The Week That Was, january 28, 2018

     The last time Bob Lang set out to build a golf course, he nearly ended up broke. Nonetheless, he’s at it again. The entrepreneur who gave birth to Erin Hills, the site of last year’s U.S. Open, has laid claims on two sites in the Hartford, Wisconsin area that he believes can produce destination-worthy tracks and, in the process, cement the state’s growing reputation as a home for world-class golf. “Wisconsin can become to the United States in golf what Ireland is to Europe in golf,” Lang told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. And Lang isn’t alone in touting the properties’ potential. A reporter for the newspaper says that one of the sites is, “without equivocation” – wait for it – “spectacular.” Unfortunately, while the possibilities may be endless, the money is not. Lang concedes that the actual development, presuming it happens, would be done by someone whose pockets are deeper than his. For now, at least, he’s content to act as a facilitator, as long as he gets a piece of the action.

     Nicklaus Design has lost one of its most important facilitators. Vincent M. Gaughan, Jr., a Buffalo, New York native who laid a foundation for much of the empire’s work in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Asia, recently died in Turkmenistan, where he’d helped to land a multi-course contract. Gaughan was 65. “It was through Vincent’s efforts and persistence that we were able to introduce Nicklaus golf, and golf in general, to new markets around the world,” Jack Nicklaus said in a press release. Gaughan and Igor Malyshkov, the president of Moscow City Club, established Nicklaus Design East in 2004. In one of his last acts as the division’s president, he set the stage for a Nicklaus-designed course in Qatar.

     Pipeline Overflow – It’s old news, really, but the golf media is announcing Bobby Weed as the architect for Michael Jordan’s forthcoming golf course in Hobe Sound, Florida. The course will be the centerpiece of Grove XXIII – 23 was the primary number Jordan wore for the Chicago Bulls – and Weed expects it to be “a forward-thinking, progressive layout” with “a refined edge.” If all goes as planned, the 18-hole track will open next year. . . . Chinese vacationers are flocking to Vietnam’s Central Coast, and a Chinese developer aims to satisfy their golf desires. Silver Shores, which built the Silver Shores International Resort (and casino) on the waterfront just south of Đà Nẵng, has set out to build a resort community, including a golf course, on a 1,300-acre parcel west of the city. Silver Shores expects to sell package tours to travelers looking to lounge on the beach, gamble, and golf. . . . Kenya’s top golf evangelist dreams of building golf courses in all 47 of the nation’s counties. “We certainly cannot develop the game only in Nairobi, Mombasa, and other few places in the country,” Richard Wanjalla, the chairman of the Kenya Golf Union, has correctly surmised. Wanjalla has encouraged the nation’s governors to identify sites for golf courses, though most of them will likely be nine-hole tracks.

     Cuba may welcome 5 million tourists this year, even with a likely decline in traffic from the United States. The Marxist paradise attracted 4.7 million tourists last year, a record number, and it figured to break the record until the Trump administration re-imposed travel restrictions. So this year, we wait and see. For what it’s worth, 579,288 U.S. travelers made trips to the island nation through the first 11 months of 2017.

     A South Korean guitar and piano manufacturer has decided to tread where Discovery Land Company would not. Samick Musical Instruments has paid an undisclosed price for Las Vegas Country Club, a 50-year-old venue that once served as gathering place for famous entertainers (Frank Sinatra), sportsmen (Andre Agassi), professional stunt men (“Evel” Knievel), local movers and shakers (Mayor Oscar Goodman, the late Kirk Kerkorian), and a parade of mobsters (“Lefty” Rosenthal, Tony Spilotro). The 120-acre club features an 18-hole, Ed Ault-designed golf course. Discovery Land and Wolff Company agreed to buy Las Vegas in 2016, but last year they backed out of the deal for what they said were financial and water-related reasons. Samick, which makes most of its products in Indonesia, owns one other U.S. golf property, Redhawk Golf Club in Temecula, California.

