Tom Fazio and Discovery Land Company are once again joining forces, this time to put their distinctive marks on an emerging high-end community in suburban Nashville, Tennessee. An 18-hole, Fazio-designed golf course is set to take shape at Hideaway at Arrington, a 742-acre private community that will feature up to 350 houses as well as a variety of amenities that will, the developers say, enable residents to enjoy the area’s “rich cultural heritage” and engage in “an active, outdoor lifestyle.” Discovery owns at least 16 golf communities in the United States, Mexico, and the Bahamas, and Fazio has created courses for probably half of them, including Estancia Club in Scottsdale, Arizona; Gozzer Ranch in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Iron Horse in Whitefish, Montana; the Madison Club in La Quinta, California; and the recently opened Summit Club outside Las Vegas, Nevada. Discovery has also enlisted Fazio to produce a course for the Hills at East Quogue, on New York’s Long Island, but nresidents in the area have proven themselves to be formidable opponents. A groundbreaking for the track at the Hideaway hasn’t been announced, but in a press release Fazio said he aims to make it “one of the top-rated courses in Tennessee.”
Pipeline Overflow – Tantalizing news from New Zealand’s North Island: Tom Doak’s 18-hole track at Tara Iti Golf Club may soon have a companion. Darius Oliver, the well-known Australian design critic, reports that Tara Iti’s developers, a group led by Los Angeles, California-based financier Ric Kayne, have decided “to proceed with a second course” and that an official announcement is “expected soon.” This will be a plum assignment for whoever wins the commission, but it may not be possible to match Doak’s accomplishment. His course is the nation’s most talked-about new venue, and Oliver himself has concluded that “there isn’t anything else quite like this in golf.” . . . Elected officials in Orange County, California have set out to build a golf course in Newport Beach, on 205 acres of the closed Coyote Canyon landfill. They’re currently negotiating the terms of a lease on the property with an investment group that wants to build an 18-hole “short” course and other attractions, including what’s been described as “wedding gardens” and “a food court.” The county appears to be in a good bargaining position, because it has another development group waiting in the wings. . . . It’s been an ordeal, but Brian Coutts has finally secured permission to build a driving range and a nine-hole pitch-’n-’putt course on property he farms in Ollerton, a village north of Nottingham, England. After denying Coutts’ proposals for 10 years, local planners have concluded that it may actually be “a much-needed sporting facility for the community.”
Earlier this year I criticized Jack Nicklaus, he of the spotless reputation, for accepting a design commission from a world-class tyrant, Gurbanguly “Spellcheck” Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan. The way I see it, Nicklaus has agreed to polish the image of a notoriously repressive regime, and his support of Berdymukhamedov’s golf ambitions is a tacit endorsement of policies contrary to fundamental American values. As it turns out, I’m not alone in finding the opening of Turkmenistan’s first golf course, at Ashgabat Golf Club, distasteful and troubling. Radio Free Europe was on hand for the unveiling, and it says that Nicklaus appeared to be “smitten” by Berdymukhamedov, whose nation is now “in the throes of an economic crisis” that has “led to shortages of certain foods and other commodities.” And here’s the worst part: Nicklaus has agreed to design not just one more course in Turkmenistan, as I reported, but as many as 10. It’s often said that power corrupts. So does money.
Pipeline Overflow Overflow – Early next year, according to Golfasian, Golfplan-Dale & Ramsey Golf Course Architecture will debut its second course in Pattaya, Thailand, one of Southeast Asia’s favorite golf destinations. The 18-hole track will be the main attraction at Chee Chan Mountain Golf Resort, a 250-acre spread that was conceived several years ago as Master Golf Resort. Pattaya is home to at least 30 golf properties, including some notable layouts by “signature” architects, among them Jack Nicklaus (Laem Chabang International Country Club), Pete Dye (Khao Kheow Country Club), Gary Player (Sriracha Golf Club), and Peter Thomson (Greenwood Golf Resort). Golfplan’s first course in the area, Mountain Shadow Golf Club, was designed by the firm’s founder, Ron Fream, and opened in the early 1970s. . . . The wraps have come off the first of two Paul Albanese-designed golf courses at Yên Dũng Golf Resort, in metropolitan Hà Nội. The 18-hole track, which publicists say is “one of the most beautiful, challenging golf courses in northern Vietnam,” will eventually be joined by vacation villas, a hotel, an amusement park, and other attractions, including, in 2020, a second 18-hole layout. In the United States, Albanese is probably best known for Tatanka Golf Club, a links-like, minimalist-inspired layout in Niobrara, Nebraska. . . . La Romana Golf Club, the centerpiece of a resort community on the Dominican Republic’s southern coast, has opened its second golf course. The 18-hole “championship” layout, designed by a Spanish company that operates as Maverick Design & Construction or Maverick Golf & Construction, will complement the community’s existing executive-length track.
A retired baseball player is the leader of a team that’s purchased a private golf club in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Paul Maholm, who spent nine years pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, and other major-league teams, paid an undisclosed price for Hattiesburg Country Club, which the Clarion Ledger describes as “one of the oldest and most storied golf clubs in the Magnolia State.” The newspaper reports that the club, which features an 18-hole, Max Maxwell-designed golf course, is suffering from “dwindling memberships.”
