The President-Elect’s golf operation may be looking to buy a high-prestige golf resort in suburban London, England. The Daily Mail reports that Trump Golf has expressed an “interest” in Stoke Park Country Club, Spa & Hotel, a venue that features a 27-hole golf complex. The property, in Buckinghamshire, is said to be the first “country club” in the United Kingdom. It’s probably best known for serving as a location for scenes in two James Bond movies, Goldfinger and Tomorrow Never Dies, as well as Bridget Jones’s Diary. Top 100 Golf Courses believes that the resort’s original 18-hole track, a Harry Colt design that dates from 1908, is “surely one of the finest parkland golf courses in the South of England,” and its seventh hole, a 150-yard par-3, served as the inspiration for the 16th at Augusta National. Trump Golf hasn’t commented on the potential acquisition, but the resort’s owner, a family-controlled entity called International Group, has acknowledged that it’s received “unsolicited approaches from interested parties.”
The President-Elect may not be familiar with Harry Colt’s work, but Mike Keiser sure is. In fact, the world’s foremost developer of neo-classic links is thinking about building a Colt “homage” course at Sand Valley, his naturalist-style resort in central Wisconsin. Keiser describes himself as a “big fan” of Colt’s work, and he’s been down the tribute road before, as he famously commissioned Tom Doak and Jim Urbina to honor C. B. Macdonald at Bandon Dunes. For those who may not be familiar with Colt, he’s one of the seminal figures in the history of golf architecture, as he designed, redesigned, or made crucial design improvements to many of the world’s most famous golf courses. The complete list is much too long for me to regurgitate, but the group includes Muirfield, Royal County Down, Pine Valley, the Dunluce course at Royal Portrush, Swinley Forest, Sunningdale, Royal Porthcawl, the West course at Wentworth Club, Toronto Golf Club, and, of course, Stoke Park. Sand Valley, which could eventually have as many as six courses, expects to open its first, a Coore & Crenshaw design, in the spring of next year, and its second, by David McLay Kidd, could enjoy a soft opening several months later. Keiser is currently weighing options for course number three, with the tribute track vying against proposals from Doak, Urbina, and Mike DeVries. If he opts to go the Colt route, he’ll likely give the commission to Coore & Crenshaw.
One of the biggest names in golf has agreed to design the Chicago Park District’s highly anticipated, Barack Obama-endorsed golf complex. It’s Tiger Woods, who was nominated for the job by the First Golfer and who now has a chance to produce a career-defining layout. The to-be-named complex, which will take shape on property currently occupied by two financially challenged municipal tracks, will consist of an 18-hole course capable of hosting an elite PGA Tour event and an easier-to-play nine-hole course. “This is a really exciting time if you are a golf nut in Chicago,” the park district’s superintendent told the Chicago Tribune. “For far too long, you’ve watched droves of Chicagoans leave the city to play golf in the suburbs.” The complex will take shape along Lake Michigan, in the shadow of Obama’s forthcoming presidential library. The park district hopes to break ground in the spring, with play to begin in 2020. Woods, who needs good public relations to rehabilitate his image, has promised to deliver “a course that everyone will enjoy.”
Though he’s no fan of “signature” golf, Mike Keiser has endorsed the Chicago Park District’s selection of Tiger Woods as the designer of its lakefront golf complex. “I like the choice,” says Keiser, who understands how valuable a brand-name architect’s salesmanship can be in potentially divisive development ventures. Keiser is serving as an adviser to Mark Rolfing, the project’s initial evangelist, and as a fundraiser for the park district, which may need $30 million or more to complete the construction. On the fundraising front, Keiser regards President Obama, a Chicagoan, as an ace in the hole. “When Obama became engaged, he galvanized the donor class of Chicago golfers,” he says. “He’s why the fundraising is going to be successful.”
