The Week That Was, march 26, 2017

     In terms of development and construction, 2016 was another repeat performance for the U.S. golf industry. Our business lost 190 golf properties last year, according to the National Golf Foundation, continuing a string of net annual reductions that began in 2006. Sadly, the plus side of the ledger barely showed a pulse, as only 15.5 new courses opened, according to the NGF’s unnecessarily complicated math. While these losses may seem dismaying, the NGF characterizes them as a “healthy self-balancing of supply and demand” and cheerfully predicts that they’ll continue “for several more years.” The message, apparently, is that when supply and demand finally do reach some sort of equilibrium, everything will be hunky-dory for golf operations. As in years past, the courses most likely to go belly up are privately owned, affordably priced nine- or 18-hole daily-fee tracks. All in all, when 2016 ended there were 15,014 U.S. golf facilities still standing. By this time next year, the NGF expects to count 150 to 175 fewer.

     Tom Doak, no stranger to Australia’s golf industry, has booked another engagement. The Traverse City, Michigan-based architect has been hired to make “significant” design changes to the Ocean course at the National Golf Club, a renowned 54-hole venue in suburban Melbourne. In 2014, Golf Digest viewed the Ocean track, a Peter Thomson design, as the #30 course in the nation, but in last year’s ranking it fell to #38. Without question, the club isn’t happy with the direction. Pending approval by the National’s members, Doak will provide the course with “significantly superior green complexes, improved routing, and fewer, more appropriately positioned and designed bunkers.” Doak has co-designed two courses from scratch in Australia (notably, Barnbougle Dunes Golf Links in Bridgport, Tasmania) and these days he serves as the design consultant to another elite property, Royal Melbourne Golf Club. In addition, last year his firm was commissioned to overhaul Concord Golf Club, in suburban Sydney. If you’re wondering what makes the National so special, poart of the reason is that the Ocean course is its number-three layout. Golf Digest lists the club’s Old and Moonah courses as #10 and #11 in Australia.

     Maryland has evidently become one of ClubCorp’s final frontiers. For the second time in a month, the Dallas, Texas-based owner/operator has acquired a property in the Old Line State, this time Norbeck Country Club in Rockville. The club, which opened in 1954, features an 18-hole, Alfred Tull-designed golf course that ClubCorp believes is “one of the most beautiful and challenging courses in the Washington, D.C. metroplex.” To attract new members, the company intends to add “stylish and new dining and social features” to Norbeck’s clubhouse.” Last month, ClubCorp added Eagle’s Nest Country Club, in suburban Baltimore, to its portfolio, which now consists of more than 200 golf properties and private clubs of various kinds in 27 states and the District of Columbia.

     As it turns out, the CEO who brought the World Golf Championships to Mexico City has an out-sized, perhaps over-sized dream for growing the game in his native land. Two weeks ago, I reported that Benjamin Salinas of TV Azteca had formed a group that intends to build Mexico’s first daily-fee golf course, on a site somewhere in the vicinity of Tijuana. It appears, however, that Salinas views the venture in Tijuana as the start of something much bigger, because the Associated Press reports that his true goal is to build at least one public track in each of Mexico’s 31 states. Such weighty ambitions aren’t easily realized, but if Salinas ends up building even a few public courses, an important mission of the WGC will be accomplished. And wouldn’t it be ironic if Trump National Doral’s loss turned out to be Mexico’s gain?

     A year ago, I asked for a prediction: Who becomes a “signature” architect first -- Rory McIlory, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, or Jordan Spieth? Well, if you chose Spieth, you win. The former Masters champion has teamed up with Roy Bechtol to create a six-hole, par-3 track at University of Texas Golf Club, the home venue of the college’s golf teams. The university expects the aptly named Spieth Lower 40 to serve as a recruiting tool, and Spieth expects it to eventually lead to bigger and better things. “It’s cool being part of the design process,” he told the Austin American-Statesman, “because I’m interested in doing that later in life.” The layout is scheduled to open in September.