MOVERS&SHAKEUPS
By Bill Huffman
ASU Karsten sets May 5 for last day ‘House that Lefty built’ to close after 30 years
40 | AZ GOLF Insider | SPRINGSUMMER 2019
ASU KARSTEN PHOTO
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n September 1989, the ASU Karsten Golf Course opened to much fanfare in northeast Tempe. Smack dab on the campus of Arizona State University, its future seemed so bright you needed sunglasses. Indeed, ASU Karsten was named after one of Arizona’s most celebrated golf icons, Karsten Solheim, the founder of PING. It also had been created by one of the biggest names in golf — Dye Design, even if Perry and Alice had more to do with it than the more celebrated Pete Dye, Alice’s husband and Perry’s father. If that wasn’t enough, a young phenom named Phil Mickelson had just arrived on campus. His presence over the next four years would certainly factor into what would become known as the “House that Lefty built.” Fast-forward 30 years (and a whole lot more history and lore of ASU golf), and ASU Karsten is getting ready to shutter. Oh, my, you’re probably saying, “Say it ain’t so!” “I’m afraid it’s so,” said ASU Karsten’s general manager, Derek Crawford. “Cinco de Mayo, May 5, will be our swan song.” Crawford was only half joking when he suggested the course will throw a party on that last day complete with “free tequila and margaritas.” But there will be some type of goodbye event, he added. “Simply put, the land underneath the golf course became too valuable,” Crawford noted. “And what’s going to happen on it in the future turns out to be a really big deal, with corporate, retail, condos and a massive sports complex that includes softball and soccer and other athletics.”
It’s always hard to lose a golf course, especially one that has so much history tied to ASU golf as well as the memories made by its guests. But ASU Karsten Golf Course will close on May 5.
ASU Karsten includes 100 acres of land that was originally donated to the university by its neighbor, APS. It had been a rag-tag piece of desert scrub under huge electrical lines and in an airport flightpath when the school acquired it from APS. Today, thanks partly to the millions donated in Solheim’s name, it’s one of the largest greenbelts on a college campus in the country. Add in 80 more acres around ASU Karsten’s perimeter, another 150 acres to the south and west, and you have the 330-acre parcel now known as Novus Innovation Corridor, which is being master-planned by ASU and Catellus Development Corporation. While the course and rather large clubhouse have yet to be bulldozed (they’re coming like a tsunami), the ASU golf teams have moved their headquarters to Papago Golf Course, a highly regarded municipal where a new facility and practice area for the teams have been built. Completed in 2014, the city of Phoenix and ASU signed a 30-year deal for a foundation to manage the course through Scottsdale-based OB Sports. “It’s been in the works for a while,” Crawford explained. “In fact, a lot of people thought we were already closed, and that’s been a tough rumor to overcome for the last year or two.
“But it’s going to happen, so I hope a lot of people come out to say farewell. In a way, it’s really sad, because when it debuted as a high-end golf course 30 years ago, everyone pretty much thought it would be here forever.” Not everyone adored the course, which had an extremely short, tight front nine. But as far as challenge goes, and with a tough closing stretch, it certainly fit the bill over the years, testing some of the best golfers in the collegiate ranks. ASU Karsten’s last four holes were truly championship caliber, reaching a crescendo with a 457-yard par 4; a 248-yard par 3 guarded by water; a 581-yard, uphill par 5; and a confounding, 471-yard par 4 over water. It’s always hard to lose a golf course, especially one that has so much history tied to ASU golf as well as the memories made by its guests. Even Crawford, whose twin brother, Daryl, just happens to be GM at Papago, struggles to find the right words. “I hate to use this line, but, unfortunately, it is what it is,” he said. “And having said that, it’s still a great course today, that’s, ironically, in great shape as we have to say goodbye.” So instead of a 30th birthday party, ASU Karsten gets a funeral. Oh, my! Say it ain’t so! www.azgolf.org