     Surplus Transactions – The owners of Waterfall Club, on Lake Burton in northeastern Georgia, have added a handful of new investors, among them college football’s most famous coach, Nick Saban, who just weeks led Alabama to a national championship. Saban is said to be “an avid golfer,” and the club, which opened in 1999, features an 18-hole, Scott Pool-designed golf course. . . . A golf pro in suburban Buffalo, New York believes he’s close to acquiring Glen Oak Country Club, a nearly half-century old venue that features a Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course. “I’m on the 18th hole,” Timothy Fries told Buffalo Business First. Fries hopes to buy the club, which previously operated as Ransom Oaks Country Club and Country Club of Amherst, from Richard Meath. Despite its name, Glen Oak is open to the public. . . . Earlier this month, an investment group led by Bill Gustus and his wife, Laura Caron-Gustus, purchased Westminister Country Club. The club, in Westminster, Massachusetts, features an 18-hole track that was designed by Al LeBlanc and has remained in his family since it opened in 1957. Gustus and his family also own Settlers Crossing Golf Course, a nine-hole track in Lunenburg, Massachusetts.

     The president’s message to the world leaders who recently gathered in Davos was clear and direct: We are “open for business.” The speaker wasn’t the president of the United States, however. It was the president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who responded to a question about Africa’s “shithole” countries by extending a special invitation to the Trump Organization. “Come and build golf courses at Victoria Falls,” Mnangagwa said. “Build hotels. And we’ll give you incentives.” Undoubtedly, the Very Stable Genius won’t accept Mnangagwa’s offer. But Zimbabwe is a golf-friendly nation (it has 30 courses, according to Golf Digest), and it’s possible that an enterprising Chinese developer will.

     Are you wondering how much of a week’s golf news I cover in this blog? The answer, unfortunately, is just a fraction of what passes my way. The golf business has unquestionably perked up over the past year or two, and there’s no way for me to address all of it. So if your business requires a more comprehensive news digest, particularly news about development, contact me via e-mail at golfcoursereport@aol.com. I’ll send you a sample issue of either U.S. or International Construction Clips, depending on your needs.

The Week That Was, january 21, 2018

     Attention, traveling golfers: South Africa, Turkey, and Thailand are among the world’s emerging golf destinations, according to the most dedicated golfers from four of Europe’s top golf nations. The news comes via Sports Marketing Surveys, which recently polled 9,500 “core” golfers from France, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom on their spending habits. When it comes to vacations in established golf destinations, the respondents identified Spain as their nation of choice, with Austria and Portugal getting nods as well.

     It took a while, but Pacific Links International has unloaded its last remaining golf property in greater Las Vegas, Nevada. For an undisclosed price, a group of 10 members has purchased SouthShore Golf Club, a 22-year-old venue with a Jack Nicklaus “signature” layout that “ignites a golfer’s passion and provides a peaceful escape.” The course, part of the reinvigorated Lake Las Vegas lifestyle community, is now operating as SouthShore Country Club LLV. PLI, a Chinese/Canadian company that operates an international network of limited-access membership golf clubs, formerly owned close to a dozen U.S. golf properties, but it’s been engaged in asset sales for several years. It sold its other Vegas-area holdings, DragonRidge Country Club and Southern Highlands Golf Club, in 2016.

     Surplus Transactions – In mid December 2017, ClubCorp and Cooper Communities sold Diamante Country Club, a venue that features one of Arkansas’ top-rated golf courses. Diamante is the only private club in Hot Springs Village, a seniors-only community with a total of nine courses, many of them named after famous explorers (DeSoto, Magellan, Ponce de Leon). The buyer, a corporation created by property owners, paid an undisclosed price for the club and its 18-hole, Ault Clark-designed course. . . . Southworth Development has bought out its partners and assumed full control of Abaco Club, a private, 534-acre oceanfront community in the Bahamas that features what’s said to be “the world's first Scottish-style links in a tropical location.” The 18-hole track, co-designed by Donald Steel and Tom MacKenzie, opened in 2004. Southworth has been a co-owner of Abaco since 2014, and it owns a handful of other golf properties in Puerto Rico, Scotland, and the United States. . . . A 54-year-old venue in Decatur, Alabama has changed hands. Late last year, Andy and Belinda Villarreal paid an undisclosed price for Burningtree Country Club, which features an 18-hole, George Cobb-designed golf course. The seller was Tom Flowe, who’d owned the property since 2004.