Concert Golf Partners is hoping to acquire a Philadelphia-area venue that claims to offer “a relaxed yet refined private club experience.” Peter Nanula’s Newport Beach, California-based investment group has offered to buy White Manor Country Club, a venue in Malvern with an 18-hole golf course that’s operated since the early 1960s. Concert has reportedly offered $46,000 an acre for the club, an amount that translates to somewhere between $7.36 million and $7.82 million. Such a price will certainly catch the attention of the club’s bondholders, but the sale is no sure thing for two reasons. First, although the club will lose money this year, a local newspaper reports that the deficit is “not alarming and could be handled without selling the club.” Second, other potential buyers have emerged since White Manor’s availability became known.
The on-again, off-again sale of Accordia Golf is on again. MBK Partners, a South Korean private equity group, has offered $760 million for Accordia, Japan’s best-known golf operator, and the price has received a thumb’s up from Accordia’s ownership. The Financial Times reports that Japan’s golf industry has fallen on hard times -- the culprits are “shrinking corporate expense accounts and stagnant wages” that are “putting courses out of business” -- but it acknowledges that “Accordia has generally thrived.” For its part, MBK believes it can buck the prevailing negative trends by attracting golf tourists from nearby nations and persuading Japanese retirees to take up the sport. Accordia, which was established by Goldman Sachs, reportedly owns 43 golf properties and manages 93 others, which is roughly 5 percent of the 2,500 in Japan.
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Sunday, December 11, 2016
The Week That Was, december 11, 2016
Nobody ever said that making Scotland great again would be easy, and now it appears that the President-Elect has ticked off some members of Trump Turnberry. The Sunday Post reports that Trump Golf has levied a 38 percent tariff on the club’s membership fees, increasing the annual amount to £2,500. An unidentified member, characterizing the increase as “a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum,” believes that Trump has raised prices to clear out the local riff-raff and usher in a wealthier clientele. Which is probably true. But let’s put the price rise in perspective: Assuming that the limits on tee times aren’t too onerous, how many U.S. golfers would jump at the chance to join a newly renovated Trump Turnberry, a former Open Championship venue, for a lousy $3,143 a year?
As part of its continuing effort to generate tourism, the government of Sri Lanka is implicitly expressing its faith in golf. The island nation wants to bring at least 1 million travelers annually through the recently opened but little used Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, outside Hambantota, and it needs crowd-pleasing attractions to do it. Therefore, its minister of public administration and management is reportedly “looking for land to build a golf course” in nearby Uva Province. No details have been announced, probably because it’s way too early in the process, and the government isn’t likely to undertake the venture without private-sector assistance. Besides, Uva is among Sri Lanka’s larger provinces, occupying nearly 8,500 square miles, so the search could take a while.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Slowly but surely, a town on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia is making progress on its volunteer-built golf course. Maleny Golf Club opened the first nine holes of its Graham Papworth-designed track in 2015, and last month it received a $100,000 grant that will enable it to add three more, hopefully by 2018. If you’re wondering when all 18 holes might be completed, well, nobody has set a schedule. But in this case, time isn’t of the essence. The people who are building the municipally owned course see a bigger picture. So far, they’ve spent $750,000 on design and construction, and the Sunshine Coast Council believes the track is already worth at least $3 million to the local economy. What’s more, the course may turn out to be a gift that keeps on giving, because it serves as a training center for a new generation of golfers. For many in our business, golf development is meaningless unless it’s accompanied by six-figure initiation fees or a place on a top-100 list. Maleny is a vision of what else golf might be.
As part of its continuing effort to generate tourism, the government of Sri Lanka is implicitly expressing its faith in golf. The island nation wants to bring at least 1 million travelers annually through the recently opened but little used Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, outside Hambantota, and it needs crowd-pleasing attractions to do it. Therefore, its minister of public administration and management is reportedly “looking for land to build a golf course” in nearby Uva Province. No details have been announced, probably because it’s way too early in the process, and the government isn’t likely to undertake the venture without private-sector assistance. Besides, Uva is among Sri Lanka’s larger provinces, occupying nearly 8,500 square miles, so the search could take a while.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Slowly but surely, a town on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia is making progress on its volunteer-built golf course. Maleny Golf Club opened the first nine holes of its Graham Papworth-designed track in 2015, and last month it received a $100,000 grant that will enable it to add three more, hopefully by 2018. If you’re wondering when all 18 holes might be completed, well, nobody has set a schedule. But in this case, time isn’t of the essence. The people who are building the municipally owned course see a bigger picture. So far, they’ve spent $750,000 on design and construction, and the Sunshine Coast Council believes the track is already worth at least $3 million to the local economy. What’s more, the course may turn out to be a gift that keeps on giving, because it serves as a training center for a new generation of golfers. For many in our business, golf development is meaningless unless it’s accompanied by six-figure initiation fees or a place on a top-100 list. Maleny is a vision of what else golf might be.
