Turquoise Ridge sits on the south side of Desert Mountain, its homesites built along the fourth and fifth fairways of the Cochise Golf Course rather than the postcard holes further out on the layout. The Sonoran Clubhouse is close enough that the trip by cart runs about a minute, and the Apache course is within easy reach on the other side. None of that geography has changed since the village's homes went up between 1995 and 2007. What has changed, in the two years since Cochise reopened, is what that stretch of fairway actually looks like from a Turquoise Ridge patio.
What Was Failing Under the Fourth Fairway
Cochise opened in 1988, one of Jack Nicklaus's six signature courses at Desert Mountain and the site of PGA Tour Champions events through the 1990s and 2000s. By the early 2020s, the course's irrigation system, pump station, and bunker drainage were 35 years into a run that had outlasted its own infrastructure. The club brought in Nicklaus Design architect Chad Goetz, working alongside the club's Director of Agronomy, Todd Bohn, and PGA Director of Golf John Lyberger, to rebuild what sat underground before touching anything a member could see.
The project closed the course for roughly a year and reopened it in September 2024. The work included:
- A modern, regulated irrigation system with new pipe and properly spaced sprinkler heads
- New bunkering, with drainage rebuilt alongside the sand
- A conversion to drought-tolerant bermudagrass fairways
- A rebuilt practice facility fitted with Toptracer Range technology
The goal, as the club described it, was restoration rather than reinvention. The signature par-3 seventh and par-5 fifteenth still share the same island green, approached from two directions, that has defined Cochise since Nicklaus first laid it out. What changed is what happens below the surface every time a sprinkler runs, which matters more to a homeowner two lots off the fourth fairway than it does to a visiting guest playing the course once.
The Ranking That Didn't Follow the Renovation
Here is the part that doesn't fit the tidy version of this story. Cochise's renovation earned real recognition, including an award from Sports Illustrated for the restoration itself. But Golf Digest's Arizona course rankings tell a different, quieter story. The panel had Cochise at 22nd in the state for the 2023-24 cycle, the seasons immediately before the course closed for restoration. For 2025-26, with the new bunkers and irrigation fully in place, Golf Digest ranks it 24th, the same position the same panel gave it back in 2021-22, years before anyone touched the irrigation.
That is not a knock on the work. A 12-month restoration that fixes failing infrastructure and adds shot-tracking technology to the range does not automatically move a magazine ranking, and rankings shift for reasons that have nothing to do with drainage. But it is worth knowing if you live along that fairway and hear the course discussed purely in before-and-after terms. What Turquoise Ridge got was a course built to hold up for another 35 years, not a course that jumped the rankings because of it.
A Minute to the Clubhouse
The other fixed point in Turquoise Ridge's geography is the Sonoran Clubhouse, which the club's own materials describe as only a minute away by cart. That clubhouse went through its own capital project, a $12 million renovation that expanded the fitness center to add personal training and pilates alongside the existing equipment. For a village positioned this close to it, the practical effect is that a full workout, the newly reopened golf course, and Apache's separate character sit inside the same short loop, without the longer cart ride or the drive across the property that some other villages require to string together a gym visit and a round of golf.
That density is the part of Turquoise Ridge's location that tends to get flattened into a single word, convenient, when the more accurate description is that it removes friction from stacking activities that would otherwise compete for the same hour of a morning.
Dinner at Cochise and Geronimo
Cochise shares its clubhouse with Geronimo, a 52,000-square-foot building the club describes as Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired, blending Native American, desert, and contemporary design elements. It houses a Western art collection, the men's and women's locker rooms, the golf operations offices, a pro shop, and a practice facility with two short game areas and a two-sided range. On the dining side, the building runs from themed dinners in the main dining room to al fresco breakfasts and simpler lunches at The Range House, all under Culinary Director Bertrand Bouquin.
For someone living a fairway away in Turquoise Ridge, that clubhouse is where a round on the restored back nine tends to end, not a separate errand requiring a second trip out. The course reopened two years ago. The routine of finishing there hasn't needed to change since.
If you live in Turquoise Ridge and want to talk through what the restored Cochise course, the clubhouse's fitness expansion, or membership logistics actually mean for your specific lot, Linda Salkow Real Estate has spent nearly three decades inside these gates and is glad to walk through it with you.
