A couple walk their dog along the patch that fronts the driving range at the 202-acre Golf Club at Vistoso on W. Vistoso Highlands Drive in Oro Valley.

 Rick Wiley, Arizona Daily Star

An abandoned golf course northwest of Tucson is on its way to becoming a nature preserve, and you could help give it a name.

The town of Oro Valley is holding a naming contest for the 202-acre property formerly known as the Golf Club at Vistoso.

The 18-hole desert course operated for more than 20 years before shutting down in 2018 amid rising water prices and sagging demand for tee times.

It was targeted for possible residential or commercial development in 2020, but nearby residents formed a nonprofit group called Preserve Vistoso to keep the land open.

Late last year, the group partnered with national nonprofit The Conservation Fund in hopes of buying the shuttered course from Canada-based investment firm Romspen.

Their fundraising campaign brought in more than $1.8 million from 600 individual donors in just over a month, allowing The Conservation Fund to officially acquire the property on Feb. 17.

The land is slated to be transferred later this year to the town of Oro Valley, which helped broker the deal.

Now the town has announced a contest it’s calling β€œName OV’s New 202-Acre Outdoor Space!”

The winner will receive a prize package worth more than $1,700 that includes, among other things, a one-year Premium Family Membership to Oro Valley’s community, recreation and aquatic centers, a kickball team entry for the fall season, a park ramada rental and β€œassorted OV-branded merchandise.”

The contest is open to anyone, but entries must be submitted through an online form by 11:59 p.m. April 17.

Ten finalists will then be selected by a five-person committee from the Oro Valley Town Council, Oro Valley town staff, the Youth Advisory Council, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and Preserve Vistoso.

Oro Valley residents will pick their favorites from among the 10 in an online survey sometime in May, and those choices will go to the Town Council for final selection.

The former golf course off Vistoso Highlands Drive west of Rancho Vistoso Boulevard features native desert plants and wildlife, views of the Catalina Mountains and scattered archaeological resources, including petroglyphs along at least one fairway.

The property also came with three restrooms that could be reopened someday and 6 miles of wide, fully accessible concrete trails, with underpasses beneath major roads.

The Conservation Fund is placing a conservation easement on the land to ensure that it can never be developed, even after it is transferred to the town.

In the meantime, the fund has hired a landscaping firm to start cleaning up the site and clearing away tumbleweeds and other nonnative plants.

The property is currently open for public use, though some areas are subject to temporary closure during the landscaping work.

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Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@tucson.com or 573-4283. On Twitter: @RefriedBrean