The Week That Was, april 30, 2017

     Just days after he wormed his way into this blog, Kid Rock played semi-competitive golf with Jack Nicklaus at his side. Seeing how he also recently genuflected at the White House, it’s legit to wonder where the right-wing hick-rocker, Waffle House brawler, sex-tape star, and one-time Ben Carson supporter ends up next. It’s no stretch to envision a round with the president and perhaps an appearance at a prominent pro-am, and before anyone realizes it the Kid will be the new face of golf. Justin Timberlake, your favorite sport now needs you more than ever!

     Anyone looking to identify golf’s forthcoming development hot spots might be advised to apply the principle reporters use to weed out corruption: Follow the money. And the money, in the form of “ultra-high net-worth individuals” – people worth $30 million or more – is spreading all over the planet.
     Over the next decade, according to Knight Frank’s “Wealth Report 2017,” the world-wide number of UHNWIs – currently 193,490 – will increase by 43 percent. The greatest growth among the ultra-wealthy will come in Vietnam, India, and China, while the least will come in Europe (a 12 percent overall increase), particularly in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
     Here are some highlights from this year’s report:
      – Over the next decade, the fastest rate of growth is expected to occur in Vietnam, where the population of UHNWIs is expected to rise by 170 percent, to 540.
      – The rate of growth in India (150 percent) will nearly match Vietnam’s.
      – China’s economy may be slowing, but the number of UHNWIs in the People’s Republic is still expected to grow by 140 percent.
      – The rate of growth among UHNWIs in Africa (33 percent), though coming from a low base, will exceed that of Europe and North America (31 percent). Knight Frank expects “sharp rises” in Mauritius (“a popular retirement hot spot for the wealthy”), Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda, and it believes that Nigeria is “worth watching as a potential hot spot for wealth creation.”
      – Australasia is expected to see a 70 percent increase in its UHNWIs, thanks in part “the attractive lifestyle” it offers. Canada is expected to see a 50 percent increase, a reflection of its emergence as a “safe haven” from political turmoil.
     One last tidbit: The number of existing UHNWIs world-wide increased by 6,340 last year.

     One of the world’s richest people is looking to build a golf course on a mountain overlooking Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. The course will be the centerpiece of Tabori Mountain, a resort that’s being developed by Bidzina Ivanishvili, who’s said to be worth $4.5 billion and “infamous for pulling government strings from behind the scenes.” Tbilisi is a city on the rise – the New York Times recently called it “the California of the Caucasus,” and National Geographic thinks it’s “one of the best, most strikingly original travel destinations in Europe or Asia, if not the world” – but it’s still home to just one golf course, a nine-hole track at the Ambasadori Hotel in Katchreti. A Georgian news source says that Ivanishvili’s course should open next year, but there are no guarantees in former Soviet satellites.

     Pipeline Overflow – A Chinese group has set out to build an 18-hole golf course in or near Nairobi, the capital of Kenya and “East Africa’s most cosmopolitan city.” The course will be the centerpiece of Sion China International Golf Club, and KBC-TV expects it to attract “over 50 professional golfers from China.” . . . Kerala’s state government plans to modernize one of India’s most historic golf courses, the nine-hole track at Trivandrum Golf Club in Thiruvananthapuram. The course dates to the 1850s and claims to be the second-oldest outside Great Britain. After it’s upgraded to “international standards,” the state expects “a quantum jump in the arrival of foreign/domestic Golf lovers.” . . . Tim Lobb’s golf course in Egypt will be one of two that the British golf architect expects to debut this year. The other, Country Life Golf Course, is in the hills above Bodrum, Turkey, and it’s scheduled to open in October. Lobb’s client, Fikret Öztürk, is a well-known Turkish businessman who made his money in oil and gasoline distribution and real-estate development. He owns a nine-hole layout in Bodrum and an 18-hole course in Belek.

     Saying it “wasn’t a decision we took lightly,” Bowling Green State University, in suburban Toledo, Ohio, will close its 18-hole golf course at the end of this year’s golf season. Forrest Creason Golf Course rang up only 11,576 rounds last year, down by nearly half from the 22,089 it got in 2010. “The finances and the market just don’t make sense,” a university spokesperson said in a press release, “and, given the challenges facing higher education and the financial challenges facing our students, we can’t ask them to continue to subsidize a golf course.” Forrest Creason Golf Course has been around since the mid 1960s. It lost nearly $120,000 last year, and it was expected to lose a similar amount this year.

     Desolation Row Extended -- Time has run out on Riviera Golf Club, a venue that helped to over-populate Naples, Florida with both people and golf courses. The 18-hole, executive-length layout, owned by a Minnesota-based LLC, hd operated since 1971. . . . The financial advisor who bought a nine-hole, par-3 track in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota just two years ago has decided to call it a day. Mike Mathias is looking to sell all or part of Ironman Golf Course, which opened in 1960. “The tough thing with Ironman is it’s all par-3s,” he told Detroit Lakes Online. “There are some people who like to pull the driver out every now and then, and you just don’t have the opportunity on the course.” Odd that this “tough thing” wasn’t obvious to Mathias when he bought the property. . . . Next month, a private club established during the Roaring Twenties in Decatur, Alabama will cease to operate as a golf venue. Decatur County Club, which features a “challenging” 18-hole, executive-length layout, has “struggled in recent years,” according to the Decatur Daily. It’ll stay in business, but only as a social club.

     He’s a golf-course architect, a business mogul, a World Golf Hall of Famer, the Living Brand, and now, believe it or not, an interior designer. Yes, you guessed correctly, Greg Norman has established a subsidiary that will do or re-do clubhouses, residences, and other live and play spaces. Just what the world was waiting for.