The Week That Was, august 20, 2017

     In an effort to jump-start his sagging Japanese mission, Greg “the Living Brand” Norman has entered into a partnership with a well-connected, 95-year-old, Tokyo-based civil engineering company. The LB outlined plans to redesign a parade of lackluster, under-performing Japanese golf courses last spring, his goal being to secure six to eight commissions annually until the river ran dry. To date, however, his West Palm Beach, Florida-based design firm hasn’t announced any commissions. Hence the alliance with Ohba Company, Ltd., which is said to be the largest company of its kind in Japan. The partners will be targeting “all the courses built in Japan during the 1980s but never modernized,” properties that the LB views as “dormant assets that can increase in value through redesigns.” Presuming clients can be found, Greg Norman Golf Course Design will “renovate, restore, reposition, and rebrand” the courses, while Ohba will handle permitting, construction management, and related matters.

     Advance Golf Partners has acquired what it views as “a premium public course” in “one of the top growth areas in Texas.” The venue so described is Bridlewood Golf Club in Flower Mound, a property that features an 18-hole, D. A. Weibring-designed layout that opened in 1997. Neither Advance nor the seller, Dominion Golf Group, has announced the price. Bridlewood is one of 11 courses in Advance’s portfolio, a collection that includes two others in Texas (Sky Creek Ranch Golf Club in Keller and WestRidge Golf Course in McKinney), four in Florida, and the remainder in Delaware, Kentucky, North Carolina, and South Carolina. And if you’re wondering whether Topgolf is influencing golf operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, take note: The Cross Timbers Gazette reports that Dallas-based Advance intends to spiff up Bridlewood’s practice area “by adding music and making targets and the driving range experience more fun.”

     Surplus Transactions – It took more than a year, but the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority has found a buyer for Suneagles Golf Course. Pending a successful closing, the 18-hole, A. W. Tillinghast-designed track in Eatontown, New Jersey will belong to Salvatore Martelli, a developer who’s agreed to pay $5 million for Suneagles’ 171 acres. Martelli thinks Suneagles is “a diamond in the rough,” and he intends to “restore it to its former glory.” . . . A group of nine families have seized control of the Club at Wynstone, a financially troubled, formerly member-owned venue in Chicagoland. The 28-year-old property, originally known as Wynstone Golf Club, features an 18-hole, Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course, and it aims to rebrand itself as a “friendly, inclusive, comfortable, and respectful family-centered environment.” A price hasn’t been announced, but the Daily Herald says that the new owners paid off the club’s $6 million in debt. . . . Scott Greenseth, a golf-course builder, is the new owner of South Fork Creek Golf Course, an 18-hole, Joel Goldstrand-designed track in St. James, Minnesota. KEYC-TV reports that South Fork Creek, which has had numerous owners in its 95-year history, had been “on the brink of closing down for good.”

     The Inn at St. John’s, a former Catholic seminary in Plymouth, Michigan, has agreed to sell one-third of its 27-hole golf complex to a home builder. The inn, owned by the Archdiocese of Detroit, hasn’t said which of its Bruce Matthews-designed nines will go, but the choices are the Matthew, Mark, and Luke tracks. The archdiocese considers the transaction to be “a way to build on St. John’s financial and spiritual success.”

     Desolation Row Extended – It also appears that Hombre Golf Course, in Panama City Beach, Florida, will lose nine of its 27 holes. George Roberts, the complex’s owner, wants to build houses on the Hombre’s Good nine – as opposed to its Bad and Ugly nines – because the venue “is not doing very well.” Roberts, who just happens to be a home builder, bought the Hombre last year. . . . Elected officials in Courtland, Alabama have pulled the plug on Valley Landing Golf Course. The 18-hole track, a John K. Millhouse design, opened in 2001, and it reportedly cost $5 million to build. The Moulton Advertiser reports the city based its decision “on the lack of revenue Valley Landing was bringing in.” The city hopes to find a buyer. . . . The clock is ticking on Hiawatha Golf Club, a fixture in Minneapolis, Minnesota since 1934. After much debate involving water-related issues, the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board has voted to close Hiawatha’s 18-hole course, which was redesigned by Garrett Gill and Paul Miller, at the end of the 2019 golf season. The number of rounds annually played at the course has fallen to about 20,000 in recent years, a decline that the board reportedly attributes to “wet conditions and market changes.”