The founder of a well-known U.S. travel agency now owns a premier golf property in suburban Dublin, Ireland. John Mullen, acting through his recently created Belmullet Hospitality Group, has reportedly paid “about €57 million” (nearly $70 million) for Carton House Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort, a 668-acre spread in County Kildare that’s said to be “one of Ireland’s most popular and historically significant resorts.” Queen Victoria paid a visit to Carton House in the 1840s, and the estate served as a setting for Barry Lyndon, a Stanley Kubrick film from the 1970s. The resort features a 165-room hotel, several places to eat and drink, a spa, and two 18-hole golf courses, one of which (a Colin Montgomerie “signature” layout) has hosted the Irish Open three times. Mullen, who has familial ties to Ireland, made his reputation as a tour operator via Apple Leisure Group, a company that’s now owned by KKR and an affiliate of KSL Capital Partners. He bought Carton House from the family of Lee Mallaghan and other investors, who were financially over-extended and controlled by the Irish government’s National Asset Management Agency.
Surplus Transactions – In what’s said to be “a perfect marriage,” some restaurateurs have agreed to buy Linwood Country Club, a venue that a local newspaper believes has been “one of the finest private country clubs in South Jersey for 97 years.” Frank and Joe Dougherty paid an undisclosed price for Linwood, which features an 18-hole, Herbert Strong-designed course. The sale is expected to close before the end of the year. . . . It’s all over but the shouting for Wiltwyck Golf Club, a venue in Kingston, New York that’s operated since the mid 1950s. As part of a last-minute rescue, a group of 11 investors, all but one of them club members, have pooled their money – probably about $2.5 million – to buy the financially challenged club and its 18-hole, Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course. The Daily Freeman reports that the transaction is expected to close “in the next several weeks,” pending approval by the club’s members. . . . Regarding the expected sale of Golden Valley Country Club to Concert Golf Partners: There’s a glitch. The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports that negotiations between the parties have “temporarily stopped” because “some members want to explore a way to keep the club member owned.” If the transaction gets back on track, Concert will retire Golden Valley’s $7 million in debt and invest $2.5 million in the 103-year-old property.
The words golf and Pakistan don’t often appear in the same sentence, but that hasn’t prevented the nation’s biggest development group from building a golf community outside Karachi. The community is called Bahria Golf City, and it’ll feature two “PGA-standard” 18-hole golf courses that will, according to its marketing materials, “get your tense nerves addicted to relaxation.” The courses have been designed by Thomas J. Brown, an architect unknown to me, and they’ll be lit for night play. The complex’s initial nine is already open, and the next 27 are scheduled to debut next year. Bahria Golf City reportedly drew its inspiration from the Emirates Hills community in Dubai, and its developer, Bahria Town Karachi, promises that it’ll serve as Karachi’s “ultimate living experience” and take golf “to a next level in Pakistan.”
The city of Boca Raton, Florida has begun negotiating the sale of Boca Raton Municipal Golf Course. The 27-hole complex is a dead man walking, as GL Homes is willing to pay $65 million for its 189 acres, a tract it views as an ideal site for a 480-house subdivision. Assuming that the parties can quickly cross the necessary ts and dot the required is, the curtains will be drawn on the 35-year-old complex in mid 2019. GL is making a habit of building on money-losing golf courses, as it’s also targeted Polo Trace Golf & Country Club in Delray Beach and Fountains Country Club in Lake Worth. All isn’t completely lost for Boca Raton’s bargain-seeking golfers, however, as the city aims to buy and revive the defunct Ocean Breeze Golf Course, a venue it intends to operate as Boca National Golf Club.
Desolation Row Extended – The 178 acres currently occupied by the struggling Victoria Golf Course, an 18-hole municipal track in Carson, California, will soon be outfitted with soccer pitches, tennis courts, and other attractions that appeal to a larger audience. The Daily Breeze says that 51-year-old, William F. Bell-designed course is “vastly under-performing” the other golf properties owned by Los Angeles County, so Victoria will get the ax as soon as an alternative plan is in place. . . . For the second time in three years, Duckers Lake Golf Club faces a foreclosure sale. Whitaker Bank has turned out the lights at the 23-year-old club, in Frankfort, Kentucky, but hasn’t yet taken the 129-acre property off the market. Although the asking price is said to be $2 million, the bank appears to be the proverbial “highly motivated” seller. . . . The Plantation Inn, in Crystal City, Florida, has decided that its 27-hole, Mark Mahannah-designed golf complex is a wretched excess, so it’s seeking permission to turn its nine-hole Lagoons layout into an RV park.
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Sunday, December 10, 2017
The Week That Was, december 10, 2017
Some abalone farmers have won provisional approval for a destination-worthy golf complex that will occupy a stretch of oceanfront property outside Robe, South Australia. Damian and Justin Scanlon aim to build a pair of 18-hole, Bob Harrison-designed courses at their 600-acre Nora Creina Golf Resort, along with accommodations for overnight guests, a restaurant, and a vineyard. The Scanlons are shooting for the moon, because Robe is located roughly 175 miles south of Adelaide and 300 miles west of Melbourne. “We’re not going to build just an average golf course,” Justin Scanlon told the Sunday Mail in 2014, when the venture was announced. “This has got to be world class. This has to be somewhere where people from the States, someone from Japan or China, says, ‘It’s one of the courses I have to go and play.’” Nora Creina will debut with one course, and if it’s successful the Scanlons will build the second one.
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the September 2014 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Pipeline Overflow – Next summer, a nine-hole, par 3 course is expected to open at a former prisoner-of-war camp in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The course, to be called the Ashford, will complement the 18-hole Snead track at the Greenbrier Sporting Club, a private community on the grounds of the historic Greenbrier resort. The Ashford will be a replica course, with holes that mimic the work of designers including Seth Raynor, C. B. Macdonald, A. W. Tillinghast, and Walter Travis. . . . The spirit of compromise is alive and well in Rancho Mirage, California. The owner of Rancho Mirage Country Club, a venue that’s been closed and slated for development since it was purchased in 2015, has agreed to give home owners in the accompanying community enough land for a “short” 18-hole golf course that could open by 2020. In exchange, the home owners will allow some houses and a hotel to be built next to the new course. . . . After sizing up what’s been described as “hundreds of options,” Lake Charles, Louisiana has settled on a site for its new golf course. The 18-hole track, a replacement for the city’s financially challenged Mallard Cove Golf Course, will take shape at an emerging community called MorganField that could use a nice recreational amenity. Construction could begin in early 2018.
You think the sexual harassment that occurred at Bandon Dunes was an isolated incident? Think again. In Cottage Grove, Minnesota, William Doebler put his Mississippi Dunes Golf Links on the market just weeks after a court ruled that he oversaw a work environment that was hostile to women and made them fear that they’d lose their jobs if they complained about it. Doebler was ordered to pay $130,000 to some former female employees (plus a civil penalty of $20,000) because he allegedly made “sexually inappropriate comments,” including comments about “orgies,” and “sexual propositions” that included a suggestion about a “sleepover.” Doebler and his wife denied the allegations, but the judge in the case reportedly didn’t find their denials credible. Doebler designed the 18-hole course at Mississippi Dunes, which opened in 1995. During a trial last summer, it was revealed that in 2014 the course held an “ultimate guys night out” party that ended with a visit to a local strip club.
Surplus Transactions – For an undisclosed price, Randall Anderson and a handful of investors have agreed to buy the Meadows, an 18-hole track in Litchfield, Maine. The sellers were Ron and Richard Foster, who built the Brad Booth-designed layout themselves in 1998. . . . Bud Evans has accepted $250,000 for his nine-hole golf course in Houston, Missouri. The new owner of Oakwood Golf Club, a venue that’s operated since 1985 and has reportedly “faced its demise multiple times,” is a group led by Doug and Michelle Moseley. The Houston Herald suggests that the town had a chance to buy the course but passed. . . . The city of Forsyth, Georgia now owns the entire Forsyth Golf Course. For $325,000, the city bought the track’s back nine, giving it possession of all 18 holes. The course, which opened in the mid 1930s, was designed and built by the Works Progress Administration.
In a two-step transaction that’s expected to close later this month, Marin County, California will buy San Geronimo Golf Course, an 18-hole layout that’s operated in the town of San Geronimo since 1961. When all is said and done, the course’s current owner, the Lee Family Trust, get $8.85 million for the property and its Vernon Macan-designed golf course. The Lees will sell San Geronimo to the Trust for Public Land, a San Francisco-based preservation group, and then the trust will sell the course to the county, which intends to turn the 157-acre tract into a park. Most of the purchase price ($4.94 million) will come from the trust, while the county will contribute $3.91 million. The Marin Independent Journal reports that San Geronimo will likely go belly up soon after the sale is completed.
Desolation Row Extended – The members of Vista Hills Country Club, in El Paso, Texas, are poised to sell their driving range to a residential developer. If the proposed sale goes through, the club can make some improvements to its 43-year-old golf course, an 18-hole track that was co-designed by Robert von Hagge and Bruce Devlin, and begin banking income from the 47 to 60 families that will buy the developer’s houses. . . . The city of West St. Paul, Minnesota is thinking about pulling the plug on Thompson Oaks Golf Course, a nine-hole track that’s reportedly been “on life support for a decade.” According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “a well-known developer” is eager to build houses, including houses for seniors, on the 23-acre property, which is said to be worth $1.7 million. Thompson Oaks opened in 1996, and the newspaper says it’s “seen a budget shortfall nearly every year since.” . . . Voters in Canton, Ohio have approved a zoning change that will enable Chuck Bennell to unload Tam O’Shanter Golf Course. Tam O’Shanter features a pair of 18-hole, Leonard Macomber-designed golf courses that are expected to remain open until 2019 or 2020. In the meantime, though, Bennell plans to sell 62 of his acres to a developer and either sell or donate 225 acres to local parks authorities. For what it’s worth, the property hosted Richard Mandell’s “Symposium on Affordable Golf” in 2015.
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the September 2014 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Pipeline Overflow – Next summer, a nine-hole, par 3 course is expected to open at a former prisoner-of-war camp in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The course, to be called the Ashford, will complement the 18-hole Snead track at the Greenbrier Sporting Club, a private community on the grounds of the historic Greenbrier resort. The Ashford will be a replica course, with holes that mimic the work of designers including Seth Raynor, C. B. Macdonald, A. W. Tillinghast, and Walter Travis. . . . The spirit of compromise is alive and well in Rancho Mirage, California. The owner of Rancho Mirage Country Club, a venue that’s been closed and slated for development since it was purchased in 2015, has agreed to give home owners in the accompanying community enough land for a “short” 18-hole golf course that could open by 2020. In exchange, the home owners will allow some houses and a hotel to be built next to the new course. . . . After sizing up what’s been described as “hundreds of options,” Lake Charles, Louisiana has settled on a site for its new golf course. The 18-hole track, a replacement for the city’s financially challenged Mallard Cove Golf Course, will take shape at an emerging community called MorganField that could use a nice recreational amenity. Construction could begin in early 2018.
You think the sexual harassment that occurred at Bandon Dunes was an isolated incident? Think again. In Cottage Grove, Minnesota, William Doebler put his Mississippi Dunes Golf Links on the market just weeks after a court ruled that he oversaw a work environment that was hostile to women and made them fear that they’d lose their jobs if they complained about it. Doebler was ordered to pay $130,000 to some former female employees (plus a civil penalty of $20,000) because he allegedly made “sexually inappropriate comments,” including comments about “orgies,” and “sexual propositions” that included a suggestion about a “sleepover.” Doebler and his wife denied the allegations, but the judge in the case reportedly didn’t find their denials credible. Doebler designed the 18-hole course at Mississippi Dunes, which opened in 1995. During a trial last summer, it was revealed that in 2014 the course held an “ultimate guys night out” party that ended with a visit to a local strip club.
Surplus Transactions – For an undisclosed price, Randall Anderson and a handful of investors have agreed to buy the Meadows, an 18-hole track in Litchfield, Maine. The sellers were Ron and Richard Foster, who built the Brad Booth-designed layout themselves in 1998. . . . Bud Evans has accepted $250,000 for his nine-hole golf course in Houston, Missouri. The new owner of Oakwood Golf Club, a venue that’s operated since 1985 and has reportedly “faced its demise multiple times,” is a group led by Doug and Michelle Moseley. The Houston Herald suggests that the town had a chance to buy the course but passed. . . . The city of Forsyth, Georgia now owns the entire Forsyth Golf Course. For $325,000, the city bought the track’s back nine, giving it possession of all 18 holes. The course, which opened in the mid 1930s, was designed and built by the Works Progress Administration.
In a two-step transaction that’s expected to close later this month, Marin County, California will buy San Geronimo Golf Course, an 18-hole layout that’s operated in the town of San Geronimo since 1961. When all is said and done, the course’s current owner, the Lee Family Trust, get $8.85 million for the property and its Vernon Macan-designed golf course. The Lees will sell San Geronimo to the Trust for Public Land, a San Francisco-based preservation group, and then the trust will sell the course to the county, which intends to turn the 157-acre tract into a park. Most of the purchase price ($4.94 million) will come from the trust, while the county will contribute $3.91 million. The Marin Independent Journal reports that San Geronimo will likely go belly up soon after the sale is completed.
Desolation Row Extended – The members of Vista Hills Country Club, in El Paso, Texas, are poised to sell their driving range to a residential developer. If the proposed sale goes through, the club can make some improvements to its 43-year-old golf course, an 18-hole track that was co-designed by Robert von Hagge and Bruce Devlin, and begin banking income from the 47 to 60 families that will buy the developer’s houses. . . . The city of West St. Paul, Minnesota is thinking about pulling the plug on Thompson Oaks Golf Course, a nine-hole track that’s reportedly been “on life support for a decade.” According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “a well-known developer” is eager to build houses, including houses for seniors, on the 23-acre property, which is said to be worth $1.7 million. Thompson Oaks opened in 1996, and the newspaper says it’s “seen a budget shortfall nearly every year since.” . . . Voters in Canton, Ohio have approved a zoning change that will enable Chuck Bennell to unload Tam O’Shanter Golf Course. Tam O’Shanter features a pair of 18-hole, Leonard Macomber-designed golf courses that are expected to remain open until 2019 or 2020. In the meantime, though, Bennell plans to sell 62 of his acres to a developer and either sell or donate 225 acres to local parks authorities. For what it’s worth, the property hosted Richard Mandell’s “Symposium on Affordable Golf” in 2015.
Sunday, December 3, 2017
The Week That Was, december 3, 2017
The Club Managers Association of America says that the general manager at a private club earns, on average, $155,000 a year, but some take home considerably more. To wit: The Palm Beach Post reports that in 2015, presumably the last year for which data is available, the general managers of three clubs in Boca Raton, Florida – Boca West Country Club, St. Andrews Country Club, and Broken Sound Club – took home, respectively, $977,145, $930,639, and $706,817. Makes you wonder how much total revenue the clubs were collecting, no?
