Reflecting the optimism that’s returned to golf operations, Henry DeLozier of Global Golf Advisors recently declared that “the growing economy” has led to “more participation” at U.S. golf courses. Unfortunately, the data on participation doesn’t support his claim, as the National Golf Foundation reports that the number of rounds played last year fell by 2.7 percent from the numbers posted in 2016. As is its habit, the NGF tried to put some lipstick on this statistical pig by characterizing the decline as “consistent with average weather-related fluctuation.” Maybe that’s true. But the Jupiter, Florida-based booster club also conceded that our industry has, sadly, “given back the gains from the prior two years.” Although the golf economy has most certainly improved, beware of those who view it through rose-colored glasses. It’s hard to find growth in a business that’s lost more than 6 million of its customers since 2006.
Cuba hasn’t managed to open even one golf course for two decades, but its golf aspirations have gone forth and multiplied. In 2010, the socialist republic’s tourism ministers floated plans to build a dozen courses. Today, the number has swelled to 24, and still, vacationers to the island nation have but one 18-hole golf course to play, the same one Les Furber designed in Varadero in the late 1990s. Let’s face facts: Despite the hype, Cuba is where golf development dreams go to die.
Slowly but surely, a partnership led by Northview Hotel Group is turning a sweet profit on the golf resorts it bought from Jeld-Wen Holdings. In 2010, the Westport, Connecticut-based company and its financier reportedly paid the window manufacturer $9.5 million for three properties in Oregon: Running Y Ranch in Klamath Falls, Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond, and Brasada Ranch in Powell Butte. Northview sold Running Y in 2014, at a price said to be just over $3 million, and now it’s sold Eagle Crest, a venue that features three 18-hole courses, for $12 million. Northview still owns Brasada Ranch and has said that it isn’t for sale, but business plans are always subject to change. The company says it was created to make “opportunistic hotel investments.” If the sales figures are accurate, it’s succeeding.
Surplus Transactions – Watermark Properties has agreed to buy its sixth golf course. Come the first of March, the company expects to close on Ravines Golf Club, a 19-year-old property in Saugatuck, Michigan that features an 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed track. A price hasn’t been disclosed. Watermark currently owns three properties in Grand Rapids – Watermark Country Club, Thousand Oaks Country Club, and Golf Club at Thornapple Pointe – and two others in nearby suburban communities. . . . Hickory Sticks Golf Club, a 170-acre venue that’s operated in rural northwestern Ohio since 1961, has changed hands. Mark White has given the financially challenged 27-hole, Jim Spear-designed complex to the YMCA of Van Wert County, which hopes to transform it into what Turfnet.com calls “a regional showcase for golf enthusiasts.” . . . Late last year, Chris Smith paid $850,000 for Pinewood Country Club, an 89-acre property that’s faced financial hardships since Hurricane Katrina blew through Slidell, Louisiana. In part two of the transaction, Luis Ochoa paid $300,000 for Pinewood’s bar, restaurant, ballroom, and other amenities. Pinewood, which features an 18-hole, Bill Bergin-designed golf course, now operates as Pinewood Golf Club.
Heath Golf & Yacht Club, a resort-style community in suburban Dallas, Texas that was initiated in 2011, if not before, is finally under construction. The featured attraction of the 787-acre spread will be an 18-hole golf course that Roy Bechtol, its designer, says will be “fun and beautiful.” Bechtol, who formerly co-designed with Randy Russell, has worked mostly in Texas (Bechtol Russell Golf Design created Club at Comanche Trace in Kerrville and Golf Club of Texas in San Antonio, among others) but also in Oklahoma (Gaillardia Country Club in Oklahoma City) and Louisiana (Black Bear Golf Club in Delhi). Most recently, Bechtol helped Jordan Spieth design a six-hole, par-3 track at University of Texas Golf Club. The course at Heath, described in a press release as “a blend of a links and parkland design,” is expected to open next summer.
Pipeline Overflow – The government of Dubai aims to open what might be Montenegro’s first golf course. The Investment Corporation of Dubai, which manages the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, says that it wants to build “golf courses” in the beautiful Balkan nation, one of which may take shape in a forthcoming resort community called Porto Montenegro. Of course, the ICI is currently running in second place, because Luštica Bay, a slow-developing community along the nation’s Adriatic coast, aims to debut its Gary Player-designed layout in 2020. . . . If it can secure some tax advantages, Jacoby Development intends to build a master-planned community on 1,150 acres south of Cartersville, Georgia. The community, called Villages at Red Top, will include 1,400 single-family houses, 600 multi-family units, a commercial area, and a golf course. . . . Callaly Leisure, Ltd. has set out to build what appears to be an RV park on a former coal mine in Northumberland, England, the nation’s “Blue Sky County.” According to the Northumberland Gazette, the Chevington Castle Holiday Park will offer 200 lots for land yachts, 275 lots for “static caravans,” 475 lots for permanent houses, and some recreational attractions, among them a nine-hole golf course.
Chris, Allison, and James A. Osborne want to pull the plug on one of the two golf courses they own in suburban Louisville, Kentucky. On the brink of extinction is Woodlawn Springs Golf Course, an 18-hole, David Pfaff-designed layout that’s been in business since the mid 1990s. The Osbornes have said that Woodlawn Springs “might just be the best-kept secret in the Louisville area,” but they gave the Kentucky Standard reason to believe that the track is “going broke.” The Osbornes bought Woodlawn Springs and Maywood Golf Course, both part of the Bardstown Country Club community, in 2004. Much to the distress of home owners in the community, they’re now seeking permission to build houses on the 140-acre spread. Local planning officials have approved the Osbornes’ plans, but Nelson County will reportedly have the final say.
