Howard Hughes Corporation has sold Club at Carlton Woods, a venue that’s been described as “the social and residential hub for the elite” at the Woodlands, a huge planned community north of Houston, Texas. HHC reports that the club, which features two 18-hole courses -- one designed by Jack Nicklaus, the other by Tom Fazio -- was a financial drain, as so far this year it’s lost $4.4 million. Nonetheless, the sale enabled the company to book “net cash proceeds of $25.1 million and a pre-tax gain of $29.1 million.” HHC didn’t identify Carlton Woods’ the new owner, and I can’t find any other reports of the transaction on the internets.
Persistent hard times in Victoria, Australia’s over-saturated golf market may lead to the creation of a “super club” in the world-famous Sandbelt. Three of the Melbourne area’s top golf properties -- Huntingdale Golf Club, Sandhurst Club, and Patterson River Golf Club -- have tentatively agreed to a merger, pending approval by their members. In a press release, Sandhurst’s chairman says that the proposal “brings together the most critical ingredients -- branding, capacity, and capital -- to ensure survival and prosperity in what is a tumultuous period in the golf industry.” Members of the “super club” will have access to 63 golf holes, according to the press release, which means that one of the clubs is going to lose nine of its holes. It’s hard to imagine the 18-hole, Charles Alison-designed course at Huntingdale -- “the Home of the Australian Masters” -- being touched, which suggests that the shrinkage will occur either at Sandhurst, a 36-hole complex that serves as the home of the PGA of Australia, or at Patterson River, which has been looking for merger partners for years and has apparently agreed to a “sale of excess land.” The proposed merger has been called “groundbreaking,” but it really isn’t. Half of the golf clubs in Australia are said to be operating under “financial duress,” and last year the editor of a golf publication in Australia predicted that as many as 20 percent of metropolitan Melbourne’s clubs will close over the next decade. A vote on the merger is expected to take place early next year.
Turkey has been itching to get into the Ryder Cup conversation for years, and now the president of the nation’s golf federation is taking dead aim on the event’s 2026 edition. “We will be the strongest bidder for 2026,” Ahmet Agaoglu vowed in a comment published by the Scotsman. “I will not die until I have the Ryder Cup played in this country.” Of course, it’s going to be a while before the European Tour and its partners pick a winner for an event that’s still more than a decade away. Come early December, though, the tour will reveal the last nation standing for the 2022 Ryder Cup. The Scotsman appears to be putting its money on Germany.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Friday, November 20, 2015
Vital Signs, november 20, 2015
The National Golf Foundation has counted the golf facilities in Asia, and last month the Jupiter, Florida-based trade group published a list of the nations with the most courses. The top five: Japan (2,374), China (469), South Korea (441), India (266), and Thailand (248).
Regarding those golf courses in South Korea: Some of them aren’t paying their taxes. Joongang Daily reports that government officials have discovered a golf-related “tax discrepancy” of ₩83.7 billion (about $72 million). The courses aren’t making their payments, the newspaper says, because they’re experiencing a “decline in customers, which has hurt their finances.” If you’re thinking that the decline can be explained in terms of supply and demand, try these numbers on for size: Between 2005 and 2014, the number of golf courses in South Korea increased by 115 percent, while the number of golfers increased by only 68 percent.
Japan’s golf business is also hurting. Since the early 1990s, says Bloomberg, the industry “has suffered a steady decline,” with the number of golfers falling by 30 percent. “There’s a sense of crisis,” the chairman of the Professional Golfers’ Association of Japan told the news service. “There’s no doubt the market is shrinking.” Bloomberg did manage to find evidence of growth, but it’s not the kind that bodes well for the future: Over the past decade, the number of golfers aged 70 and over in Japan has increased by 1 million.
A parade of “signature” golf architects has begun to make its way to Vietnam, and the Financial Times reports that the number of resident golfers in the nation now exceeds the number of golf tourists who annually come through the turnstiles. The score: 10,000 to 7,000. If this count is accurate -- and, for what it’s worth, a Chinese news service published the same number in 2013 -- then the nation should be congratulated for doubling the golf population it had in 1975, when the Vietnam War ended. And let’s keep this achievement in perspective: You can find more than 10,000 golfers in the Villages, Florida or Sun City, Arizona.
How much tourist traffic can two destination-worthy golf courses generate for a remote island located south of Melbourne, Australia? The numbers are still speculative, but King Island, part of the state of Tasmania, could more than double the 5,000 to 7,000 visitors that it welcomed last year when the much-anticipated new links -- Cape Wickham Golf Course and Ocean Dunes -- find their groove. Not all of the visitors will be golfers, to be sure, but Cape Wickham, which opened several weeks ago, has already taken 4,000 reservations, and the owners of Ocean Dunes, which is scheduled to debut its full 18 holes in early 2016, expect to ring up 8,000 rounds a year. What’s more, there’s an additional benefit that may accrue to King Island: The International Association of Golf Tour Operators has named Tasmania as 2015’s “undiscovered golf destination,” a designation that will most likely mean something to somebody.
