A little-known Chinese investment group has become the 500-pound gorilla in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina’s golf operations. Last week Founders Group International, an entity that had previously purchased 10 golf properties in the Myrtle Beach area, acquired nine additional golf properties (12 total courses) from National Golf Management. As a result of the latest transactions, FGI, an entity that nobody had heard of a year ago, has become the largest owner/operator of golf properties on the Grand Strand, and perhaps in the entire Southeast. “We have made a substantial investment in the Myrtle Beach community and look forward to a bright future here,” said Nick Dou, a New York City-based immigration attorney who serves as FGI’s president. FGI, an affiliate of Yiqian Funding, isn’t done shopping for undervalued U.S. golf properties, and it’s likely to begin developing vacation accommodations at some of its courses. The first project on its to-do list, however, is to make Myrtle Beach a destination for Chinese golfers.
Read it and weep: The U.S. golf industry lost 201 golf properties last year, according to the National Golf Foundation, leaving the current inventory at 15,372 total facilities. The NGF says that the majority of the facilities that went out of business were “older, lower-end properties that could no longer compete.” If you read somewhere that 174 courses closed in 2014, it’s because the NGF has begun to account for closings in two ways: First by counting the total number of properties lost (201), and second by counting the number of 18-hole equivalent courses lost (174). The NGF’s data also indicates that 34 courses were added to the national inventory last year, although only 11 of them are truly “new.” The other 15 are tracks that opened after “prolonged closures unrelated to a scheduled renovation,” which almost certainly means that they were previously counted as courses that closed. So if the NGF soon offers a recount of data from previous years, don’t be surprised. If all this is beginning to seem a bit confusing, I think it’s deliberate, because the NGF is going through major contortions in an attempt to make things look better than they are. One other thing: This year the NGF is also tracking courses that close temporarily for renovations, which is about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
On one topic, at least, the National Golf Foundation and I have found common ground. For years, the NGF has insisted that the waves of course closings we’ve experienced are ultimately good for golf because they help to create a better balance between supply and demand. I’ve argued that putting facilities out of business is never a good idea, and that there’s an alternative. As I noted last month, “Although the NGF can fairly say that our nation has too many golf courses, it can also be fairly said that our nation doesn’t have enough golfers.” So guess what? The NGF has begun to look at life from both sides now. It’s acknowledged that “there are two ways the industry can achieve that better supply/demand balance. The course correction can continue for several more years, or more golfers can be brought into the game.” Sadly, it’s far easier to get rid of excess inventory than it is to rebuild a customer base.
Gifts of Gab: Even though more than 200 U.S. golf properties bit the dust last year, Greg Norman has boldly predicted that the era of course closings has ended. “All of a sudden, people are building golf courses again, and the negative trend we’ve had in the U.S. of courses shutting down will flat-line,” the “Living Brand” told the Palm Beach Post. And here’s the kicker: “Next year,” Norman declared, “more courses will open than close.” If Norman is taking bets on his forecast, he’ll find no shortage of takers.
As expected, the U.S. Open is as good as gold for Chambers Bay. In 2014, for the second consecutive year, the municipally owned track in University Place, Washington posted a profit, and Pierce County believes that better times may be on the horizon. “There’s going to be an afterglow after the Open,” the county executive told the Tacoma News Tribune. “There’s going to be a heightened interest to take a plane and come to this part of the country and golf an American-style Scottish course.” For the record, last year Chambers Bay generated a $435,000 surplus on $6.9 million in revenues, partly as a result of higher greens fees and increases in merchandise and food-and-beverage sales. The course is still carrying $17.5 million in construction debt, but its operations are, at least for now, on the Yellow Brick Road.
The world’s most over-hyped chain of golf properties has added a second venue in the Caribbean. The PGA Tour’s network of Tournament Player Clubs now includes TPC Dorado Beach, a 54-hole complex at Dorado Beach Resort & Club in Puerto Rico. In the 1950s and 1960s, the resort was a destination for jet-setters, beautiful people, and Hollywood celebrities, but these days it’s trying to avoid being a paradise lost. The tour is marketing it as “a world-class family retreat with a rich, storied history.” Dorado Beach is the third international property that the PGA Tour has licensed since late last year, when it added TPC Cartagena at Karibana in Colombia and TPC at Baha Mar in the Bahamas. All told, the TPC portfolio now counts 34 properties, and the tour hopes to add one in China and maybe another in Shanghai.
Trustworthy data regarding the number of golfers in China is impossible to come by, but the Daily Telegraph believes that only 360,000 people in the nation play regularly. Unfortunately, the newspaper didn’t name a source for the estimate.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Vital Signs, april 24, 2015
Generally speaking, opinions about the health of the golf business haven’t changed much between last year and this year, according to Marcus & Millichap’s latest “Golf Investor Sentiment Survey.” M&M’s Leisure Investment Properties Group, which polled golf-industry professionals and prospective buyers, has determined that its index of investor confidence for 2015 is 63.4, essentially the same as it was in 2014 (63.2). The survey’s bottom line: “Despite concerns regarding the golf industry as a whole, investors remain confident in their ability to gain market share and improve operations in 2015.” Specifically, almost 97 percent of the respondents believe that the number of rounds played at U.S. public courses in 2015 will either remain the same as last year (22 percent) or increase (75 percent), while roughly 90 percent believe that initiation fees, dues, and membership counts at private clubs will either remain the same or increase. Of course, many of these same respondents also predicted that Kentucky would win the college basketball championship.
Developers looking to build coastal golf resorts in the Mediterranean should consider up-and-coming nations such as Turkey, Croatia, Greece, Cyprus, and Montenegro, says a report by KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice. Those nations are the vacation spots of the future, while old favorites like Spain and Portugal, despite their enduring popularity, are ultra-competitive and largely tapped out. “In the mid-term, we expect emerging markets to experience the strongest growth in the number of golf-integrated resorts across the Mediterranean countries,” the group writes in “Golf Resorts in the European Mediterranean Region,” its distillation of recent development trends. The future appears to be bright for resort development, because KPMG says it’s “witnessing a resurgence in developer confidence,” mostly due to continuing increases in tourism and improving consumer confidence. In addition, it believes that “residential holiday home sales will start to pick up again,” although it doesn’t say when. These are all good signs for “signature” golf architecture, which KPMG believes is worth the extra investment because it lends instant credibility to even the most formulaic resorts in the most out-of-the way places.
Sigmund Freud once famously asked, What do women want? When it comes to taking up golf in the United Kingdom, the answer may be simple: An invitation from the men in their lives. A new survey suggests that more British women would start playing golf if their male partners simply asked them to. According to Sports Marketing Surveys, more than half of the sons of male adult golfers in the U.K. also play golf, but only a small fraction (12 percent) of male golfers’ daughters do so. “There could be a number of reasons why women don’t play golf,” the editor of Women & Golf said in a press release, “but I suspect that most have never been given an opportunity to play or encouraged to do so.” Women in the U.K. shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for an invitation, however. SMS says that only about 25 percent of male golfers in the U.K. “are interested or very interested in playing casual golf with female golfers in the future.”
