The Week That Was, march 11, 2018

     The rumor mill is working overtime in Charlotte, North Carolina, as presumed insiders believe that McConnell Golf has its eyes on Ballantyne Country Club. John McConnell told the Triangle Business Journal that he has “no money,” but nobody takes such comments seriously. Heck, less than a year ago he put in an offer on Southern Pines Golf Club, in Southern Pines, North Carolina.

     Despite all the sweet talk from the hype-meisters at the National Golf Foundation, evidence continues to indicate that the golf industry is nowhere near firing on all cylinders. The latest underwhelming data comes from the recent Golf Industry Show, which managed to lure just 11,700 attendees – a 14 percent decline from the number counted in 2017 and, according to Turfnet, nearly 1,200 fewer than average number that the show has welcomed over the past five years (12,900). Attendance at the GIS hit its high-water mark in 2008, when more than 25,700 people passed through its turnstiles, but it’s been on a slow decrease ever since. There are lots of reasons to be optimistic about golf’s near-term future, but there are also lots of reasons to remain wary.

     Amazon hasn’t yet committed to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but the PGA of America has. In a move that’s reportedly been percolating for five years, the West Palm Beach, Florida-based institutional power intends to relocate its headquarters to the Panther Creek master-planned community in Frisco, where it would enjoy a 45-hole golf complex and facilities worthy of hosting events such as the Ryder Cup and the PGA Championship. Although the move hasn’t been officially confirmed, Golf magazine indicates that the PGA has already tabbed Gil Hanse to design the facility’s championship course and Beau Welling to deliver the complementary 18-hole track and the obligatory nine-hole “short” course. The golf complex will eventually be flanked by a resort-style hotel, meeting space, and a PGA-branded golf academy. Again, the PGA hasn’t yet corroborated any of Golf’s reporting, but Hanse’s course is expected to open in 2020.

     Pipeline Overflow – An agency of the Croatian government is looking for investors who might be willing to build a resort community on “neglected land” along Prukljan Lake, near the town of Skradin, The 350-acre site can accommodate a hotel, a water park, a marina, and a 27-hole golf complex, and Total Croatia News says that “several European and U.S. investors” have expressed an interest in the development opportunity. Perhaps more importantly, the news service reports that “all explosive devices have been removed” from the property. . . . By the end of this year, Duros Land Properties expects to wrap up construction on an 18-hole golf course at Northside Beacon, a 500-acre planned community in Cebu Province, Philippines. Duros’ president, Rafaelito Barino, has designed the golf course, which will be accompanied by several thousand houses and condos, the usual commercial and community amenities, and attractions designed to appeal to Japanese vacationers. . . . Some Qatari money is going to help build the slow-developing Mandalika Resort on Lombok Island in Indonesia. Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al Thani, who’s been described as “Qatar’s top business personality,” hopes to establish a hotel at the 3,000-acre waterfront spread, which has been master-planned to include luxury villas, theme and amusement parks, entertainment venues, conference facilities, shopping areas, a “world-class” marina, and at least one 18-hole golf course.

     David Preisler’s golf company has acquired a flood-prone golf club in Conroe, Texas. On the first day of the new year, Preisler Golf Properties took possession, for an undisclosed amount, of River Plantation Country Club, a nearly 50-year-old venue that features a 27-hole, Jay Riviere-designed golf complex. The seller was an entity called River Plantation Properties, with a reported ownership stake by Arcis Golf. Preisler is probably best known in the Lone Star State as one of Kevin Costner’s playing partners in Tin Cup, but his company also owns Oakhurst Golf Club in Porter, another northern suburb of Houston. News of Preisler’s purchase likely comes as a relief to River Plantation’s home owners, who feared that the golf course would be sold for more residential development.

     Surplus Transactions – The Tom Fazio-designed golf course in Bradenton, Florida, the golf amenity for the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, is about to change hands. Dallas, Texas-based Ashford Hospitality Prime has agreed to put on the Ritz for $171 million, a price that will deliver a 266-room hotel, meeting space, a beach club, several eateries, and various other attractions, including the Ritz-Carlton Members Club and its 12-year-old, 18-hole track. . . . Can’t say exactly when it happened, but Badin Inn Golf Club has a new owner. The century-old venue outside Albemarle, North Carolina now belongs to Bert Seale, a former professional golfer who aims to redesign its 18-hole, Ed Seay-designed layout and open “a top-level academy that will be recognized worldwide.” Seale is now calling his property the Historic Badin Golf Resort & Inn. . . . Molly Reese has brought Ironwood Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Cookeville, Tennessee, back into her family. Reese’s grandfather, John Stites, designed and built Ironwood in the early 1970s but sold it in the early 1980s. Reese and her husband bought it from its fourth owner, Elaine Garrison, for an undisclosed price.

     A home builder has laid a claim on Carolina Club, the financially challenged, 47-year-old centerpiece of a seniors-only community in metropolitan Miami, Florida. “Even in an age-restricted community,” the president of 13th Floor Homes told the South Florida Business Journal, “it’s not an amenity many buyers are seeking.” A price hasn’t been disclosed. 13th Floor believes that Carolina’s 140 acres, now occupied by an 18-hole, Devlin/Von Hagge golf course, can comfortably accommodate 350 houses and, believe it or not, 80 acres of open space. Pending approvals for its plans, the company will buy the club from J&D Golf Properties, which has owned it since 2002. And it’s worth noting that 13th Floor is looking to buy other golf properties in South Florida as well, as it’s proposed to build houses on two golf courses at the Woodlands community in Tamarac.

     Desolation Row Extended – The homeowners’ group that’s operated Shamrock Golf Club and its 18-hole golf course since 2013 has surrendered. The group won’t extend its lease on Shamrock, and the club, in Burlington, North Carolina, is slated to be sold to a home builder. Shamrock, which opened in 1956, closed in 2011 but was revived when the homeowners decided that they couldn’t live without it. Now, apparently, they can. . . . Art Braswell has pulled the plug on his Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course. The centerpiece of Calimesa Country Club had operated since 1950, but it closed last fall, a victim of a sour golf market in Calimesa, California. Braswell has claimed that the club was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and he told the Calimesa News Mirror that he “should have closed it years ago.” . . . Time has run out on St. Helens Golf Course, a struggling nine-hole track in suburban Portland, Oregon. The course has been in business since 1959, but Suki Chung, its owner, thinks his 77 acres would be more valuable as an RV park.