The Week That Was, august 7, 2016

     Pacific Links International has sold yet another golf property, this one to a South Korean company that appears eager to become a major player in Hawaii’s golf business.
     PLI, a Chinese/Canadian company that operates an international network of limited-access membership golf clubs, has agreed to sell Royal Hawaiian Golf Club, on the island of O’ahu, to L.A. Koreana, a California-based affiliate of Seoul-based Koreana Hotels & Resorts. Royal Hawaiian features an 18-hole course -- it’s said to be among the toughest tracks in the state -- that was co-designed by Perry and Pete Dye and opened (as Luana Hills Golf & Country Club) in 1993.
     Presuming the transaction closes, Pacific Business News reports that L.A. Koreana will own four golf properties on O’ahu, the others being Hawaii Kai Golf Course, Mililani Golf Club, and Ewa Beach Golf Club. And as fast as it’s been buying golf properties on the island, PLI has been selling them. Royal Hawaiian will be the third property on O’ahu that PLI has parted with since March 2015 (it previously disposed of Kapolei Golf Club and Olomana Golf Links), leaving it with just two (Makaha Golf Club and Makaha Valley Country Club) that will someday become one.
     It’s also worth noting that PLI isn’t just selling golf properties in Hawaii. In recent months it’s also unloaded DragonRidge Country Club, outside Las Vegas, and Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport, West Virginia, and it’s looking to rid itself of other golf holdings. The company is engaged in what amounts to a fire sale.
     PLI hasn’t revealed the price it accepted for Royal Hawaiian, but late last year L.A. Koreana reportedly paid $20.5 million for Hawaii Kai, a 36-hole facility outside Honolulu.

     By now, you’ve no doubt heard that Nike has decided to stop selling golf clubs, golf balls, and related equipment. Sales were bad, and profits were presumably worse. Or, to put it another way, the marketplace spoke and Nike listened.
     Good for Nike. The company’s top executives made the right decision.
     For those of us in the golf industry, however, there’s a worry: Is Nike’s decision yet another example of lingering troubles that we may never shake?
     Not hardly. Nike’s decision ultimately says far more about them than it does about us. Here’s the bottom line: A marginal player has stopped selling golf equipment. No big deal. The history of the golf business is littered with equipment manufacturers that came and went.
     So don’t lose any sleep over Nike’s decision. In fact, we should all revel in it, because, as corporations go, Nike really isn’t much more than an empty shell. It’s a marketing colossus, most certainly, a triumph of branding, but there’s no genius in its products. Nike is to sports what Ralph Lauren was to fashion: Much ado about nothing. Only the gullible believe that a Nike T-shirt is superior to any other manufacturer’s T-shirt, or that Nike has truly developed advanced technologies that can help us run faster.
     When it began selling golf equipment, Nike confronted a harsh reality: Impressionable consumers can wear Nike shoes and Be Like Mike, but they can’t swing a Nike club and Be Like Tiger. The company’s failure in golf should remind us that hype can only take you so far. If Nike’s clubs really helped golfers hit their balls farther or straighter, the word would have gotten around.
     A year from now, hardly anyone will remember than Nike used to sell golf clubs. Sadly, though, legions of consumers will still be buying Nike golf shirts and shoes. You know what they say: If they’re good enough for Tiger Woods . . .