Although some U.S. home builders continue to believe that golf courses can boost sales of residential real estate, others are having better luck with less expensive forms of open space, such as parks and community gardens. “Doing a golf course these days for a master-planned residential community is a disaster,” the CEO of a Texas-based development group told the Dallas Morning News. “It’s expensive to build them and expensive to maintain them. And [they’re] way down on the list of what people want to see in a community.” So what’s at the top of the wish list for today’s home buyers? Answer: Hiking trails.
Developers looking to build coastal golf resorts in the Mediterranean should consider up-and-coming nations such as Turkey, Croatia, Greece, Cyprus, and Montenegro, says a report by KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice. Those nations are the vacation spots of the future, while old favorites like Spain and Portugal, despite their enduring popularity, are ultra-competitive and largely tapped out. “In the mid-term, we expect emerging markets to experience the strongest growth in the number of golf-integrated resorts across the Mediterranean countries,” the group writes in “Golf Resorts in the European Mediterranean Region,” its distillation of recent development trends. The future appears to be bright for resort development, because KPMG says it’s “witnessing a resurgence in developer confidence,” mostly due to continuing increases in tourism and improving consumer confidence. In addition, it believes that “residential holiday home sales will start to pick up again,” although it doesn’t say when. These are all good signs for “signature” golf architecture, which KPMG believes is worth the extra investment because it lends instant credibility to even the most formulaic resorts in the most out-of-the way places.
Sigmund Freud once famously asked, What do women want? When it comes to taking up golf in the United Kingdom, the answer may be simple: An invitation from the men in their lives. A new survey suggests that more British women would start playing golf if their male partners simply asked them to. According to Sports Marketing Surveys, more than half of the sons of male adult golfers in the U.K. also play golf, but only a small fraction (12 percent) of male golfers’ daughters do so. “There could be a number of reasons why women don’t play golf,” the editor of Women & Golf said in a press release, “but I suspect that most have never been given an opportunity to play or encouraged to do so.” Women in the U.K. shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for an invitation, however. SMS says that only about 25 percent of male golfers in the U.K. “are interested or very interested in playing casual golf with female golfers in the future.”
Although some U.S. home builders continue to believe that golf courses can boost sales of residential real estate, others are having better luck with less expensive forms of open space, such as parks and community gardens. “Doing a golf course these days for a master-planned residential community is a disaster,” the CEO of a Texas-based development group told the Dallas Morning News. “It’s expensive to build them and expensive to maintain them. And [they’re] way down on the list of what people want to see in a community.” So what’s at the top of the wish list for today’s home buyers? Answer: Hiking trails.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
The Week That Was, april 19, 2015
Bloomberg has published a partial list of Augusta National Golf Club’s members, and nobody will be surprised to hear that those who’ve been named constitute a veritable who’s who of people who wield the most power and influence in our nation. (It’s worth noting that USA Today published a similar list in 2002.) Bloomberg’s catalog includes Augusta National’s three female members (Condoleeza Rice, Virginia Rometty, and Darla Moore) as well as several folks who need no introduction, among them Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Roger Goodell, and Sam Nunn. Also on the list are the current or former CEOs and chairmen of many well-known corporations, including AT&T, JP Morgan Chase, McKinsey & Company, Coca-Cola, Visa USA, Yahoo!, U.S. Steel, Norfolk & Southern, J. C. Penney, the Atlanta Braves, Caterpillar, Cox Communications, and Harris Teeter. If there’s a better place to do business in America, I don’t know it.
In “Golf Around the World 2015,” its freshly published tally of all the golf courses on the planet, the R&A delivers a message to the pessimists who still think golf development is in decline: “Overall, the sport’s influence is spreading, and closures have been more than offset by the expansion of the sport across the globe.” This upbeat hypothesis is a response to gloomy economic data that can’t easily be dispelled, and the R&A beats it like a drum. Over and over, the study says things like “golf is undoubtedly spreading around the globe” and “new courses are opening in interesting places” and “the sport is reaching parts of the world where golf has not been present before.” Every one of those phrases is indisputably true, but the R&A ought to be honest about why the size of our global footprint matters so much. The painful truth is that “underdeveloped regions,” as the R&A calls them, are nowadays the only ones willing to buy what we’re selling. Because golf development has been stagnant for years in Europe, Australia, and North America -- our largest, long-established markets -- our only alternative is to blaze new trails in far-flung places. We are desperately seeking growth, and Asia and Africa have become our last best hope. If the world is our oyster, they’re the pearls.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the April 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Last month, a columnist for the Shenzhen Daily claimed that many golf courses in China are “on the brink of bankruptcy” but offered no evidence to support his contention. Now we’re hearing echoes of the same claim from Beijing Today, which cites unidentified “industry analysts” as saying that “less than a third of the [nation’s] courses turn a profit.” Again, the newspaper provided no quantitative evidence. But when you hear the same thing over and over, you start to believe it.
A family-owned resort in southwestern Michigan has hired Tom Doak’s firm to create its sixth 18-hole golf course. “We see this as an opportunity to grow our business and offer our customers more opportunity to play fun, interesting, and challenging golf courses,” said Jon Scott, one of the principals of Gull Lake View Golf Club & Resort. One of the tracks at Gull Lake View was designed by William Mitchell, but the others were designed by members of the Scott family. The new course is expected to have “very strong links-type characterstics,” and the resort expects to break ground on it in June and to open it in the summer of 2016. Reading between the lines of a press release, it appears that Doak himself will have little to do with the layout’s design and construction. His top associates at Renaissance Golf Design -- Eric Iverson, Don Placek, Brian Schneider, and Brian Slawnik -- will oversee the work.
Golf isn’t a new sport in Ecuador -- the game was established there in the 1920s -- but the nation hasn’t yet managed to produce any destination-worthy venues. Steve Smyers, an architect based in Lakeland, Florida, hopes to give traveling golfers a reason to visit this summer, when his Costa Jama Golf Course makes its official debut. The 18-hole track will be the centerpiece of a 900-acre resort community in an equatorial village along Ecuador’s Pacific coast, and Smyers told Jay Flemma that the site is “an absolutely spectacular natural setting for golf.” Smyers has made a name for himself with several original designs in the United States (notably, his course at Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Florida), but he’s also responsible for new courses and renovations in Australia, England, France, and Zimbabwe. Costa Jama is his first course in South America and somewhere between the seventh or 11th in Ecuador, depending on who’s doing the counting.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the February 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
The president of Rogers Media, a division of the Canadian sports conglomerate that owns the Toronto Blue Jays, will be the new CEO of the European Tour. Keith Pelley will assume the position this summer. He has plenty of experience in professional sports -- baseball, football, hockey -- but none in golf, though he is a member of two private golf club in the Toronto area. Pelley was chosen, the tour says, because he has lots of experience in rights management and negotiations, sponsorship creation, television production, marketing, brand development, event management, and related areas of business. In particular, the tour’s chairman said in a press release, Pelley has “a strong grasp of the challenges and opportunities facing not only the European Tour but the wider game of golf as a whole,” and he’ll bring “an innovative approach to the development of the European Tour on the global stage.” Pelley replaces George O’Grady, who’ll become the tour’s president of international relations.
