Southern Dunes has potential to put Maricopa on national stage

Southern Dunes Golf Club has been in a more-or-less constant state of flux, with multiple business models and ownership changes, since it was first conceived 11 years ago. But the property may finally have found the stability that will allow it to fulfill its considerable potential.

Opened as a private men-only golf club in 2002, Southern Dunes was unable to attract enough members to pay back the $15 million start-up costs and fund its $2 million annual operating budget.

According to Garrett Wallace, who has managed the club through all of its incarnations, founding member Duane Young came to the rescue, providing capital to keep the club afloat. When the property continued to struggle, Young sold a partial interest to Richard Zacher, a developer who planned to build houses and town homes around the course on the 320-acre property.

Zacher funded construction of the attractive stone and timber clubhouse and held onto his interest in the property for two years, but the real estate boom collapsed before he could begin his master-planned community and the venture went bankrupt.

From there, the property went into receivership before reverting to Young in 2007.

At that point, the Ak-Chin Indian Community, which has a history with the land, began to focus its attention on the property.

“We first considered the idea of buying the golf course in 2007,” said Ak-Chin Tribal Chairman Lewis Manuel. By the fall of 2009, the tribe had entered into serious negotiations to acquire the property.

“They were the logical buyer, throughout,” said Wallace. “This land was part of their original reservation that was taken from them by executive order in 1913 and it was important to them in a symbolic way to regain that land.”

The golf course was also a good complement to the tribe’s main enterprise, Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino Resort. “It fits well with the casino,” said Manuel. “Most other casino properties in Arizona have golf courses, or at least have access to golf courses. So this helps us to be competitive and introduces economic diversity for sustained self sufficiency.”

Wallace praises the tribe’s diligence and thoughtfulness during the purchase negotiation process. “They took their time and did their homework and brought in outside consultants to evaluate the situation.”

The Ak-Chin Indian Community took possession of the property in July, and according to Wallace, it is the best thing that could have happened.

“It has been a smooth transition and their ownership has brought an infusion of capital and commitment. We presented a $1.2 million capital improvement plan to the community in August and the tribal council approved it in September.”

The capital improvement plan, now complete, included upgrading the condition of the golf course, already highly ranked, and renovating and refurbishing the clubhouse, adding a banquet room and launching a fine-dining venue called Grille 109.

“From the new sign at the entrance to our expanded kitchen, everything they did is first class,” Wallace said.

“We asked Garrett Wallace and Troon if Southern Dunes has the potential to be the number one golf course in the state or even the nation,” said Manuel. “They said yes and we are supporting that goal.”

Troon Golf, the company Wallace works for, is a golf development, marketing and management company with more than 200 courses under its supervision. The company has managed Southern Dunes since it was hired by Zacher and continues in that role under Ak-Chin’s ownership.

Despite the uncertainty caused by ownership changes and financial problems, Southern Dunes has earned a reputation as a top course. Golf Magazine recently ranked it the fifth best course in Arizona and the January issue of Sports Illustrated called it one of the 50 best courses in the world.

With stable ownership and top-flight management, the goal of becoming number one in Arizona may well be within reach.

“One thing that has remained constant through all the changes here is the quality of the golf course, and now that has been upgraded,” said Wallace. “This facility has the potential to truly put Maricopa on the national stage, with the number of golf publications that now recognize it as a world-class property and the events that we will attract.”

Sidebar: ‘Regaining the land’
When the Ak-Chin Indian Community bought Southern Dunes Golf Club in July, it made good business sense. “It fits well with the casino,” said Ak-Chin Tribal Chairman Lewis Manuel.

According to the Community’s newsletter, there are plans to introduce gaming and golf packages to attract more visitors to Harrah’s Casino Resort, which is owned by the tribe, once expansion of the casino is complete this summer.

But it wasn’t the prospect of a promising business opportunity that got the Ak-Chin interested in buying the golf club. Instead, the Community and its leaders were  motivated by a desire to regain land they feel was unjustly taken away from them a century ago.

“It wasn’t so much the purchase of the golf club that interested us as it was regaining the land that we had at one time,” said Manuel. “We saw too that the property extended to the Gila River Indian land so that it would connect our two reservations together.”

The O’odham people, who include the Ak-Chin and the Gila River Indians, have never been at war with the United States. When white settlers came to Arizona in the mid-19th century, O’odham warriors fought alongside U.S. soldiers against their traditional Apache enemies.

Partly out of gratitude for that assistance, President Howard Taft issued an executive order in 1912 creating a 47,600-acre reservation for the Ak-Chin tribe. Local white residents were upset about the amount of land given to the Indians and the 70,000-acre-feet annual water appropriation that went with it.

Bowing to political pressure, Taft issued a second executive order shortly afterward that reduced the size of the reservation by more than half, to 21,840 acres. Southern Dunes Golf Club occupies a portion of the land that the government took from the tribe in 1913, and when the Ak-Chin saw a chance to get back some of that land, they were eager to do so.

“Regaining that land is one of our priorities,” said Manuel. “We are going to grow and with everything growing around us, we need to provide for the future.”

That the golf club fits perfectly with the tribe’s casino operation and diversifies its economic portfolio is the icing on the cake.