Friday, December 9, 2016
Transactions, december 9, 2016
Las Vegas, Nevada. Billy Walters, a prominent gambler and a frequent target of the Securities & Exchange Commission, has found a buyer for his replica golf course. For an undisclosed price, Walters has sold Royal Links Golf Club to Scottsdale Golf Group, a firm led by Shelby Futch, a co-founder of John Jacobs’ Golf Schools & Academies. Walters is getting out of golf operations. He disposed of his Desert Pines Golf Club in 2014, and he’s put his sole remaining golf property, Bali Hai Golf Club, on the market. “We are paring back our golf investments in Las Vegas because the golf business isn’t what it used to be,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “There is too much supply and too little demand.” Walters, who got into some insider-trading hot water with Phil Mickelson a couple of years ago, believes that his golf investments -- he’s reportedly owned 10 properties over the years -- have been “the worst decisions I’ve ever made in my life.” Royal Links, which opened in the late 1990s, has a selling point unlike any other venue in Vegas: It features holes whose designs were inspired by some of the best-known courses in the rotation for the Open Championship, among them Royal Troon, Royal Liverpool, Royal Lytham & St Annes, and Royal Birkdale. The club is Futch’s first in Sin City, though he and his partners own seven in Arizona.
Oviedo, Florida. The city has agreed to buy Twin Rivers Golf Club, to ensure that the financially insecure 310-acre property doesn’t become a subdivision. The price: $5 million. Twin Rivers, which features an 18-hole, Joe Lee-designed course, is among a handful of Orlando-area venues owned by the Golf Group, a firm led by Bob Dello Russo. The 27-year-old club is said to be “struggling,” which is the condition that Rock Springs Ridge Golf Club, in nearby Apopka, was in just two years ago, when the Golf Group shuttered it. The city aims to keep Twin Rivers in business, and it’s set out to find a private-sector operator willing to do it. The transaction is expected to close next month.
Middletown, Ohio. Myron Bowling didn’t hold on to Weatherwax Golf Course for very long. The auctioneer who admitted that he’d “never held a golf club” in his life paid $1.6 million for the 36-hole, Arthur Hills-designed complex in 2014, and now he’s agreed to sell it to the Trust for Public Land, a non-profit group dedicated to preserving open spaces. Weatherwax’s 450 acres will be converted to parkland. Bowling hasn’t revealed the price that TPL paid for the property, but the group reportedly flipped it to MetroParks of Butler County for $2 million.
Lompoc, California. The owners of La Purisima Golf Course have acquired a second golf property in Lompoc. Last month, Chris Bellamy and Sean Hecht became the new owners of Village Country Club, which features an 18-hole, Ted Robinson-designed track that opened in 1961. The club, which had been owned by its members, will operate as Mission Club, but don’t let the name fool you: Mission Club will be open to the public.
Mohave Valley, Arizona. A group of homeowners has reluctantly purchased El Rio Golf Course, the centerpiece of a community in the northwestern part of the state, near Bullhead City, Nevada. The Mohave Daily News reports that none of the new owners (10 in all) “ever wanted to own or run a golf course.” They acquired El Rio after the community’s developers were indicted and convicted of wire, bank, and mail fraud, which is the kind of news that isn’t good for business. “We want everyone to know the course is under new ownership,” a spokesperson for the new owners told the Mohave Valley Daily News. El Rio, which opened in 2004, features an 18-hole, Matt Dye-designed layout.