Two 18-hole golf courses were never going to be enough for Cabot Links, and now it’s clear that at least two more tracks will eventually emerge at Mike Keiser’s destination-worthy resort in Inverness, Nova Scotia. No time lines or architects have been announced, but a par-3 layout with probably 12 or 14 holes is “in the offing,” according to the resort’s co-founder, Ben Cowan-Dewar, and an 18-hole course will almost certainly follow. “The success of Cliffs has certainly made us think about it, and think very seriously,” Cowan-Dewar acknowledged to the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. For years, Keiser has famously maintained that one course is a mere curiosity and that two makes for a legitimate destination, but what he doesn’t always say publicly is that the real money begins to flow with courses three and four.
Pipeline Overflow – David McLay Kidd may soon be returning to Gamble Sands, the scene of one of his greatest successes. The Mike Keiser-endorsed architect is said to be “the leading candidate” to design Gamble Sands’ second 18-hole course, and perhaps some sort of “short” course as well. Kidd’s initial effort at the resort in remote central Washington, Golf Digest’s the best new U.S. course for 2014, gave his career a second wind, and notably a contract for the much-coveted second course at Keiser’s Sand Valley complex in Wisconsin. . . . India’s ministry of environment has approved a proposal to build the first “international-standard” golf course in Goa, the state made famous by wandering hippies in the 1960s. Leading Hotels, Ltd. isn’t finished with the entitlement process yet, but it’s been trying to win approval for a Colin Montgomerie “signature” course and an accompanying eco-tourism resort for at least five years, and it can finally see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. . . . Nicklaus Design has agreed to produce an 18-hole course for a private vacation community on St. Lucia. The 209-acre Canelles Resort promises “a sense of exclusivity and privacy” and insists that it’ll be “the new benchmark for luxurious living on an island renowned for exclusive resorts and residences.”
Pipeline Overflow Overflow – Tim Lobb reports that his long-overdue 18-hole course at New Giza, an upscale community in suburban Cairo, Egypt, will get its “soft” opening in the spring of 2018. The track is among the final ventures for Thomson Perret & Lobb, the now-defunct Australian “signature” design firm founded by golf legend Peter Thomson. Lobb, who’s been in the driver’s seat from the beginning, says that it’s been “the most complex project” he’s ever been involved with, mostly because the New Giza property is “all just rock.” . . . Golfweek says that construction has wrapped up at Ohoopee Match Club, which has taken shape on a former Vidalia onion farm – “one of the nicer pieces of property we’ve ever seen,” according to architect Gil Hanse – in Cobbtown, Georgia. Michael Walrath, the developer, directed Hanse to produce 22 holes, so the club’s members can choose to play either a regulation-length 18-hole track or a shorter 18-hole layout. Ohoopee, which is keeping an unexpectedly low profile, will presumably open next year. . . . Next week, Owen Perry will unveil the complete 18-hole track at Danzante Bay Golf Club, a layout that course architect Rees Jones promises will be “a complete journey that golfers will really enjoy taking again and again.” The course, which opened 11 holes in 2016, is the Open Doctor’s first in Mexico, and it’ll serve as the centerpiece of Villa del Palmar Resort at the Islands of Loreto, a resort community on Baja California Sur.
For the second time in roughly two years, one of the world’s premier golf venues – and the first one in Continental Europe to host a Ryder Cup championship – has changed hands. For a reported €26 million (nearly $31 million), the members of Real Club Valderrama, in Cádiz, Spain, have purchased their historic club from a British affiliate of Grupo la Zagaleta Holding. For their money, the members acquired not just a world-famous Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course but the legacy of Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, the club’s founder. Ortiz-Patiño, who died in early 2013, was one of the best-known and best-liked people in Europe’s golf business – “the ‘soul’ of golf in Europe,” it was once said – and by staging the 1997 Ryder Cup at Valderrama he put the Costa del Sol on the world’s golf map. The golf course, which checks in at #71 on Golf Digest’s list of the World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, may be in line for an upgrade, however, because it was previously ranked #49.
Surplus Transactions – For a price said to be “about $1 million,” David Buttross has acquired the struggling Pine Forest Golf Course in Bastrop, Texas. Though he doesn’t expect to turn a profit anytime soon – “There are just not enough people playing golf out there to get it to have a cash flow,” Bastrop told the Austin Statesman – he hopes that he can eventually break even by adding a campground, hiking trails, and other family-oriented attractions. . . . One of New Hampshire’s oldest golf properties rose from the dead earlier this year, and now it has a new owner. Monadnock Country Club, a nine-hole, executive-length track that had operated in Peterborough since 1901, was on life support and nearly closed in the fall of 2016. Some local residents reopened it in the spring, however, as Hilltop Golf Course, and in late October it was purchased, for an undisclosed price, by Annie Card. . . . An anonymous group of investors in Mesquite, Nevada has acquired the seven-year-old Coyote Willows Golf Club. Coyote Willows, which had been operated by volunteers, features a nine-hole course, and Mesquite Local News describes it as a “family-friendly” venue that’s “a great place to get those younger ones started.”
Two 18-hole golf courses were never going to be enough for Cabot Links, and now it’s clear that at least two more tracks will eventually emerge at Mike Keiser’s destination-worthy resort in Inverness, Nova Scotia. No time lines or architects have been announced, but a par-3 layout with probably 12 or 14 holes is “in the offing,” according to the resort’s co-founder, Ben Cowan-Dewar, and an 18-hole course will almost certainly follow. “The success of Cliffs has certainly made us think about it, and think very seriously,” Cowan-Dewar acknowledged to the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. For years, Keiser has famously maintained that one course is a mere curiosity and that two makes for a legitimate destination, but what he doesn’t always say publicly is that the real money begins to flow with courses three and four.
Pipeline Overflow – David McLay Kidd may soon be returning to Gamble Sands, the scene of one of his greatest successes. The Mike Keiser-endorsed architect is said to be “the leading candidate” to design Gamble Sands’ second 18-hole course, and perhaps some sort of “short” course as well. Kidd’s initial effort at the resort in remote central Washington, Golf Digest’s the best new U.S. course for 2014, gave his career a second wind, and notably a contract for the much-coveted second course at Keiser’s Sand Valley complex in Wisconsin. . . . India’s ministry of environment has approved a proposal to build the first “international-standard” golf course in Goa, the state made famous by wandering hippies in the 1960s. Leading Hotels, Ltd. isn’t finished with the entitlement process yet, but it’s been trying to win approval for a Colin Montgomerie “signature” course and an accompanying eco-tourism resort for at least five years, and it can finally see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. . . . Nicklaus Design has agreed to produce an 18-hole course for a private vacation community on St. Lucia. The 209-acre Canelles Resort promises “a sense of exclusivity and privacy” and insists that it’ll be “the new benchmark for luxurious living on an island renowned for exclusive resorts and residences.”
Pipeline Overflow Overflow – Tim Lobb reports that his long-overdue 18-hole course at New Giza, an upscale community in suburban Cairo, Egypt, will get its “soft” opening in the spring of 2018. The track is among the final ventures for Thomson Perret & Lobb, the now-defunct Australian “signature” design firm founded by golf legend Peter Thomson. Lobb, who’s been in the driver’s seat from the beginning, says that it’s been “the most complex project” he’s ever been involved with, mostly because the New Giza property is “all just rock.” . . . Golfweek says that construction has wrapped up at Ohoopee Match Club, which has taken shape on a former Vidalia onion farm – “one of the nicer pieces of property we’ve ever seen,” according to architect Gil Hanse – in Cobbtown, Georgia. Michael Walrath, the developer, directed Hanse to produce 22 holes, so the club’s members can choose to play either a regulation-length 18-hole track or a shorter 18-hole layout. Ohoopee, which is keeping an unexpectedly low profile, will presumably open next year. . . . Next week, Owen Perry will unveil the complete 18-hole track at Danzante Bay Golf Club, a layout that course architect Rees Jones promises will be “a complete journey that golfers will really enjoy taking again and again.” The course, which opened 11 holes in 2016, is the Open Doctor’s first in Mexico, and it’ll serve as the centerpiece of Villa del Palmar Resort at the Islands of Loreto, a resort community on Baja California Sur.
For the second time in roughly two years, one of the world’s premier golf venues – and the first one in Continental Europe to host a Ryder Cup championship – has changed hands. For a reported €26 million (nearly $31 million), the members of Real Club Valderrama, in Cádiz, Spain, have purchased their historic club from a British affiliate of Grupo la Zagaleta Holding. For their money, the members acquired not just a world-famous Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course but the legacy of Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, the club’s founder. Ortiz-Patiño, who died in early 2013, was one of the best-known and best-liked people in Europe’s golf business – “the ‘soul’ of golf in Europe,” it was once said – and by staging the 1997 Ryder Cup at Valderrama he put the Costa del Sol on the world’s golf map. The golf course, which checks in at #71 on Golf Digest’s list of the World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, may be in line for an upgrade, however, because it was previously ranked #49.
Surplus Transactions – For a price said to be “about $1 million,” David Buttross has acquired the struggling Pine Forest Golf Course in Bastrop, Texas. Though he doesn’t expect to turn a profit anytime soon – “There are just not enough people playing golf out there to get it to have a cash flow,” Bastrop told the Austin Statesman – he hopes that he can eventually break even by adding a campground, hiking trails, and other family-oriented attractions. . . . One of New Hampshire’s oldest golf properties rose from the dead earlier this year, and now it has a new owner. Monadnock Country Club, a nine-hole, executive-length track that had operated in Peterborough since 1901, was on life support and nearly closed in the fall of 2016. Some local residents reopened it in the spring, however, as Hilltop Golf Course, and in late October it was purchased, for an undisclosed price, by Annie Card. . . . An anonymous group of investors in Mesquite, Nevada has acquired the seven-year-old Coyote Willows Golf Club. Coyote Willows, which had been operated by volunteers, features a nine-hole course, and Mesquite Local News describes it as a “family-friendly” venue that’s “a great place to get those younger ones started.”
Sunday, November 26, 2017
The Week That Was, november 26, 2017
Tom Peed is primarily a publisher and a cattle rancher, but he and the rest of his family are fast becoming serious players in the golf industry. Last week the Peeds raised their profile considerably by buying Dormie Club, a celebrated but under-performing venue in the Pinehurst, North Carolina area. (Dormie checks in at #49 on Golf Digest’s list of America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses.) The purchase comes on the heels of two other well-regarded properties that the Peeds have acquired over the past 18 months, Ballyhack Golf Club in Roanoke, Virginia and Briggs Ranch Golf Club in suburban San Antonio, Texas. Combined with their ArborLinks Golf Club, in Nebraska City, Nebraska, the Peeds are fulfilling their promise to create a network of “pristine private destination courses” that serve “the needs of executives and corporate entities for retreats and other events.” Dormie features an 18-hole, Coore & Crenshaw-designed course, an asset that gives it major cred among opinion-makers in the golf industry. It fizzled out as a private club shortly after it opened, in 2010, but the Peeds told the Southern Pines Pilot that they intend “to restore it to its intended glory as one of the finest pure golf destination courses in the region.” The improvement plan will be executed by Landscapes Unlimited, which will also oversee the construction of a clubhouse and lodging on the 1,020-acre property.
Surplus Transactions – For an undisclosed price, Michael Mathews has acquired Prescott Golf & Country Club, a 45-year-old venue that members interviewed by the Prescott Valley Tribune believe has “lost some of its appeal.” The club, in Dewey, Arizona, features an 18-hole, Milton Coggins-designed course, part of which may someday be developed. The sellers were Jeff and Jessica Hall, who’d owned Prescott since 2011. . . . Last month, Margie and Dave Druce purchased Saddle Ridge Golf Course, the nine-hole centerpiece of a 350-house community in Portage, Wisconsin. The Druces have lived along Saddle Ridge’s fourth hole since 2006, and they told the Portage Daily Register that they want to “save” the course and make it “the best it can be for our community.” . . . Ronny Maxwell and a group described by the State as “determined citizens” have acquired the former Paw Paw Country Club, a financially stressed venue in Bamberg, South Carolina. Paw Paw, which is now called Bamberg Golf & Sports Club, had been closed through most of this year, and it’ll henceforth operate on what Maxwell calls “a tight budget.” It features a Russell Breeden-designed course that opened in 1981.
The owner of a destination for auto-racing enthusiasts outside Arrowtown, on New Zealand’s South Island, has set out to broaden his customer base. Tony Quinn hopes to secure permission to build “a world-class golf course and residential development” adjacent to his Highlands Motorsports Park, a facility that includes a race track, a Go-kart track, and an automobile museum. Quinn’s 18-hole, “inland links-style” course will be co-designed by Brett Thomson and former professional golfer Phil Tataurangi, the team that created Windross Farm Golf Course, a venue in suburban Auckland that Top 100 Golf Courses ranks among the nation’s best. Quinn, who reportedly made his money in the pet-food business, believes his course will lure travelers who come to the area to play the Hills Golf Club, Jack’s Point Golf Course, and Millbrook Resort Golf Course, all of which are ranked among New Zealand’s top 10 by Golf Digest.
Pipeline Overflow – Discovery Land Company wants to build a golf community on Barbuda, although it first needs to help rebuild the island ravaged by hurricanes Irma and Maria. “It’s basically uninhabitable,” DLC’s CEO, Mike Meldman, told Mansion Global. DLC hasn’t said much about its plans, but it appears to be working with John B Turbidy and John Paul DeJoria, the founder of the Paul Mitchell hair-care company. Incidentally, the hurricanes didn’t do any damage to DLC’s Baker’s Bay Golf & Ocean Club in the Bahamas. . . . It’s taken more than two years, but Greg “the Living Brand” Norman has finally turned a little ceremonial sod at the Huntley, a long-delayed community in New South Wales, Australia. Visionary Investment Group, the Chinese entity that’s developing the project, now calls the community Silkari, and it promises to deliver “the best holiday experience on the planet, ever, period.” Still no word on when the course will open, though. . . . Allerthorpe Park Golf Course, an 18-hole track in East Yorkshire, England, will soon be raised from the dead. Allerthorpe closed four years ago, but it’s been purchased by a resort developer that intends to reopen it in the spring of next year, as the anchor of a community with 150 “luxury holiday homes.”
Burroughs & Chapin Company, the ever-shrinking owner/operator on South Carolina’s Grand Strand, has pulled the plug on a pair of 18-hole, par-3 golf courses. The dearly departed are the Midway and Cane Patch layouts, both located in Myrtle Beach, both designed by Ault Clark & Associates, and both former 27-hole complexes. The former opened its first holes in 1974, the latter in 1981. The Myrtle Beach Sun-News says that the courses had been “popular with families because the short lengths of the holes are ideal for young children and golf novices.” B&C has sold several golf properties in recent years, notably a track at its Grande Dunes community in Myrtle Beach, and its National Golf Management subsidiary sold many of the venues now in the Founders Group’s portfolio. B&C still owns several golf properties, but they’re also on the endangered list.
Desolation Row Extended – Speaking of 18-hole, par-3 courses, the lights have been turned out on one in greater Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. West View Golf Course, a 52-year-old venue in the town of Akron, has been sold to HandiVangelism International Ministries, which will build office space, a dining hall, and three houses on the 16-acre property. Neither HandiVangelism nor the seller, Robin Seidel, has disclosed the sale price. . . . One of the two golf courses at the Omni resort on Amelia Island, in Florida, has bitten the dust. The 18-hole Ocean Links, which has nine Pete Dye-designed holes and nine Bobby Weed-designed holes, had operated since 1975. The resort is investing the money it saves on maintenance into improvements to its Oak Marsh course, which Dye created in 1972. . . . To shore up its bottom line, a nearly century-old club in Maryland is looking to build houses on nine of its 27 holes. Sparrows Point Country Club, founded by Bethlehem Steel and relocated to a waterfront site in suburban Baltimore in the mid 1950s, is now owned by members who fear for its survival. They plan to use the proceeds from the land sale to make long-overdue improvements to their course, clubhouse, and marina in an effort to attract new members.
