The blockbuster transaction that would have moved 16 of Concert Golf Partners’ 18 properties into ClubCorp’s portfolio is dead in the water. The parties mutually agreed to scrap their negotiations last week, ending a process initiated by ClubCorp in April. Peter Nanula, Concert’s chairman, reports that the tentative sale collapsed due to disagreements related to price, terms, and “softer issues” concerning “commitments we have made to our members.” The sale “just didn’t come together as we all planned,” he wrote in a text message. The folks at Concert and ClubCorp may now be feeling as though their discussions were ultimately much ado about nothing, but the dissolution of their deal is undoubtedly welcome news to our nation’s club owners and real-estate brokers, as the golf industry is better off having two (or more) strong competitors bidding for properties. And on that score, Nanula reports that his investment group expects to close on another acquisition “shortly.”
It took three years, and they had to fend off objections from environmentalists as well as unfair comparisons to Donald “the Deceiver” Trump, but Mike Keiser and Todd Warnock have secured approval for their much-anticipated golf course in the Scottish Highlands. “It’s now time to build a golf course,” Warnock gleefully wrote after the proposal for Coul Links received its long-overdue thumbs-up. The next two years promise to be an exhilarating time for all involved, for Keiser and Warnock believe their 18-hole, Coore & Crenshaw-designed track will offer “one of the most memorable golf experiences in the world,” and they expect that it’ll establish the area surrounding Royal Dornoch Golf Club (the venue that inspired Keiser to create Bandon Dunes) as “the third major golf destination in Scotland.”
Australia’s first and greatest male golf star, Peter Thomson, died last week. The CEO of the PGA of Australia celebrated him as “a gentleman of the game, a legend of Australian sport, and an Immortal of the PGA of Australia.” Thomson wasn’t as well known in the United States as he was in other parts of the world, but he was one of the premier professional golfers of the 1950s. With a playing style that was particularly well-suited to links golf, he won the Open Championship four times during the decade (and for a fifth time in 1965), accomplishments that helped him earn induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame. After his playing career ended, he founded a Melbourne-based “signature” design firm that over the years operated as Thomson Wolveridge Perrett Golf Design, Thomson Perrett & Lobb, and Thomson Perrett Golf Course Architects. The companies designed or redesigned more than 180 courses in more than 30 nations, according to one source, and they had a strong presence in Asia and Southeast Asia. It’s hard to say, however, how many of Thomson’s courses adhered to his homespun philosophy about course design: “If my grandma can’t play it, it has to be a lousy course.” Though he worked until the summer of 2016, when he retired due to “declining health” that was later revealed to be Parkinson’s disease, Thomson once called golf “a good excuse for not working.” He was 88.
The head of an Atlanta, Georgia-based auto-dealership group has hired David McLay Kidd to design a golf course in the Bahamas. Steve Harrell, who owns 700 acres on Great Abaco Island, has set out to build Kakona, a community that his publicists say will be “a one-of-a-kind oasis focused on luxury, longevity, and legacy.” In addition to alliterations, Kakona will offer “a golf experience like no other,” with a Kidd-designed 18-hole, partial-oceanfront layout that’s “sure to become a showpiece in the world of golf course design.” It appears that the community will also have what’s been described as an “executive” track, but its designer hasn’t been identified. Kidd says the property has the “best beach I’ve ever seen,” and he hopes to break ground on the course next year.
Pipeline Overflow – The course at Kokona isn’t the only entrée on Kidd’s plate these days. He recently told the Robb Report that he’s collaborating with Mike Keiser on “a secret project” (the course in California, presumably) and, as most everyone knows, he’s been hired to produce the second course at Gamble Sands Golf Club in Washington. A tastier morsel is what he described as “a huge project in the Middle East,” but he won’t talk about it because he signed a non-disclosure agreement. . . . Paul Albanese’s golf course for the Island Resort & Casino in Harris, Michigan will celebrate its grand opening next month. The reviews haven’t yet been written, but in 2015, when the commission for the track was awarded, the resort expected Albanese to deliver one of the state’s top five public courses. . . . Nicklaus Design has so much work in Asia and Southeast Asia, according to one of its top executives, that “it is sometimes a challenge to keep up with it.” Say it with me: Nice problem to have.