Surplus Transactions – Tri-City Country Club, a financially struggling venue in Kennewick, Washington, has been rescued by 20 of its members. The new owners plan to open the club to the public, and they’ve given it a new name: Zintel Creek Golf Club. The club opened in 1938, as Twin City Golf Club, and its original nine-hole golf course was built by the federal government’s Works Progress Administration. . . . It appears that Bergen County, New Jersey’s sixth golf property will be in suburban Newark. County officials have agreed to pay $8.5 million for Emerson Golf Club, a 54-year-old venue in Emerson that features an 18-hole, Alec Ternyei-designed golf course. The transaction is expected to close sometime over the winter. The county’s other courses are in Mahwah, Paramus, River Vale, Rockleigh, and Teaneck. . . . Melrose Club, the centerpiece of South Carolina’s mostly abandoned, possibly cursed Daufuskie Island, is about to get another owner. A bankruptcy court is expected to turn the 400-acre island over to its main creditor, a Netherlands-based investment group that reportedly loaned $27.5 million to the Utah-based company that promised to breathe new life into the property in 2011. Melrose features an 18-hole, Jack Nicklaus signature golf course that opened in 1987.
As part of its struggle for survival, a private club named after Thomas Edison has decided to develop part of its 27-hole, Devereux Emmet-designed golf complex. Edison Club, a 286-acre venue in the northern suburbs of Albany, New York, has been suffering for years from a parade of problems – it recently listed them as “normal inflation, lifestyle changes, tax-code changes, decline in private club golf demand, and an overbuilt inventory of local golf” – but it believes it can sustain itself if it builds houses on seven of its holes and obliges the home owners to become club members. Edison was founded by a group of executives from General Electric in 1904 and relocated to its present home in 1926. It may not have any revenue-generating ideas beyond its development proposal, for it believes it’s already done “everything we can to be more attractive to the community around us.”
Desolation Row Extended – The new owners of the Phoenician, a 315-acre resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, have secured permission to close one-third of their 27-hole golf complex. The holes will come from the complex’s Oasis and Desert nines, and they’ll be replaced by 300 single-family houses and condos. Host Hotels & Resorts reportedly paid $400 million for the Phoenician, which never lived up to being “the eighth wonder of the world,” in 2015. . . . A home builder has reportedly coughed up nearly $23.5 million for Lipoma Firs Golf Course, a 27-home complex in suburban Tacoma, Washington. Lipoma Firs opened with 18 holes in 1989 and added its third nine in 1994. It’s now closed, and the new owner believes its 202 acres can comfortably accommodate more than 1,000 houses. . . . Golf Club at Ballantyne, part of the Ballantyne Corporate Park in Charlotte, North Carolina, may not have much of a future. A spokesperson for Northwood Investors, which purchased the 535-acre business park earlier this year, told the Charlotte Business Journal that his company has “no immediate plans” to close the 20-year-old club but acknowledged that it’ll be “evaluating” the possibility “over time.”
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Sunday, October 22, 2017
The Week That Was, october 22, 2017
Further proof that golf and rock-’n’-roll don’t mix: Astbury Hall, a well-regarded British golf resort created by former Judas Priest lead guitarist Ken “KK” Downing, has been taken over by administrators and is for sale. Downing designed Astbury Hall’s 18-hole golf course, bought out his original financial partners, hired Darren Clarke, a former captain of Europe’s Ryder Cup team, to serve as the property’s “global ambassador,” and won permission to add a boutique hotel, a spa, a restaurant, and another nine-hole layout to his 320 acres in suburban Birmingham, England. But the financing he secured to help pay for the construction has come back to haunt him. His lender has called the loan, leaving Downing, to borrow a phrase once used by Radiohead, high and dry. “We were taken aback that the funder was not more flexible with us as partners,” he told the Shropshire Star. Downing is trying to refinance the loan, and he hopes to continue to build “a top-class golf center with no snobbery” that will “put Shropshire on the golfing map.” But if someone comes along and drops £10 million ($13.2 million) on the table, he’ll be stranded on what Green Day called “the boulevard of broken dreams.”
In recent years, Dan Hixson has produced a series of well-regarded courses in the Pacific Northwest – Wine Valley Golf Club in Washington and the reversible course at Silvies Valley Ranch in Oregon prominent among them – but the Vancouver, Washington-based architect appears to be hoping for a change of scenery. While acknowledging that he’s “getting great sites in the Northwest,” he told the Eugene Register-Guard that he’d “love to see some of the great sites around the country, and have a chance to build on something like that.” While he waits for a developer to offer one to him, Hixson will design an 18-hole track on a site near Roseburg, Oregon.
Pipeline Overflow – Australian Golf Digest thinks Cathedral Lodge Golf Club’s just-opened 18-hole course “could be Greg Norman’s finest achievement in golf course design,” and “the Living Brand” isn’t putting up an argument. “There is nothing else like it in Australia – or the world, for that matter," Norman said earlier this year. Norman has also described the site, near Alexandra, Victoria, as “magnificent” and compared his track favorably to those at Ellerston and Augusta National. Cathedral Lodge is said to be Australia’s most expensive golf club (initiation fee: $50,000), and at the unveiling its developer, David Evans, said he’s already signed 70 members. . . . Charles “Buddy” Darby, the developer of the 2,500-acre Christophe Harbour resort community on St. Kitts, expects to resume construction on his long-overdue, Tom Fazio-designed golf course “at the end of the year.” Christophe Harbour has a marina and a soon-to-open hotel, and Darby’s master plan calls for a slew of vacation houses, places to eat, drink, and shop, and other attractions for the well-heeled. Years ago, Fazio promised that his 18-hole track would be among “the best of the best” in the Caribbean. . . . Roughly a year from now, Dale Beddo and Bruce Summerhays hope to debut an “affordable” 18-hole track in Hurricane, Utah. The design partners are well known in the area, as they co-designed Kokopelli Golf Course, an 18-hole layout in nearby Apple Valley that opened in 2009 but closed in 2012, a victim, it’s been said, of a rotten economy. Beddo told a local newspaper that his to-be-named new course won’t be “overbearing or difficult” but will place “a lot of demand on a good tee shot.”
