More than a year after he originally floated the idea, Michael Jordan has taken another step toward building his own personal Golf Valhalla. The Chicago Bulls legend recently attended a public workshop (which would have been news on its own) where he laid out a plan for the private, super-exclusive golf club he wants to build in Hobe Sound, Florida. An unidentified source told TCPalm.com that the venue would be “celebrity laden” and that Jordan has found 25 investors who are willing to pony up $1 million apiece. As far as the golf course goes, it won’t be designed by Tom Doak, as once rumored, but by Bobby Weed, who apprenticed with Pete Dye and served for several years as the PGA Tour’s in-house architect. Weed did the heavy lifting for the touring pros who ostensibly designed four of our nation’s Tournament Player Club courses, including TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut and TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada. His solo work includes the Slammer & Squire track at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida, Hilton Head National Golf Club in Bluffton, South Carolina, and the Golf Course at Glen Mills in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. No doubt, the commission from Jordan will lift Weed’s profile to a place it’s never been before. And while we’re waiting for Jordan’s proposal to see its way through the entitlement process, let’s all remind ourselves that ego isn’t the best reason to open a private club.
Just days after Greg “the Living Brand” Norman announced that he was changing the name of his company, Eldrick “Tiger” Woods came out and did pretty much the same thing. No fair nicknaming him “the Copycat,” though, because this move has been percolating in Woods’ brain probably since Elin Nordegren celebrated Thanksgiving by taking a nine-iron to his Escalade. Woods calls the move “the next step in what I like to call Chapter 2,” which he defines as “my evolution as a competitor off the course.” The new company is called TGR, which is, of course, “Tiger” without the vowels. Removing vowels and writing in all capitals is pretty popular these days, especially for rock ‘n’ roll bands (MGMT, STRFKR, PWR BTTM), so jeez, maybe he really is a Copycat. Then again, he’s the first to bring the idea to golf, so give him some credit. According to Fast Company, Woods is “wagering that the move will help define his legacy and keep him in the game long after he’s done bringing home golf titles,” although most people think those days ended long ago. Perhaps the move also indicates that Woods no longer thinks of himself as a golfer or a serial adulterer but as a corporate pitchman, a restaurateur, an events promoter, a philanthropist, and a golf course architect. Regarding the latter, he’s changed the name of his architectural firm to TGR Design, although he’d probably get a rise from millennials if he called it TGR DSGN.
It’s starting to get crowded on the African bandwagon. Here’s proof: For the first time, a golf course in Africa has won the PGA’s seal of approval. The PGA (the British version, of course, not the American) has accredited Vipingo Ridge, an 18-hole, David Jones-designed layout in suburban Mombasa, as a worthy destination for its members. The course, the centerpiece of a 2,500-acre community, has generally been regarded as Kenya’s top track since it opened, in 2009. Such recognition may not mean much to us in the United States, but it’s a significant honor in Africa. With the PGA’s branding, Vipingo Ridge’s owners will be able to attract more golf travelers, host high-prestige tournaments, charge more for their real estate, and perhaps even break ground on their long-overdue second course. Business Daily Africa thinks the honor “could mark a new phase in Kenya’s golfing scene” and “could very well be the biggest thing in the Kenyan golf scene since the eradication of ‘browns’ at the Machakos Golf Club!” Now there’s a day none of us will never forget!
The distant pounding you hear is the ever-louder drumbeat of complaints being leveled at the USGA for playing one of its premier events at a venue owned by Donald “the Nominee” Trump. We’re talking specifically about the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open, which is scheduled to be held next July at Trump’s tony club in Bedminster, New Jersey. After hearing what Trump said about women on the “Access Hollywood” bus, Christine Brennan of USA Today wrote a column in which she argued that the tournament “must be moved,” and then three U.S. senators -- all Democrats, naturally -- recommended that the USGA not only relocate the Open but “seriously consider suspending further events at Trump properties.” The USGA is bunkered down and hasn’t responded, probably because it’s worried that its partner is going to be elected. Then again, maybe the USGA has taken the pulse of the women who play professional golf. Golfweek reportedly interviewed a dozen of them and discovered that they don’t find Trump or his clubs in the least bit deplorable.
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Friday, October 28, 2016
Transactions, october 28, 2016
Lansing, Illinois. The financially stressed Lansing Country Club, famous for being the site where “Champagne Tony” Lema met his tragic end in 1966, will soon fade into history, as its 110 equity members have sold their 175-acre property to a developer who’ll cease golf operations. Lansing opened in 1941, as a “sportsman’s” club, and, because it’s located in an area defined by steel mills and oil refineries, sometimes called itself a “blue-collar country club.” Its 4,763-yard course has nine “short” holes in Illinois and nine longer holes across the state line in Munster, Indiana. Chase Development, which reportedly paid $5 million for the club, plans to build an industrial park on the Indiana side of its property.
Venice, Florida. There’s still a long way to go, but it appears that Coral Hospitality just might make good on its promise about putting at least two dozen golf properties into its management portfolio. An entity linked to the Naples, Florida-based company has reportedly paid almost $2.76 million for Jacaranda West Country Club, a venue that features an 18-hole, Mark Mahannah-designed golf course. The course, which opened in the early 1970s, is the centerpiece of a 600-acre community with roughly 900 houses. In 2013, Coral began to operate a handful of golf courses for the state of Georgia, and last year investment groups consisting mainly of Coral executives purchased two golf properties in Florida, Rosedale Golf & Country Club in Bradenton and Eagle Ridge Golf Club in Fort Myers. All told, these days Coral counts 10 golf properties in its collection, and goodness knows there are plenty more in the Southeast that are ripe for the picking.
