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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS www.ahwatukee.com
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
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Investors buy Club West Golf Course AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS ON TRIAL
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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group of private investors and a Native American marketing organization with a nationwide network of golf courses have bought Club West Golf Course, apparently ending the uncertainty surrounding its future as a duffer’s destination. The ownership group includes the Inter Tribal Golf Association, which offers “seasonal reciprocity” memberships that allow members to golf at any one of 110 courses owned by 63 tribes across the country. Rene’ L. Couchee’, a spokesman for the new owners, declined to give immediate
details of the sale until later this week, but told AFN, “Big things are going to happen. Stay tuned.” Former owner Wilson Gee also declined to provide many details, noting the transaction will not close until Dec. 1. Gee was selling the course for somewhere between $1.3 million and $2 million. Gee did say that under a lease-purchase agreement, the new owners have assumed responsibility for overseeding the course and running the clubhouse. He said he understood they already had contracted with a local restaurant to eventually begin serving dinner there. The Inter Tribal Golf Association was founded in 2012 “to identify sustainable
economic development best-practices for the least sustainable enterprise of all tribal investment – golf,” according a self-description it posted on eliteevents.co, a fundraising website that arranges charity golf and other sports-related outings. “ITGA became and is the only American Indian-owned and operated for-profit company in the world that sells an individual golf membership valid for play at any tribal golf course in America,” the site states. The association “developed an online, nationwide, Self-Redemption Loyalty Rewards Platform, built for the benefit of all golfers and all tribal golf destinations,” the
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS FREEWAY SHOWDOWN
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BAKERS GALORE
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TWIN LOSSES
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WEST on page 9
Once an RV park perk, pickleball is sweeping the region BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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henever Susan and Steve Manolis of Ahwatukee plan a trip, their first question for an RV park is whether it has a pickleball court. “If they say ‘no,’” I say ‘OK, thank you. Click,” said Susan. At least they and a growing legion of Ahwatukee and East Valley pickleball fans are having an easier time closer to home. Phoenix and East Valley municipalities have recognized that pickleball is hot and getting hotter – enough to warrant the same kind of public investment they make in Little League ballfields and tennis courts. School districts are not be far behind. Advocates are converting students of all ages to embrace a sport that once was associated with being old. Phoenix is installing 16 pickleball courts at Pecos Park in Ahwatukee and another 10 See
PICKLEBALL on page 16
(Kim Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer)
Steve and Susan Manolis of Ahwatukee display the tools of one of their passions: the graphite composite paddles and whiffle balls used in pickleball.