Bob Lohmann has sketched out the future of his design firm. The Marengo, Illinois-based company is transitioning into the hands of Todd Quitno, who’s been working with Lohmann since the mid 1990s. Lohmann, who’s 65, says that his longtime right-hand man has “all the design skills in the world” and “a better handle” than his “on what the market requires today, including the role of technology and social media.” Quitno, a 45-year-old who’s been overseeing most of the firm’s projects for several years, expects “to look at some different approaches as to how we pursue and execute our work,” and he promises “to be responsive to changes, to new opportunities, and to utilize a variety of delivery methods to satisfy our clients’ needs.” The company now operates as Lohmann Quitno Golf Course Architects, Inc.
Finally, a prominent voice in the golf industry has commented on the regrettable black/white confrontation that occurred at Grandview Golf Club in April. It wasn’t the most forceful statement that could have been made, and it certainly wasn’t easy to find, but Jay Karen stands alone in addressing it. “It’s a shame the police were called to resolve a conflict that could have been handled through a conversation, talking to each other as human beings,” the CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association told NBC News. “These kinds of conflicts should not happen on golf courses, and they shouldn’t happen at Starbucks.” Sadly, other influentials in our business continue to condone what happened at Grandview with their silence. Where are you, Silent Steve Mona?
Duly Noted – Greg “the Living Brand” Norman, a man who never met a microphone he didn’t like, has begun to host a radio show. Thank goodness he only has time to do it once a month. . . . There could be any number of explanations, so take this with a grain of salt, but the Associated Press reports that last year’s revenues at Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point were off by 7 percent from the number posted in 2016. . . . First came Coore & Crenshaw, then Jack Nicklaus, and now Golf Digest has published a list of William Flynn’s best courses. Wake me up when this tedious series ends.
In compliance with new European laws regarding data collection, I’ve been asked to provide a statement about my use of the data that’s collected about those of you who read the World Golf Report. So here it is: I don’t collect any data, and I don’t bake any cookies in your computer. All I do is write little stories and then post what I write. I don’t know your names or addresses or ages or income levels, and I have no interest in any of that information. That being said, my blog occupies a slice of cyberspace owned by Google, one of the world’s foremost data collectors. I can’t say for sure whether Google collects information about those of you who read the blog, or whether it bakes cookies in your computers, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t. And for what it’s worth, Google says that it’s loaded the appropriate statement at the bottom of my blog, but if it was actually there I wouldn’t have written this.
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Sunday, June 10, 2018
The Week That Was, june 10, 2018
The Italian government is in shambles, and a British newspaper is wondering if it’s time to consider an alternate venue for the next Ryder Cup competition. For now, the competition is scheduled to be held in 2022 at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, in suburban Rome, but the clock is ticking and the Guardian believes that a “pessimistic view” about Italy’s ability to stage one of golf’s premier events is taking hold among golf insiders. A major worry, according to the newspaper, is the suitability of the Jim Fazio-designed golf course at Marco Simone, which needs an upgrade that’s long been scheduled but still hasn’t begun. The concern about the course is apparently shared by officials with the Ryder Cup, who concede that “the process has taken longer than ourselves, the Italian Golf Federation, and Marco Simone envisaged.” Of course, the Guardian may have an ulterior motive in spreading such doubts, because it seized the opportunity to remind everyone that Adare Manor, the recently refreshed Irish golf resort, is ready, willing, and able to host the Ryder Cup if the plans in Italy fall through.
Tiger Woods has redeemed himself with a growing number of corporate sponsors, but he’s one of only five professional golfers who made Forbes’ 2018 list of the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes. Woods checks in at #16, with $42 million in endorsement income and $1.3 million in winnings, an amount that’s light years behind the top earner on the list, Floyd Mayweather, who totaled $285 million. Not far behind Woods are Phil Mickelson (#22, with a total of $41.3 million), Jordan Spieth (#23, $41.2 million), and Rory McIlroy (#26, $37.7 million). For what it’s worth, Forbes’ top 100 featured 40 professional basketball players, 18 professional football players, 14 professional baseball players, and nine professional soccer players.
