The Week That Was, september 14, 2014

     The Trump-branded golf resort in Puerto Rico continues to have what it describes as “financial difficulties,” and a bankruptcy proceeding may be on the horizon. Trump International Golf Club Puerto Rico failed to make a payment of nearly $120,000 to its bond holders last month, technically putting it in default, but it’s been having trouble paying its construction loan since 2012, if not before. The golf venue, originally known as Coco Beach Golf & Country Club, features a 36-hole, Tom Kite-designed golf complex, and it’s an important marketing cog for Puerto Rico’s tourism industry. The Trump Organization lists the resort community on its website, as if it were the property owner, when in fact it only licenses the Trump name to the property. Trump isn’t liable for any of the resort’s debt, but it won’t look good if one of the best names in the golf business winds up in bankruptcy court.

     It appears that Joe Ogilvie underestimated his chances of winning support for a tournament-worthy golf course in Austin, Texas. The proposed layout, Decker Lake Golf Course, has passed its first hurdle, and the city council could vote on it as early as next month. Ogilvie, a former professional golfer who lives in Austin, is leading a partnership that wants to build an 18-hole, Coore & Crenshaw-designed golf course -- along with a second 18 in the future -- on 735 acres of city-owned property in Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park. Ogilvie recently gave Decker Lake just “a 10 to 15 percent chance of happening,” but if the council gives him the green light in October, construction would probably begin in 2016.

     As reported months ago by Golf Business News, Chanchai Ruayrungruang, one of the world’s richest people, has become the new owner of Wentworth Club, one of England’s premier golf venues. The Thai-Chinese entrepreneur’s Reignwood International reportedly paid Richard Caring £135 million (about $219.6 million) for Wentworth, which features two Harry Colt-designed courses (plus a third 18-hole track and a nine-hole layout) and serves as the headquarters of the PGA European Tour. The 90-year-old club has hosted a pair of Ryder Cup championships and a slew of the tour’s European PGA championships. Caring, who reportedly paid £130 million ($211.4 million) for the club in 2004, told the Guardian that he’s received many offers for the property over the years but was looking for “an owner with integrity,” “an understanding of the special place [Wentworth] holds in so many people’s hearts,” and the willingness to improve “what is already a masterpiece.” Ruayrungruang made part of his vast fortune -- he’s worth $2 billion, according to Forbes -- by selling Red Bull, and he recently bought a stake in Vita Coco, the coconut-water company. GBN identified Ruayrungruang as the prospective buyer of Wentworth in March, before Great Britain’s far larger news organizations did.

     The purchase of Wentworth Club was only one of two golf transactions that occupied Chanchai Ruayrungruang’s time this week. A Ruayrungruang-controlled investment group has acquired Morgan Stanley’s interest in 1,103 acres at the Princeville Resort in Hawaii, reportedly for $343 million. The property features a Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed golf course that’s considered to be among the state’s best. Princeville, a 9,000-acre spread on the North Shore of Kauai, was purchased by Jeff Stone and Morgan Stanley in 2005. Ruayrungruang now owns golf properties on three continents. His tony Pine Valley Golf Club, in metropolitan Beijing, China, features a trio of 18-hole, Jack Nicklaus “signature” courses, and it offers its privileged members a polo club, private jet service, and what it calls “the perfect luxury lifestyle.”

     National Golf Management, a company that operates in just two states, has added a 24th property to its slow-growing portfolio: TPC Myrtle Beach, a 15-year-old facility in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. The property, which features an 18-hole, Tom Fazio-designed course, is owned by a pair of local businessmen. NGM is the largest owner/manager of golf properties on the Grand Strand, but its national ambitions haven’t yet gotten off the drawing board. According to the Myrtle Beach Sun-News, TPC Myrtle Beach is the first property that NGM has added to its collection since it was established in 2012.

     The only Arnold Palmer-designed golf course in Oregon has a new owner. CLV Properties, a firm based in Rancho Santa Fe, California, has reportedly paid just over $3 million for Running Y Ranch, a 3,600-acre spread in Klamath Falls. CLV is controlled by William Lynch, an Iowa native who says that Oregon is “beautiful country” that “kind of reminds me of Iowa.” Palmer’s 18-hole course opened in 1997. It was developed by Jeld-Wen, a window-manufacturing company that took a flyer into golf development. In 2010, Jeld-Wen sold Running Y and two other golf resorts to a partnership led by Northview Hotel Group. At the time, a partner in Northview said that he was looking forward to operating the properties “for generations to come.”