Rolling Hills golf getting $15M in upgrades, lights for night golf

TEMPE, Ariz. — Rolling Hills Golf Course is getting a massive upgrade.

Everything from night-time golf lighting to new bars and restaurants are on the horizon in a multi-million-dollar makeover that project managers expect to be complete by fall 2024.

The city-owned course is situated along North Mill Avenue near Papago Park and the Phoenix Zoo. Arizona State’s campus is less than two miles to the south. The course been a Tempe staple for more than 60 years, having first opened as a nine-hole course in the 1960s before being expanded to 18 holes about two decades later. Tens of thousands of golfers play there each year.

That initial expansion in the 1980s was the last full-scale upgrade to the popular facility, however. The City of Tempe has only been able to maintain the course over the past few decades because of a tight budget, meaning there just wasn’t enough cash to tackle any big improvements.

But a private company called Grass Clippings is now slated to accomplish what the city couldn’t do on its own. The business, which started as a golf apparel company in 2018, agreed in March to take over the course’s operations and invest $15 million to give the “aging” facility an overdue revamp.

“All the infrastructure and the potential is there. It’s just kind of about putting money into it where money hasn’t been put into it (before),” said Connor Riley of Grass Clippings, which began its revitalization of Rolling Hills on July 1.

The project will go beyond golf-focused improvements, according to Riley, who said the goal is to transform the run-of-the-mill course into a “golf, entertainment and food destination” that can “bring people to the property for reasons more than just golf, which is what it currently is.”

And appealing to a broader audience is likely critical to the business’s success. Grass Clippings is hoping to bring in about 300,000 visitors to the course annually, five times the current patronage.

• The company hopes to reach that ambitious goal with a slew of golf and entertainment-related upgrades. The five most significant improvements include:
• Sports lighting that’s similar to what exists at baseball stadiums that will allow golfers to play on the course until midnight.
• Re-grassing the existing tee boxes and adding “junior” tee boxes that are expected to make it easier for children to use the course by giving them an option to start…