The Year That Was, december 30, 2012

Stories of the Year  

Good as Gold. Fending off competition from a parade of household names, Gil Hanse won the year’s most coveted design commission: the $300,000 contract to design the golf course for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. His selection wasn’t merely a blow to the egos of the high-priced celebrity and “signature” architects who were left empty-handed -- the group included Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., and Greg Norman -- but arguably a watershed moment in the history of golf design, for it signaled the official changing of the guard. The Olympics’ message was clear: The future of golf design has been turned over to a new generation.

The Great Scot. Even if it’s not “the world’s greatest golf course,” as it was so often promised to be, by all accounts Donald Trump’s long-awaited layout on Scotland’s fabulously wrinkled northeastern coast is destination worthy. Trump may be a blowhard and a publicity hound, but let’s call his success in Scotland what it is: A personal and professional triumph that cements his golf bona fides. Kisses should also be blown to architect Martin Hawtree, who stood up to Trump’s world-class pressure and produced a track worthy of hosting golf’s grandest professional tournaments. My question: Will Trump be awarded a big-time event in Scotland before he gets one in the United States?

What Becomes a Legend Most? Without question, the hottest controversy of 2012 was sparked by proposed “alterations” to the revered Old Course at St. Andrews. The design changes, which have been sanctioned by the Royal & Ancient to protect par at the Open Championship in 2015, elicited loud protests from Tom Doak, Ian Andrew, and other admirers of classic golf architecture, who claimed an injustice was being committed. Unfortunately, the protesters found few supporters among their peers. The R&A stood its ground, groups representing architects on both sides of the Atlantic boldly refused to voice an opinion, and the storm blew over in less than two weeks. In the end, the debate proved to be exactly what golf’s most powerful interests hoped it would be: Much ado about nothing.

Reason To Believe. This year, all the needles and gauges that measure the temperature of the U.S. golf business pointed up. Bloomberg concluded that our industry is “growing for the first time in five years,” the president of Nike’s golf division stated that 2012 “will probably be the strongest year since the recession,” and the National Golf Foundation predicted that we’ll end the year with “the largest single-year jump” in rounds played “since the turn of the century.” No doubt, many dark clouds continue to loom over golf’s horizons. Still, tomorrow night I’m popping a cork.

Ladies' Day. Golf will forever be a man’s world, but as time goes by, binders full of women may very well remember 2012 as the year when Augusta National Golf Club finally admitted female members. Yes, the club’s decision to welcome Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore was long overdue, and no, I don’t expect other men-only clubs to change their policies as a result of it. But barrels of ink were spilled covering this happy occasion, and that’s good for golf. In our business, progress is measured incrementally.

People of the Year

It was a busy and very productive year for Donald Trump. When he wasn’t pretending to run for president, the golf mogul and reality TV star opened his celebrated links in Scotland and gave the proverbial green light to the property’s second Martin Hawtree-designed track. In addition, Trump added (or agreed to add) three U.S. golf properties to his ever-growing portfolio: the world-famous Doral resort in Miami, Florida, the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club & Spa in Jupiter, Florida, and Point Lake & Golf Club in Mooresville, North Carolina. Finally, Trump agreed to operate New York City’s forthcoming Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course at Ferry Point Park in the Bronx. If he didn’t so often succumb to his buffoonish inclinations, Trump’s reputation in the golf business would be golden. That being said, people who don’t take him seriously do so at their own peril. He’s arguably the major player in our business.

If you’ve ever considered taking a golf vacation in Tasmania, the credit should probably go to Greg Ramsay. The island’s busiest, youngest, and most dedicated golf developer conceived and helped to build Barnbougle Dunes and has since then evangelized tirelessly for uncompromising seaside courses that exemplify Golden Age values. This year Ramsay unveiled a plan to build another destination-worthy course, this one along the island’s southern coast, and got involved in a venture to revive Solis, a dormant golf community on the island’s eastern coast. He’s also working with Bicheno Golf Club to add nine holes to its existing nine, and he’s signed on as a consultant to Claremont Golf Club, which will soon undergo a massive redesign. If he keeps up like this, it’s going to be impossible for devotees of links golf to keep Tasmania off their bucket lists.

Gary Player likes to brag that he’s the world’s most traveled athlete -- 15 million air miles and counting -- and these days, at the age of 77, he doesn’t appear to be cutting back on his travels. He has courses under construction in South Carolina, in India, and in Honduras, and he expects to soon break ground on others in India, Italy, Morocco, Montenegro, and Gabon. Such work loads are, of course, typical for “signature” designers, at least in good times. What makes Player unique -- and increasingly relevant to our age -- is his advocacy for environmentally sensible design and his outspoken commitment to responsible development practices. Few other architects have a corporate philosophy that goes like this: “We will not knowingly accept projects that are environmentally irresponsible, damage ecosystems without remediation, illegally displace people from their homes, follow unethical methods to gain project approvals, exercise unfair, unsafe, or discriminatory labor practices, or generally infringe on basic human rights.” If you’ve ever wondered why Player doesn’t win more commissions, maybe now you know why.

The Debuts: Minimalist Maximus

This was a year minimalists have been dreaming about, because three of 2012’s most anticipated new golf venues -- I’m not including Trump’s aforementioned track in Scotland -- were designed by people with dirt on their hands and mud on their boots. In fact, you could call 2012 an all-star year for the Golf Club Atlas all-stars, in particular the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The Texas-based duo produced one of the two 18-hole, links-like layouts at the Streamsong resort in Florida (Tom Doak designed the other) and one called Shanqin Bay on Hainan Island that Darius Oliver of Australian Golf Digest says is “the best golf course in China right now.” Rod Whitman got a major career boost when Cabot Links, along the coast of Nova Scotia, was acclaimed as Canada’s course of the year, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that Coore & Crenshaw have been tapped to design the second course at Cabot Links.

Good Deed of the Year

When Oakhurst Links was desperately searching for a white knight, Jim Justice drew his sword. The billionaire farmer and coal mogul wrote a check that saved the 128-year-old course in West Virginia from almost certain extinction, preserving an important piece golf’s history when others would not. Not to be trite about it, but Justice was done. The purchase was further proof that, sartorially speaking, nothing wears as well as a financial suit of armor.

May They Rest in Peace

The design wing of our business lost five members in 2012. The grand old men of the group were Geoffrey Cornish and K. D. Bagga, both of whom truly “grew the game” and left important legacies. Cornish made an enduring contribution as the co-author (with Ron Whitten) of two invaluable reference books on design, The Golf Course and The Architects of Golf. Bagga, an Indian architect, had dedicated the final 20 or so years of his life to the mostly thankless task of designing and building what he called “affordable, easily sustainable, and more accessible golf courses for the masses.” Our business also lost John Harbottle, one of the best-known architects in the Pacific Northwest, who aimed to create what he once described as “natural-looking golf courses with a links touch”; Alan Blalock, an architect from Alabama who collaborated with Glen Day and Hubert Green; and Robin Nelson, who lived in California but worked mostly in Hawaii and Asia. I encourage you to learn more about all of them and to celebrate their lives.

Memento Mori, december 28, 2012

The final rounds at Patch Golf Club, in Groves, Texas, will be played on December 30. “The constant rise in fuel prices, insurance, insecticides, herbicides, and the cost of maintaining equipment, combined with declining revenues, left us no choice,” said Brad Bailey, the course’s owner and the town’s mayor. The Patch’s nine-hole, 67-year-old course was nothing special -- the Port Arthur News called the club “pretty much a bare-bones operation” -- but it nurtured Chris Stroud, who’s now a PGA pro. “The Patch has a special place in my heart,” Stroud told the newspaper. “When my friends were going to parties, I was at the Patch, often playing by myself.” The News believes the course “is being sold as part of a real estate development.”

The end is near for a U.S. Navy golf course on the island of Guam. Admiral Chester Nimitz Golf Course, which opened in 1952, will close on February 10, 2013. The reasons: It’s in the path of military development and it loses money. “The golf course has been incurring a significant revenue loss over the past three years,” the navy said in a press release, “and is not considered the best use of tax dollars, particularly in today’s challenging fiscal environment.” The 6,785-yard track was said to be “a favorite for all levels of golfers because of its wide fairways and friendly rates.”

