After nearly 30 years of ownership, Ron Rider has turned out the lights for the last time at Pine Shadows Golf Course. The 18-hole course, he believes, slowly faded to black via a combination of hard times and over-zealous golf construction in and around Lake Charles, Louisiana. “It’s not a casino course and it’s not a municipal course,” he told a local television station. “Those are able to get extra funding and stay in float.” No word on what Rider plans to do with the property.
After an extended financial illness, a nearly 120-year-old golf club in Edinburgh, Scotland has died peacefully. Torphin Hill Golf Club, which opened in 1895, was a modest, affordable club that had been “limping along in difficult and horrible times,” a member told the Scotsman. In 2006, Torphin Hill had nearly 500 members, but the number has been falling steadily ever since, despite price reductions that were supposed to lure new customers. “It’s been tough going for the last six years,” another member noted, adding: “It has become increasingly difficult to get people aged between 25 and 40 to join the club.”
The final rounds have been played at a nine-hole golf course in Beloit, Ohio. Hyde-A-Way Golf Club was established in 1953 and has been owned by the Minamyer family since 1977.
In a last-ditch effort to remain in business, Huntsville, Alabama’s premier country club has slashed its monthly membership fees and -- gulp -- opened its golf course to the public on weekdays. “Our backs are to the wall,” a board member told the Huntsville Times. Huntsville Country Club filed for bankruptcy protection in the fall of 2013. The LLC that owns its mortgage has agreed to waive payments for six months but will foreclose if the club can’t generate enough income to pay its bills.
A 90-year-old golf property in Fayetteville, Tennessee is “heading to foreclosure,” according to a local television station. Fayetteville Golf & Country Club reportedly has 115 members, less than half the number it had a decade ago, and as a result it can’t pay its debts, particularly the loans it secured to pay for renovations to its clubhouse. “We spent more than we should have, and we lost half our members,” a club official told WHNT. The club, which has a nine-hole course, is scheduled to be sold at a public auction next month.
To fend off a bank seeking more than $2.2 million in unpaid loans, the owners of Edgmont Country Club have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. “It was just a defensive move we felt we had to do to protect the property,” said Peter Mariani, whose family has owned and operated Edgmont since it opened in 1963. Mariani believes the club, in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will emerge from bankruptcy stronger than it is today. “We’re extremely optimistic about the future,” he told the Delaware County Daily Times. Edgmont reportedly has about 550 members and claims to be operating as it normally would.
Seven months after Eastern Hills Country Club filed for bankruptcy protection, creditors are trying to force the property’s sale. The club, in suburban Dallas, Texas, is believed to be worth at least $5 million, more than enough to cover its $838,000 in debt. For 11 consecutive years beginning in 2001, Eastern Hills hosted the Texas Women’s Open.
A lender has filed a foreclosure lawsuit on Hawthorns Golf Club, in suburban Indianapolis, Indiana, and the club has, in response, filed for bankruptcy protection. Hawthorns, which features an Arthur Hills-designed golf course, is the centerpiece of a community developed by HDG Mansur. According to the Indianapolis Business Journal, the club’s ownership group has less than $50,000 in assets and more than $50 million in debt. One of its largest creditors (to the tune of $14.5 million) is Harold D. Garrison, the club’s general partner and the CEO of HDG Mansur.
Though its losses are rather modest, Castleknock Golf Club, in Dublin, Ireland, has been taken over by receivers. The club, which opened in 2005, lost more than €137,000 (almost $185,000) in 2012, reports the Irish Examiner, on top of a loss of almost €356,000 (almost $480,000) in 2011. The receivers, working on behalf of the shopping-center developers who own Castleknock, are looking for a buyer. In 2009, Golf Digest ranked Castleknock’s golf course, a Jonathan Gaunt design, as one of Ireland’s top 100.
The upcoming golf season will be the final one at Tamworth Municipal Golf Course, in suburban Birmingham, England. “We have thrown as much money at it as we can,” a disappointed borough official told the Tamworth Herald. The 18-hole course opened in 1975. The borough hopes to sell part of the property to a residential developer and to convert the remainder into a park.
The village of Homer Glen, Illinois has agreed to buy Woodbine Golf Course, a 26-year-old facility whose owners want to retire. The price: $3.3 million. The Chicago Tribune says that the 18-hole track will operate through the end of 2014. Sometime after that, the village plans to transform Woodbine’s clubhouse into a seniors’ center and then build a park and a new village hall on the 106-acre property.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Sunday, January 26, 2014
The Week That Was, january 26, 2014
Political strife in Bangkok has forced promoters to postpone one of Asia’s premier golf events. The Thailand Open, which was scheduled to take place at Thana City Golf & Sports Club in mid March, has been victimized by a 60-day, government-imposed state of emergency. “This is in the best interests of the players, spectators, sponsors,” said a spokesperson for World Sport Group, the event’s organizer. The Thailand Open has been played since 1965, and this year it was to kick off Asia’s golf season. It’ll be rescheduled for a date later in 2014, presuming that anti-government protests in Thailand don’t take an even darker turn.
The Royal & Ancient may not be ready to take the Open Championship away from male-only clubs, but one of golf’s long-time sugar daddies appears to be. HSBC, a sponsor of the Open Championship as well as other high-profile international tournaments, says it would prefer that golf’s biggest event be held at clubs that admit women. “When you are showcasing one of the world’s greatest tournaments,” Giles Morgan said in a comment published by Golfweek, “it would be much more palatable if the events were played where there was not the sense of segregation. We would like to see [this issue] get solved, so we don’t keep talking about it.” Morgan, who oversees the giant banking firm’s sponsorship activities, also noted that he’s made his discomfort clear to the R&A -- “They are acutely aware that things need to change and move on” -- and that he’s grown weary of defending the R&A policies: “I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m having to justify our sponsorship.” Is this the beginning of the end for Muirfield, Royal Troon, and Royal St. George’s, the three all-male clubs in the R&A rota? Because the lessons of history are clear: When those who pull the financial strings start to apply pressure, even the most tradition-bound businesses can be forced to change.
The PGA of American has figured out a way to capitalize on its Get Golf Ready sessions. The Florida-based institutional power has licensed Get Golf Ready-branded golf clubs that will be marketed to graduates of its learn-to-golf program. “These starter sets,” said Ted Bishop, the group’s president, “are a fantastic way to launch a lifetime of love for playing the game.” The clubs will be produced by Dallas, Texas-based Dynamic Golf Resources. Terms of the deal weren’t announced.
The premier golf-management firm on South Carolina’s Grand Strand has persuaded Natalie Gulbis to serve as its public face. “In many ways, she represents what Myrtle Beach golf is all about,”
said Bob Mauragas, the CEO of National Golf Management. Mauragas’ firm has inked the LPGA Tour star, “Celebrity Apprentice” contestant, and one-time Sports Illustrated swimsuit model to a one-year contract, though both parties have expressed a desire to extend it.
One of Great Britain’s most prominent family-owned companies plans to build a European Tour-worthy golf course at its headquarters in Staffordshire, England. The 18-hole, 7,150-yard layout will take shape on part of a 240-acre parcel in Rocester owned by JCB, Ltd., one of the world’s largest manufacturers of construction equipment. Though the track will allow a limited amount of public play, it’ll be operated primarily for corporate use, to serve as a showcase for JCB’s products and capabilities. The company’s CEO has called it “the biggest marketing tool available to JCB in its history,” and he expects his salespeople to use it to schmooze a parade of customers and prospective customers. Robin Hiseman of European Golf Design will create the $49 million layout, which is expected to debut in 2018.
Some information in the preceding post originally appeared in the January 2014 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
A public auction for Gaillardia Golf & Country Club is no longer necessary. Concert Golf Partners has assumed control of the tony but financially troubled Oklahoma City, Oklahoma private club, which had been initiated in the mid 1990s by Edward King Gaylord, the city’s foremost newspaper publisher. Gaillardia features an 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed course (later remodeled by Tom Kite) that’s hosted a pair of men’s senior championships. Concert acquired the first mortgage on Gaillardia last summer and apparently didn’t wish to risk being out-bid by another buyer. In recent weeks it took the initiative by purchasing the second mortgage on the property and reaching a settlement with the club’s former owner, a group led by Phil Herrington. “It’s always been a fabulous club. It was just wrongly capitalized,” Concert’s CEO, Peter Nanula, told the Oklahoman. “The club is now debt free, with a long-term, stable future.” Concert will officially take over Gaillardia next month.
It only took Edwin Watts Golf Shops about 10 weeks to find a new owner. The Fort Walton Beach, Florida-based retail chain, which filed for bankruptcy protection in early November 2013, has been purchased by Worldwide Golf, a West Coast golf retailer whose claim to fame is a 90-day, 100 percent satisfaction guarantee. The acquisition gives Worldwide a presence in golf markets across the nation, as it also operates Roger Dunn Golf Shops in California and Hawaii, the Golf Mart in California, Vans Golf Shops in Arizona, Uinta Golf Shops in Utah, and the Golfers’ Warehouse chain in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
Mike Keiser’s forthcoming Sand Valley complex won’t be the only golf property that KemperSports manages in Adams County, Wisconsin. The Northbrook, Illinois-based firm has been tapped to operate the 18-hole Castle Course at Northern Bay Resort in Arkdale. The course, which opened in 2005, features 11 holes designed by Matt Mootz, one of the resort’s original owners, and seven replica holes created by Tour 18 Design Group. “We felt the need to create a partnership with a firm that specializes in high-end golf resort management,” said Darrel Malek, the managing partner of the entity that purchased Northern Bay out of bankruptcy protection in 2010. These days KemperSports manages three other venues in the Dairy State, all of them municipal tracks owned by the cities of Janesville and La Crosse.
