The Week That Was, march 30, 2014

     It isn’t often that golf news seeps into mass-market media, but last week millions of eyes were trained on the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews and its business arm, the R&A. Succumbing to public and corporate pressure, the club has scheduled a vote on a proposal that would open its doors to female members for the first time. The ballots will be cast in September, and the club has recommended that its more than 2,000 members approve the proposal. “It’s something the R&A needs to do, and we’re trying to be as forward-looking as we can today,” said Peter Dawson, who serves as both the club’s secretary and the R&A’s CEO. The source of this historic initiative can be traced to January, when an official of HSBC, one of the R&A’s most generous sugar daddies, complained of the “sense of segregation” that surrounds the Open Championship. Money talks, and its voice was heard loud and clear by the R&A. Although a decision to admit women to the Royal & Ancient won’t change the fundamental character of the golf industry, it may change perceptions that the world at large has of golf’s social purposes and the old codgers who write its rules. And perception, as we’ve so often heard, is reality.

     Once again, golf’s institutional powers are publicly expressing frustration over the sluggish pace of golf construction in Rio de Janeiro. “We are not satisfied,” the R&A’s Peter Dawson acknowledged last week. “While the design of the course looks really good, the progress with the construction is not where we want it to be.” Dawson still believes that the Gil Hanse-designed layout will be ready for the opening ceremonies of the 2016 Olympics, but he fears that it won’t be ready in time for a warm-up event in 2015 that would allow the International Golf Federation to identify and eliminate any design kinks. One other thing: Dawson reports that weeds are at this time the only greenery on the course.

     Pete Dye has confirmed it: Herb Kohler will build a fifth golf course in Wisconsin, and it’ll take shape on part of a 247-acre parcel north of Kohler-Andrae State Park, just a short drive from the golf complexes he designed at Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run. Dye will design Kohler’s forthcoming course, a layout he believes will be capable of hosting a U.S. Open or other any premier professional event. Before Mike Keiser decided to make his presence felt in the Dairy State, Kohler had earmarked the property for what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel describes as “a luxury wilderness retreat.” Dye, who hasn’t set foot on the site in close to 30 years, expects to visit in May.

     During a trip to China, Geoff Russell of Golf Business News learned the identity of Wentworth Club’s new owner. Russell reports that Richard Caring has sold his 63-hole complex in Surrey -- one of England’s premier golf venues -- to Chanchai Ruayrungruang, the owner of Pine Valley Golf Club in greater Beijing. The price for Caring’s 90 percent stake, according to the Telegraph, was “around” £144 million ($240 million). Ruayrungruang, who made at least part of his money by selling Red Bull, has been on the prowl for a golf property in Russell’s part of the world since at least 2012, when he came close to buying the Fota Island resort in County Cork, Ireland. In buying Wentworth, he gets a 90-year-old property with two Harry Colt-designed courses that’s hosted a pair of Ryder Cup championships and a slew of European PGA championships. The Telegraph, which claimed not to know the identity of Wentworth’s purchaser, expects an official announcement on the sale to be made next week.

     Sequoia Golf Group has unveiled a more-for-the-money golf option in suburban Atlanta, Georgia that includes playing privileges three post-modern courses. The Newman-based firm has begun marketing the Sequoia Club, which offers access to two clubs in Milton -- Atlanta National Golf Club and White Columns Country Club -- as well as one in Alpharetta, the Manor Golf & Country Club. “This is highly relevant to golfers and people who desire a private country club atmosphere,” said Sequoia’s president, Joe Guerra. Atlanta National and White Columns had previously been joined as a duo, but they became part of a trio several weeks ago, when Sequoia closed on its purchase of the Manor. Sequoia owns a fourth venue in the area, Polo Golf & Country Club in Cumming, and the Atlanta Business Chronicle believes it’ll soon acquire a fifth.

     Donald Trump may have abandoned his plans to complete the master plan for his golf resort in Aberdeenshire, but he hasn’t abandoned Scotland altogether. Trump told the Inverurie Herald that he considers his Menie Estate to be a family heirloom that will forever bear his name. “We cherish the existing course and are immensely proud of it,” Trump said. “It will never be sold and will always be in the Trump family.” At least for now, though, it’s the black sheep of the family.

     First it set up shop in Canada and Latin America, and this year the PGA Tour will underwrite a dozen events in China. So where does the global colossus go next? Greg Gilligan, who oversees the tour’s activities in Asia, tells the Times of India that the next stops on the path to world domination will likely be Hong Kong, Taipei, and Macau. And after that? Denials abound, but the European Tour is ripe for the taking.

     Greg Norman, the Bobby Flay of the golf industry, has agreed to endorse yet another product. Norman, the “signature” course designer, is now cashing checks from BVG Global Management Group, which has introduced a lens that will enable people with poor vision to read what’s on their computer screens more clearly. The lens will be sold on the Home Shopping Network and in selected stores. BVG has also inked Carol Alt, a former Playboy and Sports Illustrated model, to sell its lens.