Talking Stick Golf Club – Convenient Location, Unique Heritage and Unforgettable Golf

The Talking Stick Resort and Casino looms over the 18th green of the Piipaash Course. 
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The renowned design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw created the two masterpiece golf courses at Talking Stick Golf Club

Just over 20 years ago, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw took a flat and relatively featureless part of the desert just east of Pima Road off of Indian Bend Road and turned it into one of the best golf experiences in Arizona. Back then, there was no Loop 101 freeway, no Talking Stick Resort and Casino, and no Salt River Fields – the Spring Training Home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies. It’s hard to believe what has happened to the area since then, but there is no doubt that Talking Stick Golf Club, with its two highly regarded Coore/Crenshaw designed courses, set the tone for what would become one of the fastest growing and most dynamic entertainment destinations in the Southwest.

The Talking Stick Entertainment District is located at Talking Stick Way (formerly Indian Bend Road) and the 101 near Scottsdale and is the primary economic center of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Driving by the area, you can’t help but notice Talking Stick Resort, home to the valley’s hottest casino and some of the best entertainment including the wildly popular Release Pool Parties. Within a long par-five of the Golf Club is the crazy-popular Topgolf, the new non-traditional approach to golf that is a hybrid of a driving range, bowling and a great night club/restaurant. To the north, is Odysea in the Desert which features an aquarium, family-favorite Butterfly Wonderland, and Polar Play, the valley’s only 32 degree ice bar. 

Families don’t have to wait much longer to tackle the indoor water slides and numerous other adventure activities that Great Wolf Lodge will offer, scheduled to open in October 2019. And equally exciting is the opportunity to cheer on the knights as they joust to win the adoration of the crowd at Medieval Times, set to open in The District this summer. If that’s not enough, maybe your cup of tea is just across the freeway at iFLY and Octane Raceway, where you can try your hand at indoor skydiving and electric kart racing!

At the heart of all of these fun and exciting facilities is the local’s favorite, Talking Stick Golf Club. Nestled alongside Talking Stick Resort, unencumbered by homes or development and showcasing spectacular mountain views, Talking Stick Golf Club is one of the state’s best daily-fee facilities with two Coore/Crenshaw designed courses. 

This summer, the resort-style Piipaash Course and the American Links-style O’odham Course will get even better following a full bunker-renovation project that will improve the bunkers’ playability and drainage, but will retain their iconic Coore/Crenshaw natural look. As PGA General Manager Steve Leonard says, “The course has held up great over the past 20 years, but everybody, including a golf course, can use a little TLC after spending that much time in this desert climate!”

The golf courses are managed by Century Golf Partners/Arnold Palmer Golf Management (APMG), a Dallas-based company who also manages notable courses such as the Disney Courses in Orlando, Florida, and the Founders Course and Victory Course at Verrado in Buckeye, AZ. The Wildhorse Grille restaurant is open daily to the public and serves delicious traditional Club fare including their infamous Torta Sandwich and golfer’s favorite nachos. Other items on the menu include dishes inspired with ingredients used by the Maricopa “Xalychidom  Piipaash” (People who live toward the water) and Pima “Akimel O’Odham” (River People) tribes. 

The Club is one of the Valley’s top locations for golf instruction. The First Tee of Phoenix has a Chapter at the Club – the first Chapter on Tribal Land in Arizona and only the second in the entire United States. The Club is also home to the top two female instructors in the United States with co-founders Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott of VISION54. These world-class coaches have worked with countless tour winners, college golf teams and golfers of all levels, helping them to perform best where it counts – on the course. Nilsson and Marriott are also ranked in Golf Digest’s Top 50 Golf Instructors List. 

The Club’s Player Development Program is a monthly practice and play program where at the current rate of only $39-$49 per month, golfers get daily practice privileges and can play in the afternoon for only $15. This “grow the game” program is designed to provide an affordable vehicle for golfers to learn how to plan and to then take to the course what they’ve been working at on the range. 

The Club is also finalizing plans for a clubhouse expansion that will include a banquet room with indoor seating for 200 people, a wrap-around patio to take advantage of the spectacular mountain views, and a new indoor-outdoor bar. Also in the plans are a new snack-bar at the driving range and an indoor teaching and club fitting facility. These exciting new amenities will propel Talking Stick Golf Club into the next 20 years as one of the area and country’s outstanding golf destinations. 

For more information, visit www.talkingstickgolfclub.com or call 480. 860.2221.