International Falls, Minnesota. The way Jordan Pearson tells it, he went out looking for a new house and ended up buying Falls Country Club. “I went out there, it’s absolutely beautiful, and by the next day I wrote a purchase agreement on it and it was accepted,” he told the International Falls Journal. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year. Pearson, the owner of Island View Realty, doesn’t golf, and he hasn’t revealed what he’ll pay for the property. The Falls features an 18-hole, Joel Goldstrand-designed golf course that opened in 1998.
North Augusta, South Carolina. The bank that controls the deeply troubled 27-hole golf complex at Mount Vintage Plantation has found a buyer: The community’s residents. Earlier this month, the Mount Vintage Plantation Homeowners Association paid $2.9 million for the Tom Jackson-designed complex, which has in its short history (it opened in 2000) endured a lawsuit from some of its members, a Chapter 11 filing, and a temporary shut-down. “We’re controlling our own destiny,” a spokesperson for the HOA told the North Augusta Star. “The main goal is to be a class-A golf club that serves members and contributes to the growth of the Mount Vintage community.” The golf complex is currently being managed by a group of members and home owners. The job may be a challenge, because last year the club was managed by KemperSports for several months and then by Integrity Golf Company.
Grand Rapids, Michigan. Come the first of the year, the company that operates “four great clubs” in the Grand Rapids area will move into daily-fee operations. For an undisclosed price, Watermark Properties has agreed to buy the Golf Club at Thornapple Pointe, which features an 18-hole, Bill Newcomb-designed course. Thornapple Pointe will continue to accept public play, as it’s done since it opened in 1997, while Watermark markets its other venues with a “one membership, four great clubs” pitch. The company owns two private properties in Grand Rapids, Watermark Country Club and Thousand Oaks Country Club, as well as Sunnybrook Country Club in Grandville and StoneWater Country Club in Caledonia.
Erie, Colorado. The owner of two golf properties in Colorado has acquired a controlling interest in the venue that serves as the home of the University of Colorado’s golf teams. SW Greens LLC paid an undisclosed amount for a piece of Colorado National Golf Club, a 13-year-old venue anchored by a Jay Morrish-designed golf course. Colorado National opened in 2003, as Vista Ridge Golf Club. It’s the fifth property in SW Greens’ portfolio, as the LLC owns Bear Dance Golf Course in Larkspur and Plum Creek Golf Club in Castle Rock and manages two tracks for the city of Brighton. The LLC acquired its share of the club from Steve Kerr (no, not the basketball coach), who purchased Vista Ridge in 2008. Kerr made news in 2013, when he was convicted of tax evasion.
Graeagle, California. Plumas Pines Golf Course, a property that was established in the late 1970s, has changed hands. Completing an agreement struck in early 2016, a four-member LLC led by the course’s director of golf, Brandon Bowling, paid an undisclosed price for the 146-acre property and its 18-hole, Homer Flint-designed golf course. The seller was Mark Cleary, who purchased Plumas Pines with his late brother in 2000. And if you like stories that go full circle, you’ll appreciate the fact that Bowling’s wife is the grand-daughter of the course’s original owners.
McAfee, New Jersey. The abandoned golf property at the former Playboy Club in northern New Jersey is going to reopen next spring, under new ownership. The owner of the nearby Mountain Creek ski resort, a family-owned corporation led by Jeff Koffman, has purchased the 27-hole golf venue once known as Great Gorge Country Club. The 45-year-old complex, designed by George Fazio, had gone through several owners, the most recent being a Japanese corporation that defaulted on a $10 million loan. “From what we’ve heard, Great Gorge used to be the preeminent golf course in Sussex County and one of the top-ranked courses in New Jersey,” Koffman told the New Jersey Herald, “and we have every intention of bringing it up to those standards again.” When it gets back in business, the complex will operate as Great Gorge Mountain Creek.
Kellogg, Idaho. Jeld-Wen Holdings Inc. has sold its last remaining golf property. The giant window and door manufacturer, a former sponsor of an event on the Champions Tour, has accepted $5 million for Silver Mountain Resort, a ski area that includes the nine-hole Galena Ridge Golf Course. In 2010, Jeld-Wen sold three resort communities in Oregon to a hotel company for $9.5 million. The group consisted of Running Y Ranch in Klamath Falls (it has an 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed course), Brasada Ranch in Powell Butte (18 holes co-designed by Peter Jacobsen and Jim Hardy), and Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond (regulation 18s by John Thronson and Gene “Bunny” Mason, plus an 18-hole executive-length track). Silver Mountain’s course was designed by Thronson and opened in 2010. Its new owner, Tryg Fortun of Eclectic LLC, told the Spokane Spokesman Review that Silver Mountain is “my favorite ski resort anywhere in the world.”
