The Week That Was, september 3, 2017

     When it re-opens, in the spring of next year, the Tom Fazio-redesigned track at Adare Manor will be “among the finest golf courses in the world,” its owners believe, and it’ll be priced accordingly. According to the Limerick Leader, Adare Manor plans to charge the top price in Ireland for a peak-season 18-hole round – €340 ($400) – plus €60 ($70) for a cart and €55 ($65) for a caddie. If it’s any consolation, the course is said to be in line to host the Ryder Cup matches of 2026.

     With China now almost completely off the boards, Schmidt-Curley Design is turning Vietnam into a major profit center. The Paradise Valley, Arizona-based firm opened its first course in the socialist republic, FLC Quy Nhơn Golf Links in Bình Định Province, earlier this year, and within the next few months it expects to debut FLC Hạ Long Bay Golf Club & Resort, in Quảng Ninh Province. Brian Curley, the designer of Hạ Long Bay, contends that the track is “certainly one of the most photogenic properties we have ever had the pleasure to work on,” and he thinks many of its holes will eventually “be known throughout Asia and the World.” As the course names indicate, both tracks were commissioned by FLC Group, which has also hired Schmidt-Curley to create the first two courses at FLC Đồng Hới Golf Links, a 7,500-acre resort community in Quảng Bình Province. FLC isn’t Schmidt-Curley’s only client, however, as Trường An Golf JSC has appointed the company to produce two 18-hole layouts at Stone Valley Golf Resort in Hà Nam Province. In a press release, Curley notes that the foundation for his firm’s Vietnamese work was laid in China, and he promises “to fully execute the most successfully designed and constructed courses possible with the greatest economic potential.”

     Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the January 2017 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

    Pipeline Overflow – After more than a decade of stalemate, elected officials in Hong Kong have agreed to a land swap that will lead to the construction of a golf course by Sha Lo Tung Development Company. The city will extend a lease on property at the Shuen Wan landfill, while the developers will surrender environmentally sensitive property in Pat Sin Leng Country Park. Construction on the golf course isn’t imminent, as the developers must still secure approvals and permits. . . . CLIQIT, a group of Nigerian developers, has set out to build a business park, including a golf course, in suburban Abuja, the nation’s capital city. The park, to be called the Arena, will also feature a hotel, a convention center, research facilities, and a helipad. The golf course will reportedly emerge in phase two of construction. . . . Bruce Weller, a British course architect, has agreed to design a family-friendly course in Liverpool, England. The nine-hole track will take shape on what’s been described as “scrubland” at the Liverpool Golf Centre, which is eager to establish itself as a high-quality practice facility. Over his 20-year career, Weller has produced numerous courses in England and others in Italy, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa, and the United States.

     A corporate slice of Jimmy Buffet has come to Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks. A Coral Gables, Florida-based investment group, Driftwood Acquisitions & Development, has paid an undisclosed amount for the Tan-Tar-A resort, which is getting a “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Last Mango in Paris,” “License to Chill” vibe via a Margaritaville re-branding. Tan-Tar-A, a 45-year-old a vacation spot in Osage Beach, includes 500 hotel rooms, a marina, a water park, meeting space, an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Bruce Devlin and Robert von Hagge, and with what’s said to be “one of the best nine-hole courses in the country.” Driftwood’s CEO, though not identifying himself as a Parrothead, called the partnership with Margaritaville Holdings “a dream come true.”

     Surplus Transactions – An 18-hole track that’s said to be “one of Chicagoland’s premier championship facilities” has been sold. An unknown person or group has paid an unknown price for the Course at Aberdeen, a 20-year-old venue in Valparaiso, Indiana that was co-designed by Mike Hurdzan and Jack Kidwell. Chris Charnas, who brokered the sale, hasn’t revealed any details about the transaction, but it appears that the seller was a group led by Barbara Young. . . . The University of West Florida is going to take a a major haircut on its investment in Scenic Hills Country Club. In 2012, the school paid roughly $2.2 million for the 18-hole layout in Pensacola, and the best offer it can get today for the 150-acre property is $1.1 million. “We are selling it at a loss,” UWF’s president confessed. “I think the assumptions that the university made in order to make the acquisition just didn’t materialize.” Scenic Hills, a Chic Adams course, opened in 1958, and it was spiffed up by Jerry Pate in 1992. The purchasers are a group of home owners in the course’s accompanying community. . . . The clock is ticking on Deer Run Golf Club, a 44-year-old venue in Lowell, Michigan. Deer Run’s 140 acres have been purchased by the Kent County Youth Agricultural Association, which needs a new home for its annual youth fair. The club’s 18-hole course will operate until 2019, which is when its lease with the property owner, Kamak LLC, will end.

     In somewhat belated news, one of Vietnam’s best-known golf properties has changed hands. Last year, according to the Vietnam Investment Review, Indochina Land sold Montgomerie Links to TBC Group, an entity that can apparently write a $25.5 million check despite having no presence on the English-speaking internets. Montgomerie Links, which features an 18-hole, Colin Montgomerie-designed track, is one of the high-profile “signature” venues that has made the Đà Nẵng area ripe for golf development and one of Vietnam’s most popular golf destinations. (The others are Nick Faldo’s Laguna Lăng Cô Golf Club, Greg Norman’s BRG Đà Nẵng Golf Club, and Luke Donald’s Bà Nà Hills Golf Club.) Golfasian says that the course, which opened in 2008, comes “as close as you can get to true links golf in Vietnam” and conveys “the feeling of being in Ireland or Scotland without the cold temperatures of the British Isles!” Just what your travel agent ordered.

     Grow-the-game initiatives developed in recent years by England Golf are paying dividends. The governing body for amateur golf in the nation says that more than 640,000 people have given the sport a try over the past four years, and more than 44,000 of them have joined British clubs. Needless to say, the organization is thrilled to announce such results. Its strategy, says an official, “puts the customer at the heart of everything we do” and provides golfers with “the golfing experience they want, whether that’s competitive play, social golf, short-format golf which fits into busy lifestyles, or the opportunity to meet friends and make new ones.” Easier said than done.