Desolation Row Extended – Salt Creek Golf Club, which the San Diego Union-Tribune says “has lost money since opening in 2000,” will end its short, unhappy life in mid March. The club, in Chula Vista, California, features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by John Cook and Cary Bickler. . . . It appears that one of the oldest golf courses on the Grand Strand will soon bite the dust. A residential developer has agreed to buy Conway Country Club, a 65-year-old venue (only Pine Lakes Country Club and Dunes Golf & Beach Club are older) with a nine-hole, Jimmy Self-designed golf course. The Myrtle Beach Sun-News reports that the club “was for decades a vibrant part of the social life” in Conway, South Carolina, but those days are obviously long gone. The club has been struggling for years, and if the transaction closes its 60 acres will be dotted with houses. . . . A residential developer has laid a claim on nine of the Stephen Kay-designed 27 holes at Blue Fox Run Golf Course in Avon, Connecticut. The complex’s owner, a group called Blue Fox Run Enterprises, will maintain an 18-hole layout on their property, but, pending approval by local elected officials, it’ll be accented by nearly 200 single-family houses and apartments.
The future of what was supposed to be a “first-rate ecological golf course” in Nova Scotia, Canada is in doubt because its developer was found guilty of violating the province’s Environment Act.
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Sunday, February 18, 2018
The Week That Was, february 18, 2018
A commission that once seemed lost is back in play for Tiger Woods. We’re talking about Two Farms, a community in suburban Nashville, Tennessee that’s being developed by Woods’ most dedicated client, Beacon Land Development. Woods designed the golf course for Beacon’s Bluejack National, in suburban Houston, Texas, and he’s agreed to produce at least one track for Jack’s Bay, the company’s forthcoming community in the Bahamas. Woods had also been pegged to design the golf course at Two Farms, but his participation became doubtful when Beacon took on Discovery Land Company as its development partner. Discovery, as most everyone knows, nowadays works exclusively with Tom Fazio, a proven commodity whose career has been untouched by scandal. But last fall Discovery dropped out of the picture – it expressed concerns about water availability at Two Farms – and Beacon’s replacement partner doesn’t have any architectural prejudices. The result: If the developers can secure the required entitlements, they’ll build 1,180 houses, a retail/commercial area, a waste-water treatment plant, and an 18-hole golf course. According to Beacon’s president, Woods is “looking to take the character of the [Two Farms] land today and enhance it.” The nature of the enhancement hasn’t yet been outlined.
You wouldn’t think that having a hotel operator for a president would have a negative effect on the U.S. travel business, but it has. Over the past two years, according to the U.S. Travel Association, the U.S. share of inbound international travel has been falling – from 13.6 percent in 2015 to 12.9 percent in 2016 to 11.9 percent last year. What’s more, says the Commercial Observer, the United States is one of only two nations among the world’s top 12 travel destinations that has experienced a significant decline in its share of international travel during that period. (The other, not surprisingly, was Turkey.) “International tourism is definitely down,” acknowledged Chris Muoio, the chief economist for Ten-X, an Irvine, California-based real-estate research firm. In an interview with the Observer, Muoio put the blame squarely on the White House. “As long as this administration is in place,” he said, “I think there’s going to be a tepid, cooler response toward traveling to the U.S. It’s just become a less desirable destination based off the rhetoric and attitude that’s been put out there.” On the campaign trail, the Very Stable Genius promised to be good for business. He never confessed that he was talking about his own.
The golf course at a community that once bragged of being America’s first fly-in dude ranch was recently sold at a foreclosure auction. Doug and Cindy Stevens, operating as Equalizer Inc., bid $3 million for Flying L Hill Country Resort, a faded, 70-year-old vacation getaway in Bandera, Texas, a town in greater San Antonio that bills itself as “the cowboy capital of the world.” Flying L features a forgettable 18-hole golf course that dates from 1972, and its air strip was long ago replaced by a driving range. Since 2013, it had been in the hands of Jody and Susan Jenkins, who reportedly “lived the ranch life and really supported the cowboy way.” Unfortunately, their Trey West LLC defaulted on a debt and was forced to declare for bankruptcy protection. The new owners have promised to revive the community, but they haven’t said how.
Surplus Transactions – A bakery owner has acquired a “neglected” par-60 track on Hawaii’s O’ahu island. Kerry Lau, the president of Regal Food, Inc., reportedly paid $5.8 million for Bayview Golf Course, a Robin Nelson-designed track that opened in 1997. Pacific Business News reports that Windward Church of the Nazarene was hoping to get $8.5 million for the 98-acre property. . . . Lake Wissota Golf Course, an under-performing 18-hole track in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin – the birthplace of Annie Hall! – has a new owner. Can’t say who it is, though, because the facilitator of the transaction is keeping his or her identity a secret. For what it’s worth, the Don Stepanik-designed track was being marketed as “a hidden gem” that could “benefit from new ownership with a drive to increase business.” The asking price was $1.5 million. . . . For $850,000, the city of Louisville, Kentucky has assumed control of Quail Chase Golf Club. The 27-hole, David Pfaff-designed complex (it opened in two phases, in 1988 and 1991) is located on city-owned property, and it had been leased by an entity called Golf Development Company, Inc.
