The Week That Was, september 23, 2018

   In recent weeks, course owners and operators in Canada have been contemplating potential weed problems, and they aren’t talking crabgrass. Our neighbor to the north is on track to legalize recreational use of marijuana next month, and the nation’s courses are trying to figure out what it means to their business. According to a survey of nearly 5,500 Canadian golfers, about 14 percent expect to fire up while they play, and the number increases to about 50 percent for golfers under the age of 35. With such data in mind, more than one-quarter of the 56 golf facilities that were polled said that they might begin selling marijuana if they’re allowed to, just as they sell beer and liquor. It’s worth noting, of course, that golfers have long been getting high on fairways, and one respondent to the survey acknowledged that “I can’t remember the last time I heard a complaint.”

     Can’t say how much pot golfers will soon be smoking at Osprey Valley Golf Club, but they’ll be doing it at Canada’s first Tournament Players Club. The freshly rebranded TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, in suburban Toronto, features a trio of 18-hole, Doug Carrick-designed golf courses, all of which are ranked among the top 100 on SCOREGolf’s list of the nation’s best tracks (at #48, #51, and #55). The TPC Network, which is licensed by the PGA Tour, now consists of 33 properties, five of them outside the United States.

     The government of Romania has green-lighted a variety of potential economy-boosting projects, including a golf course that will take shape at a resort in Costinesti, a village along the Black Sea coast. The package of projects consists mostly of things like rail lines and hydroelectric power plants, but it includes a collection of what Romania Insider calls “luxury resorts” that will stretch across two miles of waterfront. In all, the four resorts will occupy 2,000 acres and offer more than 4,000 hotel rooms in addition to the usual assortment of tourist attractions. Assuming that any of them are actually built, they’ll be done in partnership with private-sector development groups.

     Pipeline Overflow – The city of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, is thinking about turning one of its “golfing gems” into a track worthy of high-level professional events. The city has hired a team of consultants, including course designer Graham Marsh, to scope out the future of the South course at North Adelaide Golf Course. If the idea is approved, at least part of the course will be redesigned and the entirety of it will be upgraded to “international standard.” . . . Mixta Nigeria has apparently been directed to build a golf course and a “world-class golf resort” at an emerging mini-city outside Benin, the capital of Edo State in Nigeria. Details are scarce, unfortunately, but the state’s executive governor told the Daily Trust that “the same people who built Lakowe Golf Resort in Lagos” – that would be Mixta Nigeria – are behind the one in Benin. . . . Nothing is official, but community activists in greater Mumbai believe that India’s navy has set out to build a golf course at its station in Hamla. The navy denies the allegation, but India has a lot of courses at military bases.

     The second-oldest golf course in Idaho is about to change hands. Just weeks after unloading a property outside Atlanta, Georgia, American Golf Corporation has found an as-yet unidentified buyer for Plantation Country Club, a venue that’s operated in Boise since 1917. A price hasn’t been announced, but the Idaho Statesman reports that the property has an assessed value of $2.6 million. Plantation was originally known as Boise Country Club, and it opened with a six-hole course. Today it has an 18-hole, Chandler Egan-designed layout. I can’t explain why American Golf has become such an active seller, but it’s worth noting that it’s also put Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course, in Irvine, California, on the market. It’s also worth noting that American Golf will continue to manage Plantation after it’s sold.

     Surplus Transactions – Tony Soletti, a Florida-based insurance man, has reportedly paid $2.3 million for River Club, the centerpiece of a 30-year-old, 700-house community in Bradenton. The semiprivate club’s 18-hole course, a Ron Garl design, is said to be “one of the most challenging layouts in the area.” Soletti figures that River Club will complement his nearby Links at Greenfield Plantation, which he’s owned since 2012. . . . An unidentified buyer has paid an undisclosed price for Escalon Golf Course, a nine-hole, 34-year-old layout in Escalon, California. A spokesperson for the seller, a group led by the family of Tom and Betty Hagan, told the Escalon Times that the new owners plan to continue golf operations and have “really big plans.” . . . Gene Hoffman and Scott Covalt have acquired Fox Ridge Golf Club, a 19-year-old venue in suburban Waterloo, Iowa. The new owners told a local newspaper that they intend to improve the 18-hole layout “in every way, shape, and form.”

     A high-end community in suburban Indianapolis, Indiana is going to lose its golf course. Gray Eagle Golf Course, which opened in 2001, will close next year, a victim of “decreased or stagnant golf participation over eight years,” according to the Indianapolis Star. “The older generation is dying, and the younger generation is not taking their place,” one of the course’s owners, Mark Thompson, told the newspaper. Gray Eagle’s 18-hole layout was designed by Art Kaser, who works for Thompson’s company. The company tried to persuade the homeowners in the accompanying community to buy the course, but they declined, and the city doesn’t want it either.

     Desolation Row Extended – A Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course in Rio Rico, Arizona (it’s south of Tucson) is about to bite the dust. A date for the closing of the 47-year-old track at Rio Rico Golf Club hasn’t been announced, but the CEO of Heritage Hotels & Resorts, the club’s owner, told Nogales International that it’ll be “soon.” . . . Elected officials in Snohomish County, Washington hope to find a new operator for Kayak Point Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Stanwood that’s going to close next month if they aren’t successful. Though the Ron Fream design has been described as “one of Washington's most popular courses,” its current management company says it’s “struggled to remain viable in an increasingly challenging business environment.” . . . A year before he was expected to, Chuck Bennell has stuck a fork into his Tam O’Shanter Golf Course. Bennell had said that he expected to close the 36-hole complex in Canton, Ohio next year or perhaps in 2020, but it appears that last year’s successful rezoning pushed his plans for the property ahead.

     Duly Noted – The Robb Report recently threw a few softball questions at Greg “the Living Brand” Norman, and he replied with a flurry of buzz words and phrases, among them “welcoming,” “connectivity,” “social media,” “streaming,” and “solar panels.” When he was asked about potential areas of growth, he nominated China and Cuba, though he made it clear that he doesn’t expect the growth to be imminent. . . . The increasing popularity of high-profile, easily marketable courses in Vietnam is taking its toll on golf tourism in Thailand. To boost its prospects, the nation’s tourism authority wants you to know that Thailand is a “World Class Golf Destination,” with a “vast choice of golf courses” (roughly 250) that attracted 400,000 international golf travelers in 2016, presumably the last year for which data is available. . . . Slovakia is home to an estimated 8,000 “registered” golfers, a number that the Slovak Spectator believes is “too few” to support “the number of golf courses that have been developed in the country.” As a result, the newspaper says, most of the nation’s golf resorts “are struggling financially.” (Sorry, I can’t find a link to this story.)

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