Dan Rooney, the air force pilot who created Patriot Golf Day, will receive this year’s Donald Ross Award from the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Since 2007, the money raised on Patriot Golf Day has helped to provide scholarships for nearly 5,500 military families. “Major Dan Rooney’s focus and dedication to helping the families of fallen heroes and wounded veterans through golf is inspirational,” said the ASGCA’s president, Rick Robbins. Rooney, a PGA pro who served three combat tours in Iraq, is also the majority owner of the Patriot Golf Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a facility whose motto is “Great Golf for the Greater Good.” Since it was established, in 1976, the Donald Ross Award has been given to such people as Herbert Warren Wind, Dinah Shore, Gene Sarazen, Jaime Ortiz-Patino, Tim Finchem, and Ron Whitten.
The Royal & Ancient may not be ready to take the Open Championship away from male-only clubs, but one of golf’s long-time sugar daddies appears to be. HSBC, a sponsor of the Open Championship as well as other high-profile international tournaments, says it would prefer that golf’s biggest event be held at clubs that admit women. “When you are showcasing one of the world’s greatest tournaments,” Giles Morgan said in a comment published by Golfweek, “it would be much more palatable if the events were played where there was not the sense of segregation. We would like to see [this issue] get solved, so we don’t keep talking about it.” Morgan, who oversees the giant banking firm’s sponsorship activities, also noted that he’s made his discomfort clear to the R&A -- “They are acutely aware that things need to change and move on” -- and that he’s grown weary of defending the R&A policies: “I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m having to justify our sponsorship.” Is this the beginning of the end for Muirfield, Royal Troon, and Royal St. George’s, the three all-male clubs in the R&A rota? Because the lessons of history are clear: When those who pull the financial strings start to apply pressure, even the most tradition-bound businesses can be forced to change.
The PGA of American has figured out a way to capitalize on its Get Golf Ready sessions. The Florida-based institutional power has licensed Get Golf Ready-branded golf clubs that will be marketed to graduates of its learn-to-golf program. “These starter sets,” said Ted Bishop, the group’s president, “are a fantastic way to launch a lifetime of love for playing the game.” The clubs will be produced by Dallas, Texas-based Dynamic Golf Resources. Terms of the deal weren’t announced.
The premier golf-management firm on South Carolina’s Grand Strand has persuaded Natalie Gulbis to serve as its public face. “In many ways, she represents what Myrtle Beach golf is all about,”
said Bob Mauragas, the CEO of National Golf Management. Mauragas’ firm has inked the LPGA Tour star, “Celebrity Apprentice” contestant, and one-time Sports Illustrated swimsuit model to a one-year contract, though both parties have expressed a desire to extend it.
One of Great Britain’s most prominent family-owned companies plans to build a European Tour-worthy golf course at its headquarters in Staffordshire, England. The 18-hole, 7,150-yard layout will take shape on part of a 240-acre parcel in Rocester owned by JCB, Ltd., one of the world’s largest manufacturers of construction equipment. Though the track will allow a limited amount of public play, it’ll be operated primarily for corporate use, to serve as a showcase for JCB’s products and capabilities. The company’s CEO has called it “the biggest marketing tool available to JCB in its history,” and he expects his salespeople to use it to schmooze a parade of customers and prospective customers. Robin Hiseman of European Golf Design will create the $49 million layout, which is expected to debut in 2018.
Some information in the preceding post originally appeared in the January 2014 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
A public auction for Gaillardia Golf & Country Club is no longer necessary. Concert Golf Partners has assumed control of the tony but financially troubled Oklahoma City, Oklahoma private club, which had been initiated in the mid 1990s by Edward King Gaylord, the city’s foremost newspaper publisher. Gaillardia features an 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed course (later remodeled by Tom Kite) that’s hosted a pair of men’s senior championships. Concert acquired the first mortgage on Gaillardia last summer and apparently didn’t wish to risk being out-bid by another buyer. In recent weeks it took the initiative by purchasing the second mortgage on the property and reaching a settlement with the club’s former owner, a group led by Phil Herrington. “It’s always been a fabulous club. It was just wrongly capitalized,” Concert’s CEO, Peter Nanula, told the Oklahoman. “The club is now debt free, with a long-term, stable future.” Concert will officially take over Gaillardia next month.
It only took Edwin Watts Golf Shops about 10 weeks to find a new owner. The Fort Walton Beach, Florida-based retail chain, which filed for bankruptcy protection in early November 2013, has been purchased by Worldwide Golf, a West Coast golf retailer whose claim to fame is a 90-day, 100 percent satisfaction guarantee. The acquisition gives Worldwide a presence in golf markets across the nation, as it also operates Roger Dunn Golf Shops in California and Hawaii, the Golf Mart in California, Vans Golf Shops in Arizona, Uinta Golf Shops in Utah, and the Golfers’ Warehouse chain in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
Mike Keiser’s forthcoming Sand Valley complex won’t be the only golf property that KemperSports manages in Adams County, Wisconsin. The Northbrook, Illinois-based firm has been tapped to operate the 18-hole Castle Course at Northern Bay Resort in Arkdale. The course, which opened in 2005, features 11 holes designed by Matt Mootz, one of the resort’s original owners, and seven replica holes created by Tour 18 Design Group. “We felt the need to create a partnership with a firm that specializes in high-end golf resort management,” said Darrel Malek, the managing partner of the entity that purchased Northern Bay out of bankruptcy protection in 2010. These days KemperSports manages three other venues in the Dairy State, all of them municipal tracks owned by the cities of Janesville and La Crosse.
Dan Rooney, the air force pilot who created Patriot Golf Day, will receive this year’s Donald Ross Award from the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Since 2007, the money raised on Patriot Golf Day has helped to provide scholarships for nearly 5,500 military families. “Major Dan Rooney’s focus and dedication to helping the families of fallen heroes and wounded veterans through golf is inspirational,” said the ASGCA’s president, Rick Robbins. Rooney, a PGA pro who served three combat tours in Iraq, is also the majority owner of the Patriot Golf Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a facility whose motto is “Great Golf for the Greater Good.” Since it was established, in 1976, the Donald Ross Award has been given to such people as Herbert Warren Wind, Dinah Shore, Gene Sarazen, Jaime Ortiz-Patino, Tim Finchem, and Ron Whitten.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Transactions, january 24, 2014
One of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s old-line country clubs plans to sell nine of its 36 holes to Toll Brothers, the big home builder. Philmont Country Club, which was established by the city’s business interests in 1906, hopes to generate $12 million from the sale of 52 acres, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The club will likely spend at least part of the money on a new clubhouse. Philmont says that its golf courses were designed by Willie Park, Jr. (the South course) and William S. Flynn (North), although some historians have questioned whether Flynn was actually involved. The club hasn’t said which holes would be lost, but it previously floated a proposal to build houses for seniors on part of its South course.
Last fall, a Chinese group acquired the long-suffering Stallion Mountain Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. The track, part of a gated community located seven miles from the Strip, made the big time when it hosted the Frank Sinatra Celebrity Classic. Stallion Mountain, which made its debut (as Sunrise Country Club) in 1992, has had several owners, and it was once controlled by the federal government. It now belongs to C-Bons International Golf Group, an entity that appears to be affiliated with C-Bons Holding (International) Ltd., a conglomerate based in Wuhan, Hubei Province. C-Bons owns two other U.S. golf properties, both in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona: Moon Valley Country Club and Western Skies Golf Club. Stallion Mountain once had three golf courses, but only one remains: An 18-hole track co-designed by Jim Colbert (Sunrise’s original owner) and Jeff Brauer. The name of the seller can’t be determined from online records, but in 2011 the club was sold out of foreclosure (for $3.8 million) to Tartan Golf Management of Dublin, Ohio.
The only winery in New Jersey with its own golf course may soon be changing hands. An unidentified party has agreed to buy Renault Winery Resort, a 150-year-old property in Egg Harbor City, outside Atlantic City. Since 1977, Renault has been owned by Joseph Milza, a one-time newspaper owner and publisher who made his 1,400-acre spread a weekend destination by adding a 50-room hotel, a restaurant, and an 18-hole, Ed Shearon-designed golf course. Someone must have told him that the property’s sandy soils weren’t just good for growing grapes. The Press of Atlantic City reports that the buyer is a group based in New Jersey. It’s currently doing its due diligence and expects to settle on the purchase sometime during the first quarter of this year.
One of the oldest golf courses in Texas has a new owner. On January 1, Glen Rhodes took possession of the Challenge at the Woods, an 18-hole track in Jacksonville that opened (as Cherokee Country Club) in 1936. The course was redesigned by Matt Dye in 2008. Rhodes bought the course from Challenge Golf Group, which had owned it since 2009. CGG now owns five golf properties in Texas and others in North and South Carolina.
Ray Watts has picked up his second golf property on South Carolina’s Grand Strand, and he’s on the prowl for another. Watts, the owner of Island Green Country Club in Myrtle Beach, has reportedly paid $1.15 million for Wedgefield Plantation, a property that had been owned by George Marlowe since 2009. The 42-year-old club features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Porter Gibson and Bob Toski. In an effort to generate more play at both of his properties, Watts plans to offer affordably priced joint memberships to local golfers. Wedgefield currently has only 80 members, while Island Green has about 110. Watts told the Myrtle Beach Sun News that he hopes to buy more courses on the Strand and may soon acquire one from outside the area. “I’m always looking,” he noted. The Wedgefield transaction closed in mid December 2013.
By an overwhelming margin, the stockholders of Perry Golf Club, in Perry, Georgia, have voted to sell their 123-acre property to the owner of a local construction company. For an undisclosed price, Marty Myers has agreed to rescue the struggling club, which opened in 1950 and features an 18-hole, 6,465-yard golf course. “Our membership is down,” the club’s president wrote in a letter to the stockholders, “[and] with all the rain this year, we didn’t get the play to generate the income we needed to survive.” The transaction is expected to close later this month, according to the Macon Telegraph.
Thanks to some neighbors, a family-owned golf course in Murrysville, Pennsylvania won’t be converted into a subdivision. In late 2013, just months after a residential developer requested a zoning change on Murrysville Golf Course, Gary Bowser closed on the 137-acre property. He didn’t reveal the purchase price, but he told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he intends to operate the course “for the foreseeable future.” Bowser and his wife bought the course from Recreation, Inc., an entity controlled by Jim Geiger. Geiger’s grandparents, James and Georgina Noble, opened the 18-hole layout in 1930.
