Arizona State Plans to Build Golf Course

After 10 years of planning, the Sun Angel Foundation announced that construction will begin next year for a golf course at Arizona State University.

Officials of the Sun Angels--the school’s main athletic booster group--said it will be an 18-hole championship course on an 156-acre tract near campus on land between Scottsdale and Hayden roads in Tempe.

World renowned course designer Pete Dye, who has been retained to construct the 7,000-yard course, said he envisions “an English-type course that’s totally different from those normally found in the desert.”

Plans for the course were originally proposed in 1976 by then-Athletic Director Fred Miller, but were tabled in 1980 when Miller was fired.

Current university President J. Russell Nelson revived the plans in 1981 at the urging of the Sun Angels.

Building costs have not been determined yet, but construction is scheduled to begin in early 1987 and take a year to complete.

Sun Angel officials here said they have $1 million in funds already for the project and plan to raise more through various fund-raising activities.

The course will be used by the school’s golf teams and staff plus faculty and students, and also will be open to the public, Nelson said.