     The Very Stable Genius has suspended some U.S. aid payments to Pakistan, but his threats haven’t put an end to the nation’s golf-development dreams. Just weeks ago, Chinese-funded coastal resorts with golf courses were announced. Now it appears that a project that’s been percolating for at least two years, Eighteen Islamabad, has been revived. The 540-acre, American-style community outside Islamabad will include 1,100 villas, 900 apartments, a boutique hotel, a shopping mall, and other attractions, including a “championship” golf course designed by Bob Hunt. The goal is to offer amenities that are “second to none” and “delivered in a safe, secure, and exclusive location." Eighteen Islamabad is being co-developed by Naguib Sawiris, a member of the family whose Orascom Group built two wildly popular golf resorts on the Red Sea in Egypt. Sawiris believes he’s going to “revolutionize” Pakistan’s real-estate industry by creating “a new lifestyle destination in a world-class capital city,” and it’s worth noting that he’s working off a master plan created by U.S. companies.

     Pipeline Overflow – Valery Garipov. a Russian investor, has secured permission to build a “tourist complex,” including a golf course, in an abandoned village in Croatia. The complex, in Sikuli, will also feature some houses and apartments, two hotels, and a water park. Garipov hopes to break ground on it next year. . . . Iceland, which has more golf courses per capita than any other nation on earth, may soon get another. According to a news report, an Icelandic couple wants to build “a standard golf course,” some hotels, and other attractions in Skálabrekka, a town roughly 30 miles northeast of Reykjavik. Local officials are said to be evaluating the proposal. . . . Lee Schmidt’s golf course outside the last royal capital in Myanmar is scheduled to open in the spring. Myotha National Golf Club, a co-design with a former executive director of the Asian Tour, will be among the attractions at the Mandalay-Myotha Industrial Park, and it’s expected to contend for regional professional events. Schmidt, a principal of Schmidt-Curley Design, once predicted that the 18-hole track would offer “a stern test for today’s best players.”

     One of America’s toughest plays may soon bite the dust. Despite the usual complaints from neighbors, Stan Burton seems intent on building a subdivision on his Wolf Run Golf Club, a high-profile spread in suburban Indianapolis, Indiana. Wolf Run was established in 1989 by an amateur golfer, Jack Leer, who enlisted Steve Smyers to design what’s been described as “a demanding, world-class golf club for serious golfers.” Leer got what he wanted, but in retrospect the course’s challenge was its fatal flaw. “You have to be pretty good to enjoy that course,” the director of the state’s PGA section told the Indianapolis Business Journal. “That course is simply too hard for a segment of the golf population.” Burton, who bought Wolf Run in 2003, is the property’s third owner. He’s reportedly been trying to find a buyer for several years, without luck.

     Desolation Row Extended – Citing an analysis of “sales reports, expense reports, and market trends,” late last year Sierra Golf Management pulled the plug on a venue that opened in the early 1970s as Forest Meadows Golf Course. A couple of years ago the 18-hole layout, the centerpiece of an artsy community located outside Yosemite National Park in northern California, had been reduced to nine holes and given a new name, Murphys 9. The original course had been designed by Robert Trent Jones and his first-born son. . . . Pulte Homes has agreed to buy Cypress Creek Country Club, a venue in Boynton Beach, Florida that’s reportedly been “struggling to make money.” Cypress Creek, which features an 18-hole, Robert von Hagge-designed golf course, opened in the mid 1960s. It may continue to operate in 2018, but the prospective owner wants to begin building houses on the 116-acre property by 2019. . . . Sometime this month, the city of Milton, in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, is expected to acquire Milton Country Club, a 25-year-old venue that features an 18-hole, Willard Byrd-designed golf course. The price: $5 million. The city expects to convert the club’s roughly 140 acres into parkland.