In late 2013 or early 2014, a veteran PGA pro acquired the only golf course in Kingman, Kansas. “I like the possibilities that Kingman Country Club represents,” Danny Cline told the Hutchinson News. The club features a nine-hole course that opened in 1923. Cline, who’s worked at courses in Kansas and four other states, bought it from Marvin Miller, for an undisclosed price. Cline assumed control of the property on January 1.
The University of Louisville has closed on its purchase of the Cardinal Club, the home of its men’s and women’s golf teams. The club, which opened in 2001 as one of the University Clubs of America, will remain private, but with a ho-hum new name: University of Louisville Golf Course.
Last month, David Chastain professed to be “pretty sure” that he’d be able to strike a deal for Twin Lakes Golf Course, a non-functioning 18-hole layout in Arab, Alabama. He was wrong. Chastain and the course’s owner, Bill Pike, failed to come to an agreement, and the Arab Tribune says that Pike is currently negotiating with a group that wishes to remain anonymous.
Last fall, a Chinese group acquired the long-suffering Stallion Mountain Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. The track, part of a gated community located seven miles from the Strip, made the big time when it hosted the Frank Sinatra Celebrity Classic. Stallion Mountain, which made its debut (as Sunrise Country Club) in 1992, has had several owners, and it was once controlled by the federal government. It now belongs to C-Bons International Golf Group, an entity that appears to be affiliated with C-Bons Holding (International) Ltd., a conglomerate based in Wuhan, Hubei Province. C-Bons owns two other U.S. golf properties, both in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona: Moon Valley Country Club and Western Skies Golf Club. Stallion Mountain once had three golf courses, but only one remains: An 18-hole track co-designed by Jim Colbert (Sunrise’s original owner) and Jeff Brauer. The name of the seller can’t be determined from online records, but in 2011 the club was sold out of foreclosure (for $3.8 million) to Tartan Golf Management of Dublin, Ohio.
The only winery in New Jersey with its own golf course may soon be changing hands. An unidentified party has agreed to buy Renault Winery Resort, a 150-year-old property in Egg Harbor City, outside Atlantic City. Since 1977, Renault has been owned by Joseph Milza, a one-time newspaper owner and publisher who made his 1,400-acre spread a weekend destination by adding a 50-room hotel, a restaurant, and an 18-hole, Ed Shearon-designed golf course. Someone must have told him that the property’s sandy soils weren’t just good for growing grapes. The Press of Atlantic City reports that the buyer is a group based in New Jersey. It’s currently doing its due diligence and expects to settle on the purchase sometime during the first quarter of this year.
One of the oldest golf courses in Texas has a new owner. On January 1, Glen Rhodes took possession of the Challenge at the Woods, an 18-hole track in Jacksonville that opened (as Cherokee Country Club) in 1936. The course was redesigned by Matt Dye in 2008. Rhodes bought the course from Challenge Golf Group, which had owned it since 2009. CGG now owns five golf properties in Texas and others in North and South Carolina.
Ray Watts has picked up his second golf property on South Carolina’s Grand Strand, and he’s on the prowl for another. Watts, the owner of Island Green Country Club in Myrtle Beach, has reportedly paid $1.15 million for Wedgefield Plantation, a property that had been owned by George Marlowe since 2009. The 42-year-old club features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Porter Gibson and Bob Toski. In an effort to generate more play at both of his properties, Watts plans to offer affordably priced joint memberships to local golfers. Wedgefield currently has only 80 members, while Island Green has about 110. Watts told the Myrtle Beach Sun News that he hopes to buy more courses on the Strand and may soon acquire one from outside the area. “I’m always looking,” he noted. The Wedgefield transaction closed in mid December 2013.
By an overwhelming margin, the stockholders of Perry Golf Club, in Perry, Georgia, have voted to sell their 123-acre property to the owner of a local construction company. For an undisclosed price, Marty Myers has agreed to rescue the struggling club, which opened in 1950 and features an 18-hole, 6,465-yard golf course. “Our membership is down,” the club’s president wrote in a letter to the stockholders, “[and] with all the rain this year, we didn’t get the play to generate the income we needed to survive.” The transaction is expected to close later this month, according to the Macon Telegraph.
Thanks to some neighbors, a family-owned golf course in Murrysville, Pennsylvania won’t be converted into a subdivision. In late 2013, just months after a residential developer requested a zoning change on Murrysville Golf Course, Gary Bowser closed on the 137-acre property. He didn’t reveal the purchase price, but he told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he intends to operate the course “for the foreseeable future.” Bowser and his wife bought the course from Recreation, Inc., an entity controlled by Jim Geiger. Geiger’s grandparents, James and Georgina Noble, opened the 18-hole layout in 1930.
In late 2013 or early 2014, a veteran PGA pro acquired the only golf course in Kingman, Kansas. “I like the possibilities that Kingman Country Club represents,” Danny Cline told the Hutchinson News. The club features a nine-hole course that opened in 1923. Cline, who’s worked at courses in Kansas and four other states, bought it from Marvin Miller, for an undisclosed price. Cline assumed control of the property on January 1.
The University of Louisville has closed on its purchase of the Cardinal Club, the home of its men’s and women’s golf teams. The club, which opened in 2001 as one of the University Clubs of America, will remain private, but with a ho-hum new name: University of Louisville Golf Course.
Last month, David Chastain professed to be “pretty sure” that he’d be able to strike a deal for Twin Lakes Golf Course, a non-functioning 18-hole layout in Arab, Alabama. He was wrong. Chastain and the course’s owner, Bill Pike, failed to come to an agreement, and the Arab Tribune says that Pike is currently negotiating with a group that wishes to remain anonymous.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
The Week That Was, january 19, 2014
To absolutely nobody’s surprise, the financially challenged Doonbeg Golf Club has been turned over to receivers. The club, which features a Greg Norman-designed golf course, is often said to be among the top golf destinations in Ireland, but it also hasn’t had a profitable year of operation since it opened in the early 2000s. Through 2011, it had lost more than $70 million. Doonbeg’s financial performance helped to strain relations between the principals of Kiawah Partners, Charles “Buddy” Darby and Leonard Long, who last year sold the club and other golf holdings to South Street Partners, a North Carolina-based investment firm. South Street never once expressed a desire to hang onto Doonbeg. The receivers have said that they’ve already received several offers for the property, the majority of them from foreign prospects.
What’s missing from Golf Digest’s inaugural compilation of the World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses? The answer is intriguing, especially when one considers all the attention our industry pays nowadays to the growth of international golf: Golf Digest’s evaluators didn’t identify even one truly elite golf property in South America, the Middle East, or India, and they found precious few in Europe (two), Africa (two), the Caribbean (one), and Mexico (one) -- all places that are supposedly teeming with high-quality golf venues. Instead, the magazine’s freshly minted World 100 is packed solid with courses located in the United States (40) and Great Britain & Ireland (32), as such lists always seem to be. Golf Digest predicts that its rankings will “change dramatically” in the future, as emerging golf markets begin to produce world-class tracks, but these days there’s no reason to believe that its evaluators will ever be inclined to trade the classic old courses they’ve long revered for recently opened upstarts.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the January 2014 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Has yet another scheduling snafu engulfed the 2016 Olympics? Within a month or so, the Guardian reports, all 18 holes at Venue Reserva de Marapendi in Rio de Janeiro will be shaped and ready to be grassed. But the grassing can’t begin until the course’s irrigation system is installed. And nobody seems to know when that will happen. Which is surprising, because just last November, Tim Finchem himself announced that the irrigation unit had “boarded a ship in Los Angeles and was headed for the Panama Canal.” So where is it now?
The golfers of metropolitan San Francisco, California won an important battle last week, as the city’s planning commission implicitly endorsed the bitterly debated restoration of Sharp Park Golf Course. The 18-hole, municipal layout, an Alister MacKenzie design that dates from the early 1930s, has been in need of a total overhaul for well over a decade. Because the course is home to some endangered species, however, environmentalists have been fighting the improvement plans for years, both in and out of court, their goal being to return the property to something resembling its natural state. “It’s inevitable that this project is going to be stopped,” an opponent proclaimed to the San Francisco Chronicle. “The only question is how soon it will happen.” In the most recent round of hostilities, opponents demanded a full environmental impact report on the restoration proposal, a request that the commission unanimously rejected. The course’s fate is now in the hands of the city/county recreation and park commission. If it rules in favor of the restoration, an appeal will be filed with the board of supervisors.
In a deal that must sound like music to his ears, Darren Clarke has agreed to serve as a “global ambassador” for a famous rock-’n’-roller’s golf club in Shropshire, England. For the next three years, the winner of the Open Championship in 2011 will be promoting The Astbury, an increasingly popular golf venue created just four years ago by K. K. Downing, the lead guitarist for Judas Priest. Downing says that his arrangement with Clarke will be “crucial in helping The Astbury become the international destination it deserves to be.” The club, which opened as Astbury Hall, features a 6,500-yard course designed by Downing, who had an opportunity to play most of the world’s greatest golf courses during decades of touring. The track was the butt of many jokes when it opened, but today it usually gets the last laugh. Next, Downing plans to build “a Darren Clarke village” on his 300-acre property, along with “the biggest, best, and most futuristic spa in Britain.” In the future, he may also add a third nine.
KemperSports has added a 13th property to its portfolio of private clubs. The Northbrook, Illinois-based firm has assumed management of Greeley Country Club, one of Colorado’s oldest golf properties. It expects to sharpen the club’s marketing programs and make the club more attractive to prospective members. “As the private club business has gotten more difficult to manage and our marketing needs have become more apparent,” Greeley’s president said in a press release, “the club’s board of directors decided it was in the best interest of the club to get a professional club management company to help us manage and market the club.” Greeley is KemperSports’ first golf property in Colorado. The club dates from 1920, when it unveiled a nine-hole, Tom Bendelow-designed golf course. In 1962, Press Maxwell redesigned Bendelow’s holes and added nine of his own.