Believe it or not, cynicism has begun to creep into U.S. politics. According to the Orlando Sentinel, an elected official in Orange County, Florida thinks that the owners of some golf courses in her jurisdiction might be deliberately “allowing their sprawling properties to fail” in an effort “to improve their prospects for redeveloping the acres into condos, shopping plazas, or something else more lucrative than golf.” Full disclosure: Similar thoughts have occasionally crossed my mind as well. When they do, however, I always tell myself that the owners of these struggling properties are probably just incompetent when it comes to golf operations. Either way, though, in the vast majority of cases they’re headed for a nice payday.
Regarding those golf courses in South Korea: Some of them aren’t paying their taxes. Joongang Daily reports that government officials have discovered a golf-related “tax discrepancy” of ₩83.7 billion (about $72 million). The courses aren’t making their payments, the newspaper says, because they’re experiencing a “decline in customers, which has hurt their finances.” If you’re thinking that the decline can be explained in terms of supply and demand, try these numbers on for size: Between 2005 and 2014, the number of golf courses in South Korea increased by 115 percent, while the number of golfers increased by only 68 percent.
Japan’s golf business is also hurting. Since the early 1990s, says Bloomberg, the industry “has suffered a steady decline,” with the number of golfers falling by 30 percent. “There’s a sense of crisis,” the chairman of the Professional Golfers’ Association of Japan told the news service. “There’s no doubt the market is shrinking.” Bloomberg did manage to find evidence of growth, but it’s not the kind that bodes well for the future: Over the past decade, the number of golfers aged 70 and over in Japan has increased by 1 million.
A parade of “signature” golf architects has begun to make its way to Vietnam, and the Financial Times reports that the number of resident golfers in the nation now exceeds the number of golf tourists who annually come through the turnstiles. The score: 10,000 to 7,000. If this count is accurate -- and, for what it’s worth, a Chinese news service published the same number in 2013 -- then the nation should be congratulated for doubling the golf population it had in 1975, when the Vietnam War ended. And let’s keep this achievement in perspective: You can find more than 10,000 golfers in the Villages, Florida or Sun City, Arizona.
How much tourist traffic can two destination-worthy golf courses generate for a remote island located south of Melbourne, Australia? The numbers are still speculative, but King Island, part of the state of Tasmania, could more than double the 5,000 to 7,000 visitors that it welcomed last year when the much-anticipated new links -- Cape Wickham Golf Course and Ocean Dunes -- find their groove. Not all of the visitors will be golfers, to be sure, but Cape Wickham, which opened several weeks ago, has already taken 4,000 reservations, and the owners of Ocean Dunes, which is scheduled to debut its full 18 holes in early 2016, expect to ring up 8,000 rounds a year. What’s more, there’s an additional benefit that may accrue to King Island: The International Association of Golf Tour Operators has named Tasmania as 2015’s “undiscovered golf destination,” a designation that will most likely mean something to somebody.
Believe it or not, cynicism has begun to creep into U.S. politics. According to the Orlando Sentinel, an elected official in Orange County, Florida thinks that the owners of some golf courses in her jurisdiction might be deliberately “allowing their sprawling properties to fail” in an effort “to improve their prospects for redeveloping the acres into condos, shopping plazas, or something else more lucrative than golf.” Full disclosure: Similar thoughts have occasionally crossed my mind as well. When they do, however, I always tell myself that the owners of these struggling properties are probably just incompetent when it comes to golf operations. Either way, though, in the vast majority of cases they’re headed for a nice payday.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
The Week That Was, november 15, 2015
One of the high flyers in China’s golf industry has acquired what appears to be its third U.S. golf property. HNA Group, the owner of more than a dozen golf venues in China, has reportedly paid $13.8 million for Hudson Valley Resort & Spa, a struggling, 550-acre spread in Kerhonkson, New York. The resort features an 18-hole, Hal Purdy-designed golf course that dates from the mid 1960s. HNA Group, which was founded as an aviation company, has a hospitality division that owns and/or manages more than 80 hotels in something like 30 Chinese cities. It owns seven golf properties on Hainan Island, among them Kangle Garden International Golf Club and Sun River Golf Club, and four others elsewhere in the People’s Republic. In the United States, it owns Nicklaus Club Monterey (formerly Pasadera Country Club) in Monterey, California and Somers Pointe Golf Club in Somers, New York. Two years ago, the company entered into a partnership with the Nicklaus empire’s Chinese affiliate, as part of an effort that was expected to “lead to the re-design and re-branding of many of the HNA facilities.” An investment group led by Eliot Spitzer (no, not the former governor) reportedly paid $18.5 million for Hudson Valley in 2006. Spitzer’s group filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010, and earlier this year Kennedy Funding, which had extended nearly $10 million in loans, foreclosed on the property. HNA Group reportedly plans to invest “millions and millions of dollars” in an effort to make Hudson Valley “a first-class facility.”