Membership no longer has all of its privileges at Walmer Country Club, a venue in Port Elizabeth, South Africa that’s operated since 1942. In an attempt to cope with the Eastern Cape’s debilitating water crisis, the club has outlawed the use of its showers. According to a local radio station, Walmer has experienced “a marked increase in its water usage” since authorities put residential water restrictions into place.
Some golf writers have gotten all gloomy and forlorn about the loss of Steve Wynn’s golf course on the Las Vegas Strip, but their discontent isn’t shared by the property’s owner. The Tom Fazio-designed layout at Wynn Golf Club never quite lived up to Wynn’s expectations – he apparently believed it was better than the Fazio-created course he’d built at Shadow Creek, an opinion shared by few others – and he couldn’t shake the idea that its location was worth a fortune. (“I’ve got a billion and a half dollars of real estate under that golf course,” he once said.) So, late last year, the casino mogul and accused sexual harasser pulled the blinds on Wynn Golf Club. No tears need be shed. The course was never anything more than a means to an end. Great golf, by contrast, is always an end in itself.
Desolation Row Extended – Sandy Woodruff has agreed to sell her Valley Gardens Golf Course, a nine-hole, executive-length track in metropolitan San Jose, California, to a developer. “The numbers have been bad for the past five years,” she told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Woodruff’s father opened Valley Gardens, a 29-acre, Bob Baldock-designed layout, in 1971. Pending a successful rezoning, the course will be replaced by nearly 200 houses and apartments. . . . Time has run out on Fox Hill Golf Course, an 18-hole, 5,844-yard track in Massena, New York. “The golf business is not lucrative these days,” John Kearns, the course’s owner, told North Country Now. “It was costing me money to stay open.” Kearns, who built the course in 1999, plans to retire and live in Fox Hill’s clubhouse. . . . Pocomoke, Maryland, which dubs itself as “the friendliest town on the Eastern Shore,” has pulled the plug on its golf course. The nine-hole Winter Quarters Golf Course, which had operated since 1934, has reportedly lost about $150,000 annually in recent years.
This year’s India Golf Expo is going back to where it all started. The networking event, described by its organizers as “an exciting mix of golf and business,” will be held in Bangalore, where it was initiated seven years ago. The R&A has promised to send “a complete delegation,” and “lavish buffet lunches, industry dinners, and entertainment” are guaranteed for all. The dates: April 19 and 20.
You wouldn’t think that having a hotel operator for a president would have a negative effect on the U.S. travel business, but it has. Over the past two years, according to the U.S. Travel Association, the U.S. share of inbound international travel has been falling – from 13.6 percent in 2015 to 12.9 percent in 2016 to 11.9 percent last year. What’s more, says the Commercial Observer, the United States is one of only two nations among the world’s top 12 travel destinations that has experienced a significant decline in its share of international travel during that period. (The other, not surprisingly, was Turkey.) “International tourism is definitely down,” acknowledged Chris Muoio, the chief economist for Ten-X, an Irvine, California-based real-estate research firm. In an interview with the Observer, Muoio put the blame squarely on the White House. “As long as this administration is in place,” he said, “I think there’s going to be a tepid, cooler response toward traveling to the U.S. It’s just become a less desirable destination based off the rhetoric and attitude that’s been put out there.” On the campaign trail, the Very Stable Genius promised to be good for business. He never confessed that he was talking about his own.
The golf course at a community that once bragged of being America’s first fly-in dude ranch was recently sold at a foreclosure auction. Doug and Cindy Stevens, operating as Equalizer Inc., bid $3 million for Flying L Hill Country Resort, a faded, 70-year-old vacation getaway in Bandera, Texas, a town in greater San Antonio that bills itself as “the cowboy capital of the world.” Flying L features a forgettable 18-hole golf course that dates from 1972, and its air strip was long ago replaced by a driving range. Since 2013, it had been in the hands of Jody and Susan Jenkins, who reportedly “lived the ranch life and really supported the cowboy way.” Unfortunately, their Trey West LLC defaulted on a debt and was forced to declare for bankruptcy protection. The new owners have promised to revive the community, but they haven’t said how.
Surplus Transactions – A bakery owner has acquired a “neglected” par-60 track on Hawaii’s O’ahu island. Kerry Lau, the president of Regal Food, Inc., reportedly paid $5.8 million for Bayview Golf Course, a Robin Nelson-designed track that opened in 1997. Pacific Business News reports that Windward Church of the Nazarene was hoping to get $8.5 million for the 98-acre property. . . . Lake Wissota Golf Course, an under-performing 18-hole track in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin – the birthplace of Annie Hall! – has a new owner. Can’t say who it is, though, because the facilitator of the transaction is keeping his or her identity a secret. For what it’s worth, the Don Stepanik-designed track was being marketed as “a hidden gem” that could “benefit from new ownership with a drive to increase business.” The asking price was $1.5 million. . . . For $850,000, the city of Louisville, Kentucky has assumed control of Quail Chase Golf Club. The 27-hole, David Pfaff-designed complex (it opened in two phases, in 1988 and 1991) is located on city-owned property, and it had been leased by an entity called Golf Development Company, Inc.