In what a local newspaper described as “an emotional auction that disappointed many members,” Lake View Golf Club in Sterling, Illinois was sold last month. “There were a lot of tears shed, mine included,” admitted one of the club’s officials in the wake of the sale. The club, which had been foreclosed upon by its lender, featured an 18-hole golf course that now belongs to Charlie Lawrence, the owner of a local trucking company. Lawrence declined to tell reporters what he plans to do with the property, but a club official said it would be converted into a cattle farm.

A residential developer has agreed to buy Hillcrest Golf & Country Club, in Altoona, Wisconsin, and a closing is expected to take place before the end of the year. “We’re in the process of creating a conceptual plan to develop the entire site,” Jim Rooney told the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. “The possibilities are endless, but we are a real estate company, not a golf course company.” Hillcrest, which features an 18-hole golf course that opened in 1926, had seen its membership shrink to fewer than 100 members this year. It reportedly owed its lender $2.1 million, most of it borrowed to build a new clubhouse a little more than a decade ago.

After experiencing what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel calls “a drastic decline in rounds played in recent years,” Raymond Heights Golf Course has closed. The nine-hole, par-3 track in Caledonia, Wisconsin rang up 15,000 to 20,000 rounds annually from the mid 1990s through the early 2000s, but its owner, Tim Stare, says that in recent years the number has dropped by about half. The course, which used to describe itself as “a beginner- and child-friendly” layout, opened in the early 1960s. “We do not know what the new owner has planned,” Stare wrote in an e-mail to the course’s customers, “but we do not anticipate that he will be operating it as a golf course.”

The Week That Was, december 23, 2012

The European debt crisis, economic deceleration in China, and uncertainty about the impact of the “fiscal cliff” deliberations in the United States will have a negative effect on international golf development and construction in 2013. That’s my unfortunate conclusion about our industry’s prospects for next year, based on an analysis of the planet’s economic situation by the United Nations. “I’m afraid this time around we’re not very optimistic about how things are moving,” said the author of the report, called “World Economic Situation & Prospects 2013.” The report’s worst-case scenario, according to the New York Times, is “a new global recession that mires many countries in a cycle of austerity and unemployment for years.” Let’s hope we can avoid that outcome. On the bright side, the report offers some suggestions about how nations might boost their economies -- in particular, government programs that focus on job growth -- but concludes that austerity-obsessed politicians aren’t likely to accept them.

If the design fee for the Olympics’ course in Rio de Janeiro is $300,000, what should an architect expect to take home for his work on the forthcoming Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, Texas? The answer: Maybe not much. An official from AT&T, one of the venture’s sponsors, has made it known that prospective designers “can cover their time and costs and nothing else,” according to the Dallas Morning News. “No one gets to make a profit out of this,” the official told the newspaper. “This is a not-for-profit in every way.” In other words, the newspaper noted, the project’s promoters believe their course “will be so prestigious that it will attract bids from experienced course designers and project managers who simply want their names associated with it.” My questions: Will developers of other high-profile courses use the same strategy to put the squeeze on design talent? And if they succeed, how will it impact design fees for other course construction?

In a frank, honest Q&A with Buffalo Golfer, Ian Andrew discussed his favorite golf courses (the Old Course at St. Andrews heads his list), his major design influences (“To be frank, I’ll steal a great idea from

anyone”), and his apprenticeship with Doug Carrick (“We grew apart quickly”). But my favorite part of the interview came when Andrew, a Canadian architect, addressed the golf ball, which he believes is “killing the game.” Here’s part of what he said: I would roll back the ball by 15 to 20 percent. It would take the emphasis off power and return the value of shot-making and working the ball. . . . The reduction in length would stop the wholesale carnage that has taken place on many of the greatest layouts in the game, where new tees -- or worse, major renovations -- have been made to some of the game’s greatest holes, ruining them in order to keep up with technology. A shorter ball would [also] make the game cheaper. We would need smaller land envelopes for new courses, less maintained area on our courses, and less expense to operate. . . . The ball is the quickest, easiest, and most impactful way we can turn around the future.

A reporter for the Independent says that the average asking price for houses nestled along the 50 top-ranked golf courses in England is £265,000 ($428,200), compared to a national average of £170,000 ($274,000). The most expensive houses are located at Walton Heath Golf Club in Surrey (average price: $874,200), followed by those at Wentworth Club in Surrey ($738,500) and Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire ($720,700). Comparable houses without golf-course views are likely to cost about $150,000 less, according to a report cited by the newspaper. This is unquestionably a hefty premium for golf real estate, but the newspaper notes that property values at the top 50 courses have increased by 7 percent since 2010 while those in other places have remained flat.

A golf course will be among the attractions at a resort and “world-class trade hub” that will take shape on a 1,500-acre man-made island in the Malaysian state of Malacca (or Melaka). In addition to the golf course, Mestika Heritage Island, as it’s been dubbed, will include houses, a theme park, a trading center, and something called the Cheng Ho Institute of Higher Learning.

Entebbe Golf Club, in Uganda, is about to get a makeover. The 6,684-yard course, which opened in 1901, will get a new irrigation system, ponds to supply water, and a new practice center. The overhaul is being overseen by Golf Data, a South African firm that serves as the African representative for Jack Nicklaus’ design group.

Remember the episode of “Seinfeld” in which George finds one of Kramer’s golf balls in the blowhole of a beached whale? Well, now that “Seinfeld” has been deemed “the funniest sitcom of all time,” a writer for Golf Digest has catalogued some of the show’s funniest golf-inspired moments.

The Pipeline, december 21, 2012

Where’s the next hot spot for golf development? It’s not one of the usual suspects, according to David Dale and Kevin Ramsey of Golfplan. In a recent interview with Asian Golf Business, the Santa Rosa, California-based architects say that India “will continue to grow, but challenges presented by escalating land costs, lack of water, and difficult approvals will moderate growth.” China, they believe, “still has great potential, but so much is in the hands of the government [that] it is hard to say where and when that will go.” And South Korea “has its challenges ahead, with a lot of bad banking debt, and a fair bit of that related to golf clubs.” The future, Dale and Ramsey contend, is partly in Brazil, where developers are hoping to capitalize on golf’s appearance in the 2016 Olympics, but mostly in the world’s second-largest and second most-populous continent. “We see great potential in Africa in the next 20 years,” they say.

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

Next month, fingers crossed, Gil Hanse expects to break ground on his golf course in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In an interview with CNN International, the Malvern, Pennsylvania-based architect suggested that the course would resemble a track in the Australian sand belt, like maybe one of the 18s at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, but would “utilize the vegetation that’s indigenous to Rio” and ultimately “look and feel as if it belongs where it is.” The course will have wide fairways, Hanse explained, “very much like the original design for Augusta National,” but the participants in the Games of the 2016 Olympics will need “to focus on hitting the proper half of the fairway” and “the proper quarter of the green” if they expect to take home a gold medal. Hanse expects to wrap up construction in the spring of 2014.

Also next month, construction is scheduled to begin on the second course at St. Andrews Beach Golf Course, on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne, Australia. The course, which has been designed by Ross Perrett, will complement the property’s Tom Doak-designed course, which has ranked among the nation’s top tracks since it opened in the mid 2000s. “We are confident that we will produce a world-class links course on a superb parcel of land reminiscent of the great links of Scotland and Ireland,” Perrett has said. When it opens, in late 2013 or early 2014, Perrett’s course will be part of a private club limited to 281 members. Why 281? That’s the score shot by Peter Thomson, Perrett’s long-time design partner, when he won the Open Championship in 1955.

Some information in the preceding post originally appeared in the August 2010 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

A 400-acre landfill in southern Dallas, Texas may soon become the home of a pricey golf club. AT&T, Southern Methodist University, and the city of Dallas are teaming up to develop Trinity Forest Golf Club, which will include an 18-hole championship-worthy course and a nine-hole “short” course. Trinity Forest’s initiation fee could be $100,000 or more, but the city’s participation in the venture will ensure that 25 percent of the tee times are reserved for non-members, some of whom might actually be city residents. Tom Doak and the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are among the architects who’ve toured the site and are presumably being considered for the commission.

