Eddie Matney is in his element
Chef fired up about job at Golf Club Scottsdale

Nov. 13, 2006
Peter Corbett, The Arizona Republic

SCOTTSDALE - When it comes to golf, let's just say that chef Eddie Matney's slice in the kitchen is far more precise than it is on the links.

"Total handicap," is how he describes his game.

But the high-profile Valley chef is fired up about his new job at the Golf Club Scottsdale and its new $20 million clubhouse.

"If (director Steven) Spielberg had written this story it couldn't be more perfect," Matney said of the latest chapter of his culinary tome.

Matney, 46, has taken his knives and golf clubs to the north Scottsdale private club, putting a new spin on the competition between country clubs.

In the epicenter of desert golf, where membership fees can top $200,000, great courses are expected and developers keep adding zeroes to the price of building lavish clubhouses:

• Desert Mountain spent $12 million on its Chiricahua Clubhouse in 2003.
• Paradise Valley Country Club upped the ante to nearly $27 million for a new clubhouse two years ago.
• Silverleaf's 50,000-square-foot clubhouse and spa cost $30 million.

Spas are the latest clubhouse amenity, said Ken Allen, a partner with Allen + Philp Architects. His Scottsdale-based firm has designed a dozen clubhouses including the TPC Scottsdale and most recently the Westin Rio Mar Beach Resort in Puerto Rico.

"You'd like to think it's unusual but it's not," Allen said of spending on over-the-top clubhouses.

Golf Club Scottsdale, which opened two years ago with a temporary clubhouse, will include whirlpools, steam baths and massage rooms for women and men in its new 26,000-square-foot clubhouse.

It is an adobe-block building, with distressed wooden beams, designed to look as if it was a centuries-old hacienda in Mexico.

Craftsmen are putting the finishing touches on the building. A soft opening is planned for early January.

Until then, Matney, who started Nov. 1, is working on the menu for the club's restaurant and preparing for a Thanksgiving feast.

Famous for other eateries
Matney's first foray into Scottsdale takes him far from his Phoenix turf. Over the past two decades, he has impressed critics and attracted foodies to a succession of restaurants - Steamers, KousKooz, Eddie's Grill and Eddie Matney's.

His latest endeavor, chef at Stoudemire's in downtown Phoenix, was not well received and he left this summer.

Matney said he is eager to work on the blank canvas that is the Golf Club's restaurant.

"If my hands were tied I couldn't be Eddie," Matney said. "Downtown my hands were tied."

Jim Andrus, the club's general manager, said that building the clubhouse and hiring Matney adds credibility that should accelerate membership sales.

"It created quite a buzz when Eddie was introduced to members" he said.

Memberships: $110,000
The Golf Club has about 90 members and will sell up to 350 memberships at $110,000 each.

Members include former Coyotes hockey great Claude Lemieux, plus big league baseball players Eric Chavez and Jermaine Dye.

It is a great group, Matney said, adding that he will experiment with cooking classes, winemaker dinners, Sunday brunch and other dining features to see what members want.

"You haven't seen me this excited in years, " he said. "You just couldn't ask for a better office setting."