It's Lit

Grass Clippings at Rolling Hills Shines Spotlight on Tempe

Jake and Jimmy Hoselton, Connor Riley and Pete Wilson felt a bit like outsiders.  

Despite growing up playing golf like many in Arizona - which included winning a state championship at Arcadia High School for Jimmy and Connor - the group’s shared interest in the outdoors and action sports like skateboarding and motocross differed from the norm. 

“We were a group of guys that loved to play golf but didn’t fully align with some of the traditional stereotypes of golf, if you will,” Jake said. 

(Photo by Alex Johnson)

Not only did they play golf together, but they got an inside look at the inner workings of a course compliments of Hoselton family friend Drew Annan, director of agronomy at Forest Highlands Golf Club. Inspired by Annan and all the hardworking greenskeepers, the Hoseltons, Riley and Wilson launched golf retail company Grass Clippings in early 2019 in conjunction with a par-3 tournament. 

Featuring music, JumboTrons, entertainment, food and beverage, and merchandise, the inaugural Grass Clippings Open appeared to be a success, setting F&B and golf revenue records at the course. Or so they thought. 

“Nothing we did should get you in trouble,” Jake said, sharing that participants were deemed too loud while staying out too late. “We were just having fun on a golf course. That’s when we said, ‘This is what’s missing: real golf, but entertainment-based and entertainment-driven.’  

“We wanted to take this tournament from once a year as our signature event to a new product in golf altogether.”

Pictured left to right: Connor Riley, Pete Wilson, Jimmy Hoselton, Scott Hebert & Jake Hoselton (Photo by Alex Johnson)

Inspired not deterred, the Grass Clippings team sought to establish their own environment, where similar behavior would be welcomed and encouraged, not frowned upon. Initially looking to purchase or lease land on the outskirts of the Valley, they shifted their focus to a more centralized location, with the intention of making their course the focal point of the community that had given them so much. 

With most golf courses fighting to break even, let alone make a profit - a 2021 review found that out of 221 local governments that reported running a golf course the prior year, 155 lost a total of $61 million in taxpayer money operating them in the 2020 fiscal year - Grass Clippings prioritized refurbishing and rescuing a local track. 

“It really didn’t take us long to land on Rolling Hills,” Jake said. 

Trust the Process 

Originally designed as a 9-hole course by Milton Coggins in 1955, Rolling Hills is a city-owned and -operated public course on 93 acres in Papago Park, neighboring the Phoenix Zoo; cheetahs can even be seen from hole 3. Golf architect Gary Panks added the second nine holes in 1987. 

With no noise restrictions or dark sky ordinances and located at the geographic epicenter between Phoenix, Old Town Scottsdale, Sky Harbor, Paradise Valley, and Arizona State University, Rolling Hills checked all of the boxes for the Grass Clippings team to begin to build their dream. 

But the metamorphosis wasn’t that easy. 

Because it’s owned and operated by the city, along with Ken McDonald Golf Course, the City of Tempe put out a public request for proposal (RFP) for the refurbishment of Rolling Hills, so instead of automatically getting priority for their idea, Grass Clippings had to further sell themselves and their vision, bidding against five golf course management companies. 

Leveraging the local card, as well as their passion for not only turning Rolling Hills into Arizona’s first fully lit 18-hole course, but the greatest executive course in the world, Grass Clippings won the proposal process in 2021 and entered exclusive negotiations with the city. In March 2023, Grass Clippings started a 30-year lease with the City of Tempe beginning July 1 to renovate and revitalize the course. 

“The City of Tempe’s process to select a partner was focused on four goals: ensuring the long-term viability of public golf, addressing capital improvement needs at the course, providing revenue to the city, and expanding golf and recreational amenities to a wide and diverse audience,” said Craig Hayton, City of Tempe community services director. “The City of Tempe felt the Grass Clippings proposal hit all of those marks, ensuring that executive golf would continue at Rolling Hills into the future.” 

With plans for $15 million of renovation to the clubhouse, as well as upgrading the driving range to 30 bays equipped with Toptracer technology, 18 fully-lit holes available to play until midnight, and a 15,000-square-foot putting green, Grass Clippings at Rolling Hills, which can play as both a par-62 or par-54, will be more than just a golf destination with a casual dress code, music, and groups larger than the standard foursome encouraged. 

