The Week That Was, june 26, 2016

     A new financial analysis suggests that Donald “the Candidate” Trump’s golf properties aren’t as great as they’ve been cracked up to be.
     Reuters has determined that Trump’s golf operations are at best just “breaking even or making modest gains” and that, despite his supposed business acumen, the presumptive Republican nominee for president “could have lost hundreds of millions of dollars investing in golf.”
     Perish the thought, but if what Reuters says is true, Trump’s golf properties may not be more profitable than his casinos were.
     Here’s how it all boils down: Based on figures gleaned from public records, Reuters has concluded that Trump has spent $330 million on existing golf properties or on land that he’s turned into golf properties, plus $800,000 on improvements to his properties. The total: $1.13 billion. To determine what the portfolio is currently worth, the news service used standard golf-industry valuation practices but increased the value of properties that have development potential or “trophy status.”
     The unfortunate result: It appears that Trump’s golf holdings might only fetch between $500 million and $600 million on the open market.
     Not surprisingly, Trump disputes Reuters’ calculations. “The golf courses are doing very well,” he insists. “Every one of them makes a lot of money.”
     Of course, Trump’s claims can’t be verified. In the absence of reliable information, all anyone can do is speculate.

     Two decades after it was originally proposed, the first of the new-wave international golf ventures in Cuba has been taken off life support. The Associated Press reports that 360 VOX, a development group based in Montreal, Quebec, is “preparing to break ground” on Jibacoa, a ridiculously long-overdue resort community that’s slated to take shape on waterfront property near Santa Cruz del Norte, about 45 miles east of Havana. Promises associated with Jibacoa haven’t often been kept, but 360 VOX says it’s going to break ground late next year on 2,700 villas and apartments, four high-end hotels, and a 27-hole golf complex. “One thing you need to have here is patience,” one of the firm’s principals noted. “Companies shouldn’t come to Cuba if they don’t have a long-term view.” If history is any guide, though, it wouldn’t be wise to put any bets on 360 VOX’s chances. Jibacoa has already put one Canadian company out of business, and it’s arguably the quintessential cautionary tale about golf development in Cuba, where so much has been promised but nothing has so far been delivered. Hopefully, 360 VOX has deep pockets.

Transactions, june 24, 2016

     Gilroy, California. Our nation’s number-one Jack in the Box franchisee has acquired his second golf property, this one in the garlic capital of America. An entity controlled by Aniil Yadov has reportedly paid $3.8 million for Eagle Ridge Golf Course, an 18-hole track that was co-designed by Johnny Miller and David Dale of Golfplan. The Silicon Valley Business Journal reports that the seller was a group affiliated with Zgolf, a golf operator that acquired Eagle Ridge last year “for around the same price as it just sold for.” Eagle Ridge, which opened in 2000, is the centerpiece of a community that was reportedly developed by Shapell Industries. Yadov, who’s said to own 219 Jack in the Box restaurants and more than 40 other eateries, also owns Pala Mesa Golf Course in Fallbrook, California.

     Three Rivers, Michigan. A group of investors has purchased Sauganash Golf Club, which features an 18-hole course designed in part by A. W. Tillinghast. “We had heard rumors that the property was going to be sold to farmers and turned into a cornfield,” one of the 20 new owners told the Three Rivers Commercial News, adding, “We didn’t want to give up on this place.” Neither the investors nor Bob Bales, the seller, have announced the sales price. Tillinghast, who’s been called “one of the greatest course architects in the history of golf,” reportedly had a hand in the construction of 265 golf courses. His original designs include the Black course at Bethpage State Park in New York, Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey, Interlachen Country Club in Minnesota, and San Francisco Golf Club in California. He designed Sauganash’s original nine holes, which opened in 1924.

     Atlanta, Georgia. As a result of a land swap with the city of Atlanta, the state of Georgia will soon take control of the run-down, 84-year-old Bobby Jones Golf Course. The 18-hole track, which honors the legendary amateur golfer who co-designed Augusta National Golf Club, is said to need “significant upgrades” that city officials didn’t wish to pay for. The state has agreed to spiff it up, but with a major change: The state doesn’t believe the course can survive in its current incarnation, so it’s hired Bob Cupp to turn it into a nine-hole reversible layout. Cupp’s influence, presumably, is the reversible, Tom Doak-designed course that will soon open at Forest Dunes Golf Club in Roscommon, Michigan.

