Rea was once a minor league umpire in Triple A baseball.
Don Rea Jr., a PGA Master Professional, was elected president of the PGA of America at the association’s annual meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Rea is a member of the Southwest PGA Section and the owner of Augusta Ranch Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona.
He’s the 44th president of the PGA and will serve a two-year term. He succeeds John Lindert, the director of golf at the Country Club of Lansing in Michigan. As president, he will represent more than 31,000 PGA of America Golf Professionals.
Rea has been a member of the PGA of America since 2002. He also serves on the Arizona Lodging & Tourism Association Board of Directors, which aims to promote the golf and hospitality industry as well as inform Arizona legislators on water usage in the golf industry.
Rea has connections to professional baseball as well, as he was a minor league umpire at the Triple A level. He also umped games during spring training in Arizona.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to serve, alongside our Officers and Board of Directors, the more than 31,000 PGA of America Golf Professionals of our Association,” said Rea in a news release. “Our members and associates are serving millions of golfers through this amazing game every day. I’m incredibly proud of the lives we impact collectively along the way, shoulder to shoulder with our 41 PGA of America Sections. It is our top priority to serve our PGA of America Golf Professionals and provide resources to allow them to thrive and continue to lead as experts of the game.”
There’s one time where pro golfers are just like the rest of us: when they play golf on their day off.
There’s one time where pro golfers are just like the rest of us: when they play golf on their day off.
On Wednesday, the official X page for Troon posted a few images of the beautiful Boulders course in Scottsdale. And just look who made up the foursome in the photos: Jon Rahm alongside golf influencers Bob Does Sports, Joey Coldcuts and Fat Perez.
Can you blame the guys for their golf course selection?
The Boulders South course ranks 17th on the Golfweek’s Best public-access courses in Arizona. The South course features the stunning fifth hole, with a huge boulder backdrop behind the green. The North Course is actually a skosh better in the rankings, checking in at T-15.
Rahm and the rest of his LIV Golf cohorts ended their season about five weeks ago, although he’s likely been busy with his wife Kelly after the birth of the couple’s third child.
The course has a restriction on it requiring it to operate as a golf course that expires in January 2025.
TEMPE, Ariz. — A neighborhood golf course is closing next year and is slated to be redeveloped into housing, but residents are frustrated at the prospect of losing the course and adding density to their area.
Shalimar Golf Club, a nine-hole course that first opened in 1961, is under contract to be sold to BB Living, a Scottsdale-based rental home developer.
Branden Lombardi, president of BB Living, said the course had been for sale for years, with the hopes that another golf operator would purchase it. But when no one did, the course’s owners, Jane and Dick Neuheisel, who bought the course in 1984, approached his company to buy and redevelop it. The Neuheisel’s son, Rick, played at nearby McClintock High School and later led the UCLA Bruins to the 1984 Rose Bowl title.
“If no one else is ready to step in and operate it as a golf course, there is a reason for that,” Lombardi said.
The course has a restriction on it requiring it to operate as a golf course that expires in January 2025. After that, Lombardi said the owners plan to operate it through the remainder of golfing season and close it before summer.
Neighbors seek to preserve course, community gathering space
But neighbors said they want to do everything they can to prevent redevelopment of the course, which has also served as a community gathering space for years.
“I’m a frequenter of the golf course and participated in many events there, celebrations, birthday parties,” Carl Streiff, president of the Shalimar Association, said.
Shalimar Golf Course in Tempe, Arizona, is slated to close at the end of 2025. (The Arizona Republic)
Streiff said the golf course was a draw for people who bought homes in the nearby community and is an amenity to all of Tempe. The course is open to the public to play.
“What we don’t want to see is higher density development that will wipe out our uniqueness, any special trace of the neighborhood,” he said.
Ideally, he said, the community would like some kind of solution that could involve the city partnering with a private business to keep the course open.
“We would like to come up with a way to keep the course,” he said. “What I don’t want to see is things getting nasty, people making accusations. We have a lot of smart people, if we can truly explore what are the options, I’d rather spend time finding a solution than fighting a rezoning.”
Streiff and many of his neighbors have written to the city and spoken during public comment periods at council meetings opposing the rezoning. Neighbors cited the loss of green space, the opportunity for community gatherings, and the outdoor activities that the course provides as reasons they are passionate about its preservation.
