Witnesses to History: Waco Turner, A Golf Pioneer

They’ll tell you this week’s Isco Championship and next week’s Barracuda Championship are alternate-field events. These supposedly lesser tournaments are almost always held the same week as a major or more prestigious event—just don’t tell that to the good people of Louisville, Kentucky; Reno, Nevada; or Jackson, Mississippi. For the people in those communities, these alternate-field events are their Super Bowl.

“Alternate-field events are like majors for me and the players I cover,” said Ryan French, who every golf nerd knows as Monday Q Info on X, formerly Twitter. French tells the stories of the people on the fringes trying to make it in the hyper-competitive world of professional golf. For players on this tier of golf’s hierarchical ladder, alternate-field events are a massive opportunity to compete for a nice purse without the Rorys, Scotties, and Xanders of the world getting in the way. Additionally, a win means a two-year exemption on the TOUR—truly a life-changing event. “When you win you know you have a job for two years,” French said. “That stability is a big deal.”

For this week’s Witness to History, we’re going to shine a light on a pioneer who believed that these so-called lesser events could be a grand stage. His name was Waco Turner and his story deserves to be heard.

The Legend of Waco Turner

In the 1962 movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a newspaper editor is talking to a troubled politician named Ranse Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart). As Stoddard lists his professional achievements, the editor reaches for the notes his scribe is taking and tears the notes into pieces. Stoddard asks the editor why he’s not going to use the list of factual achievements. “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

You’ll read a lot of legendary stories about Waco Turner. There are stories of him driving a Cadillac convertible around his course during tournaments. Stories he would drink an entire handle of liquor before lunch. You might hear tales of Turner throwing bags of money out of his airplane and onto his golf course. One of my favorites: a player’s car broke down at Turner’s golf course and rather than call a mechanic he just gave the player a car. There were even rumors that he may have shot his wife (he did not).

Read enough of these stories and you’ll wonder if it’s Hunter S. Thompson or Waco Turner.

Legends are fun, but you should know some facts.

Photo Credit: Barbara Sessions

Waco Turner was born in 1891 in Mississippi on the ancestral lands of the Chickasaw Nation. His mother died when he was five. His father, an educator, took him to Oklahoma where he had found work teaching in—of all places—the Chickasaw Nation that was formed in Oklahoma as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 (see: Trail of Tears). It bears mentioning that neither Waco Turner nor his father were ever listed as a member of the tribe. A call to the tribal office confirmed that no Turners had Certificates of Degree of Indian Blood.

Waco Turner followed his father into education and then enlisted in the Army in 1918. It was in the Army that he would learn to be a pilot and also about golf. When he got out of the service, Turner struck it rich wildcatting oil fields. Turner then invested massive sums of money in farmland. Turner’s timing was horrible, as the Great Depression and the infestation of the boll weevil crippled the South’s agricultural economy.

The Turners certainly didn’t fall into destitution but they weren’t wealthy either. They managed to enjoy a fine life in Ardmore, Oklahoma, where they built a beautiful home. They were also members at Ardmore’s Dornick Hills CC where Waco served on the Board of Directors and eventually served as President. Turner even owned the local minor league team, and (another) legend has it he would put $100 under the plate of every player at the team’s annual banquet.

Then, in 1944, the wildcatter who had made his first bank on dusty horseback rides in oil fields hit the mother lode. Turner’s speculation paid off in the Oklahoma hills and he would become not just rich but wealthy, amassing a fortune that would be north of $600 million by today’s standard.

The nouveau riche Turner bought property all over the country, but maybe the most important land he bought was 800 acres in Burneyville, Oklahoma. It was here that he would build Turner’s Lodge, which would feature the public golf course of his dreams and host both LPGA and PGA TOUR events.

Not His First Rodeo

Waco Turner was no small-fry in the world of golf. He was appointed to a position on the PGA Advisory Committee in 1952, in large part because of his financial support of the TOUR’s Ardmore Open played at Dornick Hills CC from 1952-54. Due to internal politics, Turner left his role of leadership at the club, instead focusing his efforts on bringing professional golf to his new course, Turner’s Lodge in Burneyville, Oklahoma, on land that his father had bought a generation before.