The Week That Was, january 14, 2018

     Giles Morgan is still complaining about golf’s failure to keep up with changing times. In a post at Rive Gauche, his online newsletter, the former head of sponsorship for HSBC – he orchestrated the bank’s support of the Open Championship and other high-profile golf events – once again warns that the sport “is losing relevance with new audiences and looking increasingly out of touch with what society wants and expects.” Before it’s too late, he argues, our business must find its “epiphany moment,” or else it risks the possibility of “extinction.” Golf’s institutional leaders haven’t commented on the post, but one suspects that they have a cheerier assessment.

     While the Very Stable Genius was giving himself a nice, fat, juicy tax break, the Scottish government was taking away one he’s enjoyed for years. Trump Turnberry, the premier property in the Trump Organization’s portfolio, has lost roughly £110,000 ($151,000) in annual financial relief that it previously earned because it had been declared to be, in the words of Newsweek, one of the nation’s “struggling businesses.“ It’s worth noting that the U.S. President has few friends in Scotland (or, for that matter, anywhere else in the British Isles), mostly because of issues related to his golf resort in Aberdeenshire. The organization has broken many promises about what would eventually emerge at Trump International Golf Links Scotland, and it’s long been engaged in an ugly legal battle against a proposed off-shore wind farm that could be seen from the property. And, in an irony that’s hard to miss, the organization gripes incessantly about one alternative energy installation near its property but endorses the construction of who knows how many oil rigs along U.S. coastlines. Sad!

     If you believe the Very Stable Genius, Nigeria is a “shithole" country where everybody lives in huts. Nonetheless, a Chinese company recently staged a ceremonial groundbreaking on Virgin City, a large-scale spread outside Calabar, the capital of Cross River State. Mark Sino Construction Company has master-planned Virgin City to include all the suburban amenities you’d expect, including hotels, schools, a “water world fairground,” manufacturing facilities, a hospital, and a golf course. Our clueless president may not believe that anybody plays golf in Nigeria, but it’s time for him to wake up. The nation has 50 golf courses, according to Golf Digest, that serve as a leisure-time distraction for the people who are hard at work creating one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. According to Knight Frank’s most recent wealth report, in 2016 its capital city, Lagos, was home to 6,800 millionaires, 360 multi-millionaires (people worth $10 or more), and 110 ultrahigh-worth individuals (people worth $30 million or more). And if predictions come true, by the end of the 21st century it’ll be the world’s third most-populous nation, behind India and China. And here’s what should be really troubling to the White House: To build Virgin City, Mark Sino is doing the same thing that another big Chinese company did at Baha Mar, in the Bahamas, which is bring in thousands of countrymen-laborers who’ll eventually take most of their earnings home with them. China is laying economic claims (and with them, political influence) all over Africa while the United States sits on the sidelines, mistakenly believing it can win the future without playing in the game.

   At the groundbreaking for Virgin City, the mayor of Calabar delivered a discouraging message for America Firsters. He recalled a trip he’d made to Jilin Province, the home of Mark Sino, calling it “a fantastic place” that’s “far more civilized than America.” The Very Stable Genius may not wish to admit it, but Nigerians are laughing at us.

     Regarding the forthcoming 18-hole golf course at Cabot Links: The location of the hoped-for track has upset some residents of Inverness, Nova Scotia. Mike Keiser, Ben Cowan-Dewar, and the other investors who’ve already opened two destination-worthy layouts at their Canadian resort are angling to build their next regulation-length course on some supposedly protected provincial parkland. The developers are viewed by local elected officials as extremely good neighbors – heck, they’ve injected some substantial life into an economically moribund area – so there’s a better than even chance that their wish will come true. But it may happen later rather than sooner.

     A trio of investors, among them starchitect Tom Fazio, have purchased Forest Creek Golf Club, a fading venue in Pinehurst, North Carolina that just so happens to feature a pair of well-regarded, Fazio-designed golf courses. Fazio believes that Forest Creek’s 18-hole tracks offer “one of the truly elite golfing experiences in this country” and are “at the top of my accomplishments as a golf course architect.” Bobby McCann and his partners reportedly paid $9.6 million for Forest Creek, the centerpiece of a 1,265-acre spread that was originally developed by an entity affiliated with Barton Tuck’s GolfSouth. McCann’s group bought the club (as well as more than 100 residential lots in the community) from 189 members who reportedly shelled out $15 million for the property in 2013. The members thought they’d found a buyer roughly a year ago, when a California-based group raised hopes of “re-establishing Forest Creek as a premier golf course destination community.” Luckily for them, the new owners have made the same promise.