Surplus Transactions – For an undisclosed price, Michael Mathews has acquired Prescott Golf & Country Club, a 45-year-old venue that members interviewed by the Prescott Valley Tribune believe has “lost some of its appeal.” The club, in Dewey, Arizona, features an 18-hole, Milton Coggins-designed course, part of which may someday be developed. The sellers were Jeff and Jessica Hall, who’d owned Prescott since 2011. . . . Last month, Margie and Dave Druce purchased Saddle Ridge Golf Course, the nine-hole centerpiece of a 350-house community in Portage, Wisconsin. The Druces have lived along Saddle Ridge’s fourth hole since 2006, and they told the Portage Daily Register that they want to “save” the course and make it “the best it can be for our community.” . . . Ronny Maxwell and a group described by the State as “determined citizens” have acquired the former Paw Paw Country Club, a financially stressed venue in Bamberg, South Carolina. Paw Paw, which is now called Bamberg Golf & Sports Club, had been closed through most of this year, and it’ll henceforth operate on what Maxwell calls “a tight budget.” It features a Russell Breeden-designed course that opened in 1981.
The owner of a destination for auto-racing enthusiasts outside Arrowtown, on New Zealand’s South Island, has set out to broaden his customer base. Tony Quinn hopes to secure permission to build “a world-class golf course and residential development” adjacent to his Highlands Motorsports Park, a facility that includes a race track, a Go-kart track, and an automobile museum. Quinn’s 18-hole, “inland links-style” course will be co-designed by Brett Thomson and former professional golfer Phil Tataurangi, the team that created Windross Farm Golf Course, a venue in suburban Auckland that Top 100 Golf Courses ranks among the nation’s best. Quinn, who reportedly made his money in the pet-food business, believes his course will lure travelers who come to the area to play the Hills Golf Club, Jack’s Point Golf Course, and Millbrook Resort Golf Course, all of which are ranked among New Zealand’s top 10 by Golf Digest.
Pipeline Overflow – Discovery Land Company wants to build a golf community on Barbuda, although it first needs to help rebuild the island ravaged by hurricanes Irma and Maria. “It’s basically uninhabitable,” DLC’s CEO, Mike Meldman, told Mansion Global. DLC hasn’t said much about its plans, but it appears to be working with John B Turbidy and John Paul DeJoria, the founder of the Paul Mitchell hair-care company. Incidentally, the hurricanes didn’t do any damage to DLC’s Baker’s Bay Golf & Ocean Club in the Bahamas. . . . It’s taken more than two years, but Greg “the Living Brand” Norman has finally turned a little ceremonial sod at the Huntley, a long-delayed community in New South Wales, Australia. Visionary Investment Group, the Chinese entity that’s developing the project, now calls the community Silkari, and it promises to deliver “the best holiday experience on the planet, ever, period.” Still no word on when the course will open, though. . . . Allerthorpe Park Golf Course, an 18-hole track in East Yorkshire, England, will soon be raised from the dead. Allerthorpe closed four years ago, but it’s been purchased by a resort developer that intends to reopen it in the spring of next year, as the anchor of a community with 150 “luxury holiday homes.”
Burroughs & Chapin Company, the ever-shrinking owner/operator on South Carolina’s Grand Strand, has pulled the plug on a pair of 18-hole, par-3 golf courses. The dearly departed are the Midway and Cane Patch layouts, both located in Myrtle Beach, both designed by Ault Clark & Associates, and both former 27-hole complexes. The former opened its first holes in 1974, the latter in 1981. The Myrtle Beach Sun-News says that the courses had been “popular with families because the short lengths of the holes are ideal for young children and golf novices.” B&C has sold several golf properties in recent years, notably a track at its Grande Dunes community in Myrtle Beach, and its National Golf Management subsidiary sold many of the venues now in the Founders Group’s portfolio. B&C still owns several golf properties, but they’re also on the endangered list.
Desolation Row Extended – Speaking of 18-hole, par-3 courses, the lights have been turned out on one in greater Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. West View Golf Course, a 52-year-old venue in the town of Akron, has been sold to HandiVangelism International Ministries, which will build office space, a dining hall, and three houses on the 16-acre property. Neither HandiVangelism nor the seller, Robin Seidel, has disclosed the sale price. . . . One of the two golf courses at the Omni resort on Amelia Island, in Florida, has bitten the dust. The 18-hole Ocean Links, which has nine Pete Dye-designed holes and nine Bobby Weed-designed holes, had operated since 1975. The resort is investing the money it saves on maintenance into improvements to its Oak Marsh course, which Dye created in 1972. . . . To shore up its bottom line, a nearly century-old club in Maryland is looking to build houses on nine of its 27 holes. Sparrows Point Country Club, founded by Bethlehem Steel and relocated to a waterfront site in suburban Baltimore in the mid 1950s, is now owned by members who fear for its survival. They plan to use the proceeds from the land sale to make long-overdue improvements to their course, clubhouse, and marina in an effort to attract new members.
Sunday, November 19, 2017
The Week That Was, november 19, 2017
The stain of sexual harassment charges has soiled one of America’s greatest golf destinations.
In court documents, a woman alleges that Hank Hickox, the former general manager of Bandon Dunes, directed inappropriate sexual advances and comments at her and at other female staffers for years. She also alleges that Bandon Dunes was a hostile environment for women and that its management company, KemperSports, neglected to address her complaints in a timely, sincere way.
These sad and troubling accusations have been made by Darla Hamblin, who went to work at Bandon Dunes in 2000. Hamblin filed a $501,000 lawsuit against Hickox and KemperSports but withdrew it earlier this month, just days before a trial was scheduled to start. The action suggests that the parties have reached a settlement.
Mike Keiser, the developer of Bandon Dunes, isn’t named in the lawsuit.
Hamblin’s court filings contend that Hickox compared the size of her breasts to those of other employees, touched her in unwelcome ways, gave her an unwanted, open-mouthed kiss during a work party, questioned her about her sex life, and expressed an interest in having a sexual relationship with her.
Hamblin reportedly didn’t file a formal complaint about Hickox’s behavior with KemperSports until 2015 because she feared for her job. According to KGW-TV, she believes that KemperSports has “a company-wide culture of permissiveness” and that Hickox, who had close relationships with KemperSports’ leadership, once warned her “not to ‘bite the hand that feeds you.’”
In a court filing, KemperSports acknowledges that Hickox “was forced into early retirement” last year.
Hamblin’s allegations are supported by a court declaration submitted by Adrienne Fitzgerald, a former KemperSports executive. Fitzgerald told the court that Hickox was “notorious in the company for being sexually inappropriate and horribly offensive.”
Fitzgerald, who worked at the company’s headquarters in suburban Chicago, states that she learned of Hamblin’s complaints when she overheard some of her male colleagues joking about them.
“These men constantly talked about sex during work hours and gossiped about which female employees in the company were sexy and attractive and which ones were ugly and not worth f---ing,” declared Fitzgerald, who’s quit her job at KemperSports. “For a woman to stay or succeed in management, she had to be one of the boys and put up with their inappropriate behavior.”
In a statement to Golf.com, KemperSports insists that it took “decisive remedial action” when it heard about “the alleged inappropriate behavior at Bandon Dunes” and that it’s retained “independent outside counsel” to “investigate the situation.” It also says that it’s “committed to providing a workplace environment that is rewarding, comfortable, and free from discrimination and harassment.”
The statute of limitations has passed on many of Hamblin’s allegations, but the legalities of her case aren’t the issue here. When it comes to men and their customary insensitive treatment of women, a day of reckoning has arrived. As recent headlines prove, predatory behavior will no longer be tolerated. Women will no longer remain silent.
Like their counterparts in politics, the movie and fashion industries, and every other walk of life, men in the golf industry need to address their demons and exorcise them. If they don’t, they’re going to be brought before a judge, either in a court of law or in the court of public opinion. Either way, the verdict will be harshly rendered.
Like his U.S. counterpart, Kim Jong-un is finding it difficult to shake his golf dreams. Earlier this year, it was revealed that North Korea’s Peerless Leader aims to build “a sports and ecological resort” near Lake Mubong, in the northern part of his impoverished nation. Now comes word of a second golf-focused resort, this one at the slowly emerging Wonsan–Mount Kumgang International Tourist Zone, near the city of Wonsan. Kim Jong-un reportedly wants to turn Wonsan into a “world-famous tourist city,” and he apparently figures that a golf course – along with planned resort-style hotels, beaches, a ski area, and other attractions – will do the trick. But who’s kidding whom? Most vacation spots promise that you’ll return home with pleasant memories. North Korea may very well send you home with tapeworms in your intestines.
Pipeline Overflow – Jack Nicklaus has celebrated the soft opening of his 300th “signature” design. It’s in West Palm Beach, Florida, and it’s a remake of the old Robert Trent Jones-designed course at Presidents Country Club, which now operates as Banyan Cay Resort. Nicklaus believes he’s created “a modern-day golf course and something special,” with “a lot of excitement” and “a lot of challenges.” . . . Romania’s top poultry producer has opened his nation’s second 18-hole golf course. The course, designed by Ioan Străjan, will anchor a 166-acre resort (sorry, but I can’t find the name) that Ioan Popa is building outside Alba Iulia, and it’s expected to put Romania “on the map of world-class golf.” The nation’s only other 18-hole layout is Paul Tomita Golf Club in Alba . . . Sometime next spring, Forrest Richardson will debut his re-do of Palo Alto, California’s flood-prone municipal golf course. The 18-hole track, originally designed by William F. Bell, will henceforth be known as Baylands Golf Links, and it’ll be accompanied by a three-hole “youth” layout and a short-game practice zone.
In court documents, a woman alleges that Hank Hickox, the former general manager of Bandon Dunes, directed inappropriate sexual advances and comments at her and at other female staffers for years. She also alleges that Bandon Dunes was a hostile environment for women and that its management company, KemperSports, neglected to address her complaints in a timely, sincere way.
These sad and troubling accusations have been made by Darla Hamblin, who went to work at Bandon Dunes in 2000. Hamblin filed a $501,000 lawsuit against Hickox and KemperSports but withdrew it earlier this month, just days before a trial was scheduled to start. The action suggests that the parties have reached a settlement.
Mike Keiser, the developer of Bandon Dunes, isn’t named in the lawsuit.
Hamblin’s court filings contend that Hickox compared the size of her breasts to those of other employees, touched her in unwelcome ways, gave her an unwanted, open-mouthed kiss during a work party, questioned her about her sex life, and expressed an interest in having a sexual relationship with her.
Hamblin reportedly didn’t file a formal complaint about Hickox’s behavior with KemperSports until 2015 because she feared for her job. According to KGW-TV, she believes that KemperSports has “a company-wide culture of permissiveness” and that Hickox, who had close relationships with KemperSports’ leadership, once warned her “not to ‘bite the hand that feeds you.’”
In a court filing, KemperSports acknowledges that Hickox “was forced into early retirement” last year.
Hamblin’s allegations are supported by a court declaration submitted by Adrienne Fitzgerald, a former KemperSports executive. Fitzgerald told the court that Hickox was “notorious in the company for being sexually inappropriate and horribly offensive.”
Fitzgerald, who worked at the company’s headquarters in suburban Chicago, states that she learned of Hamblin’s complaints when she overheard some of her male colleagues joking about them.
“These men constantly talked about sex during work hours and gossiped about which female employees in the company were sexy and attractive and which ones were ugly and not worth f---ing,” declared Fitzgerald, who’s quit her job at KemperSports. “For a woman to stay or succeed in management, she had to be one of the boys and put up with their inappropriate behavior.”
In a statement to Golf.com, KemperSports insists that it took “decisive remedial action” when it heard about “the alleged inappropriate behavior at Bandon Dunes” and that it’s retained “independent outside counsel” to “investigate the situation.” It also says that it’s “committed to providing a workplace environment that is rewarding, comfortable, and free from discrimination and harassment.”
The statute of limitations has passed on many of Hamblin’s allegations, but the legalities of her case aren’t the issue here. When it comes to men and their customary insensitive treatment of women, a day of reckoning has arrived. As recent headlines prove, predatory behavior will no longer be tolerated. Women will no longer remain silent.
Like their counterparts in politics, the movie and fashion industries, and every other walk of life, men in the golf industry need to address their demons and exorcise them. If they don’t, they’re going to be brought before a judge, either in a court of law or in the court of public opinion. Either way, the verdict will be harshly rendered.
Like his U.S. counterpart, Kim Jong-un is finding it difficult to shake his golf dreams. Earlier this year, it was revealed that North Korea’s Peerless Leader aims to build “a sports and ecological resort” near Lake Mubong, in the northern part of his impoverished nation. Now comes word of a second golf-focused resort, this one at the slowly emerging Wonsan–Mount Kumgang International Tourist Zone, near the city of Wonsan. Kim Jong-un reportedly wants to turn Wonsan into a “world-famous tourist city,” and he apparently figures that a golf course – along with planned resort-style hotels, beaches, a ski area, and other attractions – will do the trick. But who’s kidding whom? Most vacation spots promise that you’ll return home with pleasant memories. North Korea may very well send you home with tapeworms in your intestines.
Pipeline Overflow – Jack Nicklaus has celebrated the soft opening of his 300th “signature” design. It’s in West Palm Beach, Florida, and it’s a remake of the old Robert Trent Jones-designed course at Presidents Country Club, which now operates as Banyan Cay Resort. Nicklaus believes he’s created “a modern-day golf course and something special,” with “a lot of excitement” and “a lot of challenges.” . . . Romania’s top poultry producer has opened his nation’s second 18-hole golf course. The course, designed by Ioan Străjan, will anchor a 166-acre resort (sorry, but I can’t find the name) that Ioan Popa is building outside Alba Iulia, and it’s expected to put Romania “on the map of world-class golf.” The nation’s only other 18-hole layout is Paul Tomita Golf Club in Alba . . . Sometime next spring, Forrest Richardson will debut his re-do of Palo Alto, California’s flood-prone municipal golf course. The 18-hole track, originally designed by William F. Bell, will henceforth be known as Baylands Golf Links, and it’ll be accompanied by a three-hole “youth” layout and a short-game practice zone.
Sunday, November 12, 2017
The Week That Was, november 12, 2017
One of golf’s most influential people has left our industry’s power elites in a state of uncertainty. Giles Morgan, who formerly flexed his marketing muscle as the head of sponsorship for HSBC, has become an “independent advisor” to companies in the sports industry that might benefit from “a second opinion” about their operations. Under his direction, HSBC became the primary underwriter of the Open Championship and other high-profile golf events, and when he talked, golf listened. When he suggested, for example, that he might stop writing checks if professional tournaments continued to be held at male-only clubs, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews quickly voted to open its doors to women. Morgan hasn’t explained why he’s leaving HSBC, and the bank hasn’t outlined its future golf-related plans. As for his new job, Morgan says that the sports industry “faces one of the most exciting crossroads in its history” and that he’s “looking forward to playing a role in the next chapter in this rapidly evolving industry.” Next year, he expects to begin publishing a monthly e-newsletter called Rive Gauche, which translates as “left bank.” It’s a phrase that can be interpreted in a couple of different ways.
