The Week That Was, july 31, 2016

     Over the past year, the value of Donald “the Nominee” Trump’s golf properties has “soared,” according to an assessment by Bloomberg. The news service believes that Trump’s properties are now worth $710 million, nearly double the $375 million estimate they received a year ago. Citing an appraisal done by Cushman & Wakefield in 2015, Bloomberg identifies Trump National Doral Golf Club as the most precious prize in the collection, as it supposedly provides more than half -- $366 million -- of the group’s total value. Bloomberg didn’t provide any valuations for Trump’s other properties, but it fingered his European properties as financial drags, indicating that “they’re all unprofitable.” One other thing: Although Trump insists that he’s worth $10 billion, Bloomberg thinks he’s worth only $3 billion. Peanuts!

     Judas Priest’s former lead guitarist is pressing ahead with plans to make his golf course the centerpiece of a world-class golf resort. Ken “KK” Dowling has been hoping to take his 320-acre estate, Astbury Hall, to the next level since 2010, when he opened its 18-hole golf course. The track has been well received, and the estate seems well on its way to becoming what Dowling once promised it would be: “A top-class golf center with no snobbery.” A couple of years ago Darren Clarke, the captain of Europe’s Ryder Cup team, agreed to serve as the golf club’s “global ambassador,” and now Dowling has taken another step forward, as he’s bought out his financial partners and secured permission to proceed with ancillary development. His master plan for the Astbury, in suburban Birmingham, calls for a boutique hotel, a spa, a restaurant, and other attractions, including another nine-hole layout. “The plan is to put Shropshire on the golfing map,” Dowling told the Birmingham Post, “and it is starting to come to fruition.” The newspaper also reports that Dowling, who got to play many of the world’s greatest golf courses while touring with his band, eventually hopes to bring “top international golf competitions” to the Astbury.

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

     The first private-equity golf club in Sin City, and certainly its most colorful, will soon have new owners. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the members of Las Vegas Country Club are weighing four offers for their 120-acre property, the centerpiece of which is an 18-hole, Ed Ault-designed course. The newspaper says that the club, which opened in 1967, is “steeped in tradition,” which in Las Vegas means that over the years its members have included famous entertainers (Frank Sinatra), sportsmen (Andre Agassi), professional stunt men (“Evel” Knievel), local movers and shakers (Mayor Oscar Goodman, the late Kirk Kerkorian), and a parade of mobsters (“Lefty” Rosenthal, Tony Spilotro). The members expect to get as much as $24 million for the club, which sounds like a lot until you remember that Steve Wynn, a member, offered $40 million in 2004.