In “Golf Around the World 2015,” its freshly published tally of all the golf courses on the planet, the R&A delivers a message to the pessimists who still think golf development is in decline: “Overall, the sport’s influence is spreading, and closures have been more than offset by the expansion of the sport across the globe.” This upbeat hypothesis is a response to gloomy economic data that can’t easily be dispelled, and the R&A beats it like a drum. Over and over, the study says things like “golf is undoubtedly spreading around the globe” and “new courses are opening in interesting places” and “the sport is reaching parts of the world where golf has not been present before.” Every one of those phrases is indisputably true, but the R&A ought to be honest about why the size of our global footprint matters so much. The painful truth is that “underdeveloped regions,” as the R&A calls them, are nowadays the only ones willing to buy what we’re selling. Because golf development has been stagnant for years in Europe, Australia, and North America -- our largest, long-established markets -- our only alternative is to blaze new trails in far-flung places. We are desperately seeking growth, and Asia and Africa have become our last best hope. If the world is our oyster, they’re the pearls.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the April 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Last month, a columnist for the Shenzhen Daily claimed that many golf courses in China are “on the brink of bankruptcy” but offered no evidence to support his contention. Now we’re hearing echoes of the same claim from Beijing Today, which cites unidentified “industry analysts” as saying that “less than a third of the [nation’s] courses turn a profit.” Again, the newspaper provided no quantitative evidence. But when you hear the same thing over and over, you start to believe it.
A family-owned resort in southwestern Michigan has hired Tom Doak’s firm to create its sixth 18-hole golf course. “We see this as an opportunity to grow our business and offer our customers more opportunity to play fun, interesting, and challenging golf courses,” said Jon Scott, one of the principals of Gull Lake View Golf Club & Resort. One of the tracks at Gull Lake View was designed by William Mitchell, but the others were designed by members of the Scott family. The new course is expected to have “very strong links-type characterstics,” and the resort expects to break ground on it in June and to open it in the summer of 2016. Reading between the lines of a press release, it appears that Doak himself will have little to do with the layout’s design and construction. His top associates at Renaissance Golf Design -- Eric Iverson, Don Placek, Brian Schneider, and Brian Slawnik -- will oversee the work.
Golf isn’t a new sport in Ecuador -- the game was established there in the 1920s -- but the nation hasn’t yet managed to produce any destination-worthy venues. Steve Smyers, an architect based in Lakeland, Florida, hopes to give traveling golfers a reason to visit this summer, when his Costa Jama Golf Course makes its official debut. The 18-hole track will be the centerpiece of a 900-acre resort community in an equatorial village along Ecuador’s Pacific coast, and Smyers told Jay Flemma that the site is “an absolutely spectacular natural setting for golf.” Smyers has made a name for himself with several original designs in the United States (notably, his course at Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Florida), but he’s also responsible for new courses and renovations in Australia, England, France, and Zimbabwe. Costa Jama is his first course in South America and somewhere between the seventh or 11th in Ecuador, depending on who’s doing the counting.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the February 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
The president of Rogers Media, a division of the Canadian sports conglomerate that owns the Toronto Blue Jays, will be the new CEO of the European Tour. Keith Pelley will assume the position this summer. He has plenty of experience in professional sports -- baseball, football, hockey -- but none in golf, though he is a member of two private golf club in the Toronto area. Pelley was chosen, the tour says, because he has lots of experience in rights management and negotiations, sponsorship creation, television production, marketing, brand development, event management, and related areas of business. In particular, the tour’s chairman said in a press release, Pelley has “a strong grasp of the challenges and opportunities facing not only the European Tour but the wider game of golf as a whole,” and he’ll bring “an innovative approach to the development of the European Tour on the global stage.” Pelley replaces George O’Grady, who’ll become the tour’s president of international relations.
Friday, April 17, 2015
The Pipeline, april 17, 2015
Benson, Arizona. A Phoenix-based development group wants to build a mini-city on a stretch of desert southeast of Tucson. Villages at Vigneto will spread across 12,324 acres and include, among other things, 28,000 houses, a town center with retail and commercial areas, office space, a hotel, a medical center, schools, parks, orchards, vineyards, hiking trails, and at least one golf course. According to its master plan, Vigneto will also feature “iconic towers that will act as beacons throughout the valley and will signal the decompression from the busy highway.” The Arizona Daily Star reports that the community’s developer, Mike Ingram of El Dorado Holdings, got his inspiration for Vigneto from “the Tuscany hill country of central and northern Italy.” Elected officials in Benson have given the community “generally favorable reviews,” but environmentalists are wondering where its water will come from.
Belize. Luke Chadwick, a developer from Southern California, has set out to build the first 18-hole, championship-quality golf course in Belize, a place that he believes will eventually emerge as a hot spot for U.S. tourists. The track will be the featured attraction of Kanantik Belize, a gated, “eco-friendly” resort community that will take shape on 5,300 acres along the nation’s southern coast. Chadwick, the principal of Mango Springs Development, hopes to break ground on the 6,900-yard layout this spring and to open it in 2016. In a promotional video, Casey O’Callaghan, the course’s designer, promised to deliver a track that will be “beautiful, playable, and environmentally sensitive.” The rest of Kanantik Belize has been master-planned to include 2,800 vacation houses, 300 waterfront condos, meeting space, a beach club, restaurants, a culinary institute, and an air strip.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the February 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Balchik, Bulgaria. A fourth 18-hole golf course has been proposed for Bulgaria’s top golf destination. The Varna region, along the nation’s northern Black Sea coast, is currently home to three “signature” golf properties: BlackSeaRama Golf Club (Gary Player, designer), Thracian Cliffs Golf Resort & Spa (also Player), and Lighthouse Golf Resort (Ian Woosnam). Now, a pair of investment groups aim to build Momchil Golf Course in the town of Balchik. The course will be the centerpiece of a 364-acre community that includes 700 apartments, a hotel, a winery, a shopping area, a tennis club, and a helipad. The Sofia News Agency calls Balchik “one of Bulgaria’s top five Black Sea vacation spots” and says that tourists who have visited it “have rarely been left disappointed.”
Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Tim Lobb, a principal of Thomson Perrett & Lobb, is making a name for himself in Nigeria’s golf circles. His first commission in the nation, Summit Hills Golf Course in suburban Calabar, is expected to open any day now, and late last year ground was broken on his second, “a world-class championship golf course” at Garden City Golf Estate in Port Harcourt. “We aren’t trying to build the world’s hardest course,” said Lobb, who operates out of TPL’s office in suburban London, England, “but it will provide a challenging and entertaining game of golf.” Garden City’s 18-hole track will be the centerpiece of what Lagos-based ARM Properties says will be the city’s “most luxurious golf estate,” a gated, 500-acre spread that features a “hi-tech blend of cutting-edge security measures.” It’s scheduled to open later this year, and it’ll eventually be joined by a nine-hole, par-3 course designed especially for beginners.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the January 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Orlando, Florida. A non-profit group that supports military veterans and their families hopes to revive part of Meadow Woods Golf Course, a venue that’s been closed since 2007. Tom Underdown, the founder of Fairways for Warriors, wants to lease part of the Meadow Woods property and create Warrior Golf Club, which would feature a nine-hole course and a practice center with three practice holes. Fairways for Warriors already hosts golf-related events for soldiers at several courses in the Orlando area, but Underdown believes it can accomplish more with a permanent home. “We can’t always do all the things we want to do or need to do for our soldiers and their families,” he told the Golf Channel. “Having our own place, we could have our guys going there every single day.” The next item on Underdown’s agenda is fundraising. He needs $1.5 million for course upgrades and $1.2 million for a clubhouse.