Despite what you may have read about the war being waged against golf in China -- dozens of courses being closed, golf being linked to “unclean behavior,” the Communist Party prohibiting its members from even setting foot in private golf clubs -- Agence France Presse reports that “there had been no slowdown in the building of new courses” in the People’s Republic. The news service got its scoop from Keith Pelley, the CEO of the European Tour, who insists that China is “committed to building 5,000 golf courses” for public play and doesn’t intend to deviate from its plan. “If you catapult ahead, in five to 10 years we will be having a completely different dialogue about golf in China,” Pelley explains. “Asia has significant potential to grow, and China will be a key part of the future of the game.” In other words, China remains the Promised Land for golf development. A little short-term pain will inevitably lead to long-term gain.
Seeking to open a new line of business, a California-based real-estate investment company has acquired an historic French chateau with an accompanying 18-hole golf course. Last month, Younan Properties paid an undisclosed price for Chateau du Petit Chene, which occupies 160 acres in Mazieres-en-Gatine, in the western part of the nation. According to a press release, the property is “a national treasured estate” and “a registered French historical monument.” It features what’s said to be a “spectacular” 18-hole, Robert Berthet-designed golf course and a six-hole pitch-and-putt track. Zaya Younan, the CEO of the new ownership group, says that Golf du Petit Chene “blends all three schools of golf design -- strategic, penal, and heroic -- throughout the course, often on a single hole.” The property’s chateau opened in the 1600s. The golf course dates from the late 1980s.
It took almost two years, but Newmark Group has finally closed on one of Canada’s premier golf properties. The home builder paid an undisclosed price for Sagebrush Golf & Sporting Club, a deeply troubled minimalist icon outside Merritt, British Columbia. The six-year-old club currently checks in at #19 on Golf Digest’s list of Canada’s top courses, but it’s suffered from financial and legal problems since it opened and didn’t operate this year. Newmark hopes it can effect a turnaround by opening Sagebrush’s 18-hole course to the public and adding fractional vacation houses and a 32,000-square-foot clubhouse. “Unless you’re a golfer,” a company spokesman told the Merritt Herald, “there’s nothing to do up there.” Sagebrush was co-designed by Rod Whitman, Armen Suny, and Dick Zokol and was supposed to be a build-it-and-they-will-come destination. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans.
Despite what you may have read about the war being waged against golf in China -- dozens of courses being closed, golf being linked to “unclean behavior,” the Communist Party prohibiting its members from even setting foot in private golf clubs -- Agence France Presse reports that “there had been no slowdown in the building of new courses” in the People’s Republic. The news service got its scoop from Keith Pelley, the CEO of the European Tour, who insists that China is “committed to building 5,000 golf courses” for public play and doesn’t intend to deviate from its plan. “If you catapult ahead, in five to 10 years we will be having a completely different dialogue about golf in China,” Pelley explains. “Asia has significant potential to grow, and China will be a key part of the future of the game.” In other words, China remains the Promised Land for golf development. A little short-term pain will inevitably lead to long-term gain.
Seeking to open a new line of business, a California-based real-estate investment company has acquired an historic French chateau with an accompanying 18-hole golf course. Last month, Younan Properties paid an undisclosed price for Chateau du Petit Chene, which occupies 160 acres in Mazieres-en-Gatine, in the western part of the nation. According to a press release, the property is “a national treasured estate” and “a registered French historical monument.” It features what’s said to be a “spectacular” 18-hole, Robert Berthet-designed golf course and a six-hole pitch-and-putt track. Zaya Younan, the CEO of the new ownership group, says that Golf du Petit Chene “blends all three schools of golf design -- strategic, penal, and heroic -- throughout the course, often on a single hole.” The property’s chateau opened in the 1600s. The golf course dates from the late 1980s.
It took almost two years, but Newmark Group has finally closed on one of Canada’s premier golf properties. The home builder paid an undisclosed price for Sagebrush Golf & Sporting Club, a deeply troubled minimalist icon outside Merritt, British Columbia. The six-year-old club currently checks in at #19 on Golf Digest’s list of Canada’s top courses, but it’s suffered from financial and legal problems since it opened and didn’t operate this year. Newmark hopes it can effect a turnaround by opening Sagebrush’s 18-hole course to the public and adding fractional vacation houses and a 32,000-square-foot clubhouse. “Unless you’re a golfer,” a company spokesman told the Merritt Herald, “there’s nothing to do up there.” Sagebrush was co-designed by Rod Whitman, Armen Suny, and Dick Zokol and was supposed to be a build-it-and-they-will-come destination. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans.
