ST. GEORGE — With a new one taking its place, the Dixie Red Hills Golf Course clubhouse that’s overlooked the city’s first golf course for over 50 years is undergoing demolition.

A video posted on the city of St. George’s Facebook page Monday shows a side of the building already gone as an excavator continues the process of tearing down the old clubhouse bit by bit.

The old clubhouse was built in 1967, two years after the golf course opened. The course has been credited with beginning St. George’s reputation as a recreational hotspot.

While the 52-year-old clubhouse has served the Dixie Red Hills Golf Course well over its lifetime, the need to replace it with a modern, code-compliant facility has been in the works for the last decade. The clubhouse wasn’t compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act and needed expanded facilities to in order to better serve golf course patrons.

“Instead of an overhaul, the City Council decided to build a new clubhouse,” said Allen Orchard, the golf professional who oversees management of Dixie Red Hills Golf Course.

Plans to replace the old clubhouse were stalled by the Great Recession but were eventually picked up again by the city. The City Council approved a bid for the construction of the new clubhouse in October. The new facility cost $960,000 by the time construction was completed.

The new clubhouse opened for operation last week, and city officials are planning a ribbon-cutting event for the new facility in the near-future.

“It’s new, it’s updated, it’s modernized and it’s nice,” Orchard said of the new clubhouse.

Like the old clubhouse – which was a pile of rubble as of early Tuesday afternoon – the new clubhouse overlooks much of the golf course’s layout, with a more panoramic view from the outdoor deck.

“It’s quite a view from left to right,” Orchard said.

City of St. George Communication Director David Cordero said the new clubhouse complements the golf course well.

“With how beautiful the Dixie Red Hills Golf Course is, it’s nice to have a clubhouse that’s on par with the rest of the course,” he said.

While a golf pro shop is currently running out of the new clubhouse, other parts of the facility are still being furnished and prepared for future use.

Additional work to be done in the wake of the old clubhouse’s removal will involve repaving and striping part of the parking lot.

The Dixie Red Hills Golf Course is a city-owned, 9-hole par-34 course located at 634 W. 1250 North. The location of the new clubhouse is in the area of the parking lot of the former clubhouse, set just below the Elk’s Lodge.

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