Membership no longer has all of its privileges at Walmer Country Club, a venue in Port Elizabeth, South Africa that’s operated since 1942. In an attempt to cope with the Eastern Cape’s debilitating water crisis, the club has outlawed the use of its showers. According to a local radio station, Walmer has experienced “a marked increase in its water usage” since authorities put residential water restrictions into place.
Some golf writers have gotten all gloomy and forlorn about the loss of Steve Wynn’s golf course on the Las Vegas Strip, but their discontent isn’t shared by the property’s owner. The Tom Fazio-designed layout at Wynn Golf Club never quite lived up to Wynn’s expectations – he apparently believed it was better than the Fazio-created course he’d built at Shadow Creek, an opinion shared by few others – and he couldn’t shake the idea that its location was worth a fortune. (“I’ve got a billion and a half dollars of real estate under that golf course,” he once said.) So, late last year, the casino mogul and accused sexual harasser pulled the blinds on Wynn Golf Club. No tears need be shed. The course was never anything more than a means to an end. Great golf, by contrast, is always an end in itself.
Desolation Row Extended – Sandy Woodruff has agreed to sell her Valley Gardens Golf Course, a nine-hole, executive-length track in metropolitan San Jose, California, to a developer. “The numbers have been bad for the past five years,” she told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Woodruff’s father opened Valley Gardens, a 29-acre, Bob Baldock-designed layout, in 1971. Pending a successful rezoning, the course will be replaced by nearly 200 houses and apartments. . . . Time has run out on Fox Hill Golf Course, an 18-hole, 5,844-yard track in Massena, New York. “The golf business is not lucrative these days,” John Kearns, the course’s owner, told North Country Now. “It was costing me money to stay open.” Kearns, who built the course in 1999, plans to retire and live in Fox Hill’s clubhouse. . . . Pocomoke, Maryland, which dubs itself as “the friendliest town on the Eastern Shore,” has pulled the plug on its golf course. The nine-hole Winter Quarters Golf Course, which had operated since 1934, has reportedly lost about $150,000 annually in recent years.
This year’s India Golf Expo is going back to where it all started. The networking event, described by its organizers as “an exciting mix of golf and business,” will be held in Bangalore, where it was initiated seven years ago. The R&A has promised to send “a complete delegation,” and “lavish buffet lunches, industry dinners, and entertainment” are guaranteed for all. The dates: April 19 and 20.
Sunday, February 11, 2018
The Week That Was, february 11, 2018
One of the faces on golf’s Mount Rushmore has turned its eyes in a new direction. Jack Nicklaus, who’s long been arguably the most indispensable person in our industry, has decided to “re-prioritize his time and focus,” he acknowledged in a press release. Acting on a plan that was established a decade ago, the 78-year-old megastar says he’s stepped away from Nicklaus Companies and will devote most of his future to charitable activities and the “many other things I am very interested in.” Nicklaus’ announcement doesn’t come as a great surprise, but it does nonetheless give one pause. In his statement, Nicklaus said that he “didn’t want to make a big deal out of it,” but it’s impossible not to. He’s a fabled professional player, a prolific golf architect, and an internationally known businessman, and though he’s promised not to abandon the world of golf entirely, he leaves a void. From here on in, Nicklaus Companies will be almost completely in the hands of Howard Milstein, the banker who’s largely responsible for turning Nicklaus’ reputation into an empire. Nicklaus Design will continue to operate, but its namesake will only “support the golf course design projects currently under development.” So it’s time to wonder what becomes a legend most, because the handwriting is on the wall: Slowly but surely, our most trusted spokesperson is headed for the exits. An uncertain industry will have to figure out how to manage without him.
Brent Wadsworth, a seminal figure in modern golf, died last week in suburban Chicago, Illinois, where his Wadsworth Golf Construction Company was headquartered. He was 88. Though he was primarily known as a builder, Wadsworth was also a golf architect, a course owner, a philanthropist, and a dedicated supporter of grow-the-game initiatives through his Links Across America program. There are many ways to measure the impact that he had on our business, and here’s just one: In his lifetime, he won the top honors that can be bestowed by the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the Golf Course Builders Association of America, and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. In 1958, he founded what became the first national course construction company, one that could meet any challenge on any terrain in any environment. His company built, renovated, or redesigned hundreds of golf courses, maybe a thousand of them, and when the architects of our times needed a builder, Wadsworth was on their short list. It set the standard for contemporary golf construction. Wadsworth was fundamental to the games golfers play, be they on hometown tracks or on PGA Tour-worthy venues, and he leaves a legacy that will endure.
The merciless, years-long drought in southern Africa is taking a toll on the region’s golf business. Cape Town, as most everyone knows, has all but exhausted its supply of fresh water, and in just weeks its residents will be forced to survive on just 6.5 gallons a day. Golf courses throughout South Africa are, not surprisingly, turning brown. Some can no longer wash their laundry, and at least one has had to remove the fish from its disappearing ponds. But arguably the biggest impact of the water scarcity has been felt at Royal Cape Golf Club, the longtime host of the Cape Town Open. Royal Cape is no longer in any condition to host a professional golf tournament, let alone one of the continent’s premier events, so the open has been relocated to another course in the city. For most Americans, Cape Town is out of sight and therefore out of mind, but it’s showing us what happens to golf courses that aren’t irrigated with effluent water. And Cape Town isn’t an isolated case. California has suffered through its own drought in recent years, and a British news report says that a quarter of the world’s 500 largest cities are experiencing some form of “water stress.” The cities most at risk include some expected names – São Paulo, Beijing, Cairo, Mexico City – but also some unexpected ones, including London, Tokyo, and Miami.