Predictions about the demise of Aurora, Colorado’s Fitzsimons Golf Course have been floated for more than two decades, and now they may finally come true. The Denver Post reports that the 18-hole layout, whose original nine holes were created by the Works Progress Administration in 1938, is “expected to shutter by the end of the year.” Economics may not be factoring into the decision, as the newspapers says that Fitzsimons “remains steadily busy.” An official notice from the city hasn’t yet been filed and no future uses of the course have been identified, but a nearby medical center could expand onto the property. If Fitzsimons does indeed bite the dust, metropolitan the Denver area will lose what’s been described as “one of the most affordable and accessible golf courses in the area.”
Desolation Row Extended – Speaking of health-care facilities, Frank Veltri has agreed to sell part of his Practice Golf Center, in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Specifically, Veltri will sell the center’s nine-hole, par-3 course and continue to operate a driving range and a miniature golf course. . . . The fate of Meadows Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Christiansburg, Virginia, has been sealed. At a recent foreclosure auction, a development entity affiliated with Shelor Motor Mile paid $787,500 for the 115-acre property, and the new owner has already filed for a rezoning that would allow for the construction of houses. The Meadows opened with nine holes in 1955, and it got its second nine exactly two decades later. . . . Accepting an offer they couldn’t refuse, elected officials in Kent, Washington have voted to sell the nine-hole, par-3 golf course at Riverbend Golf Complex. An apartment developer has promised to pay $10.5 million for the 20-acre site, money that the city will use to shore up its golf enterprise fund and make improvements to Riverbend’s 18-hole track. The par-3 course has operated since 1961.
With friends like Prime Minister Keith Rowley, the golf industry in Trinidad & Tobago may not need enemies. In his defense of a proposed $3 million overhaul of Chaguaramas Golf Course, Rowley stirred unnecessary controversy by comparing his nation’s golf courses to “sheep’s pastures” and then equating them to women because, he said, they both require daily grooming to be presentable. Unfortunately, all the noise Rowley created with his comments drowned out an important message he was trying to deliver, which is that it would be nice if Trinidad & Tobago, which currently has about eight golf properties, could build at least two more. So while Rowley may be burdened by sad, sexist ideas, at least he understands the impact that golf can have on a nation’s tourism business.
In recent years, Dan Hixson has produced a series of well-regarded courses in the Pacific Northwest – Wine Valley Golf Club in Washington and the reversible course at Silvies Valley Ranch in Oregon prominent among them – but the Vancouver, Washington-based architect appears to be hoping for a change of scenery. While acknowledging that he’s “getting great sites in the Northwest,” he told the Eugene Register-Guard that he’d “love to see some of the great sites around the country, and have a chance to build on something like that.” While he waits for a developer to offer one to him, Hixson will design an 18-hole track on a site near Roseburg, Oregon.
Pipeline Overflow – Australian Golf Digest thinks Cathedral Lodge Golf Club’s just-opened 18-hole course “could be Greg Norman’s finest achievement in golf course design,” and “the Living Brand” isn’t putting up an argument. “There is nothing else like it in Australia – or the world, for that matter," Norman said earlier this year. Norman has also described the site, near Alexandra, Victoria, as “magnificent” and compared his track favorably to those at Ellerston and Augusta National. Cathedral Lodge is said to be Australia’s most expensive golf club (initiation fee: $50,000), and at the unveiling its developer, David Evans, said he’s already signed 70 members. . . . Charles “Buddy” Darby, the developer of the 2,500-acre Christophe Harbour resort community on St. Kitts, expects to resume construction on his long-overdue, Tom Fazio-designed golf course “at the end of the year.” Christophe Harbour has a marina and a soon-to-open hotel, and Darby’s master plan calls for a slew of vacation houses, places to eat, drink, and shop, and other attractions for the well-heeled. Years ago, Fazio promised that his 18-hole track would be among “the best of the best” in the Caribbean. . . . Roughly a year from now, Dale Beddo and Bruce Summerhays hope to debut an “affordable” 18-hole track in Hurricane, Utah. The design partners are well known in the area, as they co-designed Kokopelli Golf Course, an 18-hole layout in nearby Apple Valley that opened in 2009 but closed in 2012, a victim, it’s been said, of a rotten economy. Beddo told a local newspaper that his to-be-named new course won’t be “overbearing or difficult” but will place “a lot of demand on a good tee shot.”
Predictions about the demise of Aurora, Colorado’s Fitzsimons Golf Course have been floated for more than two decades, and now they may finally come true. The Denver Post reports that the 18-hole layout, whose original nine holes were created by the Works Progress Administration in 1938, is “expected to shutter by the end of the year.” Economics may not be factoring into the decision, as the newspapers says that Fitzsimons “remains steadily busy.” An official notice from the city hasn’t yet been filed and no future uses of the course have been identified, but a nearby medical center could expand onto the property. If Fitzsimons does indeed bite the dust, metropolitan the Denver area will lose what’s been described as “one of the most affordable and accessible golf courses in the area.”
