The Week That Was, december 17, 2017

     The founder of a well-known U.S. travel agency now owns a premier golf property in suburban Dublin, Ireland. John Mullen, acting through his recently created Belmullet Hospitality Group, has reportedly paid “about €57 million” (nearly $70 million) for Carton House Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort, a 668-acre spread in County Kildare that’s said to be “one of Ireland’s most popular and historically significant resorts.” Queen Victoria paid a visit to Carton House in the 1840s, and the estate served as a setting for Barry Lyndon, a Stanley Kubrick film from the 1970s. The resort features a 165-room hotel, several places to eat and drink, a spa, and two 18-hole golf courses, one of which (a Colin Montgomerie “signature” layout) has hosted the Irish Open three times. Mullen, who has familial ties to Ireland, made his reputation as a tour operator via Apple Leisure Group, a company that’s now owned by KKR and an affiliate of KSL Capital Partners. He bought Carton House from the family of Lee Mallaghan and other investors, who were financially over-extended and controlled by the Irish government’s National Asset Management Agency.

     Surplus Transactions – In what’s said to be “a perfect marriage,” some restaurateurs have agreed to buy Linwood Country Club, a venue that a local newspaper believes has been “one of the finest private country clubs in South Jersey for 97 years.” Frank and Joe Dougherty paid an undisclosed price for Linwood, which features an 18-hole, Herbert Strong-designed course. The sale is expected to close before the end of the year. . . . It’s all over but the shouting for Wiltwyck Golf Club, a venue in Kingston, New York that’s operated since the mid 1950s. As part of a last-minute rescue, a group of 11 investors, all but one of them club members, have pooled their money – probably about $2.5 million – to buy the financially challenged club and its 18-hole, Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course. The Daily Freeman reports that the transaction is expected to close “in the next several weeks,” pending approval by the club’s members. . . . Regarding the expected sale of Golden Valley Country Club to Concert Golf Partners: There’s a glitch. The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports that negotiations between the parties have “temporarily stopped” because “some members want to explore a way to keep the club member owned.” If the transaction gets back on track, Concert will retire Golden Valley’s $7 million in debt and invest $2.5 million in the 103-year-old property.

     The words golf and Pakistan don’t often appear in the same sentence, but that hasn’t prevented the nation’s biggest development group from building a golf community outside Karachi. The community is called Bahria Golf City, and it’ll feature two “PGA-standard” 18-hole golf courses that will, according to its marketing materials, “get your tense nerves addicted to relaxation.” The courses have been designed by Thomas J. Brown, an architect unknown to me, and they’ll be lit for night play. The complex’s initial nine is already open, and the next 27 are scheduled to debut next year. Bahria Golf City reportedly drew its inspiration from the Emirates Hills community in Dubai, and its developer, Bahria Town Karachi, promises that it’ll serve as Karachi’s “ultimate living experience” and take golf “to a next level in Pakistan.”

     The city of Boca Raton, Florida has begun negotiating the sale of Boca Raton Municipal Golf Course. The 27-hole complex is a dead man walking, as GL Homes is willing to pay $65 million for its 189 acres, a tract it views as an ideal site for a 480-house subdivision. Assuming that the parties can quickly cross the necessary ts and dot the required is, the curtains will be drawn on the 35-year-old complex in mid 2019. GL is making a habit of building on money-losing golf courses, as it’s also targeted Polo Trace Golf & Country Club in Delray Beach and Fountains Country Club in Lake Worth. All isn’t completely lost for Boca Raton’s bargain-seeking golfers, however, as the city aims to buy and revive the defunct Ocean Breeze Golf Course, a venue it intends to operate as Boca National Golf Club.

     Desolation Row Extended – The 178 acres currently occupied by the struggling Victoria Golf Course, an 18-hole municipal track in Carson, California, will soon be outfitted with soccer pitches, tennis courts, and other attractions that appeal to a larger audience. The Daily Breeze says that 51-year-old, William F. Bell-designed course is “vastly under-performing” the other golf properties owned by Los Angeles County, so Victoria will get the ax as soon as an alternative plan is in place. . . . For the second time in three years, Duckers Lake Golf Club faces a foreclosure sale. Whitaker Bank has turned out the lights at the 23-year-old club, in Frankfort, Kentucky, but hasn’t yet taken the 129-acre property off the market. Although the asking price is said to be $2 million, the bank appears to be the proverbial “highly motivated” seller. . . . The Plantation Inn, in Crystal City, Florida, has decided that its 27-hole, Mark Mahannah-designed golf complex is a wretched excess, so it’s seeking permission to turn its nine-hole Lagoons layout into an RV park.