Working with Director of Agronomy Scott Hebert, formerly senior assistant golf course superintendent at TPC Scottsdale, and golf course architects Jackson Kahn Design, the crew cleared out space and moved holes to create a 14,000-square-foot open lawn to host farmers markets, live music, flag football, viewing parties, and more.  

The ability to host large-scale events on a nightly basis serves as an integral part of their business model, increasing the course’s estimated 75,000 strictly golf visitors annually to more than 300,000, given the added amenities. A restaurant with seating for approximately 200 - expected to open in the fall - will feature Sonoran-inspired cuisine, with fresh-squeezed cocktails and cold beer.  

“Anyone familiar with Rolling Hills knows that the place was in desperate need of rehab work,” Hebert said. “Being your run-of-the-mill municipal golf course with decades of deferred maintenance, it was hard to find anything positive about the place, except for one major thing: its location. The Grass Clippings’ mission and long-term goals for the property are really what drew me in. The opportunity to bring a lighted course to one of the most popular golfing towns in the world, while creating a culture that pays tribute to the greenskeepers wasn’t a tough sell to get me onboard. 

“I knew it was going to be the hardest thing I had ever done in my career, leaving professional golf’s largest stage to go and make something special. Rolling Hills is the ultimate fixer upper and a true test of my abilities as a greenskeeper.” 

(Photo by Alex Johnson)

Growing the Game 

As golf continues to grow and evolve as a result of being a popular outdoor activity during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, increased accessibility through golf-entertainment venues like Topgolf, Five Iron and Popstroke, the rise in golf streetwear, and more opportunities for Black and minority golfers through the APGA Tour and Steph Curry’s Underrated Tour, the sport is more popular and diverse than ever. 

Roughly one in seven Americans played golf in 2022 as the game’s overall participation base in the U.S. rose to 41.1 million - up from 32 million in 2016 - according to a report from the National Golf Foundation. Last year, almost half (48%) of all golf participants (on- and off-course) were between the ages of 6 and 34. 

Grass Clippings at Rolling Hills isn’t trying to replace traditional, championship-length golf, but rather serve as a complement to one’s local track, while also inspiring those new to the game to test their skills and have fun in a much less intimidating atmosphere. Not only will it aim to serve as a viable option for experienced and novice golfers alike, but due to its proximity to the airport, it can be a quick pit stop for travelers; Jake said they may even introduce a deal or discount for anyone who brings their suitcase or boarding pass prior to departing or shortly after landing. 

“We have not actively marketed golf because our courses, up until now, have really been focused on use by local residents,” said Michael Martin, president & CEO of Tempe Tourism. “The plans for Rolling Hills will make it an experience that we can actively promote to visitors and groups because it is going to be a unique setting. So while we have always had Rolling Hills as a golf course in Tempe, the redevelopment of the course will open the opportunity for us to share it even more with visitors to Tempe.” 

As the Grass Clippings crew continues to earn the trust of all stakeholders, they quickly won over Troon, a Scottsdale-based hospitality management company that focuses on golf and golf-related amenities. Boasting a portfolio of approximately 650 clubs/traditional green grass courses, as well as a caddy services division at 150 locations, the company will manage the golf and hospitality operations at Grass Clippings at Rolling Hills. 

“I really saw it as a marriage between entertainment and traditional green-grass golf,” said Scott Van Newkirk, Troon chief development officer. “... There’s always going to be the traditionalist who doesn’t want that but I think that’s a small minority today and you’re not ever going to convince them to untuck their shirt and listen to Morgan Wallen when they play golf. Where Jake and we are aligned is that that isn’t where the game’s going.” 

That’s precisely the goal for the modern-day Rolling Hills, which may serve as a springboard for the brand to replicate its entertainment-driven golf product elsewhere. 

With the lights officially on at Grass Clippings at Rolling Hills, the once-dilapidated course isn’t the only thing that will benefit from the additional spotlight shone by four local golfers who want to help grow and evolve their favorite game in their community and beyond.  

“What we’re going to be able to communicate by example and as the final product rolls out through the next 12 months is that it really is going to be the finest executive golf course in the country,” Jake said. “We believe that the land, the undulations, the settings, and the views allow for that to be a possibility. 

“The community’s already started down there. You can already feel the energy. At the end of the day, it’s everything.” 

(Photo by Alex Johnson) 

For those curious, expected greens fees are dynamically priced to ensure you can play day or night for under $90, with night rates being elevated over the typical day rate. Significant discounts are expected to be passed along to local Tempe residents, veterans, and junior golfers.