With each passing day, Donald Trump becomes a larger thorn in the side of Mike Keiser. It’s bad enough that several conservation groups have joined forces to battle against Coul Links, their argument being that Keiser’s Coore & Crenshaw-designed track will threaten “an irreplaceable piece of Scotland’s natural heritage.” What’s worse is that Scottish newspapers and commentators have taken to portraying Keiser as a carbon copy of Trump, who’s now been accused of destroying the dunes that serve as the home of his failing resort in Aberdeenshire. Trump’s reputation in Scotland couldn’t be worse, and Keiser is paying the price. He and his partners recently submitted their development proposal for the Coul Links property to local officials, and they’ll most likely learn its fate before the end of the year. The Ugly American syndrome lives on.
Pipeline Overflow – Regarding Grand Oaks Reserve, the forthcoming Chinese-financed community in suburban Houston, Texas: Mike Nuzzo has designed two nine-hole courses for the 615-acre spread, one of them a par-3 layout, along with a putting course. The whole shebang is being built by Don Mahaffey, who collaborated with Nuzzo to create Wolf Point Golf Club, the naturalist pièce de résistance outside Port Lavaca, Texas. Nuzzo says that Mahaffey is doing “minimal earthwork,” and he expects at least one of the nines to open in late 2018. . . . As part of a flood-control effort, the city of Denver, Colorado is redesigning City Park Golf Course, a parkland-style track that’s said to have “unbeatable skyline and mountain views.” The transformation is being overseen by the team of signature architect Hale Irwin and Todd Schoeder of iConGolf Studio, which previously created a course at Glacier Club in Durango, California and Lodestone Golf Club in McHenry, Maryland. The 18-hole layout at City Park is expected to re-open in 2019. . . . Monte Rei Golf & Country Club, which features the best golf course in Portugal, is serious about adding its long-delayed companion track. The club, part of what’s been described as “the rural, rugged, peaceful version of a luxury golf resort,” expects to break ground on its second Jack Nicklaus-designed layout next year, and future plans include a boutique hotel and a beach club.
Doug Manchester’s deep pockets have put him in line to get a plum political-patronage job, so he’s ended his pursuit of a past-its-prime club in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Forest Creek Golf Club had hoped that a sale to one of San Diego’s best-known businessmen would restore its reputation as “a premier golf course destination community,” but Manchester, a major contributor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, is now studying to become our nation’s ambassador to the Bahamas. He has no foreign policy experience, but he does own a home in the island nation, which has reportedly been without a U.S. ambassador since 2011. Forest Creek’s members will presumably renew their search for a buyer who might be interested in their property, which is anchored by a pair of 18-hole, well-regarded, Tom Fazio-designed golf courses.
Surplus Transactions – New York City-based Blackstone Group, a gargantuan investment company, has reportedly agreed to pay $330 million for Turtle Bay Resort, a 1,300-acre spread on the northern coast of O’ahu, Hawaii. For its money, Blackstone will acquire a 450-room, resort-style hotel, a substantial amount of undeveloped property, and 18-hole golf courses that were designed by George Fazio (his course opened in 1972) and Arnold Palmer (1992). Blackstone owns some prominent hotel chains (Hilton, Wyndham, La Quinta Inns, Motel 6), and over the years it’s purchased (and later sold) several golf properties, among them two in Florida, Naples Grande Golf Club in Naples and Grande Oaks Golf Club in Fort Lauderdale. . . . Wilson Gee, a financially besieged golf-course owner in Phoenix, Arizona, has found a buyer for Club West Golf Course. The Inter Tribal Golf Association has agreed to buy Club West, a dried-out Brian Whitcomb/Ken Kavanaugh-designed track that’s said to “look horrible” and reportedly needs $4 million worth of improvements. Gee sold Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course a year or so ago, and he’s apparently willing to sell his remaining venues, Ahwatukee Country Club and the Duke at Rancho El Dorado. . . . The clock is ticking on an 18-hole, Press Maxwell-designed golf course in Tulsa, Oklahoma. An unidentified group has acquired the struggling MeadowBrook Country Club, which has operated since 1955 and will stay open for a year or so before it meets its fate as a subdivision.
The city of Oshkosh, Wisconsin has offered to sell part of Lakeshore Municipal Golf Course – about 35 acres – to the state’s largest federal contractor. It’s an insurance policy of sorts, as Oshkosh Corporation, a Fortune 500 company that manufactures military vehicles from its plant in the city, is looking for a new headquarters and has suggested that it might relocate to another city. A proposed agreement stipulates that the company would pay $3.5 million for the golf course property, but it would receive $13 million in tax breaks and other concessions. If the company accepts the offer, Lakeshore’s remaining 70 acres might become a park.
Desolation Row Extended – Windtree Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, is scheduled to close on the day before Thanksgiving. Danny Hale, one of the course’s co-owners, had hoped to secure permission to build houses on his property, but he was denied. He hasn’t announced any plans for the future, but the Lebanon Democrat reports that he’s received an offer for the 26-year-old course. . . . By the end of the year, Brooklyn Country Club – “a cute little golf course for families or people who aren’t that great at golfing,” according to one of its longtime customers – will bite the dust. The club, in eastern Connecticut, features a nine-hole track that opened in 1960. Its owner, Richard Riges, told the Norwich Bulletin that he’s “unsure” about the property’s future. . . . The future of Reidy Creek Golf Course, an 18-hole, par-3 layout in Escondido, California, is in jeopardy. The course, one of two owned by the city, has lost money since it opened in 2002, and its 54 acres represent a potential source of income that can’t be ignored. “It’s a loss every year,” Escondido’s city manager said in a comment published by the San Diego Union-Tribune. “That’s not sustainable. It has to stop.” The city is reportedly weighing its options.
Luke Donald, part of the next wave of signature architects, set out to design one of the best courses in Vietnam, and it appears that he’s succeeded. Donald’s 18-hole layout at Bà Nà Hills Golf Club, which opened last year on the outskirts of Đà Nẵng, has been honored as the World’s Best New Course by the World Golf Awards, the Best New Course in the Asia Pacific by the Asia Pacific Golf Summit, and, most recently, as the Best New Course 2016-17 by Việt Nam Golf magazine. Of course, some credit for these accolades should go to Brit Stenson of IMG Golf, who held Donald’s hand through the design process.
With each passing day, Donald Trump becomes a larger thorn in the side of Mike Keiser. It’s bad enough that several conservation groups have joined forces to battle against Coul Links, their argument being that Keiser’s Coore & Crenshaw-designed track will threaten “an irreplaceable piece of Scotland’s natural heritage.” What’s worse is that Scottish newspapers and commentators have taken to portraying Keiser as a carbon copy of Trump, who’s now been accused of destroying the dunes that serve as the home of his failing resort in Aberdeenshire. Trump’s reputation in Scotland couldn’t be worse, and Keiser is paying the price. He and his partners recently submitted their development proposal for the Coul Links property to local officials, and they’ll most likely learn its fate before the end of the year. The Ugly American syndrome lives on.
Pipeline Overflow – Regarding Grand Oaks Reserve, the forthcoming Chinese-financed community in suburban Houston, Texas: Mike Nuzzo has designed two nine-hole courses for the 615-acre spread, one of them a par-3 layout, along with a putting course. The whole shebang is being built by Don Mahaffey, who collaborated with Nuzzo to create Wolf Point Golf Club, the naturalist pièce de résistance outside Port Lavaca, Texas. Nuzzo says that Mahaffey is doing “minimal earthwork,” and he expects at least one of the nines to open in late 2018. . . . As part of a flood-control effort, the city of Denver, Colorado is redesigning City Park Golf Course, a parkland-style track that’s said to have “unbeatable skyline and mountain views.” The transformation is being overseen by the team of signature architect Hale Irwin and Todd Schoeder of iConGolf Studio, which previously created a course at Glacier Club in Durango, California and Lodestone Golf Club in McHenry, Maryland. The 18-hole layout at City Park is expected to re-open in 2019. . . . Monte Rei Golf & Country Club, which features the best golf course in Portugal, is serious about adding its long-delayed companion track. The club, part of what’s been described as “the rural, rugged, peaceful version of a luxury golf resort,” expects to break ground on its second Jack Nicklaus-designed layout next year, and future plans include a boutique hotel and a beach club.
Doug Manchester’s deep pockets have put him in line to get a plum political-patronage job, so he’s ended his pursuit of a past-its-prime club in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Forest Creek Golf Club had hoped that a sale to one of San Diego’s best-known businessmen would restore its reputation as “a premier golf course destination community,” but Manchester, a major contributor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, is now studying to become our nation’s ambassador to the Bahamas. He has no foreign policy experience, but he does own a home in the island nation, which has reportedly been without a U.S. ambassador since 2011. Forest Creek’s members will presumably renew their search for a buyer who might be interested in their property, which is anchored by a pair of 18-hole, well-regarded, Tom Fazio-designed golf courses.
Surplus Transactions – New York City-based Blackstone Group, a gargantuan investment company, has reportedly agreed to pay $330 million for Turtle Bay Resort, a 1,300-acre spread on the northern coast of O’ahu, Hawaii. For its money, Blackstone will acquire a 450-room, resort-style hotel, a substantial amount of undeveloped property, and 18-hole golf courses that were designed by George Fazio (his course opened in 1972) and Arnold Palmer (1992). Blackstone owns some prominent hotel chains (Hilton, Wyndham, La Quinta Inns, Motel 6), and over the years it’s purchased (and later sold) several golf properties, among them two in Florida, Naples Grande Golf Club in Naples and Grande Oaks Golf Club in Fort Lauderdale. . . . Wilson Gee, a financially besieged golf-course owner in Phoenix, Arizona, has found a buyer for Club West Golf Course. The Inter Tribal Golf Association has agreed to buy Club West, a dried-out Brian Whitcomb/Ken Kavanaugh-designed track that’s said to “look horrible” and reportedly needs $4 million worth of improvements. Gee sold Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course a year or so ago, and he’s apparently willing to sell his remaining venues, Ahwatukee Country Club and the Duke at Rancho El Dorado. . . . The clock is ticking on an 18-hole, Press Maxwell-designed golf course in Tulsa, Oklahoma. An unidentified group has acquired the struggling MeadowBrook Country Club, which has operated since 1955 and will stay open for a year or so before it meets its fate as a subdivision.
The city of Oshkosh, Wisconsin has offered to sell part of Lakeshore Municipal Golf Course – about 35 acres – to the state’s largest federal contractor. It’s an insurance policy of sorts, as Oshkosh Corporation, a Fortune 500 company that manufactures military vehicles from its plant in the city, is looking for a new headquarters and has suggested that it might relocate to another city. A proposed agreement stipulates that the company would pay $3.5 million for the golf course property, but it would receive $13 million in tax breaks and other concessions. If the company accepts the offer, Lakeshore’s remaining 70 acres might become a park.
Desolation Row Extended – Windtree Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, is scheduled to close on the day before Thanksgiving. Danny Hale, one of the course’s co-owners, had hoped to secure permission to build houses on his property, but he was denied. He hasn’t announced any plans for the future, but the Lebanon Democrat reports that he’s received an offer for the 26-year-old course. . . . By the end of the year, Brooklyn Country Club – “a cute little golf course for families or people who aren’t that great at golfing,” according to one of its longtime customers – will bite the dust. The club, in eastern Connecticut, features a nine-hole track that opened in 1960. Its owner, Richard Riges, told the Norwich Bulletin that he’s “unsure” about the property’s future. . . . The future of Reidy Creek Golf Course, an 18-hole, par-3 layout in Escondido, California, is in jeopardy. The course, one of two owned by the city, has lost money since it opened in 2002, and its 54 acres represent a potential source of income that can’t be ignored. “It’s a loss every year,” Escondido’s city manager said in a comment published by the San Diego Union-Tribune. “That’s not sustainable. It has to stop.” The city is reportedly weighing its options.
Luke Donald, part of the next wave of signature architects, set out to design one of the best courses in Vietnam, and it appears that he’s succeeded. Donald’s 18-hole layout at Bà Nà Hills Golf Club, which opened last year on the outskirts of Đà Nẵng, has been honored as the World’s Best New Course by the World Golf Awards, the Best New Course in the Asia Pacific by the Asia Pacific Golf Summit, and, most recently, as the Best New Course 2016-17 by Việt Nam Golf magazine. Of course, some credit for these accolades should go to Brit Stenson of IMG Golf, who held Donald’s hand through the design process.
Sunday, November 5, 2017
The Week That Was, november 5, 2017
Roger Packard, who was once described as “probably the best designer you’ve never heard of, or certainly not enough of,” died last month. He was 70. His career was overshadowed by that of his father, Larry Packard, who had a hand in designing or redesigning hundreds of courses in the United States, foremost among them the three 18-hole tracks at the Innisbrook resort in Palm Harbor, Florida. Nonetheless, Roger was involved in the creation of several dozen courses, most of them in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Texas, some of them designed alone, some with his father, and some with PGA pro Andy North. The group includes three 18-hole layouts at the Eagle Ridge Resort & Spa in Galena, Illinois, a 27-hole complex at Cantigny Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois, a 27-hole complex at Trappers Turn Golf Club in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, and a pair of 18s at Sweetwater Country Club in Sugar Land, Texas. In a sad remembrance, Ron Whitten of Golf Digest says that in 2002 Roger told him that he was suffering from “drastic personal financial difficulties” related to the downturn in post-9/11 golf development. Later that year Roger moved to Shanghai, presumably to find work, and Whitten suggests that Roger’s lack of notoriety stems in part from the fact that he’d lived abroad, out of touch with his U.S. colleagues, for more than a decade. Roger had cancer. He spent the last days of his life in Palm Harbor, Whitten reports, where he was treated by the same caregiver who looked after his late father.
Roger Packard was one of two second-generation architects who died last month. The other was David Gordon, the son of William Gordon, one of the original members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and the builder of courses designed by Donald Ross, Devereux Emmet, and Willie Park, Jr. The Gordons collaborated on more than two dozen golf courses, a group that includes the Grace and Weyhill courses at Saucon Country Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the Montchanin course at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware, Stanwich Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Williamsburg Country Club in Williamsburg, Virginia. David also claims credit for many on his own, among them the Monocacy course at Bethlehem Country Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Frosty Valley Country Club in Danville, Pennsylvania. David joined the ASGCA in 1951 and was, at the time of his death, the organization’s longest-tenured member. He was 95.
In what’s been described as a “near-unanimous” vote, the members of Frosty Valley Country Club, in Danville, Pennsylvania, have approved a sale of their property. The members of the self-described “community gem” appear to have been desperate to make the sale, as the lease on their financially stressed club was unexpectedly abandoned earlier this year by Integrity Golf Company, a Kissimmee, Florida-based management firm that’s no longer in business. “We were in a difficult position,” the chairman of the club’s board conceded to the Daily Item. Frosty Valley’s new owner is the Liberty Group, which claims to be “committed to taking Frosty Valley to the next level.” Liberty also owns Clinton Country Club in nearby Mill Hall. It hasn’t disclosed what it paid for Frosty Valley, which features a nine-hole course that was designed by David Gordon and opened in the early 1960s.