While they persecute refugees and engage in genocide, government officials in Myanmar also continue to support golf development. These days, they’re looking for a private company willing to oversee the development of New Mandalay Resort City, a mega-community that will take shape on nearly 9,900 acres roughly 40 miles east of Mandalay. The Myanmar Times reports that the city will include houses, hotels, a convention center, retail and commercial areas, and a variety of recreational attractions, including a golf course.
Pipeline Overflow – Forbes thinks that David McLay Kidd’s recently opened Mammoth Dunes layout at Sand Valley, in central Wisconsin, is “undeniably fun,” “loaded with stunning visuals,” and, perhaps most importantly, “better” than the resort’s Coore & Crenshaw-designed track. . . . Robert Trent Jones, Jr. believes that Termas de Rio Hondo Golf Club, his firm’s “spacious,” just-unveiled course in Argentina, is “a premier venue deserving of a championship-level golf tournament.” A legion of elected officials and other dignitaries at the opening endorsed Jones’ assessment, as they hope the course will attract tourists to Santiago del Estero Province. . . . Also making its debut is Royal Golf Club, a venue in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota that aims to be “a must-play for every local golfing enthusiast.” The 18-hole track, a re-do of the former Tartan Park Golf Course, was designed by not one but two signature architects, with nine holes by Annika Sorenstam (the Queen) and nine by the late Arnold Palmer (the King).
John and Jim Cook have reportedly accepted “nearly $1 million” for Red Hawk Run Golf Club, a 20-year-old venue in Findlay, Ohio. Red Hawk Run’s new owner is Nick Reinhart, who aims to turn the club’s 18-hole, Arthur Hills-designed layout into “a little more of a destination facility.” “It’s a championship course,” Reinhart told the Courier, “and our goal is to get it to championship course levels.” Reinhart recently sold two Findlay-based companies, Centrex Plastics and Creative Plastic Concepts, but he still reportedly owns Big Jerk, a store that sells jerky.
Surplus Transactions – Ron Hall, Sr. and Ron Hall, Jr. have found a buyer for Carolina Lakes Golf Club, the centerpiece of a gated community in Sanford, North Carolina. The new ownership group consists of homeowners in the community, who reportedly made the purchase to ensure that the club would continue to operate. The club features a Roger Rulewich-designed courses that opened in 1981. . . . Augustin Isernia has reportedly paid $300,000 for Sacandaga Golf Course, a nine-hole track in Northville, New York that’s been in business since 1898. Isernia, who owns a vacation home along Lake Sacandaga, told a local newspaper that he hopes to make the course “a stimulating environment in the great outdoors.” . . . Fulfilling what he called “a dream,” the long-time general manager and superintendent of Territory Golf Club, in St. Cloud, Minnesota, is now also the property’s owner. Dan Stang paid an undisclosed price for Territory, an 18-hole track that’s operated since 2001.
Duly Noted – The unfortunate, racially charged incident that occurred in April at Grandview Golf Club has become the subject of an investigation by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. I’m still waiting for one of golf’s institutional leaders to say publicly that discrimination of any kind, whether intended or not, doesn’t reflect golf’s values. . . . A top Cuban tourism official has declared that his island nation will have 27 golf courses “in the coming years” and become, in the words of a Chinese news agency, “an attractive golfing destination.” That’s all I’ve got to say, because I can’t stop laughing. . . . The editors at Golf Digest have officially run out of ideas. Just weeks after publishing a rundown of the best courses by Coore & Crenshaw, they’ve done the same for Jack Nicklaus.
To maintain compliance with new European laws regarding data collection, I’ve been asked to provide a statement about my use of the data that’s collected about those of you who read the World Golf Report. So here it is: I don’t collect any data, and I don’t bake any cookies into your computers. All I do is write stories and then post what I write. I don’t know your names or addresses or ages or income levels, and I have no interest in any of that information. That being said, the World Golf Report occupies a slice of cyberspace controlled by Google, one of the world’s foremost data collectors. I can’t say for sure whether Google collects information about those of you who read the blog, or whether it bakes cookies in your computers, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t. Incidentally, I’ve downloaded an official-looking statement that’s supposed to appear at the bottom of this blog, but I can’t figure out how to load it. If any of you can tell me how to, please do.