Marshfield, Wisconsin. The Acker family business has changed hands. Jesse Jacobson, a local hotel owner, has acquired Marshfield Country Club, which claims to be the city’s first golf venue. Marshfield’s original nine opened in 1923. Darrell and Jane Acker bought the club in the mid 1960s and added its second nine in the mid 1970s. Their son Chip eventually became the club’s sole owner, and he’s agreed to manage the property for Jacobson. A sales price hasn’t been announced, but it appears that Robert B. Harris completed a renovation of the course earlier this year.
Interlochen, Michigan. In late September, a well-known PGA pro purchased the city’s only golf course. Brad Dean, most recently the director of golf at Crystal Mountain Resort & Spa in nearby Thompsonville, paid an undisclosed price for Interlochen Golf Club, an 18-hole layout that’s operated for a half-century. “We’ve got a lot of plans,” Dean told the Traverse City Record-Eagle. “We’re looking at refreshing things here.” Dean is one of Michigan’s top golf instructors, and he’s won several teacher-of-the-year citations. He reportedly bought Interlochen from Tony Kochevar.
Hudson Falls, New York. Kingswood Golf Club has new owners and a new name. Deric Buck and his mother reportedly paid $1.75 million for the 25-year-old venue, which now operates as Kingsbury National Golf Club. The seller was Pinhas Shabat. Over the winter, improvements will be made to Kingsbury National’s 18-hole course, which will eventually be reconfigured. “We want to raise the bar on what a golf course around here can be,” Buck told the Glens Falls Post Star. According to the newspaper, Kingsbury National is merely the first golf acquisition for Buck and his mother. They’ve also agreed to buy Bay Meadows Golf Club, a nine-hole course in nearby Queensbury.
Oviedo, Florida. The city has agreed to buy Twin Rivers Golf Club, to ensure that the financially insecure 310-acre property doesn’t become a subdivision. The price: $5 million. Twin Rivers, which features an 18-hole, Joe Lee-designed course, is among a handful of Orlando-area venues owned by the Golf Group, a firm led by Bob Dello Russo. The 27-year-old club is said to be “struggling,” which is the condition that Rock Springs Ridge Golf Club, in nearby Apopka, was in just two years ago, when the Golf Group shuttered it. The city aims to keep Twin Rivers in business, and it’s set out to find a private-sector operator willing to do it. The transaction is expected to close next month.
Middletown, Ohio. Myron Bowling didn’t hold on to Weatherwax Golf Course for very long. The auctioneer who admitted that he’d “never held a golf club” in his life paid $1.6 million for the 36-hole, Arthur Hills-designed complex in 2014, and now he’s agreed to sell it to the Trust for Public Land, a non-profit group dedicated to preserving open spaces. Weatherwax’s 450 acres will be converted to parkland. Bowling hasn’t revealed the price that TPL paid for the property, but the group reportedly flipped it to MetroParks of Butler County for $2 million.
Lompoc, California. The owners of La Purisima Golf Course have acquired a second golf property in Lompoc. Last month, Chris Bellamy and Sean Hecht became the new owners of Village Country Club, which features an 18-hole, Ted Robinson-designed track that opened in 1961. The club, which had been owned by its members, will operate as Mission Club, but don’t let the name fool you: Mission Club will be open to the public.
Mohave Valley, Arizona. A group of homeowners has reluctantly purchased El Rio Golf Course, the centerpiece of a community in the northwestern part of the state, near Bullhead City, Nevada. The Mohave Daily News reports that none of the new owners (10 in all) “ever wanted to own or run a golf course.” They acquired El Rio after the community’s developers were indicted and convicted of wire, bank, and mail fraud, which is the kind of news that isn’t good for business. “We want everyone to know the course is under new ownership,” a spokesperson for the new owners told the Mohave Valley Daily News. El Rio, which opened in 2004, features an 18-hole, Matt Dye-designed layout.
Marshfield, Wisconsin. The Acker family business has changed hands. Jesse Jacobson, a local hotel owner, has acquired Marshfield Country Club, which claims to be the city’s first golf venue. Marshfield’s original nine opened in 1923. Darrell and Jane Acker bought the club in the mid 1960s and added its second nine in the mid 1970s. Their son Chip eventually became the club’s sole owner, and he’s agreed to manage the property for Jacobson. A sales price hasn’t been announced, but it appears that Robert B. Harris completed a renovation of the course earlier this year.