Venice, Florida. There’s still a long way to go, but it appears that Coral Hospitality just might make good on its promise about putting at least two dozen golf properties into its management portfolio. An entity linked to the Naples, Florida-based company has reportedly paid almost $2.76 million for Jacaranda West Country Club, a venue that features an 18-hole, Mark Mahannah-designed golf course. The course, which opened in the early 1970s, is the centerpiece of a 600-acre community with roughly 900 houses. In 2013, Coral began to operate a handful of golf courses for the state of Georgia, and last year investment groups consisting mainly of Coral executives purchased two golf properties in Florida, Rosedale Golf & Country Club in Bradenton and Eagle Ridge Golf Club in Fort Myers. All told, these days Coral counts 10 golf properties in its collection, and goodness knows there are plenty more in the Southeast that are ripe for the picking.
International Falls, Minnesota. The way Jordan Pearson tells it, he went out looking for a new house and ended up buying Falls Country Club. “I went out there, it’s absolutely beautiful, and by the next day I wrote a purchase agreement on it and it was accepted,” he told the International Falls Journal. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year. Pearson, the owner of Island View Realty, doesn’t golf, and he hasn’t revealed what he’ll pay for the property. The Falls features an 18-hole, Joel Goldstrand-designed golf course that opened in 1998.
North Augusta, South Carolina. The bank that controls the deeply troubled 27-hole golf complex at Mount Vintage Plantation has found a buyer: The community’s residents. Earlier this month, the Mount Vintage Plantation Homeowners Association paid $2.9 million for the Tom Jackson-designed complex, which has in its short history (it opened in 2000) endured a lawsuit from some of its members, a Chapter 11 filing, and a temporary shut-down. “We’re controlling our own destiny,” a spokesperson for the HOA told the North Augusta Star. “The main goal is to be a class-A golf club that serves members and contributes to the growth of the Mount Vintage community.” The golf complex is currently being managed by a group of members and home owners. The job may be a challenge, because last year the club was managed by KemperSports for several months and then by Integrity Golf Company.
Grand Rapids, Michigan. Come the first of the year, the company that operates “four great clubs” in the Grand Rapids area will move into daily-fee operations. For an undisclosed price, Watermark Properties has agreed to buy the Golf Club at Thornapple Pointe, which features an 18-hole, Bill Newcomb-designed course. Thornapple Pointe will continue to accept public play, as it’s done since it opened in 1997, while Watermark markets its other venues with a “one membership, four great clubs” pitch. The company owns two private properties in Grand Rapids, Watermark Country Club and Thousand Oaks Country Club, as well as Sunnybrook Country Club in Grandville and StoneWater Country Club in Caledonia.
Erie, Colorado. The owner of two golf properties in Colorado has acquired a controlling interest in the venue that serves as the home of the University of Colorado’s golf teams. SW Greens LLC paid an undisclosed amount for a piece of Colorado National Golf Club, a 13-year-old venue anchored by a Jay Morrish-designed golf course. Colorado National opened in 2003, as Vista Ridge Golf Club. It’s the fifth property in SW Greens’ portfolio, as the LLC owns Bear Dance Golf Course in Larkspur and Plum Creek Golf Club in Castle Rock and manages two tracks for the city of Brighton. The LLC acquired its share of the club from Steve Kerr (no, not the basketball coach), who purchased Vista Ridge in 2008. Kerr made news in 2013, when he was convicted of tax evasion.
Graeagle, California. Plumas Pines Golf Course, a property that was established in the late 1970s, has changed hands. Completing an agreement struck in early 2016, a four-member LLC led by the course’s director of golf, Brandon Bowling, paid an undisclosed price for the 146-acre property and its 18-hole, Homer Flint-designed golf course. The seller was Mark Cleary, who purchased Plumas Pines with his late brother in 2000. And if you like stories that go full circle, you’ll appreciate the fact that Bowling’s wife is the grand-daughter of the course’s original owners.
McAfee, New Jersey. The abandoned golf property at the former Playboy Club in northern New Jersey is going to reopen next spring, under new ownership. The owner of the nearby Mountain Creek ski resort, a family-owned corporation led by Jeff Koffman, has purchased the 27-hole golf venue once known as Great Gorge Country Club. The 45-year-old complex, designed by George Fazio, had gone through several owners, the most recent being a Japanese corporation that defaulted on a $10 million loan. “From what we’ve heard, Great Gorge used to be the preeminent golf course in Sussex County and one of the top-ranked courses in New Jersey,” Koffman told the New Jersey Herald, “and we have every intention of bringing it up to those standards again.” When it gets back in business, the complex will operate as Great Gorge Mountain Creek.
Kellogg, Idaho. Jeld-Wen Holdings Inc. has sold its last remaining golf property. The giant window and door manufacturer, a former sponsor of an event on the Champions Tour, has accepted $5 million for Silver Mountain Resort, a ski area that includes the nine-hole Galena Ridge Golf Course. In 2010, Jeld-Wen sold three resort communities in Oregon to a hotel company for $9.5 million. The group consisted of Running Y Ranch in Klamath Falls (it has an 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed course), Brasada Ranch in Powell Butte (18 holes co-designed by Peter Jacobsen and Jim Hardy), and Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond (regulation 18s by John Thronson and Gene “Bunny” Mason, plus an 18-hole executive-length track). Silver Mountain’s course was designed by Thronson and opened in 2010. Its new owner, Tryg Fortun of Eclectic LLC, told the Spokane Spokesman Review that Silver Mountain is “my favorite ski resort anywhere in the world.”