“Rezoning and losing the golf course would have a dramatic and negative impact on the neighborhood, adjacent neighborhoods, businesses, the city of Tempe, and the lifestyle that so many enjoy in this historic gem of north Tempe,” Helena Tselos, a resident of the area, wrote in an email to city leaders. “Destroying an iconic piece of Tempe green space in favor of a housing development is not in the best interest of the greater community.”
However, the proposal has not yet been before the City Council for any action.
Developer added for-sale homes to plans
BB Living has not made a formal submittal to the city for rezoning the property yet but has conducted meetings with the neighbors to discuss the project, Lombardi said.
The first proposed plan included almost 400 rental homes and no for-sale product. After hearing concerns from the neighbors about density and no for-sale homes included, BB Living adjusted the plans and partnered with Cachet Homes, a Scottsdale-based luxury homebuilder, to create some for-sale housing in the development.
Shalimar Golf Course in Tempe, Arizona, is slated to close at the end of 2025. (The Arizona Republic)
Now, BB Living is preparing to submit plans for a development that will be about 200 rental homes and about 70 for-sale homes. BB Living’s products are for rent, but most in the development look like detached single-family homes. Each has three or four bedrooms and has an attached garage. Some of the rentals proposed at the development will be attached rental townhomes.
“In Tempe, in particular, there aren’t large land parcels available for development,” Lombardi said. “In central Tempe, there really has been no new residential development in the last 20 years.”
The plan also will include a two-mile public trail system, with some passive amenities like picnic areas and benches that the surrounding neighbors can also use, he said.
Public hearings still to come
Lombardi said regardless of the rezoning, the course will close and already has zoning to be developed into very low-density housing without any need for public hearings.
Tempe officials said it is too early for any recommendations on the site because the formal application has not been submitted.
Lombardi said a formal submittal should be coming in the next couple of weeks, and the group will hold a neighborhood meeting before the end of the year. If granted the rezoning, land development would begin late next year with the expectation to open the new development in 2027.
“We are still very early in the process,” he said. “Everyone will still have a chance to have their voice heard.”
The duo have owned the Golf Club at Johnson Ranch in the Phoenix suburb of Queen Creek since 2004. Ashton and Lundgren were high school classmates in Scottsdale before attending BYU.
Starfire was built in 1953 and originally called Sundown. It was redesigned by Arnold Palmer, who added a third nine. The venue now has a par-70, 6,100-yard course as well as a 9-hole short course featuring eight par-3 holes.
In 2021, Bubba Watson played there. He said he did so to see how low he could go on a “regular” golf course but also to point out that golfers can have fun on any variety of well-maintained public golf courses. Watson shot a 62, still a course record.
Frankie Capan III had a Sunday he won’t soon forget.
By virtue of his tie for 12th at the 2024 Simmons Bank Open in Franklin, Tennessee, the former Florida Gulf Coast golfer clinched a top 30 spot on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, earning his 2025 PGA Tour card, the second FGCU alum to do so.
Here’s what you should know about the 24-year-old Capan.
Capan is a native of Stillwater, Minnesota, and is the first from the state in nearly a decade to reach the PGA Tour. Growing up he spent summers in The North State State but played high school golf at Northwest Christian School in Phoenix. He won the 2018 Arizona high school state championship by 10 strokes, shooting a 59 in the final round. Capan was also a top junior golfer, capturing the AJGA Puerto Rico Junior Open in 2016 and teaming with Shaui Ming Wong to win the 2017 U.S. Junior Amateur Four-Ball Championship.
Capan started his collegiate career at Alabama but his sophomore season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. He transferred to FGCU for his final two seasons, earning a pair of ASUN Conference Second Team honors. In 2022, Capan helped the Eagles’ men’s golf team become the first program in FGCU history to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. His career scoring average of 72.35 still ranks among the top five in FGCU history.
Capan opted to forgo an extra season of eligibility at FGCU and began his professional golf career.
With two events remaining in the 2024 Korn Ferry season, Capan is currently 14th on the Tour’s Points List. In 23 starts this year, he has five top-10s and two runner-up finishes, losing in a playoff to Harry Higgs at the Visit Knoxville Open in May and finishing three shots behind Max McGreevy at last month’s Magnit Championships.
Capan also made some Korn Ferry history in the opening round of the Veritex Bank Championships in May by shooting a 13-under 58, breaking Scottie Scheffler’s course record by one shot.
Capan has earned nearly $350,000 this season on the Korn Ferry Tour and more than $580,000 in his two years on the circuit. He’s the 14th KFT player to earn PGA Tour status for 2025. There will be 30 cards in all earned this season.