Interlochen, Michigan. In late September, a well-known PGA pro purchased the city’s only golf course. Brad Dean, most recently the director of golf at Crystal Mountain Resort & Spa in nearby Thompsonville, paid an undisclosed price for Interlochen Golf Club, an 18-hole layout that’s operated for a half-century. “We’ve got a lot of plans,” Dean told the Traverse City Record-Eagle. “We’re looking at refreshing things here.” Dean is one of Michigan’s top golf instructors, and he’s won several teacher-of-the-year citations. He reportedly bought Interlochen from Tony Kochevar.
Hudson Falls, New York. Kingswood Golf Club has new owners and a new name. Deric Buck and his mother reportedly paid $1.75 million for the 25-year-old venue, which now operates as Kingsbury National Golf Club. The seller was Pinhas Shabat. Over the winter, improvements will be made to Kingsbury National’s 18-hole course, which will eventually be reconfigured. “We want to raise the bar on what a golf course around here can be,” Buck told the Glens Falls Post Star. According to the newspaper, Kingsbury National is merely the first golf acquisition for Buck and his mother. They’ve also agreed to buy Bay Meadows Golf Club, a nine-hole course in nearby Queensbury.
Sunday, December 4, 2016
The Week That Was, december 4, 2016
If one hand truly does wash the other, where will the 2018 edition of the Philippine Masters be played?
The European Tour, the decider in such matters, hasn’t yet announced a venue for the first professional event to be held in the Philippines since 1995, but the odds-on choice has to be the Don Salvador Zamora Championship Course, an 18-hole track located roughly 40 miles southwest of Manila. If you’ve never heard of the DSZ, you aren’t alone, because it doesn’t exist. It isn’t scheduled to open until about this time next year. It’s taking shape on property currently occupied by a course that you might be familiar with, though, the Puerto Azul Golf & Country Club. Puerto Azul’s nearly 40-year-old layout, a co-design by Gary Player and Ron Kirby, formerly hosted the Philippine Open and other high-profile regional events, but these days it’s nowhere near to being in shape for an international tournament. It’s being completely redesigned.
By happy coincidence, earlier this year Puerto Azul was leased to Salvador “Buddy” Zamora II, the licensee to Philippine events that will be played on the European Tour between 2018 and 2020. Zamora controls companies involved in mining, renewable-energy production, agricultural products, hotel operations, and real-estate development, but it appears that his true love is golf. Just last month, he staged an exhibition match that pitted his favorite professional golfer, Jason Day, against Rory McIlroy.
“My vision is to continue bringing in world-class golfing events to the Philippines to thrill our golf enthusiasts and fans, giving them access to the game and the players that they love,” he recently told the Manila Standard.
Zamora is spending $18 million or more to ensure that Puerto Azul can host those world-class golfing events. And to make absolutely, positively certain that the forthcoming DSZ will meet the European Tour’s standards, he’s hired European Golf Design to do the makeover. EGD, a British firm, is co-owned by the tour, and over the years it’s designed, co-designed, or redesigned many, if not all, of the tour-affiliated courses on the planet, including its Ryder Cup venues and the courses at its “branded” communities. If any firm on the planet can deliver a tour-approved course, it’s EGD.
In this scenario, everyone benefits: Zamora and his companies put their names in newspapers and on television, the European Tour establishes a presence in a promising market, EGD gets a high-profile commission, and a few dozen of the world’s elite golfers cash another paycheck.
It’s how the system works. On hand washes the other.