Arcis Golf has added to what it calls “our growing collection of one-of-a-kind lifestyle properties.” The Dallas, Texas-based company, one of the largest owner/operators in America, has paid an undisclosed price for TPC Valencia, a 15-year-old private club in suburban Los Angeles, California. TPC Valencia has a golf course that bears the “signature” of Mark O’Meara, and it’s located within earshot of another Arcis-owned property, Valencia Country Club, which has a Robert Trent Jones-designed layout. Although a press release suggests that the properties are “exceptional golf clubs,” neither one has a course that’s ranked among California’s top 30 by Golf Digest. Arcis owns and/or manages 57 golf properties, according to the listing on its website, a collection that consists of 20 private clubs, 28 public courses, and nine municipal facilities. The properties are located in Arizona, California, Illinois, Texas, and 10 other states. With its purchase of TPC Valencia and similar venues, the company claims to be “reinventing the modern club experience.”
Surplus Transactions – Troon Golf has agreed to buy the Clubs at St. James Plantation, the centerpiece of a 6,000-acre community in Southport, North Carolina that opened in the early 1990s. St. James features a quartet of 18-hole golf courses that were designed by Hale Irwin, P. B. Dye, Tim Cate, and Nicklaus Design, and Troon is intimately familiar with all of them, as it’s managed the club for a dozen years. . . . Late last year, a group of members acquired the struggling Wildwood Golf & Country Club, a century-old venue in Cape May Court House, New Jersey. A price hasn’t been disclosed, but it sounds as if the new owners took possession simply by clearing the club’s debt. Wildwood features an 18-hole, Stiles & Van Kleek-designed layout that dates from 1922. When the club re-opens this spring, it’ll be called the Shore Club. . . . Antioch Golf Course, an 18-hole track in north-suburban Chicago, Illinois that’s reportedly losing $200,000 a year, has a new owner. Unfortunately, all I can tell you about the sale is that the seller was asking for $950,000 and that a nearby community could have had it for $750,000 but passed on the opportunity.
A Riyadh-based company has secured a contract to produce a golf course in NEOM City, which is promoting itself as “the world’s most ambitious project.” Al Bawani Company hasn’t yet provided any details about the golf course – heck, the track may not even open until 2025 – but the opportunity to help build NEOM City will raise its already high profile in the Middle East. NEOM City, which will take shape on more than 10,000 square miles at northern tip of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, is fundamentally a vanity project that was conceived by the kingdom’s crown prince, who’s promised to create a “land of the future” that’s “unrivaled in concept” and “unconstrained by history.” The city will be powered by wind and solar energy and filled with armies of robots to make life wonderful, and its not-yet finalized master plan will identify sites for five palaces that will serve as second (or third or fourth) homes for Saudi princes.
Nearly a year after Muirfield grudgingly solved its woman problem, another ancient Scottish golf venue has come to terms with contemporary times. In a nearly unanimous vote, the all-male members of Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, a venue that’s operated since 1780, have chosen to welcome females into their midst. “I think the days of single-gender clubs are slowly disappearing,” the club’s secretary explained, “and we didn’t want to be left behind.” Those words are misleading, however, because Royal Aberdeen’s decision wasn’t an expression of open-mindedness. The club last hosted the Scottish Open in 2014, and it wasn’t going to get back into the rotation for the event as long as it maintained a single-sex membership. But that’s life. Sometimes people do the right things for the wrong reasons.
Brent Wadsworth, a seminal figure in modern golf, died last week in suburban Chicago, Illinois, where his Wadsworth Golf Construction Company was headquartered. He was 88. Though he was primarily known as a builder, Wadsworth was also a golf architect, a course owner, a philanthropist, and a dedicated supporter of grow-the-game initiatives through his Links Across America program. There are many ways to measure the impact that he had on our business, and here’s just one: In his lifetime, he won the top honors that can be bestowed by the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the Golf Course Builders Association of America, and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. In 1958, he founded what became the first national course construction company, one that could meet any challenge on any terrain in any environment. His company built, renovated, or redesigned hundreds of golf courses, maybe a thousand of them, and when the architects of our times needed a builder, Wadsworth was on their short list. It set the standard for contemporary golf construction. Wadsworth was fundamental to the games golfers play, be they on hometown tracks or on PGA Tour-worthy venues, and he leaves a legacy that will endure.
The merciless, years-long drought in southern Africa is taking a toll on the region’s golf business. Cape Town, as most everyone knows, has all but exhausted its supply of fresh water, and in just weeks its residents will be forced to survive on just 6.5 gallons a day. Golf courses throughout South Africa are, not surprisingly, turning brown. Some can no longer wash their laundry, and at least one has had to remove the fish from its disappearing ponds. But arguably the biggest impact of the water scarcity has been felt at Royal Cape Golf Club, the longtime host of the Cape Town Open. Royal Cape is no longer in any condition to host a professional golf tournament, let alone one of the continent’s premier events, so the open has been relocated to another course in the city. For most Americans, Cape Town is out of sight and therefore out of mind, but it’s showing us what happens to golf courses that aren’t irrigated with effluent water. And Cape Town isn’t an isolated case. California has suffered through its own drought in recent years, and a British news report says that a quarter of the world’s 500 largest cities are experiencing some form of “water stress.” The cities most at risk include some expected names – São Paulo, Beijing, Cairo, Mexico City – but also some unexpected ones, including London, Tokyo, and Miami.
