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.