turquoise Valley is also home to the infamous 747 yard "Rattler,"
the only... Par 6 in Arizona, it is according to Forbes Traveler the
5th-Longest Golf Hole in the United States and by
Today's Golfer (UK) ranked as 10th-Longest on Planet Earth!
Minutes from Tombstone, "The Town Too Tough To Die," and the
famed Mile-High Climate and Old World Charm of Bisbee, Arizona,
Turquoise Valley provides easy access to the many offerings of
Cochise County.
In other words, we're great for a long term visit that can
complement the passions of golfers and non-golfers alike! For a
little more background...
Turquoise Valley was founded in 1908 as the Warren District Country Club to serve Bisbee, the “Queen of the Mining Camps.” Now considered an artists colony, Bisbee was once the largest city in Arizona, home of the state’s first stock exchange and also one of the most important mining communities in the United States.
To access the Country Club, one could hop a trolley past what today is arguably the oldest surviving baseball field in all the States, where the NY Yankees –before the time of a true baseball “farm” system- had an independent league team and where Major League teams, such as the Indians and Cubs, actually played in exhibitions until the 1950s.
The original golf course featured sand-and-oil greens and was crisscrossed by train tracks. In fact, it’s been said that errant balls landing in train cars were sometimes carried several states away in drives of Epic Proportions!
In 1936, a Works Progress Administration project relocated the golf course to Naco: site of the first U.S. air-invasion by a foreign interest and where Pancho Villa eluded General “Black Jack” Pershing almost two turns of a century ago. An area rich in history, Naco is located in a county named after an Apache of no small significance; and some 100 centuries before Cochise, early Americans were already living and hunting here, as evidenced by a place in
Greenbush Draw often referred to as, “The Naco Kill Site.”
Fast forward to today and Arizona’s first golf course to be open 100 continuous years continues to make history. Turquoise Valley has been featured in Arizona’s Greatest Golf Courses, by Bill Huffman, and Off the Beaten Cart Path, by Dave Marrandette, two books focused on quality golf courses that embrace the spirit of this great game. The Southeast Arizona Traveler has named us southeastern Arizona’s top rural course and we’ve been selected by ESPN as a Regional Qualifying Site in their National Two-Ball Challenge.
Despite the exclusive accomplishments, Turquoise Valley remains steadfastly inclusive and a welcoming environment for golfers of all ages and abilities, as evidenced by our selections as one of the Top Ten Beginner-Friendly Courses in the U.S. by the National Golf Foundation and an AETNA Insurance Small Business of the Year. Further confirmation of our friendly confines might be that Arizona golfers voted us one of the state’s favorite 19th (read: “watering”) holes in an
Arizona Golf Association survey. Yet, throughout it all, it is our 747 yard, fifteenth hole that most people talk about first when talking Turquoise Valley. As of this writing, “The Rattler” remains the only Par 6 in Arizona, and according to Today’s Golfer (UK), the
10th- Longest Golf Hole on Earth!
Yet there are lots of great golf courses and fine restaurants in this big world of ours; and while too few of either possess that rare combination of value and quality that contributes so mightily to the Turquoise Valley experience, we can never forget what actually separates us from the pack.
Or as one person put it, our greatest charm is our charm.
And we hope you enjoy the experience!
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