Friday, November 13, 2015
The Pipeline, november 13, 2015
County Limerick, Ireland. One of Ireland’s richest people apparently wants to transform his recently acquired golf course into “the Augusta of Europe.” J. P. McManus bought Adare Manor, an 847-acre resort in County Limerick, earlier this year, reportedly for €30 million ($32.9 million at the time). The property features a luxurious hotel, villas and townhouses, and an 18-hole, Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course that will receive a significant facelift. According to the Limerick Leader, “a number of holes” on the 20-year-old track -- the site of the Irish Open in 2007 and 2008 -- will be “completely redesigned.” The newspaper reports that McManus aims to bring the Irish Open back to the resort, and it speculates that he has an even greater ambition: To attract the Ryder Cup matches of 2026. It quotes an unnamed source as saying that McManus wants Adare Manor to become “the best golf resort in Europe.”
Noth, France. A British development duo has set out to create what they believe will be “a spectacular course” in the Limousin region of central France. Robin Barrasford and Alan Bird, the principals of Devon, England-based Barrasford & Bird Worldwide, are building the 18-hole, Bruce Weller-designed track at the Halcyon Retreat Golf & Spa Resort in a rural community in Département de la Creuse. Weller, who’s based in Surrey, England, has called Halcyon’s 220-acre property “a stunning landscape,” and Declan O’Malley of European Golf Services, the course’s builder, thinks it’s “a dream location for a fantastic parkland course.” Barrasford & Bird hopes to open Halcyon in 2017. The resort has an existing hotel, Château de la Cazine, which dates to the late 1890s and is said to offer “luxurious and indulgent” accommodations.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Åkersberga, Sweden. The Swedish golf star who famously compared the greens at this year’s U.S. Open venue to “broccoli” and “the surface of the moon” has been tabbed to overhaul a golf complex in suburban Stockholm. Henrik Stenson will put his “signature” on Österåkers Golf Club, a venue that’s hosted events on the LPGA and Swedish golf tours. He’ll undertake the makeover via his newly established design firm, Henrik Stenson Golf Design, which will be based in Orlando, Florida, where he makes his home. Österåkers features a pair of 18-hole “moorland” tracks, the Västerled and Österled layouts, and a nine-hole course. The club has directed Stenson to renovate the 18-hole courses and to create an elaborate practice facility, an undertaking that will require the existing nine-hole course to become a par-3 track. Christian Lundin, who apprenticed with Jeff Howes Golf Design and is now one of the architects at (re)Golf, will do the architectural heavy lifting for Stenson. He recently said that Stenson intends to “target golf projects in every corner of the globe.”
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the August 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam. A Hà Nội-based company aims to build a golf-themed resort community on a stretch of beachfront between the Quảng Ninh and Le Thuy districts in Quảng Bình Province. An Viet Investment & Infrastructure Development’s venture has been endorsed by Quảng Bình’s people’s committee as well as the Bank for Investment & Development of Vietnam, which has agreed to finance up to 70 percent of its construction. An Viet hasn’t named the architects for the community’s 36-hole golf complex, but a likely candidate is Thomson Perrett, a South Melbourne, Australia-based firm led by Peter Thomson and Ross Perrett. Last year, the parties created An Viet Thomson Perrett JSC, an entity that aims to become “the pioneer in golf course design and development in Vietnam.”
Hengqin Island, China. A kingpin of the casino business on Macau is proceeding with plans to build a golf-focused resort community on Macau’s next-door neighbor. Hong Kong-based Galaxy Entertainment Group has “entered into a framework agreement” with local authorities that will enable it to turn a 667-acre parcel on Hengqin Island into “a world-class destination resort.” GEG hasn’t provided any details about its plans, but one of its senior vice presidents told China Daily that the to-be-named community “will focus on leisure and entertainment, such as a golf course and a resort.” Hengqin is connected via bridge to Macau, where GEG has two massive casino complexes, Galaxy Macau and Broadway Macau, as well as other gaming properties. These days hardly anyone lives there (estimated population: less than 10,000), but the island’s population is expected to hit 280,000 by 2020, which means that home builders will be busy. GEG has had its eyes on Hengqin since at least 2013, when it originally floated an idea to build a golf-related venture there.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the August 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Iloko-Ijesha, Nigeria. The head of a civic-minded family in southwestern Nigeria is building an 18-hole golf course that’s been described as “a world-class facility.” The course is taking shape on 88 acres adjacent to Olashore International School and Royal Park International Hotel in Iloko-Ijesha, a rural town that aims to become an important commercial center. Prince Abimbola Olashore, the chairman of the school and the 89-room hotel, views golf as “a social game for networking and character building,” and he believes that Iloko-Ijesha can eventually become “a golf tourism destination.” Olashore has been working on the golf venture for five years. He hopes to open the layout’s first nine holes next year.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Be’er Sheva, Israel. The long wait for Israel’s second 18-hole golf course may soon be over. An “international-standard” track has been proposed in Be’er Sheva, in the southern part of the nation, on property adjacent to a pair of established business parks. According to the Jerusalem Post, the course will be part of a complex that includes meeting space, a resort-style hotel, a “medical spa hotel,” entertainment venues, movie theaters, a recreation center, an artificial lake, and places to eat and drink. “It will bring a wave of tourism to the region and new business deals,” a spokesperson for the Omer Regional Council, told the newspaper. Israel’s tourism ministry has been trying to spark golf development since 2010, when it collaborated with the nation’s land administration on a plan to build 16 “international-caliber” courses, including one in the Be’er Sheva area. So far, though, not one has been built. Israel’s golf offerings currently consist of just two properties: Caesarea Golf Club in Caesarea, an 18-hole track that was recently redesigned by Pete Dye, and Ga’ash Golf Club in Kibbutz Ga’ash, a nine-hole layout that opened in the late 1990s.
