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.