Short Notice, october 19, 2012

Oakhurst Links has found its white knight. He’s Jim Justice, the billionaire farmer and coal mogul who’s been on a golf spending spree since May 2009, when he bought the historic Greenbrier Resort & Spa. Justice’s latest acquisition, one of the nation’s oldest courses (it was built in 1884), was facing foreclosure, and its aging owner was desperate to find a buyer who’d preserve it. In the end, Lewis Keller didn’t have to look very far, because Oakhurst Links is located just a few miles from the Greenbrier, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. “To be perfectly honest,” Justice told a newspaper, “I don’t know that it’s going to be a great thing for the Greenbrier. But I know it’s a great thing to do.” Since his purchase of the Greenbrier and its four 18-hole courses, Justice has also acquired the Resort at Glade Springs in Daniels, West Virginia (it has three 18-hole courses) and Wintergreen Resort near Charlottesville, Virginia (45 holes).

Oil-rich Azerbaijan may not have a golf market to speak of, but it’ll soon have Quba Golf Club, which is set to open in Baku, the nation’s capital city, in two nine-hole waves, in the fall of 2012 and in the spring of 2013. The debut is a watershed moment in the nation’s golf history, for Quba will be its first course. The championship-length track was designed by International Design Group (formerly PGA Design Consulting) of Bristol, England and built by Total Golf Construction of Vero Beach, Florida. Accompanying the course will be practice facilities for beginners and a 200-room hotel for tourists. Bruce Glasco of Troon Golf, Quba’s management company, has called the facility “an intriguing and ground-breaking development for the people of Azerbaijan and its international guests.”

The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2012 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

As the golf season draws to a close across much of the United States, news about the financial performance of the nation’s golf courses is starting to trickle across the World Wide Web. This week, a dispatch arrived from the village of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, which recorded profits at both of its 18-hole golf courses through the first eight months of this year. Buffalo Grove Golf Club rang up $892,000 in revenues against $695,000 in expenses, while Arboretum Club rang up $878,000 in revenues against $809,999 in expenses. Both courses showed slight increases in the number of rounds played from last year, and the Buffalo Grove layout recovered from a money-losing season in 2011. Neither course has yet reported results from September and October, but the village manager has said that he’s “pleased with the improved performance.”

Alan Blalock, a golf course architect from Birmingham, Alabama, died last month. I didn’t know him and had spoken with him just once, many years ago, when he was hoping to design a course

for a Tournament Players Club in the Birmingham area. I bring up this sad news because Blalock’s passing hasn’t been mentioned by any golf media, and that’s a disservice to his memory. So let me say this: It should be remembered that Blalock produced two new courses in Alabama -- Moore’s Mill Golf Club in Auburn and Tartan Pines Golf Club in Enterprise -- both of which he co-designed with former PGA pro Glen Day. It should also be remembered that he designed a First Tee facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and that he collaborated with another former PGA pro, Hubert Green, on a few renovations in Southern states. And finally, it should be remembered that he was just 64 when he died.