One of Wisconsin’s oldest golf clubs didn’t waste a lot of time finding its new owner. Mark Bergman, a PGA pro, purchased Old Hickory Golf Club, in Beaver Dam, earlier this month, reportedly for $1.1 million. The club opened in 1920, with a nine-hole, Tom Bendelow-designed course. In the late 1960s, Billy Sixty, Jr. integrated Bendelow’s holes into a new 18-hole track. Old Hickory officially went on the market in mid November 2013. It’s been struggling in recent years, as its membership has fallen from nearly 400 in 1991 to about 150 today. “Golf clubs are struggling everywhere,” Old Hickory’s president told the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen, “and we feel it’s best for us to transition at this point.” Berman bought Beaver Dam with his cousin, Tim Kumbier.
The National Club Association has elected two women to its board of directors. Joining the association’s mostly male board are Christine Pooler, the general manager of Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania, and Terra Waldron, the COO of Desert Highlands Association in Scottsdale, Arizona. Both women have lots of experience in the golf industry, and both previously served on the board of the association’s foundation. Curiously, though, a press release announcing the appointments fails to include any congratulations for Pooler and Waldron and not a single comment from an NCA officer about their professional expertise. Can anyone explain why not?
Pace-of-play police are about to crack down on the geriatric golfers in Sun City, Arizona. You heard right: Teams of volunteer “golf rangers” have been enlisted to patrol the seniors-only community’s seven golf courses and issue citations to fellow retirees who might be having a “while we’re young” moment during their rounds. Which begs a question: Does such a program attract or repel golfers advancing toward old age?
What’s missing from Golf Digest’s inaugural compilation of the World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses? The answer is intriguing, especially when one considers all the attention our industry pays nowadays to the growth of international golf: Golf Digest’s evaluators didn’t identify even one truly elite golf property in South America, the Middle East, or India, and they found precious few in Europe (two), Africa (two), the Caribbean (one), and Mexico (one) -- all places that are supposedly teeming with high-quality golf venues. Instead, the magazine’s freshly minted World 100 is packed solid with courses located in the United States (40) and Great Britain & Ireland (32), as such lists always seem to be. Golf Digest predicts that its rankings will “change dramatically” in the future, as emerging golf markets begin to produce world-class tracks, but these days there’s no reason to believe that its evaluators will ever be inclined to trade the classic old courses they’ve long revered for recently opened upstarts.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the January 2014 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Has yet another scheduling snafu engulfed the 2016 Olympics? Within a month or so, the Guardian reports, all 18 holes at Venue Reserva de Marapendi in Rio de Janeiro will be shaped and ready to be grassed. But the grassing can’t begin until the course’s irrigation system is installed. And nobody seems to know when that will happen. Which is surprising, because just last November, Tim Finchem himself announced that the irrigation unit had “boarded a ship in Los Angeles and was headed for the Panama Canal.” So where is it now?
The golfers of metropolitan San Francisco, California won an important battle last week, as the city’s planning commission implicitly endorsed the bitterly debated restoration of Sharp Park Golf Course. The 18-hole, municipal layout, an Alister MacKenzie design that dates from the early 1930s, has been in need of a total overhaul for well over a decade. Because the course is home to some endangered species, however, environmentalists have been fighting the improvement plans for years, both in and out of court, their goal being to return the property to something resembling its natural state. “It’s inevitable that this project is going to be stopped,” an opponent proclaimed to the San Francisco Chronicle. “The only question is how soon it will happen.” In the most recent round of hostilities, opponents demanded a full environmental impact report on the restoration proposal, a request that the commission unanimously rejected. The course’s fate is now in the hands of the city/county recreation and park commission. If it rules in favor of the restoration, an appeal will be filed with the board of supervisors.
In a deal that must sound like music to his ears, Darren Clarke has agreed to serve as a “global ambassador” for a famous rock-’n’-roller’s golf club in Shropshire, England. For the next three years, the winner of the Open Championship in 2011 will be promoting The Astbury, an increasingly popular golf venue created just four years ago by K. K. Downing, the lead guitarist for Judas Priest. Downing says that his arrangement with Clarke will be “crucial in helping The Astbury become the international destination it deserves to be.” The club, which opened as Astbury Hall, features a 6,500-yard course designed by Downing, who had an opportunity to play most of the world’s greatest golf courses during decades of touring. The track was the butt of many jokes when it opened, but today it usually gets the last laugh. Next, Downing plans to build “a Darren Clarke village” on his 300-acre property, along with “the biggest, best, and most futuristic spa in Britain.” In the future, he may also add a third nine.
KemperSports has added a 13th property to its portfolio of private clubs. The Northbrook, Illinois-based firm has assumed management of Greeley Country Club, one of Colorado’s oldest golf properties. It expects to sharpen the club’s marketing programs and make the club more attractive to prospective members. “As the private club business has gotten more difficult to manage and our marketing needs have become more apparent,” Greeley’s president said in a press release, “the club’s board of directors decided it was in the best interest of the club to get a professional club management company to help us manage and market the club.” Greeley is KemperSports’ first golf property in Colorado. The club dates from 1920, when it unveiled a nine-hole, Tom Bendelow-designed golf course. In 1962, Press Maxwell redesigned Bendelow’s holes and added nine of his own.
One of Wisconsin’s oldest golf clubs didn’t waste a lot of time finding its new owner. Mark Bergman, a PGA pro, purchased Old Hickory Golf Club, in Beaver Dam, earlier this month, reportedly for $1.1 million. The club opened in 1920, with a nine-hole, Tom Bendelow-designed course. In the late 1960s, Billy Sixty, Jr. integrated Bendelow’s holes into a new 18-hole track. Old Hickory officially went on the market in mid November 2013. It’s been struggling in recent years, as its membership has fallen from nearly 400 in 1991 to about 150 today. “Golf clubs are struggling everywhere,” Old Hickory’s president told the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen, “and we feel it’s best for us to transition at this point.” Berman bought Beaver Dam with his cousin, Tim Kumbier.
The National Club Association has elected two women to its board of directors. Joining the association’s mostly male board are Christine Pooler, the general manager of Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania, and Terra Waldron, the COO of Desert Highlands Association in Scottsdale, Arizona. Both women have lots of experience in the golf industry, and both previously served on the board of the association’s foundation. Curiously, though, a press release announcing the appointments fails to include any congratulations for Pooler and Waldron and not a single comment from an NCA officer about their professional expertise. Can anyone explain why not?
Pace-of-play police are about to crack down on the geriatric golfers in Sun City, Arizona. You heard right: Teams of volunteer “golf rangers” have been enlisted to patrol the seniors-only community’s seven golf courses and issue citations to fellow retirees who might be having a “while we’re young” moment during their rounds. Which begs a question: Does such a program attract or repel golfers advancing toward old age?
Friday, January 17, 2014
Vital Signs, january 17, 2014
The supply of U.S. golf properties continued to shrink in 2013, as waning demand led to a net loss of 143.5 courses. The national inventory has fallen for eight consecutive years, according to the National Golf Foundation, which in 2013 counted just 14 openings as opposed to 157.5 closings. (The trade group counts a nine-hole layout as half of a whole golf course.) The NGF calls the declines “a gradual, natural market correction” and predicts that our nation will lose between 130 and 160 courses annually “for the next few years.” As in years past, the dearly departed in 2013 were overwhelmingly (97 percent) public tracks, two-thirds of which charged less than $40 a round. In all, says the NGF, the United States has lost 643 “18-hole equivalent” courses since 2006. The current total stands at either 14,564.5 or 14,679.5, depending on which of the NGF’s numbers one uses.
Are good times having a damaging effect on Thailand’s golf business? In early 2013, Golfasian predicted that Thailand would surpass Spain as the world's most popular golf vacation destination in 2015 or 2016, provided that the nation maintained the pace of growth it’s established of late. Today, a contributor to the tour operator’s website acknowledges, “I doubt that this will ever happen.” The contributor, who appears to be the company’s principal, Mark Siegel, blames the problem on fast-increasing greens fees (“even an average course in the Kingdom can cost $100 a round”), overcrowded golf courses, and a shortage of quality caddies. “While golf in Thailand is still an experience to remember for a lifetime,” the contributor writes, “there are clear signs that the sensational growth in golf tourism may slow or, worse, hit a brick wall soon.”
Abu Dhabi continues to score with international travelers, as last year the emirate’s half-dozen (or maybe seven) golf courses rang up a 49 percent increase in the number of “overseas” rounds played compared to 2012. The Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority didn’t reveal the actual numbers, probably because they aren’t very large. The emirate’s championship-caliber venues -- particularly Abu Dhabi Golf Club, Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, and Yas Links -- certainly deserve much of the credit for generating traffic, but don’t overlook the contributions made by the nearly 400 tour operators who promote, package, and book golf holidays in the Middle East. Abu Dhabi has a lot of salespeople working on its behalf.
What keeps the operators of British golf clubs from getting a good night’s sleep? They worry most about slow play, shrinking memberships, and the weather, according to a survey by Sky Sports News. An overwhelming number of the more than 250 clubs that responded to the survey -- 94 percent -- complained about the time required to play an average round, while 70 percent reported that they’ve lost members over the past five years, particularly among juniors and women. In addition, 71 percent of the respondents say they’ve lost at least 15 days of play over the past three years due to lousy weather, and 37 percent say they’ve lost more than 31 days. Another cause for concern: 81 percent of the clubs noted that their members are predominantly people older than 51.
Wealthy Americans may not yet be writing checks to private golf clubs, but they’re signing on the dotted line for luxury auto dealers. Maserati, Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Bentley all posted double-digit sales increases last year -- further evidence that the nation’s high rollers have put the Great Recession in their rear-view mirrors. “Luxury is not a dirty word anymore,” an automotive consultant for the Robb Report opined to the New York Times. So why do under-subscribed private clubs still believe that their prime prospects don’t have a lot of disposable income?
