Many private Arizona clubs are opening their gates and allowing limited public access, reports The Arizona Republic.
Superstition Mountain (Ariz.) Golf and Country Club began aggressively pursuing daily fees golfers even during the winter at the height of the Valley’s golf season. Red Mountain Ranch CC (Mesa, Ariz.), Corte Bella CC (Sun City West, Ariz.), Moon Valley CC (Phoenix), and Quintero Golf and Country Club (Peoria, Ariz.) all offer some sort of public access.
Even The Rim Golf Club (Payson, Ariz.) and The Club at Seven Canyons (Sedona, Ariz.) are making tee times available to non-members.
“The business has changed, permanently as far as I’m concerned,” said Tom Catanzarite, who is General Manager at Red Mountain Ranch and vice-president at Scottsdale Golf Group, which owns or manages several public and private courses in Arizona, to the Republic.
“Not all clubs have to do it,” he said. “The really high-end clubs, what we used to call the blue-blood clubs, will do OK. But the growth in the business happened as a result of these real estate communities built around golf facilities.”
Like a lot of high-end exclusive golf country clubs, Superstition Mountain began as the centerpiece of a residential development. It thrived, even playing host to LPGA and Champions tour events, as homeowners purchased $800,000-and-up residential lots, many purchasing golf memberships as well.
And like a lot of properties that followed the same blue print, once all of those lots were sold and the course had to survive on memberships and dues, the numbers on the balance sheet didn’t add up.
The answer: Open the course to the public, notes Catanzarite who believes the trend toward public access to private clubs will only continue to grow.
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