Desolation Row Extended – Speaking of health-care facilities, Frank Veltri has agreed to sell part of his Practice Golf Center, in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Specifically, Veltri will sell the center’s nine-hole, par-3 course and continue to operate a driving range and a miniature golf course. . . . The fate of Meadows Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Christiansburg, Virginia, has been sealed. At a recent foreclosure auction, a development entity affiliated with Shelor Motor Mile paid $787,500 for the 115-acre property, and the new owner has already filed for a rezoning that would allow for the construction of houses. The Meadows opened with nine holes in 1955, and it got its second nine exactly two decades later. . . . Accepting an offer they couldn’t refuse, elected officials in Kent, Washington have voted to sell the nine-hole, par-3 golf course at Riverbend Golf Complex. An apartment developer has promised to pay $10.5 million for the 20-acre site, money that the city will use to shore up its golf enterprise fund and make improvements to Riverbend’s 18-hole track. The par-3 course has operated since 1961.
With friends like Prime Minister Keith Rowley, the golf industry in Trinidad & Tobago may not need enemies. In his defense of a proposed $3 million overhaul of Chaguaramas Golf Course, Rowley stirred unnecessary controversy by comparing his nation’s golf courses to “sheep’s pastures” and then equating them to women because, he said, they both require daily grooming to be presentable. Unfortunately, all the noise Rowley created with his comments drowned out an important message he was trying to deliver, which is that it would be nice if Trinidad & Tobago, which currently has about eight golf properties, could build at least two more. So while Rowley may be burdened by sad, sexist ideas, at least he understands the impact that golf can have on a nation’s tourism business.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
The Week That Was, october 15, 2017
The golf business in India is said to be “gaining momentum,” and the nation’s tourism ministers are hoping to accelerate the pace. India currently has about 220 golf venues, according to a national news agency, and the government, which is eager “to exploit golf tourism in its true potential,” has lent its vocal support to the construction of roughly 100 more. The key question, of course, is Can you build them? Golf development has historically been tough in India, for a variety of social and economic reasons, and the nation’s developers have yet to show any desire to build genuine destination-worthy layouts. But it’s the thought that counts, right?
Peter Nanula’s investment company is close to acquiring its first golf property in Minnesota. Concert Golf Partners has reportedly persuaded the board of Golden Valley Country Club, in suburban Minneapolis, to approve a proposed purchase, and now the Newport Beach, California-based owner/operator is waiting for the club’s members to do the same. If it gets a thumbs-up, Concert will own a venue with an 18-hole, A. W. Tillinghast-designed track that claims to be “indisputably the region's finest golf course” and “quite possibly the most scenic, challenging, enjoyable, and golfer-friendly course you’ll ever want to play.” (Some credit for this praise should go to Keith Foster, who recently restored Tillinghast’s 90-year-old design.) Concert currently owns 16 properties, with the largest number (five) being in Florida. Although it has incredibly deep pockets and an appetite for growth, it’s having a hard time adding to its portfolio. As best I can determine, it’s added just two properties so far this year, Philmont Country Club and White Manor Country Club, both in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Surplus Transactions – The members of Engineers Country Club, in the western part of New York’s Long Island, have voted “overwhelmingly” to sell their property to a home builder. RXR Realty plans to develop parts of Engineers’ 138 acres, the bulk of which is dedicated to an 18-hole, Devereux Emmet-designed golf course that dates from the early 1920s. RXR, which hasn’t disclosed the sale price, aims to close on the transaction next month. . . . Families from Minnesota and North Dakota have purchased a bank-owned golf course in Bullhead City, Arizona. Chris and Rene Ashmore are the leaders of the group that paid an undisclosed price for Laughlin Ranch Golf Club, which features an 18-hole, David Druzisky-designed course that opened in 2004. In an interview with the Mohave Valley Daily News, Rene Ashmore described the club as “a little bit of a hidden jewel” with “great growth potential.” . . . Cook’s Pest Control group has reportedly paid $3.7 million for Decatur Country Club, a 95-year-old venue in Decatur, Alabama. Cook’s, which plans to build a new headquarters on the club’s 95 acres, has already closed the course. According to the Decatur Daily, the seller was an investment group that acquired the club’s mortgage in 2011.
As America shrinks its international presence, the People’s Republic is looking to sink its teeth into one of our long-time allies. Private companies and government-related Chinese entities are master-planning a huge number of development projects in Pakistan connected to a venture called the Chinese-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is expected to spread across thousands of acres and precipitate what’s been described as “a deep and broad-based penetration of most sectors of Pakistan’s economy as well as its society.” The scope of the project reportedly has “no precedent in Pakistan’s history,” and it’ll involve ventures in agriculture, telecommunications, manufacturing, broadcast television, internet, and much more. One of the proposals calls for the development of at least two coastal resorts that will include hotels, marinas, a port for cruise ships, entertainment venues, wildlife sanctuaries, an aquarium, a campground, places to eat and drink, parks, and, yes, golf courses. The whole shebang is still mostly pie in the sky, but it’s an indication of the kind of things that can happen when a president is obsessed with putting America First.