Capan qualified for four PGA Tour events in his career so far: the 2016 Puerto Rico Open, the 2023 3M Open and the past two U.S. Opens. He’s made the cut twice, finishing T-62 at the 3M and T-41 at June’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst.
Derek Lamely, a member of the inaugural FGCU men’s golf team in 2000-01, earned his PGA Tour card in 2010. The 2023 FGCU Athletic Hall of Fame inductee won the 2010 Puerto Rico Open his rookie season.
Pine Canyon’s 19th hole is dubbed “Double or Nothin.”
Pine Canyon Golf Club in Flagstaff, Arizona, has announced the completion of a $6.4 million renovation with a longer, improved layout and sustainable irrigation technology.
The private course, originally designed by Jay Morrish and opened in 1994, bills itself as a “19-hole championship golf course.” The 18 holes play 7,265 from the tips while the 19th hole, aptly named “Double or Nothin'”, is a 100-yard shot to an island green. It’s perfectly situated from the men’s lockerroom patio as well as the clubhouse dining veranda. It’s popular among the membership for social events, tournaments and closest-to-the-pin competitions.
The renovation’s aim was better visuals and playability while adding about 100 years while also being more sustainable with new technology in the irrigation system with 30 percent enhanced water efficiency and reduced sprinkler count.
To go along with the renovation is the announcement that 12 high-end homes are now up for sale in the high country. Owned and developed by Symmetry Companies, based in Scottsdale, the sales launch is for the final new homes at Pine Canyon called Ghost Tree.
Billed as “an exclusive enclave of 12 ultra-luxe homes,” prices will start at $3 million, setting market record of more than $1,000 per square foot. It’s the first time new homes have been up for sale at Pine Canyon since 2021, when all 26 homesites at Pine Run sold out in one day. The Ghost Tree name comes from the iconic gnarled, weathered, decades-old Ponderosa Pine with an Osprey nest atop.
A rendering of a home’s back patio with a view of the golf course and the ghost tree at Flagstaff’s Pine Canyon Golf Club. (Symmetry Companies)
The golf community encompasses close to 600 acres.
The $6.4 million golf course renovation represents the largest investment in the course’s history. Michael Kuhn & Associates did the renovation.
Like many other businesses, sometimes golf courses don’t make it. Be it poor management, a shift in demographics, a lack of play or an owner’s decision to turn the land into homes or a shopping center, some layouts have simply run their course.
Often the land sits fallow for months or even years, the grass turns brown, or vegetation grows over the old fairways and greens.
Sometimes, the old golf courses are turned into parks or other public uses. In some cases, the course is saved and returned to its former glory.
Below is a collection of photos from golf courses that closed for extended periods of time.
(Editor’s note: The West Palm Beach Municipal Golf Course in Florida has reopened as The Park and Ahwatukee Lakes in Arizona has also opened again.)
Ramos pulled off the feat using a borrowed Callaway driver.
The 59 Club has added a member.
Its newest is 14-year-old AJ Ramos of Tucson, Arizona, who went sub-60 last week at a Junior Golf Association of Arizona event.
Ramos shot his 59, which was a bogey-free, 11-under round, at Starfire Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Sam Schanafelt Summer Classic. He had three birdies and an eagle on his front nine, then six birdies – including five in a row – on the back before making par at the last.
He was playing in the boys 13-14 division and followed that up with a 72 to earn an 11-shot victory in the tournament. It’s his fourth JGAA win in 2024. His previous best this year was a 66.
It turns out Ramos shot his 59 using a borrowed driver. His mom, Paula, said that he discovered a crack in his driver the week before at the Future Masters in Alabama. When he got to Scottsdale, he borrowed a Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond, the same one Xander Schauffele used in his 2024 British Open victory, and now Ramos wants one of his own.
Paula was there in Scottsdale rooting on her son and said it was amazing to watch.
“We were just waiting for that moment when everything comes together and it was so beautiful,” she noted of his ability to play a complete game. She said that as the round went on, he kept hitting fairways and making putts but she decided not to start shooting video on her phone, admitting that she was a bit superstitious and didn’t want to jinx anything.
Ramos will enter ninth grade in a few weeks but is going to miss the start of high school for another junior tournament in San Antonio. So it goes in the life of a junior golfer.
“We’re chasing the dream with him,” said Paula.
The second annual Sam Schanafelt Summer Classic commemorates Sam Schanafelt, a JGAA member who passed away in 2022 automobile accident.
