The Week That Was, july 9, 2017

     No details, but a Facebook post says that Cape Wickham Links, the Australian track that checks in at #24 on Golf Digest’s list of the world’s greatest golf courses, has been sold. The 18-hole layout, co-designed by Mike DeVries and Darius Oliver, is only a year old, and it went on the market in February. The new owners, whoever they may be, are expected to begin operating the property on August 15.

     It’s official: Darius Oliver, the publisher of Planet Golf and a co-designer of Cape Wickham Links, will design the highly anticipated golf course that’s expected to take shape on Australia’s Kangaroo Island. The 18-hole track, the centerpiece of a 600-acre oceanfront community named the Cliffs Kangaroo Island, is being developed by the team that produced Cape Wickham, a bucket-list layout on Tasmania’s King Island. Delivering a course as drool-worthy as Cape Wickham is a tall order, but the developers nonetheless expect to design and build what a press release describes as “one of the world’s most spectacular destination golf courses.” Echoing that sentiment, Oliver believes the site he’s been given “is ready made for great golf” and predicts that “golfers from all corners of the globe are going to fall in love with this place.” The Cliffs was initiated by a group that intended to build a Greg Norman-designed track. Oliver has modified Norman’s routing, in the process creating “a more logical” and more walkable course that, in the words of a publicist, features “what are undeniably more exciting golf holes.” A construction schedule hasn’t been announced, and all the necessary financing isn’t yet in place.

     Pipeline Overflow – The best golf course in Portugal, according to Golf Digest, is a 10-year-old Jack Nicklaus “signature” layout at Monte Rei Golf & Country Club, in the eastern Algarve. Monte Rei had hoped to break ground on a second Nicklaus-designed course in 2010, but its dreams evaporated when Europe’s economy crashed. Today, the community believes that “the conditions are right to relaunch,” and the Financial Times reports that second golf course, as well as a beach club, are “in the pipeline.” . . . Despite complaints by environmentalists, the controversial Desert Rose community in Namibia is said to be “in full swing.” A development group has proposed to build the community on a stretch of beachfront in Dorob National Park, outside the city of Swakopmund. If permission is granted, Desert Rose will include houses, a hotel, a convention center, entertainment venues, office space, a shopping area, and a golf course. . . . While they modernize West Bay Club in Estero, Florida, Dana Fry and Jason Straka are preparing to create a new course in Campinas, Brazil. The 18-hole track will feature “quite a diverse mix of golf styles,” says a press release, and attract “a diverse range of clientele.” Construction is expected to begin in late 2018.

     In 2010, France won the right to host next year’s Ryder Cup competition in part because it promised to create a generation of golfers. The plan, as outlined by la Fédération Française de Golf, was to build 100 driving ranges and “short” courses (pitch-‘n’-putt or par-3 tracks) in cities across the nation, in an effort to broaden golf’s appeal beyond its traditional white, male, middle-class base. At the time, France had 410,000 registered golfers, and the FFG set out, with the Ryder Cup’s promotional help, to boost the number to 700,000 by 2020. So far, according to the New York Times, things are proceeding smoothly on the development front. The FFG has helped to establish 91 of its promised “small structures,” and another 110 are said to be in development. Unfortunately, golf participation in France isn’t growing. In fact, the newspaper reports, the number of registered golfers in France “decreased for a few years and is flat over the last six years since the Ryder Cup announcement.” So yes, Robert Burns was right about the best-laid plans of mice and men.

     World-wide golf tourism has increased for seven consecutive years, according to the International Association of Golf Tour Operators, and it’s expected to remain on an upward trajectory for several more. Only one cause for concern: The rate of the increase is slowing. The IAGTO’s members saw, on average, 9.8 percent annual growth for four consecutive years until 2016, when the rate fell to 7.5 percent. Further declines – perhaps to as low as 5 percent annually – should be expected through 2020, says the IAGTO, due to “limits to supply in popular golf destinations.” Some tour operators aren’t cashing in on the good times, however, and they’re in the United States, where sales and future bookings are reportedly “running at less than half the global average.” The IAGTO doesn’t explain why.

     One of the Grand Strand’s oldest golf properties celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, and it may not see 51. Kevin Blum has pulled the plug on Brierwood Golf Club, a 160-acre venue in Shallotte, North Carolina, which he’s concluded was bleeding him dry. “There aren’t enough rounds, and I don’t have enough money,” he told the Myrtle Beach Sun News. Brierwood was designed by Ben Ward, a doctor. Blum bought the 18-hole track in 2014, reportedly for $1.25 million, and recently tried to sell it for $1.5 million. He found no takers. It appears that he’s decided to hold onto the course for now – “It has a lot of potential even if it’s not a golf course,” he said – although he reports that the city of Shallotte has expressed an interest in the property.

     Desolation Row Extended – Earlier this year, Massachusetts lost one of its Donald Ross-designed golf courses. Winchendon School has turned out the lights at Winchendon Golf Club, a venue that reportedly lost $200,000 last year and similar amounts in previous years. A spokesperson for the boarding school told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that “there just wasn’t enough local support for it to make the finances work.” . . . Sunset Valley Golf Club, which occupies 46 acres in Omaha, Nebraska, has been dissolved and will likely be sold to a residential developer. The Omaha World-Herald says that the club, which opened in 1964, has had “financial struggles.” If the sale goes through, the club and its nine-hole course will close at the end of the season. . . . If all goes as expected, Pine Crest Golf Course, in Houston, Texas, will soon become a subdivision. A home builder has agreed to buy the recently closed 116-acre property, which had been home to an 18-hole, Derrell Witt-designed golf course. The course had operated since 1992.