ARIZONA CITY — The Arizona City Golf Course is not just a location for guests to play the game, it serves as the preferred gathering place for the community to come together. Now, over a year after reopening, the course will be celebrating its first anniversary with a ribbon cutting.
The course reopened in early 2022 after nearly two years of renovation and refurbishment. Since the reopening, the golf club has seen an increase in memberships as well as an increase in interest from avid golfers outside of the Arizona City community.
To go along with the success of the course, the connected restaurant, the Tap Inn Bar & Grill, has seen improvements of its own.
Arizona City Chamber of Commerce Vice President Frank McLaughlin took over managing duties of the restaurant last summer and has witnessed the passion the community has for its hometown golf course firsthand.
“It’s a wonderful addition to the community, (the golf course) makes Arizona City a destination,” he said. “It is one of the ways it helps beautify the area, it also contributes financially. It’s one place that we have that brings people together, it gives people a place to go play golf, have dinner and relax.”
McLaughlin said that having both the golf course and the restaurant open is a “huge addition to the community.” With several golf tournaments and themed dinners in the past year, the course has revitalized the small community.
“We are going strong, people have continued to come and show support, it has been a great year,” McLaughlin said. “The first year or two is always the hardest, but we are coming through strong.”
Although the course has had success in its first year since being reopened, McLaughlin explained that the course has battled its fair share of hardships. After an extreme monsoon storm left a majority of the Arizona City community without power, the Tap Inn lost “thousands of dollars in revenue.”
“There have been many hard times, but we are coming through,” McLaughlin continued. “Even with those challenges, we are still here. We all have worked extremely hard in keeping things going.
“We have been able to bounce back, and I feel that we are even stronger than we were before and we just want to celebrate the past year and continue our success.”
The ribbon-cutting event will be at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 17, and is open to the public. The Tap Inn will be offering a lunch special after the ceremony.
McLaughlin said the ribbon cutting will be a time to celebrate both the success of the golf course and an opportunity for the course to once again be the epicenter of the small community.
“We look forward to more memberships, keeping the food going, keeping people happy and giving them a place to be.”
David Church is a reporter covering Eloy, Arizona City and sports and the Digital Editor for PinalCentral.com. He can be reached at dchurch@pinalcentral.com.
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