Tiger Woods has redeemed himself with a growing number of corporate sponsors, but he’s one of only five professional golfers who made Forbes’ 2018 list of the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes. Woods checks in at #16, with $42 million in endorsement income and $1.3 million in winnings, an amount that’s light years behind the top earner on the list, Floyd Mayweather, who totaled $285 million. Not far behind Woods are Phil Mickelson (#22, with a total of $41.3 million), Jordan Spieth (#23, $41.2 million), and Rory McIlroy (#26, $37.7 million). For what it’s worth, Forbes’ top 100 featured 40 professional basketball players, 18 professional football players, 14 professional baseball players, and nine professional soccer players.
While they persecute refugees and engage in genocide, government officials in Myanmar also continue to support golf development. These days, they’re looking for a private company willing to oversee the development of New Mandalay Resort City, a mega-community that will take shape on nearly 9,900 acres roughly 40 miles east of Mandalay. The Myanmar Times reports that the city will include houses, hotels, a convention center, retail and commercial areas, and a variety of recreational attractions, including a golf course.
Pipeline Overflow – Forbes thinks that David McLay Kidd’s recently opened Mammoth Dunes layout at Sand Valley, in central Wisconsin, is “undeniably fun,” “loaded with stunning visuals,” and, perhaps most importantly, “better” than the resort’s Coore & Crenshaw-designed track. . . . Robert Trent Jones, Jr. believes that Termas de Rio Hondo Golf Club, his firm’s “spacious,” just-unveiled course in Argentina, is “a premier venue deserving of a championship-level golf tournament.” A legion of elected officials and other dignitaries at the opening endorsed Jones’ assessment, as they hope the course will attract tourists to Santiago del Estero Province. . . . Also making its debut is Royal Golf Club, a venue in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota that aims to be “a must-play for every local golfing enthusiast.” The 18-hole track, a re-do of the former Tartan Park Golf Course, was designed by not one but two signature architects, with nine holes by Annika Sorenstam (the Queen) and nine by the late Arnold Palmer (the King).
John and Jim Cook have reportedly accepted “nearly $1 million” for Red Hawk Run Golf Club, a 20-year-old venue in Findlay, Ohio. Red Hawk Run’s new owner is Nick Reinhart, who aims to turn the club’s 18-hole, Arthur Hills-designed layout into “a little more of a destination facility.” “It’s a championship course,” Reinhart told the Courier, “and our goal is to get it to championship course levels.” Reinhart recently sold two Findlay-based companies, Centrex Plastics and Creative Plastic Concepts, but he still reportedly owns Big Jerk, a store that sells jerky.
Surplus Transactions – Ron Hall, Sr. and Ron Hall, Jr. have found a buyer for Carolina Lakes Golf Club, the centerpiece of a gated community in Sanford, North Carolina. The new ownership group consists of homeowners in the community, who reportedly made the purchase to ensure that the club would continue to operate. The club features a Roger Rulewich-designed courses that opened in 1981. . . . Augustin Isernia has reportedly paid $300,000 for Sacandaga Golf Course, a nine-hole track in Northville, New York that’s been in business since 1898. Isernia, who owns a vacation home along Lake Sacandaga, told a local newspaper that he hopes to make the course “a stimulating environment in the great outdoors.” . . . Fulfilling what he called “a dream,” the long-time general manager and superintendent of Territory Golf Club, in St. Cloud, Minnesota, is now also the property’s owner. Dan Stang paid an undisclosed price for Territory, an 18-hole track that’s operated since 2001.
Duly Noted – The unfortunate, racially charged incident that occurred in April at Grandview Golf Club has become the subject of an investigation by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. I’m still waiting for one of golf’s institutional leaders to say publicly that discrimination of any kind, whether intended or not, doesn’t reflect golf’s values. . . . A top Cuban tourism official has declared that his island nation will have 27 golf courses “in the coming years” and become, in the words of a Chinese news agency, “an attractive golfing destination.” That’s all I’ve got to say, because I can’t stop laughing. . . . The editors at Golf Digest have officially run out of ideas. Just weeks after publishing a rundown of the best courses by Coore & Crenshaw, they’ve done the same for Jack Nicklaus.
