The Week That Was, october 6, 2013

     Donald Trump has floated an idea to build a golf course on property in New York that the federal government uses as a testing facility for animal diseases. If he can win community approval and settle on a price with the Obama administration, Trump would build the track on Plum Island, an 840-acre tract off Long Island. No specifics have yet been announced. Due to the nature of the research that’s conducted there, Plum Island -- a place Hannibal Lechter called “Anthrax Island” -- is restricted territory controlled by Homeland Security. It’s for sale, though, as its disease center will be relocated to Kansas in 2019. Trump, who believes he’s universally adored -- really, he told Newsday that he’s “adored all over the world” -- has promised to build “a really beautiful, world-class golf course.” Of course, he’ll first have to prove that the site isn’t a threat to public health.

     The owners of Gamble Sands, a soon-to-open links-like course outside Brewster, Washington, are inviting comparisons to Bandon Dunes. Their 18-hole course has been designed by a Bandon-endorsed architect, it’s emerging on a sandy stretch of property in a remote part of the Pacific Northwest, and it seems likely to be joined by a hotel and at least one more 18-hole layout. Needless to say, David McLay Kidd was directed to design a world-class, destination-worthy track. “My task was to build an awesome golf course,” he said during a preview tour of the property. “There are no excuses. If it’s not a good course, it’s all my fault.” Gamble Sands is scheduled to open next summer. It’ll no doubt steal some business from Bandon Dunes, but in North America alone it’ll also compete with Streamsong, Cabot Links, the new courses in the Sand Hills of Nebraska, and, eventually, Mike Keiser’s planned complex in Wisconsin. Clearly, the competition for the “naturalist” dollar is getting fierce. How many more Bandon-inspired venues can the market accommodate?

     One of Jackson, Wyoming’s highest-profile real estate busts, Snake River Sporting Club, is about to lift the curtain on its second act. An Atlanta, Georgia-based investment firm, Cygnus Capital, bought the bankrupt 359-acre property earlier this year, and the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports that its minimally maintained 18-hole golf course is expected to reopen in the spring of 2014, after improvements are made to its turf. Snake River, which once called itself “the ultimate outdoor community in the western United States,” was among the first victims of the real estate scourge that swept the nation during the Great Recession. Its centerpiece, a Tom Weiskopf-designed track, will eventually be flanked by 65 estate houses (43 lots have reportedly been sold), and Cygnus has acquired a nearby ranch where Snake River’s members will be able to keep their horses.

     Scotland may love golf, but these days many of its clubs are in the financial wringer. Over the past 18 months, according to Golf Magic, 80 of the nation’s clubs have desperately turned to the Scottish Golf Union for business planning advice. “We have more courses than we need for the current playing numbers,” noted Hamish Grey, the golf union’s CEO. Golf Magic also reports that 597 of the nation’s clubs are looking for members.

     Mark Lin of the Motley Fool has given ClubCorp’s stock issue a lukewarm endorsement, calling it “a rare opportunity to own a stake in the country’s largest golf club operator, with high customer retention and stable revenues.” Lin notes that ClubCorp’s membership has fallen from 84,410, the number it hit in 2006, but he likes its quality, as the average member reportedly has an annual household income of $180,000 or more and owns a house worth somewhere between $500,000 and $600,000. He’s impressed that ClubCorp has posted revenue growth in recent years (4.7 percent in 2011 and 4.9 percent in 2012), and he believes that the company can in the future “accentuate its advantages” because it owns more than three-quarters of the properties it manages, many of them in what he calls “prime locations.” What Lin doesn’t mention is ClubCorp’s debt, which has made other stock analysts wary.

     The municipal golf courses in Hartford, Connecticut appear to be in horrible condition, and a financial audit places the blame on both the city and its golf management company. A city-commissioned report has determined that MDM Golf Enterprises, the firm hired to manage the Keney Park and Goodwin Park golf courses, failed to make promised capital improvements that might have attracted more play and generated increased revenues. However, the report also criticized the city’s department of public works for having “little, if any contact” with MDM and failing to diligently oversee the operation of important city assets. If there’s a silver lining in this dark cloud, it’s this: The city has allocated $5 million for capital improvements to the courses next year, according to the Hartford Courant, and it’ll consider allocating a similar amount in 2015.

     An investment group led by a pair of Albuquerque, New Mexico’s top amateur golfers has been created to acquire the city’s Four Hills Country Club. Jerry and Larry Lujan, who are brothers, are trying to hammer out a deal with the mortgage company that controls Four Hills Country Club, a 55-year-old property that the Albuquerque Journal describes as being “beleaguered.” If the Lujans and their four partners are successful, they plan to change Four Hills’ name to The Canyon Club and to make improvements to its Bob Baldock-designed course. “It will be a brand-new club,” Jerry Lujan told the Journal. Four Hills’ members have reportedly blessed the Lujans’ proposal. The Lujans believe that The Canyon Club can attract 200 equity members (initiation fee: $25,000) and 150 non-equity members.

     In a recent interview with Golfers on Golf, Mike Keiser provided a couple of noteworthy details about the state of the business at Bandon Dunes. He reports that the resort’s Preserve course -- “a great betting course,” he called it -- generates 16,000 rounds a year, a number that he deems “a great success.” A round at the 13-hole, par-3 layout costs $100. Keiser also said a round at the Gil Hanse-designed municipal complex he aims to build would charge a mere $10 a round for residents of Coos and Curry counties and offer 50 percent discounts to all other Oregon residents. He didn’t say what the rest of the world would pay for the privilege, but he noted that we’d be paying the bills.

     After complaining incessantly about the deleterious effects that balls designed for distance have had on the game of golf, Jack Nicklaus has decided to introduce his own line of golf balls. They come in colors that correspond to a golfer’s skill level: black for those who play from the back tees, blue for those who play from the middle tees, and white for women, because no man will ever buy them.