For nearly a month, Mountain America Stadium, home of the Big 12 champion Arizona State football team, has hosted Sparky’s Fairway, a unique Top Golf-inspired event that wraps up Sunday.
Hosted by ASU 365 Community Union, it welcomes golfers of all skill levels to the elevated driving range inside the football stadium. For $100 an hour, up to six people can enjoy a relaxed golf experience, where participants can aim at ASU-themed targets at different distances and locations on the field. Starting on Feb. 22, organizers extended the event after its first-year success.
“We want everyone to come – families, friends, coworkers,” said Talia Williams, marketing coordinator for Arizona 365 Community Union. “If you are passionate about golf, please come.”
The Arizona 365 Community Union is responsible for hosting events at Mountain America Stadium during the football offseason, some of which are free to the public. To wrap up another successful year, it will incorporate its “Movies on the Field” series into Sparky’s Fairway. On Saturday at 10:30 a.m, the organization will show “Happy Gilmore,” giving attendees a unique opportunity to have brunch on the field, play games and win prizes.
Events such as Sparky’s Fairway help fund the ASU 365 Community Union so it can continue to host free events for the community. Despite fundraising not being the initial goal of Sparky’s Fairway, it has proven beneficial in this category.
“All of the money raised goes to help put on all the different events,” said Henry Terrazas, director of ASU 365 Community Union. “It’s evolved into a fundraising piece that we didn’t take into account when we were first doing Sparky’s Fairway.”
Sparky’s Fairway introduced the Chipping Challenge this year, a fundraising contest where participants can win raffle prizes or even box tickets to the Territorial Cup between ASU and Arizona with a hole-in-one.
“You can buy-in to participate, and the funding from the Chipping Challenge goes to support both ASU Grads to Golf and ASU 365 Community Union programming,” said Kimberly Carson, marketing manager for ASU 365 Community Union.
Grads to Golf, an initiative by ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law, equips law students, especially women, with golf skills crucial for networking in professional settings. The program not only teaches students how to hit balls but also helps them learn important golf etiquette skills.
Students learn where players can walk on the green when others are putting or how to properly drop the ball after hitting a shot out of bounds.
“The program is open to everybody,” said Samantha Williams, senior associate director of development at Sandra Day O’Connor. “But we primarily like to encourage our female students to participate just to provide them with the skills that they need to be able to get on the course, and take advantage of all the amazing networking and business opportunities that happen on the golf course.”
Building on its successful inaugural event, Sparky’s Fairway has witnessed an increase in popularity. ASU 365 Community will ride that momentum into the final weekend, before planning for the next event.
“We have seen great numbers in year two with a large amount of time slots selling completely out,” said Jonathan Ainlay, associate director of ASU 365 Community Union. “People are loving the unique Sun Devil pride that goes along with this event and has led to people attending multiple times during the run.”