     Speaking of Barton Tuck and Tom Fazio, one of their top-rated courses in North Carolina was shuttered in the waning days of 2017. Bright’s Creek Golf Club, a bankrupt, 18-year-old venue outside Hendersonville, was developed by GolfSouth, and its featured attraction is a Fazio-designed, 18-hole track that Golf Digest views as the #18 course in the state. The club, part of a 4,600-acre community, failed to sell at a bankruptcy auction some months ago, and its receiver recently reported that lawsuits have prevented him from “receiving the necessary funding to continue club operations.”

     Desolation Row Extended – Despite a recent re-do by Tom Doak, one of our nation’s highest-profile nine-hole golf courses has bitten the dust. Aetna Springs Golf Course, in Pope Valley, California, ended its 125-year run a few days ago, as it failed to generate a following. It’s hard to believe, but the course attracted only 4,800 rounds last year. Here’s another fact that’s hard to believe: Aetna Springs appears to be the seventh Doak-designed course to go dark. Its owners are said to be negotiating a sale to a buyer who reportedly thinks the site is a good location for houses. . . . Barely two years after a promised “repositioning and revitalization,” the owners of the Meadows, in Sarasota, Florida, are thinking about pulling the plug on half of their 54-hole complex. Citing comments by the Meadows’ community association, WWSB-TV reports that “dwindling memberships has caused some financial difficulties for the country club,” which features two Frank Duane-designed tracks and one by Arthur Hills. No word on which holes are on the chopping block. . . . The lights have been turned out at Naples Golf & Country Club, which had operated in greater Portland, Maine for nearly a century. The club’s shareholders are looking to sell their property, which features an 18-hole course that opened in two phases, in 1921 and in 2000.

The Week That Was, january 7, 2018

     Arnold Palmer’s heirs have figured out a way to capitalize on the impeccable brand they now control. A division of the King’s empire and a small Bahamian investment group aim to establish the Arnold Palmer Collection, a group of 20 “one-of-a-kind boutique resorts” to be located in “very special locations worldwide.” The resorts will feature golf courses, all of them part of “very unique and authentic clubs,” but the playing experiences that Palmer’s design wing intends to deliver appears to be an afterthought. Instead, Arnold Palmer Properties and SilkPort Capital Management promise “extraordinary experiences for a highly sought-after demographic” and “a compelling value proposition for investors and, ultimately, buyers.” Translation: The real estate is more important than the golf. Two of the first three resorts will take shape alongside courses that Palmer agreed to design before he died, at Castle Stuart in Scotland and at Club & Lodge at Ironwood on Grand Cayman Island. The third, with a 12-hole course, will emerge near the campus of Palmer’s alma mater, Wake Forest University in North Carolina. In a marketing pitch for this “remarkable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” the partners tell potential investors that the collection is “destined to be one of the most successful boutique golf resort collections in history.” Just wondering: If the resorts fall short of the developers’ promise, do investors get their money back?

     The Trump Organization’s fast-eroding coastal golf resort in Doonbeg, Ireland continues to bleed red on its bottom line. In 2016, according to financial documents filed with the Irish government, Trump International Golf Links Ireland lost $2.3 million, an amount that’s concerning but actually an improvement over the losses posted by the property in 2014 and 2015. The resort’s general manager reportedly believes that another loss is likely in 2017, but the final financial figures won’t be known until late 2018.

     Regarding the erosion at Golf International Golf Links Ireland: Over the holidays, the Trump Organization secured permission to build a pair of sea walls to fend off the waves that constantly, relentlessly batterer its coastal property. One barrier will stretch for nearly 700 yards, the other for nearly 300, and local opponents of the plan have until mid-January to appeal the decision. And in yet another example of the hypocrisy that pervades all things Trump, the Organization reportedly cited “rising seas” caused by “global warming” as threats to the resort’s existence.