Pipeline Overflow – Conservationists are mounting a counter-offensive, but Mike Keiser and Todd Warnock have submitted their development proposal for the Coul Links property in the Scottish Highlands. They promise to play within the environmental rules, boost the local economy, and deliver an 18-hole, Coore & Crenshaw-designed golf course that will offer “one of the most memorable golf experiences in the world.” If they get a green light promptly, they aim to break ground on the course in the spring and to open it in early 2021. . . . Lester George reports that he’s designing 18-hole and 12-hole courses for Virginia True, a proposed 1,000-acre community originally known as Fones Cliffs. A group led by Robert C. Smith recently paid $12 million for the property, in Richmond County, Virginia, and the Northern Neck News says that George is now “staking out tees, fairways and greens.” The seller, Diatomite Corporation, secured a rezoning for the property in 2015. At the time, Smith was working for Diatomite. . . . Pending a successful rezoning, Riser Developments will build a small golf community near Lacombe, in central Alberta, Canada. The community, called Lincoln Ranch, will take shape on 159 acres along the eastern shore of Gull Lake, and it’ll consist of 100 houses, parks, hiking trails, and a nine-hole golf course.
An official decision hasn’t been made, but it looks as if Dartmouth College is going to turn out the lights at its golf course. The Ivy League school, which is reportedly facing a budget crunch, is said to be “evaluating” its options at Hanover Country Club, which serves as the practice venue for its men’s and women’s golf teams. The club, part of Dartmouth’s campus in Hanover, New Hampshire, has operated since 1899, and it features an 18-hole, Orrin Smith-designed golf course. It loses money, however, and some people think the college could pocket as much as $25 million for its 123 acres.
Desolation Row Extended – Steve Cushman has found a developer for the 200 acres currently occupied by his family’s Riverwalk Golf Club. The Cushmans have agreed to sell their flood-prone, 27-hole complex in San Diego, California to Hines, a well-known national company that intends to transform the property into a master-planned community with up to 4,000 housing units, up to 1 million square feet of office space, a shopping area, and a park. The entire golf complex will operate until 2021, and then it’ll begin closing, nine holes at a time, until it disappears forever. . . . In Bothell, Washington, Wayne Golf Course is a dead man walking. The course, described by the Seattle Times as “unpretentious” and “affordable,” has been in business since 1931, but it’s deteriorated in recent years and neither its owner, a conservation group, nor its prospective owner, the city of Bothell, wish to fund necessary improvements. The city plans to buy the course and turn it into a regional park. . . . Deon Dekkers has pulled the plug on Twin Lakes Golf Course, an 18-hole, 18-year-old track outside Tyler, Texas. It appears that Dekkers, who owns a nearby nursery, will grow trees and possibly cattle on the property.
Peter Nanula’s investment company is close to acquiring its first golf property in Minnesota. Concert Golf Partners has reportedly persuaded the board of Golden Valley Country Club, in suburban Minneapolis, to approve a proposed purchase, and now the Newport Beach, California-based owner/operator is waiting for the club’s members to do the same. If it gets a thumbs-up, Concert will own a venue with an 18-hole, A. W. Tillinghast-designed track that claims to be “indisputably the region's finest golf course” and “quite possibly the most scenic, challenging, enjoyable, and golfer-friendly course you’ll ever want to play.” (Some credit for this praise should go to Keith Foster, who recently restored Tillinghast’s 90-year-old design.) Concert currently owns 16 properties, with the largest number (five) being in Florida. Although it has incredibly deep pockets and an appetite for growth, it’s having a hard time adding to its portfolio. As best I can determine, it’s added just two properties so far this year, Philmont Country Club and White Manor Country Club, both in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Surplus Transactions – The members of Engineers Country Club, in the western part of New York’s Long Island, have voted “overwhelmingly” to sell their property to a home builder. RXR Realty plans to develop parts of Engineers’ 138 acres, the bulk of which is dedicated to an 18-hole, Devereux Emmet-designed golf course that dates from the early 1920s. RXR, which hasn’t disclosed the sale price, aims to close on the transaction next month. . . . Families from Minnesota and North Dakota have purchased a bank-owned golf course in Bullhead City, Arizona. Chris and Rene Ashmore are the leaders of the group that paid an undisclosed price for Laughlin Ranch Golf Club, which features an 18-hole, David Druzisky-designed course that opened in 2004. In an interview with the Mohave Valley Daily News, Rene Ashmore described the club as “a little bit of a hidden jewel” with “great growth potential.” . . . Cook’s Pest Control group has reportedly paid $3.7 million for Decatur Country Club, a 95-year-old venue in Decatur, Alabama. Cook’s, which plans to build a new headquarters on the club’s 95 acres, has already closed the course. According to the Decatur Daily, the seller was an investment group that acquired the club’s mortgage in 2011.
As America shrinks its international presence, the People’s Republic is looking to sink its teeth into one of our long-time allies. Private companies and government-related Chinese entities are master-planning a huge number of development projects in Pakistan connected to a venture called the Chinese-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is expected to spread across thousands of acres and precipitate what’s been described as “a deep and broad-based penetration of most sectors of Pakistan’s economy as well as its society.” The scope of the project reportedly has “no precedent in Pakistan’s history,” and it’ll involve ventures in agriculture, telecommunications, manufacturing, broadcast television, internet, and much more. One of the proposals calls for the development of at least two coastal resorts that will include hotels, marinas, a port for cruise ships, entertainment venues, wildlife sanctuaries, an aquarium, a campground, places to eat and drink, parks, and, yes, golf courses. The whole shebang is still mostly pie in the sky, but it’s an indication of the kind of things that can happen when a president is obsessed with putting America First.
