The Week That Was, august 16, 2015

     Fresh off the opening of his sports bar in Jupiter, Florida, Tiger Woods appears to be closing in on a design contract in India. “We’re looking at designing a golf course there,” he acknowledged during a press conference at the PGA Championship. “There’s a lot of different things that are going on for me positively in India.” The Times of India reports that the track will take shape somewhere in the Delhi/National Capital Region, and International Business Times has heard that a Guragaon-based developer is Woods’ client.

     The PGA of America has decided that Donald Trump has been punished enough. Trump, you’ll remember, made some mean-spirited comments about Mexican immigrants, and then he declared that he was getting “tremendous support from the golf world” because “they all know I’m right.” It turns out that the presidential candidate knows our business very well. Trump’s mischaracterizations have had virtually no deleterious effect on his golf operations, and this week the PGA of America announced that two of its showcase events -- the 2022 PGA Championship and the 2017 Senior PGA Championship -- will be staged, as planned, at Trump-owned venues. “Presidential politics,” the group’s CEO said, “is something we don’t want to get involved in.” No word yet on whether the group still wishes to be involved in outreach programs to Hispanic communities.

     Phil “the Gambler” Mickelson’s M Club Holdings, Inc., the owner of five golf properties in Arizona, wants to buy an old, socially backward golf club in Spokane, Washington. Mickelson’s group has offered $2.8 million for Spokane Country Club, which was founded in 1898 but is today bankrupt and in desperate need of a financial bailout. M Club has made a low bid for Spokane -- three other suitors would pay more -- but it’s in the driver’s seat because it’s promised to keep the club private. “The only way to maintain the principles upon which this club was founded is to keep it private,” a board member told the Spokane Spokesman-Review. It’s safe to assume that the principles worth maintaining will no longer include gender discrimination, as Spokane is broke in part because it lost a court battle against four of its female members who proved that they were denied privileges that male members got. Their mistreatment has cost the club $1.4 million and done untold damage to its public image.

     One more thing regarding Spokane Country Club: M Club’s purchase offer comes with a catch. Mickelson’s group will buy Spokane only if it can sell 250 memberships, each with a $2,000 initiation fee plus $475 in monthly dues for 36 months. Under those terms, the club would generate $4.775 million in income over the next three years, plus additional money from its golf and clubhouse operations. If I were a prospective member, I’d like to know exactly what M Club is bringing to the table.

     The Nicklaus empire’s first golf course in Vietnam, promising “a world-class golf experience of the highest standards,” has opened for play. The 18-hole, Nicklaus Design track is the centerpiece of Legend Hill Golf Resort, a 710-acre spread in Vinh Phuc Province, roughly 45 miles northwest of Hanoi. The course is different, for it allows golfers to choose between one of two greens on every hole, a setup that Legend Hill’s developer, Hanoi-based BRG Group, believes is “irresistible.” BRG, one of Vietnam’s premier golf operators, aims to make Vietnam “a major force in international golf.” The company owns Kings Island Golf Resort, a 36-hole venue in the Son Tay District of Hanoi, and Do Son Seaside Golf Resort outside Hai Phong. Next, it plans to build Nicklaus-branded learning centers in Hanoi, Hai Phong City, Đà Nẵng, and Ho Chi Minh City.

     Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the July 2015 and December 2011 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.