Chesterfield, England. With a promised investment from a U.S. hotel group, a long-delayed resort community in Derbyshire may finally break ground this year. Rupert Carr’s Peak Resort, which is to emerge on a former coal mine roughly 40 miles southeast of Manchester, has been kicking around literally for decades. Now, at long last, Carr’s Birchall Properties appears to have found its financial partner: Grand Heritage Hotel Group of Annapolis, Maryland, which owns and operates four hotels in the United States (among them the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where The Shining was filmed) and others in Italy, Mexico, Egypt, and Qatar. Carr’s 300-acre property is home to an existing golf course that Jonathan Gaunt, a Bakewell-based architect, plans to redesign into an 18-hole, “championship-quality” layout. At build-out, Peak Resort is also expected to include about 850 houses, lodges, and hotel rooms, meeting space, a spa, a medical facility, and a golf practice center with a six-hole short course. Carr is hoping to break ground on the community sometime this spring and to open it in mid 2017.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the February 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Ifrane, Morocco. A Nicklaus Design course is taking shape in the Middle Atlas Mountains of north-central Morocco. The 18-hole layout will be the centerpiece of Michlifen Golf & Country Club, a 300-acre community that will eventually consist of villas, apartments, and a variety of recreational amenities. Michlifen is being developed by Morocco’s national railway, Rabat-based ONCF (the acronym stands for Office National des Chemins de Fer du Maroc), which also owns one of Ifrane’s most prominent hotels, the Michlifen Ifrane Suites & Spa. ONCF is betting big on Ifrane, as it hopes to eventually add a casino to the hotel. Michlifen will be Nicklaus’ second course in Morocco. In 2008, the North Palm Beach, Florida-based firm opened Samanah Country Club.
Durango, Colorado. In response to what’s been described as “an improving market nationally for vacation homes,” an upscale community in the Rocky Mountains is adding the second nine to its Hale Irwin “signature” golf course. “People fall in love with the lifestyle here,” Rick Carlton has said of his Glacier Club. “It’s not fancy like Aspen or Vail. We’re a real town with regular folks.” Irwin, who has a design office in Colorado, is co-designing the course with another Colorado-based architect, Todd Schoeder of iCon Golf Studio. When their 18-hole course opens, probably in the spring of 2017, Glacier Club will feature two 18-hole layouts. The community’s Cliffs course, an Arthur Hills design, has been around since the mid 1970s.
Belize. Luke Chadwick, a developer from Southern California, has set out to build the first 18-hole, championship-quality golf course in Belize, a place that he believes will eventually emerge as a hot spot for U.S. tourists. The track will be the featured attraction of Kanantik Belize, a gated, “eco-friendly” resort community that will take shape on 5,300 acres along the nation’s southern coast. Chadwick, the principal of Mango Springs Development, hopes to break ground on the 6,900-yard layout this spring and to open it in 2016. In a promotional video, Casey O’Callaghan, the course’s designer, promised to deliver a track that will be “beautiful, playable, and environmentally sensitive.” The rest of Kanantik Belize has been master-planned to include 2,800 vacation houses, 300 waterfront condos, meeting space, a beach club, restaurants, a culinary institute, and an air strip.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the February 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Balchik, Bulgaria. A fourth 18-hole golf course has been proposed for Bulgaria’s top golf destination. The Varna region, along the nation’s northern Black Sea coast, is currently home to three “signature” golf properties: BlackSeaRama Golf Club (Gary Player, designer), Thracian Cliffs Golf Resort & Spa (also Player), and Lighthouse Golf Resort (Ian Woosnam). Now, a pair of investment groups aim to build Momchil Golf Course in the town of Balchik. The course will be the centerpiece of a 364-acre community that includes 700 apartments, a hotel, a winery, a shopping area, a tennis club, and a helipad. The Sofia News Agency calls Balchik “one of Bulgaria’s top five Black Sea vacation spots” and says that tourists who have visited it “have rarely been left disappointed.”
Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Tim Lobb, a principal of Thomson Perrett & Lobb, is making a name for himself in Nigeria’s golf circles. His first commission in the nation, Summit Hills Golf Course in suburban Calabar, is expected to open any day now, and late last year ground was broken on his second, “a world-class championship golf course” at Garden City Golf Estate in Port Harcourt. “We aren’t trying to build the world’s hardest course,” said Lobb, who operates out of TPL’s office in suburban London, England, “but it will provide a challenging and entertaining game of golf.” Garden City’s 18-hole track will be the centerpiece of what Lagos-based ARM Properties says will be the city’s “most luxurious golf estate,” a gated, 500-acre spread that features a “hi-tech blend of cutting-edge security measures.” It’s scheduled to open later this year, and it’ll eventually be joined by a nine-hole, par-3 course designed especially for beginners.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the January 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Orlando, Florida. A non-profit group that supports military veterans and their families hopes to revive part of Meadow Woods Golf Course, a venue that’s been closed since 2007. Tom Underdown, the founder of Fairways for Warriors, wants to lease part of the Meadow Woods property and create Warrior Golf Club, which would feature a nine-hole course and a practice center with three practice holes. Fairways for Warriors already hosts golf-related events for soldiers at several courses in the Orlando area, but Underdown believes it can accomplish more with a permanent home. “We can’t always do all the things we want to do or need to do for our soldiers and their families,” he told the Golf Channel. “Having our own place, we could have our guys going there every single day.” The next item on Underdown’s agenda is fundraising. He needs $1.5 million for course upgrades and $1.2 million for a clubhouse.
Chesterfield, England. With a promised investment from a U.S. hotel group, a long-delayed resort community in Derbyshire may finally break ground this year. Rupert Carr’s Peak Resort, which is to emerge on a former coal mine roughly 40 miles southeast of Manchester, has been kicking around literally for decades. Now, at long last, Carr’s Birchall Properties appears to have found its financial partner: Grand Heritage Hotel Group of Annapolis, Maryland, which owns and operates four hotels in the United States (among them the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where The Shining was filmed) and others in Italy, Mexico, Egypt, and Qatar. Carr’s 300-acre property is home to an existing golf course that Jonathan Gaunt, a Bakewell-based architect, plans to redesign into an 18-hole, “championship-quality” layout. At build-out, Peak Resort is also expected to include about 850 houses, lodges, and hotel rooms, meeting space, a spa, a medical facility, and a golf practice center with a six-hole short course. Carr is hoping to break ground on the community sometime this spring and to open it in mid 2017.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the February 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Ifrane, Morocco. A Nicklaus Design course is taking shape in the Middle Atlas Mountains of north-central Morocco. The 18-hole layout will be the centerpiece of Michlifen Golf & Country Club, a 300-acre community that will eventually consist of villas, apartments, and a variety of recreational amenities. Michlifen is being developed by Morocco’s national railway, Rabat-based ONCF (the acronym stands for Office National des Chemins de Fer du Maroc), which also owns one of Ifrane’s most prominent hotels, the Michlifen Ifrane Suites & Spa. ONCF is betting big on Ifrane, as it hopes to eventually add a casino to the hotel. Michlifen will be Nicklaus’ second course in Morocco. In 2008, the North Palm Beach, Florida-based firm opened Samanah Country Club.