Arcis Golf has added to what it calls “our growing collection of one-of-a-kind lifestyle properties.” The Dallas, Texas-based company, one of the largest owner/operators in America, has paid an undisclosed price for TPC Valencia, a 15-year-old private club in suburban Los Angeles, California. TPC Valencia has a golf course that bears the “signature” of Mark O’Meara, and it’s located within earshot of another Arcis-owned property, Valencia Country Club, which has a Robert Trent Jones-designed layout. Although a press release suggests that the properties are “exceptional golf clubs,” neither one has a course that’s ranked among California’s top 30 by Golf Digest. Arcis owns and/or manages 57 golf properties, according to the listing on its website, a collection that consists of 20 private clubs, 28 public courses, and nine municipal facilities. The properties are located in Arizona, California, Illinois, Texas, and 10 other states. With its purchase of TPC Valencia and similar venues, the company claims to be “reinventing the modern club experience.”
Surplus Transactions – Troon Golf has agreed to buy the Clubs at St. James Plantation, the centerpiece of a 6,000-acre community in Southport, North Carolina that opened in the early 1990s. St. James features a quartet of 18-hole golf courses that were designed by Hale Irwin, P. B. Dye, Tim Cate, and Nicklaus Design, and Troon is intimately familiar with all of them, as it’s managed the club for a dozen years. . . . Late last year, a group of members acquired the struggling Wildwood Golf & Country Club, a century-old venue in Cape May Court House, New Jersey. A price hasn’t been disclosed, but it sounds as if the new owners took possession simply by clearing the club’s debt. Wildwood features an 18-hole, Stiles & Van Kleek-designed layout that dates from 1922. When the club re-opens this spring, it’ll be called the Shore Club. . . . Antioch Golf Course, an 18-hole track in north-suburban Chicago, Illinois that’s reportedly losing $200,000 a year, has a new owner. Unfortunately, all I can tell you about the sale is that the seller was asking for $950,000 and that a nearby community could have had it for $750,000 but passed on the opportunity.
A Riyadh-based company has secured a contract to produce a golf course in NEOM City, which is promoting itself as “the world’s most ambitious project.” Al Bawani Company hasn’t yet provided any details about the golf course – heck, the track may not even open until 2025 – but the opportunity to help build NEOM City will raise its already high profile in the Middle East. NEOM City, which will take shape on more than 10,000 square miles at northern tip of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, is fundamentally a vanity project that was conceived by the kingdom’s crown prince, who’s promised to create a “land of the future” that’s “unrivaled in concept” and “unconstrained by history.” The city will be powered by wind and solar energy and filled with armies of robots to make life wonderful, and its not-yet finalized master plan will identify sites for five palaces that will serve as second (or third or fourth) homes for Saudi princes.
Nearly a year after Muirfield grudgingly solved its woman problem, another ancient Scottish golf venue has come to terms with contemporary times. In a nearly unanimous vote, the all-male members of Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, a venue that’s operated since 1780, have chosen to welcome females into their midst. “I think the days of single-gender clubs are slowly disappearing,” the club’s secretary explained, “and we didn’t want to be left behind.” Those words are misleading, however, because Royal Aberdeen’s decision wasn’t an expression of open-mindedness. The club last hosted the Scottish Open in 2014, and it wasn’t going to get back into the rotation for the event as long as it maintained a single-sex membership. But that’s life. Sometimes people do the right things for the wrong reasons.
Sunday, February 4, 2018
The Week That Was, february 4, 2018
After 13 years of declines, golf operations on the Grand Strand may be on the upswing. Last year, according to data compiled by a local marketing company, the number of rounds played on golf courses in and around Myrtle Beach, South Carolina grew by 4.1 percent over the number posted in 2016. Even better, another boost in play may be on the horizon, as the number of rounds already booked for 2018 indicates another likely increase. “We are healthier than we have been in a number of years, though we still can improve and we’re working hard to make ’18 better than ’17,” the executive director of the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association told the Myrtle Beach Sun News. “We’re starting to improve and see the bottom lines getting a little bit better.” The erosion in play in the Myrtle Beach area since 2001 has been precipitous, and it’s put more than two dozen courses out of business. The data speaks for itself: More than 4.2 million rounds were played in 2001, the Sun News reports, a number than fell to less than 2.7 million in 2016 – a decline of more than 36 percent. Seeing as how Myrtle Beach is among the bellwethers of the national golf economy, this news begs an obvious question: Is golf’s financial cloud finally about to lift?
The Trump presidency reflects badly on the golf industry in many ways, a fact underscored by a recent opinion piece in the New York Times. Michael Goldfarb, the creator of the “First Rough Draft of History” podcast, believes that the Very Stable Genius is best appreciated as “a country-club boor” whose social, racial, and cultural prejudices are fueled by and supported by members of America’s “nouveau-riche, country-club class.” The president’s crude thoughts are “exactly what you might hear at any country club,” Goldfarb argues, for country clubs are where wealthy elites can talk freely because they know that what they say “will not be repeated outside the four walls of the clubhouse.” Golf in general and private clubs in particular have long been viewed with suspicion by many people, both foreign and domestic, but Goldfarb is conjuring memories of Sergio Garcia and Fuzzy Zoeller and fried chicken. Once again, some of golf’s darkest secrets are being drawn into the light of day, and this time we have the most powerful person in the world to thank for it.