     York, Pennsylvania. Rodney Krebs has come to the rescue of Regents’ Glen Country Club, a deeply troubled, 18-year-old venue that was forced to close last fall. Krebs reportedly paid $5 million for Regents’ Glen, the centerpiece of a community that the York Daily Record says “had been plagued with financial problems in recent months.” The club features an 18-hole, Arthur Hills-designed layout that Krebs believes is “without a doubt the best golf course in the area.” It’s open again, and Krebs plans to complete the master plan for the community that accompanies it.

      Pataskala, Ohio. T&R Properties has acquired its second Columbus-area golf property. The Dublin-based developer has reportedly paid $2.5 million for Cumberland Trail Golf Club, a facility that features a golf course designed by Michael Hurdzan. According to the Columbus Dispatch, T&R plans to make $500,000 worth of upgrades to the 17-year-old course, as it believes that an improved golf course will help it sell 100 single-family houses. Not to raise any red flags, but T&R recently submitted plans to build houses on nine of the 18 holes at its other golf property in the area, Delaware Golf Club. News reports about the proposal don’t say whether the company intends to raze Delaware’s Donald Ross-designed holes or its Hurdzan-designed holes.

     Sebring, Florida. A former McDonald’s franchisee has acquired Spring Lake Golf Resort and its 45-hole golf complex. Edd Vowels, a retiree who confesses to be “dumb to the golf course world,” told the Tampa Tribune that he made the investment because the bank that controlled the 16-year-old, financially troubled property was threatening to close it. “Somebody had to step up and do something,” Vowels said. “A lot of my friends live out here, and if the course closed, their property values would go down the tubes.” Spring Lake features two regulation-length 18-hole courses and a nine-hole, executive-length track.

     Jamesville, New York. Thanks in part to donations from both corporations (among them Wegmans Food Markets) and local charities (the Jim & Juli Boeheim Foundation), the First Tee of Syracuse has found a permanent home. The non-profit group has acquired Butternut Creek Golf Course, which features a nine-hole, Barry Jordan-designed golf course. “We needed a home,” the group’s executive director told the Syracuse Post-Standard. “This is the perfect site for us.” Improvements are forthcoming, the newspaper reports, including classrooms where the “core-value instruction” that is “the focus of First Tee’s mission” will take place. Just wondering: When did golf instruction stop being “the focus of First Tee’s mission”?

The Week That Was, june 19, 2016

     The wealthy owner of the Broadmoor, one of the premier golf resorts in the American West, has taken sole control of Sea Island resort, an equally prominent golf resort on St. Simons Island in Georgia. Philip Anschutz has been a minority owner of Sea Island since 2010, when he and three investment groups rescued it from bankruptcy protection, reportedly for $212.4 million. Anschutz hasn’t revealed what he paid to buy out his partners, but over the past five years he’s added two historic golf venue to his corporate holdings. In a press release, Sea Island’s president said that the purchase will bring “a level of stability, continuity, and long-term commitment” to Sea Island -- qualities necessary to restore some of the property’s lost luster -- and create “a marriage of two unique, five-star resort destinations” that offer “a wide range of offerings and experiences.” Anschutz, who’s said to be worth $10.6 billion, made his fortune in oil, railroads, and telecommunications, and these days he also owns newspapers and invests in movies and professional sports teams (the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Kings). He bought the famed Broadmoor, in the mountains outside Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2011. With Sea Island, he gets a luxurious, private waterfront resort community that features high-priced houses, a couple of hotels, a spa, a beach club, five miles’ worth of beaches, and a service team that reportedly “epitomizes Southern hospitality.” And, like the Broadmoor, it has three 18-hole golf courses drenched with architectural significance. Harry Colt, Charles Alison, Walter Travis, Tom Fazio, and Rees Jones are among the architects who’ve worked at Sea Island.

     Pacific Links International has put another one of its U.S. golf properties on the market. This time it’s the Golf Club at SouthShore, a venue in suburban Las Vegas, Nevada that’s anchored by an 18-hole, Jack Nicklaus “signature” layout. Colliers International hasn’t listed a price for the club, but it believes that Nicklaus’s 20-year-old course “ignites a golfer’s passion and provides a peaceful escape.” PLI, a Chinese/Canadian company that operates an international network of limited-access membership golf clubs, has been disposing of golf assets for more than a year. Since March 2015 it’s parted with (or agreed to part with) two of its five properties on the island of O’ahu in Hawaii (Kapolei Golf Club and Olomana Golf Links) as well as another Las Vegas-area property, DragonRidge Country Club, and Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport, West Virginia. PLI hasn’t publicly explained why it’s looking to rid itself of ownership responsibilities, but it has acknowledged that its membership network has become its “primary focus.” The company still owns one course in metropolitan Las Vegas, Southern Highlands Golf Club, and three on O’ahu: Royal Hawaiian Golf Club, Makaha Golf Club, and Makaha Valley Country Club.