Durango, Colorado. In response to what’s been described as “an improving market nationally for vacation homes,” an upscale community in the Rocky Mountains is adding the second nine to its Hale Irwin “signature” golf course. “People fall in love with the lifestyle here,” Rick Carlton has said of his Glacier Club. “It’s not fancy like Aspen or Vail. We’re a real town with regular folks.” Irwin, who has a design office in Colorado, is co-designing the course with another Colorado-based architect, Todd Schoeder of iCon Golf Studio. When their 18-hole course opens, probably in the spring of 2017, Glacier Club will feature two 18-hole layouts. The community’s Cliffs course, an Arthur Hills design, has been around since the mid 1970s.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
The Week That Was, april 12, 2015
In what it describes as “a Q&A roundtable,” Forbes asked some of the most powerful people in golf to discuss our industry’s near-term prospects. Their message: Two thumbs up! Tim Finchem, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, said he was “bullish” on golf and avowed that our business is “in better shape than you would be led to believe,” a statement that closely echoes recent declarations by the National Golf Foundation. Mike Davis, the executive director of United States Golf Association, is likewise “bullish” about our industry’s future, and he sees “positive trends in some of [the] key metrics that indicate that the game is healthy.” Also “bullish” -- are you sensing a theme? -- is Pete Bevacqua, the CEO of the PGA of America, who believes that “golf is on a positive turn,” in part because golf participation rates have begun “to produce positive momentum, especially among youth.” Steve Mona, the CEO of World Golf Foundation and our industry’s chief publicist, unfortunately didn’t claim to be “bullish,” but he does think that “the future is very bright.” Before you put too much stock in these remarks, however, it must be noted that Finchem admitted to being “excited” about the way that he and the other panelists have dedicated themselves to “telling the positive story of the state of the game.” Since Finchem has acknowledged that all this feel-good talk is merely part of a public-relations campaign, does it carry any weight?
When it comes to golf development in the People’s Republic, it appears that the party has officially ended. As you’ve no doubt heard, the Chinese government intends to close 66 golf courses that it alleges were built illegally and either pose a threat to the environment or encroach on increasingly valuable farmland. If that all the courses actually close, the action would be a severe blow to China’s golf industry, as it would wipe out roughly 10 percent of the nation’s current inventory. Dan Washburn, the author of The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream, thinks the crackdown on illegal construction is “real and serious,” but he suggests that the central government’s bark may be bigger than its bite. “It will be interesting to see how many of the 66 courses on the government’s list close and stay closed,” he writes in a column for CNN Money. It’ll also be interesting to see if there are other golf purges in China’s future, because rumor has it that as many as 100 courses are still on the government’s hit list.
The “world’s greatest golf course” is bleeding red ink. Citing figures published by what it describes as “a national newspaper,” the Daily Record reports that Trump International Golf Links Scotland has lost £3.5 million ($5.12 million) over the past two years -- £1.7 million (almost $2.49 million) in 2012 and £1.8 million (more than $2.6 million) in 2013. Despite the losses -- or maybe because of them -- Trump recently moved the resort’s second Martin Hawtree-designed golf course back to the front burner, and he requested permission to build 2,750 vacation houses and other housing types.
Last week, Greg “the Living Brand” Norman evaluated an investment opportunity near the Big Tupper ski area in northern New York. “He flew in with some of his team to look over the Adirondack Club project,” a local Realtor told North County Public Radio. Adirondack Club, a controversial 6,200-acre resort community near the town of Tupper Lake, has been kicking around for years and was, until last year, hung up by legal challenges from environmentalists and slow-growthers. Its developers, Tom Lawson and Michael Foxman, are presumably luring Norman by offering him a chance to redesign an existing golf course that they plan to incorporate into their community. According to the Realtor, further talks are scheduled.
An LLC affiliated with Brue Capital Partners has closed on its expected purchase of Adam’s Mountain Country Club and Adam’s Rib Ranch. The LLC, led by Chad Brue and Dan Bennett, bought the properties from entities controlled by Fred Kummer, a St. Louis, Missouri-based hotelier who began developing his 2,655 acres in Eagle, Colorado in the early 1970s. Bennett, the principal of Southwest Greens of Colorado, considers the Adam’s Rib property to be “a gem that has been off the radar for decades,” and Brue believes it’s “poised for a bright future,” thanks in part to “an increasingly robust real estate market.” The partners have determined that Kummer invested more than $100 million into Adam’s Rib Ranch. They haven’t announced what they paid for the properties, but last month the Vail Daily reported that they’d agreed on a price between $20 million and $30 million. Adam’s Mountain features an 18-hole, Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course that opened in 2007. The club is said to operate “at substantial annual loss,” but the new owners don’t intend to sell it, for they believe it’s “critical” to future real estate sales.
New Delhi-based DLF, Ltd., India’s biggest real estate developer, has taken the wraps off its Gary Player “signature” golf course. The 18-hole track, the centerpiece of DLF Golf & Country Club, replaces an 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed layout that opened in the late 1990s and hosted some of Asia’s most highly regarded professional events, including the Johnnie Walker Classic, the Indian Open, and the Avantha Masters. DLF’s new course also figures to attract high-profile tournaments, and Player thinks it “will truly stand beside any in the world.” The club is one of the attractions at DLF City, a 3,000-acre mini-metropolis in Gurgaon, a close-in southwestern suburb of New Delhi. According to Wikipedia, half of the Fortune 500 has established a presence in Gurgaon, even though the city “does not have reliable power and water supply, public transport, and utilities.”
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the July 2012 and June 2010 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Gifts of Gab: As municipalities across the nation debate the value of their golf operations, maybe they should consider some counsel from the city attorney in Gallup, New Mexico. “I think the golf course is sort of like a hospital,” George Kozeliski said last year, as the city was weighing the future of Fox Run Golf Course. “If you don’t have one, you have a tough time getting any kind of economic development. A city our size should have one.... It’s just one of those things to attract and maintain investment and quality of life for citizens.” Based at least in part on Kozeliski’s advice, which was published by the Gallup Independent (the story is no longer available online), the city chose to outsource the course’s operation.
Steve Smyers, who views himself and his colleagues as “forward-thinking guys who bring innovation to the game,” has been elected as the president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. In a press release, he suggested that under his direction the group would attempt to “inspire golfers to play 10 percent more golf each year” and to “continue to pioneer improved standards and focus on striving to make what is already a great game even better.” Smyers, who’s based in Lakeland, Florida, will serve as the ASGCA’s leader through April 2016.
When it comes to golf development in the People’s Republic, it appears that the party has officially ended. As you’ve no doubt heard, the Chinese government intends to close 66 golf courses that it alleges were built illegally and either pose a threat to the environment or encroach on increasingly valuable farmland. If that all the courses actually close, the action would be a severe blow to China’s golf industry, as it would wipe out roughly 10 percent of the nation’s current inventory. Dan Washburn, the author of The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream, thinks the crackdown on illegal construction is “real and serious,” but he suggests that the central government’s bark may be bigger than its bite. “It will be interesting to see how many of the 66 courses on the government’s list close and stay closed,” he writes in a column for CNN Money. It’ll also be interesting to see if there are other golf purges in China’s future, because rumor has it that as many as 100 courses are still on the government’s hit list.
