The Week That Was, april 22, 2018

     ClubCorp is about to eviscerate one of its few remaining rivals.
     The self-described “world leader in private clubs” is negotiating to buy 16 properties from Peter Nanula’s Concert Golf Partners, an investment group with 18 holdings in Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania and eight other states. In a letter to the affected club members, Nanula suggests that the deal will be done “in the next few months.”
     It’s difficult to over-estimate the impact that the sale will have on the market for private clubs. Not long ago, as many as a dozen all-but-forgotten entities – among them Cobblestone Golf Group, Golf Trust of America, Pegasus Golf Partners and Sequoia Golf (which was, coincidentally, purchased by ClubCorp) – were actively shopping for U.S. golf venues. Today, only three serious buyers are still standing: ClubCorp, Concert and Arcis Equity Partners, and Arcis has of late been more a seller than a buyer.
     “From a broker’s perspective, I’d rather have two buyers in the market than just one,” Steven Ekovich of Marcus & Millichap’s National Golf & Resort Properties Group told Golf Inc. “The lack of competition won’t be good.”
     The question now is what becomes of Concert. The deal with ClubCorp will leave it as a mere shadow of its former self, and it’s easy to envision Nanula clearing its portfolio and riding off into the sunset. Just weeks ago, however, Concert bought its 18th venue, Fountains Country Club in Lake Worth, Fla., and Nanula says Fountains isn’t being sold to ClubCorp. This curious state of affairs leads one to suspect that Nanula has something up his sleeve.
     Until the sale is consummated, ClubCorp and Concert won’t discuss it. “We don’t comment on deals until they happen,” Nanula wrote in a text message. His statement was echoed by Tom Bennison, ClubCorp’s senior vice president of business development. “Until any transaction is finalized,” Bennison said in a text, “it is our policy not to comment.”
     They really don’t need to say anything, though. The silence is deafening.

     For more on the proposed sale, check out my story in the forthcoming issue of Golf Inc.

     In the battle for a hotly contested design contract in Boca Raton, Florida, a winner has been declared. The Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District has chosen to work with Nick Price and Tom Fazio II, who’ll produce an 18-hole, regulation-length course and a nine-hole “short” track on the 214-acre site of the defunct Ocean Breeze Golf Club. Given the current state of golf development, the park district had its pick of firms linked to both internationally known starchitects (Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman), designers with noteworthy reputations (Rees Jones, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., Arthur Hills), and a slew of lesser-knowns. Considering the level of competition, the Price/Fazio team must have some pretty good ideas for what will be known as Boca Raton National Golf Club. Even better, the lucky winners have promised to deliver the complex “a short time frame.”

     Pipeline Overflow – A developer in Indiana’s capital city has set out to build its third Dye-designed golf course. The 18-hole track, to be co-designed by Pete and Alice Dye, will anchor Holliday Farms, a 600-acre community in Zionsville. Previously, Henke Development Group hired the Dyes to produce 18-hole courses at two communities in Westfield, Bridgewater Club and Club at Chatham Hills. . . . Michael Davies has hired Greg Turner to design a golf course that will look “as if it was created by the hand of Mother Nature” for Hogans Gully Farm, a forthcoming community outside Arrowtown, on New Zealand’s South Island. Turner, who’s also designing a new nine for the nearby Millbrook Resort, aims to deliver a “very unique golf course” for Davies, one that might be capable of hosting the New Zealand Open. . . . Sobha Group aims to break ground on the first golf course in the Middle East’s least-known emirate before the end of the year. The track, which will start with nine holes and later receive a second nine, will be the centerpiece of Firdous Sobha, a “lifestyle” community in Umm Al Quwain that’s been tailored for high-income buyers. “Our main customers will be people who own yachts,” Sobha Group’s chairman acknowledged to the Khaleej Times.

     In preparation for its eventual relocation, the PGA of America has sold its number-two property in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The West Palm Beach, Florida-based institutional power has reportedly accepted $1.5 million for St. Lucie Trail Golf Club, a 30-year-old venue that features an 18-hole, Jim Fazio-designed golf course. The buyer is said to be an affiliate of a local investment group that owns Evergreen Club in nearby Palm City. If the prices published by a local newspaper are accurate, the PGA took a loss on the sale, as it reportedly paid $1.7 million for St. Lucie Trail (then known as Port St. Lucie West Country Club) in 1995. Next, the PGA needs to find a buyer for its flagship property, PGA Golf Club, a 54-hole complex that it promotes as “the ultimate golf experience.”

     Surplus Transactions – A trio of investors have taken over the Hills at Hernando Country Club, and they’re now operating the nearly 30-year-old property as Hernando Golf and Racquet Club. Drew DePriest and his partners think the club, in Hernando, Mississippi, can attract a younger crowd. It’s worth noting, however, that Ted Burrall, who led the group that bought Hills of Hernando in 2010, had a similar plan. . . . Platte County, Missouri has found a buyer for Shiloh Springs Golf Club, a venue in Platte City that reportedly loses “hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.” Assuming the transaction closes, the club’s new owner will be an affiliate of GreatLIFE Golf & Fitness, an entity that owns more than five dozen Midwestern golf properties. GreatLIFE has agreed to pay $610,000 for Shiloh Springs’ 18-hole track, and it’s promised to spend as much as $1 million more on overdue capital improvements. . . . Ben Powers, the pro at Greencastle Golf Club in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, has secured a measure of job security. In January, his parents and another local couple bought the 26-year-old, Robert Elder-designed golf course.

     Vellano Country Club, a venue that features what’s been called “one of the most majestic tracks in Southern California,” may may soon vanish. The club’s new owners, Michael Schlesinger and Robert Heath, want to build houses on at least part of Vellano’s 18-hole, Greg Norman-designed golf course, and they’ve given homeowners in the accompany community three distasteful options regarding the future of the 126-acre property. The homeowners have objected, but they’re facing a formidable opponent. Schlesinger has already laid two of the state’s clubs to rest (Escondido Country Club in Escondido and Stoneridge Golf Course in Poway), and he’s perfectly capable of a repeat performance.

     Desolation Row Extended – The clock is ticking on Pine Oaks Golf Course, a 30-year-old municipal track in Ocala, Florida. The private-sector manager of the 18-hole, Ron Garl-designed layout intends to depart next month, and a city official told a local newspaper that the property is no longer “economically viable.” The city hopes the 216-acre property can be redeveloped with houses and a nine-hole, executive-length track, maybe with a First Tee facility. . . . At the end of this month, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base plans to draw the curtains on Blanchard Golf Course. The 18-hole track, outside Tucson, Arizona, has operated since the 1960s. It recent years it suffered from the same problems that afflict other courses as well as one other unique to military bases: Difficulty of access. . . . French’s Hollow Fairways, a nine-hole course in Guilderland Center, New York, has gone belly up. Janet Betlejeski and her sister inherited French’s Hollow in 1991, 20 years after their father built it, and they appear to have lost enthusiasm for the business. Curiously, none of the Betlejeskis ever became golfers.

     Duly Noted . . . Not far from his second home in Chicago, Barack Obama has joined what’s said to be “the United Nations” of golf clubs. . . . San Joaquin Country Club, in Fresno, California, has booted out a couple who challenged the special privileges it reserves only for men. . . . Sweetens Cove, a nine-hole track that’s changing hearts and minds in golf design, checks in at #50 on Golfweek’s just-released ranking of America’s top modern courses. . . . U.S. and Japanese leaders share a common language: Golf and cheeseburgers.