Review by Dan Gleason
As a contributing editor for several major golf magazines throughout the years, including Golf and Golf Digest, I have been blessed to play many great golf courses, including in what is now my home state of Arizona. While there are about a gazillion great ones in Arizona, I cannot name one course that I’d rather play in the northern part of the state than a beauty called Talking Rock Ranch Golf Club up near historic Prescott.
About an hour and a half north of Phoenix, Prescott was once the state’s capital and is home to the nation’s oldest continuing rodeo. About 125 years ago, Prescott’s number one lawman was Virgil Earp, brother of Wyatt, the latter of whom spent some time gambling in a couple of spots down on what is still called “Whiskey Row.”
Talking Rock Ranch, about 15 minutes from town, is definitely among the gems of the entire Southwest. It’s not open to the public but it has stay-and-play golf packages in absolutely gorgeous villas for those who will agree to peruse the real estate. The 3,400-acre ranch compound has every amenity most of us could every want: swimming, tennis, fitness center/spa, horseback riding stables just down the road, and a showcase clubhouse with a dining room run by an award-winning chef. A cozy little Internet café called “Coop’s,” servers up wonderful breakfasts and also light fare (sandwiches ) all day. And you can walk off all the calories on any series of panoramic hiking trails on the property.
The elegant ranch style clubhouse features a cozy watering hole called “Morgan’s Bar” and a restaurant that is truly gourmet and overseen by an award-winning chef. The clubhouse is the newest addition to what is known as “The Ranch Compound,” located in a cluster with Coop’s and the other amenities. The term “rustic elegance” really applies to the entire property—including the ranch homes, cottages and custom homes. I stayed in a cottage this past summer and it was so wonderful and comfortable and elegant that I was hoping they would forget I was there and I could have just hung around the entire summer.
One thing that residents like about Talking Rock Ranch is that while they can play golf all year round, there are four distinct seasons, absent of the suffering summer heat “down the big hill” in Phoenix.
But let’s get to the most important element, if you’re a golf lover like me, and that’s the course. I’ve played dozens of Jay Moorish’s courses, and this is among his best —just one great hole after another, no two of them anything alike. From the promontories, if you glance one way you’ll enjoy Granite Mountain and prehistoric boulders just off to the north; if you glance the other way you will see wide open spaces that go on forever—75 miles on a clear day. Moorish was handed an architect’s dream when the developers told him to pick out any 600-700 acres among the entire 3,400 acres, before they planned where they would build even one home.
The greens are bentgrass and kept in impeccable condition. They are usually quick, and always true—and the ball sits up on the fairway grasses like a perfect little gentleman. With a lot of courses I have played, I can usually name two or three favorite holes, but I can’t do it with Talking Rock, because I seriously like all of them. As many of you golfers know, a lot of otherwise wonderful courses often have one or two bad holes, because they seem to just run out of real estate and force one of them in. Not so up here. There isn’t a bad hole, and believe me, I’m no “gusher.” Again, when they gave Moorish his pick of the entire 3,400 acres, that just wasn’t going to happen. Yes, there were a couple of holes that kicked my rear end, but they were still really good holes. I just didn’t keep my head on straight when I played them. My best excuse is that the views distracted me…or perhaps, after cruising along with a string of pars and a birdie or two, my swing just came back to me.
I named Talking Rock Ranch among my favorites in last year’s “My Favorite Golf Courses in the Wild West” article in Cowboys & Indians,” the Premiere Magazine of the West,” and most deservedly so.
In my time, I’ve read a million articles calling one place or the other a “must see,” and a lot of those accolades didn’t apply. But I can honestly tell you that Talking Rock Ranch, on the outskirts of historic Prescott--in some of the most beautiful country God ever chiseled out--really is a “must see.” And that means, you must see it. I believe you’ll thank me once you do.
Dan Gleason, a former contributing editor to Golf Digest, is an award-winning, Scottsdale, AZ-based freelance writer and book author. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in a wide array of national magazines over the years. To contact “Writer Dan.” email writerdan1@cox.net or call 520-219-8881.