Paul Fireman, billionaire, doesn’t appear to be completely satisfied with the quality of the golf course at Liberty National Golf Club. The college drop-out who burned the word Reebok into our brains wants to build three new holes for the club’s 18-hole golf course, a co-design by Bob Cupp and Tom Kite, and he wants to build them on a state-owned, riverfront slice of Liberty State Park. Advocates for park preservation contend that this attempt to secure control of the property is “outrageous,” but Fireman has many powerful friends who gather at Liberty National.
Pipeline Overflow – The board of supervisors in Orange County, California has directed a pair of local companies to submit proposals for an 18-hole golf course that would take shape on a former landfill in Newport Coast. Chapman Investment Company and Guardian Investment Capital are vying for the contract, and the key to success will likely be ancillary development that’s tolerable to the city’s residents. . . . Gary Bourke, an Australian developer, has floated a plan to build an 835-acre master-planned community in Wollongbar, New South Wales. If it’s approved and built, the to-be-named spread will likely include 3,500 houses, a hotel, a shopping area, a nursing home, and what’s been described as an 18-hole, “international” golf course. . . . Regarding the second nine at Kevin Ramsey’s golf course in Turkey: It’s expected to open something this spring or summer. The 18-hole track in Samsun was created by reclaiming a site that used to be part of the Black Sea.
Donald Panoz has parted with his resort community in Braselton, Georgia. Panoz, who made a fortune in pharmaceuticals and motorsports, has sold his Château Élan Winery & Resort, a 3,500-acre spread that offers overnight accommodations in a faux French château, seven restaurants, a spa, meeting space, and a 45-hole golf complex. The new owner is Wheelock Street Capital, a real-estate investment group that’s promised to deliver “an even more unforgettable guest experience than ever before” once it renovates the insides of the resort’s buildings. Panoz and his wife, Nancy, opened Château Élan in 1984. Later, they built a similar community, Diablo Grande in Patterson, California, and bought a piece of the Vintage, a resort community in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia. In recent years they’ve sold their stakes in those properties as well.
Surplus Transactions – The owner of a catering company and a former general manager of two municipally owned courses in Ventura, California have become the co-owners of Sterling Hills Golf Club, an 18-hole track in Camarillo. John Zaruka and Lee Harlow paid an undisclosed amount for Sterling Hills, which features a Robert Muir Graves-designed course that opened in 1999. . . . In a show of support for affordable golf, elected officials in Nye County, Nevada have agreed to buy Lake View Executive Golf Course, a 38-year-old track in Pahrump. The county’s commissioners will pay $350,000 for the 18-hole track, which they believe is “ideal for junior golfers just learning the game and seniors who might not be equipped to handle playing at a championship course.” . . . Sterling Golf Management has also given a vote of confidence to affordable golf. At a recent bank-ordered auction, the Boston-area company agreed to pay $960,000 for Crystal Lake Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Crystal Lake, a Geoff Cornish-designed layout that opened in 1960, is one of nine properties in Sterling’s portfolio, all of them located within a short drive of Boston and all of them catering to what we used to call “blue-collar” golfers.
Sometimes the golf business takes with one hand but gives with the other. A case in point: The city of Bryan, Texas has decided to close its financially challenged Travis B. Bryan Municipal Golf Course, a venue that’s expected to become a regional park. But the city isn’t leaving local golfers high and dry, because it’s taken possession of Briarcrest Golf Course, an 18-hole, Marvin Ferguson-designed track that opened in 1971. Briarcrest, which now operates as City Course at the Phillips Event Center, came as a gift from Wallace Phillips, who conveniently owns the Phillips Event Center. It’s no coincidence that Phillips has thought about building houses on the Briarcrest property in recent years. The now-defunct municipal track has operated since the 1920s (it originally anchored the private Bryan Country Club), but city officials have been trying to get rid of it for years.
Desolation Row Extended – The lights have been turned off at Clinton Hill Golf Course, a 48-year-old venue in suburban St. Louis. Mark Halloran, a developer, reportedly paid $1.5 million for Clinton Hill, which occupies 166 acres in Swansea, Illinois. He hasn’t announced a plan for his acquisition, but he’s said that he’s “going to look at all options,” which is usually code for residential development. . . . Chris Jones has agreed to sell Brookdale Golf Club, which has operated in suburban Tacoma, Washington since 1931. Brookdale, described by the Tacoma News Tribune as “a small but venerable public course” and “one of Pierce County’s lesser-known landmarks,” is slated to become a subdivision. Its 18-hole golf course was designed by Al Smith. . . . A prominent businessman in Huron, Ohio has pulled the plug on Keys Golf Course. Duke Thorson, the owner of a company that builds and tests race cars, bought the nine-hole layout last year, reportedly for $2.4 million, and closed it almost immediately. Thorson’s real estate agent put a positive spin on the outcome, calling it a reflection of good times at ThorSport Racing.
