Transactions, april 5, 2013

     If my math is correct, Windmill Golf Group has purchased its fourth golf property in Calgary, Alberta and its sixth overall. Windmill, a firm led by Barry and Ron Ehlert, has acquired Country Club of the Hamptons, which the Calgary Herald says is one of the city’s “most exclusive private clubs.” The freshly renamed Hamptons Golf Club features a Bill Newis-designed golf course that opened in 1993. Windmill’s other properties in the Calgary area are Silverwing Links, Elbow Springs Golf Club, and Boulder Creek Golf Course. The firm also owns Northern Bear Golf Course in Edmonton, Alberta and one U.S. property, the Wilderness Club in Eureka, Montana. In addition, several years ago the Ehlerts unveiled a plan to build Copithorne Golf Club on property west of Calgary. Copithorne’s course has been co-designed by a pair of well-known touring pros, Johnny Miller and Stephen Ames, with assistance from two of Tom Fazio’s former associates, Tim Jackson and David Kahn of Phoenix, Arizona-based Jackson Kahn Design.

     One of the most prominent families in U.S. golf has re-acquired a golf course it built more than a decade ago. I’m talking about the Jemsek family of Illinois, which purchased Summer Grove Golf Club in Newnan, Georgia earlier this year. Summer Grove becomes the fourth golf property in the family’s portfolio, joining three in Illinois: Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont; St. Andrews Golf & Country Club in West Chicago; and Pine Meadow Golf Course in Mundelein. The Jemseks operated Summer Grove from the day it opened in 1999 until 2006, when they sold it to Canongate Golf.

     Once again, the only Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed golf course in New Zealand has a new owner. He is Chen Gau, and Auckland Now identifies him as the fifth owner of Gulf Harbour Country Club. Gau reportedly paid $12.8 million for Gulf Harbour, which is just 16 years old. It opened in 1997. The club, in suburban Auckland, hosted the New Zealand Open in 2005 and 2006.

     Three Putt LLC has purchased a Gary Player-designed golf course in suburban Trenton, New Jersey. The course, the centerpiece of Old York Country Club, was once ranked among the state’s best. “We all realized the past greatness of this club and are dedicated to an even higher degree of greatness in the future,” one of the new owners said in a press release. Three Putt is an entity with four partners: a dentist, an information-technology consultant, a mortgage banker, and a former golf course owner.

     An 89-year-old veteran of the Naval Air Corps has purchased American Legion Golf Course in Wausau, Wisconsin. At least for the time being, the acquisition eliminates uncertainty about the course’s future and provides a financial shot in the arm to the city’s American Legion post. “As a World War II veteran and a Wausau booster, I could not imagine the American Legion going down the tubes,” Dick Dudley said after the sale. The nine-hole track opened in 1929, right about the time Dudley was entering kindergarten.

     A nine-hole golf course in Sheffield, Iowa has won at least a temporary reprieve. Late last year, Jim and Diana Blood announced that they would close Ridge Stone Golf Course and sell it as farm land. To prevent that from happening, Dean Capesius, a local golf pro, bought a partial interest in the 11-year-old, Mark Kerr-designed layout. It had been named Iowa’s nine-hole course of the year in 2008. “If we allow a facility like that to be plowed up, it doesn’t bode well for a lot of other places,” Capesius told the Mason City Globe Gazette. The plan, Capesius says on the course’s website, is “to create a comfortable environment that’s inviting to people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.” Some of his instructional programs will be conducted on the facility’s par-3 course.

     An abandoned golf course in suburban Brisbane, Australia is being revived and is expected to reopen next month. Brett Lawton sold Karana Downs Golf Course in 2006, reportedly for $3.5 million. Since then, according to the Queensland Times, the course has “fallen to ruin,” as its owners had merely intended to cover its fairways with houses. So, sensing an opportunity, last month Lawton reacquired the track for just $800,000. Lawton also owns Sandy Gallop Golf Club in Ipswich, Queensland.

     Textron Financial Corporation has cleared another troubled asset off its books: Shaker Run Golf Club in Lebanon, Ohio. An entity controlled by Steve Lambert reportedly paid $3.3 million for the property, which features an Arthur Hills-designed course. The sale represents a full-circle moment for Lambert, who supervised the course’s construction in the late 1970s. These days, he and his son, Ted, also operate Moss Creek Golf Club in Trotwood, Ohio