To maintain compliance with new European laws regarding data collection, I’ve been asked to provide a statement about my use of the data that’s collected about those of you who read the World Golf Report. So here it is: I don’t collect any data, and I don’t bake any cookies into your computers. All I do is write stories and then post what I write. I don’t know your names or addresses or ages or income levels, and I have no interest in any of that information. That being said, the World Golf Report occupies a slice of cyberspace controlled by Google, one of the world’s foremost data collectors. I can’t say for sure whether Google collects information about those of you who read the blog, or whether it bakes cookies in your computers, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t. Incidentally, I’ve downloaded an official-looking statement that’s supposed to appear at the bottom of this blog, but I can’t figure out how to load it. If any of you can tell me how to, please do.
Sunday, June 3, 2018
The Week That Was, june 3, 2018
Garzón Tajamares Golf, a new golf venue in Uruguay, has become the world’s first “PGA Tour Preferred Golf Course.” The developers are thrilled to receive this “great honor” and the tour blandly claims that the designation reflects its “commitment to golf in Latin America,” but don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes. “Preferred” is a meaningless marketing concept that will appeal only to the most uninformed home buyers, and it suggests that Garzón Tajamares tried but failed to become a member of the TPC Network. The tour now has “A” clubs and “B” clubs, and who really wants to be part of the latter?
Mike Strantz’s 18-hole track at the defunct Royal New Kent Golf Club is about to enjoy a second life. Wingfield Golf, a firm founded by the officially retired but obviously still active Barton Tuck, has agreed to buy Royal New Kent, a venue in greater Richmond, Virginia that closed in late 2017. If all goes as scheduled, Wingfield will re-open the club next spring, after a $2 million upgrade. Neither the buyer nor the seller, Traditional Golf Properties, has so far announced the sale price. Royal New Kent’s planned revitalization is welcome news for fans of Strantz, who died young but whose small body of work showed great promise. Unfortunately, Wingfield reportedly has no interest in buying the Strantz-designed, Traditional Golf-owned layout at the nearby Tradition Club at Stonehouse.
Surplus Transactions – The owner of a roofing business has acquired, for an undisclosed price, Ricci Meadows Golf Course, an venue in greater Rochester, New York that’s operated since the 1950s. Andrew Young isn’t a golfer, but he believes that “it’s easy to think about running a golf course if you think of it as a business.” The 18-hole track is now known as Carlton Meadows Golf Course. . . . The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians has acquired what’s been described as “one of the most scenic courses in Northern Michigan.” Bear Lake Highlands Golf Course, an 18-hole track in the town of Bear Lake, has been in business since 1964. . . . For an undisclosed price, and just days before a scheduled auction, Scott Simmons and Kent Kletscher have purchased Poplar Golf Course, an 18-hole layout in extreme northwestern Wisconsin. A local bank had foreclosed on the 58-year-old course last fall.
Dan Pedrotti, the president of Foresight Golf, has secured a rezoning for a tract in San Antonio, Texas that he hopes will become Valor Club, a community tailored to the needs of transitioning military veterans. The community has been master-planned to include houses, a shopping area, sports facilities, an entertainment complex, and a nine-hole, par-3 course that the Rivard Report says will be playable by people “with limited mobility.” Valor Club will take shape on 215 acres formerly occupied by Foresight’s Pecan Valley Golf Club, a venue that hosted the PGA Championship in 1968.
Pipeline Overflow – A well-known charitable group in Arizona has floated a proposal to transform Randolph Golf Course, a 36-hole municipal complex, into “the crown jewel of golf in Tucson.” The Tucson Conquistadores believe that a refreshed Randolph could lure a PGA Tour event to the city. . . . Pending approval by local and national authorities, investors from Vietnam and Malaysia aim to create a man-made island on a 3,500-acre expanse of water in Đà Nẵng Bay. Lotus Island, which will be connected to the mainland via a bridge, will feature houses, office and retail space, at least one casino, a Formula One race track, and what a Vietnamese news service calls “golf courses.” . . . Art Schaupeter’s 18-hole layout at TPC of Colorado, the centerpiece of a community outside Fort Collins, is said to be “the first new course to be built in Colorado since 2009.” The community’s developer, Jon Turner, is hoping to capitalize on what he’s called “an emptiness for high-end golf in Northern Colorado,” not to mention “a really good real estate market and a good economy.”