Noth, France. A British development duo has set out to create what they believe will be “a spectacular course” in the Limousin region of central France. Robin Barrasford and Alan Bird, the principals of Devon, England-based Barrasford & Bird Worldwide, are building the 18-hole, Bruce Weller-designed track at the Halcyon Retreat Golf & Spa Resort in a rural community in Département de la Creuse. Weller, who’s based in Surrey, England, has called Halcyon’s 220-acre property “a stunning landscape,” and Declan O’Malley of European Golf Services, the course’s builder, thinks it’s “a dream location for a fantastic parkland course.” Barrasford & Bird hopes to open Halcyon in 2017. The resort has an existing hotel, Château de la Cazine, which dates to the late 1890s and is said to offer “luxurious and indulgent” accommodations.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Åkersberga, Sweden. The Swedish golf star who famously compared the greens at this year’s U.S. Open venue to “broccoli” and “the surface of the moon” has been tabbed to overhaul a golf complex in suburban Stockholm. Henrik Stenson will put his “signature” on Österåkers Golf Club, a venue that’s hosted events on the LPGA and Swedish golf tours. He’ll undertake the makeover via his newly established design firm, Henrik Stenson Golf Design, which will be based in Orlando, Florida, where he makes his home. Österåkers features a pair of 18-hole “moorland” tracks, the Västerled and Österled layouts, and a nine-hole course. The club has directed Stenson to renovate the 18-hole courses and to create an elaborate practice facility, an undertaking that will require the existing nine-hole course to become a par-3 track. Christian Lundin, who apprenticed with Jeff Howes Golf Design and is now one of the architects at (re)Golf, will do the architectural heavy lifting for Stenson. He recently said that Stenson intends to “target golf projects in every corner of the globe.”
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the August 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam. A Hà Nội-based company aims to build a golf-themed resort community on a stretch of beachfront between the Quảng Ninh and Le Thuy districts in Quảng Bình Province. An Viet Investment & Infrastructure Development’s venture has been endorsed by Quảng Bình’s people’s committee as well as the Bank for Investment & Development of Vietnam, which has agreed to finance up to 70 percent of its construction. An Viet hasn’t named the architects for the community’s 36-hole golf complex, but a likely candidate is Thomson Perrett, a South Melbourne, Australia-based firm led by Peter Thomson and Ross Perrett. Last year, the parties created An Viet Thomson Perrett JSC, an entity that aims to become “the pioneer in golf course design and development in Vietnam.”
Hengqin Island, China. A kingpin of the casino business on Macau is proceeding with plans to build a golf-focused resort community on Macau’s next-door neighbor. Hong Kong-based Galaxy Entertainment Group has “entered into a framework agreement” with local authorities that will enable it to turn a 667-acre parcel on Hengqin Island into “a world-class destination resort.” GEG hasn’t provided any details about its plans, but one of its senior vice presidents told China Daily that the to-be-named community “will focus on leisure and entertainment, such as a golf course and a resort.” Hengqin is connected via bridge to Macau, where GEG has two massive casino complexes, Galaxy Macau and Broadway Macau, as well as other gaming properties. These days hardly anyone lives there (estimated population: less than 10,000), but the island’s population is expected to hit 280,000 by 2020, which means that home builders will be busy. GEG has had its eyes on Hengqin since at least 2013, when it originally floated an idea to build a golf-related venture there.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the August 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Iloko-Ijesha, Nigeria. The head of a civic-minded family in southwestern Nigeria is building an 18-hole golf course that’s been described as “a world-class facility.” The course is taking shape on 88 acres adjacent to Olashore International School and Royal Park International Hotel in Iloko-Ijesha, a rural town that aims to become an important commercial center. Prince Abimbola Olashore, the chairman of the school and the 89-room hotel, views golf as “a social game for networking and character building,” and he believes that Iloko-Ijesha can eventually become “a golf tourism destination.” Olashore has been working on the golf venture for five years. He hopes to open the layout’s first nine holes next year.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Be’er Sheva, Israel. The long wait for Israel’s second 18-hole golf course may soon be over. An “international-standard” track has been proposed in Be’er Sheva, in the southern part of the nation, on property adjacent to a pair of established business parks. According to the Jerusalem Post, the course will be part of a complex that includes meeting space, a resort-style hotel, a “medical spa hotel,” entertainment venues, movie theaters, a recreation center, an artificial lake, and places to eat and drink. “It will bring a wave of tourism to the region and new business deals,” a spokesperson for the Omer Regional Council, told the newspaper. Israel’s tourism ministry has been trying to spark golf development since 2010, when it collaborated with the nation’s land administration on a plan to build 16 “international-caliber” courses, including one in the Be’er Sheva area. So far, though, not one has been built. Israel’s golf offerings currently consist of just two properties: Caesarea Golf Club in Caesarea, an 18-hole track that was recently redesigned by Pete Dye, and Ga’ash Golf Club in Kibbutz Ga’ash, a nine-hole layout that opened in the late 1990s.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
The Week That Was, november 8, 2015
Put a microphone in front of them, and golf’s institutional leaders will on occasion say the darnedest things. Take Keith Pelley, the still wet-behind-the-ears CEO of the European Tour. Pelley thinks that China’s most recent attack on golf -- just weeks ago, the nation’s Communist Party prohibited its 88 million members from even setting foot in private golf clubs -- is, in his words, “an incredibly positive decision” and “an incredibly positive move by the Chinese government” that will eventually be viewed as being “incredibly supportive of the game.” Such an analysis is either complete nonsense or an incredibly shrewd interpretation of the doublespeak practiced by Chinese bureaucrats. Either way, my head is spinning. If the constant streams of negativity directed at golf in China are actually expressions of support, then truth and fiction have become indistinguishable. Keep an eye on Pelley. If he starts spouting lines like “war is peace” or “freedom is slavery,” run for the hills.
