The Pusch Ridge Golf Course now has four weekly leagues playing its breathtakingly beautiful course under the Friends of Pusch Ridge (FOPRG) ‘umbrella.’
The Quails, a 30+ year old women’s golf league whose home course has been Pusch Ridge for nearly as long, has recently elected to become the fourth league within FOPRG. The Quails voted to associate with FOPRG to help promote community through the game of golf and (like our other three leagues) joined us to work to keep Pusch Ridge open past this third provisional year. The Quails play every Tuesday throughout the year at Pusch when the course is open and at the El Conquistador courses over the summer if Pusch is closed.
The Quails is a members-only league of up to 60 handicapped members. Whereas it is perhaps more competitive than FOPRG’s Thursday morning women’s group (the Flycatchers), it is a fun group that enjoys socializing as much as playing golf. After their Tuesday morning shotgun starts, you can find The Quails socializing at local restaurants and showing support for the Oro Valley community. On any given Tuesday, 30-45 Quails take to the course. (Visit them here.)
The Thursday women’s group (the Flycatchers) has up to 30 ladies a week who enjoy a 9 a.m. shotgun with perhaps less stress concerning scorekeeping. They, too, want to see Pusch Ridge continue to thrive.
The men’s Monday group (the Javelinas), gather on the patio above the pro shop at Pusch for conversation, food and beverages after each scramble as they review their morning successes. This league has its own set of rules and handicap system and is so popular that new membership is currently closed. Nearly 48 members play each week.
The league with the largest membership, 160 golfers, is the Wednesday afternoon Prickly Pairs. This co-ed casual group fields some 48 players every week for a fun shotgun scramble. This league promotes and supports FOPRG’s four partner restaurants (The Landing, Firetruck Brewing Co., Fork & Fire, and The Hoppy Vine) in the Oro Valley community. Each week, after their play, the group has a happy hour and prize distribution at one of these restaurants!
FOPRG welcomes The Quails and is excited to have them as part of our golfing community!
As many of you remember, in 2021, the Town approved a three-year provisional trial to keep the Pusch Ridge course open. Spring 2024 will mark the end of the provisional three years. For budgeting and planning reasons, the Town Council will make a decision on the course’s fate in early 2024.
For the last year, FOPRG Board and Advisors have been working closely with the Town to promote the reinstatement of the course for upcoming years.
A motion by Councilmember Steve Solomon, seconded by Councilmember Harry Greene, was presented and approved to the Town Council to direct the Town’s staff to develop a ‘pro forma’ document that Town Council members will use to decide the course’s future fate.
The following is a draft outline summarizing the analysis that the Town Staff will be producing and delivering to Council in January 2024:
To develop the list of potential capital projects, a tour of the facilities and course has been organized for all respective Town departments and divisions to identify potential projects and needs. These tours will occur in mid-December 2023. They are being organized/conducted by Town and El Conquistador Golf staff.
Town staff has been working on developing project scopes, justifications, and costs for each identified project. Town staff will highlight which capital projects are necessary for facility preservation, which are required to continue operating the course, and those that would be nice to have.
Town staff has requested that the three surrounding HOA’s (who have been paying a yearly financial contribution to the Town for aid in the continuing operation of the course) and FOPRG to provide the Town with documentation that answers:
The HOA’s and FOPRG are currently working on their documentation to answer the three questions. They will send their completed documents to the Town staff by December 15, 2023.
FOPRG will inform readers of any Town meetings, surveys, or correspondence needed to help persuade Town Council to keep Pusch Ridge open after May 2023.
FOPRG has always encouraged our readers to play the course as often as they can and help us spread the word about how Fast, Fun and Affordable the course is.
In addition to “word of mouth” promotion, online reviews help inform the wider golfing community about the course. Online reviews help accurately indicate a golf course’s current conditions, layout and service from people who play the course.
Pusch Ridge has 448 reviews with an 85.9% recommendation rate as of the date of this article. Whereas this is an AWESOME rating, YOUR positive review will encourage others to play the course even more!
To provide a rating, login to your Golf Pass account and search for Pusch Ridge (El Conquistador). Then review away!
Next time you are in the pro shop or on the course – make sure to enjoy the holiday decorations! To make things even more fun and festive – we even decorated the porta-potty on #6 😉
