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.