2024 Sam Schanafelt Summer Classic
Other winners in the event were Jack Taylor of Scottsdale in the boys 15-18 championship division; Charlene Lamb of Scottsdale in the girls 15-18 championship division; Nolan Brunner of Prescott Valley in the boys 15-18 division; Isabel Helgemoe of Scottsdale in the girls 15-18 division; Addison Taylor of Scottsdale in the girls 13-14 division.
You’ve read about all kinds of hole-in-one stories. This might be a new one.
You’ve read about all kinds of hole-in-one stories. This might be a new one: a married couple each aced the same hole in the same round.
Yea, it happened. Ann and Bill Gray were playing Capital Canyon Club in Prescott, Arizona, on July 10 when they got to the 16th hole during their afternoon round. That’s where the magic happened.
With two more golfers in their foursome as witnesses, the Grays celebrated their round in the best way possible, as each of them made an ace.
Capital Canyon Club is a private Tom Weiskopf design which has become kinda famous for producing aces.
The crew at Breaking Par featured the course a while back after ace after ace was recorded at the layout.
The agronomy team worker was mowing in the area when he was stung.
A golf course employee died after being attacked by a swarm of bees in Arizona.
The incident happened in late June, near hole 8 at Pusch Ridge Course, part of El Conquistador Golf in Oro Valley, about 10 miles north of Tucson.
The agronomy team worker, Rick Messina, was mowing in the area when he was stung, El Conquistador Golf said in a statement to USA Today.
Someone called authorities about the incident at 7:17 a.m. on June 24, said Darren Wright, a spokesperson for the Oro Valley Police Department. Messina was taken to a local hospital and died three days later on June 27.
The day of the incident, beekeepers inspected all 45 golf holes on the property. The beekeepers found no hives nor bee activity and gave the property the all-clear.
“It appears Rick was attacked by a traveling swarm of bees,” El Conquistador Golf said in its statement to USA Today.
Employee was ‘dedicated’ and ‘cherished’ at golf course
Messina was 57 years old and worked for El Conquistador Golf’s agronomy team since July 2022, the company told USA Today.
The company also sent a statement to golf club members about his death.
Calling the event a “tragic workplace accident,” the company said it is saddened over his death and he died from “complications from the bee stings.”
“Rick was a dedicated and cherished member of our team, known for his exceptional work ethic, positive attitude, and unwavering commitment to his duties,” the statement read. “El Conquistador Golf and Indigo Sports has deployed support resources to both Rick’s family and our team to help all navigate through this difficult time.”
Bees making headlines in Arizona
According to local experts, summer is “peak season for bee swarms,” El Conquistador Golf wrote.
A bee colony forms on the net high above home plate that caused a two-hour delay of the game between the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix on April 30, 2024.
Bees in Arizona also made headlines in early May when they caused a delay at an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game.
There was a delay during the team’s April 30th game against the Los Angeles Dodgers because bees had begun to gather at the 30-foot netting behind home plate. There were hundreds of them.
Concerned that a foul ball could hit the netting and disturb the bees, managers hired an exterminator to take the bees away.
“It would have happened,” said Mike Rock, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ vice president of ballpark operations. “In that position, the net would have been hit hard enough and it would have stirred the whole thing and they could have dropped down into the people below.”
The exterminator sprayed the bees with solution and then vacuumed them up. It took less than 10 minutes, according to the Arizona Republic, part of the USA Today Network. The crowd was able to watch the exterminator work in real-time on the stadium’s video board.
What to do if you see a swarm of bees
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on its website that between 2011 and 2021, there were 788 deaths from hornet, wasp, and bee stings, an average of 72 deaths per year.
The annual number of deaths ranged from 59 in 2012 to 89 in 2017. The CDC said 84% of deaths occurred among males.
It’s best to stay calm and leave when swarms of bees are nearby, the Republic reported.
“When dealing with bees that start coming towards you, the first thing they will do is bump you, because if they sting you they die,” Duane Combs, president of the Beekeepers Association of Central Arizona and University of Montana master beekeeper told the Republic.
“When you see bees circling around you or bumping you, you need to back up and back out of the area.”
It’s also important to avoid:
Wearing dark, loose clothing or shiny objects while hiking
Wearing perfumes, cologne or strong scent
Jerky movements near hives
Swatting at bees
Contributing: Nick Piecoro, Kye Graves; Arizona Republic
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at@SaleenMartin or email her atsdmartin@usatoday.com.