     Dick Nugent, who proudly designed golf courses for a fellow he called “Joe Six-Pack,” died on the first day of the new year. Nugent operated out of an office in Chicagoland and worked mostly in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, so he’s sometimes viewed dismissively as “a regional architect.” The term does him a great disservice, because he was versatile enough to create, either on his own or with collaborators such as Ken Killian, a course that hosted a PGA Championship (Kemper Lakes Golf Club), a longtime PGA Tour venue (Tuckaway Country Club), one of the Windy City’s most popular public complexes (Harborside International Golf Center), and, with Mike Keiser, one of the world’s few destination-worthy nine-hole layouts (Dunes Club). All in all, Nugent had a hand in designing, redesigning, or renovating dozens of affordably priced courses in Arizona, Hawaii, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and several other states. But no matter where he was working, according to a recollection by Jeff Brauer, he held firm to the belief that “we probably do more for golf by designing a good green for some rural course than building a big-budget course for high-dollar players.” Nugent apprenticed with Robert Bruce Harris and served as a mentor to Brauer, Bob Lohmann, Jim Engh, Bruce Borland, and Jim Blaukovitch, and he helped to train his son, Tim, to become a golf architect as well. Tim now runs the family business. His father had moved to Arizona several years ago, and he died there at the age of 86.

     Dick Nugent wasn’t the only golf designer who died on New Year’s Day. Jeff Hardin, who’s been described as both “an old-school cowboy” – he was known for the cowboy boots he habitually wore – and “a true pioneer in golf design,” passed away in Arizona at the age of 84. Hardin was a civil engineer and a road builder before he became the in-house course architect for Del Webb Company, and he’s probably best known for the courses he created, often with Greg Nash, at the company’s retirement communities in suburban Phoenix. Hardin eventually hung out his own shingle, designing affordable courses on his own in Nevada (Los Prados Golf Course), Utah (Sky Mountain Golf Course), and other western states, and he continued to collaborate not only with Nash but also with “the Desert Fox,” Red Lawrence (Dobson Ranch Golf Course in Arizona). Hardin spent his final years in Wickenburg, Arizona, content that he’d created a parade of playable courses that could be enjoyed by golfers of all abilities.

     To his dismay, Peter Nanula has been rebuffed. The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports that a group of Golden Valley Country Club’s members have offered to loan the club “a collective figure worth potentially more than $1 million” to prevent a sale to Nanula’s deep-pocketed investment group, Concert Golf Partners. Curiously, the members’ offer – it’s a loan, let’s not forget, and not a gift – pales in comparison to the $9.5 million that Concert was willing to pay for Golden Valley, an ancient venue that was already $7 million in debt, in need of substantive capital improvements, and at a competitive disadvantage in its market due to the negative publicity it’s received about its precarious financial condition. “We cannot help clubs who do not want to be helped,” Nanula glumly acknowledged to the Journal. So Golden Valley will for now remain owned by its members, at least some of whom believe a better offer might eventually come around. As things currently stand, though, it’s hard to see how Golden Valley digs itself out of the hole it’s in. A year from now, it’s entirely possible that Concert will be able to strike a better deal for itself.

     In a reflection of continuing tough times for golf development, a veritable who’s who of U.S. architects are vying to design a municipal golf course in Boca Raton, Florida. The 15-member group is led by firms that wouldn’t have been caught dead bidding on a municipal job back when “signature” golf was all the rage – among them, firms led by Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Rees Jones, Robert Trent Jones, and Nick Price – but it also includes designers with decades of experience (Arthur Hills, Tom Lehman, Mark McCumber) as well as, naturally, a few that the average golfer doesn’t know from Adam. They’re all hoping to win a contract for Boca National Golf Club, a supposedly “world-class,” 27-hole complex that will take shape on the site of the old Ocean Breeze Golf Club. If all goes as planned, the lucky winner will be named later this month.