Duly Noted – The off-shore wind farm that Donald Trump complained so bitterly about – the one he claimed would ruin the views from his golf course in Aberdeenshire and destroy tourism in Scotland – has been built. It’s expected to begin producing electricity later this year. So far, no complaints from golfers. . . . The golf business in the Twin Cities of Minnesota is doing “better than average,” reports the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Here’s part of the reason why: Between 2006 and 2015, while the total number of golf courses in the United States fell by 3 percent, the number of courses in and around the capital city remained flat. . . . Talk about an embarrassment of riches: Golf Digest set out to identify the top 10 courses created by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, and it ended up naming 20.
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, particularly the development side of 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, 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.
Mike Strantz’s 18-hole track at the defunct Royal New Kent Golf Club is about to enjoy a second life. Wingfield Golf, a firm founded by the officially retired but obviously still active Barton Tuck, has agreed to buy Royal New Kent, a venue in greater Richmond, Virginia that closed in late 2017. If all goes as scheduled, Wingfield will re-open the club next spring, after a $2 million upgrade. Neither the buyer nor the seller, Traditional Golf Properties, has so far announced the sale price. Royal New Kent’s planned revitalization is welcome news for fans of Strantz, who died young but whose small body of work showed great promise. Unfortunately, Wingfield reportedly has no interest in buying the Strantz-designed, Traditional Golf-owned layout at the nearby Tradition Club at Stonehouse.
Surplus Transactions – The owner of a roofing business has acquired, for an undisclosed price, Ricci Meadows Golf Course, an venue in greater Rochester, New York that’s operated since the 1950s. Andrew Young isn’t a golfer, but he believes that “it’s easy to think about running a golf course if you think of it as a business.” The 18-hole track is now known as Carlton Meadows Golf Course. . . . The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians has acquired what’s been described as “one of the most scenic courses in Northern Michigan.” Bear Lake Highlands Golf Course, an 18-hole track in the town of Bear Lake, has been in business since 1964. . . . For an undisclosed price, and just days before a scheduled auction, Scott Simmons and Kent Kletscher have purchased Poplar Golf Course, an 18-hole layout in extreme northwestern Wisconsin. A local bank had foreclosed on the 58-year-old course last fall.
Dan Pedrotti, the president of Foresight Golf, has secured a rezoning for a tract in San Antonio, Texas that he hopes will become Valor Club, a community tailored to the needs of transitioning military veterans. The community has been master-planned to include houses, a shopping area, sports facilities, an entertainment complex, and a nine-hole, par-3 course that the Rivard Report says will be playable by people “with limited mobility.” Valor Club will take shape on 215 acres formerly occupied by Foresight’s Pecan Valley Golf Club, a venue that hosted the PGA Championship in 1968.
Pipeline Overflow – A well-known charitable group in Arizona has floated a proposal to transform Randolph Golf Course, a 36-hole municipal complex, into “the crown jewel of golf in Tucson.” The Tucson Conquistadores believe that a refreshed Randolph could lure a PGA Tour event to the city. . . . Pending approval by local and national authorities, investors from Vietnam and Malaysia aim to create a man-made island on a 3,500-acre expanse of water in Đà Nẵng Bay. Lotus Island, which will be connected to the mainland via a bridge, will feature houses, office and retail space, at least one casino, a Formula One race track, and what a Vietnamese news service calls “golf courses.” . . . Art Schaupeter’s 18-hole layout at TPC of Colorado, the centerpiece of a community outside Fort Collins, is said to be “the first new course to be built in Colorado since 2009.” The community’s developer, Jon Turner, is hoping to capitalize on what he’s called “an emptiness for high-end golf in Northern Colorado,” not to mention “a really good real estate market and a good economy.”
Duly Noted – The off-shore wind farm that Donald Trump complained so bitterly about – the one he claimed would ruin the views from his golf course in Aberdeenshire and destroy tourism in Scotland – has been built. It’s expected to begin producing electricity later this year. So far, no complaints from golfers. . . . The golf business in the Twin Cities of Minnesota is doing “better than average,” reports the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Here’s part of the reason why: Between 2006 and 2015, while the total number of golf courses in the United States fell by 3 percent, the number of courses in and around the capital city remained flat. . . . Talk about an embarrassment of riches: Golf Digest set out to identify the top 10 courses created by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, and it ended up naming 20.
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, particularly the development side of 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, 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.
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