When it comes to calculating the value of his golf holdings, Donald “The $10 Billion Man” Trump might be prone to exaggeration. On the one hand, he tells the federal government that his golf club in Briarcliff Manor, New York is worth at least $50 million, while on the other his lawyers say it’s worth only $1.4 million. Is it possible to determine the truth? Probably not, but Forbes, which has long antagonized Trump with its calculations of his net worth, has given it a try. The magazine has estimated the net value (the value minus the debt) of Trump’s golf properties, and they range from $3.5 million (the venue in Colts Neck, New Jersey) to $144 million (the Doral resort in Miami). After Doral, Forbes figures that Trump’s four most valuable properties are his clubs in Los Angeles ($92.5 million, thanks largely to the accompanying residential real estate); Turnberry, Scotland ($60 million); Bedminster, New Jersey ($40 million); and West Palm Beach, Florida ($32 million). The bottom of the barrel are his clubs in Colts Neck; Hopewell Junction, New York ($4.2 million); Pine Hill, New Jersey ($4.9 million); Aberdeen, Scotland ($14 million); and Doonbeg, Ireland (also $14 million). For the record, Trump says that Forbes’ reporters are “incompetent” and fixated on making him look “as poor as possible.” On this year’s 400, Trump checks in at #72, with a net worth of $4.5 billion.
The European Tour’s real estate arm has added what it believes is “one of Ireland’s finest parkland courses” to its fast-growing collection of “world-class” golf communities. Mount Juliet Estates, which features a Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course, has become the 16th link in the chain of high-prestige spreads marketed by European Tour Properties, the Continent’s equivalent of PGA Tour Properties. The group includes London Golf Club in England, Golf Club St. Leon-Rot in Germany, Black Mountain Golf Club in Thailand, and the Dutch in the Netherlands. Mount Juliet, in County Kilkenny, is the chain’s first property in Ireland and the third that the tour has signed this year. Mount Juliet’s course, ranked #13 in the nation by Golf Digest, hosted the Irish Open three times in the mid 1990s.
The identity of the “international investment group” that recently purchased one of Scott Oki’s golf properties in suburban Seattle, Washington has been revealed. It’s an entity called Kung Fu Panda, which Northwest Asian Weekly says is “owned by a Chinese American” and whose “owners” -- note the switch to the plural -- “also develop golf courses and hotels in China.” KFP, which has no apparent connections to the animated movie or to Pablo Sandoval, paid a still-undisclosed price for Golf Club at Echo Falls, which features an 18-hole, Jack Frei-designed golf course. The newspaper describes the 155-acre property as “a natural paradise with few people,” and one of KFP’s representatives says it was acquired because “it makes people feel comfortable and relaxing.”
When it comes to calculating the value of his golf holdings, Donald “The $10 Billion Man” Trump might be prone to exaggeration. On the one hand, he tells the federal government that his golf club in Briarcliff Manor, New York is worth at least $50 million, while on the other his lawyers say it’s worth only $1.4 million. Is it possible to determine the truth? Probably not, but Forbes, which has long antagonized Trump with its calculations of his net worth, has given it a try. The magazine has estimated the net value (the value minus the debt) of Trump’s golf properties, and they range from $3.5 million (the venue in Colts Neck, New Jersey) to $144 million (the Doral resort in Miami). After Doral, Forbes figures that Trump’s four most valuable properties are his clubs in Los Angeles ($92.5 million, thanks largely to the accompanying residential real estate); Turnberry, Scotland ($60 million); Bedminster, New Jersey ($40 million); and West Palm Beach, Florida ($32 million). The bottom of the barrel are his clubs in Colts Neck; Hopewell Junction, New York ($4.2 million); Pine Hill, New Jersey ($4.9 million); Aberdeen, Scotland ($14 million); and Doonbeg, Ireland (also $14 million). For the record, Trump says that Forbes’ reporters are “incompetent” and fixated on making him look “as poor as possible.” On this year’s 400, Trump checks in at #72, with a net worth of $4.5 billion.