Since 48 of Iceland’s 67 golf courses are nine-hole layouts, you won’t be surprised to learn that Edwin Roald has designed a nine-hole replacement course for Siglufjordur Golf Club. The club is up near the Arctic Circle, in the small town of Siglufjordur, which used to be the center of the nation’s herring industry. After decades in decay, Siglufjordur is being revived -- new hotel, new marina, new golf course -- and may soon become what Roald calls “an enjoyable place to live in and visit.” Golf construction began several months ago, and the course is expected to open in 2015. When it does, Siglufjordur’s original course will be retired. Incidentally, Roald is probably the golf industry’s premier advocate for nine-hole courses, which he believes can open up “a vast opportunity to utilize properties of sizes and dimensions previously deemed unsuitable.”

Any day now, construction is expected to begin on Jordan’s first 18-hole golf course, a Greg Norman “signature” layout at Aqaba Lagoon Golf Club. The track will be among the many attractions at Ayla Oasis, a 1,060-acre water-oriented community outside Aqaba, the nation’s capital. “The project has the potential to put Jordan on the world’s golf map in the future,” Norman said at a press event during a site visit in early October. Make of this what you will, but the Jordan Times reported that Norman was making “his first visit to Jordan” and that he and the community’s developer spent “over four hours” making “a comprehensive site tour and inspection.” Bruce Glasco of Troon Golf, which has been inked to manage the club, expects the course to open sometime in 2014.

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

The wheels of government may turn very slowly in New Orleans, Louisiana, but progress is being made on the city’s Rees Jones-designed golf course. A public-private partnership has been approved, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that ground may be broken on the 7,500-yard layout in February. The $24.5 million, tournament-style track will take shape in City Park, which had four 18-hole courses before Hurricane Katrina blew through town. Today there’s just one, the North course, which was reopened in 2009.

Jack Nicklaus recently jetted to the Bahamas, to check on the construction of his “signature” golf course at the Baha Mar resort. The track is taking shape on property that once served as the home of Cable Bay Golf Club, which featured a Devereux Emmet-designed course. (It might have been the Bahamas’ first course.) Baha Mar will eventually include hundreds of villas and condos, the biggest casino in the Caribbean, the biggest convention center in the Bahamas, a shopping area, and something like six hotels. The course is scheduled to open roughly a year from now.

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

Via Christmas card, David McLay Kidd reports that his golf course in South Korea is under construction and expected to open in the fall of 2013. The 27-hole complex will be among the attractions at Yeosu Island Golf Resort, in South Jeolla Province, and Kidd says that every one of its holes will offer an ocean view. (Those of you who are fluent in Korean can learn more at the resort’s website.) The resort will be located on an island off the city of Yeosu -- Daegyeong Island, according to another source -- and it’ll be reachable only by ferry.

italy Toscana Oaks Gets National-ized

A Norwegian group has revived its long-simmering golf venture in Tuscany, and it’s enlisted the PGA of Italy to help promote it.

The community once known as Toscana Oaks Golf Club is now being called PGA of Italy National Resort & Spa, but little else about it has changed. The club is still being developed by Tuscany Holding SRL, a group led by Alf Ulven, an Oslo, Norway-based businessman and real estate developer. The club will still be accompanied by up to 385 vacation houses, and its 18-hole, 6,800-yard golf course will still cater primarily to the international travelers that the developers aim to attract.

And of course, PGA of Italy National will still occupy roughly 210 acres in Aulla, a historic village roughly 60 miles southeast of Genoa. People have been living in Aulla since the eighth century (if not before), and Tuscany Holding aims to capitalize on the village’s tourism potential by establishing a boutique hotel and a spa amid its ancient buildings, just steps from the golf course.

When the project was originally unveiled, in the mid 2000s, its golf course was to be designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. Sometime later, the commission was awarded to Hurdzan/Fry Environmental Golf Course Design, a Columbus, Ohio-based group led by Mike Hurdzan. Now the course is being co-designed by two of Hurdzan’s former associates, Dana Fry and Jason Straka, who are working, in the words of a press release, “under the auspices” of Hurdzan’s firm.

Fry and Straka opened their own company, Dublin, Ohio-based Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design, earlier this year. A couple of months ago, Straka told me that he hoped Tuscany Holding could break ground on the golf course by the end of the year but that the notoriously glacial pace of government processing in Italy could bring delays.

“The owners are keen on starting as soon as possible,” he says, “but things take their own time in Italy.”

Straka speaks from experience. While working for Hurdzan, he and Fry were involved in the design and construction of two Italian courses: the second 18 at Royal Park Golf Club in suburban Torino and Acaya Golf Club outside Brindisi.

The development process for PGA of Italy National is being managed by Paul Dellanzo, a former Troon Golf regional manager who now has his own firm in Bioggio, Switzerland.

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

The Week That Was, december 16, 2012

The International Olympic Committee is starting to worry about the pace of facility development in Rio de Janeiro, including the 2016 games’ Gil Hanse-designed golf course. “There is time, but time is ticking, and they need to carry on attacking this one with all vigor,” an IOC spokesman said in what the Associated Press describes as “an unusually blunt public statement about an Olympic organizing committee.” Despite the uncertainty over the ownership of the property where the golf course is to be built, Hanse will be heading south in January. Course construction, as everyone no doubt remembers, was originally supposed to begin in October.

One of the golf industry’s biggest financial supporters has agreed to pay a $1.92 billion fine for participating in schemes that allowed it to launder money for Mexican drug cartels, terrorist organizations, and rogue governments including Iran. I’m talking about HSBC, the “official banking partner” of the Open Championship and the official sponsor of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, the WGC-HSBC Champions in China, and the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore. For the life of me, I can’t understand why the golf industry chooses to do business with a criminally inclined group. Aren’t we better than this?

For me, here’s the biggest highlight from last week’s Asia Pacific Golf Summit: Ron Fream was inducted into the event’s hall of fame, thanks to his “unsurpassed hands-on and creative approach to golf course architecture.” I wouldn’t have used those words to describe Fream’s contributions to our industry, but I nonetheless wholeheartedly endorse his selection. Few architects are more deserving. And to put a little icing on the cake, the summit named Fream’s Club at Nine Bridges on South Korea’s Jeju Island as the best course in the Asia Pacific. Full disclosure: As faithful readers know, Fream is an occasional contributor to this blog.

The PGA of America believes non-professionals will stop having fun, and maybe stop playing golf altogether, if our business imposes limits on the distance golf balls are allowed to fly. “If you do anything that’s going to cause the rank-and-file, amateur player to not hit the ball as far, there’s no way you’re going to enhance their enjoyment of the game,” the group’s president told Reuters. My question: When does the price of a round of golf -- a price that depends in large part on the cost of building and maintaining ever-longer, ever more-expensive courses -- begin to affect a player’s enjoyment?

A judge in California has dismissed a lawsuit that threatened the future of Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica. Various environmental and conservation groups have for years been trying to close the course, arguing that its existence endangers certain vulnerable species of frogs and snakes. “It’s a tremendous victory,” said a spokesman for one of the groups that have been fighting to keep the course open. Fans of “classic” golf architecture believe the decision will revive long-delayed plans to restore the 80-year-old, Alister MacKenzie-designed layout.

Reignwood Group, a Chinese golf developer, appears set to buy one of Ireland’s premier golf resorts, Fota Island in County Cork. The 780-acre spread includes a trio of 18-hole courses, one of which (the Deerpark track) hosted the Irish Open in 2001 and 2002. Reignwood is led by Chanchai Ruayrungruang (he’s part Thai, if you hadn’t noticed), who made his money by selling Red Bull to under-energized Chinese. Reignwood owns Pine Valley Golf Club in suburban Beijing, a facility that features a pair of 18-hole Jack Nicklaus “signature” layouts and is expected to become the Chinese branch of the ultra-exclusive, limited-edition network of Jack Nicklaus Golf Clubs. If he can close on the purchase of Fota Island, Ruayrungruang aims to snag the Open again, according to the Irish Examiner.

Earlier this year, Phil Mickelson petitioned the city of San Diego, in California, to let him oversee a renovation of the North course at the Torrey Pines complex in La Jolla. Last week, the city gave him the gig. “It has been a dream of mine to turn that golf course into what I know it can be,” Mickelson told the San Diego Union-Tribune. The city expects to spend $7 million on the overhaul, which will likely begin in 2015. Mickelson has agreed to waive his design fee, but his architectural support team -- it includes Mike Angus of Gaylord Sports Management and Rick Smith, the well-known golf instructor -- will be paid.