Is Bali about to become a victim of its own success? Over the past decade, as memories of terrorist bombings have faded, vacationers have returned to the island and developers have responded by building a parade of hotels, shopping areas, meeting space, and golf courses. The result: Wall-to-wall congestion, numbing commercialism, and traffic jams. “Many tourists complain about the current condition of Bali,” a top tourism official said in a comment published by Hotel Chatter. “Too many buildings make them feel uncomfortable, as it is too crowded. Buildings are everywhere, and it is hard to find green areas.” As a consequence, a tourism-industry group wants local governments to impose a moratorium on hotel construction, an idea resisted by business interests. The moral of the story: Yes, you can have too much of a good thing. Sometimes, less really is more.
New Zealand, a nation with roughly 400 golf courses, is fast becoming a favorite destination for Chinese travelers. More than 236,000 tourists from the People’s Republic visited New Zealand during the first nine months of last year, a 50 percent increase from the number posted in 2012. According to Reuters, the Kiwi government believes that the number will reach 1 million by 2015.
Are good times having a damaging effect on Thailand’s golf business? In early 2013, Golfasian predicted that Thailand would surpass Spain as the world's most popular golf vacation destination in 2015 or 2016, provided that the nation maintained the pace of growth it’s established of late. Today, a contributor to the tour operator’s website acknowledges, “I doubt that this will ever happen.” The contributor, who appears to be the company’s principal, Mark Siegel, blames the problem on fast-increasing greens fees (“even an average course in the Kingdom can cost $100 a round”), overcrowded golf courses, and a shortage of quality caddies. “While golf in Thailand is still an experience to remember for a lifetime,” the contributor writes, “there are clear signs that the sensational growth in golf tourism may slow or, worse, hit a brick wall soon.”
Abu Dhabi continues to score with international travelers, as last year the emirate’s half-dozen (or maybe seven) golf courses rang up a 49 percent increase in the number of “overseas” rounds played compared to 2012. The Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority didn’t reveal the actual numbers, probably because they aren’t very large. The emirate’s championship-caliber venues -- particularly Abu Dhabi Golf Club, Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, and Yas Links -- certainly deserve much of the credit for generating traffic, but don’t overlook the contributions made by the nearly 400 tour operators who promote, package, and book golf holidays in the Middle East. Abu Dhabi has a lot of salespeople working on its behalf.
What keeps the operators of British golf clubs from getting a good night’s sleep? They worry most about slow play, shrinking memberships, and the weather, according to a survey by Sky Sports News. An overwhelming number of the more than 250 clubs that responded to the survey -- 94 percent -- complained about the time required to play an average round, while 70 percent reported that they’ve lost members over the past five years, particularly among juniors and women. In addition, 71 percent of the respondents say they’ve lost at least 15 days of play over the past three years due to lousy weather, and 37 percent say they’ve lost more than 31 days. Another cause for concern: 81 percent of the clubs noted that their members are predominantly people older than 51.
Wealthy Americans may not yet be writing checks to private golf clubs, but they’re signing on the dotted line for luxury auto dealers. Maserati, Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Bentley all posted double-digit sales increases last year -- further evidence that the nation’s high rollers have put the Great Recession in their rear-view mirrors. “Luxury is not a dirty word anymore,” an automotive consultant for the Robb Report opined to the New York Times. So why do under-subscribed private clubs still believe that their prime prospects don’t have a lot of disposable income?
Is Bali about to become a victim of its own success? Over the past decade, as memories of terrorist bombings have faded, vacationers have returned to the island and developers have responded by building a parade of hotels, shopping areas, meeting space, and golf courses. The result: Wall-to-wall congestion, numbing commercialism, and traffic jams. “Many tourists complain about the current condition of Bali,” a top tourism official said in a comment published by Hotel Chatter. “Too many buildings make them feel uncomfortable, as it is too crowded. Buildings are everywhere, and it is hard to find green areas.” As a consequence, a tourism-industry group wants local governments to impose a moratorium on hotel construction, an idea resisted by business interests. The moral of the story: Yes, you can have too much of a good thing. Sometimes, less really is more.
New Zealand, a nation with roughly 400 golf courses, is fast becoming a favorite destination for Chinese travelers. More than 236,000 tourists from the People’s Republic visited New Zealand during the first nine months of last year, a 50 percent increase from the number posted in 2012. According to Reuters, the Kiwi government believes that the number will reach 1 million by 2015.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
The Week That Was, january 12, 2014
The first golf course at Sand Valley, Mike Keiser’s forthcoming golf complex in Rome, Wisconsin, will be co-designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. “My model for them is a combination of Pine Valley, Sand Hills, and National Golf Links, on the dunes of Long Island,” Keiser told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Those three are my models -- not to duplicate, but just to be inspired by.” If construction begins in September, as Keiser expects, the course will open to its 120 founding members in 2016 and to the hoi polloi in 2017. Keiser believes that his 1,500-acre property can accommodate as many as five courses, and he said that he’d consider Tom Fazio and Jack Nicklaus as designers for Sand Valley’s future tracks. However, he also acknowledged that Fazio and Nicklaus are on “the broad list,” not the short list.
In a transaction that closed in mid December 2013, CF Arcis LLC acquired the financially challenged Tartan Fields Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Arcis reportedly paid $5.87 million for the 16-year-old private club, which has been in the hands of a receiver since 2009, when it defaulted on a loan. Tartan Fields features an 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed golf course. It’s the centerpiece of a community developed by Tom Anderson, who once also owned Golf Club of Dublin. Arcis is an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, a New York City-based firm that invests in undervalued and distressed assets. Last year, the partners also bought three golf properties from BrightStar Golf Group, including Pradera Golf Club in suburban Denver, Colorado and TPC Snoqualmie Ridge in suburban Seattle, Washington. In addition, in a transaction that was supposed to close late last year, they agreed to buy American Golf Company’s golf portfolio.
The “new vogue” among China’s wealthy, according to China Daily, is running. The newspaper says that the elites are “trading the relatively relaxing sport of golf” for “grueling races” that enable them “to post online photos of themselves crossing finish lines, dribbling sweat.” When it comes to making a meaningful statement about where China’s golf business is headed, such reports signify little. Nonetheless, the newspaper’s observation is worth noting for future reference.
As part of an effort to conserve local liquid assets, a pair of private golf clubs in Maumelle, Arkansas may soon be forced to pay for water that they currently draw out of Lake Willastein for free. “I’m pro business,” an alderman who supports the measure told KARK-TV, “but also, businesses need to stand on their own.” Some local residents believe that the clubs have become too reliant on the lake’s water, which is a public resource that can be exhausted. The clubs have recoiled from the alderman’s price proposals, which would require them to pay $2,000 for the first 6 million gallons they use, but they may settle for a compromise offered by the city’s mayor: $600 for 6 million gallons.
A bankrupt golf course in Reno, Nevada has found a new owner. Tom Duncan has reportedly paid $5.5 million for LakeRidge Golf Club, a 45-year-old facility that features a Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course. “We couldn’t be more thrilled,” Duncan told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “It’s a premier golf course anywhere.” LakeRidge had been owned by Hash Lane Holdings LLC, a group controlled by the late Nate Topol. Hash Lane went belly up in June 2013. Duncan closed on LakeRidge in late 2013. He also owns Wolf Run Golf Club in Reno and Dayton Valley Golf Club in nearby Dayton, and he manages two other courses in the area.
Troon Golf has added a sixth golf property to its Moroccan portfolio. Palmeraie Development Group has hired Troon to manage PalmGolf Club Marrakech, whose original 18-hole layout was designed by Robert Trent Jones and opened in 1992. (A third nine, designed by Stephane Talbot, opened in 2008.) Bruce Glasco, the managing director of Troon’s international operations, called the contract a “testament to our ongoing desire to exceed expectations” and ability to deliver “an unrivalled visitor experience.” PDG is familiar with Troon’s capabilities, as it employs the Scottsdale, Arizona-based firm at Les Jardins de l’Atlas in Marrakech and has hired it to manage the forthcoming California Golf Resort in Casablanca. Troon’s other properties in Morocco include Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort in El Jadida and Oued Fes Golf Course in Fes.
As expected, OB Sports has finalized the contract to operate the city of Tucson’s five golf courses. Under the agreement, according to KOLD-TV, OB Sports will assume management of the courses on February 1.
Late last year, the world’s oldest golf society narrowly avoided having an unpleasant appointment with the harsh realities of modern life. The 279-year-old Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh, which has from the beginning limited its membership to men, held a vote on whether it should open its doors to women. The result: Of the 416 members who cast a ballot, 56 percent voted to maintain the status quo. The vote was monitored closely by golf clubs in Scotland, for it was feared that if Royal Burgess chose to admit women, the nation’s other all-male clubs -- Muirfield, Royal Troon, and Royal St. George’s among them -- might be forced to as well.
In a transaction that closed in mid December 2013, CF Arcis LLC acquired the financially challenged Tartan Fields Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Arcis reportedly paid $5.87 million for the 16-year-old private club, which has been in the hands of a receiver since 2009, when it defaulted on a loan. Tartan Fields features an 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed golf course. It’s the centerpiece of a community developed by Tom Anderson, who once also owned Golf Club of Dublin. Arcis is an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, a New York City-based firm that invests in undervalued and distressed assets. Last year, the partners also bought three golf properties from BrightStar Golf Group, including Pradera Golf Club in suburban Denver, Colorado and TPC Snoqualmie Ridge in suburban Seattle, Washington. In addition, in a transaction that was supposed to close late last year, they agreed to buy American Golf Company’s golf portfolio.
The “new vogue” among China’s wealthy, according to China Daily, is running. The newspaper says that the elites are “trading the relatively relaxing sport of golf” for “grueling races” that enable them “to post online photos of themselves crossing finish lines, dribbling sweat.” When it comes to making a meaningful statement about where China’s golf business is headed, such reports signify little. Nonetheless, the newspaper’s observation is worth noting for future reference.