Surplus Transactions – Half of the 18-hole layout at Donald Ross Golf Club, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, will soon be replaced by a softball stadium and a track-and-field complex. The other half will continue to operate as a daily-fee golf course and as a practice center for the golf teams from the Indiana Institute of Technology, which has agreed to buy the 90-year-old property. Before it assumed the name of its designer, the venue had operated as Fairview Golf Club. It got its current name from Dave Alverson and Quinn Griffin, who bought Fairview in 2006. . . . An unidentified group has acquired Oak Creek Golf Course, a nine-hole track in Red Bluff, California that’s said to be “a great place for senior citizens to get out and hit a golf ball.” The new owners are expected to revived Oak Creek, which opened in 1975 but has, according to a local newspaper, “been going downhill for the last four years.” . . . Jaime and Stacey Sumners have purchased Spruce Ridge Golf Course, which has been described as one of the “most beloved” venues in Dowagiac, Michigan. The 18-hole facility has operated since 1962, and the new owners hope to make it “a good golf course, in great shape, at an affordable price.” Spruce Ridge has reportedly been closed for a year, and the Sumners aim to reopen it in the spring of next year.
Still More Surplus Transactions – Andy Clouse has acquired a golf property that he’s been playing since he was a kid. In September, Clouse paid an undisclosed price for Loudon Meadows Golf Club, which features an 18-hole track that’s been in business since 1962. Loudon Meadows is in Fostoria, Ohio, like Clouse’s Fostoria Country Club, and just a short drive from Hillcrest Golf Course in Findlay, which Clouse purchased in April. Clouse plans to sell memberships that will enable local golfers to play all three courses. . . . Bobcat Trail Golf Club, a 19-year-old venue in North Port, Florida, has a new owner and a new name. Roger Delagrange, who purchased Bobcat Trail in 2004, has sold what’s now called Charlotte Harbor National Golf Club to its pro, Rich Smith. The club features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Bob Tway and Lee Singletary, and Smith has promised “some positive changes and community involvement.” . . . With a pledge to give it “the attention it deserves,” a commercial real-estate company has purchased the Orchards by Cobblestone Golf Course in Lawrence, Kansas. Block & Company paid an undisclosed price for the nine-hole course, which was once known as Orchards Golf Course and then Cobblestone Golf Course. The track, which opened in 1979, is said to be located “just down the road” from the University of Kansas, but it may be linked to a covenant that prevents Block from developing its 30 acres.
It appears that another golf property on South Carolina’s Grand Strand is about to bite the dust. Pending approval of a rezoning application, Heather Glen Golf Links, a 27-hole complex in Little River, will be sold to a home builder and closed within weeks. “We can’t afford to operate the golf course, so we’re shutting it down,” the managing partner of Glens Group, the facility’s lessee, told the Myrtle Beach Sun-News. Heather Glen, which spreads across 420 acres, features an 18-hole, Willard Byrd-designed course and a nine-hole, Clyde Johnston-designed track. The complex is owned by a trust controlled by the family of Vivian E. Vereen. The newspaper reports that Golf Digest selected Byrd’s track as named America’s best new course in 1987.
Desolation Row Extended – Time has run out on Vermilion Oaks Country Club, which has operated in Abbeville, Louisiana since 1929, when it was known as Abbeville Country Club. The club’s owners have put their 105-acre property on the market, with an asking price of $1.8 million. Vermilion Oaks is said to be the last remaining golf venue in Vermilion Parish. . . . The fate of Patuxent Greens Country Club, an 18-hole venue in Laurel, Maryland, has been sealed. In July, Cohen Siegel Investors paid $5.4 million for the 200-acre spread, with plans to build up to 450 housing units on it. Cohen Siegel figures that it’ll take perhaps two years to secure approval for its plans, and it’s promised to keep Patuxent Greens’ Russell Roberts-designed golf course open until then. The seller was Fore Golf Partners, which sold another one of its golf properties just weeks ago. . . . So what’s the other course Fore Golf Partners recently sold? It’s Hidden Creek Country Club, in Reston, Virginia, a nearly 50-year-old venue that features an 18-hole, Ed Ault-designed layout. Hidden Creek’s new owner is a home builder that will maintain the golf operation in the near term but reportedly “reserves the right to redesignate” the 164-acre property for houses in the future.
Greg “the Living Brand” Norman is a salesman par excellence, and not a very trustworthy one. For months, the LB has promised that Greg Norman Company and Verizon would soon unveil some sort of “innovative and disruptive technology” that would “change the way people play and view” the game of golf. Well, last week the LB showed us what he had in mind, and it boils down to this: Golf carts outfitted video screens that will stream music, news, sports, and whatever, because playing golf is simply not stimulating enough on its own. The LB calls this concept the Shark Experience, but the rest of the world has already dismissed it much ado about nothing. Next time you have a bright idea, Greg, don’t call us. We’ll call you.
Roger Packard was one of two second-generation architects who died last month. The other was David Gordon, the son of William Gordon, one of the original members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and the builder of courses designed by Donald Ross, Devereux Emmet, and Willie Park, Jr. The Gordons collaborated on more than two dozen golf courses, a group that includes the Grace and Weyhill courses at Saucon Country Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the Montchanin course at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware, Stanwich Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Williamsburg Country Club in Williamsburg, Virginia. David also claims credit for many on his own, among them the Monocacy course at Bethlehem Country Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Frosty Valley Country Club in Danville, Pennsylvania. David joined the ASGCA in 1951 and was, at the time of his death, the organization’s longest-tenured member. He was 95.
In what’s been described as a “near-unanimous” vote, the members of Frosty Valley Country Club, in Danville, Pennsylvania, have approved a sale of their property. The members of the self-described “community gem” appear to have been desperate to make the sale, as the lease on their financially stressed club was unexpectedly abandoned earlier this year by Integrity Golf Company, a Kissimmee, Florida-based management firm that’s no longer in business. “We were in a difficult position,” the chairman of the club’s board conceded to the Daily Item. Frosty Valley’s new owner is the Liberty Group, which claims to be “committed to taking Frosty Valley to the next level.” Liberty also owns Clinton Country Club in nearby Mill Hall. It hasn’t disclosed what it paid for Frosty Valley, which features a nine-hole course that was designed by David Gordon and opened in the early 1960s.
Surplus Transactions – Half of the 18-hole layout at Donald Ross Golf Club, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, will soon be replaced by a softball stadium and a track-and-field complex. The other half will continue to operate as a daily-fee golf course and as a practice center for the golf teams from the Indiana Institute of Technology, which has agreed to buy the 90-year-old property. Before it assumed the name of its designer, the venue had operated as Fairview Golf Club. It got its current name from Dave Alverson and Quinn Griffin, who bought Fairview in 2006. . . . An unidentified group has acquired Oak Creek Golf Course, a nine-hole track in Red Bluff, California that’s said to be “a great place for senior citizens to get out and hit a golf ball.” The new owners are expected to revived Oak Creek, which opened in 1975 but has, according to a local newspaper, “been going downhill for the last four years.” . . . Jaime and Stacey Sumners have purchased Spruce Ridge Golf Course, which has been described as one of the “most beloved” venues in Dowagiac, Michigan. The 18-hole facility has operated since 1962, and the new owners hope to make it “a good golf course, in great shape, at an affordable price.” Spruce Ridge has reportedly been closed for a year, and the Sumners aim to reopen it in the spring of next year.
Still More Surplus Transactions – Andy Clouse has acquired a golf property that he’s been playing since he was a kid. In September, Clouse paid an undisclosed price for Loudon Meadows Golf Club, which features an 18-hole track that’s been in business since 1962. Loudon Meadows is in Fostoria, Ohio, like Clouse’s Fostoria Country Club, and just a short drive from Hillcrest Golf Course in Findlay, which Clouse purchased in April. Clouse plans to sell memberships that will enable local golfers to play all three courses. . . . Bobcat Trail Golf Club, a 19-year-old venue in North Port, Florida, has a new owner and a new name. Roger Delagrange, who purchased Bobcat Trail in 2004, has sold what’s now called Charlotte Harbor National Golf Club to its pro, Rich Smith. The club features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Bob Tway and Lee Singletary, and Smith has promised “some positive changes and community involvement.” . . . With a pledge to give it “the attention it deserves,” a commercial real-estate company has purchased the Orchards by Cobblestone Golf Course in Lawrence, Kansas. Block & Company paid an undisclosed price for the nine-hole course, which was once known as Orchards Golf Course and then Cobblestone Golf Course. The track, which opened in 1979, is said to be located “just down the road” from the University of Kansas, but it may be linked to a covenant that prevents Block from developing its 30 acres.
It appears that another golf property on South Carolina’s Grand Strand is about to bite the dust. Pending approval of a rezoning application, Heather Glen Golf Links, a 27-hole complex in Little River, will be sold to a home builder and closed within weeks. “We can’t afford to operate the golf course, so we’re shutting it down,” the managing partner of Glens Group, the facility’s lessee, told the Myrtle Beach Sun-News. Heather Glen, which spreads across 420 acres, features an 18-hole, Willard Byrd-designed course and a nine-hole, Clyde Johnston-designed track. The complex is owned by a trust controlled by the family of Vivian E. Vereen. The newspaper reports that Golf Digest selected Byrd’s track as named America’s best new course in 1987.
Desolation Row Extended – Time has run out on Vermilion Oaks Country Club, which has operated in Abbeville, Louisiana since 1929, when it was known as Abbeville Country Club. The club’s owners have put their 105-acre property on the market, with an asking price of $1.8 million. Vermilion Oaks is said to be the last remaining golf venue in Vermilion Parish. . . . The fate of Patuxent Greens Country Club, an 18-hole venue in Laurel, Maryland, has been sealed. In July, Cohen Siegel Investors paid $5.4 million for the 200-acre spread, with plans to build up to 450 housing units on it. Cohen Siegel figures that it’ll take perhaps two years to secure approval for its plans, and it’s promised to keep Patuxent Greens’ Russell Roberts-designed golf course open until then. The seller was Fore Golf Partners, which sold another one of its golf properties just weeks ago. . . . So what’s the other course Fore Golf Partners recently sold? It’s Hidden Creek Country Club, in Reston, Virginia, a nearly 50-year-old venue that features an 18-hole, Ed Ault-designed layout. Hidden Creek’s new owner is a home builder that will maintain the golf operation in the near term but reportedly “reserves the right to redesignate” the 164-acre property for houses in the future.
Greg “the Living Brand” Norman is a salesman par excellence, and not a very trustworthy one. For months, the LB has promised that Greg Norman Company and Verizon would soon unveil some sort of “innovative and disruptive technology” that would “change the way people play and view” the game of golf. Well, last week the LB showed us what he had in mind, and it boils down to this: Golf carts outfitted video screens that will stream music, news, sports, and whatever, because playing golf is simply not stimulating enough on its own. The LB calls this concept the Shark Experience, but the rest of the world has already dismissed it much ado about nothing. Next time you have a bright idea, Greg, don’t call us. We’ll call you.
Sunday, October 29, 2017
The Week That Was, october 29, 2017
Tom Fazio and Discovery Land Company are once again joining forces, this time to put their distinctive marks on an emerging high-end community in suburban Nashville, Tennessee. An 18-hole, Fazio-designed golf course is set to take shape at Hideaway at Arrington, a 742-acre private community that will feature up to 350 houses as well as a variety of amenities that will, the developers say, enable residents to enjoy the area’s “rich cultural heritage” and engage in “an active, outdoor lifestyle.” Discovery owns at least 16 golf communities in the United States, Mexico, and the Bahamas, and Fazio has created courses for probably half of them, including Estancia Club in Scottsdale, Arizona; Gozzer Ranch in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Iron Horse in Whitefish, Montana; the Madison Club in La Quinta, California; and the recently opened Summit Club outside Las Vegas, Nevada. Discovery has also enlisted Fazio to produce a course for the Hills at East Quogue, on New York’s Long Island, but nresidents in the area have proven themselves to be formidable opponents. A groundbreaking for the track at the Hideaway hasn’t been announced, but in a press release Fazio said he aims to make it “one of the top-rated courses in Tennessee.”
Pipeline Overflow – Tantalizing news from New Zealand’s North Island: Tom Doak’s 18-hole track at Tara Iti Golf Club may soon have a companion. Darius Oliver, the well-known Australian design critic, reports that Tara Iti’s developers, a group led by Los Angeles, California-based financier Ric Kayne, have decided “to proceed with a second course” and that an official announcement is “expected soon.” This will be a plum assignment for whoever wins the commission, but it may not be possible to match Doak’s accomplishment. His course is the nation’s most talked-about new venue, and Oliver himself has concluded that “there isn’t anything else quite like this in golf.” . . . Elected officials in Orange County, California have set out to build a golf course in Newport Beach, on 205 acres of the closed Coyote Canyon landfill. They’re currently negotiating the terms of a lease on the property with an investment group that wants to build an 18-hole “short” course and other attractions, including what’s been described as “wedding gardens” and “a food court.” The county appears to be in a good bargaining position, because it has another development group waiting in the wings. . . . It’s been an ordeal, but Brian Coutts has finally secured permission to build a driving range and a nine-hole pitch-’n-’putt course on property he farms in Ollerton, a village north of Nottingham, England. After denying Coutts’ proposals for 10 years, local planners have concluded that it may actually be “a much-needed sporting facility for the community.”
Earlier this year I criticized Jack Nicklaus, he of the spotless reputation, for accepting a design commission from a world-class tyrant, Gurbanguly “Spellcheck” Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan. The way I see it, Nicklaus has agreed to polish the image of a notoriously repressive regime, and his support of Berdymukhamedov’s golf ambitions is a tacit endorsement of policies contrary to fundamental American values. As it turns out, I’m not alone in finding the opening of Turkmenistan’s first golf course, at Ashgabat Golf Club, distasteful and troubling. Radio Free Europe was on hand for the unveiling, and it says that Nicklaus appeared to be “smitten” by Berdymukhamedov, whose nation is now “in the throes of an economic crisis” that has “led to shortages of certain foods and other commodities.” And here’s the worst part: Nicklaus has agreed to design not just one more course in Turkmenistan, as I reported, but as many as 10. It’s often said that power corrupts. So does money.