     Ernie Els made his first appearance in Vietnam last fall, as he was the guest of honor for the ceremonial ground-breaking of an Els-branded training center in suburban Hà Nội that will offer the area’s golfers “a Tour-player-for-a-day experience.” The 30-acre Els Performance Golf Academy is expected to open sometime this summer. It’ll feature a nine-hole par-3 course and a short-game practice area, and it’ll be managed by Troon Golf, which is likewise making its first appearance in Vietnam. The academy is one of the attractions at Ecopark, a “a modern, civilized, and environmentally friendly” master-planned community whose residents will be able to “live life to the fullest.” Els believes that Vietnam is “one of golf’s most vibrant markets right now,” and his recent visit won’t be his last, because his website indicates that he has two other golf commissions in the nation.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the November 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

Vital Signs, june 17, 2016

     This year’s Golf Investor Sentiment Survey delivers a mixed message: Members of the investment community continue to view the golf industry favorably, it says, but they aren’t quite as confident about our economic prospects as they were last year.
     Such a conclusion begs an obvious question: Is this good news or bad news?
     Marcus & Millichap’s Leisure Investment Properties Group, the entity the conducted the survey, believes on the one hand that the data it’s collected reflects “a considerable drop in optimism.” The point is hard to dispute, for the group’s investment index, its annual rendering of investors’ feelings about our business, has fallen to 57.1, a 10 percent decline from the 63.4 recorded in 2015.
     On the other hand, though, any fair reading of the data suggests that investors are clearly positive about U.S. golf operations in 2016. Regarding daily-fee golf, more than half of the respondents (55 percent) believe that the number of rounds played at their facilities will increase, while only 11 percent expect a decrease. And regarding private clubs, there’s also considerable faith: 58 percent of the respondents expect membership numbers to increase, 48 percent expect annual dues to increase, and 36 percent expect initiation fees to increase.
     It’s also important to emphasize that the investment index for 2016 remains well above 50, which means that the survey’s participants are, by and large, giving golf the proverbial thumbs-up. No matter how you slice it, we’re in a far better place than we were in the beginning of this decade.

     You can count John McConnell among those who are expressing confidence in golf’s near-term future. “We see the light at the end of the tunnel, because the industry has turned around,” he recently told the Raleigh News & Observer. Some might disagree with McConnell’s analysis, but his ownership group appears to have found a winning formula for golf operations. Since 2003, McConnell Golf has reportedly invested $25 million in a dozen golf properties, 10 of which had been bleeding red ink. Today, according to the News & Observer, all but four are profitable. What’s more, the business as a whole is said to be in the black.

The Week That Was, june 12, 2016

     Don’t be surprised if Phil Mickelson soon suffers an injury that prevents him from playing on the PGA Tour for a few months, or if he decides to take some time off to sharpen up his game. Just weeks after he agreed to pay a fine in connection with an insider-trading case, Mickelson has been linked to a money-laundering scheme that was designed to cover what court documents describe as “losing wagers.” The scheme involves one of Mickelson’s gambling associates, Gregory Silveira, who’s pleaded guilty to transferring $2.75 million between bank accounts in what his lawyers said was a “misguided desire to help friends.” Specifically, the lawyers said, Silveira moved the money “virtually as a personal favor to an individual who did not wish his wagering activity to become public.” Mickelson wasn’t mentioned by name, but Bloomberg has three sources who say that he was the gambler whose identity is being protected. Mickelson hasn’t been charged with any criminal wrongdoing, but the accusations floating around him must surely be a cause for distress at the image-conscious PGA Tour. In one regard, though, Mickelson is lucky: If the tour decides that a suspension or some other punishment is in order, as per its policy the terms won’t be announced publicly.

     Our nation’s attention may currently be trained on Trump University’s court hearing in November, but before then Donald “the Candidate” Trump will have other legal fish to fry. Come August, the Presumptive Nominee is expected to appear before a judge in Florida, in a case involving the former Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Jupiter, a venue that now operates as a Trump National golf club. Some members have sued Trump, alleging that he breached contracts by canceling the memberships of about 60 Ritz members and failed to refund their refundable membership deposits. According to various reports, $6 million is at stake. Trump bought the Ritz in 2012, reportedly for $5 million. On the filing he made to the Federal Election Commission, he values it at more than $50 million.

