Fore! Phoenix-area golf course reopens with new name and look
Jan 6, 2016, 4:51 PM | Updated: Jan 7, 2016, 8:40 am
The newly-reopened Grand Canyon University Championship Golf Course is shown. (Cronkite News Photo/Darryl Webb)
(Cronkite News Photo/Darryl Webb)
PHOENIX — The historic Maryvale Golf Course in Phoenix reopened Wednesday with a new look and name.
Grand Canyon University partnered with the city of Phoenix for a complete renovation of the now-named Grand Canyon University Championship Golf Course.
“We shut it down last Jan. 1 and we completely redid the golf course,” GCU President Brian Mueller said. “It’s got brand new tee boxes, brand new fairways, brand new greens, brand new bunkers.”
The course’s clubhouse was also redesigned and renovated.
Under a 30-year partnership, the city of Phoenix still owns the course at Indian School Road and 59th Avenue and the university manages it. Before the deal was made, the course was subsidized by around $250,000 in taxpayer money. The burden of paying for the course will no longer fall on Phoenix residents.
GCU will keep all proceeds until its initial investment is made back. The city will then make 10 percent of proceeds moving forward.
The university invested $10 million dollars into the renovation but rates will be kept affordable at the course so everyone in the Valley can enjoy a round of golf.
“It really has come out even better than we expected but we had so much to work with,” Mueller said. “This is 130 acres that was planted in the early ’60s and so you don’t see many places like this in Arizona.”
