The Week That Was, july 15, 2012

estonia A Repeat Performance?

Lassi Pekka Tilander has designed his second golf course in Estonia, the location of what is arguably his greatest professional success.

In 2006, the Espoo, Finland-based architect produced Estonia’s top-ranked golf property, the 27-hole complex at Estonian Golf & Country Club in suburban Tallinn. Golf World ranks the club’s 18-hole Sea course among Europe’s top 100.

An investment group called Golfer OÜ evidently believes that Tilander can work similar magic in Pärnu, a beach town along Estonia’s western coast. Tilander believes the property he’s been given is capable of producing Estonia’s “first true links-style golf course.”

David Nelson of Greenmakers, the Scottish firm that’s building the track, has described the site as “a great foundation to create one of the greatest golf courses ever built in Northern Europe.”

The to-be-named course will be accompanied by houses and, potentially, a hotel and a spa. It’s expected to open in 2014.

Some information in this post originally appeared in the April 2012 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

russia Putting the Cart Before the Horse

If a story in the Moscow News is to be believed, Russia’s golf industry remains bound almost completely to real estate development, a formula that looks great on paper but leaves something to be desired in real life.

This is why golf development in Russia proceeds at a turtle’s pace. Some problems can’t be solved with money alone, no matter how deep a developer’s pockets may be. A country needs golfers before it needs golf courses.

But don’t tell that to the aspirational Russian billionaires who are itching to live in oversized, overpriced estates along lush fairways. Let them learn the score 10 or 20 years from now, when they find themselves in possession of a 175-acre value-enhancer that’s slowly bleeding them dry.

The News’ story offers a glimpse into the Russian lifestyle and the current mind-set of opinion-makers in the golf business. These are its concluding paragraphs:

More and more new golf venues are springing up in Moscow and near to Moscow. Forest Hill is about to open in the north of the city, a course in the Skolkovo innovation hub is under construction, and two golf courses at the prestigious Rublevka village and one in the south of the Moscow region are also being developed.

There is a problem, however: New golf clubs open in Russia much faster than the public can keep up with. The number of golf players and fans is rising, but at a slower pace.

“Golf remains the game for the rich in Russia. There are very few simple and affordable courses with an affordable design and infrastructure, so the number of players here remain low,” said Alexey Mogila, director of the department of elite commercial real estate at Penny Lane Realty.

There is hope, nevertheless, that foreigners may help fill the void.

“In a few years, there will be approximately twice as many golf courses in the Moscow region as there are right now, which will make it a successful tourist destination for players from abroad,” Mogila said.

united states Boomers to Bust

Remember the good old days, when we all believed that waves of retiring baby boomers would sustain the golf business for decades to come?

Well, the baby boomers haven’t kept their part of the bargain. They don’t much care for golf and can’t abide the idea of living in a place that revolves around it. As a result, many of the nation’s retirement communities can’t maintain their increasingly expensive, rapidly deteriorating golf courses.

That’s what’s happening in Sun City Summerlin, a seniors-only spread outside Las Vegas, Nevada. To save money, the community’s property owners are thinking about closing one of their three 18-hole golf courses.

We’ve all heard a version of this story before. Sun City Summerlin’s golf operation spends $4 million annually on courses that are currently being sustained by fewer than 1,000 of the community’s 12,000 residents, perhaps by only 700.

“The demographics of Sun City were great in 1988, when everybody was between 55 and 65 years old,” a resident said in comments published by the Las Vegas Review Journal. “Those days are gone forever. Now we have a lot of people that are over 80, and they’re not going to play much golf.”

The president of the community’s homeowners’ association put things in broader perspective for the community’s residents.

“When you all moved here,” she explained, “you thought the golf courses would pay for themselves, Social Security would be self-sustaining, the car industry was strong, the banks were stronger, and your house was a good investment. Well, things change, and nothing lasts forever.”

My question: Does the trouble at Sun City Summerlin tell us more about where the golf business has been or where it’s going?

talking points The Games We Play

What’s the key to attracting more golfers and “growing the game”? Is it making golf courses easier and more fun to play?

Jim Hardy, a Texas-based course designer, recently addressed the topic for the Associated Press. Here’s what he had to say:

One of the reasons we’ve lost golfers is because we’ve lost recreational golfers.

We haven’t lost the golfer who wants to be highly challenged. He’s still playing golf. But all we’ve done is build golf courses for him.

And all the recreational golfers are saying, “It costs too much to do this anymore and it takes too much time. I’m going to find another outlet for my recreation -- for my recreational dollars, for my recreational time. I’m going to find another outlet.”

If golf continues going the way it is, we’re going to continue to lose more and more and more of those part-time, recreational golfers and we’re going to lose golf courses, and the game is in trouble.

wild card click As if so often said, you only get one chance to make a first impression.