Sunday, October 23, 2016
The Week That Was, october 23, 2016
Dubai, which likes to brag about its potential as a golf destination, is about to lose one of its nine golf properties. Al Badia Golf Club, a venue that opened in 2005 (it was originally known as Four Seasons Golf Club Dubai Festival City), will close in February 2017. The club offered no explanation for its demise, and the news appears to have caught its members by surprise. “We’ve never heard of a club closing down,” one of them told a Middle Eastern news service. Al Badia’s 18-hole course, literally an oasis in a desert, was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., who once said that “water is seen, heard, and felt almost everywhere, on and off the course.” Although Al Badia isn’t nearly as prominent as Emirates Golf Club, Jumeirah Golf Club, or some other nearby golf properties, its passing certainly raises a red flag. Dubai is wealthy beyond belief, but it has a limited water supply and its real estate market toggles between boom and bust. What’s more, a couple of years ago KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice intimated that its golf market was about to max out. Given the dearth of information that we’ve received so far, it’s impossible to draw any conclusions about what Al Badia’s closing means to Dubai’s golf business. But it can’t be a positive sign.
Is Turkey’s nascent golf industry about to suffer another setback? A little more than a week ago, some bad hombres launched a pair of missiles into the heart of the nation’s favorite vacation spot, and now the Turkish Airlines Golf Open, scheduled to take place at Regnum Carya Golf & Spa Resort next month, may be canceled. The missiles didn’t kill anyone, but everybody in Antalya is on edge and the European Tour is wrestling with matters that it’s never confronted. “We will update further as soon as possible,” it said in a press release. Turkey is a troubled country -- two recent terrorist bombings, last summer’s aborted military coup, strained relations with Russia -- and the golf courses in Belek/Antalya are suffering as a result. Rory McIlroy had agreed to play in the open, and his presence at the $7 million event was sure to boost television ratings and give Turkey’s golf business a welcome shot in the arm. Today, though, the tour is in a no-win situation. It may soon give the all-clear signal, but fear is contagious and you’ve got to wonder how many pros would rather play virtually anywhere else.
Greg Norman thinks he can be in business forever, and he’s set up a holding company that he hopes will help him do it. Beginning next year, “the Living Brand” will dissolve Great White Shark Enterprises and start operating through the far more cleverly named Greg Norman Company. “Over the years, I have learned that no business can stand still,” he said in a press release. “We need to build a company not just for today, but for the future.” Regrettably, however, the future isn’t on the immediate horizon. In the near term, GNC will do exactly what GWSE has been doing for decades: Design golf courses, sell “branded” merchandise, make real-estate investments, and extend loans to small businesses. But sometime next year, when Norman begins to transform into a true captain of industry, he promises to unveil unique enterprises that will make GNC “a force on the landscape of golf and beyond.” These enterprises could be anything, really, because Norman is a man of the world and a deep thinker. If you’re looking for a hint of what the “beyond” might be, however, think Verizon and educational technology.
An often overlooked international design firm has opened its fifth golf course in Indonesia, this one on Bali, a popular vacation spot that markets itself as “the Island of the Gods.” Belmont, California-based JMP Golf has produced an 18-hole, par-3 track for Bukit Pandawa Golf & Country Club, the centerpiece of a resort that’s taking shape on the Bukit Peninsula, along the island’s southern coast. The area is said to feature a “dramatic craggy coastline” and “imposing cliff-tops,” and Bob Moore, the course’s architect, reportedly preserved “rock outcroppings” and “architectural ruins” for additional aesthetic punch. Moore is responsible for two other JMP-designed courses in Indonesia, Royale Jakarta Golf Club in Jakarta and Royal Sumatra Golf & Country Club in Medan. He and his partners, Brian Costello and Mark Hollinger, along with JMP founder J. Michael Poellot, have also created courses in the United States and at least 10 other nations, among them China, France, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and Thailand. Bukit Pandawa is being developed by PT Bali Ragawisata, which will eventually complement the resort’s course with a hotel that includes villas and a beach club.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the October 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
This year, for the first time since its inception in 2004, the annual Golf Business Forum will be held in the United States. The event, which touts itself as “the largest and most significant meeting of golf-industry executives and decision-makers in the world,” will be held at the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida from November 28 to December 1, 2016. It’ll feature what HSBC, its sponsor and promoter, calls “an action-packed agenda” of “thought leadership and networking sessions” where “the game’s most influential voices, leaders, decision-makers, and global innovators” will “reflect on an exciting year and debate the future of the game.” A complete list of speakers hasn’t been announced, but Jack Nicklaus, Tim Finchem, and Martin Slumbers will reportedly be there, and Annika Sorenstam will receive HSBC’s lifetime achievement award.
Is Turkey’s nascent golf industry about to suffer another setback? A little more than a week ago, some bad hombres launched a pair of missiles into the heart of the nation’s favorite vacation spot, and now the Turkish Airlines Golf Open, scheduled to take place at Regnum Carya Golf & Spa Resort next month, may be canceled. The missiles didn’t kill anyone, but everybody in Antalya is on edge and the European Tour is wrestling with matters that it’s never confronted. “We will update further as soon as possible,” it said in a press release. Turkey is a troubled country -- two recent terrorist bombings, last summer’s aborted military coup, strained relations with Russia -- and the golf courses in Belek/Antalya are suffering as a result. Rory McIlroy had agreed to play in the open, and his presence at the $7 million event was sure to boost television ratings and give Turkey’s golf business a welcome shot in the arm. Today, though, the tour is in a no-win situation. It may soon give the all-clear signal, but fear is contagious and you’ve got to wonder how many pros would rather play virtually anywhere else.
