The most troubling Tucson sports news I heard this week is that renowned Tucson golf course architect Ken Kavanaugh has separated himself from the ill-conceived idea to redesign the Dell Urich Golf Course at Randolph Park.
Say it ain’t so, Ken. The man who totally redesigned Dell Urich in 1996, the man who did a similar remake of the Silverbell Golf Course in 2006, and has helped to remodel El Rio Golf Course and the Highlands at Dove Mountain, stepped away as a consultant for the Minneapolis firm hired to do an unnecessary re-make of Dell Urich, the most heavily-played public course in Southern Arizona.
Kavanaugh, who has also designed golf courses in Phoenix, Colorado, Wyoming and Illinois, chose not to speak publicly about the bizarre idea to change and spend millions of dollars on Dell Urich so that a birdwatching park and some flowers and an expanded walking path on 22nd Street could be built.
A golfer carts under the spread of a blooming Palo Verde at Randolph Dell Urich Golf Course, May 7, 2024, in Tucson.
“I’m taking the high road,” said Kavanaugh, the top golf architect in Southern Arizona history. “That’s all I have to say.”
His silence speaks volumes.
