The Week That Was, august 3, 2014

     Beijing, one of the most parched cities on the planet, is making an overdue effort to conserve water, and the Asia Pacific Golf Group has gotten all bent out of shape as a result. In particular, the APGG is complaining about a tax that’s been imposed on water use in the capital city, one that it claims will raise the price of water for a typical golf course to $10 million a year. On its website, the APGG calls the tax “a massive blow to the golf industry in the Middle Kingdom” and speculates that it might be “the final fatal blow to knock out the golf industry.” Clearly, the folks at the APGG need to be sedated. For one thing, the tax only affects courses in and around Beijing, not the entire nation. For another, metropolitan Bejing already has something like 200 courses, which ought to be more than enough to satisfy demand over the near term. Besides, as the APGG itself noted just weeks ago, the real threat to the future of golf in China is reckless over-development by greedy home builders.

     Pulte Homes has come up with novel tactic to win friends and influence golf people in Arizona. The big home builder wants to build a slew of houses on the former Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Club, outside Phoenix, but it’s met with resistance from home owners in the accompanying community. To sway voters, Pulte has proposed to foot the bill for $1 million worth of improvements to the nearby Ahwatukee Country Club, to make it an attractive alternative for those who used to play at the Lakes. The trouble is, the country club is owned by the same fellow closed the Lakes, and the community’s golfers may not be inclined to give him any more of their money.

     A Singapore-based developer wants to build a high-end resort on an island so far off the beaten path that it’s been called “the Lost World.” Zochwell Group intends to transform Salon Island, off the southern tip of Myanmar, into a destination for wealthy Asians who’ve already vacationed in more accessible places. Salon Island is a true rarity -- a place largely untouched by human hands -- but Zochwell believes it’s ripe to become “the next Phuket,” a reference to the famously over-developed vacation spot in Thailand. According to the Prince George Citizen, Zochwell has agreed to lease the 697-acre outcropping from Myanmar’s government and create Luxdream Island, which will feature a casino, hotels, vacation villas, a marina, a beach club, and an 18-hole, Nicklaus Design golf course. It appears that Luxdream Island is good to go except for one major hang-up: Zochwell hasn’t yet secured financing. It says it’s looking for “like-minded individuals or organizations” that share “the vision to create Asia’s next big thing with us.”

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the April 2014 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     An investment group appears to have submitted a purchase offer on Sotogrande, the ultra-luxurious golf community on Spain’s Costa del Sol. The group hasn’t been identified, but it’s believed to be Cerberus Capital Management, a New York City-based entity. The news reports don’t specify exactly what’s being sold, but Sotogrande, which occupies 6,200 acres, features five golf courses, including Valderrama Golf Club, as well as some of the priciest real estate in Europe, a marina, and several polo fields. Bloomberg says that the entire portfolio of Sotogrande SA is in play, which, if true, means that the buyer would acquire not just golf properties in Spain but also the Donnafugata Golf Resort in Italy.

     KemperSports has taken a second bite out of Portland, Oregon’s golf operation. The Northbrook, Illinois-based company, the manager of the city’s 36-hole Heron Lakes complex, has been hired to manage the forthcoming Colwood Golf Course. Colwood, a nine-hole, par-3 track that’s being tailored especially for children and beginners, is scheduled to open in the spring of next year. It’s taking shape on what remains of the late Colwood National Golf Course, an 18-hole, Vernon Macan design that opened in 1929. Portland owns three other golf properties, all of them 18-hole tracks that are desperate to attract younger players. If Kemper can find and deliver them, the rest of the city’s portfolio may be ripe for the picking.

     Like their counterparts in other nations, the people who oversee amateur golf in England have set out to generate traffic for the nation’s clubs. Without question, the game is feeling a financial pinch: Weekly participation has fallen by 12 percent since 2005, according to a report in Golf Club Management, and memberships in the nation’s more than 1,900 clubs have declined from 882,640 in 2004 to 675,000 in 2014. England Golf has outlined its latest revive-the-game ideas in “Raising Our Game: The Strategic Plan for England Golf 2014-2017,” but they sound pretty much like things that have been tried before: Engaging women, taking golf to schools, offering more flexible membership options. “We all need to work together to raise our game and make the most of the opportunities which exist for golf,” says the group’s CEO. By doing so, the group believes, weekly participation can jump from 750,000 to 910,000.

     Several weeks ago, Apple Ridge Country Club, in New Jersey, hired new management. And now we know why: The club has been sold to an undisclosed buyer.