Greg Norman thinks he can be in business forever, and he’s set up a holding company that he hopes will help him do it. Beginning next year, “the Living Brand” will dissolve Great White Shark Enterprises and start operating through the far more cleverly named Greg Norman Company. “Over the years, I have learned that no business can stand still,” he said in a press release. “We need to build a company not just for today, but for the future.” Regrettably, however, the future isn’t on the immediate horizon. In the near term, GNC will do exactly what GWSE has been doing for decades: Design golf courses, sell “branded” merchandise, make real-estate investments, and extend loans to small businesses. But sometime next year, when Norman begins to transform into a true captain of industry, he promises to unveil unique enterprises that will make GNC “a force on the landscape of golf and beyond.” These enterprises could be anything, really, because Norman is a man of the world and a deep thinker. If you’re looking for a hint of what the “beyond” might be, however, think Verizon and educational technology.
An often overlooked international design firm has opened its fifth golf course in Indonesia, this one on Bali, a popular vacation spot that markets itself as “the Island of the Gods.” Belmont, California-based JMP Golf has produced an 18-hole, par-3 track for Bukit Pandawa Golf & Country Club, the centerpiece of a resort that’s taking shape on the Bukit Peninsula, along the island’s southern coast. The area is said to feature a “dramatic craggy coastline” and “imposing cliff-tops,” and Bob Moore, the course’s architect, reportedly preserved “rock outcroppings” and “architectural ruins” for additional aesthetic punch. Moore is responsible for two other JMP-designed courses in Indonesia, Royale Jakarta Golf Club in Jakarta and Royal Sumatra Golf & Country Club in Medan. He and his partners, Brian Costello and Mark Hollinger, along with JMP founder J. Michael Poellot, have also created courses in the United States and at least 10 other nations, among them China, France, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and Thailand. Bukit Pandawa is being developed by PT Bali Ragawisata, which will eventually complement the resort’s course with a hotel that includes villas and a beach club.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the October 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
This year, for the first time since its inception in 2004, the annual Golf Business Forum will be held in the United States. The event, which touts itself as “the largest and most significant meeting of golf-industry executives and decision-makers in the world,” will be held at the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida from November 28 to December 1, 2016. It’ll feature what HSBC, its sponsor and promoter, calls “an action-packed agenda” of “thought leadership and networking sessions” where “the game’s most influential voices, leaders, decision-makers, and global innovators” will “reflect on an exciting year and debate the future of the game.” A complete list of speakers hasn’t been announced, but Jack Nicklaus, Tim Finchem, and Martin Slumbers will reportedly be there, and Annika Sorenstam will receive HSBC’s lifetime achievement award.
Sunday, October 16, 2016
The Week That Was, october 16, 2016
One of the high flyers in China’s golf business has acquired a high-profile golf portfolio in greater Seattle, Washington, a place it reportedly views as “a gateway into the North American golf market.”
An affiliate of HNA Group, the owner of more than a dozen golf venues in the People’s Republic, has reportedly paid $137.5 million for eight properties assembled by Oki Golf, a group led by former Microsoft executive Scott Oki. The collection consists of Golf Club at Hawks Prairie in Lacey (36 holes), Golf Club at Newcastle in Newcastle (36 holes), Golf Club at Redmond Ridge in Redmond, Harbour Pointe Golf Club in Mukilteo, Indian Summer Golf & Country Club in Olympia, Plateau Club in Sammamish, Trophy Lake Golf & Casting in Port Orchard, and Washington National Golf Club in Auburn.
HNA Group is an aviation company -- it offers flights to and from several cities in China and the United States, including Seattle -- with 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 nation. The company owns two other golf properties in the United States -- Nicklaus Club Monterey (formerly Pasadera Country Club) in Monterey, California and Somers Pointe Golf Club in Somers, New York -- and in 2013 it entered into a partnership with Nicklaus Design’s Chinese affiliate that was expected to lead to “the re-design and re-branding of many of the HNA facilities.”
Oki Golf no longer owns any golf properties. It’ll continue to operate the courses that it’s sold to HNA Group as well as one other -- Golf Club at Echo Falls in Snohomish -- that it sold last year. Oki reportedly sold Echo Falls to an unnamed “international investment group.”
Finally, Mike Keiser is acting on advice that he’s been getting for years: He’s going to build Bandon Dunes’ next course -- the resort’s fifth 18-hole track -- on waterfront property currently occupied by the free-form Sheep Ranch layout he co-owns with Phil Friedmann
“It should happen in the next two years,” the Chicago-based developer told Golf Advisor.
Keiser has identified Gil Hanse as “the front runner” for the design commission, and Hanse’s mouth is already watering.”The Sheep Ranch is the best site we’ve ever seen for a new golf course,” he told the online news service. “When Jim [Wagner] and I walked the property, we were doing cartwheels.”
The minimally maintained Sheep Ranch course, which has 13 Tom Doak-designed greens but no tees and no real beginning or end, is the worst-kept secret in golf. Though its existence has for years been denied by the folks at Bandon Dunes, knowledgeable visitors know where it is and who to call to make a tee time. And, as Hanse has indicated, it’s a tee time that’s worth making. Keiser says the site is “spectacular,” and Josh Lesnik of KemperSports, the operator of Bandon Dunes, thinks it’s “crazy good” and “really unbelieveable.”
