The Week That Was, october 18, 2015

     ClubCorp’s cash registers are ringing happily this year -- overall revenues have increased by 24 percent over those recorded in 2014 -- but the company’s golf and country club division is underperforming. In fact, it’s generating income exactly the same way Carly Fiorina did it at Hewlett-Packard: By acquisition. In its most recent quarterly financial statement, ClubCorp reports that the division has so far this year increased its membership rolls (excluding members from managed clubs) by nearly 33 percent. However, ClubCorp also notes that the number of members at properties that were previously part of its portfolio (“same-store” properties), again excluding members from managed clubs, has suffered a slight decrease. This indicates that the division is posting growth solely because it’s adding to its inventory (eight properties so far in 2015). It’s also worth noting that ClubCorp will do renovations at some of its recently acquired Sequoia Golf properties in 2015 instead of in 2016, as originally planned. The company believes that the new construction schedule “will minimize member disruption” -- membership losses, presumably -- in 2016.

     The Nicklaus empire may take its name off a golf course in suburban Melbourne, Australia. Since July, Jack Nicklaus’ Florida-based design crew has complained twice about “unacceptable” turf conditions on its “signature” course at Heritage Golf & Country Club, a venue that the Age calls “one of Victoria’s most prestigious golf clubs.” Nicklaus’ group believes that Heritage’s 15-year-old St. John track is “negatively impacting the reputation of the Nicklaus name” and has reportedly put the club’s owner on notice. Of course, Nicklaus’ complaints aren’t the only ones that Heritage’s owner, Xiaoyan “Kylie” Bao, has heard since she took over the club last year. According to the Age, club members, former employees, and contractors have begun to wage “a bitter battle” against her, and “a grass-roots revolt is brewing.”

     Greg Norman’s name may also soon come off a high-profile golf course, namely the track he designed for what is now Trump International Golf Links Doonbeg. In an interview with Today’s Golfer, “the Living Brand” acknowledges being “incredibly disappointed” that Trump didn’t hire him to redesign the 18-hole layout in Ireland (Martin Hawtree got the job), because “no one else knows more about the place” than he does. “I think our name is going to come off it now,” Norman said, adding, “You won’t hear me talking much about it from now on.” Norman, one of the wealthiest people in golf, passed on an opportunity to buy Doonbeg before Trump did (reportedly for about $10 million), and last year he told the Clare Champion that he “would expect a phone call” if changes were to be made.

     Speaking of Trump International Golf Links Doonbeg, it lost more money last year than either of Donald Trump’s Scottish golf properties. Just a week after revealing that Trump Turnberry and Trump International Golf Links Scotland each lost roughly £1.1 million (about $1.7 million) in 2014, a financial report from the Trump Organization indicates that its resort in Ireland lost €2.5 million (almost $2.84 million). The Organization, which has set out to make Doonbeg a “truly iconic” venue, ascribes the losses to expected start-up and renovation costs and forecasts “further losses” this year.

     One of Asia’s oldest, most prestigious golf properties may be razed. Authorities in Malaysia have unveiled a plan to turn Royal Selangor Golf Club, a 45-hole complex in Kuala Lumpur, into a recreational area modeled on Central Park in New York City. A government minister concedes that the idea “requires further discussions with the relevant parties,” but it nonetheless compromises the future of a truly historic venue -- arguably the birthplace of golf in Malaysia. Royal Selangor was established in 1893, and its golf courses were built, nine holes at a time, beginning in the early 1920s. The tracks are no longer viewed as being among the nation’s elite, but they’ve withstood the test of time and are still beloved by members of Malaysia’s high society. My guess is that someone steps up and argues for their preservation.

     Halliburton Company, deservedly one of America’s least trusted corporations, wants to buy a golf course, specifically Twin Oaks Golf Course in Duncan, Oklahoma. The company has its eye on Twin Oaks not because it likes the golf business but because negligence by one of its subsidiaries has contaminated the course’s water supply. The trouble is, Halliburton hasn’t yet offered enough to avoid a court date with the course’s owner, Don Elsworth. “They made a couple of small offers, but they are just kind of insults,” Elsworth told the Oklahoman, adding: “It’s hard to sell a golf course as it is, and now ours comes tagged as contaminated.” In all, Halliburton is trying to reach settlements with 130 property owners who’ve discovered spent rocket fuel in their private wells. The water is so toxic that Halliburton has advised the property owners to not even put it on their lawns. Twin Oaks is the only golf course that’s been affected.