The “world’s greatest golf course” is bleeding red ink. Citing figures published by what it describes as “a national newspaper,” the Daily Record reports that Trump International Golf Links Scotland has lost £3.5 million ($5.12 million) over the past two years -- £1.7 million (almost $2.49 million) in 2012 and £1.8 million (more than $2.6 million) in 2013. Despite the losses -- or maybe because of them -- Trump recently moved the resort’s second Martin Hawtree-designed golf course back to the front burner, and he requested permission to build 2,750 vacation houses and other housing types.
Last week, Greg “the Living Brand” Norman evaluated an investment opportunity near the Big Tupper ski area in northern New York. “He flew in with some of his team to look over the Adirondack Club project,” a local Realtor told North County Public Radio. Adirondack Club, a controversial 6,200-acre resort community near the town of Tupper Lake, has been kicking around for years and was, until last year, hung up by legal challenges from environmentalists and slow-growthers. Its developers, Tom Lawson and Michael Foxman, are presumably luring Norman by offering him a chance to redesign an existing golf course that they plan to incorporate into their community. According to the Realtor, further talks are scheduled.
An LLC affiliated with Brue Capital Partners has closed on its expected purchase of Adam’s Mountain Country Club and Adam’s Rib Ranch. The LLC, led by Chad Brue and Dan Bennett, bought the properties from entities controlled by Fred Kummer, a St. Louis, Missouri-based hotelier who began developing his 2,655 acres in Eagle, Colorado in the early 1970s. Bennett, the principal of Southwest Greens of Colorado, considers the Adam’s Rib property to be “a gem that has been off the radar for decades,” and Brue believes it’s “poised for a bright future,” thanks in part to “an increasingly robust real estate market.” The partners have determined that Kummer invested more than $100 million into Adam’s Rib Ranch. They haven’t announced what they paid for the properties, but last month the Vail Daily reported that they’d agreed on a price between $20 million and $30 million. Adam’s Mountain features an 18-hole, Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course that opened in 2007. The club is said to operate “at substantial annual loss,” but the new owners don’t intend to sell it, for they believe it’s “critical” to future real estate sales.
New Delhi-based DLF, Ltd., India’s biggest real estate developer, has taken the wraps off its Gary Player “signature” golf course. The 18-hole track, the centerpiece of DLF Golf & Country Club, replaces an 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed layout that opened in the late 1990s and hosted some of Asia’s most highly regarded professional events, including the Johnnie Walker Classic, the Indian Open, and the Avantha Masters. DLF’s new course also figures to attract high-profile tournaments, and Player thinks it “will truly stand beside any in the world.” The club is one of the attractions at DLF City, a 3,000-acre mini-metropolis in Gurgaon, a close-in southwestern suburb of New Delhi. According to Wikipedia, half of the Fortune 500 has established a presence in Gurgaon, even though the city “does not have reliable power and water supply, public transport, and utilities.”
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the July 2012 and June 2010 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Gifts of Gab: As municipalities across the nation debate the value of their golf operations, maybe they should consider some counsel from the city attorney in Gallup, New Mexico. “I think the golf course is sort of like a hospital,” George Kozeliski said last year, as the city was weighing the future of Fox Run Golf Course. “If you don’t have one, you have a tough time getting any kind of economic development. A city our size should have one.... It’s just one of those things to attract and maintain investment and quality of life for citizens.” Based at least in part on Kozeliski’s advice, which was published by the Gallup Independent (the story is no longer available online), the city chose to outsource the course’s operation.
Steve Smyers, who views himself and his colleagues as “forward-thinking guys who bring innovation to the game,” has been elected as the president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. In a press release, he suggested that under his direction the group would attempt to “inspire golfers to play 10 percent more golf each year” and to “continue to pioneer improved standards and focus on striving to make what is already a great game even better.” Smyers, who’s based in Lakeland, Florida, will serve as the ASGCA’s leader through April 2016.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
The Week That Was, april 5, 2015
Johnny Morris, who once seemed completely dedicated to celebrity and “signature” golf, is dipping into Mike Keiser’s bag of tricks. Morris, the wealthy founder of Bass Pro Shops (Forbes estimates that he’s worth $4.2 billion), has hired Coore & Crenshaw to help turn his Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri into “the premier golf destination in the Midwest.” (Let the battle against Keiser’s forthcoming complex in Wisconsin begin!) Big Cedar already features a Jack Nicklaus-designed par-3 course, an Arnold Palmer-designed practice center, a Tom Watson-designed putting course, and a Tom Fazio-designed 18-hole track, and last year Morris hired Gary Player to create a 12-hole layout that will use “creative, unique, and untraditional concepts to help all members of the family enjoy the game.” A groundbreaking for Coore & Crenshaw’s course hasn’t been announced, but Morris expects the 18-hole track to offer “a premium golf experience like no other in the region,” and the architects have promised to deliver “a golf experience that matches the Johnny Morris’ vision.”
Gifts of Gab, Part One: Golf’s economic indicators in Great Britain, like those in the United States, are beginning to improve. “Although it is too early to predict potential growth and turnover, we believe that for many clubs the most challenging years are likely to be behind them,” writes Ian Simpson of Savills Oxford, a British real estate consulting firm. He adds: “We have been busy with valuations over the last six months, seeing a number of owners reviewing their funding to be able to expand through the addition of facilities or further sites, which is an encouraging sign that many owners are seeking the adaptability to prosper. Over the winter we have also visited a number of properties and clients across the U.K. and Europe discussing disposals of all scales, and so we look forward to a much improved level of opportunities for investors over the coming months.” Simpson’s evidence is anecdotal, but it’s worth noting that it comes on the heels on an uptick in rounds played in the U.K. last year.
Later this year, a Chinese development group expects to debut a Nicklaus Academy, featuring a six-hole pitch-’n’-putt golf course and a three-story driving range, in Hong Kong. Ted Simons, the chief operating officer of Nicklaus Academies, believes that the Hong Kong Golf & Tennis Academy will be “one of the world’s finest learning and training facilities.” The venue’s golf-training areas are being constructed from synthetic turf, and they’ll be complemented with overnight accommodations and various sports-related amenities. “It is going to be a truly great place for sports lovers to gather, be trained, and excel,” said a spokesman for New World Development, the facility’s owner. Kevin Holinaty of Calhoun, Georgia-based Southwest Greens Construction, the company building the center, believes that an increasing number of golf facilities “are willing to look at synthetic solutions as real and truly viable options.”
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the March 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Brown Golf Management, a company led by one of Troon Golf’s former general managers, intends to add a pair of Jacksonville-area golf properties -- Windsor Parke Golf Club and Champions Club at Julington Creek -- to its holdings in Florida. “I love Jacksonville,” John Brown told the Florida Times-Union. Brown, who described his Bluffton, South Carolina-based company as “a value-oriented golf operator,” has agreed to buy the properties from an affiliate of Pacific LifeCorp, a California-based insurance conglomerate that arguably has no good reason to be involved in the golf business. Brown Golf currently owns and operates one property in the Sunshine State, Eagle Ridge Golf Club in Summerfield. It also owns and operates seven golf properties in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, and it manages or leases 10 properties in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, North Carolina, and New York. The company’s primary aspiration, according to Brown: “We want the masses to be able to afford to play golf.”