Pipeline Overflow Overflow – Early next year, according to Golfasian, Golfplan-Dale & Ramsey Golf Course Architecture will debut its second course in Pattaya, Thailand, one of Southeast Asia’s favorite golf destinations. The 18-hole track will be the main attraction at Chee Chan Mountain Golf Resort, a 250-acre spread that was conceived several years ago as Master Golf Resort. Pattaya is home to at least 30 golf properties, including some notable layouts by “signature” architects, among them Jack Nicklaus (Laem Chabang International Country Club), Pete Dye (Khao Kheow Country Club), Gary Player (Sriracha Golf Club), and Peter Thomson (Greenwood Golf Resort). Golfplan’s first course in the area, Mountain Shadow Golf Club, was designed by the firm’s founder, Ron Fream, and opened in the early 1970s. . . . The wraps have come off the first of two Paul Albanese-designed golf courses at Yên Dũng Golf Resort, in metropolitan Hà Nội. The 18-hole track, which publicists say is “one of the most beautiful, challenging golf courses in northern Vietnam,” will eventually be joined by vacation villas, a hotel, an amusement park, and other attractions, including, in 2020, a second 18-hole layout. In the United States, Albanese is probably best known for Tatanka Golf Club, a links-like, minimalist-inspired layout in Niobrara, Nebraska. . . . La Romana Golf Club, the centerpiece of a resort community on the Dominican Republic’s southern coast, has opened its second golf course. The 18-hole “championship” layout, designed by a Spanish company that operates as Maverick Design & Construction or Maverick Golf & Construction, will complement the community’s existing executive-length track.
A retired baseball player is the leader of a team that’s purchased a private golf club in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Paul Maholm, who spent nine years pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, and other major-league teams, paid an undisclosed price for Hattiesburg Country Club, which the Clarion Ledger describes as “one of the oldest and most storied golf clubs in the Magnolia State.” The newspaper reports that the club, which features an 18-hole, Max Maxwell-designed golf course, is suffering from “dwindling memberships.”
Surplus Transactions – Tri-City Country Club, a financially struggling venue in Kennewick, Washington, has been rescued by 20 of its members. The new owners plan to open the club to the public, and they’ve given it a new name: Zintel Creek Golf Club. The club opened in 1938, as Twin City Golf Club, and its original nine-hole golf course was built by the federal government’s Works Progress Administration. . . . It appears that Bergen County, New Jersey’s sixth golf property will be in suburban Newark. County officials have agreed to pay $8.5 million for Emerson Golf Club, a 54-year-old venue in Emerson that features an 18-hole, Alec Ternyei-designed golf course. The transaction is expected to close sometime over the winter. The county’s other courses are in Mahwah, Paramus, River Vale, Rockleigh, and Teaneck. . . . Melrose Club, the centerpiece of South Carolina’s mostly abandoned, possibly cursed Daufuskie Island, is about to get another owner. A bankruptcy court is expected to turn the 400-acre island over to its main creditor, a Netherlands-based investment group that reportedly loaned $27.5 million to the Utah-based company that promised to breathe new life into the property in 2011. Melrose features an 18-hole, Jack Nicklaus signature golf course that opened in 1987.
As part of its struggle for survival, a private club named after Thomas Edison has decided to develop part of its 27-hole, Devereux Emmet-designed golf complex. Edison Club, a 286-acre venue in the northern suburbs of Albany, New York, has been suffering for years from a parade of problems – it recently listed them as “normal inflation, lifestyle changes, tax-code changes, decline in private club golf demand, and an overbuilt inventory of local golf” – but it believes it can sustain itself if it builds houses on seven of its holes and obliges the home owners to become club members. Edison was founded by a group of executives from General Electric in 1904 and relocated to its present home in 1926. It may not have any revenue-generating ideas beyond its development proposal, for it believes it’s already done “everything we can to be more attractive to the community around us.”
Desolation Row Extended – The new owners of the Phoenician, a 315-acre resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, have secured permission to close one-third of their 27-hole golf complex. The holes will come from the complex’s Oasis and Desert nines, and they’ll be replaced by 300 single-family houses and condos. Host Hotels & Resorts reportedly paid $400 million for the Phoenician, which never lived up to being “the eighth wonder of the world,” in 2015. . . . A home builder has reportedly coughed up nearly $23.5 million for Lipoma Firs Golf Course, a 27-home complex in suburban Tacoma, Washington. Lipoma Firs opened with 18 holes in 1989 and added its third nine in 1994. It’s now closed, and the new owner believes its 202 acres can comfortably accommodate more than 1,000 houses. . . . Golf Club at Ballantyne, part of the Ballantyne Corporate Park in Charlotte, North Carolina, may not have much of a future. A spokesperson for Northwood Investors, which purchased the 535-acre business park earlier this year, told the Charlotte Business Journal that his company has “no immediate plans” to close the 20-year-old club but acknowledged that it’ll be “evaluating” the possibility “over time.”
Pipeline Overflow – Tantalizing news from New Zealand’s North Island: Tom Doak’s 18-hole track at Tara Iti Golf Club may soon have a companion. Darius Oliver, the well-known Australian design critic, reports that Tara Iti’s developers, a group led by Los Angeles, California-based financier Ric Kayne, have decided “to proceed with a second course” and that an official announcement is “expected soon.” This will be a plum assignment for whoever wins the commission, but it may not be possible to match Doak’s accomplishment. His course is the nation’s most talked-about new venue, and Oliver himself has concluded that “there isn’t anything else quite like this in golf.” . . . Elected officials in Orange County, California have set out to build a golf course in Newport Beach, on 205 acres of the closed Coyote Canyon landfill. They’re currently negotiating the terms of a lease on the property with an investment group that wants to build an 18-hole “short” course and other attractions, including what’s been described as “wedding gardens” and “a food court.” The county appears to be in a good bargaining position, because it has another development group waiting in the wings. . . . It’s been an ordeal, but Brian Coutts has finally secured permission to build a driving range and a nine-hole pitch-’n-’putt course on property he farms in Ollerton, a village north of Nottingham, England. After denying Coutts’ proposals for 10 years, local planners have concluded that it may actually be “a much-needed sporting facility for the community.”
Earlier this year I criticized Jack Nicklaus, he of the spotless reputation, for accepting a design commission from a world-class tyrant, Gurbanguly “Spellcheck” Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan. The way I see it, Nicklaus has agreed to polish the image of a notoriously repressive regime, and his support of Berdymukhamedov’s golf ambitions is a tacit endorsement of policies contrary to fundamental American values. As it turns out, I’m not alone in finding the opening of Turkmenistan’s first golf course, at Ashgabat Golf Club, distasteful and troubling. Radio Free Europe was on hand for the unveiling, and it says that Nicklaus appeared to be “smitten” by Berdymukhamedov, whose nation is now “in the throes of an economic crisis” that has “led to shortages of certain foods and other commodities.” And here’s the worst part: Nicklaus has agreed to design not just one more course in Turkmenistan, as I reported, but as many as 10. It’s often said that power corrupts. So does money.
Pipeline Overflow Overflow – Early next year, according to Golfasian, Golfplan-Dale & Ramsey Golf Course Architecture will debut its second course in Pattaya, Thailand, one of Southeast Asia’s favorite golf destinations. The 18-hole track will be the main attraction at Chee Chan Mountain Golf Resort, a 250-acre spread that was conceived several years ago as Master Golf Resort. Pattaya is home to at least 30 golf properties, including some notable layouts by “signature” architects, among them Jack Nicklaus (Laem Chabang International Country Club), Pete Dye (Khao Kheow Country Club), Gary Player (Sriracha Golf Club), and Peter Thomson (Greenwood Golf Resort). Golfplan’s first course in the area, Mountain Shadow Golf Club, was designed by the firm’s founder, Ron Fream, and opened in the early 1970s. . . . The wraps have come off the first of two Paul Albanese-designed golf courses at Yên Dũng Golf Resort, in metropolitan Hà Nội. The 18-hole track, which publicists say is “one of the most beautiful, challenging golf courses in northern Vietnam,” will eventually be joined by vacation villas, a hotel, an amusement park, and other attractions, including, in 2020, a second 18-hole layout. In the United States, Albanese is probably best known for Tatanka Golf Club, a links-like, minimalist-inspired layout in Niobrara, Nebraska. . . . La Romana Golf Club, the centerpiece of a resort community on the Dominican Republic’s southern coast, has opened its second golf course. The 18-hole “championship” layout, designed by a Spanish company that operates as Maverick Design & Construction or Maverick Golf & Construction, will complement the community’s existing executive-length track.
A retired baseball player is the leader of a team that’s purchased a private golf club in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Paul Maholm, who spent nine years pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, and other major-league teams, paid an undisclosed price for Hattiesburg Country Club, which the Clarion Ledger describes as “one of the oldest and most storied golf clubs in the Magnolia State.” The newspaper reports that the club, which features an 18-hole, Max Maxwell-designed golf course, is suffering from “dwindling memberships.”
Surplus Transactions – Tri-City Country Club, a financially struggling venue in Kennewick, Washington, has been rescued by 20 of its members. The new owners plan to open the club to the public, and they’ve given it a new name: Zintel Creek Golf Club. The club opened in 1938, as Twin City Golf Club, and its original nine-hole golf course was built by the federal government’s Works Progress Administration. . . . It appears that Bergen County, New Jersey’s sixth golf property will be in suburban Newark. County officials have agreed to pay $8.5 million for Emerson Golf Club, a 54-year-old venue in Emerson that features an 18-hole, Alec Ternyei-designed golf course. The transaction is expected to close sometime over the winter. The county’s other courses are in Mahwah, Paramus, River Vale, Rockleigh, and Teaneck. . . . Melrose Club, the centerpiece of South Carolina’s mostly abandoned, possibly cursed Daufuskie Island, is about to get another owner. A bankruptcy court is expected to turn the 400-acre island over to its main creditor, a Netherlands-based investment group that reportedly loaned $27.5 million to the Utah-based company that promised to breathe new life into the property in 2011. Melrose features an 18-hole, Jack Nicklaus signature golf course that opened in 1987.
As part of its struggle for survival, a private club named after Thomas Edison has decided to develop part of its 27-hole, Devereux Emmet-designed golf complex. Edison Club, a 286-acre venue in the northern suburbs of Albany, New York, has been suffering for years from a parade of problems – it recently listed them as “normal inflation, lifestyle changes, tax-code changes, decline in private club golf demand, and an overbuilt inventory of local golf” – but it believes it can sustain itself if it builds houses on seven of its holes and obliges the home owners to become club members. Edison was founded by a group of executives from General Electric in 1904 and relocated to its present home in 1926. It may not have any revenue-generating ideas beyond its development proposal, for it believes it’s already done “everything we can to be more attractive to the community around us.”
Desolation Row Extended – The new owners of the Phoenician, a 315-acre resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, have secured permission to close one-third of their 27-hole golf complex. The holes will come from the complex’s Oasis and Desert nines, and they’ll be replaced by 300 single-family houses and condos. Host Hotels & Resorts reportedly paid $400 million for the Phoenician, which never lived up to being “the eighth wonder of the world,” in 2015. . . . A home builder has reportedly coughed up nearly $23.5 million for Lipoma Firs Golf Course, a 27-home complex in suburban Tacoma, Washington. Lipoma Firs opened with 18 holes in 1989 and added its third nine in 1994. It’s now closed, and the new owner believes its 202 acres can comfortably accommodate more than 1,000 houses. . . . Golf Club at Ballantyne, part of the Ballantyne Corporate Park in Charlotte, North Carolina, may not have much of a future. A spokesperson for Northwood Investors, which purchased the 535-acre business park earlier this year, told the Charlotte Business Journal that his company has “no immediate plans” to close the 20-year-old club but acknowledged that it’ll be “evaluating” the possibility “over time.”
Sunday, October 22, 2017
The Week That Was, october 22, 2017
Further proof that golf and rock-’n’-roll don’t mix: Astbury Hall, a well-regarded British golf resort created by former Judas Priest lead guitarist Ken “KK” Downing, has been taken over by administrators and is for sale. Downing designed Astbury Hall’s 18-hole golf course, bought out his original financial partners, hired Darren Clarke, a former captain of Europe’s Ryder Cup team, to serve as the property’s “global ambassador,” and won permission to add a boutique hotel, a spa, a restaurant, and another nine-hole layout to his 320 acres in suburban Birmingham, England. But the financing he secured to help pay for the construction has come back to haunt him. His lender has called the loan, leaving Downing, to borrow a phrase once used by Radiohead, high and dry. “We were taken aback that the funder was not more flexible with us as partners,” he told the Shropshire Star. Downing is trying to refinance the loan, and he hopes to continue to build “a top-class golf center with no snobbery” that will “put Shropshire on the golfing map.” But if someone comes along and drops £10 million ($13.2 million) on the table, he’ll be stranded on what Green Day called “the boulevard of broken dreams.”
In recent years, Dan Hixson has produced a series of well-regarded courses in the Pacific Northwest – Wine Valley Golf Club in Washington and the reversible course at Silvies Valley Ranch in Oregon prominent among them – but the Vancouver, Washington-based architect appears to be hoping for a change of scenery. While acknowledging that he’s “getting great sites in the Northwest,” he told the Eugene Register-Guard that he’d “love to see some of the great sites around the country, and have a chance to build on something like that.” While he waits for a developer to offer one to him, Hixson will design an 18-hole track on a site near Roseburg, Oregon.
Pipeline Overflow – Australian Golf Digest thinks Cathedral Lodge Golf Club’s just-opened 18-hole course “could be Greg Norman’s finest achievement in golf course design,” and “the Living Brand” isn’t putting up an argument. “There is nothing else like it in Australia – or the world, for that matter," Norman said earlier this year. Norman has also described the site, near Alexandra, Victoria, as “magnificent” and compared his track favorably to those at Ellerston and Augusta National. Cathedral Lodge is said to be Australia’s most expensive golf club (initiation fee: $50,000), and at the unveiling its developer, David Evans, said he’s already signed 70 members. . . . Charles “Buddy” Darby, the developer of the 2,500-acre Christophe Harbour resort community on St. Kitts, expects to resume construction on his long-overdue, Tom Fazio-designed golf course “at the end of the year.” Christophe Harbour has a marina and a soon-to-open hotel, and Darby’s master plan calls for a slew of vacation houses, places to eat, drink, and shop, and other attractions for the well-heeled. Years ago, Fazio promised that his 18-hole track would be among “the best of the best” in the Caribbean. . . . Roughly a year from now, Dale Beddo and Bruce Summerhays hope to debut an “affordable” 18-hole track in Hurricane, Utah. The design partners are well known in the area, as they co-designed Kokopelli Golf Course, an 18-hole layout in nearby Apple Valley that opened in 2009 but closed in 2012, a victim, it’s been said, of a rotten economy. Beddo told a local newspaper that his to-be-named new course won’t be “overbearing or difficult” but will place “a lot of demand on a good tee shot.”
Predictions about the demise of Aurora, Colorado’s Fitzsimons Golf Course have been floated for more than two decades, and now they may finally come true. The Denver Post reports that the 18-hole layout, whose original nine holes were created by the Works Progress Administration in 1938, is “expected to shutter by the end of the year.” Economics may not be factoring into the decision, as the newspapers says that Fitzsimons “remains steadily busy.” An official notice from the city hasn’t yet been filed and no future uses of the course have been identified, but a nearby medical center could expand onto the property. If Fitzsimons does indeed bite the dust, metropolitan the Denver area will lose what’s been described as “one of the most affordable and accessible golf courses in the area.”