Sheep Ranch’s disappearance will disappoint some of Bandon Dunes’ customers, but Keiser needs to protect his most precious asset. The resort already faces strong competition from well-regarded venues in Nova Scotia (Cabot Links) and Florida (Streamsong), and next year it’ll get a Keiser-created rival in Wisconsin (Sand Valley). A fifth course at Bandon Dunes would certainly keep the tourist traffic flowing, especially if Hanse can deliver a track equal to those already created by David McLay Kidd, Tom Doak, and Coore & Crenshaw.
Things aren’t just going badly for Donald “the Nominee” Trump on the campaign trail, as his golf properties in Scotland lost £9.5 million (almost $11.6 million) between them last year. Trump Turnberry, which was undergoing a renovation that depressed income, was the big loser, as it was £8.4 million ($10.2 million) in the red. In a statement to British authorities, Eric Trump said that he expects the property to “return to profitability in the short to medium term.” For what it’s worth, Trump’s course in Aberdeenshire hasn’t turned a profit since it opened in 2012.
Phil “the Gambler” Mickelson has found another revenue stream. The three-time Masters champion will join Bubba Watson and Lee Trevino as “ambassadors” for the Greenbrier, a historic golf resort and PGA Tour venue in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. “My family, like all others who have visited the resort, loves the Greenbrier,” Mickelson said in a press release. The financial terms of the agreement haven’t been disclosed, but Mickelson will be moving into a house at the resort’s Greenbrier Sporting Club -- “a wonderful community,” according to Mickelson -- and he’s agreed to help Jim Justice, the Greenbrier’s owner, market the emerging Oakhurst community, which will feature a golf course that’s been co-designed by Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and the late Arnold Palmer. Mickelson, who’s had several brushes with the law of late, collected more than $50 million last year in golf-related endeavors.
An affiliate of HNA Group, the owner of more than a dozen golf venues in the People’s Republic, has reportedly paid $137.5 million for eight properties assembled by Oki Golf, a group led by former Microsoft executive Scott Oki. The collection consists of Golf Club at Hawks Prairie in Lacey (36 holes), Golf Club at Newcastle in Newcastle (36 holes), Golf Club at Redmond Ridge in Redmond, Harbour Pointe Golf Club in Mukilteo, Indian Summer Golf & Country Club in Olympia, Plateau Club in Sammamish, Trophy Lake Golf & Casting in Port Orchard, and Washington National Golf Club in Auburn.
HNA Group is an aviation company -- it offers flights to and from several cities in China and the United States, including Seattle -- with 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 nation. The company owns two other golf properties in the United States -- Nicklaus Club Monterey (formerly Pasadera Country Club) in Monterey, California and Somers Pointe Golf Club in Somers, New York -- and in 2013 it entered into a partnership with Nicklaus Design’s Chinese affiliate that was expected to lead to “the re-design and re-branding of many of the HNA facilities.”
Oki Golf no longer owns any golf properties. It’ll continue to operate the courses that it’s sold to HNA Group as well as one other -- Golf Club at Echo Falls in Snohomish -- that it sold last year. Oki reportedly sold Echo Falls to an unnamed “international investment group.”
Finally, Mike Keiser is acting on advice that he’s been getting for years: He’s going to build Bandon Dunes’ next course -- the resort’s fifth 18-hole track -- on waterfront property currently occupied by the free-form Sheep Ranch layout he co-owns with Phil Friedmann
“It should happen in the next two years,” the Chicago-based developer told Golf Advisor.
Keiser has identified Gil Hanse as “the front runner” for the design commission, and Hanse’s mouth is already watering.”The Sheep Ranch is the best site we’ve ever seen for a new golf course,” he told the online news service. “When Jim [Wagner] and I walked the property, we were doing cartwheels.”
The minimally maintained Sheep Ranch course, which has 13 Tom Doak-designed greens but no tees and no real beginning or end, is the worst-kept secret in golf. Though its existence has for years been denied by the folks at Bandon Dunes, knowledgeable visitors know where it is and who to call to make a tee time. And, as Hanse has indicated, it’s a tee time that’s worth making. Keiser says the site is “spectacular,” and Josh Lesnik of KemperSports, the operator of Bandon Dunes, thinks it’s “crazy good” and “really unbelieveable.”
Sheep Ranch’s disappearance will disappoint some of Bandon Dunes’ customers, but Keiser needs to protect his most precious asset. The resort already faces strong competition from well-regarded venues in Nova Scotia (Cabot Links) and Florida (Streamsong), and next year it’ll get a Keiser-created rival in Wisconsin (Sand Valley). A fifth course at Bandon Dunes would certainly keep the tourist traffic flowing, especially if Hanse can deliver a track equal to those already created by David McLay Kidd, Tom Doak, and Coore & Crenshaw.
Things aren’t just going badly for Donald “the Nominee” Trump on the campaign trail, as his golf properties in Scotland lost £9.5 million (almost $11.6 million) between them last year. Trump Turnberry, which was undergoing a renovation that depressed income, was the big loser, as it was £8.4 million ($10.2 million) in the red. In a statement to British authorities, Eric Trump said that he expects the property to “return to profitability in the short to medium term.” For what it’s worth, Trump’s course in Aberdeenshire hasn’t turned a profit since it opened in 2012.