The one-time center of Africa’s slave trade aims to become a world-class business destination, and sometime this spring it’ll have a golf course to suit its aspirations. Summit Hills Golf Course, an 18-hole, championship-quality track, will emerge in Calabar, the capital of Nigeria’s Cross River State, as part of a 1,000-acre “new city” that will include high-end houses, a hotel, and a convention center. The state, which is eager to spark tourism and boost its economy, funded the course construction and is facilitating the ancillary development. Tim Lobb, who operates out of Thomson Perrett Lobb’s office in suburban London, England, set out to create a course that “will look like it’s been here for a long time.” The result, his firm says, is “a tropical treat” that will “stimulate the senses as it meanders through old rubber plantations and dense tropical valleys.” Nigeria currently has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and if predictions run true, by the end of the 21st century it’ll be the world’s third most-populous nation, behind India and China. The nation, which currently has roughly 50 courses, is a prime candidate for future golf development.
The original version of the preceding post was first published in the March 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course.
Gifts of Gab, Part Two: New York City’s much-anticipated golf course in Ferry Point Park has opened, and the initial response is positive. “I think it’s the best course Jack Nicklaus ever designed,” Michael Breed, the host of the Golf Channel’s “Golf Fix,” told the New York Post. “It has everything you want in a golf course -- amazing scenery, short par-4s, long and short par-3s -- and the conditions are constantly changing because of the wind. There will always be wind at Ferry Point, and that makes for intrigue on every hole on the course every time you play it. There is no doubt in my mind that Ferry Point will host a major championship.’’ Regarding a professional event, Donald Trump, the course’s operator, told the newspaper that all of golf’s powers that be -- the PGA Tour, the U.S. Golf Association, the PGA of America -- have looked into hosting tournaments on the track.
Gifts of Gab, Part One: Golf’s economic indicators in Great Britain, like those in the United States, are beginning to improve. “Although it is too early to predict potential growth and turnover, we believe that for many clubs the most challenging years are likely to be behind them,” writes Ian Simpson of Savills Oxford, a British real estate consulting firm. He adds: “We have been busy with valuations over the last six months, seeing a number of owners reviewing their funding to be able to expand through the addition of facilities or further sites, which is an encouraging sign that many owners are seeking the adaptability to prosper. Over the winter we have also visited a number of properties and clients across the U.K. and Europe discussing disposals of all scales, and so we look forward to a much improved level of opportunities for investors over the coming months.” Simpson’s evidence is anecdotal, but it’s worth noting that it comes on the heels on an uptick in rounds played in the U.K. last year.
Later this year, a Chinese development group expects to debut a Nicklaus Academy, featuring a six-hole pitch-’n’-putt golf course and a three-story driving range, in Hong Kong. Ted Simons, the chief operating officer of Nicklaus Academies, believes that the Hong Kong Golf & Tennis Academy will be “one of the world’s finest learning and training facilities.” The venue’s golf-training areas are being constructed from synthetic turf, and they’ll be complemented with overnight accommodations and various sports-related amenities. “It is going to be a truly great place for sports lovers to gather, be trained, and excel,” said a spokesman for New World Development, the facility’s owner. Kevin Holinaty of Calhoun, Georgia-based Southwest Greens Construction, the company building the center, believes that an increasing number of golf facilities “are willing to look at synthetic solutions as real and truly viable options.”
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the March 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Brown Golf Management, a company led by one of Troon Golf’s former general managers, intends to add a pair of Jacksonville-area golf properties -- Windsor Parke Golf Club and Champions Club at Julington Creek -- to its holdings in Florida. “I love Jacksonville,” John Brown told the Florida Times-Union. Brown, who described his Bluffton, South Carolina-based company as “a value-oriented golf operator,” has agreed to buy the properties from an affiliate of Pacific LifeCorp, a California-based insurance conglomerate that arguably has no good reason to be involved in the golf business. Brown Golf currently owns and operates one property in the Sunshine State, Eagle Ridge Golf Club in Summerfield. It also owns and operates seven golf properties in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, and it manages or leases 10 properties in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, North Carolina, and New York. The company’s primary aspiration, according to Brown: “We want the masses to be able to afford to play golf.”
The one-time center of Africa’s slave trade aims to become a world-class business destination, and sometime this spring it’ll have a golf course to suit its aspirations. Summit Hills Golf Course, an 18-hole, championship-quality track, will emerge in Calabar, the capital of Nigeria’s Cross River State, as part of a 1,000-acre “new city” that will include high-end houses, a hotel, and a convention center. The state, which is eager to spark tourism and boost its economy, funded the course construction and is facilitating the ancillary development. Tim Lobb, who operates out of Thomson Perrett Lobb’s office in suburban London, England, set out to create a course that “will look like it’s been here for a long time.” The result, his firm says, is “a tropical treat” that will “stimulate the senses as it meanders through old rubber plantations and dense tropical valleys.” Nigeria currently has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and if predictions run true, by the end of the 21st century it’ll be the world’s third most-populous nation, behind India and China. The nation, which currently has roughly 50 courses, is a prime candidate for future golf development.
The original version of the preceding post was first published in the March 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course.
Gifts of Gab, Part Two: New York City’s much-anticipated golf course in Ferry Point Park has opened, and the initial response is positive. “I think it’s the best course Jack Nicklaus ever designed,” Michael Breed, the host of the Golf Channel’s “Golf Fix,” told the New York Post. “It has everything you want in a golf course -- amazing scenery, short par-4s, long and short par-3s -- and the conditions are constantly changing because of the wind. There will always be wind at Ferry Point, and that makes for intrigue on every hole on the course every time you play it. There is no doubt in my mind that Ferry Point will host a major championship.’’ Regarding a professional event, Donald Trump, the course’s operator, told the newspaper that all of golf’s powers that be -- the PGA Tour, the U.S. Golf Association, the PGA of America -- have looked into hosting tournaments on the track.
Friday, April 3, 2015
Desolation Row, april 3, 2015
Malibu, California. Less than a year after it secured permission to build new facilities and proceed with a long-desired makeover of its golf course, Malibu Country Club has filed for bankruptcy protection. The club, part of a 650-spread in the Santa Monica Mountains, has reportedly defaulted on a $47 million loan, and its lender has initiated foreclosure proceedings. Malibu features an 18-hole, William F. Bell-designed golf course that opened in 1977. The track was built by a group of Japanese monks, reportedly as “a tribute to God.” Last summer, the managing partner of the club’s ownership group described the course as “functionally obsolete” and claimed that it lost $1 million a year.
Gulf Breeze, Florida. Tiger Point Golf Club is bleeding red ink, and its losses have become too large for the city to bear. “We face some hard choices about what to do next with that facility,” a councilmember told the Pensacola News Journal. The city bought the club in 2012, reportedly for $2.8 million, to ensure that it had a place to spray treated waste water from its nearby sewage treatment plant. But the course has lost nearly $1 million since it the city took ownership, and the loss in the current fiscal year is expected to exceed $553,000. The city is currently searching for a consultant capable of “shaping a realistic vision for the future” of the club.