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the October 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
A Japanese hotelier has chosen to make its first international investments, including a golf course, in one of Vietnam’s fastest-growing vacation spots. Tokyo-based Route-Inn believes there’s money to be made in Đà Nẵng, the largest city on the Central Coast, and it recently sought permission to build a golf course within a short drive of the city. Katsutoshi Nagayama, the company’s chairman, sees synergies in these investments, as he plans to host tournaments and other golf-related events that will fill his hotels with Japanese tourists. Nagayama, who’s been described by Deal Street Asia as a billionaire, is just getting started, however. By 2025, he hopes to own 50 hotels, resorts, and golf courses throughout Vietnam -- in Đà Nẵng, Huế, Hội An, Hà Nội, and Hồ Chí Minh City. Route-Inn’s real-estate portfolio is said to include 265 Japanese hotels, nearly two dozen restaurants, a ski area, and at least three golf courses. For its initial foreign investments, the company has chosen a place that’s quickly emerging into a golf destination. In recent years, four golf properties have opened in greater Đà Nẵng, all of them with celebrity-designed courses that have earned critical recognition: Montgomerie Links (it has a Colin Montgomerie-designed course), Đà Nẵng Golf Club (Greg Norman), Laguna Lăng Cô Golf Club (Nick Faldo), and Bà Nà Hills Golf Club (Luke Donald). Route-Inn hasn’t identified an architect for its course, but these days it may be difficult for a golf operator to compete in Đà Nẵng without a “signature” layout.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the June 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
A welcome increase in tourist traffic may soon give the golf industry in Cyprus a lift. The island nation in the eastern Mediterranean is expecting to break tourism records this year, thanks in part to vacationers from Russia and the United Kingdom seeking warm, safe places to take their families. “We’re having, and will have, a fantastic year,” the nation’s minister of energy, commerce, industry and tourism, said last summer. To capitalize on the opportunity, Skift reports that government officials are pressing ahead with plans to build golf courses, marinas, and other attractions, in particular a “super casino” near Larnaka that could, it’s been said, “rival some of the casinos currently seen in Las Vegas.” The number of entities seeking to build the casino (along with hotels, entertainment venues, a theme park, and a golf course) has been whittled down to three, and the tourism ministry is supposed to pick a winner by the end of the year. In the meantime, the ministry is also hoping to find private groups willing to build as many as five other golf courses, all as part of its continuing effort to keep the tourism turnstiles moving.
The European Tour, the decider in such matters, hasn’t yet announced a venue for the first professional event to be held in the Philippines since 1995, but the odds-on choice has to be the Don Salvador Zamora Championship Course, an 18-hole track located roughly 40 miles southwest of Manila. If you’ve never heard of the DSZ, you aren’t alone, because it doesn’t exist. It isn’t scheduled to open until about this time next year. It’s taking shape on property currently occupied by a course that you might be familiar with, though, the Puerto Azul Golf & Country Club. Puerto Azul’s nearly 40-year-old layout, a co-design by Gary Player and Ron Kirby, formerly hosted the Philippine Open and other high-profile regional events, but these days it’s nowhere near to being in shape for an international tournament. It’s being completely redesigned.
By happy coincidence, earlier this year Puerto Azul was leased to Salvador “Buddy” Zamora II, the licensee to Philippine events that will be played on the European Tour between 2018 and 2020. Zamora controls companies involved in mining, renewable-energy production, agricultural products, hotel operations, and real-estate development, but it appears that his true love is golf. Just last month, he staged an exhibition match that pitted his favorite professional golfer, Jason Day, against Rory McIlroy.
“My vision is to continue bringing in world-class golfing events to the Philippines to thrill our golf enthusiasts and fans, giving them access to the game and the players that they love,” he recently told the Manila Standard.
Zamora is spending $18 million or more to ensure that Puerto Azul can host those world-class golfing events. And to make absolutely, positively certain that the forthcoming DSZ will meet the European Tour’s standards, he’s hired European Golf Design to do the makeover. EGD, a British firm, is co-owned by the tour, and over the years it’s designed, co-designed, or redesigned many, if not all, of the tour-affiliated courses on the planet, including its Ryder Cup venues and the courses at its “branded” communities. If any firm on the planet can deliver a tour-approved course, it’s EGD.
In this scenario, everyone benefits: Zamora and his companies put their names in newspapers and on television, the European Tour establishes a presence in a promising market, EGD gets a high-profile commission, and a few dozen of the world’s elite golfers cash another paycheck.
It’s how the system works. On hand washes the other.
