The Week That Was, july 13, 2014

     In what will likely go down as one of the year’s blockbuster transactions, an affiliate of Arcis Equity Partners has agreed to buy the 48 golf properties owned by CNL Lifestyle Properties. It appears that Arcis will pay roughly $300 million for the collection, which includes Cowboys Golf Club in Grapevine, Texas, Hunt Valley Golf Club in Phoenix, Maryland, and Palmetto Hall Plantation Club in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Assuming a successful closing, the acquisition will make Arcis, an entity funded by New York City-based Fortress Investment Group, a force to be reckoned with in U.S. golf. Last year it bought three golf properties from BrightStar Golf Group, among them Pradera Golf Club in suburban Denver, Colorado and TPC Snoqualmie Ridge in suburban Seattle, Washington, as well as Tartan Fields Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Some of the other golf properties in CNL’s portfolio are Tamarack Golf Club in Naperville, Illinois, Weston Hills Country Club in suburban Miami, Florida, and Kiskiack Golf Club in Williamsburg, Virginia.

     After missing out on its planned purchase of the Steinway piano company, Kohlberg & Company has taken control of Troon Golf. Kohlberg, one of the nation’s biggest private-equity investment firms, purchased stakes in Troon that had been owned by affiliates of Starwood Capital Group and Goldman Sachs. Together, the companies had owned more than 55 percent of Troon’s stock. Dana Garmany, who founded Troon in 1990, will stay on as the company’s CEO. In a press release, he called Kohlberg “the ideal partner to help implement Troon’s plans for strategic growth.” Kohlberg’s partner in the acquisition is Greg Norman’s Great White Shark Enterprises. Norman has had a relationship with Garmany since the late 1990s, and in The Way of the Shark he acknowledged being a minority investor in Troon. Now he’ll likely have a seat on the company’s board.

     While most everyone in golf weighs the impact of the design changes planned for Trump Turnberry’s Alisa course, it doesn’t hurt to point out that Donald Trump plans to create a “brand new, major course” on the property currently occupied by the resort’s Kintyre track. “We have some very high-profile architects talking to us about it,” Trump said in a comment published by Bunkered, “and we’ll be making a decision on it in the not-too-distant future. It’s a great piece of land, and we plan to create something very, very special.” Trump has also suggested that he may build a third 18-hole layout at his latest acquisition, although Bunkered reports that a decision is “some way off.”

     The skyrocketing price of water in California has put one of San Francisco’s golf courses on the endangered list. Gleneagles Golf Course, a nine-hole track described by the San Francisco Chronicle as an “everyman’s golf course” with “a cult-like following among serious golfers,” has been hit with a nearly 50 percent increase in its water rates. As a result, the course will close at the end of the month, unless lease terms can be renegotiated. “We deal with a lot out here, and we’ve tried to soldier on,” said Tom Hsieth, who’s operated Gleneagles for nearly a decade. “But this water-rate raise could really be a death blow.” Hsieh reports that the course, which receives no financial assistance from the city, attracts about 1,500 rounds a month.

     Seeking to rid itself of financial distress, the city of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina has selected a local company to operate Whispering Pines Golf Course. The 18-hole, Tom Fazio-designed track has reportedly lost about $250,000 in each of the past five years, and in recent months the city has considered closing it or downsizing it. Atlantic Golf Management, which owns and operates TPC of Myrtle Beach, won the city’s heart by reportedly agreeing to cover any future losses that the course incurs. Atlantic was one of seven management companies -- among them Billy Casper Golf and Arnold Palmer Golf Management -- vying for the commission. Its arrangement with the city must be approved by the federal government, which owns the Whispering Pines property.

     As part of an effort to cash in on marketing opportunities in China, the European Tour has opened an office in Beijing. The office will serve as a staging ground for Simon Leach (a.k.a. Li Sai Wen), who previously served as the tour’s representative in Asia. “The China golf market is clearly at the beginning of a huge growth curve, especially with its recent inclusion in the Olympics,” Leach said in a press release, “and the European Tour is well placed to contribute hugely to this development. It is an exciting time for golf in China.” Leach won the job, in part, due to experience he gained while growing the game of snooker in the People’s Republic.