tom butler

Sometimes you can get Phoenix City Hall to move on a request for a park improvement – especially if you’re ready to to pay for the equipment and labor needed to make it a reality.

Just ask Tom Butler of Ahwatukee.

He started a campaign in March 2021 to add a nine-hole disc golf course to Sun Ray Park and in less than a year, saw his work come to fruition – all because he won support from private citizens. All the city had to do, he said, “was give its permission.”

Now, Sun Ray Park at 4059 E. Ray Road hosts a large and enthusiastic community of disc golf players in what Butler calls “a very unique park” with its mature trees and “sweet elevation changes.”

Following Butler’s initial outreach to the city Parks and Recreation Department, city staffers last summer began surveying neighbors for the input needed to get the plan before the city parks board.

While that outreach was going on and the principal landscape architect for the department began studying the feasibility of his plan, Butler last June started reaching out to people via gofundme.com to raise the money for the equipment needed to make his dream a reality.

He turned to social media to drum up both financial and moral support for his campaign, setting an initial goal of $4,775 on gofundme.com to pay for the baskets, sleeves, locks, hardware, tee sign posts and tee signs and the permanent baskets were installed in mid-December.

In January, he raised the goal to $8,725 to cover the cost of concrete pads on all nine holes and three permanent baskets on three holes.

With the help of 58 donors and a Superbowl Sunday fundraiser, he garnered a total $8,507.

Butler exuded enthusiasm every step of the way for what he called “this beautiful asset to our community.”

“Someone in our disc golf community came forward with a crazy connection at his workplace to fabricate all nine tee signs needed for the course for just a little over $400,” he announced at one point.

That included a spare sign for each hole “as we know vandalism and wear will be an issue at some point,” he noted.

Pressure-treated 4’x4’ posts, cement and some installation materials cost him just under $300.

Butler doesn’t take all the credit, and said Councilman Sal DiCiccio’s office – and particularly his former Chief of Staff Sam Stone – were essntial to the success of his mission.

After the equipment was installed in mid-December, Butler wrote Stone, “The journey has been an adventure for the last 10 months but patience and perseverance finally paid off. None of this would have been possible without the quick response and full support of your office.”

Last week he told AFN, “The effort was successful only through the combined efforts and cooperation of the community, Sal’s District 6 Office and City of Phoenix officials.”

Butler was a student at Arizona State University when he witnessed the beginning of disc golf in the Valley.

Courses were constructed at Tempe Beach Park and Vista Del Camino in Scottsdale in the 1980s as the game began getting traction alongside the popularity of ultimate frisbee.

In disc golf, players throw a frisbee at a basket.

Over time, the game has steadily gained traction in the U.S., which is home to more than 7,000 courses – including roughly 75 in Arizona.

It is one of the fastest growing games in the country, according to AARP, which estimates 50 million rounds of disc golf so have been played globally in 2021.

An Ahwatukee resident since 1987, Butler told AFN last year in an interview that his enthusiasm for installing a course at Sun Ray Park were motivated by two things.

“One is my love for this game – it’s just so much fun,” he said. “Secondly, I am so excited to potentially be able to ride my bike two miles to a disc golf course and play whenever I want.”

Butler’s campaign started after he learned that Udisc – advertised as “The App for Disc Golfers” – showed that the closest course to Butler was 17 miles away at Vista Del Camino Park.

“I have people in my immediate friend group, I have people that I’m meeting weekly who are very excited about the potential of the course because they’re familiar with the game,” he said, “but they know that there’s nowhere within 20 miles of our community here where they can play.”

Moreover, the game appeals to people of all ages, so that made his idea even more appealing to the community.

After his initial contact from Butler, DiCiccio’s office said it wanted to support any person that comes in with an idea to add a disc golf course or similar outdoor activity venue.

Butler said a disc golf course at Sun Ray Park makes sense because there’s “room there to add something like this and not take away from existing uses of the park.”

He noted that discs are available for less than $10 online, at local disc golf shops or at any sporting goods store.

And he said last week the community’s reaction to the disc golf course has been overwhelming.

“We are logging thousands of games played at Sun Ray Park every month by way of a free app people use to keep score as they play,” he said. A local Montessori school is even using the course this semester for a PE unit on disc golf with their elementary students.

“A huge win for the community!”