The Week That Was, june 5, 2016

     A Lincoln, Nebraska-based group with a taste for destination-worthy golf properties has acquired Ballyhack Golf Club, Lester George’s pièce de résistance in Roanoke, Virginia. Kula Golf hasn’t announced what it paid for the 18-hole golf course and its accompanying real estate, but in a press release it promises “to enhance and improve the already great golf experience” that Lester produced. “After visiting Ballyhack late last year, we knew it was a special place,” said Zach Peed, one of the new owners. Since it opened, in 2009, Ballyhack has been a critical success but a financial under-performer. It had pegged its finances to membership sales -- 60 local members, 200 national members -- but its projections didn’t materialize. A spokesperson for the property’s management company told the Roanoke Times that the club has “pretty much capped out” in terms of local members and is “looking to find more regional or national members.” The Peeds, who are primarily cattle ranchers, are building a nice golf portfolio. They also own Sutton Bay Golf Club in Agar, South Dakota and ArborLinks Golf Club in Nebraska City, Nebraska.

     By now everyone has no doubt heard that Trump National Doral has lost the World Golf Championship, ostensibly because Cadillac no longer wishes to sponsor the event and the PGA Tour couldn’t find another U.S. company willing to put up $9.5 million in prize money. Donald “the Candidate” Trump contends that the relocation of the WGC “only further embodies the very reason I am running for President of the United States,” but don’t be distracted by his distractions: For Trump, the loss of the WGC is not merely a disappointment, like a business deal that went south, or even an embarrassment, like his campaign strategy. The tour’s decision is a humiliation, because, in what amounts to an irony of ironies, for the next seven years an event that was Doral’s for more than 50 years will be played in Mexico, presumably before a gallery full of Trump’s infamous criminals, drug-dealers, and rapists. “I hope they have kidnapping insurance,” Trump joked after Tim Finchem delivered the bad news, though he knows this is no laughing matter. Today, a question lingers for all of us in the golf industry: How does Trump recover?
     Let’s review where things currently stand:
      -- Trump called the PGA Tour’s decision “a sad day for Miami, the United States, and the game of golf,” carelessly neglecting to acknowledge that it was a much sadder day for him. Trump knows the value of branding like few other people, and Doral has lost a high-prestige event that contributes to the luster of the Trump Organzation. It’s a loss that will be felt for years.
      -- Though losing the WGC made for “a sad day,” Trump insists that, in the long run, Doral will benefit. “I would make much more money at Doral if I didn’t have a tournament,” he said earlier this year. “[March] is the prime month in Florida -- you can’t get a room -- and I have the best rooms in Miami.” In other words, we’ve just witnessed an example of the negotiating skills that will, in a Trump presidency, bring China to its knees.
      -- In a prepared statement, Trump likened the PGA Tour to “Nabisco, Carrier, and so many other American companies” that “put profit ahead of thousands of American jobs.” It’s worth remembering that the Donald J. Trump Collection of clothing is manufactured in nations such as China, Bangladesh, and Honduras.
      -- Trump may have been blindsided by the PGA Tour’s decision, but it should have been obvious that the two parties had about the same chance of remaining in a happy, productive relationship as Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris. Months ago, when Trump originally began making derisive remarks about Mexicans, Muslims, women, and the handicapped, the tour called his comments “inconsistent with our strong commitment to an inclusive and welcoming environment in the game of golf” and vowed to “explore all options regarding the [WGC’s] future” after this year’s competition. A day of reckoning was clearly on the horizon.
      -- Before it found its Mexican partner, the PGA Tour considered moving the WGC across the Rickenbacker Causeway, to the municipally-owned Crandon Golf Course in Key Biscayne. “By moving the venue, they thought it would be easier to get sponsors and raise more money,” the mayor of Miami-Dade told the Miami Herald. Here’s the irony: Last year, Crandon almost became a Trump-operated property, like the municipal course at Ferry Point Park in the Bronx. Trump made an attempt to lease Crandon and make it, in the words of the Miami Herald, “a world-class venue.” He was denied.
      -- The Trump Organization doesn’t believe that Cadillac couldn’t be persuaded to extend its sponsorship of the WGC. “We have an unbelievable relationship with Cadillac,” Eric Trump told the Miami Herald. “We have an outside relationship with them. They provide vehicles to our hotels. Cadillac is ready, willing, and able to continue as a title sponsor for the tour.” Cadillac hasn’t as yet weighed in.
      -- Next year’s World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship will reportedly be played at Club de Golf Chapultapec, in suburban Mexico City. According to Top 100 Golf Courses, Chapultapec’s 18-hole course was designed by Willie Smith, a Scotsman, and opened in 1921. In the early 1970s, the track was redesigned by Percy Clifford. The club has hosted the Mexican Open on more than a dozen occasions, most recently in 2014.
      -- The PGA Tour’s Mexican partner is Grupo Salinas, a conglomerate with interests in the banking, retailing, telecommunications, and television industries. The company is controlled by Ricardo Salinas Pliego, a billionaire (Forbes estimates that he and his family are worth $3.9 billion) who, like Trump, has made controversial statements about women. Grupo Salinas’ contract runs for seven years, through 2023.
     -- If he becomes president, Trump has said, America will win so often that Americans will get sick of winning. But in recent months, Trump Golf has been losing and losing big. The PGA of America took the Grand Slam of Golf from Trump’s course in Los Angeles. The Scottish Open, which had been virtually signed, sealed, and delivered to Trump’s resort in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, has at least for the time being found another home. And according to the Independent on Sunday, the R&A “has privately decided that [Trump’s] reputation is now so toxic” that Trump Turnberry can no longer host the Open Championship. These are significant blows against the empire. On the bright side, of course, Trump-owned properties are still scheduled to host the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open, the 2017 Senior PGA Championship, and the 2022 PGA Championship. A word of caution, however: Last year Mike Davis of the U.S. Golf Association, the group that organizes the U.S. Women’s Open, acknowledged that he and his colleagues “are evaluating things.” One by one, the dominoes are falling.
     -- In a press release, Tim Finchem thanked Trump for renovating Doral’s Blue Monster course and for being “a most gracious host” to the WGC. He said that the PGA Tour will return to Doral “when the time is right.” Read into that statement what you will.