Phil “the Gambler” Mickelson has found another revenue stream. The three-time Masters champion will join Bubba Watson and Lee Trevino as “ambassadors” for the Greenbrier, a historic golf resort and PGA Tour venue in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. “My family, like all others who have visited the resort, loves the Greenbrier,” Mickelson said in a press release. The financial terms of the agreement haven’t been disclosed, but Mickelson will be moving into a house at the resort’s Greenbrier Sporting Club -- “a wonderful community,” according to Mickelson -- and he’s agreed to help Jim Justice, the Greenbrier’s owner, market the emerging Oakhurst community, which will feature a golf course that’s been co-designed by Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and the late Arnold Palmer. Mickelson, who’s had several brushes with the law of late, collected more than $50 million last year in golf-related endeavors.
Sunday, October 9, 2016
The Week That Was, october 9, 2016
Just when you start thinking that Mike Keiser would never work with anyone except a certified naturalist, along comes Tiger Woods. The disgraced professional golfer and pitchman is reportedly being considered as the architect for the 27-hole golf complex -- an 18-hole course capable of hosting the BMW Championship and an easy-to-play nine-hole layout -- that Keiser and Mark Rolfing want to build along the Windy City’s lakefront, on property currently occupied by a pair of municipal tracks and just a chip shot from Barack Obama’s planned presidential library. Rolfing, a commentator for the Golf Channel, told the Chicago Tribune that a commission for Woods is “not a done deal,” but Keiser thinks the chance of it happening are “two in three.” One related issue to consider: Ben Crenshaw, half of Keiser’s favorite design team, has reportedly made a site visit.
Gannett Company has placed a bet on golf’s future. For an undisclosed price, Gannett’s USA Today Network has acquired Golfweek, the magazine that once famously promoted a story about Tiger Woods with a picture of a noose. In a press release, the new owner says it believes that Golfweek’s assets -- in particular, its “industry-leading editorial team” and “events business” -- will bring “significant value to Gannett’s suite of audience-focused, content-driven sports business” and give it “an unmatched relationship with golf’s core demographic community.” In other words, Gannett views the transaction as an opportunity to make more money, not to break new ground in golf journalism. The seller was an entity linked to Crain Communications, the publisher of Advertising Age, Autoweek, a group of namesake business publications, and other periodicals. The transaction has been described as “a distress sale,” and Geoff Shackelford says that Golfweek has made “multiple layoffs on the sales and production side,” though without providing any details.
Gifts of Gab: When it comes to determining the health of the golf business, would it be prudent to take the game by the balls? “The game is healthy,” Robert Trent Jones, Jr. told Crave. “I think the stat to watch is the number of golf balls sold. There’s been little decline there. That means there may be fewer players, but those still with the game are playing more often.”
Gannett Company has placed a bet on golf’s future. For an undisclosed price, Gannett’s USA Today Network has acquired Golfweek, the magazine that once famously promoted a story about Tiger Woods with a picture of a noose. In a press release, the new owner says it believes that Golfweek’s assets -- in particular, its “industry-leading editorial team” and “events business” -- will bring “significant value to Gannett’s suite of audience-focused, content-driven sports business” and give it “an unmatched relationship with golf’s core demographic community.” In other words, Gannett views the transaction as an opportunity to make more money, not to break new ground in golf journalism. The seller was an entity linked to Crain Communications, the publisher of Advertising Age, Autoweek, a group of namesake business publications, and other periodicals. The transaction has been described as “a distress sale,” and Geoff Shackelford says that Golfweek has made “multiple layoffs on the sales and production side,” though without providing any details.
Gifts of Gab: When it comes to determining the health of the golf business, would it be prudent to take the game by the balls? “The game is healthy,” Robert Trent Jones, Jr. told Crave. “I think the stat to watch is the number of golf balls sold. There’s been little decline there. That means there may be fewer players, but those still with the game are playing more often.”
Sunday, October 2, 2016
The Week That Was, october 2, 2016
A British golf consultant has identified some of the world’s hot spots for golf development, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that Vietnam tops his list. The socialist republic is, after all, where “huge amounts are being ploughed into the game,” according to Paul Dellanzo, a Liverpool, England-based designer, developer, and manager. Dellanzo also sees an upside in Oman, which he believes “has everything to be the next emerging luxury golf destination,” and Indonesia, thanks primarily to its “younger demographics” and “a very healthy ratio of quality, demand, and price.” He also cites Canada and Russia, though without making a persuasive case, as well as France and Italy, but only because they’re upcoming host nations for Ryder Cup competitions. Of course, there’s been a chill in the development air for many years, and Dellanzo continues to feel it in Dubai (“a chaotic and expensive city” where “most rounds are actually played by expatriates”), Japan (it’s “suffering for now from an older population and one of the highest national debts in the world”), Great Britain (“it is often cheaper for the British to fly to southern Europe to play for a short holiday”), and the United States (“still in a tailspin”).
Thinking about taking a golf vacation in Tasmania? Well, the biggest booster club for Australia’s golf industry is gushing about Ocean Dunes, the new waterfront links on King Island. Golf Australia says that Ocean Dunes’ Graeme Grant-designed track, which has been laid out upon “one of the most impressive seaside locations for golf on the planet,” is “as strategically layered as it is visually mesmerizing” and “a triumph for those who agree that the game is far more interesting when the ball is on the ground rather than in the air.” To be sure, the group’s reviewer makes the inevitable comparison to nearby Cape Wickham Links, a track already regarded as being among the world’s elites, but, naturally, declines to pick a winner. “Both are ingenious designs on stunningly beautiful ground, both utilize their vast natural assets with aplomb, yet each owns characteristics the other doesn’t,” the reviewer has concluded. “They make a great double act.” Other reviewers will no doubt concur. King Island is on a fast-growing number of bucket lists.