As part of an effort to conserve local liquid assets, a pair of private golf clubs in Maumelle, Arkansas may soon be forced to pay for water that they currently draw out of Lake Willastein for free. “I’m pro business,” an alderman who supports the measure told KARK-TV, “but also, businesses need to stand on their own.” Some local residents believe that the clubs have become too reliant on the lake’s water, which is a public resource that can be exhausted. The clubs have recoiled from the alderman’s price proposals, which would require them to pay $2,000 for the first 6 million gallons they use, but they may settle for a compromise offered by the city’s mayor: $600 for 6 million gallons.
A bankrupt golf course in Reno, Nevada has found a new owner. Tom Duncan has reportedly paid $5.5 million for LakeRidge Golf Club, a 45-year-old facility that features a Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course. “We couldn’t be more thrilled,” Duncan told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “It’s a premier golf course anywhere.” LakeRidge had been owned by Hash Lane Holdings LLC, a group controlled by the late Nate Topol. Hash Lane went belly up in June 2013. Duncan closed on LakeRidge in late 2013. He also owns Wolf Run Golf Club in Reno and Dayton Valley Golf Club in nearby Dayton, and he manages two other courses in the area.
Troon Golf has added a sixth golf property to its Moroccan portfolio. Palmeraie Development Group has hired Troon to manage PalmGolf Club Marrakech, whose original 18-hole layout was designed by Robert Trent Jones and opened in 1992. (A third nine, designed by Stephane Talbot, opened in 2008.) Bruce Glasco, the managing director of Troon’s international operations, called the contract a “testament to our ongoing desire to exceed expectations” and ability to deliver “an unrivalled visitor experience.” PDG is familiar with Troon’s capabilities, as it employs the Scottsdale, Arizona-based firm at Les Jardins de l’Atlas in Marrakech and has hired it to manage the forthcoming California Golf Resort in Casablanca. Troon’s other properties in Morocco include Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort in El Jadida and Oued Fes Golf Course in Fes.
As expected, OB Sports has finalized the contract to operate the city of Tucson’s five golf courses. Under the agreement, according to KOLD-TV, OB Sports will assume management of the courses on February 1.
Late last year, the world’s oldest golf society narrowly avoided having an unpleasant appointment with the harsh realities of modern life. The 279-year-old Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh, which has from the beginning limited its membership to men, held a vote on whether it should open its doors to women. The result: Of the 416 members who cast a ballot, 56 percent voted to maintain the status quo. The vote was monitored closely by golf clubs in Scotland, for it was feared that if Royal Burgess chose to admit women, the nation’s other all-male clubs -- Muirfield, Royal Troon, and Royal St. George’s among them -- might be forced to as well.
Friday, January 10, 2014
The Pipeline, january 10, 2014
Is the National Golf Foundation still wearing rose-colored glasses, or is it viewing the world of golf development clearly? The trade group counts roughly 170 golf projects currently in planning or under construction in the United States, enough to conclude that there is “meaningful development activity in the pipeline.” What’s more, the trade group has determined that the total amount of development activity in the Americas and the Caribbean -- an additional 150 projects -- “outstrips any other region of the world, including Asia.” If the NGF’s numbers are accurate, China may very well be yesterday’s development news.
One of the premier “lifestyle” developers in the United States is looking to build a high-end golf community on Long Island. An affiliate of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Discovery Land Company is eyeing 436 acres in East Quogue, New York for an enclave that would feature a Tom Fazio-designed course surrounded by 82 luxury houses. The community, called the Hills at East Quogue, was initiated several years ago by a local development group whose pockets weren’t nearly as deep as DLC’s. Fazio has long been one of DLC’s most effective collaborators. The company has developed 14 U.S. golf properties, and Fazio has created courses for a half-dozen of them, including the Madison Club in La Quinta, California; Gozzer Ranch in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Iron Horse in Whitefish, Montana; and Mirabel in North Scottsdale, Arizona. The venture in New York is no sure thing -- the East End Beacon reports that the area’s residents have “mixed views” about it, and DLC hasn’t yet secured the rezoning it needs to proceed with construction -- but it suggests that top-of-the-market residential developers still believe that celebrity-designed courses can help to sell houses.
Kerala, a state in southwestern India, has set out to build its fourth international airport, and it’ll be accompanied by an aerotropolis featuring at least one golf course. Kannur International Airport, a single-runway facility to be located on 2,500 acres just west of Mattannur, is scheduled to open in late 2015. Its creation is being overseen by a government-led consortium, Kannur International Airport, Ltd., although most of its planned development ventures will be carried out by private-sector groups. KIAL has master-planned the aerotropolis to include a convention center, hotels, business parks, warehouses, and an unspecified number of golf courses. The initial construction projects, most of them related to the airport itself, will likely be awarded in the spring of next year.
The preceding post originally appeared in the November 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Now that the world’s coldest capital city has opened its first all-grass golf course, how long before it opens its second? Odjargal Jambaljamts, the Oxford-educated leader of the group that owns Mount Bogd Golf Club in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, hasn’t yet answered that question, but his decision will likely involve more than mere dollars and cents. Mount Bogd officially opened in June 2013, and Jambaljamts certainly didn’t build it to satisfy local demand. Instead, he’s looking to create an internationally recognized golf community, a goal that will require him to give golf writers more than one good reason to visit a nation so far off the beaten track. That being said, Jambaljamts didn’t become Mongolia’s richest person by losing sight of the big picture. He expects Mount Bogd to attract the international businessmen who’ve begun to invest in the nation, and his MCS Group is helping his countrymen develop a taste for the Western lifestyle by brewing Genghis Khan Beer, bottling Coca-Cola, and distributing products manufactured by Procter & Gamble.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the October 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
A dumping ground southeast of Dubai’s international airport could become the home of the emirate’s next golf course. The course will be among the attractions at a wildlife-focused theme park that’s taking shape on up to 1,000 acres of municipally controlled land in the Al Warqa neighborhood, just down Al Awir Road from the Dubai Design Centre. “If it is not the best park in the world, it will be one of the best in the world,” the executive director of Dubai Municipality told local newspapers. The municipality aims to open the park in 2014. It hasn’t said whether it plans to build the course on its own or whether it plans to enlist a private group to do it.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the June 2012 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Rwanda’s third golf course is expected to meet “championship standards” and serve as the centerpiece of what Global Travel Industry News calls “a major golf resort.” The course has been master-planned to emerge along the shores of Lake Kivu, in the western part of the nation, as part of a community that will surround a planned marina. Rwanda currently has an 18-hole course in Kigali, the nation’s capital, and a nine-hole track, Falcon Golf & Country Club, in Rwamagana, in the Eastern Province. Additional golf ventures may be in the works, however, for the news service says that the sport is “growing in popularity” in Rwanda and that more courses are needed “to meet the growing demand.”
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the October 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Last fall, the head of Thomson Perrett & Lobb’s architectural practice in Cape Town, South Africa hung out his own shingle. “Africa is a huge potential market for golf and will give rise to some amazing courses in the future,” believes Andrew Goosen, who now operates as Morris Golf Company. Goosen will complete projects he was working on while at TPL, among them an unnamed course in Calabar, Nigeria; Plaine des Roches Golf Course on Mauritius; and Ponta Majumbo Golf Course in Maputo, Mozambique. He’s also designing a new course of his own, Kingfisher Hill Golf Course outside Hoedspruit, South Africa, and overseeing a renovation of Mananga Golf Course in Mananga, Swaziland. Goosen cites Harry Colt, Alister MacKenzie, and Old Tom Morris as inspirations and says that “classical principles of golf design” will serve as the foundation for his work.
Last fall, it was reported that professional golfer and “signature” architect Ernie Els had been contracted to design courses in Shenzhen, China and in Vietnam, and that staffers from his Jupiter, Florida-based design firm were also evaluating opportunities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and other nations. But there’s apparently a bit more work in Els’ personal pipeline. In a story published by the Irish Times, one of Els’ caddies says that his boss recently flew “to sign a deal for a course” near Kunming, China and that he also has a design agreement in Croatia. “With business commitments like these,” Colin Byrne wrote, “it’s important to have your own plane as an office when you are still competing with the best in your day job.”
One of the premier “lifestyle” developers in the United States is looking to build a high-end golf community on Long Island. An affiliate of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Discovery Land Company is eyeing 436 acres in East Quogue, New York for an enclave that would feature a Tom Fazio-designed course surrounded by 82 luxury houses. The community, called the Hills at East Quogue, was initiated several years ago by a local development group whose pockets weren’t nearly as deep as DLC’s. Fazio has long been one of DLC’s most effective collaborators. The company has developed 14 U.S. golf properties, and Fazio has created courses for a half-dozen of them, including the Madison Club in La Quinta, California; Gozzer Ranch in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Iron Horse in Whitefish, Montana; and Mirabel in North Scottsdale, Arizona. The venture in New York is no sure thing -- the East End Beacon reports that the area’s residents have “mixed views” about it, and DLC hasn’t yet secured the rezoning it needs to proceed with construction -- but it suggests that top-of-the-market residential developers still believe that celebrity-designed courses can help to sell houses.
Kerala, a state in southwestern India, has set out to build its fourth international airport, and it’ll be accompanied by an aerotropolis featuring at least one golf course. Kannur International Airport, a single-runway facility to be located on 2,500 acres just west of Mattannur, is scheduled to open in late 2015. Its creation is being overseen by a government-led consortium, Kannur International Airport, Ltd., although most of its planned development ventures will be carried out by private-sector groups. KIAL has master-planned the aerotropolis to include a convention center, hotels, business parks, warehouses, and an unspecified number of golf courses. The initial construction projects, most of them related to the airport itself, will likely be awarded in the spring of next year.
