The Week That Was, may 7, 2017

     For Tom Doak, one good thing in Australia has led to many others. The Traverse City, Michigan-based architect has produced a pair of well-regarded courses Down Under (notably, Barnbougle Dunes Golf Links on Tasmania), and now he’s inked a sixth renovation contract. His latest commission comes from Yarra Yarra Golf Club in suburban Melbourne, which aims to “restore the luster and uniqueness” of its Alex Russell-designed golf course, reclaim the 18-hole track’s unique position on the Melbourne Sandbelt,” and ensure that it remains “of a standard that will attract and retain members.” In previous episodes of Doak’s career, he won similar commissions from three other Melbourne-area venues – Royal Melbourne Golf Club, National Golf Club, and Woodlands Golf Club – as well as Concord Golf Club in suburban Sydney and Royal Adelaide Golf Club in South Australia. An announcement from Yarra Yarra doesn’t say when construction will begin, and Doak hasn’t said where his next Australian job is coming from.

     By wide margins, some of the most committed U.S. golfers expect to play as often or even more often than they did last year, and they’d rather play a ho-hum course with a friend than a top-rated course with a stranger. Those are among the results of an encouraging survey of more than 1,000 U.S. golfers conducted late last year on behalf of Golf.com. The respondents were the cream of the golf crop: 70 percent were members of households that earned at least $100,000 in 2016, and more than 80 percent played at least 10 rounds over the past year. A few other opinions they expressed: By and large, they don’t think golf is too expensive or takes too long to play and don’t feel guilty about losing family time. They also disdain nine-hole rounds and slow play. One possible cause for concern: They don’t believe golf is more welcoming today than it was a generation ago.

     A golf course will be among the attractions at “a self-sustaining smart community” that’s expected to emerge – someday, someway – along the waterfront in the Philippines’ capital city. The community, known alternately as New Manila Bay and City of Pearl, is being touted as “something that no one has done before” and “beyond any international standards today.” It’ll be run entirely by artificial intelligence, and its master plan calls for the creation of residential, business, education, and sports districts on more than 1,000 acres of property that will be created in what’s currently Manila Bay. City of Pearl’s developers, a Filipino-Chinese consortium operating as UAA Kinming, figure it’ll take 20 years to complete the community. The waterfront reclamation alone is expected to take four years.

     The clock is ticking on one of the oldest golf properties on New York’s Long Island. Finalizing an agreement made months ago, Weiss Properties and some partners have paid an undisclosed price for Woodmere Club, which was founded in 1908 and moved to its current location, in the town of Woodmere, in 1910. In recent years, Woodmere has suffered from what a club official described as “a shrinking membership.” Its original course was designed by Jack Pirie and redesigned, in the late 1940s, by Robert Trent Jones. In succeeding years, the 18-hole track was tweaked by Brian Silva and Mike Nuzzo. Woodmere will eventually disappear and be replaced with houses, but not before 2022. For the time being, annual memberships are reportedly selling for $11,500.

     Surplus Transactions – The clock is also ticking on Eagle Valley Golf Course, a 19-year-old track that occupies 135 acres in Evansville, Indiana. A local school board has agreed to pay $3.37 million for the 18-hole, Bob Lohmann-designed course, as it believes the property will someday be an ideal site for a high school. The end isn’t necessarily near, however, for Dean and Dirk Brinker, the sellers, will continue to operate Eagle Valley for at least three years. . . . Late last year, a company that hosts equestrian events acquired Balmoral Woods Golf Club, an 18-hole layout in Crete, Illinois. HITS, Inc. hasn’t disclosed what it paid for the club, but the seller, a family-owned group led by David Mortell, was hoping to get $1.35 million. Balmoral Woods opened in 1975, with a nine-hole track that was co-designed by Arthur Davis and Ron Kirby. A few years later, George Fazio redesigned the original course and added a second nine. The new owners will reportedly keep the Mortells involved in the business “in a small capacity.” . . . A dozen investors have come together to buy a long-established private club in Clarksville, Tennessee. Clarksville Country Club, which opened in 1965, has reportedly “fallen on some challenging times,” but it was saved because the new owners believe it’s “a key piece of the puzzle for economic development in the community.” George Cobb designed the club’s 18-hole course.

     In a mean-spirited review of the restaurant at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles (the meals are “not worth the cost,” and the wines “taste like the kind of cheap stuff you drank in high school”), LA Weekly raises a potentially worrisome issue for Trump Golf. “Most tee times into the near future remain available for booking online,” writes Sarah Bennett, and “on several recent trips to the clubhouse restaurants for weekday happy hour and dinner, the dining experience was shared by only a few scattered customers.” The U.S. president is quick to accuse newspapers and television networks he dislikes as “failing.” Is it time for him to train his own mean-spiritedness on his Los Angeles property?