Event scene: At the Vistal Golf Course Driving Range

“How beautiful it is!  …where only people who are not like us can go” – Charles Baudelaire. Paris, 1869 .

Once known as The Thunderbird Country Club, Vistal Golf Club is located approximately 1.5 miles south of Baseline Road on 7th Street in South Phoenix. 

As my ‘freeze frame’ moment began, a bitterly cold wind was blowing across the driving range from the west.  The wind carried on it a fine, mist-like rain along with the ironic lyrics of Warren Zevon’s “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me”.  Like it or not, golfers warming up for their rounds at the Vistal are treated to piped in “classic rock” while they tune up their shots.  Today’s dreary weather has not kept the golfers away.  Nor has the hefty $138 a round price tag to use this championship 18-hole course.  Though the demography of the surrounding neighborhood population consists of 67.2% minorities (Burns/Gober 16), the crowd hitting balls at the range stands in sharp contrast.  Every patron and employee of the course I encounter while working on this exercise is white.  Behind me as I write lies the parking lot, packed with BMWs, Lexuses and an assortment of gargantuan, gas-guzzling SUVs.

            Earlier this morning (February 27, 2004) Susan Sargeant of the City of Phoenix Planning Department had explained that “Golf courses are a catalyst for new amenities, shops and restaurants”.   However, the area surrounding the Vistal Golf Club (Est. 2001) has no amenities to speak except for South Mountain Park (Est. 1929).  The shops and restaurants that do exist are within 500 yards to my right, all within the golf course’s property.  Golfers can take care of all their needs here without ever setting foot in the diverse South Phoenix neighborhoods beyond the fence.  Thus far at least, these establishments appear to do nothing of value for the community.  They serve only to enrich the owners of the course and to further isolate the rich from the poor.

            In 1869, Charles Baudelaire’s The Eyes of the Poor was published. The essay explores the identity gap between the rich and poor of 19^th century Paris.  In the piece, a poor, hungry family elicits a wide range of thoughts and emotions as they watch through a plate glass window a wealthy couple dining on inaccessibly expensive meals in opulent surroundings.  The scenario at the Vistal closely echoes Baudelaire’s in his essay.  Only here at the Vistal, a high fence encircling the course, rather than a plate glass window is the barrier separating the poor from the unreachable luxuries within.

Looking ahead, I see the undulating driving range, spread out before the golfers and their electric carts.  With practiced accuracy they send their shots flying up into the wind toward the targets beyond.  The flags, planted in Bermuda grass, flap in the breeze at pre-measured distances from the tees.   Beyond the range a spectacular view of the entire metropolitan area is offered, spread out from left to right: West Phoenix to Downtown Phoenix to Camelback Mountain to Scottsdale.  Pretty much par for the course, all views of the poor South Phoenix neighborhood directly north of the range have been obscured by a strategically placed, grass-covered ridge.

See a short movie about the Vistal Golf Course.

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email: James.Czarnik@asu.edu