The Duke Golf Course is frequently busy but was still hurt by a Valley-wide 30-percent drop in Canadian visitors. Photo by Raquel Hendrickson

As a profitable venture for its owner, The Duke Golf Course is off the market, but one of its sister courses is for sale.

Wilson Gee, CEO of RMJ Property Inc., said The Duke was only up for sale because a potential buyer reached out.

“We had an unsolicited offer, and we thought since we had four of them, we would sell one of them,” Gee said. “When that deal didn’t come through, we said, ‘No, let’s keep it.’”

The course was on the market for about six months. RMJ also owns Foothills Golf Club, Club West and Ahwatukee Country Club. Club West is now on the market for $1.95 million.

Gee said his interest in The Duke now is its improvement as a golf venue. That is a reprieve from issues of other RMJ Properties.

Gee’s company infamously bought and closed the Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course in what turned into a lawsuit in 2014 and a public relations nightmare with neighbors. In 2015, that property was sold to The True Life Companies. It continues to be a business headache. Gee’s initial plans with Pulte Homes to redevelop the Lakes property into residential neighborhoods did not materialize, and letting the land go vacant ended its tax break as a golf course. The result is a $1.6 million tax bill from Maricopa County.

The Duke, meanwhile, has not been under threat of redevelopment.

“I like everything running smoothly and getting back to basics,” Gee said. “Running a golf course and not worrying about the rest of the world.”

He said the challenges of The Duke are “more golf-technical things than business planning.”
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That includes finding solutions to normal weather issues that affect the course and dealing with the abnormal weather of the past year. Three holes in particular are impacted by rain.

“We’re spending money improving it,” Gee said. “Our biggest problem has been in the rainy season when a couple of the holes get flooded and we have to close it. So we’re trying to resolve that. Maybe put some berms in. Maybe raise the bridge a little bit that the carts go over.”

General Manager Stephen Reish said that involves holes 1, 2 and 4. When access to the first hole gets flooded, he said, no one can finish.

“This is the middle of the season, and El Nino affected us,” Gee said. “The weather was strange this year. You can manage all you want, but you cannot control Mother Nature.”

The owner also called the wind in Maricopa an issue. He said the solution might be heavier sand as part of the overall improvements. He said he comes to Maricopa every two weeks to meet with management.

If the weather can’t be controlled, neither can the international market.

“We were hurt by the Canadians not showing up in numbers this year,” Gee said. “It’s down 30 percent, but that’s Valley-wide. We only control our little part of the world, which is trying to get the golf course up to snuff.”

This story appeared in the March issue of InMaricopa News.