Desolation Row Extended – Speaking of health-care facilities, Frank Veltri has agreed to sell part of his Practice Golf Center, in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Specifically, Veltri will sell the center’s nine-hole, par-3 course and continue to operate a driving range and a miniature golf course. . . . The fate of Meadows Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Christiansburg, Virginia, has been sealed. At a recent foreclosure auction, a development entity affiliated with Shelor Motor Mile paid $787,500 for the 115-acre property, and the new owner has already filed for a rezoning that would allow for the construction of houses. The Meadows opened with nine holes in 1955, and it got its second nine exactly two decades later. . . . Accepting an offer they couldn’t refuse, elected officials in Kent, Washington have voted to sell the nine-hole, par-3 golf course at Riverbend Golf Complex. An apartment developer has promised to pay $10.5 million for the 20-acre site, money that the city will use to shore up its golf enterprise fund and make improvements to Riverbend’s 18-hole track. The par-3 course has operated since 1961.
With friends like Prime Minister Keith Rowley, the golf industry in Trinidad & Tobago may not need enemies. In his defense of a proposed $3 million overhaul of Chaguaramas Golf Course, Rowley stirred unnecessary controversy by comparing his nation’s golf courses to “sheep’s pastures” and then equating them to women because, he said, they both require daily grooming to be presentable. Unfortunately, all the noise Rowley created with his comments drowned out an important message he was trying to deliver, which is that it would be nice if Trinidad & Tobago, which currently has about eight golf properties, could build at least two more. So while Rowley may be burdened by sad, sexist ideas, at least he understands the impact that golf can have on a nation’s tourism business.
In recent years, Dan Hixson has produced a series of well-regarded courses in the Pacific Northwest – Wine Valley Golf Club in Washington and the reversible course at Silvies Valley Ranch in Oregon prominent among them – but the Vancouver, Washington-based architect appears to be hoping for a change of scenery. While acknowledging that he’s “getting great sites in the Northwest,” he told the Eugene Register-Guard that he’d “love to see some of the great sites around the country, and have a chance to build on something like that.” While he waits for a developer to offer one to him, Hixson will design an 18-hole track on a site near Roseburg, Oregon.
Pipeline Overflow – Australian Golf Digest thinks Cathedral Lodge Golf Club’s just-opened 18-hole course “could be Greg Norman’s finest achievement in golf course design,” and “the Living Brand” isn’t putting up an argument. “There is nothing else like it in Australia – or the world, for that matter," Norman said earlier this year. Norman has also described the site, near Alexandra, Victoria, as “magnificent” and compared his track favorably to those at Ellerston and Augusta National. Cathedral Lodge is said to be Australia’s most expensive golf club (initiation fee: $50,000), and at the unveiling its developer, David Evans, said he’s already signed 70 members. . . . Charles “Buddy” Darby, the developer of the 2,500-acre Christophe Harbour resort community on St. Kitts, expects to resume construction on his long-overdue, Tom Fazio-designed golf course “at the end of the year.” Christophe Harbour has a marina and a soon-to-open hotel, and Darby’s master plan calls for a slew of vacation houses, places to eat, drink, and shop, and other attractions for the well-heeled. Years ago, Fazio promised that his 18-hole track would be among “the best of the best” in the Caribbean. . . . Roughly a year from now, Dale Beddo and Bruce Summerhays hope to debut an “affordable” 18-hole track in Hurricane, Utah. The design partners are well known in the area, as they co-designed Kokopelli Golf Course, an 18-hole layout in nearby Apple Valley that opened in 2009 but closed in 2012, a victim, it’s been said, of a rotten economy. Beddo told a local newspaper that his to-be-named new course won’t be “overbearing or difficult” but will place “a lot of demand on a good tee shot.”
Predictions about the demise of Aurora, Colorado’s Fitzsimons Golf Course have been floated for more than two decades, and now they may finally come true. The Denver Post reports that the 18-hole layout, whose original nine holes were created by the Works Progress Administration in 1938, is “expected to shutter by the end of the year.” Economics may not be factoring into the decision, as the newspapers says that Fitzsimons “remains steadily busy.” An official notice from the city hasn’t yet been filed and no future uses of the course have been identified, but a nearby medical center could expand onto the property. If Fitzsimons does indeed bite the dust, metropolitan the Denver area will lose what’s been described as “one of the most affordable and accessible golf courses in the area.”
Desolation Row Extended – Speaking of health-care facilities, Frank Veltri has agreed to sell part of his Practice Golf Center, in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Specifically, Veltri will sell the center’s nine-hole, par-3 course and continue to operate a driving range and a miniature golf course. . . . The fate of Meadows Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Christiansburg, Virginia, has been sealed. At a recent foreclosure auction, a development entity affiliated with Shelor Motor Mile paid $787,500 for the 115-acre property, and the new owner has already filed for a rezoning that would allow for the construction of houses. The Meadows opened with nine holes in 1955, and it got its second nine exactly two decades later. . . . Accepting an offer they couldn’t refuse, elected officials in Kent, Washington have voted to sell the nine-hole, par-3 golf course at Riverbend Golf Complex. An apartment developer has promised to pay $10.5 million for the 20-acre site, money that the city will use to shore up its golf enterprise fund and make improvements to Riverbend’s 18-hole track. The par-3 course has operated since 1961.
With friends like Prime Minister Keith Rowley, the golf industry in Trinidad & Tobago may not need enemies. In his defense of a proposed $3 million overhaul of Chaguaramas Golf Course, Rowley stirred unnecessary controversy by comparing his nation’s golf courses to “sheep’s pastures” and then equating them to women because, he said, they both require daily grooming to be presentable. Unfortunately, all the noise Rowley created with his comments drowned out an important message he was trying to deliver, which is that it would be nice if Trinidad & Tobago, which currently has about eight golf properties, could build at least two more. So while Rowley may be burdened by sad, sexist ideas, at least he understands the impact that golf can have on a nation’s tourism business.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
The Week That Was, october 15, 2017
The golf business in India is said to be “gaining momentum,” and the nation’s tourism ministers are hoping to accelerate the pace. India currently has about 220 golf venues, according to a national news agency, and the government, which is eager “to exploit golf tourism in its true potential,” has lent its vocal support to the construction of roughly 100 more. The key question, of course, is Can you build them? Golf development has historically been tough in India, for a variety of social and economic reasons, and the nation’s developers have yet to show any desire to build genuine destination-worthy layouts. But it’s the thought that counts, right?
Peter Nanula’s investment company is close to acquiring its first golf property in Minnesota. Concert Golf Partners has reportedly persuaded the board of Golden Valley Country Club, in suburban Minneapolis, to approve a proposed purchase, and now the Newport Beach, California-based owner/operator is waiting for the club’s members to do the same. If it gets a thumbs-up, Concert will own a venue with an 18-hole, A. W. Tillinghast-designed track that claims to be “indisputably the region's finest golf course” and “quite possibly the most scenic, challenging, enjoyable, and golfer-friendly course you’ll ever want to play.” (Some credit for this praise should go to Keith Foster, who recently restored Tillinghast’s 90-year-old design.) Concert currently owns 16 properties, with the largest number (five) being in Florida. Although it has incredibly deep pockets and an appetite for growth, it’s having a hard time adding to its portfolio. As best I can determine, it’s added just two properties so far this year, Philmont Country Club and White Manor Country Club, both in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Surplus Transactions – The members of Engineers Country Club, in the western part of New York’s Long Island, have voted “overwhelmingly” to sell their property to a home builder. RXR Realty plans to develop parts of Engineers’ 138 acres, the bulk of which is dedicated to an 18-hole, Devereux Emmet-designed golf course that dates from the early 1920s. RXR, which hasn’t disclosed the sale price, aims to close on the transaction next month. . . . Families from Minnesota and North Dakota have purchased a bank-owned golf course in Bullhead City, Arizona. Chris and Rene Ashmore are the leaders of the group that paid an undisclosed price for Laughlin Ranch Golf Club, which features an 18-hole, David Druzisky-designed course that opened in 2004. In an interview with the Mohave Valley Daily News, Rene Ashmore described the club as “a little bit of a hidden jewel” with “great growth potential.” . . . Cook’s Pest Control group has reportedly paid $3.7 million for Decatur Country Club, a 95-year-old venue in Decatur, Alabama. Cook’s, which plans to build a new headquarters on the club’s 95 acres, has already closed the course. According to the Decatur Daily, the seller was an investment group that acquired the club’s mortgage in 2011.
As America shrinks its international presence, the People’s Republic is looking to sink its teeth into one of our long-time allies. Private companies and government-related Chinese entities are master-planning a huge number of development projects in Pakistan connected to a venture called the Chinese-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is expected to spread across thousands of acres and precipitate what’s been described as “a deep and broad-based penetration of most sectors of Pakistan’s economy as well as its society.” The scope of the project reportedly has “no precedent in Pakistan’s history,” and it’ll involve ventures in agriculture, telecommunications, manufacturing, broadcast television, internet, and much more. One of the proposals calls for the development of at least two coastal resorts that will include hotels, marinas, a port for cruise ships, entertainment venues, wildlife sanctuaries, an aquarium, a campground, places to eat and drink, parks, and, yes, golf courses. The whole shebang is still mostly pie in the sky, but it’s an indication of the kind of things that can happen when a president is obsessed with putting America First.
Pipeline Overflow – Conservationists are mounting a counter-offensive, but Mike Keiser and Todd Warnock have submitted their development proposal for the Coul Links property in the Scottish Highlands. They promise to play within the environmental rules, boost the local economy, and deliver an 18-hole, Coore & Crenshaw-designed golf course that will offer “one of the most memorable golf experiences in the world.” If they get a green light promptly, they aim to break ground on the course in the spring and to open it in early 2021. . . . Lester George reports that he’s designing 18-hole and 12-hole courses for Virginia True, a proposed 1,000-acre community originally known as Fones Cliffs. A group led by Robert C. Smith recently paid $12 million for the property, in Richmond County, Virginia, and the Northern Neck News says that George is now “staking out tees, fairways and greens.” The seller, Diatomite Corporation, secured a rezoning for the property in 2015. At the time, Smith was working for Diatomite. . . . Pending a successful rezoning, Riser Developments will build a small golf community near Lacombe, in central Alberta, Canada. The community, called Lincoln Ranch, will take shape on 159 acres along the eastern shore of Gull Lake, and it’ll consist of 100 houses, parks, hiking trails, and a nine-hole golf course.
An official decision hasn’t been made, but it looks as if Dartmouth College is going to turn out the lights at its golf course. The Ivy League school, which is reportedly facing a budget crunch, is said to be “evaluating” its options at Hanover Country Club, which serves as the practice venue for its men’s and women’s golf teams. The club, part of Dartmouth’s campus in Hanover, New Hampshire, has operated since 1899, and it features an 18-hole, Orrin Smith-designed golf course. It loses money, however, and some people think the college could pocket as much as $25 million for its 123 acres.
Desolation Row Extended – Steve Cushman has found a developer for the 200 acres currently occupied by his family’s Riverwalk Golf Club. The Cushmans have agreed to sell their flood-prone, 27-hole complex in San Diego, California to Hines, a well-known national company that intends to transform the property into a master-planned community with up to 4,000 housing units, up to 1 million square feet of office space, a shopping area, and a park. The entire golf complex will operate until 2021, and then it’ll begin closing, nine holes at a time, until it disappears forever. . . . In Bothell, Washington, Wayne Golf Course is a dead man walking. The course, described by the Seattle Times as “unpretentious” and “affordable,” has been in business since 1931, but it’s deteriorated in recent years and neither its owner, a conservation group, nor its prospective owner, the city of Bothell, wish to fund necessary improvements. The city plans to buy the course and turn it into a regional park. . . . Deon Dekkers has pulled the plug on Twin Lakes Golf Course, an 18-hole, 18-year-old track outside Tyler, Texas. It appears that Dekkers, who owns a nearby nursery, will grow trees and possibly cattle on the property.
Peter Nanula’s investment company is close to acquiring its first golf property in Minnesota. Concert Golf Partners has reportedly persuaded the board of Golden Valley Country Club, in suburban Minneapolis, to approve a proposed purchase, and now the Newport Beach, California-based owner/operator is waiting for the club’s members to do the same. If it gets a thumbs-up, Concert will own a venue with an 18-hole, A. W. Tillinghast-designed track that claims to be “indisputably the region's finest golf course” and “quite possibly the most scenic, challenging, enjoyable, and golfer-friendly course you’ll ever want to play.” (Some credit for this praise should go to Keith Foster, who recently restored Tillinghast’s 90-year-old design.) Concert currently owns 16 properties, with the largest number (five) being in Florida. Although it has incredibly deep pockets and an appetite for growth, it’s having a hard time adding to its portfolio. As best I can determine, it’s added just two properties so far this year, Philmont Country Club and White Manor Country Club, both in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Surplus Transactions – The members of Engineers Country Club, in the western part of New York’s Long Island, have voted “overwhelmingly” to sell their property to a home builder. RXR Realty plans to develop parts of Engineers’ 138 acres, the bulk of which is dedicated to an 18-hole, Devereux Emmet-designed golf course that dates from the early 1920s. RXR, which hasn’t disclosed the sale price, aims to close on the transaction next month. . . . Families from Minnesota and North Dakota have purchased a bank-owned golf course in Bullhead City, Arizona. Chris and Rene Ashmore are the leaders of the group that paid an undisclosed price for Laughlin Ranch Golf Club, which features an 18-hole, David Druzisky-designed course that opened in 2004. In an interview with the Mohave Valley Daily News, Rene Ashmore described the club as “a little bit of a hidden jewel” with “great growth potential.” . . . Cook’s Pest Control group has reportedly paid $3.7 million for Decatur Country Club, a 95-year-old venue in Decatur, Alabama. Cook’s, which plans to build a new headquarters on the club’s 95 acres, has already closed the course. According to the Decatur Daily, the seller was an investment group that acquired the club’s mortgage in 2011.
As America shrinks its international presence, the People’s Republic is looking to sink its teeth into one of our long-time allies. Private companies and government-related Chinese entities are master-planning a huge number of development projects in Pakistan connected to a venture called the Chinese-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is expected to spread across thousands of acres and precipitate what’s been described as “a deep and broad-based penetration of most sectors of Pakistan’s economy as well as its society.” The scope of the project reportedly has “no precedent in Pakistan’s history,” and it’ll involve ventures in agriculture, telecommunications, manufacturing, broadcast television, internet, and much more. One of the proposals calls for the development of at least two coastal resorts that will include hotels, marinas, a port for cruise ships, entertainment venues, wildlife sanctuaries, an aquarium, a campground, places to eat and drink, parks, and, yes, golf courses. The whole shebang is still mostly pie in the sky, but it’s an indication of the kind of things that can happen when a president is obsessed with putting America First.
Pipeline Overflow – Conservationists are mounting a counter-offensive, but Mike Keiser and Todd Warnock have submitted their development proposal for the Coul Links property in the Scottish Highlands. They promise to play within the environmental rules, boost the local economy, and deliver an 18-hole, Coore & Crenshaw-designed golf course that will offer “one of the most memorable golf experiences in the world.” If they get a green light promptly, they aim to break ground on the course in the spring and to open it in early 2021. . . . Lester George reports that he’s designing 18-hole and 12-hole courses for Virginia True, a proposed 1,000-acre community originally known as Fones Cliffs. A group led by Robert C. Smith recently paid $12 million for the property, in Richmond County, Virginia, and the Northern Neck News says that George is now “staking out tees, fairways and greens.” The seller, Diatomite Corporation, secured a rezoning for the property in 2015. At the time, Smith was working for Diatomite. . . . Pending a successful rezoning, Riser Developments will build a small golf community near Lacombe, in central Alberta, Canada. The community, called Lincoln Ranch, will take shape on 159 acres along the eastern shore of Gull Lake, and it’ll consist of 100 houses, parks, hiking trails, and a nine-hole golf course.