Pipeline Overflow – Conservationists are mounting a counter-offensive, but Mike Keiser and Todd Warnock have submitted their development proposal for the Coul Links property in the Scottish Highlands. They promise to play within the environmental rules, boost the local economy, and deliver an 18-hole, Coore & Crenshaw-designed golf course that will offer “one of the most memorable golf experiences in the world.” If they get a green light promptly, they aim to break ground on the course in the spring and to open it in early 2021. . . . Lester George reports that he’s designing 18-hole and 12-hole courses for Virginia True, a proposed 1,000-acre community originally known as Fones Cliffs. A group led by Robert C. Smith recently paid $12 million for the property, in Richmond County, Virginia, and the Northern Neck News says that George is now “staking out tees, fairways and greens.” The seller, Diatomite Corporation, secured a rezoning for the property in 2015. At the time, Smith was working for Diatomite. . . . Pending a successful rezoning, Riser Developments will build a small golf community near Lacombe, in central Alberta, Canada. The community, called Lincoln Ranch, will take shape on 159 acres along the eastern shore of Gull Lake, and it’ll consist of 100 houses, parks, hiking trails, and a nine-hole golf course.
An official decision hasn’t been made, but it looks as if Dartmouth College is going to turn out the lights at its golf course. The Ivy League school, which is reportedly facing a budget crunch, is said to be “evaluating” its options at Hanover Country Club, which serves as the practice venue for its men’s and women’s golf teams. The club, part of Dartmouth’s campus in Hanover, New Hampshire, has operated since 1899, and it features an 18-hole, Orrin Smith-designed golf course. It loses money, however, and some people think the college could pocket as much as $25 million for its 123 acres.
Desolation Row Extended – Steve Cushman has found a developer for the 200 acres currently occupied by his family’s Riverwalk Golf Club. The Cushmans have agreed to sell their flood-prone, 27-hole complex in San Diego, California to Hines, a well-known national company that intends to transform the property into a master-planned community with up to 4,000 housing units, up to 1 million square feet of office space, a shopping area, and a park. The entire golf complex will operate until 2021, and then it’ll begin closing, nine holes at a time, until it disappears forever. . . . In Bothell, Washington, Wayne Golf Course is a dead man walking. The course, described by the Seattle Times as “unpretentious” and “affordable,” has been in business since 1931, but it’s deteriorated in recent years and neither its owner, a conservation group, nor its prospective owner, the city of Bothell, wish to fund necessary improvements. The city plans to buy the course and turn it into a regional park. . . . Deon Dekkers has pulled the plug on Twin Lakes Golf Course, an 18-hole, 18-year-old track outside Tyler, Texas. It appears that Dekkers, who owns a nearby nursery, will grow trees and possibly cattle on the property.
Sunday, October 8, 2017
The Week That Was, october 8, 2017
In Scotland, Donald Trump’s golf company is fighting losing battles against environmentalists, elected officials, angry neighbors, an off-shore wind farm, the sponsor of the Scottish Open, and, most distressingly, its own bottom line. The Associated Press, citing figures from the annual financial report that Trump Golf files with the British government, reports that the U.S. President’s Scottish golf resorts have lost money for the third consecutive year, with 2016’s deficits amounting to £17.6 million ($23 million). The golf operations at the resorts, Trump Turnberry and Trump International Golf Links Scotland, posted a 22 percent decline in revenues, falling from £11.4 million ($14.9 million) in 2015 to £9 million ($11.8 million) in 2016. Trump Golf blamed the losses on Turnberry being closed for renovations for part of the year and on currency fluctuations. Nonetheless, the news prompted a headline writer at Newsweek to ask, “Does Scotland Hate Donald Trump?” A year ago, when 2015’s financial results were published, Eric Trump stated that he expected Turnberry to “return to profitability in the short to medium term.” This year, he called attention to the resort’s “excellent reviews,” while a spokesperson for Trump Golf declined to comment.
Unlike the American president, American Golf Corporation wants no hint of a relationship with the Ku Klux Klan. The El Segundo, California-based owner/operator, a longtime giant in our industry, has changed the name of a golf property in Tennessee that was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a wealthy plantation owner and slave trader who became a Confederate general and, after the Civil War, a grand wizard of our nation’s original terrorist group. The venue, in Franklin, had been called Forrest Crossing Golf Course. It’s now known simply as The Crossing. “We believe that the game of golf is a sport that can help bring people together despite their differences,” a spokesperson for American Golf said by way of explanation, “and want everyone to feel welcome to play this beautiful course.” The Crossing is American Golf’s only property in the Volunteer State and, presumably, the only one in its entire portfolio that honors a racist.
Early next year, one of Vietnam’s premier golf developers expects to break ground on a resort community, featuring an 18-hole golf course, in Nghệ An Province, along the nation’s Central Coast. Hà Nội-based FLC Group, which aims to have 20 courses in its portfolio by 2020, has secured permission to build Nghệ An Beach & Golf Resort on 1,150 acres in a pair of villages located roughly 40 miles south of Thanh Hóa. In addition to the golf course, Nghệ An has been master-planned to include houses, up to 2,500 hotel and condo-hotel units, a convention center, an “interactive zoo,” an “extreme sport zone,” and a campground. A course designer hasn’t been identified, but either Nicklaus Design or Schmidt-Curley Design may have the inside track on the commission, as they have relationships with FLC Group. The former is responsible for 18-hole layouts that opened last year at FLC Sầm Sơn Golf Links in Thanh Hóa Province and FLC Quy Nhơn Golf Links in Bình Định Province, while the latter has produced a second course at FLC Quy Nhơn as well as FLC Hạ Long Bay Golf Club & Resort in Quảng Ninh Province. In addition, Schmidt-Curley has been hired to design the first two courses (of an expected 10) that will emerge at FLC Đong Hoi Golf Links, a 7,500-acre golf community in Quảng Bình Province. By my count, FLC Group has 15 existing and forthcoming courses, which means that it still has five that haven’t been announced. Today, only Vingroup has golf ambitions that equal or exceed FLC Group’s, and both companies have gone whole hog on golf for the same reason: It’s “a perfect way to leverage [their] real estate holdings.”