The Trump presidency reflects badly on the golf industry in many ways, a fact underscored by a recent opinion piece in the New York Times. Michael Goldfarb, the creator of the “First Rough Draft of History” podcast, believes that the Very Stable Genius is best appreciated as “a country-club boor” whose social, racial, and cultural prejudices are fueled by and supported by members of America’s “nouveau-riche, country-club class.” The president’s crude thoughts are “exactly what you might hear at any country club,” Goldfarb argues, for country clubs are where wealthy elites can talk freely because they know that what they say “will not be repeated outside the four walls of the clubhouse.” Golf in general and private clubs in particular have long been viewed with suspicion by many people, both foreign and domestic, but Goldfarb is conjuring memories of Sergio Garcia and Fuzzy Zoeller and fried chicken. Once again, some of golf’s darkest secrets are being drawn into the light of day, and this time we have the most powerful person in the world to thank for it.
Paul Fireman, billionaire, doesn’t appear to be completely satisfied with the quality of the golf course at Liberty National Golf Club. The college drop-out who burned the word Reebok into our brains wants to build three new holes for the club’s 18-hole golf course, a co-design by Bob Cupp and Tom Kite, and he wants to build them on a state-owned, riverfront slice of Liberty State Park. Advocates for park preservation contend that this attempt to secure control of the property is “outrageous,” but Fireman has many powerful friends who gather at Liberty National.
Pipeline Overflow – The board of supervisors in Orange County, California has directed a pair of local companies to submit proposals for an 18-hole golf course that would take shape on a former landfill in Newport Coast. Chapman Investment Company and Guardian Investment Capital are vying for the contract, and the key to success will likely be ancillary development that’s tolerable to the city’s residents. . . . Gary Bourke, an Australian developer, has floated a plan to build an 835-acre master-planned community in Wollongbar, New South Wales. If it’s approved and built, the to-be-named spread will likely include 3,500 houses, a hotel, a shopping area, a nursing home, and what’s been described as an 18-hole, “international” golf course. . . . Regarding the second nine at Kevin Ramsey’s golf course in Turkey: It’s expected to open something this spring or summer. The 18-hole track in Samsun was created by reclaiming a site that used to be part of the Black Sea.
Donald Panoz has parted with his resort community in Braselton, Georgia. Panoz, who made a fortune in pharmaceuticals and motorsports, has sold his Château Élan Winery & Resort, a 3,500-acre spread that offers overnight accommodations in a faux French château, seven restaurants, a spa, meeting space, and a 45-hole golf complex. The new owner is Wheelock Street Capital, a real-estate investment group that’s promised to deliver “an even more unforgettable guest experience than ever before” once it renovates the insides of the resort’s buildings. Panoz and his wife, Nancy, opened Château Élan in 1984. Later, they built a similar community, Diablo Grande in Patterson, California, and bought a piece of the Vintage, a resort community in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia. In recent years they’ve sold their stakes in those properties as well.
Surplus Transactions – The owner of a catering company and a former general manager of two municipally owned courses in Ventura, California have become the co-owners of Sterling Hills Golf Club, an 18-hole track in Camarillo. John Zaruka and Lee Harlow paid an undisclosed amount for Sterling Hills, which features a Robert Muir Graves-designed course that opened in 1999. . . . In a show of support for affordable golf, elected officials in Nye County, Nevada have agreed to buy Lake View Executive Golf Course, a 38-year-old track in Pahrump. The county’s commissioners will pay $350,000 for the 18-hole track, which they believe is “ideal for junior golfers just learning the game and seniors who might not be equipped to handle playing at a championship course.” . . . Sterling Golf Management has also given a vote of confidence to affordable golf. At a recent bank-ordered auction, the Boston-area company agreed to pay $960,000 for Crystal Lake Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Crystal Lake, a Geoff Cornish-designed layout that opened in 1960, is one of nine properties in Sterling’s portfolio, all of them located within a short drive of Boston and all of them catering to what we used to call “blue-collar” golfers.
Sometimes the golf business takes with one hand but gives with the other. A case in point: The city of Bryan, Texas has decided to close its financially challenged Travis B. Bryan Municipal Golf Course, a venue that’s expected to become a regional park. But the city isn’t leaving local golfers high and dry, because it’s taken possession of Briarcrest Golf Course, an 18-hole, Marvin Ferguson-designed track that opened in 1971. Briarcrest, which now operates as City Course at the Phillips Event Center, came as a gift from Wallace Phillips, who conveniently owns the Phillips Event Center. It’s no coincidence that Phillips has thought about building houses on the Briarcrest property in recent years. The now-defunct municipal track has operated since the 1920s (it originally anchored the private Bryan Country Club), but city officials have been trying to get rid of it for years.
Desolation Row Extended – The lights have been turned off at Clinton Hill Golf Course, a 48-year-old venue in suburban St. Louis. Mark Halloran, a developer, reportedly paid $1.5 million for Clinton Hill, which occupies 166 acres in Swansea, Illinois. He hasn’t announced a plan for his acquisition, but he’s said that he’s “going to look at all options,” which is usually code for residential development. . . . Chris Jones has agreed to sell Brookdale Golf Club, which has operated in suburban Tacoma, Washington since 1931. Brookdale, described by the Tacoma News Tribune as “a small but venerable public course” and “one of Pierce County’s lesser-known landmarks,” is slated to become a subdivision. Its 18-hole golf course was designed by Al Smith. . . . A prominent businessman in Huron, Ohio has pulled the plug on Keys Golf Course. Duke Thorson, the owner of a company that builds and tests race cars, bought the nine-hole layout last year, reportedly for $2.4 million, and closed it almost immediately. Thorson’s real estate agent put a positive spin on the outcome, calling it a reflection of good times at ThorSport Racing.
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