With the help of a deep-pocketed partner, Jack Nicklaus has decided to mount a major marketing assault on China. And in the process, it appears that he’s going to become the genial front man for some of China’s corporate interests in the United States.
Nicklaus and his colleagues at his Florida-based architectural firm have been working in the People’s Republic since the early 1990s, when they opened an 18-hole track at Chung Shan Hot Spring Golf Club in Guangdong Province. Over the years, according to information posted at Nicklaus.com, they’ve added 14 more courses at 12 golf properties, and they’re said to have nearly two dozen additional courses either under development or in planning.
But golf design is, ultimately, small potatoes, and Nicklaus knows it. That’s why he’s created Nicklaus-China, an entity that aims, in the words of a press release, to “explore business opportunities outside design and development that involve Jack Nicklaus and the Nicklaus brands.”
Nicklaus’ partner in this venture is Guang Yang, the co-owner (with an affiliate of Hainan Airlines) of Pasadera Country Club in Monterey, California. Yang, the CEO of Beijing-based Finergy Capital, is presumably funding the venture.
The press release offers little in the way of details, but it suggests that Nicklaus-China will engage in activities on both sides of the Pacific.
In China, the venture will focus on developing top-of-the-market golf communities, perhaps starting with ventures in Beijing and Shenzhen. (It hardly matters, of course, that similar high-priced spreads contributed to the collapse of the golf business in the United States.)
“Although golf is relatively new to China compared to other markets, they want it to be positioned as the very best,” Nicklaus commented in the press release. “That is where we can help. With over four decades working on golf courses in a variety of markets around the world, we can deliver the expertise to develop golf and real estate at the highest level, for enjoyment of the game, commitment to community, and responsibility to the environment.”
What really intrigues me, however, is what the partners plan to do here in the United States. Because as I see it, Nicklaus-China could potentially have a dramatic effect on all kinds of businesses on our side of the Pacific.
Pasadera, the press release notes, “represents the first Nicklaus-China collaboration and the opportunities the new partnership will explore in the United States.” The announcement doesn’t spell out the exact nature of the “opportunities” that will be explored, but acquisitions and development will certainly be among them.
It’s no secret that various Chinese multinationals have been looking to buy U.S. companies -- just weeks ago, Dalian Wanda Group agreed to purchase AMC Entertainment and its 346 multiplex movie theaters for $2.6 billion -- but I never imagined that the purchases might come, at least in part, via a tony golf club in Northern California.
My guess is that there’s a lot of bored Chinese money floating around at Pasadera. I say this because Yang isn’t the only wealthy Chinese businessman who tees off at the club’s Nicklaus “signature” golf course.
Niu Gengsheng is one of the club’s founding members. You’ve probably never heard of him -- I hadn’t -- but Gengsheng made his money in China’s dairy business, as the chairman of one of the nation’s biggest and best-known dairy companies. Mengnui Dairy Group is, in fact, big enough to have its own Wikipedia entry, and I encourage you to read it. If you do, you’ll learn that in 2008 Mengnui was implicated in the milk scandal that made headlines all over the planet.
Could Gengsheng also be exploring “opportunities” in the United States?
“In our opinion, Pasadera Country Club has an enormous amount of untapped potential,” Yang said in the press release. “The idea of the new Nicklaus-China venture started right here at Pasadera, and it shows the potential of Pasadera being a bridge between the U.S. and China, and how golf can serve as a social platform for business communities on either side of the world.”
Yes, golf can be an amazing facilitator. And so can its biggest stars.
talking points Greg Norman: Profits & Losses
In the space of barely a week, Greg Norman not only admitted that his workforce is 18 percent lighter than it used to be but managed to persuade an impressionable reporter that he has “a flourishing golf course design business.” He also visited six Asian cities in five days, strengthened his relationship with Fox News, and, to nobody’s surprise, talked up a storm.
Here are three of his more notable recent comments:
-- Norman spent some time in suburban Nashville, to promote his forthcoming golf course at the Grove, a community that had been abandoned but is now being revived by a new development group. While there, he told a reporter from the Tennessean what golf design means to him. “Your signature is going to be there for a century or centuries,” he explained. “It’s a testament to people’s beliefs in your skills. It’s a testament to the beliefs in you, that you can actually bring credibility to the development. It’s also a belief that my business model works.”
-- In his conversation with the Tennessean, Norman also reflected about Great White Shark Enterprises, his ever-growing holding company, and he predicted that its roster of products and services will long outlive him. “When I look at my brand, I think I’m only 10 percent of where I want to be,” he said. “The better you become at business and the more global you become, there are more opportunities out there. It’s an exciting time for me. I can build a business that goes on in perpetuity. When I’m pushing up daisies, hopefully my company and the logo will be running business as usual.”
-- Breaking one of the unwritten rules of golf, Norman joined the right-wing propagandists at “Fox & Friends” to take cheap shots at our nation’s economic policies and -- hint, hint -- President Obama. “We’re in a holding pattern, to tell you the truth,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve advanced. I think we may have gone backwards a little bit.” Norman also suggested that corporate tax breaks would solve our ills, wondered where we’d be “post-November of this year,” and shilled gamely for his new collection of sunglasses. And sadly, he was so enamored of his performance that that he posted the video on his website.
Without question, Norman has few peers when it comes to milking golf for all it’s worth. But that doesn’t mean you should put your money where his mouth is. After all, he thought Luke Donald would win the U.S. Open.
united states Oops! I’m Doing It Again
My recent post about our industry’s need to attract younger golfers -- yeah, the one with the picture of Britney Spears -- led me, in a roundabout way, to a story that included these salient facts: 54 percent of the golfers in the United States are 40 and older, and 54 percent of the rounds played in our nation are played by people who are 50 and older.
This isn’t a model for sustainable growth, folks. Before our business calcifies completely, we absolutely must bring in fresh blood.
Maybe you missed it, but various sources recently reported that the United States Golf Association is sitting on $250 million in cash and securities. So the next time you hear officials from the USGA brag about how much they do to “grow the game,” remember this: They’re capable of doing a lot more.
wild card click Sometimes, war is swell.
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