The European Tour’s real estate arm has added what it believes is “one of Ireland’s finest parkland courses” to its fast-growing collection of “world-class” golf communities. Mount Juliet Estates, which features a Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course, has become the 16th link in the chain of high-prestige spreads marketed by European Tour Properties, the Continent’s equivalent of PGA Tour Properties. The group includes London Golf Club in England, Golf Club St. Leon-Rot in Germany, Black Mountain Golf Club in Thailand, and the Dutch in the Netherlands. Mount Juliet, in County Kilkenny, is the chain’s first property in Ireland and the third that the tour has signed this year. Mount Juliet’s course, ranked #13 in the nation by Golf Digest, hosted the Irish Open three times in the mid 1990s.
The identity of the “international investment group” that recently purchased one of Scott Oki’s golf properties in suburban Seattle, Washington has been revealed. It’s an entity called Kung Fu Panda, which Northwest Asian Weekly says is “owned by a Chinese American” and whose “owners” -- note the switch to the plural -- “also develop golf courses and hotels in China.” KFP, which has no apparent connections to the animated movie or to Pablo Sandoval, paid a still-undisclosed price for Golf Club at Echo Falls, which features an 18-hole, Jack Frei-designed golf course. The newspaper describes the 155-acre property as “a natural paradise with few people,” and one of KFP’s representatives says it was acquired because “it makes people feel comfortable and relaxing.”
Sunday, November 1, 2015
The Week That Was, november 1, 2015
With Bandon Muni firmly in his rear-view mirror, Mike Keiser has officially put the pedal to the metal on his long-rumored golf venture in the Scottish Highlands. The course, to be called Coul Links (or Coul Links Beach), will be Keiser’s first in Scotland, and it’ll take shape on 350 acres just two miles north of Royal Dornoch Golf Club, the venue that inspired Keiser to create Bandon Dunes. Scottish Golf Travel reports that the Chicago, Illinois-based neo-classicist has hired Coore & Crenshaw to design the property’s stand-alone 18-hole track, a true links that will operate without any ancillary development -- no houses, no hotel, not even a clubhouse. Golfers will check in at Royal Dornoch and be shuttled to Coul Links. Bill Coore has reportedly visited the site twice, and Golf Advisor says that he believes it “might be the best ever.” Keiser recently told me that Coore and Ben Crenshaw are “dying” to get started, but they may have to wait a while, because Keiser and his partner, Todd Warnock -- the owner of a boutique hotel in Dornoch -- haven’t yet secured approvals and permits.
The investors who are about to open Tiger Woods’ first U.S. golf course are negotiating to build Woods’ second, in metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee. Dallas, Texas-based Beacon Land Development hopes to make a Woods-designed layout the centerpiece of Farms at Thompson’s Station, a 1,229-acre spread in Williamson County that will include 800 single-family houses, a music venue, a wellness center, a “town square” with retail and commercial space, and other attractions. Woods’ 27-hole complex at Beacon Land’s Bluejack National, a community outside Houston, Texas, is scheduled to open before the end of the year, and the parties are believed to be close to finalizing a contract for the golf course in Tennessee. “It would be great to have him to do this project,” a Beacon Land principal told the Tennessean. “We have a very good relationship with him.” Assuming all goes as planned, Beacon Land aims to break ground on Farms at Thompson’s Station in the spring of 2016.
One of Jack Nicklaus’ closest confidants has caught a glimpse of golf’s future, and it doesn’t include traditional golf courses. Howard Milstein, a co-chairman and minority owner of Nicklaus Companies, has acquired a piece of FlyingTee, a start-up company that aims to build a chain of interactive, golf-themed entertainment facilities across the planet. “They have both an operating concept and technology that we believe is the best in its space,” Milstein told Tulsa World. The company’s first complex, in suburban Tulsa, Oklahoma, is scheduled to open early next year, and yes, it resembles a Topgolf facility, in that it combines high-tech golf with eating and drinking. Milstein, one of America’s richest people (Forbes believes his family is worth $3.1 billion), has acquired the exclusive right to build and operate FlyingTee facilities in Asia, and it appears that South Korea, Japan, and China are his main targets. “They have very limited land for golf,” he said. “This could be a great solution for countries like that.” Bob Tway, Gil Morgan, and Scott Verplank have also invested in FlyingTee.