The preceding post originally appeared in the November 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Now that the world’s coldest capital city has opened its first all-grass golf course, how long before it opens its second? Odjargal Jambaljamts, the Oxford-educated leader of the group that owns Mount Bogd Golf Club in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, hasn’t yet answered that question, but his decision will likely involve more than mere dollars and cents. Mount Bogd officially opened in June 2013, and Jambaljamts certainly didn’t build it to satisfy local demand. Instead, he’s looking to create an internationally recognized golf community, a goal that will require him to give golf writers more than one good reason to visit a nation so far off the beaten track. That being said, Jambaljamts didn’t become Mongolia’s richest person by losing sight of the big picture. He expects Mount Bogd to attract the international businessmen who’ve begun to invest in the nation, and his MCS Group is helping his countrymen develop a taste for the Western lifestyle by brewing Genghis Khan Beer, bottling Coca-Cola, and distributing products manufactured by Procter & Gamble.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the October 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
A dumping ground southeast of Dubai’s international airport could become the home of the emirate’s next golf course. The course will be among the attractions at a wildlife-focused theme park that’s taking shape on up to 1,000 acres of municipally controlled land in the Al Warqa neighborhood, just down Al Awir Road from the Dubai Design Centre. “If it is not the best park in the world, it will be one of the best in the world,” the executive director of Dubai Municipality told local newspapers. The municipality aims to open the park in 2014. It hasn’t said whether it plans to build the course on its own or whether it plans to enlist a private group to do it.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the June 2012 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Rwanda’s third golf course is expected to meet “championship standards” and serve as the centerpiece of what Global Travel Industry News calls “a major golf resort.” The course has been master-planned to emerge along the shores of Lake Kivu, in the western part of the nation, as part of a community that will surround a planned marina. Rwanda currently has an 18-hole course in Kigali, the nation’s capital, and a nine-hole track, Falcon Golf & Country Club, in Rwamagana, in the Eastern Province. Additional golf ventures may be in the works, however, for the news service says that the sport is “growing in popularity” in Rwanda and that more courses are needed “to meet the growing demand.”
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the October 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Last fall, the head of Thomson Perrett & Lobb’s architectural practice in Cape Town, South Africa hung out his own shingle. “Africa is a huge potential market for golf and will give rise to some amazing courses in the future,” believes Andrew Goosen, who now operates as Morris Golf Company. Goosen will complete projects he was working on while at TPL, among them an unnamed course in Calabar, Nigeria; Plaine des Roches Golf Course on Mauritius; and Ponta Majumbo Golf Course in Maputo, Mozambique. He’s also designing a new course of his own, Kingfisher Hill Golf Course outside Hoedspruit, South Africa, and overseeing a renovation of Mananga Golf Course in Mananga, Swaziland. Goosen cites Harry Colt, Alister MacKenzie, and Old Tom Morris as inspirations and says that “classical principles of golf design” will serve as the foundation for his work.
Last fall, it was reported that professional golfer and “signature” architect Ernie Els had been contracted to design courses in Shenzhen, China and in Vietnam, and that staffers from his Jupiter, Florida-based design firm were also evaluating opportunities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and other nations. But there’s apparently a bit more work in Els’ personal pipeline. In a story published by the Irish Times, one of Els’ caddies says that his boss recently flew “to sign a deal for a course” near Kunming, China and that he also has a design agreement in Croatia. “With business commitments like these,” Colin Byrne wrote, “it’s important to have your own plane as an office when you are still competing with the best in your day job.”
Sunday, January 5, 2014
The Week That Was, january 5, 2014
Brown may be the new green in some golf circles, but a group of homeowners in Paradise Valley, Arizona clearly prefer the lush life. The homeowners are so angry about the recently completed overhaul of the Camelback Inn’s Indian Bend course (now called Ambiente) that they’ve lodged a formal complaint with town officials. The problem, they say, is that Marriott Corporation chopped down too many of the course’s trees -- more than 700, according to the Arizona Republic -- and replaced them with weed-like, eco-friendly, native vegetation that’s become “a habitat for rodents and frogs and a feeding ground for a growing number of coyotes.” Marriott insists that it complied with all of the town’s directives, and the town agrees. Still, the residents want Marriott to do some re-landscaping, because they believe the course’s new look is “a threat to health, safety, and aesthetics.”
In Oklahoma, government officials and a powerful development group appear to be headed for court. The state has voted to sue Pointe Vista Development, which agreed nearly eight years ago to build houses, a hotel, and resort attractions at Lake Texoma State Park and to improve the accompanying 18-hole golf course. Although the group promised to substantially complete the construction by May 2014, it hasn’t yet broken ground on anything. But the developers, an LLC led by Mark Fischer of Chaparral Energy and Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy Corporation, are sure to put up a fight. They blame the delays on a lousy economy and a lack of financing, and the lawsuit may give them a convenient excuse to put the project on hold indefinitely. “This legal path,” they said in a prepared statement, “will most assuredly delay any development efforts for many years.” Care to predict the outcome? Because in battles like this, nobody ultimately wins.
The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America has filled two high-level executive positions with people who have no experience in the golf business. Matt Shatto is the association’s new chief operating officer, and J. D. Dockstader is its chief business development officer. Shatto, a former dairy farmer, served most recently as North Kansas City, Missouri’s city administrator. Dockstader, the grandson of a golf course superintendent, comes from Mesa, Arizona, where he was the city’s director of commercial facilities. In a press release filled with corporate-speak, the association said the appointments will enable it “to create an alignment that better enables us to expand into areas of significant opportunity and help us implement our strategic priorities.”
The St. Andrews Links Trust, the over-zealous protector of all references to St. Andrews, has threatened legal action against the developers of St. Andrews International Golf Club, which is under construction on property just a few miles from the Old Course. The trust has long been complaining about the golf club’s name, and now it’s formally demanded that the developers change it by January 10. If the developers don’t comply with the trust’s wishes by then, the legal boom will presumably be lowered. The trust likes to throw its weight around, especially against small prey. In 2011, it forced a 50-year-old par-3 course in Florida to change its name, and last year it prevented St. Andrews Golf Company, a 130-year-old club maker based in a town outside St. Andrews, from trade-marking its name.
ClubLink Enterprises, Canada’s number-one owner and operator of golf properties, has acquired its 10th U.S. golf property. In late 2013, ClubLink paid $3.4 million for TPC Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs, the first property in the PGA Tour’s Tournament Players Club network. The 30-year-old club features an 18-hole, Arthur Hills-designed course that serves as the centerpiece of a gated community. It had been owned by Heritage Golf Group, which was foreclosed upon by its lender in 2012. ClubLink, which operates a golf membership club for Canadian snowbirds, has been buying golf properties in Florida since 2010. Today it owns six venues in Sun City Center (a total of 126 holes) and others in Coral Springs, Pompano Beach, and Tamarac. Its course in Coral Springs, Heron Bay Golf Club, began life as TPC at Heron Bay. In Canada, the company owns 29 golf properties in Ontario and five in Quebec.
Ty Warner, the tax evader and golf course owner, is hoping to avoid jail time for his crimes. Last fall, Warner pleaded guilty to avoiding $5.5 million in taxes on money he’d hidden in Swiss bank accounts. Now his lawyers are begging a district court judge to sentence him to probation and community service instead of the 46- to 57-month prison term he could receive. Warner, who became a billionaire when his Beanie Babies became an international craze -- Forbes estimates that he’s worth $2.6 billion -- owns Four Seasons hotels in New York City and Santa Barbara, California and other posh lodging properties in California, Hawaii, and Mexico. He also owns three top-of-the-market golf properties in Santa Barbara: Sandpiper Golf Club, Rancho San Marcos Golf Course, and Montecito Country Club. His sentencing hearing will take place later this month.
Longaberger Golf Club, which has been on and off the market for about three years, has found new owners. In a transaction that closed in late December 2013, CVSL, Inc. sold the 538-acre property and its 18-hole, Arthur Hills-designed golf course to an entity called Four Virtues, Inc. The course’s name is going to change, as the Zanesville Times Recorder reports that Four Virtues has the right to use the Longaberger name only for “a period of time.” When it opened, in 1999, Longaberger was ranked as the nation’s top new golf course by Golf Digest. CVSL acquired it last year, when it purchased the basket-making Longaberger Company. CVSL was hoping to get $5.4 million for the property, but it reportedly accepted $4.1 million. In recent years Billy Casper Golf has managed the course, but the new owners plan to turn it over to Touchstone Golf.
Jack Nicklaus has a seat on the Re-Elect Rick Scott for Governor bandwagon, and he’s trying to enlist other wealthy Floridians to join him. Later this month, Nicklaus will hold a campaign fundraiser -- suggested donation: $10,000 -- at his home in North Palm Beach. Scott, a Tea Party favorite, is running against a tough challenger, Charlie Crist, a former mainstream Republican who’s running as a Democrat. Nicklaus and Scott have been friends since the elections of 2010, and the governor endorsed a proposal that would have funded, with state money, the construction of Nicklaus-designed golf courses in five of Florida’s state parks. The idea died a quick death.
In Oklahoma, government officials and a powerful development group appear to be headed for court. The state has voted to sue Pointe Vista Development, which agreed nearly eight years ago to build houses, a hotel, and resort attractions at Lake Texoma State Park and to improve the accompanying 18-hole golf course. Although the group promised to substantially complete the construction by May 2014, it hasn’t yet broken ground on anything. But the developers, an LLC led by Mark Fischer of Chaparral Energy and Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy Corporation, are sure to put up a fight. They blame the delays on a lousy economy and a lack of financing, and the lawsuit may give them a convenient excuse to put the project on hold indefinitely. “This legal path,” they said in a prepared statement, “will most assuredly delay any development efforts for many years.” Care to predict the outcome? Because in battles like this, nobody ultimately wins.
The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America has filled two high-level executive positions with people who have no experience in the golf business. Matt Shatto is the association’s new chief operating officer, and J. D. Dockstader is its chief business development officer. Shatto, a former dairy farmer, served most recently as North Kansas City, Missouri’s city administrator. Dockstader, the grandson of a golf course superintendent, comes from Mesa, Arizona, where he was the city’s director of commercial facilities. In a press release filled with corporate-speak, the association said the appointments will enable it “to create an alignment that better enables us to expand into areas of significant opportunity and help us implement our strategic priorities.”