The Pipeline, june 3, 2016

     Earlier this year Gary Player made his first visit to Vietnam, a nation he believes will be “a major player in the emerging golf market of Asia.” It appears to have been a trip worth taking, because shortly thereafter Player announced that he’s been “engaged on multiple projects” by Vingroup, one of the nation’s premier golf developers. Player provided no details, but in a press release he describes his recently established relationship with Vingroup as “an ideal scenario” that will enable him “to design championship courses in a golf-hungry region.” Curiously, the press release doesn’t mention the course that Player agreed to design for Vingroup last fall. The 18-hole track, Player’s first in the nation, will be one of three at Cầu Đường, a 680-acre community that’s taking shape along the Red River just east of Hà Nội. Although it won’t be a “signature” course, the priciest of the design options that Player’s firm offers, the links-style layout is expected to be the first to open at Cầu Đường, probably in 2018. (The construction schedule for the community’s other courses, which will be created by Faldo Design and IMG Golf, hasn’t been announced.) Vingroup hasn’t indicated that it’s signed any other contracts with Player’s firm, but these days it’s chock full of opportunities for golf architects. Over the past year or so, the company has initiated multiple-course complexes at communities on Phú Quốc Island, off the nation’s southwestern coast; on Yu Yen Island, outside the city of Hải Phòng; and in Quy Nhơn, a city along the nation’s central coast. It also wants to build 18-hole venues at Sài Gòn SunBay, outside Hồ Chí Minh City, and on Con Au, an island in the Hau River outside Cần Thơ. If all these courses end up seeing the light of day, Vingroup would own one-quarter of the 96 tracks that Vietnam expects to open by 2020.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the April 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.  

    Kangaroo Island, South Australia. The people responsible for Cape Wickham Links have secured permission to break ground on their next destination-worthy golf course. Programmed Turnpoint intends to build the to-be named, 18-hole layout near Sapphiretown on Kangaroo Island, off the southern coast of South Australia. It may ultimately be impossible for the new track to measure up to Cape Wickham Links, which is already ranked #24 on Golf Digest’s list of the world’s top 100 golf courses, but Programmed Turnpoint believes that its 550-acre site has the key natural attributes that make for build-it-and-they-will-come golf. “Playing golf while overlooking the sea, the drama of the sand dunes -- it really will be something to behold,” the firm’s general manager, Justin Trott, told a local newspaper. Like Cape Wickham Links, which is located on remote King Island in Tasmania, Programmed Turnpoint’s forthcoming track won’t be easy to reach. Kangaroo Island is said to have excellent tourism potential, but it’s more than an hour’s drive and a ferry ride from Adelaide. So, when state officials began soliciting proposals for a resort on the island, they insisted that the developer commit to creating a layout that would lure golf travelers from all over the world. Programmed Turnpoint won the commission in 2014. At the time, the state expected the golf course to be designed by Greg Norman. Last year, however, Programmed Turnpoint began taking proposals from other well-regarded, internationally known architects. It hasn’t yet identified its choice for the commission or announced a time line for construction.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the March 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.  