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the October 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
A Japanese hotelier has chosen to make its first international investments, including a golf course, in one of Vietnam’s fastest-growing vacation spots. Tokyo-based Route-Inn believes there’s money to be made in Đà Nẵng, the largest city on the Central Coast, and it recently sought permission to build a golf course within a short drive of the city. Katsutoshi Nagayama, the company’s chairman, sees synergies in these investments, as he plans to host tournaments and other golf-related events that will fill his hotels with Japanese tourists. Nagayama, who’s been described by Deal Street Asia as a billionaire, is just getting started, however. By 2025, he hopes to own 50 hotels, resorts, and golf courses throughout Vietnam -- in Đà Nẵng, Huế, Hội An, Hà Nội, and Hồ Chí Minh City. Route-Inn’s real-estate portfolio is said to include 265 Japanese hotels, nearly two dozen restaurants, a ski area, and at least three golf courses. For its initial foreign investments, the company has chosen a place that’s quickly emerging into a golf destination. In recent years, four golf properties have opened in greater Đà Nẵng, all of them with celebrity-designed courses that have earned critical recognition: Montgomerie Links (it has a Colin Montgomerie-designed course), Đà Nẵng Golf Club (Greg Norman), Laguna Lăng Cô Golf Club (Nick Faldo), and Bà Nà Hills Golf Club (Luke Donald). Route-Inn hasn’t identified an architect for its course, but these days it may be difficult for a golf operator to compete in Đà Nẵng without a “signature” layout.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the June 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
A welcome increase in tourist traffic may soon give the golf industry in Cyprus a lift. The island nation in the eastern Mediterranean is expecting to break tourism records this year, thanks in part to vacationers from Russia and the United Kingdom seeking warm, safe places to take their families. “We’re having, and will have, a fantastic year,” the nation’s minister of energy, commerce, industry and tourism, said last summer. To capitalize on the opportunity, Skift reports that government officials are pressing ahead with plans to build golf courses, marinas, and other attractions, in particular a “super casino” near Larnaka that could, it’s been said, “rival some of the casinos currently seen in Las Vegas.” The number of entities seeking to build the casino (along with hotels, entertainment venues, a theme park, and a golf course) has been whittled down to three, and the tourism ministry is supposed to pick a winner by the end of the year. In the meantime, the ministry is also hoping to find private groups willing to build as many as five other golf courses, all as part of its continuing effort to keep the tourism turnstiles moving.
Friday, December 2, 2016
Vital Signs, december 2, 2016
It won’t matter to anyone who matters, but there’s more evidence to suggest that women continue to be a giant untapped market for the golf industry. Women currently account for only 24 percent of the world’s golfers, and a Syngenta-commissioned study contends that bringing more of them into the fold could be worth as much as $35 billion annually to the global golf economy. “This is a huge opportunity for the golf industry,” a spokesman for Syngenta said at the just-concluded HSBC Golf Business Forum. But here’s the rub: In his next breath, the spokesman noted that “realizing this opportunity -- engaging and then converting prospects -- requires golf to listen to and address the specific needs of its different customers.” Sounds as if he thinks our industry’s leadership won’t allow that to happen.
Golf Monthly recently asked one of the golf industry’s recurring questions: “Do we really need to lengthen golf courses?” The short answer: No. Naturally, though, the British magazine provides evidence to support its argument. Drawing from research done by the R&A, and contrary to popular opinion, it reports that the average drive for professionals on the European Tour in 2015 was 288.4 yards, which is just 2.1 yards farther than the average drive measured in 2003. What’s more, during the same period the average driving distance for players on the LPGA Tour, the Ladies European Tour, and the Japan Golf Tour not only didn’t increase but actually declined. Regarding amateurs, nowadays the average drive by a good male player travels 234 yards, while a good female’s goes 205 yards. All these numbers lead the magazine to a logical conclusion: If golf operators want their courses to defend par, they should make them harder, not longer.