KemperSports has been tapped to manage Vista Mar Golf & Beach Resort in San Carlos, Panama, a 700-acre property featuring a J. Michael Poellot-designed golf course that offers ocean views from each of its 18 holes. The Northbrook, Illinois-based firm -- “the most trusted name in golf course management,” it says of itself -- will also help the resort’s owners build a clubhouse, a spa, and other attractions.

Donald Trump, who last week called for a boycott of Glenfiddich scotch, is getting a taste of his own medicine. An editor of Golf Monthly, a British magazine, has called for a boycott of Trump International Golf Links Scotland.

Josh Sens of Golf magazine has written a first-person account of his recent visit to North Korea, where he played in the second annual Democratic People's Republic of Korea Amateur Golf Open. If you wish to participate in next year’s event, start getting yourself mentally prepared to endure constant police-state surveillance and relentless government propaganda. Try to ignore the disgraceful poverty that will surround you, and don’t do anything that will land you in one of the nation’s concentration camps.

Okay, so a round of golf at Pyongyang Golf Course in North Korea isn’t on your bucket list. Maybe you’d rather visit one of the 10 “most elite” Asian golf destinations, as recommended by a Forbes-affiliated website. My take: If you like to play celebrity-designed tracks in the places most favored by the crème de la crème of international business, you’ll love this list.

The Critical List, december 14, 2012

The owners of Sagebrush Golf & Sporting Club say they’re in for the long haul, but it’s easy to see why skeptics might have doubts. “A busy day for us is 10 foursomes on the course,” the club’s general manager recently told the Vancouver Sun, “and we consider ourselves 100 percent full with 60 people.” Such an accounting may not offer much comfort to people who wear green eye shades, but Sagebrush is adding overnight accommodations and moving ahead with a planned clubhouse. What’s more, the highly acclaimed, four-year-old minimalist track in British Columbia, Canada believes it can survive with just 125 members. The trouble is, that’s double the number it has now.

The partially completed Three Sisters Creek Golf Course, in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada, remains in receivership and isn’t expected to open anytime soon, if at all. The Canmore Leader, describing the course’s future as “a question mark,” reports that the track wasn’t mowed this summer and is “starting to grow over.” Gary Browning, one of the course’s co-designers, told the newspaper, “If it goes into next year in this kind of condition, I would say we’re running out of hope.”

The Sunset Empire Park & Recreation District Board is thinking about buying Seaside Golf Course, a nine-hole track in historic Seaside, Oregon. Wayne Fulmer, who’s operated the course for decades, believes his layout is worth $2 million. If the sale goes through, the park district will likely add a driving range and a few recreational amenities -- hiking and biking trails, an archery range, maybe even a disc golf course -- to the 102-acre property. These attractions will likely require alterations to the golf course, which was designed by Chandler Egan and opened in 1920.

More than 80 years after it opened, a private golf club in Kentucky will be sold at an auction scheduled for tomorrow, December 15. Russellville Country Club, which features a nine-hole course that opened in 1928, saw its membership slip into the 60s this year, after a dues increase sent 27 members packing. “This is awful bad,” the club’s president told the Russellville News Democrat Leader.

Nine-hole layouts aren’t just under financial pressure in the United States. In suburban Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Northumberland County Council has determined that it can no longer cover financial losses at Tynedale Golf Club. “Our budget is too constrained,” a county official told the Journal. Tynedale’s members have agreed to pick up the tab for some maintenance, and they’ve expressed confidence about the club’s future. “Hell will freeze over before this golf club closes,” the club’s secretary insisted.

When it comes to identifying the U.S. munis on the critical list, I can only scratch the surface. So here’s a brief rundown of what’s happening out there right now: The city of Sumner, Washington may sell its 18-hole golf course, which is burdened by nearly $6 million worth of debt. The long-time operators of Lawton, Oklahoma’s municipal golf course have backed out of their lease, and the local airport authority thinks this may be a good time to close the facility. The city of Memphis, Tennessee is planning to close at least one of its courses and to cut out winter play at four others. Elected officials in Tucson, Arizona have voted to close one of the city’s five golf properties and may shrink another. The city of Springfield, Ohio may lose one of its three municipal courses, unless it can figure out how to generate more than $200,000 in additional revenue. The interim city manager in Glendale, Arizona wants to sell the city’s nine-hole, executive-length course unless the track’s operator resumes making lease payments. And finally, the mayor of Elkhart, Indiana has threatened to close the city’s 18-hole course if a buyer isn’t soon found.

Golf’s Regrettable Fashion Statement

How much trouble can a pair of pants create for golf?

As you’ve undoubtedly heard, last month Michael Jordan was thrown out of a U.S. golf club and told to never come back. His offense: He dared to play golf in pants with pockets on the outside instead of the inside. Cargo pants, they’re called. Wearing them is against the rules at many private clubs, including the one that decided to make an example of a world-famous sports figure.

No doubt, the club believed it was making an important statement. As news of Jordan’s dress-code violation spread far and wide, however, what message was ultimately delivered?

For sure, people heard that golf has some silly rules. Unfortunately, they also heard that golf isn’t always welcoming to people who are even marginally different, and that its culture favors those who look the same, act the same, think the same, and yes, dress the same. Perhaps some were reminded that a few clubs, both in the United States and elsewhere on the planet, still won’t open their doors to women. Some may have heard darker echoes and wondered if Jordan would have been treated differently if he were white.

All of these unfortunate messages discourage would-be golfers, especially the young ones our business so desperately needs.

Without question, rules are important. But so are public relations. And self-inflicted wounds are always the worst.

gabon Another First for Gary Player

Gary Player’s many travels have taken him to some pretty out-of-the-way places, and he’s about to try on another one for size.

Player has inked a deal to design an 18-hole “signature” golf course in the small African nation of Gabon, with construction likely to begin next year. The venue will be capable of hosting professional tournaments, and it’ll be built in Libreville, the nation’s coastal capital.

“We like going to unique places,” says Scott Ferrell, the president of Player’s South Carolina-based firm, “and they don’t get any more unique than this.”

The course’s working name is Cite de la Democratie, which is also the name of a compound on the outskirts of Libreville where Gabon’s government stages conferences and special events.

The course has been commissioned by the government, as part of a plan to diversify the nation’s economy. Gabon’s well-being has for years been almost exclusively dependent on the oil industry. Before its oil reserves are exhausted -- at the current rate of consumption, it’ll happen in 2025 -- the nation needs to find other sources of income. As part of this initiative, President Ali-Ben Bongo has committed to developing tourism.

Needless to say, the course will be Player’s first in Gabon. It won’t, however, be the nation’s first, as there are 18-hole layouts in the coastal cities of Libreville, Port-Gentil, and Gamba as well as in Franceville and Lemboumbi-Leyou.

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

The Week That Was, december 9, 2012

This week, the favorite topic of conversation in the world of golf architecture again involved the Old Course at St. Andrews and the pending design changes being fashioned by the Royal & Ancient. Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the R&A, told Golfweek that most of the comments he’s heard regarding the forthcoming changes are “ill-informed” and expressed a wish for “some balance and perspective.” Ian Andrew, a Canadian designer, offered some of his own perspective. In an open letter, he called any recontouring of the land at the Old Course “a breach of the public trust” and urged the American Society of Golf Course Architects to take a stand. Given his feelings for the Old Course, Andrew must have been disheartened when the ASGCA politely refused to voice an opinion and declined to make a formal statement. However, it encouraged its 180 members share their personal opinions! The ASGCA’s European counterpart likewise delivered a strong, firm “no opinion,” couched in the form of a poll whose results are meaningless. Add all this up and what do you get? One message, as delivered by Golf magazine’s Joe Passov: The alterations at the Old Course “aren’t worth fighting about.” Such is the way that controversies are diffused, with a whimper instead of a bang.

A Chicago, Illinois-based lender is boldly going where few other lenders are willing to go: It wants to buy loans on U.S. golf courses. “Without going into extremely specific detail of what we intend to do with the purchased golf course loans,” says Jake Clopton of Clopton Capital, “I would like to announce to the commercial lending world that we have a strategic desire to obtain these loans as soon as possible.” In a press release, Clopton described golf courses as “an excellent investment” but noted that his firm doesn’t expect to make golf lending its primary business.