Birmingham, Alabama. The end is near for Altadena Country Club, which can no longer make the payments on its lease. “We started getting in trouble in ’05,” the club’s general manager told the Birmingham Business Journal. “It’s never been easy. It’s been more difficult every year.” Altadena features an 18-hole golf course, with one nine designed by Larry Nelson and the other by Gary Player. An agreement is in place that will allow a local development group to build houses on roughly half of the club’s 122 acres, while the remaining property is conveyed to the city of Vestavia Hills for use as a park. The club, which has been around since early 1960s, has announced that it’ll close at the end of next month.
Cañon City, Colorado. Shadow Hills Golf Club isn’t expected to operate in the 2015 season, and its long-term future is in doubt. “It is [a] heartbreaking but a realistic business decision that we can no longer subsidize its operation,” one of the club’s owners told the Cañon City Daily Record. The first nine holes at Shadow Hills were created by a coal-mining company in the 1920s, and Keith Foster later redesigned the original track and added a second nine. In 2010, the property was purchased out of receivership by Bill and Bonnie Holt and Beth Holt Madone, who are hoping that the city will take it off their hands, as part of a lease that would cost only $1 a year. The city is said to be crunching the numbers, but so far it hasn’t made any promises.
Glyndon, Minnesota. Time has run out on Ponderosa Golf Course. The nine-hole track went dark last month, after serving up affordably priced rounds to golfers in the Fargo area for more than 50 years. “Low-cost golf couldn’t continue,” said the president of Minnesota State University, which identified the course’s 130 acres for expansion many moons ago. The Forum reports that Ponderosa typically rang up between 12,000 and 15,000 rounds a year.
Westfield, Indiana. If local officials agree to a rezoning, Wood Wind Golf Course will be razed and replaced with something the Indianapolis area really needs: More than 300 single-family houses. The 210-acre course, co-designed by Ron and Gary Kern, is operated by Cohoat & O’Neal Management, on a lease that expires at the end of this year.
Overland Park, Kansas. Though many nearby residents have objected, Brookridge Golf & Fitness may soon be plowed up and covered with houses, office space, hotels, a theater, a shopping area, and other attractions. “Some people don’t want to see change, which is understandable, but change really is inevitable,” the course’s owner, Chris Curtin, told the Kansas City Star. Curtin, a developer, bought Brookridge’s 138 acres from a Los Angeles, California-based investment group, Capital Foresight, which believed it had a can’t-miss formula for turning around troubled golf properties. Some of the city’s elected officials have reservations about Curtin’s proposal, but they haven’t closed the door on it.
Milton, Florida. On the first day of June, Whiting Field Naval Air Station will pull the plug on its 18-hole golf course. Frank W. Dahlinger Golf Course hasn’t operated profitably “for many years,” according to a press release, and it was “red-flagged” for potential closing by military accountants in 2009. “The course is unsustainable and simply costs more to operate than the revenue it brings in,” said Whiting Field’s commanding officer. Dahlinger opened with a nine-hole layout in 1948, and the base added a second nine in 1965. Bubba Watson set the course record, a 62, in 1999.
Grove City, Ohio. In Greek mythology, a phoenix is a bird that perpetually rises from its own ashes. But such a fairy tale has no relevance to Phoenix Golf Links, a Tim Nugent-designed, 19-hole track (that’s no typo) that was born on a landfill outside Columbus and met its eternal end last month. The landfill’s owner, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio, appears to be somewhat relieved about the outcome, because all that perpetually rises from the course are methane leaks.
Gulf Breeze, Florida. Tiger Point Golf Club is bleeding red ink, and its losses have become too large for the city to bear. “We face some hard choices about what to do next with that facility,” a councilmember told the Pensacola News Journal. The city bought the club in 2012, reportedly for $2.8 million, to ensure that it had a place to spray treated waste water from its nearby sewage treatment plant. But the course has lost nearly $1 million since it the city took ownership, and the loss in the current fiscal year is expected to exceed $553,000. The city is currently searching for a consultant capable of “shaping a realistic vision for the future” of the club.
Birmingham, Alabama. The end is near for Altadena Country Club, which can no longer make the payments on its lease. “We started getting in trouble in ’05,” the club’s general manager told the Birmingham Business Journal. “It’s never been easy. It’s been more difficult every year.” Altadena features an 18-hole golf course, with one nine designed by Larry Nelson and the other by Gary Player. An agreement is in place that will allow a local development group to build houses on roughly half of the club’s 122 acres, while the remaining property is conveyed to the city of Vestavia Hills for use as a park. The club, which has been around since early 1960s, has announced that it’ll close at the end of next month.
Cañon City, Colorado. Shadow Hills Golf Club isn’t expected to operate in the 2015 season, and its long-term future is in doubt. “It is [a] heartbreaking but a realistic business decision that we can no longer subsidize its operation,” one of the club’s owners told the Cañon City Daily Record. The first nine holes at Shadow Hills were created by a coal-mining company in the 1920s, and Keith Foster later redesigned the original track and added a second nine. In 2010, the property was purchased out of receivership by Bill and Bonnie Holt and Beth Holt Madone, who are hoping that the city will take it off their hands, as part of a lease that would cost only $1 a year. The city is said to be crunching the numbers, but so far it hasn’t made any promises.
Glyndon, Minnesota. Time has run out on Ponderosa Golf Course. The nine-hole track went dark last month, after serving up affordably priced rounds to golfers in the Fargo area for more than 50 years. “Low-cost golf couldn’t continue,” said the president of Minnesota State University, which identified the course’s 130 acres for expansion many moons ago. The Forum reports that Ponderosa typically rang up between 12,000 and 15,000 rounds a year.
Westfield, Indiana. If local officials agree to a rezoning, Wood Wind Golf Course will be razed and replaced with something the Indianapolis area really needs: More than 300 single-family houses. The 210-acre course, co-designed by Ron and Gary Kern, is operated by Cohoat & O’Neal Management, on a lease that expires at the end of this year.
Overland Park, Kansas. Though many nearby residents have objected, Brookridge Golf & Fitness may soon be plowed up and covered with houses, office space, hotels, a theater, a shopping area, and other attractions. “Some people don’t want to see change, which is understandable, but change really is inevitable,” the course’s owner, Chris Curtin, told the Kansas City Star. Curtin, a developer, bought Brookridge’s 138 acres from a Los Angeles, California-based investment group, Capital Foresight, which believed it had a can’t-miss formula for turning around troubled golf properties. Some of the city’s elected officials have reservations about Curtin’s proposal, but they haven’t closed the door on it.
Milton, Florida. On the first day of June, Whiting Field Naval Air Station will pull the plug on its 18-hole golf course. Frank W. Dahlinger Golf Course hasn’t operated profitably “for many years,” according to a press release, and it was “red-flagged” for potential closing by military accountants in 2009. “The course is unsustainable and simply costs more to operate than the revenue it brings in,” said Whiting Field’s commanding officer. Dahlinger opened with a nine-hole layout in 1948, and the base added a second nine in 1965. Bubba Watson set the course record, a 62, in 1999.
Grove City, Ohio. In Greek mythology, a phoenix is a bird that perpetually rises from its own ashes. But such a fairy tale has no relevance to Phoenix Golf Links, a Tim Nugent-designed, 19-hole track (that’s no typo) that was born on a landfill outside Columbus and met its eternal end last month. The landfill’s owner, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio, appears to be somewhat relieved about the outcome, because all that perpetually rises from the course are methane leaks.
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