     Kartli Province, Georgia. Sometime next year, a Spanish residential developer expects to open the first 18-hole golf course in Georgia. The track will be the centerpiece of Primera Golf & Residence, a 250-acre mountainside community outside Mtskheta, roughly 15 miles northwest of Tbilisi. In addition to the golf course, the community will have several hundred houses, a spa, a rifle and archery range, and other attractions. Georgia Today says it’ll offer views of the capital city “so ravishing that only birds and angels need not envy them.” Primera, which has been in the works since 2012, is being co-developed by Pedro Luis Pastor, the founder of Grupo Pastor, and Zurab Pololikashvili, Georgia’s ambassador to Spain. Their goal, the newspaper says, is “nothing short of redefining the good life for affluent Georgians” with a community that offers an escape from “the tribulations of Tbilisi.” Construction has reportedly begun on Primera’s golf course, a layout designed by Lassi Pekki Tilander of Espoo, Finland. Tilander told Golf Course Architecture that his course “has kept the young golf culture of the country in mind,” for it’s been designed without forced carries or fairway bunkers, and it’ll have a set of forward tees that allow for 5,030-yard rounds. Until Tilander’s course opens, Georgians have just one golf option: A nine-hole track at the Ambasadori Hotel in Katchreti.

     North Island, New Zealand. Just a chip shot from one of New Zealand’s most talked-about new golf venues, the members of a Māori tribe have asked local authorities to let them build a course of their own. The Ngāti Manuhiri people are seeking permission to develop a community -- its working name is Mangawhai South Forest -- on 1,860 acres along Pakiri Beach, on the sparsely populated eastern coast of the North Island. The tribe (Ngāti Manuhiri te Hapu), which is working with a private-sector group, hasn’t announced any specific plans for the community, but its initial submission to government officials calls for houses, tourism-related facilities, and recreational amenities, including a golf course. The Mangawhai South Forest property, outside the town of Leigh, is just south of Te Arai Beach, where late last year a U.S. group opened Tom Doak’s destination-worthy course at Tara Iti Golf Club. The area, roughly 80 miles north of Auckland, is said to be “a popular tourist destination known for its natural beauty.”  

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the March 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.  

     Andhra Pradesh, India. A golf course is one of the wished-for attractions in a development proposal for the “spiritual capital” of Andhra Pradesh. The Hindu reports that the secretary of India’s ministry of tourism has “drawn big plans” for a convention center, a yoga center, and other attractions that will bring even more tourists to Tirupati, the home of the world-famous Tirumala Venkateswara Temple. Tirupati already draws more than 50,000 religious pilgrims every day, and tourism officials aim to make it “a truly international tourist hub” by broadening its appeal. They haven’t laid out any definitive plans or time lines, but they’re clearly hoping to capitalize on the city’s established tourism infrastructure. What’s more, their plans are getting tacit support from publications like Lonely Planet, which writes that while the city’s temples may be “thronged with tens of thousands of blissed-out devotees” on each and every day of the year, “a trip to the Holy Hill can be fulfilling even if you’re not a pilgrim.” If the past serves as a useful prologue, the ministry of tourism is probably inclined to do business with private-sector developers.

     Lincolnshire, England. Late last year, when he became the consulting architect to Pennard Golf Club in Wales, Tom Doak indicated that he was close to inking similar contracts with other golf venues in the United Kingdom. Now we know one of them: Woodhall Spa Golf Club in Lincolnshire, England. The Traverse City, Michigan-based designer has agreed to create a master plan for future upgrades of Woodhall Spa’s Hotchkin course, an 18-hole, Harry Vardon-designed layout that opened in 1905 and received refinements from Harry Colt less than 10 years later. The track checks in at #9 on Golf Digest’s ranking of courses in England, and Doak considers it to be “one of the world’s great heathland courses.” Doak hasn’t outlined any specific plans for the Hotchkin course, but he’s said that his main goal is “protecting the legacy and restoring reputation.” He believes that the Hotchkin track has “a character all of its own,” and character, in his mind, is “a rare thing in golf course architecture.”