The St. Andrews Links Trust, the over-zealous protector of all references to St. Andrews, has threatened legal action against the developers of St. Andrews International Golf Club, which is under construction on property just a few miles from the Old Course. The trust has long been complaining about the golf club’s name, and now it’s formally demanded that the developers change it by January 10. If the developers don’t comply with the trust’s wishes by then, the legal boom will presumably be lowered. The trust likes to throw its weight around, especially against small prey. In 2011, it forced a 50-year-old par-3 course in Florida to change its name, and last year it prevented St. Andrews Golf Company, a 130-year-old club maker based in a town outside St. Andrews, from trade-marking its name.
ClubLink Enterprises, Canada’s number-one owner and operator of golf properties, has acquired its 10th U.S. golf property. In late 2013, ClubLink paid $3.4 million for TPC Eagle Trace Golf Club in Coral Springs, the first property in the PGA Tour’s Tournament Players Club network. The 30-year-old club features an 18-hole, Arthur Hills-designed course that serves as the centerpiece of a gated community. It had been owned by Heritage Golf Group, which was foreclosed upon by its lender in 2012. ClubLink, which operates a golf membership club for Canadian snowbirds, has been buying golf properties in Florida since 2010. Today it owns six venues in Sun City Center (a total of 126 holes) and others in Coral Springs, Pompano Beach, and Tamarac. Its course in Coral Springs, Heron Bay Golf Club, began life as TPC at Heron Bay. In Canada, the company owns 29 golf properties in Ontario and five in Quebec.
Ty Warner, the tax evader and golf course owner, is hoping to avoid jail time for his crimes. Last fall, Warner pleaded guilty to avoiding $5.5 million in taxes on money he’d hidden in Swiss bank accounts. Now his lawyers are begging a district court judge to sentence him to probation and community service instead of the 46- to 57-month prison term he could receive. Warner, who became a billionaire when his Beanie Babies became an international craze -- Forbes estimates that he’s worth $2.6 billion -- owns Four Seasons hotels in New York City and Santa Barbara, California and other posh lodging properties in California, Hawaii, and Mexico. He also owns three top-of-the-market golf properties in Santa Barbara: Sandpiper Golf Club, Rancho San Marcos Golf Course, and Montecito Country Club. His sentencing hearing will take place later this month.
Longaberger Golf Club, which has been on and off the market for about three years, has found new owners. In a transaction that closed in late December 2013, CVSL, Inc. sold the 538-acre property and its 18-hole, Arthur Hills-designed golf course to an entity called Four Virtues, Inc. The course’s name is going to change, as the Zanesville Times Recorder reports that Four Virtues has the right to use the Longaberger name only for “a period of time.” When it opened, in 1999, Longaberger was ranked as the nation’s top new golf course by Golf Digest. CVSL acquired it last year, when it purchased the basket-making Longaberger Company. CVSL was hoping to get $5.4 million for the property, but it reportedly accepted $4.1 million. In recent years Billy Casper Golf has managed the course, but the new owners plan to turn it over to Touchstone Golf.
Jack Nicklaus has a seat on the Re-Elect Rick Scott for Governor bandwagon, and he’s trying to enlist other wealthy Floridians to join him. Later this month, Nicklaus will hold a campaign fundraiser -- suggested donation: $10,000 -- at his home in North Palm Beach. Scott, a Tea Party favorite, is running against a tough challenger, Charlie Crist, a former mainstream Republican who’s running as a Democrat. Nicklaus and Scott have been friends since the elections of 2010, and the governor endorsed a proposal that would have funded, with state money, the construction of Nicklaus-designed golf courses in five of Florida’s state parks. The idea died a quick death.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Operations, january 3, 2014
The members of Audubon Country Club, in Naples, Florida, have turned over the management of their property to Troon Privé. Audubon, which is said to be debt free, is the centerpiece of a 755-acre gated community. It features an 18-hole, Joe Lee designed golf course, a 35,000-square-foot clubhouse, and an expanse of wildlife areas. Jim McLaughlin of Troon Privé believes it offers “the ideal South Florida lifestyle” and is confident that his company’s management approach “will contribute positively to the experience of members and their guests.” The club is looking for members. It has 290, according to its website, and can accommodate 60 more. Troon Privé manages three other golf properties in Florida, including BallenIsles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens and Colonial Country Club in Fort Myers.
After conducting a financial evaluation of its golf operation, the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee has decided not to seek a private-sector operator for its Brainerd and Brown Acres courses. “The golf courses were certainly a question as we began our investigation,” the city’s mayor told the council, “but it became clear over time that the community valued them, and financially they were an asset rather than a liability.” Last summer, some council members felt that the courses were, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, “a drain on the city’s finances and could be better run by an outside firm.” However, the financial review determined that the tracks generated a surplus of $144,000 in the 2013-14 fiscal year. In 2012-13, the courses attracted almost 64,500 rounds.
A struggling private club in Pell City, Alabama is looking for a government bailout. Larry Lemak, the owner of Pine Harbor Golf & Racquet Club, hopes the city will assume a five- or 10-year lease on his property. The club, which has roughly 100 members, loses between $70,000 and $80,000 a year, according to the Talladega Daily Home, and may not be able to continue operating without the city’s financial commitment. The parties haven’t settled on a price, but it appears that the city expects to spend about $80,000 a year. Pine Harbor features an 18-hole golf course that opened in the mid 1960s. The course is the only 18-hole track in St. Clair County, and both the city and the county would like it to remain a going concern for economic-development purposes. City officials believe that the club “could at least break even” if it’s is opened to the public, the newspaper says, but they want assurances that its membership can double before signing on the dotted line.
O. C. Welch has won a 12-year contract to operate the city of Savannah, Georgia’s Bacon Park Golf Course. The 27-hole complex suffers from “poor maintenance and low turnout numbers,” according to the Savannah Morning News, but Welch seems intent on engineering a turnaround, no matter how long it takes. “I hope I die there,” he told the newspaper, “but no time soon.” Welch, an auto dealer who owns Black Creek Golf Club in nearby Ellabell, plans to eliminate nine of the complex’s holes and to restore its 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed layout. He grew up playing golf at Bacon Park and conducted a highly visible public campaign to win the concession.
National Golf Management, the premier golf operator in Myrtle Beach, has agreed to a settlement on a financial claim made by one of its former employees. The employee, a bag-drop attendant, had accused NGM and its parent company, Burroughs & Chapin, of violating federal law by paying him only $5.80 an hour -- the minimum wage is $7.25 -- and refusing to pay him overtime even though he routinely worked 50 or more hours a week. Without admitting any guilt, NGM and B&C have proposed to pay the employee $3,000 in wages and to cover his attorney’s fees and court costs, which amount to $10,500. In exchange for the money, the employee will drop his legal claims.
The one and only proposal for management of the municipal golf course in Baker City, Oregon has been unanimously endorsed by city officials. Last month, Bill Tiedemann secured a three-year contract on Quail Ridge Golf Course, an 18-hole layout. Tiedemann was the city’s sole choice, as nobody else responded to a request for proposals issued earlier in 2013.
After conducting a financial evaluation of its golf operation, the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee has decided not to seek a private-sector operator for its Brainerd and Brown Acres courses. “The golf courses were certainly a question as we began our investigation,” the city’s mayor told the council, “but it became clear over time that the community valued them, and financially they were an asset rather than a liability.” Last summer, some council members felt that the courses were, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, “a drain on the city’s finances and could be better run by an outside firm.” However, the financial review determined that the tracks generated a surplus of $144,000 in the 2013-14 fiscal year. In 2012-13, the courses attracted almost 64,500 rounds.
A struggling private club in Pell City, Alabama is looking for a government bailout. Larry Lemak, the owner of Pine Harbor Golf & Racquet Club, hopes the city will assume a five- or 10-year lease on his property. The club, which has roughly 100 members, loses between $70,000 and $80,000 a year, according to the Talladega Daily Home, and may not be able to continue operating without the city’s financial commitment. The parties haven’t settled on a price, but it appears that the city expects to spend about $80,000 a year. Pine Harbor features an 18-hole golf course that opened in the mid 1960s. The course is the only 18-hole track in St. Clair County, and both the city and the county would like it to remain a going concern for economic-development purposes. City officials believe that the club “could at least break even” if it’s is opened to the public, the newspaper says, but they want assurances that its membership can double before signing on the dotted line.
O. C. Welch has won a 12-year contract to operate the city of Savannah, Georgia’s Bacon Park Golf Course. The 27-hole complex suffers from “poor maintenance and low turnout numbers,” according to the Savannah Morning News, but Welch seems intent on engineering a turnaround, no matter how long it takes. “I hope I die there,” he told the newspaper, “but no time soon.” Welch, an auto dealer who owns Black Creek Golf Club in nearby Ellabell, plans to eliminate nine of the complex’s holes and to restore its 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed layout. He grew up playing golf at Bacon Park and conducted a highly visible public campaign to win the concession.
National Golf Management, the premier golf operator in Myrtle Beach, has agreed to a settlement on a financial claim made by one of its former employees. The employee, a bag-drop attendant, had accused NGM and its parent company, Burroughs & Chapin, of violating federal law by paying him only $5.80 an hour -- the minimum wage is $7.25 -- and refusing to pay him overtime even though he routinely worked 50 or more hours a week. Without admitting any guilt, NGM and B&C have proposed to pay the employee $3,000 in wages and to cover his attorney’s fees and court costs, which amount to $10,500. In exchange for the money, the employee will drop his legal claims.
The one and only proposal for management of the municipal golf course in Baker City, Oregon has been unanimously endorsed by city officials. Last month, Bill Tiedemann secured a three-year contract on Quail Ridge Golf Course, an 18-hole layout. Tiedemann was the city’s sole choice, as nobody else responded to a request for proposals issued earlier in 2013.