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the January 2016, May 2016, and August 2016 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Pipeline Overflow – Gary Player has agreed to oversee a renovation of the 43-year-old golf course at Soweto Country Club, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The work is expected to begin before the end of the year, and it’ll include upgrades to the 18-hole track’s tees, greens, and bunkers. Player, the course’s original designer, believes the club “plays an important part in the local community and deserves to be the very best it can be to represent Soweto and South Africa proudly.” . . . Brad Pitt isn’t alone in thinking that Croatia is made to order for golf development. Since 2015, a local group has been trying to secure permission to build Larun Golf & Yacht Resort on state-owned property in Tar-Vabriga, a village in Istria County. In addition to an 18-hole course, the 320-acre resort community will feature 130 villas, a hotel, a marina, and an olive grove. . . . A defunct 18-hole course in Geneva, New York may be revived as a nine-hole track that could open in 2018. Greg Missick, who bought the former Seneca Lake Country Club last year, wants to transform the property into Seneca Turk Resort Winery, which will feature a banquet center and a tasting room. The Finger Lakes Times reports that Missick is working with a course architect but doesn’t identify who he or she is.
A resort in Genoa City, Wisconsin once dubbed “the Catskills of the Midwest” has changed hands. The National Hellenic Museum in Chicago, which celebrates “the contributions of Greek Americans to the American mosaic,” has sold Nippersink Golf Club & Resort, a 171-acre spread that includes a 46-room hotel, a banquet center, three dozen cottages and single-family houses, and an 18-hole, James Foulis-designed golf course that’s operated since 1922. In the 1930s and 1940s the resort, on Lake Tombeau, was a popular entertainment venue (it appears that Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett performed there) and a favored gathering spot for Chicago-area gangsters. Neither the buyer nor the price has been revealed, but Chris Charnas of Links Capital Advisors had listed the property for $1.2 million.
Surplus Transactions – For an undisclosed price, David Spirk has agreed to purchase a 27-hole complex, including an 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed golf course, in Hellertown, Pennsylvania. The complex’s Ross course opened in 1948, as part of Bethlehem Steel Club, got its third nine in 1958, and assumed its current identity, as Silver Creek Country Club, in 1986, when the steel company decided that funding a club for its employees was a waste of money. Spirk, a developer, intends to build houses, including houses for seniors, on some of Silver Creek’s 280 acres. . . . Jonathan and Donald Hoening, who reportedly believe that public golf should be “accessible and affordable,” have acquired at Melody Hill Country Club in suburban Providence, Rhode Island. Melody Hill, which features an 18-hole layout that opened in 1976, will complement the brothers’ Raceway Golf Club, in Thompson, Connecticut. They also manage Dudley Hill Golf Club in Dudley, Massachusetts. . . . As part of an effort to preserve open space and provide affordable golf, the village of Johnsburg, Illinois has agreed to buy the 18-hole Chapel Hill Golf Course. The 100-acre property, located in the town of McHenry, has operated since 1969, and it claims to be “truly a staple of Northwest Chicagoland golf.” The sale price hasn’t been disclosed, but the village has set out to secure a $1.1 million loan.
Ernie Els will receive next year’s Old Tom Morris Award, the highest honor that the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America can bestow. The award has been presented annually since 1983 to an individual who’s made “a lifetime commitment to the game of golf” and “helped to mold the welfare of the game in a manner and style exemplified by Old Tom Morris.” It’s previously gone to entertainers (Bob Hope, Dinah Shore), journalists (Dan Jenkins), developers (Herb Kohler), and to a parade of professional golfers who, like Els, became “signature” architects, among them Ben Crenshaw, Nancy Lopez, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, and Annika Sorenstam. The GCSAA, citing Els’ many professional accomplishments and humanitarian activities, called the South African star “one of the greats of the game” who “elevates the human spirit in all of us to be better people and a more compassionate society.” Els said he was “honored” to receive the award and praised superintendents for being “as vital to this game as anyone.”
Unlike the American president, American Golf Corporation wants no hint of a relationship with the Ku Klux Klan. The El Segundo, California-based owner/operator, a longtime giant in our industry, has changed the name of a golf property in Tennessee that was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a wealthy plantation owner and slave trader who became a Confederate general and, after the Civil War, a grand wizard of our nation’s original terrorist group. The venue, in Franklin, had been called Forrest Crossing Golf Course. It’s now known simply as The Crossing. “We believe that the game of golf is a sport that can help bring people together despite their differences,” a spokesperson for American Golf said by way of explanation, “and want everyone to feel welcome to play this beautiful course.” The Crossing is American Golf’s only property in the Volunteer State and, presumably, the only one in its entire portfolio that honors a racist.