Before the end of the year, FLC Group expects to unveil the second 18-hole course at FLC Quy Nhơn Golf Links, a venue that serves as the centerpiece of what’s said to be a “seven-star” resort community outside Quy Nhơn, in Bình Định Province. Both of Quy Nhơn’s courses were designed by internationally known U.S. firms, and both took shape in hardly any time at all. The builder, Flagstick Golf Course Construction Management, claims that the community’s Oceanside course, by Nicklaus Design, emerged in just five months. It opened in March. Flagstick tried to finish the forthcoming Mountain track, by Brian Curley of Schmidt-Curley Design, in only four months, but it may end up taking six. Quy Nhơn is FLC Group’s second golf property (the first, FLC Sầm Sơn Golf Links in Thanh Hóa Province, opened last year), and within a few months the publicly traded company also figures to open an 18-hole layout at FLC Hạ Long Bay Golf Club & Resort in Quảng Ninh Province. In addition, FLC Group has enlisted Curley to design the first two courses at FLC Đồng Hới Golf Links, a 7,500-acre spread in Quảng Bình Province that’s been master-planned for 10 courses. If you’re wondering where FLC Group goes from there, the company aims to have 20 courses in its portfolio by 2020.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
For just the fourth time in 33 years, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America is giving its top award to a golf course superintendent. He is Paul Latshaw, who over a 38-year career worked at some of our nation’s most celebrated venues, among them Augusta National Golf Club, Oakmont Country Club, Congressional Country Club, Riviera Country Club, and Winged Foot Golf Club. Along the way, he prepared courses for nine major championships. “I was a farm boy from central Pennsylvania who became a golf course superintendent,” Latshaw joked in a press release. “It sure was better than bailing hay and feeding chickens.” Previous winners of the GCSAA’s Old Tom Morris Award include Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Byron Nelson, Annika Sorenstam, Bob Hope, and Dinah Shore.
Jack Nicklaus has earned many accolades during his brilliant career, but he’s never been known as a defender of the free world. That may soon change, however, because South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense wants to deploy U.S. missiles on one of his golf courses.
Thinking about taking a golf vacation in Tasmania? Well, the biggest booster club for Australia’s golf industry is gushing about Ocean Dunes, the new waterfront links on King Island. Golf Australia says that Ocean Dunes’ Graeme Grant-designed track, which has been laid out upon “one of the most impressive seaside locations for golf on the planet,” is “as strategically layered as it is visually mesmerizing” and “a triumph for those who agree that the game is far more interesting when the ball is on the ground rather than in the air.” To be sure, the group’s reviewer makes the inevitable comparison to nearby Cape Wickham Links, a track already regarded as being among the world’s elites, but, naturally, declines to pick a winner. “Both are ingenious designs on stunningly beautiful ground, both utilize their vast natural assets with aplomb, yet each owns characteristics the other doesn’t,” the reviewer has concluded. “They make a great double act.” Other reviewers will no doubt concur. King Island is on a fast-growing number of bucket lists.
Before the end of the year, FLC Group expects to unveil the second 18-hole course at FLC Quy Nhơn Golf Links, a venue that serves as the centerpiece of what’s said to be a “seven-star” resort community outside Quy Nhơn, in Bình Định Province. Both of Quy Nhơn’s courses were designed by internationally known U.S. firms, and both took shape in hardly any time at all. The builder, Flagstick Golf Course Construction Management, claims that the community’s Oceanside course, by Nicklaus Design, emerged in just five months. It opened in March. Flagstick tried to finish the forthcoming Mountain track, by Brian Curley of Schmidt-Curley Design, in only four months, but it may end up taking six. Quy Nhơn is FLC Group’s second golf property (the first, FLC Sầm Sơn Golf Links in Thanh Hóa Province, opened last year), and within a few months the publicly traded company also figures to open an 18-hole layout at FLC Hạ Long Bay Golf Club & Resort in Quảng Ninh Province. In addition, FLC Group has enlisted Curley to design the first two courses at FLC Đồng Hới Golf Links, a 7,500-acre spread in Quảng Bình Province that’s been master-planned for 10 courses. If you’re wondering where FLC Group goes from there, the company aims to have 20 courses in its portfolio by 2020.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
For just the fourth time in 33 years, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America is giving its top award to a golf course superintendent. He is Paul Latshaw, who over a 38-year career worked at some of our nation’s most celebrated venues, among them Augusta National Golf Club, Oakmont Country Club, Congressional Country Club, Riviera Country Club, and Winged Foot Golf Club. Along the way, he prepared courses for nine major championships. “I was a farm boy from central Pennsylvania who became a golf course superintendent,” Latshaw joked in a press release. “It sure was better than bailing hay and feeding chickens.” Previous winners of the GCSAA’s Old Tom Morris Award include Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Byron Nelson, Annika Sorenstam, Bob Hope, and Dinah Shore.
Jack Nicklaus has earned many accolades during his brilliant career, but he’s never been known as a defender of the free world. That may soon change, however, because South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense wants to deploy U.S. missiles on one of his golf courses.
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