Despite all the ink that’s been spilled discussing golf’s appearance at the 2016 Summer Olympics, not everyone is gung-ho on golf being part

of the games. “I still think of Olympics as track and field and not golf, to be honest with you,” Tom Watson said during a break at the Australian Open. “I don’t want to pour cold water on it, but I don't think it should be in the Olympic Games.” While we’re on the subject, is it time to start taking bets on when construction will begin in Rio de Janeiro? Gil Hanse was originally scheduled to get started in October.

Jack Nicklaus is teaming up with SNAG Golf on a grow-the-game initiative. The idea is to put SNAG’s easy-to-use golf equipment into the hands of kids as young as five and then, as they get older, to move them into competitive golf leagues, sort of like golf’s version of Little League baseball. “There are few people in the game more traditional than I am, but I recognized long ago that our game needs change,” Nicklaus told the Wall Street Journal. “We have been a sport that, historically, has been slow to change and adapt.” The program kicks off next year, and it’ll be funded in part by a foundation that Nicklaus has established.

In a demonstration of world-class pettiness, Donald Trump has called for an international boycott of Glenfiddich scotch and all other whiskies produced by William Grant & Sons. The reason: Glenfiddich has given its annual “top Scot” award to a landowner who refused to allow his property to become part of Trump International Golf Links Scotland. Never mind that the award was made via a public vote. Trump thinks that Michael Forbes, this year’s “top Scot,” is a “loser” who “lives in a pigsty” and alleges that Grant’s is a “bad liquor company” that’s acting out of spite because “we created our own single malt whisky using another distillery.” Trump contends that “there is no way a result such as this could have been made by the Scottish people.” Wanna bet?

The Southern Pines Pilot runs down all that’s happening at the Pinehurst resort in North Carolina, including the future of the much-discussed Course #9. The bottom line is that work on the track won’t begin until after 2014, when both the men’s and women’s U.S. Open championships are played on Course #2, and perhaps not until much later. “With the economy still a little slow,” the resort’s president said, “we don’t think that opening a new course now would increase our play at the resort. It appears golfers would just be playing there instead of at one of the other courses.”

Mike Ross, the developer of the Rarity Club communities in Tennessee, has been charged with mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in connection with a project featuring a Lee Trevino-designed golf course on Nickajack Lake, outside Chattanooga. Speaking through his lawyer, Ross denied any wrongdoing and blamed his financial woes on the U.S. housing slump.

Also on this week’s police blotter: Thomas O’Meara, the developer of the aborted Running Horse golf community in Fresno, California, has been sentenced to more than six years in prison. In July, O’Meara pleaded guilty to defrauding more than 50 investors out of $16 million. For what it’s worth, Donald Trump considered buying the 480-acre Running Horse property when O’Meara got into financial trouble. The community’s Nicklaus Design golf course was partially built and abandoned.

Last week I reported that Accordia Golf Company, the big Japanese golf management firm, has become the target of a hostile takeover attempt. This week I must note that Accordia isn’t rolling over and playing dead.

This week the Irish Examiner caught up with Ron Kirby, one of the grand old men of golf design. Kirby, who turned 80 this year, has been designing courses since 1960 -- he got started with Dick Wilson and Robert Trent Jones -- and he still apparently has the itch to walk raw land and find the golf course hidden in it. “The excitement comes in the mystery,” he told the newspaper. “I love finding a place where I can say, ‘The course should start here and then go back this way.’”

You’ve no doubt heard that Michael Jordan was recently tossed out of a snooty golf club in Miami Beach, Florida for a dress-code violation. So I was relieved to read that Troon Golf has taken a more liberal view of what can be worn at the golf properties it manages in the United States and around the world. The aim, Troon says, is to make its clubs “more welcoming and accepting environments for new players,” and the suitable new attire includes denim and gym shorts. And cargo pants, presumably.

The muddy bottom of a lake in County Donegal, Ireland is being scoured for gutta-percha golf balls that once belonged to Old Tom Morris. The famed golf pioneer is believed to have knocked as many as 20 balls into Lough Salt, near the town of Kilmacrennan, in 1891, while he was designing the original course at the nearby Rosapenna golf resort. “It really is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” one of the divers explained, “but if we find the golf balls, it’ll be well worth the effort.”

The Cold, Hard Facts december 7, 2012

No surprise here: It’s been a very, very good year for U.S. golf course owners and operators. Through September, according to data compiled by Golf Datatech, the number of rounds played at U.S. golf courses has increased by 7.4 percent. Even if the number of rounds played in the fourth quarter of 2012 shows no increase, says the National Golf Foundation, we’ll still end the year with “the largest single-year jump since the turn of the century” and “a national gain of more than 30 million rounds.” Much of the credit goes to unusually warm weather, of course, but the NGF points out that “national measurements of consumer confidence and spending have also been slowly and consistently edging upward from lows we saw in the Great Recession.” My only concern: What happened to winter?

Is growth on the horizon for private U.S. golf clubs? The National Golf Foundation has determined that “club members who resigned memberships under the financial pressures of the past four to six years now appear to be reconsidering their non-member status.” In addition, the NGF has concluded that only 6 percent of the current members of U.S. golf clubs are what it calls “vulnerable,” meaning that they feel less than “completely confident” about maintaining their memberships “in the next few years.” When you add Part A and Part B, you get a picture of a business that seems primed for a rebound.

Where are the world’s top 1,000 golf courses? More than one of every three (36 percent) are in the United States, according to the second edition of the World’s Top 1,000 Golf Courses, while 28 percent are in Europe and 23 percent are in the Asia Pacific. Of the 63 countries represented in the guide, the United States garnered by far the most top-1,000 selections (362). Australia is a distant second (65), followed closely by England (60). The remainder of the top 10 consists of Scotland (43), China (40), Canada and Japan (36 each), Ireland & Northern Island (31), Spain (23), and France (22).

More than 85 percent of the golfers in Scandinavia and Germany have taken a “non-domestic” golf holiday over the past 12 months, according to a survey conducted earlier this year by Reed Travel Exhibitions. The survey says that German golfers take longer trips than Scandinavians (7.5 days vs. 5.8 days), but Scandinavians travel in larger groups (seven vs. five).

The Portland Business Journal, in Oregon, reports that the revenues generated by the city’s five municipally owned golf courses are “inching back to pre-recession levels.” Through the first six months of 2012, the city’s courses rang up $7.5 million, their best showing since before the 2007-08 fiscal year.

It’s getting harder to find golf courses with bentgrass greens in greater Myrtle Beach. The Myrtle Beach Sun News reports that 78 of the 90 or so public golf properties in the area now feature a variety of bermuda on their putting surfaces. Some private courses still have bent, the newspaper says, but the trend is clear. “A few courses are still hanging on, and my guess is it might not ever go to zero, but it will get close to it,” a turfgrass expert believes. This year alone, the newspaper notes, an estimated 60 to 80 golf courses in the Southeast have converted to bermuda.

Since 1991, according to a financial statement filed by Tokyo-based Accordia Golf Company, the number of golfers aged 15 and over in Japan has fallen from 17.8 million to 9 million.

Doonbeg Golf Club, in County Clare, Ireland, celebrated its 10th anniversary by losing $8.3 million. The club, which features a Greg Norman-designed golf course, has lost more than $70 million since it opened in 2002. The club’s general manager told the Irish Examiner that Kiawah Partners, Doonbeg’s South Carolina-based owner, has “always recognized that Doonbeg is a long-term project and are conscious that with the changes in the Irish economy, it is going to take a little longer than originally envisaged to become profitable.”

The number of rounds played at Albuquerque, New Mexico’s four municipally owned golf courses has fallen by 16 percent since 2008, from 295,083 to 246,218. “We’re trending down, on average, about 2 percent a year,” a city official told a local television station. This year, in an attempt to get back on track financially, the city raised greens fees. No closings are currently being discussed, but if the golf operation’s bottom line doesn’t improve, the city’s golfers can expect further rate increases.

By the end of this year, an estimated 600,000 international travelers are expected to take golf vacations in Thailand. The number represents a double-digit increase, says the Chicago Tribune, despite the world-wide economic slump. “You would think that golf tourism would decline during a recession, but it doesn’t,” the owner of an Asian golf tourism company told the newspaper. “Golfers just go to less expensive places.”

macedonia A Billionaire’s Gamble

How many Las Vegas-inspired casino complexes can Europe support?

While Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corporation negotiates to build EuroVegas in Spain, one of India’s richest people is negotiating to build a gambling destination in Macedonia that will likewise include casinos, hotels, and golf courses.

“I would invest in something big, because I feel good here and we are a big company,” Subrata Roy announced during a visit to Macedonia in June.

Roy’s facility will take shape near Prespa Lake, a vacation spot along the nation’s southwestern border. IntelliNews has reported that construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2014.

Roy may not be a household name in many parts of the world, but India Today has identified him as one of the nation’s 10 most powerful people. His Lucknow-based company, Sahara India Pariwar -- it’s made him a billionaire, according to multiple sources -- employs 2 million people in a parade of fields: real estate development, film production, newspaper and magazine publishing, retailing, financial services, life insurance, health care, and hotel operations. Earlier this year, one of its affiliates reportedly paid $570 million for a controlling interest in New York City’s famed Plaza Hotel.

Roy has also dipped into the golf. Sahara India Pariwar’s real estate division has developed Aamby Valley City, a 10,600-acre resort community in Pune, Maharashtra that includes a David Hemstock-designed course.

Roy appears to be taking his venture in Macedonia seriously, for he’s purchased the Hotel Slavija in Ohrid to serve as his project managers’ command post. Ohrid is just 10 miles from Prespa Lake, whose shores extend into Albania and Greece.

Macedonia’s top government officials appear to have wholeheartedly endorsed Roy’s plans. The nation’s vice premier and finance minster joined Roy at a press conference last summer, and the government’s official website posted more than a dozen photos taken during Roy’s visit.

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

The Week That Was, december 2, 2012

       The biggest, hottest controversy of the year -- one that involves an iconic golf course and an architect who’s spent his career studiously trying to avoid making waves -- erupted in figurative flames last week. I’m talking, of course, about the Old Course at St. Andrews and Martin Hawtree. The former is getting a facelift courtesy of the latter, an act that’s been compared to the Louvre drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa. It’s not actually an apt comparison, but it suggests the heat of the passions that have been stirred. I’m not going to spell out the nitty-gritty of the makeover, as the changes have been well documented, but I do wish to note that the Royal & Ancient, the group that effectively controls the Old Course, didn’t announce the proposed overhaul until it was practically underway. A cynical observer would conclude that the group wanted to make the changes in secret, without interference from golf’s many stakeholders.
       The loudest protests against the R&A’s actions have come from the Golf Club Atlas wing of the design business, a group that treasures classic British links and minimalist design philosophies. Tom Doak, a regular contributor to the website’s free-ranging discussions, claimed to be “horrified” when he heard about Hawtree’s proposed modifications, and he’s gone public with his complaints. “I have felt for many years that the Old Course was sacred ground to golf architects,” he wrote in a letter to golf’s architectural societies. “It has been untouched architecturally since 1920, and I believe that it should remain so.”
       The R&A, a decaying institution if there ever was one, seems intent on fixing what isn’t broken and ignoring the true cause of what ails the Old Course. The tees and greens at today’s golf courses remain pretty much the way they’ve been for centuries. What’s changed is the amount of space between them and the equipment we use to get from the one to the other. The R&A seems to believe that we should continue to make the distances longer and allow for adjustments in the contours of greens and the placement of bunkers. Wouldn’t it be easier to simply tone down the equipment? “If the mandate of the game’s guardians is to act today with an eye toward the future,” Karen Crouse of the New York Times asks, “why aren’t they worried about the viability of courses that eclipse airfields in acreage to accommodate the new generation of golfers and golf technology?”
       It hardly needs to be said, but traditions are what we make of them. If the R&A wants to make changes at the Old Course to protect par at the Open Championship in 2015, it should outline its plans months in advance and let the debate begin. May the best arguments win. But the current debate will eventually pass, and for me a larger question remains: Is the R&A still an effective keeper of golf’s most venerable traditions? Because it’s hard to profess your love for golf’s history when you’re so callously willing to compromise it.

For the third time this year, the golf design business has lost a member. Robin Nelson has died due to complications related to ALS -- Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Nelson got started as an architect in the 1970s,

apprenticing with Robert Muir Graves and Ron Fream, and he eventually established his own firm with Neil Haworth. His work isn’t especially well-known on the U.S. mainland, mostly because he marketed his services primarily to clients in Hawaii and Asia. Darius Oliver of Golf Digest Australia identifies Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, China as his best course, but Nelson also produced notable layouts in Bali, Guam, and the Philippines. He was 61.

The countdown has begun: The Streamsong resort in Fort Meade, Florida opens on December 21. This is the debut U.S. minimalists have been dreaming about, for Streamsong features a pair of 18-hole courses, one created by Tom Doak and the other by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. It’s Bandon Dunes Southeast, or Cabot Links South. “At last,” writes a reviewer for the Golf Channel, “one of the country’s most golf-saturated states has a 36-hole facility suitable to the new era of throwback golf course architecture.” The courses have been laid out on property that may remind some of coastal Ireland, but the site is actually a happy accident created by phosphate miners commanding heavy equipment and dumping soil here, there, and everywhere. It makes you believe that a thousand monkeys typing for a thousand years really could write the Great American Novel.

A rezoning application by Revelstoke Mountain Resort suggests that a planned golf course won’t be built anytime soon, if at all. The original master plan for the financially troubled mountain community, in one of the snowiest places in British Columbia, called for a Nick Faldo “signature” course that was to be co-designed by Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley. Faldo, who was to receive $1.2 million in design fees, sued the developers in 2010.

PGM Holdings is looking to create Japan’s biggest golf management company the old-fashioned way: By buying its main competitor. PGM, which operates 124 golf properties through its Pacific Golf Management subsidiary, appears to be closing in on the purchase of a controlling interest in Accordia Golf Company, which operates 132 properties. Neither company has commented for the record, but rumors of the takeover have boosted the value of Accordia’s stock to a 22-month high.

Progress continues on a long-discussed golf course in Buffalo, New York. Last week, an economic development group coughed up $290,000 for a feasibility study that will likely determine the course’s fate. “There are many nuances to consider,” an economic development official told Buffalo Business First. “This is not a black-and-white, build-it-or-not issue.” The course, presuming it pencils out, will be built on parts of two remediated landfills in the southern part of the city. If and when it opens, the city plans to close its long-suffering, nine-hole South Buffalo Golf Course.

The city of San Diego has approved a business plan that promises to ensure the financial future of its three golf courses. The new plan maintains current greens fees until July 2013, puts a cap on future price increases, and spells out renovations that will be made to the properties, notably to the North course at Torrey Pines.

In a magazine story about the predicted tourism boom in Nicaragua, the New York Times honed in on Carlos Pellas, who’s built a David McLay Kidd-designed golf course at his Guacalito de la Isla resort community. The upscale spread aims to put a new face on Nicaragua, which has an image problem stemming from its war-torn past and its impoverished present. “For me, it’s very difficult to see a country become a tourist destination without having a world-class resort,” Pellas told the newspaper. Kidd’s course, his first in Latin America, officially opens in February.

Pity those who achieve fame, for they are required to answer stupid questions. A case in point: Gil Hanse, the winner of the competition to design the golf course for Brazil’s Olympic Games, who’s now compelled to tell starry-eyed reporters the names of his favorite cities, his favorite bars, his favorite restaurants, his favorite hotels, his favorite things to do in Philadelphia, and his favorite ways to skin a cat. (Okay, I made up the one about the cats. But not the others.) There’s not much worth reading in Hanse’s recent interview with a Forbes-affiliated website, except maybe for this comment about the design of the golf course in Rio de Janeiro: “It’s probably going to be a combination of a links course -- very open, sandy, Scottish -- and then melding that with the Sand Belt landscape around Melbourne.”

Transactions, november 30, 2012

A major golf destination is emerging on the northern coast of Ireland, in County Donegal. It’s being created by Frank Casey, the owner of Rosapenna Hotel & Golf Resort, who this week purchased his defunct next-door neighbor, St. Patrick’s Golf Links. The acquisition adds 36 holes to Casey’s 45-hole complex at Rosapenna and creates what’s said to be “the largest links golf destination in Europe after St. Andrews.” For now, at least, Casey’s primary attractions are the ancient and modern layouts at Rosapenna -- the former designed by Old Tom Morris, the latter by Pat Ruddy -- but the courses at St. Patrick’s are believed to have great potential as well. (Some years ago, an official with Nicklaus Design described the St. Patrick’s property as “what Ireland golf is supposed to be” and “an incredible site.”) The courses at St. Patrick’s have been closed for years, but Casey plans to reopen them -- or at least one of them -- next year.