An official decision hasn’t been made, but it looks as if Dartmouth College is going to turn out the lights at its golf course. The Ivy League school, which is reportedly facing a budget crunch, is said to be “evaluating” its options at Hanover Country Club, which serves as the practice venue for its men’s and women’s golf teams. The club, part of Dartmouth’s campus in Hanover, New Hampshire, has operated since 1899, and it features an 18-hole, Orrin Smith-designed golf course. It loses money, however, and some people think the college could pocket as much as $25 million for its 123 acres.
Desolation Row Extended – Steve Cushman has found a developer for the 200 acres currently occupied by his family’s Riverwalk Golf Club. The Cushmans have agreed to sell their flood-prone, 27-hole complex in San Diego, California to Hines, a well-known national company that intends to transform the property into a master-planned community with up to 4,000 housing units, up to 1 million square feet of office space, a shopping area, and a park. The entire golf complex will operate until 2021, and then it’ll begin closing, nine holes at a time, until it disappears forever. . . . In Bothell, Washington, Wayne Golf Course is a dead man walking. The course, described by the Seattle Times as “unpretentious” and “affordable,” has been in business since 1931, but it’s deteriorated in recent years and neither its owner, a conservation group, nor its prospective owner, the city of Bothell, wish to fund necessary improvements. The city plans to buy the course and turn it into a regional park. . . . Deon Dekkers has pulled the plug on Twin Lakes Golf Course, an 18-hole, 18-year-old track outside Tyler, Texas. It appears that Dekkers, who owns a nearby nursery, will grow trees and possibly cattle on the property.
Sunday, October 8, 2017
The Week That Was, october 8, 2017
In Scotland, Donald Trump’s golf company is fighting losing battles against environmentalists, elected officials, angry neighbors, an off-shore wind farm, the sponsor of the Scottish Open, and, most distressingly, its own bottom line. The Associated Press, citing figures from the annual financial report that Trump Golf files with the British government, reports that the U.S. President’s Scottish golf resorts have lost money for the third consecutive year, with 2016’s deficits amounting to £17.6 million ($23 million). The golf operations at the resorts, Trump Turnberry and Trump International Golf Links Scotland, posted a 22 percent decline in revenues, falling from £11.4 million ($14.9 million) in 2015 to £9 million ($11.8 million) in 2016. Trump Golf blamed the losses on Turnberry being closed for renovations for part of the year and on currency fluctuations. Nonetheless, the news prompted a headline writer at Newsweek to ask, “Does Scotland Hate Donald Trump?” A year ago, when 2015’s financial results were published, Eric Trump stated that he expected Turnberry to “return to profitability in the short to medium term.” This year, he called attention to the resort’s “excellent reviews,” while a spokesperson for Trump Golf declined to comment.
Unlike the American president, American Golf Corporation wants no hint of a relationship with the Ku Klux Klan. The El Segundo, California-based owner/operator, a longtime giant in our industry, has changed the name of a golf property in Tennessee that was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a wealthy plantation owner and slave trader who became a Confederate general and, after the Civil War, a grand wizard of our nation’s original terrorist group. The venue, in Franklin, had been called Forrest Crossing Golf Course. It’s now known simply as The Crossing. “We believe that the game of golf is a sport that can help bring people together despite their differences,” a spokesperson for American Golf said by way of explanation, “and want everyone to feel welcome to play this beautiful course.” The Crossing is American Golf’s only property in the Volunteer State and, presumably, the only one in its entire portfolio that honors a racist.
Early next year, one of Vietnam’s premier golf developers expects to break ground on a resort community, featuring an 18-hole golf course, in Nghệ An Province, along the nation’s Central Coast. Hà Nội-based FLC Group, which aims to have 20 courses in its portfolio by 2020, has secured permission to build Nghệ An Beach & Golf Resort on 1,150 acres in a pair of villages located roughly 40 miles south of Thanh Hóa. In addition to the golf course, Nghệ An has been master-planned to include houses, up to 2,500 hotel and condo-hotel units, a convention center, an “interactive zoo,” an “extreme sport zone,” and a campground. A course designer hasn’t been identified, but either Nicklaus Design or Schmidt-Curley Design may have the inside track on the commission, as they have relationships with FLC Group. The former is responsible for 18-hole layouts that opened last year at FLC Sầm Sơn Golf Links in Thanh Hóa Province and FLC Quy Nhơn Golf Links in Bình Định Province, while the latter has produced a second course at FLC Quy Nhơn as well as FLC Hạ Long Bay Golf Club & Resort in Quảng Ninh Province. In addition, Schmidt-Curley has been hired to design the first two courses (of an expected 10) that will emerge at FLC Đong Hoi Golf Links, a 7,500-acre golf community in Quảng Bình Province. By my count, FLC Group has 15 existing and forthcoming courses, which means that it still has five that haven’t been announced. Today, only Vingroup has golf ambitions that equal or exceed FLC Group’s, and both companies have gone whole hog on golf for the same reason: It’s “a perfect way to leverage [their] real estate holdings.”
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the January 2016, May 2016, and August 2016 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Pipeline Overflow – Gary Player has agreed to oversee a renovation of the 43-year-old golf course at Soweto Country Club, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The work is expected to begin before the end of the year, and it’ll include upgrades to the 18-hole track’s tees, greens, and bunkers. Player, the course’s original designer, believes the club “plays an important part in the local community and deserves to be the very best it can be to represent Soweto and South Africa proudly.” . . . Brad Pitt isn’t alone in thinking that Croatia is made to order for golf development. Since 2015, a local group has been trying to secure permission to build Larun Golf & Yacht Resort on state-owned property in Tar-Vabriga, a village in Istria County. In addition to an 18-hole course, the 320-acre resort community will feature 130 villas, a hotel, a marina, and an olive grove. . . . A defunct 18-hole course in Geneva, New York may be revived as a nine-hole track that could open in 2018. Greg Missick, who bought the former Seneca Lake Country Club last year, wants to transform the property into Seneca Turk Resort Winery, which will feature a banquet center and a tasting room. The Finger Lakes Times reports that Missick is working with a course architect but doesn’t identify who he or she is.
A resort in Genoa City, Wisconsin once dubbed “the Catskills of the Midwest” has changed hands. The National Hellenic Museum in Chicago, which celebrates “the contributions of Greek Americans to the American mosaic,” has sold Nippersink Golf Club & Resort, a 171-acre spread that includes a 46-room hotel, a banquet center, three dozen cottages and single-family houses, and an 18-hole, James Foulis-designed golf course that’s operated since 1922. In the 1930s and 1940s the resort, on Lake Tombeau, was a popular entertainment venue (it appears that Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett performed there) and a favored gathering spot for Chicago-area gangsters. Neither the buyer nor the price has been revealed, but Chris Charnas of Links Capital Advisors had listed the property for $1.2 million.
Surplus Transactions – For an undisclosed price, David Spirk has agreed to purchase a 27-hole complex, including an 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed golf course, in Hellertown, Pennsylvania. The complex’s Ross course opened in 1948, as part of Bethlehem Steel Club, got its third nine in 1958, and assumed its current identity, as Silver Creek Country Club, in 1986, when the steel company decided that funding a club for its employees was a waste of money. Spirk, a developer, intends to build houses, including houses for seniors, on some of Silver Creek’s 280 acres. . . . Jonathan and Donald Hoening, who reportedly believe that public golf should be “accessible and affordable,” have acquired at Melody Hill Country Club in suburban Providence, Rhode Island. Melody Hill, which features an 18-hole layout that opened in 1976, will complement the brothers’ Raceway Golf Club, in Thompson, Connecticut. They also manage Dudley Hill Golf Club in Dudley, Massachusetts. . . . As part of an effort to preserve open space and provide affordable golf, the village of Johnsburg, Illinois has agreed to buy the 18-hole Chapel Hill Golf Course. The 100-acre property, located in the town of McHenry, has operated since 1969, and it claims to be “truly a staple of Northwest Chicagoland golf.” The sale price hasn’t been disclosed, but the village has set out to secure a $1.1 million loan.
Ernie Els will receive next year’s Old Tom Morris Award, the highest honor that the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America can bestow. The award has been presented annually since 1983 to an individual who’s made “a lifetime commitment to the game of golf” and “helped to mold the welfare of the game in a manner and style exemplified by Old Tom Morris.” It’s previously gone to entertainers (Bob Hope, Dinah Shore), journalists (Dan Jenkins), developers (Herb Kohler), and to a parade of professional golfers who, like Els, became “signature” architects, among them Ben Crenshaw, Nancy Lopez, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, and Annika Sorenstam. The GCSAA, citing Els’ many professional accomplishments and humanitarian activities, called the South African star “one of the greats of the game” who “elevates the human spirit in all of us to be better people and a more compassionate society.” Els said he was “honored” to receive the award and praised superintendents for being “as vital to this game as anyone.”
Unlike the American president, American Golf Corporation wants no hint of a relationship with the Ku Klux Klan. The El Segundo, California-based owner/operator, a longtime giant in our industry, has changed the name of a golf property in Tennessee that was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a wealthy plantation owner and slave trader who became a Confederate general and, after the Civil War, a grand wizard of our nation’s original terrorist group. The venue, in Franklin, had been called Forrest Crossing Golf Course. It’s now known simply as The Crossing. “We believe that the game of golf is a sport that can help bring people together despite their differences,” a spokesperson for American Golf said by way of explanation, “and want everyone to feel welcome to play this beautiful course.” The Crossing is American Golf’s only property in the Volunteer State and, presumably, the only one in its entire portfolio that honors a racist.
Early next year, one of Vietnam’s premier golf developers expects to break ground on a resort community, featuring an 18-hole golf course, in Nghệ An Province, along the nation’s Central Coast. Hà Nội-based FLC Group, which aims to have 20 courses in its portfolio by 2020, has secured permission to build Nghệ An Beach & Golf Resort on 1,150 acres in a pair of villages located roughly 40 miles south of Thanh Hóa. In addition to the golf course, Nghệ An has been master-planned to include houses, up to 2,500 hotel and condo-hotel units, a convention center, an “interactive zoo,” an “extreme sport zone,” and a campground. A course designer hasn’t been identified, but either Nicklaus Design or Schmidt-Curley Design may have the inside track on the commission, as they have relationships with FLC Group. The former is responsible for 18-hole layouts that opened last year at FLC Sầm Sơn Golf Links in Thanh Hóa Province and FLC Quy Nhơn Golf Links in Bình Định Province, while the latter has produced a second course at FLC Quy Nhơn as well as FLC Hạ Long Bay Golf Club & Resort in Quảng Ninh Province. In addition, Schmidt-Curley has been hired to design the first two courses (of an expected 10) that will emerge at FLC Đong Hoi Golf Links, a 7,500-acre golf community in Quảng Bình Province. By my count, FLC Group has 15 existing and forthcoming courses, which means that it still has five that haven’t been announced. Today, only Vingroup has golf ambitions that equal or exceed FLC Group’s, and both companies have gone whole hog on golf for the same reason: It’s “a perfect way to leverage [their] real estate holdings.”
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the January 2016, May 2016, and August 2016 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Pipeline Overflow – Gary Player has agreed to oversee a renovation of the 43-year-old golf course at Soweto Country Club, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The work is expected to begin before the end of the year, and it’ll include upgrades to the 18-hole track’s tees, greens, and bunkers. Player, the course’s original designer, believes the club “plays an important part in the local community and deserves to be the very best it can be to represent Soweto and South Africa proudly.” . . . Brad Pitt isn’t alone in thinking that Croatia is made to order for golf development. Since 2015, a local group has been trying to secure permission to build Larun Golf & Yacht Resort on state-owned property in Tar-Vabriga, a village in Istria County. In addition to an 18-hole course, the 320-acre resort community will feature 130 villas, a hotel, a marina, and an olive grove. . . . A defunct 18-hole course in Geneva, New York may be revived as a nine-hole track that could open in 2018. Greg Missick, who bought the former Seneca Lake Country Club last year, wants to transform the property into Seneca Turk Resort Winery, which will feature a banquet center and a tasting room. The Finger Lakes Times reports that Missick is working with a course architect but doesn’t identify who he or she is.
A resort in Genoa City, Wisconsin once dubbed “the Catskills of the Midwest” has changed hands. The National Hellenic Museum in Chicago, which celebrates “the contributions of Greek Americans to the American mosaic,” has sold Nippersink Golf Club & Resort, a 171-acre spread that includes a 46-room hotel, a banquet center, three dozen cottages and single-family houses, and an 18-hole, James Foulis-designed golf course that’s operated since 1922. In the 1930s and 1940s the resort, on Lake Tombeau, was a popular entertainment venue (it appears that Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett performed there) and a favored gathering spot for Chicago-area gangsters. Neither the buyer nor the price has been revealed, but Chris Charnas of Links Capital Advisors had listed the property for $1.2 million.
Surplus Transactions – For an undisclosed price, David Spirk has agreed to purchase a 27-hole complex, including an 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed golf course, in Hellertown, Pennsylvania. The complex’s Ross course opened in 1948, as part of Bethlehem Steel Club, got its third nine in 1958, and assumed its current identity, as Silver Creek Country Club, in 1986, when the steel company decided that funding a club for its employees was a waste of money. Spirk, a developer, intends to build houses, including houses for seniors, on some of Silver Creek’s 280 acres. . . . Jonathan and Donald Hoening, who reportedly believe that public golf should be “accessible and affordable,” have acquired at Melody Hill Country Club in suburban Providence, Rhode Island. Melody Hill, which features an 18-hole layout that opened in 1976, will complement the brothers’ Raceway Golf Club, in Thompson, Connecticut. They also manage Dudley Hill Golf Club in Dudley, Massachusetts. . . . As part of an effort to preserve open space and provide affordable golf, the village of Johnsburg, Illinois has agreed to buy the 18-hole Chapel Hill Golf Course. The 100-acre property, located in the town of McHenry, has operated since 1969, and it claims to be “truly a staple of Northwest Chicagoland golf.” The sale price hasn’t been disclosed, but the village has set out to secure a $1.1 million loan.
Ernie Els will receive next year’s Old Tom Morris Award, the highest honor that the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America can bestow. The award has been presented annually since 1983 to an individual who’s made “a lifetime commitment to the game of golf” and “helped to mold the welfare of the game in a manner and style exemplified by Old Tom Morris.” It’s previously gone to entertainers (Bob Hope, Dinah Shore), journalists (Dan Jenkins), developers (Herb Kohler), and to a parade of professional golfers who, like Els, became “signature” architects, among them Ben Crenshaw, Nancy Lopez, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, and Annika Sorenstam. The GCSAA, citing Els’ many professional accomplishments and humanitarian activities, called the South African star “one of the greats of the game” who “elevates the human spirit in all of us to be better people and a more compassionate society.” Els said he was “honored” to receive the award and praised superintendents for being “as vital to this game as anyone.”
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