In its first few years of existence, the Starr Pass golf club was part of the PGA Tour’s elite TPC franchises, which included TPC Sawgrass, one of the top four or five golf courses on the PGA Tour.

Phil Mickelson made history in 1989 at Starr Pass, winning his first PGA Tour event — as an amateur — at the west-side course. A year later, Tucson’s Robert Gamez, an Arizona grad and PGA Tour rookie, followed by making headlines as he won the 1990 PGA Tour event at Starr Pass. After the PGA Tour left Starr Pass in the mid-1990s, news ebbed. It wasn’t until the great Arnold Palmer came to Tucson to design the third nine at Starr Pass in 2005 that it again merited headlines.

Golf great Arnold Palmer tees off at the Star Pass driving range during a clinic Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2005, in Tucson.

Rich Facun, Arizona Daily Star

Now the PGA Tour is returning to Starr Pass. The PGA Tour’s Qualifying School will be staged at the Tucson mountains course Dec. 2-5, one of four sites chosen to host the penultimate round of Q-School. Among those who have qualified is Catalina Foothills’ 2016 state champion Gavin Cohen, who shot a 10-under par in the first stage of Q-School earlier this month at Southern Dunes near Phoenix.

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The greater Tucson area was once a hot property for high-scale golf course development. Lee Trevino helped design Torres Blancas and Crooked Tree, Jack Nicklaus designed La Paloma and Dove Mountain GC, Tom Lehman helped design Gallery North, Tom Weiskopf designed the now-deserted Golf Club at Vistoso. Mickelson owned Stone Canyon CC.

Those are the good old days of Tucson golf, but it’s nice to see Starr Pass back on the calendar.

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