Early next year, one of Vietnam’s premier golf developers expects to break ground on a resort community, featuring an 18-hole golf course, in Nghệ An Province, along the nation’s Central Coast. Hà Nội-based FLC Group, which aims to have 20 courses in its portfolio by 2020, has secured permission to build Nghệ An Beach & Golf Resort on 1,150 acres in a pair of villages located roughly 40 miles south of Thanh Hóa. In addition to the golf course, Nghệ An has been master-planned to include houses, up to 2,500 hotel and condo-hotel units, a convention center, an “interactive zoo,” an “extreme sport zone,” and a campground. A course designer hasn’t been identified, but either Nicklaus Design or Schmidt-Curley Design may have the inside track on the commission, as they have relationships with FLC Group. The former is responsible for 18-hole layouts that opened last year at FLC Sầm Sơn Golf Links in Thanh Hóa Province and FLC Quy Nhơn Golf Links in Bình Định Province, while the latter has produced a second course at FLC Quy Nhơn as well as FLC Hạ Long Bay Golf Club & Resort in Quảng Ninh Province. In addition, Schmidt-Curley has been hired to design the first two courses (of an expected 10) that will emerge at FLC Đong Hoi Golf Links, a 7,500-acre golf community in Quảng Bình Province. By my count, FLC Group has 15 existing and forthcoming courses, which means that it still has five that haven’t been announced. Today, only Vingroup has golf ambitions that equal or exceed FLC Group’s, and both companies have gone whole hog on golf for the same reason: It’s “a perfect way to leverage [their] real estate holdings.”
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the January 2016, May 2016, and August 2016 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Pipeline Overflow – Gary Player has agreed to oversee a renovation of the 43-year-old golf course at Soweto Country Club, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The work is expected to begin before the end of the year, and it’ll include upgrades to the 18-hole track’s tees, greens, and bunkers. Player, the course’s original designer, believes the club “plays an important part in the local community and deserves to be the very best it can be to represent Soweto and South Africa proudly.” . . . Brad Pitt isn’t alone in thinking that Croatia is made to order for golf development. Since 2015, a local group has been trying to secure permission to build Larun Golf & Yacht Resort on state-owned property in Tar-Vabriga, a village in Istria County. In addition to an 18-hole course, the 320-acre resort community will feature 130 villas, a hotel, a marina, and an olive grove. . . . A defunct 18-hole course in Geneva, New York may be revived as a nine-hole track that could open in 2018. Greg Missick, who bought the former Seneca Lake Country Club last year, wants to transform the property into Seneca Turk Resort Winery, which will feature a banquet center and a tasting room. The Finger Lakes Times reports that Missick is working with a course architect but doesn’t identify who he or she is.
A resort in Genoa City, Wisconsin once dubbed “the Catskills of the Midwest” has changed hands. The National Hellenic Museum in Chicago, which celebrates “the contributions of Greek Americans to the American mosaic,” has sold Nippersink Golf Club & Resort, a 171-acre spread that includes a 46-room hotel, a banquet center, three dozen cottages and single-family houses, and an 18-hole, James Foulis-designed golf course that’s operated since 1922. In the 1930s and 1940s the resort, on Lake Tombeau, was a popular entertainment venue (it appears that Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett performed there) and a favored gathering spot for Chicago-area gangsters. Neither the buyer nor the price has been revealed, but Chris Charnas of Links Capital Advisors had listed the property for $1.2 million.
Surplus Transactions – For an undisclosed price, David Spirk has agreed to purchase a 27-hole complex, including an 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed golf course, in Hellertown, Pennsylvania. The complex’s Ross course opened in 1948, as part of Bethlehem Steel Club, got its third nine in 1958, and assumed its current identity, as Silver Creek Country Club, in 1986, when the steel company decided that funding a club for its employees was a waste of money. Spirk, a developer, intends to build houses, including houses for seniors, on some of Silver Creek’s 280 acres. . . . Jonathan and Donald Hoening, who reportedly believe that public golf should be “accessible and affordable,” have acquired at Melody Hill Country Club in suburban Providence, Rhode Island. Melody Hill, which features an 18-hole layout that opened in 1976, will complement the brothers’ Raceway Golf Club, in Thompson, Connecticut. They also manage Dudley Hill Golf Club in Dudley, Massachusetts. . . . As part of an effort to preserve open space and provide affordable golf, the village of Johnsburg, Illinois has agreed to buy the 18-hole Chapel Hill Golf Course. The 100-acre property, located in the town of McHenry, has operated since 1969, and it claims to be “truly a staple of Northwest Chicagoland golf.” The sale price hasn’t been disclosed, but the village has set out to secure a $1.1 million loan.
Ernie Els will receive next year’s Old Tom Morris Award, the highest honor that the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America can bestow. The award has been presented annually since 1983 to an individual who’s made “a lifetime commitment to the game of golf” and “helped to mold the welfare of the game in a manner and style exemplified by Old Tom Morris.” It’s previously gone to entertainers (Bob Hope, Dinah Shore), journalists (Dan Jenkins), developers (Herb Kohler), and to a parade of professional golfers who, like Els, became “signature” architects, among them Ben Crenshaw, Nancy Lopez, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, and Annika Sorenstam. The GCSAA, citing Els’ many professional accomplishments and humanitarian activities, called the South African star “one of the greats of the game” who “elevates the human spirit in all of us to be better people and a more compassionate society.” Els said he was “honored” to receive the award and praised superintendents for being “as vital to this game as anyone.”
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