A Canadian group has acquired a troubled golf property in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Halifax, Nova Scotia-based Geosam Capital, Ltd. reportedly paid $5.5 million for Venetian Bay Golf Club, which features a four-year-old, Lloyd Clifton-designed golf course, plus some developable residential and commercial sites. Geosam says that Venetian Bay is “not a profitable golf club at this time,” but it’s hoping that Kitson & Partners, the club’s new manager, can turn it into one.

Deacon’s Lodge Golf Course in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota is about to get new owners. Sienna Corporation has agreed to sell the 13-year-old, Arnold Palmer-designed layout to Whitebirch, Inc., the owner of the nearby Breezy Point Resort. Whitebirch owns and operates a pair of 18-hole layouts at Breezy Point, and it has another 18-hole course at Forest Hills Golf & RV Resort in Detroit Lakes.

Calderwood Valley Golf Course in New South Wales, Australia has new owners whose identities haven't been revealed. The 18-hole course, in metropolitan Sydney, was built by the late Noel Smithers in 1995 and “has always been a profitable business,” according to Smithers’ widow, Alison. The new owners are said to be a group of Australian and Chinese investors who don’t plan to make fundamental changes to the Ken Mackay-designed course. “The whole goal,” the broker who facilitated the sale explained, is “to keep running it as it is, because they feel it’s a successful model.”

The owners of the Seagate Hotel & Spa in Delray Beach, Florida have purchased Hamlet Country Club and given it a new name: Seagate Country Club. The club features a Joe Lee-designed golf course -- a press release calls it “one of the best championship golf courses in Palm Beach County” -- and once upon a time its members rubbed shoulders with Jack Nicklaus, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Beth Daniels. That was long ago, of course. Today the club’s mission is to provide “the ultimate vacation experience that our guests are looking for,” an ambition that leaves me longing for the good old days.

worth reading In Florida, an Old Idea Revived

Since the onset of the Great Recession, the smart money has been saying that golf has lost its appeal among retirees. But it doesn’t appear that one of our nation’s biggest home builders has been listening.

Taylor Woodrow has decided to build an 18-hole golf course at a seniors-only community within Lakewood Ranch in Bradenton, Florida. The track, to be designed by Chris Wilczynski, will anchor a 400-acre, 800-house community that’s been tailored to the people Del Webb identified as “active adults.”

A decade ago, Taylor Woodrow’s announcement would hardly have qualified as news. Today, however, it’s an act of faith that’s worthy of notice.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune has put Taylor Woodrow’s plans in context. Here’s some of what the newspaper had to say:  

At a time when golf is waning in popularity and retiring baby boomers appear poised to take up other sports, builder Taylor Morrison plans to bet millions of dollars that a new golf course will draw home buyers to Manatee County. 

The builder’s plans for an 18-hole, championship golf course at its Esplanade community in Lakewood Ranch come as several Southwest Florida courses -- especially newer links with expensive clubhouses and other amenities -- have struggled amid the prolonged economic downturn. 

“For a long time now, builders have been hesitant about starting new projects, and with good reason -- there was too much unsold inventory,” said John Brady, founder and editor of TopRetirements.com, a website that ranks retirement communities. 

“The bloom has been off the rose for golf courses as well -- too many of them exist, and there’s declining interest in the game,” Brady said. “Many courses have closed or gone public, and while builders like Pulte and Del Webb have been building new communities with extensive amenities, they usually have not been with golf.” . . . 

For its part, the home builder maintains that the Great Recession has created a void that the Esplanade Golf & Country Club at Lakewood Ranch will fill. 

“There are fewer golf courses to play. We see that as an opportunity to meet a niche that there will be demand for,” said Cammie Longenecker, a Taylor Morrison vice president of sales and marketing. 

Active boomers -- part of the cohort of 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 -- will be the target market. 

“We do see a large percentage of our buyers will be near retirement age or will be retiring soon,” Longenecker said. . . . 

From a development perspective, a prominent Taylor Morrison competitor in Southwest Florida agrees that golf courses are once again in vogue. 

“Golf is back, especially in a bundled format,” said Pat Neal, a Lakewood Ranch-based developer, referring to buyers’ desire for communities that offer a variety of activities. 

 Neal said that six courses closed in the Sarasota-Manatee region during the recession, which has created an opportunity for builders. 

“There are still 78 million boomers who stopped purchasing during this housing crisis for six or seven years, and their biological clocks are ticking,” Neal said. “So we are full of customers.” . . . 

The Esplanade course will be the region’s first since Royal Lakes opened in Lakewood Ranch in early 2008, following a trio of courses -- at the Founders Club, the Concession, and a course for Ritz-Carlton Sarasota members and guests. Those three debuted during the real estate boom of the mid 2000s. . . . 

“No one has built a golf course that I know of in the past few years,” said Keith Pope, chief executive of Pope Golf of Sarasota, which will manage the new Taylor Morrison course. “It is all tied to home sales, and we are seeing an uptick in the housing market, so it makes sense.” . . . 

The Week That Was, november 25, 2012

You can add Bill Clinton’s name to the list of VIPs itching to play Donald Trump’s golf course in Scotland. The Scotsman reports that the former Democratic president and the Republican presidential

pretender have “forged an unlikely friendship in recent years” and that a tee time in Aberdeenshire has been penciled in for next summer. “I love playing golf with him,” Clinton told CNN earlier this year.

Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority is investigating one of the nation’s premier golf properties for the unlawful use of banned herbicides and pesticides. The EPA has targeted suburban Sydney’s Lakes Golf Club, the home of next month’s Australian Open, for actions it took two years ago to prevent nematodes from destroying its turf. The club is said to be cooperating with the inquiry.

What’s the significance of a Chinese teenager getting an invite to play in the Masters? “It’s the latest example of what might happen should China embrace golf other than superficially,” argues John Strege of Golf Digest. There’s a little too much conditional word usage in that statement for my tastes, but Strege helpfully notes that Guan Tianlang, the 14-year-old in question, trains in Florida.

The members of Butler National Golf Club in suburban Chicago, Illinois have overwhelmingly voted down a motion that would have allowed women to become members. The vote was less a blow to the female gender than it is to the members’ immediate financial interest, for it will surely lead to resignations and dues increases to offset the resulting loss in revenue. As far as the club’s future is concerned, a member has concluded that“we’re in a death spiral.”

While women can’t get in the door at Butler National, the members of Redlands Country Club have elected a woman as their president. “This is a terrific honor,” said Carole Beswick, who becomes the first-ever female president of the Redlands, California-based club.

In an effort to preserve its open space and a consistent water supply, the town of Belleair, Florida has agreed to buy Belleview Biltmore Golf Club. The price: $3.5 million. As a bonus, the town gets an 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed golf course that dates from 1925.

A renovation by Ron Forse has helped to put Rolling Green Golf Club back into the limelight. The club, in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been selected to host the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship in 2016. Forse restored the club’s course, co-designed by William S. Flynn and Howard Toomey, in a multiyear project during the mid to late 2000s.

Bandon Dunes’ 13-hole Preserve course has given Scott Michaux an idea for what the city of Augusta, Georgia can do to generate more play at its municipal golf course. His modest proposal: The city’s 18-hole track should shrink to fit the times. “Even without the panoramic views of the Pacific,” writes Michaux, a writer for the Augusta Chronicle, “a fun and challenging collection of par-3 holes would be inviting to newcomers to the game and give people a recreational option that doesn’t eat up four to five hours of the day.”

Bowing to the wishes of their customers, the three municipal golf courses in Vancouver, British Columbia may soon begin to sell beer on their fairways. “Those three golf courses are already seeing people consume alcohol illegally,” notes a councilmember. “If you’ve ever golfed there, you’ll see that people sneak their beer on anyways.”

Palms Mawson Lakes Golf Course, a nine-hole track in suburban Adelaide, South Australia, is about to get a makeover. The reconstruction, which has been in the works for three years, begins in February 2013.