In 1958 he opened his golf course by welcoming the LPGA to town with The Opie Turner, named in honor of his wife, which was held in both 1958 and 1959. The Turners spared no expense. The Opie Turner drew great fields with the purses bolstered by bonus monies that made for a wonderful payday for the women who played.

“He was more than generous. He just really believed in young people and wanted to give them every opportunity,” said Barbara Sessions, curator of the Turner’s Lodge Pro Golf Museum at the Falconhead Resort and Country Club, which is what Turner’s Lodge is now called.

Photo Credit: Barbara Sessions

There is nobody who knows more about the Turners and their property than Barbara Sessions. The museum created at the resort is a testament to the Turners’ and also Sessions' passion for golf and storytelling. If you want to separate the legend from the fact, you go to Barbara Sessions.

“After the success of the LPGA event, Mr. Turner wanted very badly to host a PGA TOUR event at the lodge. And Mr. Turner normally got what Mr. Turner wanted,” Sessions said. “He was a very driven man.”

Driven is an understatement.

Remember the Ardmore Open? Well, it was the official TOUR stop for the week. However, Sam Snead had his own little event the same week—totally unrecognized by the TOUR— which all the big names would play out of respect for Snead.

Oil Money Splinters Golf: 1961 Edition

Fast forward to 1961. Turner, who now had his own course and more money than God, would approach the TOUR hoping they would allow him to host a different event at his lodge. The TOUR agreed, provided it was a Satellite event, what we call alternate-field today. The Waco Turner Open was born and it would be played the same week as the PGA TOUR’s Tournament of Champions, which featured all of the previous season’s winners.

The Waco Turner was for the journeymen of the TOUR, and so it became known affectionately as the Poor Boy Open. Ironically, the Poor Boy was stacked with cash.

Butch Baird won the inaugural Waco Turner Open in 1961 and a $20,000 winner’s check in official money. But the beauty of the Poor Boy was that Waco and his wife, Opie, were out there slinging envelopes of bonus money to almost everyone who played. Birdies were good for $100, eagles were $200 each. The low round of the day paid $200, sometimes more. The winner was even given a substantial bonus in cash.

Ask anyone who’s worked in pro golf, from a TOUR pro to the kid working in your club’s bag room, and they’ll tell you the same thing: Cash is king—primarily because the government doesn’t need to know about how much cash you might or might not have. And Waco Turner knew that. The bonuses he paid out not only incentivized players to play in his event but they were extremely helpful to the journeymen of the TOUR who, in many cases, were trying to make enough to get to the next event.

The Waco Way

The money was nice, sure, but beyond the purses the players were treated like kings and queens during their time at Turner’s Lodge. Waco and Opie spared no expense on every element that touched their tournaments.

The Turners would not be also-rans. Instead, they would run the best, most lucrative tournaments they possibly could. Miss America? Fly her in. The cast of the No. 1 television show in America? Bring them to the lodge, too. Fresh fish daily from Florida. The best steaks brought in from Omaha.

Burneyville might not be Dallas or Tulsa or even Ardmore, but it was home to Waco Turner, and Waco saw to it that his so-called lesser events would punch far, far above their weight class.

Recently, the Barracuda Championship announced that they are on the lookout for a new title sponsor for the 2026 season. As I researched this story, I often wondered what advice Mr. Turner would give Chris Hoff, the affable and engaging Tournament Director of the ‘Cuda. Turner might put his foot in his mouth and say something like, “Find yourself an oil man,” unaware of today’s professional golf climate. But I’m almost certain that he’d also tell him something important like “Put on the best show you can for the players and the people.” And if you’ve ever been to the Barracuda, or the Sanderson, or the Isco, you’ll know that Hoff and his fellow Tournament Directors do just that. After all, it’s their Super Bowl.

Lead Image Credit: Barbara Sessions