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It was 1964 when Park City yelled ‘fore!’

by Jay Hamburger THE PARK RECORD
The Park City Golf Club, shown in its early days, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month. It opened as a nine-hole course and the other nine were finished nine years later. Courtesy of Park City Museum: Mel Fletcher Digital Collection
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The Park City Golf Club turns 50 this month.

The municipal course, located in Thaynes Canyon, has long been seen as one of the top public courses in the state, drawing Parkites, people from elsewhere in Utah and visitors to the links.

Mayor Jack Thomas and the Park City Council recently acknowledged the anniversary. A celebration was scheduled on Friday. Golf club demonstrations and a putting contest were planned. Organizers anticipated some of the course’s former pros would attend.

The 6,662-yard golf course has been a critical part of Park City’s summertime tourism for years. It is the only public course inside the city limits. Tourism officials see the golf course as something that attracts people in the summer, bringing people to the hotels, restaurants and shops.

Parts of the Thaynes Canyon neighborhood have been built around the course. The golf course location was also critical to the construction of Hotel Park City.

The City Council recently passed a resolution covering the history of the golf course, calling it "an extraordinary golf facility."

According to the resolution, the golf course opened as Treasure Mountain Golf Course, part of United Park City Mines’ ideas for the community. The mining company at the time was beginning to transform itself into a development firm.

The resolution says the construction occurred in the spring of 1963 and involved nine holes.

"The Thaynes Canyon farm soil was so rich that none had to be purchased and hauled to the site," the resolution says.

The opening day of Treasure Mountain Golf Course was June 20, 1964, a Saturday. It was a nine-hole course at the time. The other nine holes were finished nine years later.

The resolution says United Park City Mines sold the golf course and the nearby ski resort to a firm called Greater Park City Corporation. That firm put the golf course on the market in 1979, it says.

"Because of the potential that the course could become private and in preserving the best interests of the citizens of Park City, city officials worked diligently to fund the $1 million acquisition and successfully obtained a $500,000 matching grant from the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation," the resolution says.

Nick Badami, the chairman of Greater Park City Corporation, gave the deed on the golf course to the mayor of Park City at the time, Jack Green, in April of 1980, according to the resolution. The statement calls the purchase "one of the first demonstrations of many to follow of the community’s commitment to the importance of preserving recreational open space."


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