If you’re willing to take vacation advice from Forbes, the magazine has five wintertime golf destinations for you to consider. Tops on the list: the Kapalua resort on Maui, because the editors are “bewitched by the Bay course.” Then come the soon-to-open Streamsong resort in Florida (the Tom Doak- and Coore & Crenshaw-designed tracks will provide “a golfing experience unlike anything in Florida”), the Villingili resort in the Maldives (its nine-hole course offers “sweeping views of the ocean that just can’t be matched elsewhere”), and the Apes Hill resort on Barbados (“a walk along the fairways is almost surreal”). Last but certainly not least is Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania, where the Doak- and Coore & Crenshaw-designed tracks are “part nod to Mother Nature and part challenge to the mind and body.”

The Pipeline, november 23, 2012

australia Greg Ramsay, the busiest developer in Tasmania, appears to be using a committee of architects to design his 18-hole course on the South Arm peninsula. The group consists of Neil Crafter and Paul Mogford, an Adelaide-based team; Line Mortensen of North Berwick, Scotland; and Mike Nuzzo of Houston, Texas. None of these architects have large bodies of work, but they share with Ramsay a commitment to “classic” design and sustainable construction. Crafter and Mogford have produced courses in Australia, Malaysia, and China and are working with Ramsay on a nine-hole addition for Bicheno Golf Club, on Tasmania’s eastern coast. Mortensen, one of the few women in the design business, is probably best known for two courses in Denmark. Nuzzo has designed just one course, a personal venue for a wealthy Texan, but Adam Lawrence of Golf Course Architecture has called it “probably the best first course by a modern architect that I have seen.” Ramsay hasn’t yet secured approvals for Arm End Golf Course, but he hopes to break ground on it by the end of next year.

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

scotland Martin Hawtree is about to further polish his reputation as one of the world’s foremost linksmen. Just a week after it was disclosed that he would design the second course at Trump International Golf Links Scotland, the British architect has been tapped to make what’s been described as “alterations” to the revered Old Course at St. Andrews. The intent, according to Peter Dawson of the Royal & Ancient, is “to stiffen [the course’s] defenses in some places to ensure it remains as challenging as ever to the professionals.” The work will be completed before the summer of 2015, when the course hosts the Open Championship for the 29th time.

canada Cabot Links, the acclaimed new beachfront course in Inverness, Nova Scotia, will soon get what may be an even better partner. Work on the forthcoming Cabot Cliffs track, to be co-designed by the superstar duo of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, will begin this spring. The course will take shape on inland property a little more than a mile from the resort’s original layout, a site described by co-developer Ben Cowan-Dewar as “spectacular and really, truly a beautiful spot.” The course could have its soft opening in the fall of 2014.

canada A forest fire in September forced 1,500 people in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley to evacuate their houses, but it won’t delay the planned summer 2013 opening of Greg Norman’s golf course in Peachland. Norman is remaking a 32-year-old, Alfred Tate-designed course that’s been closed since 2006, when a fire destroyed its clubhouse. The new track, which is expected to stretch to about 7,200 yards, will be the centerpiece of a community that will eventually feature 2,300 houses. “Our vision,” the course’s general manager told the Edmonton Journal, “is to build a sustainable resort of great golf and great homes.”

Some information in the preceding post originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

china Moratorium? What moratorium? While in Asia to play in the Singapore Open, Phil Mickelson told reporters that the courses to which he’s affixed his “signature” -- one in Kunming, the other in Singapore -- are expected to open within the next 12 months. Mickelson made a vague reference to “some hold-ups from the government” regarding the track in Kunming, but it’s become abundantly clear that Chinese authorities have only been able to slow golf construction, not stop it. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

china More from the land of phony moratoriums: Shanxi Yiliang Longxi Sports & Culture Company has hired IMG, the Cleveland, Ohio-based sports colossus, to manage the development of Luxuriance International Golf Club in Shanxi Province, China. The club’s 27-hole golf complex is expected to open sometime next year. As best I can determine, the complex has been designed by Yu Gang of Beijing-based New Nature Golf. Yu is said to be the first Chinese architect to produce a golf course in China: Hot Spring Golf Course outside Conghua City, in Guangdong Province.

portugal David McLay Kidd’s oceanfront golf course in Portugal has been under construction since February and will likely open in 2014. The 18-hole, 7,600-yard track will be course number one for Herdade da Comporta, a giant-size resort community taking shape near the village of Comporta, about an hour’s drive south of Lisbon. “It’s a fantastic site for golf,” reports the Bend, Oregon-based designer. Espirito Santo Group, a conglomerate that controls Portugal’s second-largest bank, has commissioned Tom Fazio to design course number two, but a groundbreaking hasn’t yet been set.

Some information in the preceding post originally appeared in the November 2010 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

The Week That Was, november 18, 2012

It turns out that Donald Trump was just making empty threats when he vowed to stop development at Trump International Golf Links Scotland if the nation followed through on its plan to build an off-shore wind farm. The Sunday Express reports that the Birther in Chief, citing “phenomenal demand,” intends to move forward with the resort’s second course. Like course number one, the new track will be designed by Martin Hawtree. “He is the only man for the job,” Trump told the newspaper.

This week Trump also made news on this side of the Atlantic. He agreed to buy the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club & Spa in Jupiter, Florida, a 215-acre property that features a Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course. “Great land, great location, great future!” Trump typed in a tweet. So far this year, Trump has opened a course in Scotland, closed on acquisitions in Charlotte and Miami, and agreed to operate New York City’s forthcoming Nicklaus-designed course in the Bronx. What will he do for an encore?

Clive Palmer, one of Australia’s richest people (Forbes says he’s worth $795 million), has purchased Sea Temple Golf & Country Club in Port Douglas, Queensland. The price: $7.23 million. The property’s centerpiece is an 18-hole, links-style course that was designed by Peter Thomson’s firm. Through one of his corporations, Palmer owns three other Australian golf properties, including the Palmer Coolum Resort on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

South Korean investors are backing out of agreements to build golf courses in Vietnam. Do they know something other foreign investors don’t?

The Jack Nicklaus-designed layout at Summit Rock Golf Club in the Texas Hill Country has officially opened. The property’s website notes that the 7,258-yard layout is “the only Jack Nicklaus signature golf course to open in the U.S. this year.” Steve Habel, a reviewer, thinks that “any golf course built in America these days is a triumph.”

The development group in control of the Bear Mountain resort community on Vancouver Island plans to shave nine holes from its 36-hole, Nicklaus Design golf complex. The facility is said to be operating at less than 50 percent of capacity. “Bear Mountain is a microcosm of what is going on throughout the entire golf industry -- too much supply for too little demand,” said an executive from Troon Golf, which is helping to plan the community’s less ambitious future.

Bill Esping’s EFO Financial Group has acquired Brightwater Club, a tony but financially troubled resort community outside Vail, Colorado. The centerpiece of the 963-acre property is an 18-hole, 8,005-yard golf course -- the fifth-longest course in the United States -- that was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. In April 2011, Brightwater’s parent company defaulted on $100 million worth of loans. At the time, the Wall Street Journal reported that Jones was owed $81,000.

What hath Augusta National wrought? Colin Moynihan, the outgoing chairman of the British Olympic Association, is pressuring the Royal & Ancient Golf Club in St. Andrews to admit female members. “Let’s get real and let’s get on with the job of providing equality of opportunity across sports,” he counseled during a radio interview. In August, a former prime minister made essentially the same pitch. How long until some of Great Britain’s other single-sex clubs -- among them Muirfield, Troon, and Royal St. George’s -- begin to feel the heat?

Nashville, Tennessee’s Belle Meade Country Club has reportedly admitted its first resident African-American member.

Golfers who score a hole-in-one on the 11th at Tierra Rejada Golf Club in Moorpark, California will take home a memento: an “award of excellence” from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. The award includes a facsimile of a plaque bearing words once spoken by the former president: “Our most glorious achievements are just ahead.” Perhaps more importantly, Tierra Rejada’s customers will receive a discounted admission to the Ronald Reagan Library & Museum, which is right next door to the golf course. And vice versa.

On November 15, Larry Packard celebrated a true milestone: his 100th birthday. Earlier this year, when asked how he planned to honor the occasion, he replied: “Have a bourbon.” Several news outlets have published sketchy, unsatisfying retrospectives of Packard’s architectural career, but the Innisbrook resort has posted a video of the party.

I can’t tell you how President Obama celebrated on re-election night, but I know where he was on the following Saturday morning.