Data from a new survey offers a glimpse into the uncertain future of British golf clubs. Here’s the encouraging news, according to a study commissioned by England Golf: Between 2014 and 2016, 30 percent of the nation’s clubs registered an increase in membership. And even better, the members of England’s golf clubs are, on average, playing at least a bit more frequently. These increases haven’t been large enough to put the clubs back on Easy Street -- today, on average, the clubs have virtually the same number of members that they had in 2014 -- but it gives the industry some traction to build upon. The survey also contains discouraging demographic news, however: Since 2014, the number of club members who are 65 and older has increased by 13 percent. A press release calls this aging “a reflection of the good health of golfers,” but it’s worth mentioning that good health doesn’t last forever.
England Golf has some other noteworthy things to say about British golf clubs, one of which is that 95 percent of them have vacancies. Another: Only 10 percent of the nation’s clubs have a waiting list in any membership category.
Speaking of worries about the future, golf clubs Down Under remain mired in a membership funk. Golf Australia reports that the nation’s clubs have lost nearly 50,000 of the 446,428 members that they had in 2006, and it doesn’t appear as though reinforcements are on the way. What’s worse, more than 50 percent of current club members are 55 or older.
Does Asia have room to grow as a golf destination? The current pace of golf construction suggests that nations across the continent believe it most certainly does, and over the next decade those nations will be easier to get to and more accommodating for longer stays. By 2026, according to data from the World Travel & Tourism Council, $1.5 trillion will be invested in Asian travel and tourism projects -- better airports, for the most part, but also related conveniences including up-to-date banking systems and reliable telephone service. Skift reports that nearly half of the money ($723 billion) will be spent in China and that virtually all of the rest will boost the appeal of Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Such expenditures serve as the foundation for a wide variety of traveler-friendly attractions, and the right golf courses in the right locations stand to benefit.
Golf Monthly recently asked one of the golf industry’s recurring questions: “Do we really need to lengthen golf courses?” The short answer: No. Naturally, though, the British magazine provides evidence to support its argument. Drawing from research done by the R&A, and contrary to popular opinion, it reports that the average drive for professionals on the European Tour in 2015 was 288.4 yards, which is just 2.1 yards farther than the average drive measured in 2003. What’s more, during the same period the average driving distance for players on the LPGA Tour, the Ladies European Tour, and the Japan Golf Tour not only didn’t increase but actually declined. Regarding amateurs, nowadays the average drive by a good male player travels 234 yards, while a good female’s goes 205 yards. All these numbers lead the magazine to a logical conclusion: If golf operators want their courses to defend par, they should make them harder, not longer.
Data from a new survey offers a glimpse into the uncertain future of British golf clubs. Here’s the encouraging news, according to a study commissioned by England Golf: Between 2014 and 2016, 30 percent of the nation’s clubs registered an increase in membership. And even better, the members of England’s golf clubs are, on average, playing at least a bit more frequently. These increases haven’t been large enough to put the clubs back on Easy Street -- today, on average, the clubs have virtually the same number of members that they had in 2014 -- but it gives the industry some traction to build upon. The survey also contains discouraging demographic news, however: Since 2014, the number of club members who are 65 and older has increased by 13 percent. A press release calls this aging “a reflection of the good health of golfers,” but it’s worth mentioning that good health doesn’t last forever.
England Golf has some other noteworthy things to say about British golf clubs, one of which is that 95 percent of them have vacancies. Another: Only 10 percent of the nation’s clubs have a waiting list in any membership category.
Speaking of worries about the future, golf clubs Down Under remain mired in a membership funk. Golf Australia reports that the nation’s clubs have lost nearly 50,000 of the 446,428 members that they had in 2006, and it doesn’t appear as though reinforcements are on the way. What’s worse, more than 50 percent of current club members are 55 or older.
Does Asia have room to grow as a golf destination? The current pace of golf construction suggests that nations across the continent believe it most certainly does, and over the next decade those nations will be easier to get to and more accommodating for longer stays. By 2026, according to data from the World Travel & Tourism Council, $1.5 trillion will be invested in Asian travel and tourism projects -- better airports, for the most part, but also related conveniences including up-to-date banking systems and reliable telephone service. Skift reports that nearly half of the money ($723 billion) will be spent in China and that virtually all of the rest will boost the appeal of Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Such expenditures serve as the foundation for a wide variety of traveler-friendly attractions, and the right golf courses in the right locations stand to benefit.
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