The world’s first Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, Glen Abbey Golf Club in suburban Toronto, Canada, has been put on the endangered list. The club has hosted 27 Canadian Open championships since it opened in 1976, and it serves as the home of both the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame & Museum and Golf Canada, the governing body of golf in the nation. All that aside, the club’s owner, ClubLink Corporation, has asked local officials to approve a plan that would turn the 230-acre property into a community of 3,000 houses flanked by office and retail space. ClubLink’s CEO, Rai Sahi, told the Globe & Mail that the filing is “a very preliminary thing” and guesstimated that Glen Abbey could continue to operate for five or 10 more years. The newspaper says that ClubLink paid $40 million for Glen Abbey in 1998, “a small fraction of its potential worth in the current real estate market.” Though many people are publicly moaning about ClubLink’s decision, it’s hard to gauge exactly how much Canada’s golf business will lose when Glen Abbey closes. While the club clearly has historical significance, Golf Digest doesn’t rank its course among Canada’s top 30.
Last year, Donald Trump said that the price he paid for the Lodge at Doonbeg “wouldn’t get you an apartment” at some of his residential properties in Manhattan. Well, today we know exactly how much he paid for the Irish property that now operates as Trump International Golf Links Doonbeg: €14.4 million, which currently translates to roughly $15.8 million. According to the Irish Independent, the property’s Greg Norman-designed golf course was valued at €2.6 million, or just over $2.86 million.
By now you’ve no doubt heard that China’s Communist Party, in an attempt to root out corruption, has officially put golf on its Shit List, along with “keeping paramours and conducting adultery” and engaging in “extravagant eating and drinking.” Will the last architect in the Shanghai airport please turn out the lights?
The investors who are about to open Tiger Woods’ first U.S. golf course are negotiating to build Woods’ second, in metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee. Dallas, Texas-based Beacon Land Development hopes to make a Woods-designed layout the centerpiece of Farms at Thompson’s Station, a 1,229-acre spread in Williamson County that will include 800 single-family houses, a music venue, a wellness center, a “town square” with retail and commercial space, and other attractions. Woods’ 27-hole complex at Beacon Land’s Bluejack National, a community outside Houston, Texas, is scheduled to open before the end of the year, and the parties are believed to be close to finalizing a contract for the golf course in Tennessee. “It would be great to have him to do this project,” a Beacon Land principal told the Tennessean. “We have a very good relationship with him.” Assuming all goes as planned, Beacon Land aims to break ground on Farms at Thompson’s Station in the spring of 2016.
One of Jack Nicklaus’ closest confidants has caught a glimpse of golf’s future, and it doesn’t include traditional golf courses. Howard Milstein, a co-chairman and minority owner of Nicklaus Companies, has acquired a piece of FlyingTee, a start-up company that aims to build a chain of interactive, golf-themed entertainment facilities across the planet. “They have both an operating concept and technology that we believe is the best in its space,” Milstein told Tulsa World. The company’s first complex, in suburban Tulsa, Oklahoma, is scheduled to open early next year, and yes, it resembles a Topgolf facility, in that it combines high-tech golf with eating and drinking. Milstein, one of America’s richest people (Forbes believes his family is worth $3.1 billion), has acquired the exclusive right to build and operate FlyingTee facilities in Asia, and it appears that South Korea, Japan, and China are his main targets. “They have very limited land for golf,” he said. “This could be a great solution for countries like that.” Bob Tway, Gil Morgan, and Scott Verplank have also invested in FlyingTee.
The world’s first Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, Glen Abbey Golf Club in suburban Toronto, Canada, has been put on the endangered list. The club has hosted 27 Canadian Open championships since it opened in 1976, and it serves as the home of both the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame & Museum and Golf Canada, the governing body of golf in the nation. All that aside, the club’s owner, ClubLink Corporation, has asked local officials to approve a plan that would turn the 230-acre property into a community of 3,000 houses flanked by office and retail space. ClubLink’s CEO, Rai Sahi, told the Globe & Mail that the filing is “a very preliminary thing” and guesstimated that Glen Abbey could continue to operate for five or 10 more years. The newspaper says that ClubLink paid $40 million for Glen Abbey in 1998, “a small fraction of its potential worth in the current real estate market.” Though many people are publicly moaning about ClubLink’s decision, it’s hard to gauge exactly how much Canada’s golf business will lose when Glen Abbey closes. While the club clearly has historical significance, Golf Digest doesn’t rank its course among Canada’s top 30.
Last year, Donald Trump said that the price he paid for the Lodge at Doonbeg “wouldn’t get you an apartment” at some of his residential properties in Manhattan. Well, today we know exactly how much he paid for the Irish property that now operates as Trump International Golf Links Doonbeg: €14.4 million, which currently translates to roughly $15.8 million. According to the Irish Independent, the property’s Greg Norman-designed golf course was valued at €2.6 million, or just over $2.86 million.
By now you’ve no doubt heard that China’s Communist Party, in an attempt to root out corruption, has officially put golf on its Shit List, along with “keeping paramours and conducting adultery” and engaging in “extravagant eating and drinking.” Will the last architect in the Shanghai airport please turn out the lights?
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