The Week That Was, february 24, 2019

     When it comes to international travel, the United States is losing market share. Citing data collected by a British economic forecasting firm, Forbes reports that travel into the United States from outside North America increased by just 2 percent in 2018, a number that lags behind the international average (6 percent). The reason, according to Oxford Economics: “The global economy is slowing, most currencies have weakened against the dollar, and U.S. policy and rhetoric have damaged sentiment.” In particular, the United States is losing travelers from China, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Middle East, and South Korea.

     Jadranka Hotels’ overdue golf resort on Croatia’s Cres Island has received a governmental thumbs-up that removes, according to Total Croatia News, “the main administrative obstacle” that’s stood in its way. Eco Golf Resort Matalda, an 800-acre community that’s been proceeding at a snail’s pace (it was announced in 2014, if not before), has been master-planned to include villas, a hotel, a marina, a heliport, and a pair of 18-hole, Ernie Els “signature” golf courses, one of which will be capable of hosting professional tournaments. Jadranka’s CEO, pleased to have secured the “legal preconditions” for construction, believes that Matalda will attract tourists from Russia, Great Britain, and Scandinavia who might have otherwise vacationed in towns along Croatia’s Istrian peninsula or in other Mediterranean nations.

     Some information in the preceding post was originally published in the November 2016 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Pipeline Overflow – The tony Desert Mountain Club, in Scottsdale, Arizona, expects to take the wraps off its seventh course, an 18-hole, par-3 layout befittingly named No. 7, this spring. The club will be the centerpiece of a 90-acre, 190-house community, and a press release points out that all but three of the houses “will sit directly on the golf course.” . . . The Bob Moore-designed 18-hole track at Parahyangan Golf Bandung, outside Kota Baru, Indonesia, is now in operation. Golfasian thinks the 18-hole track offers “incomparable visual drama” in an “awe-inspiring landscape” and leaves “an indelible impression with first-time visitors and seasoned golfers alike.” . . . After 14 years’ worth of fits and starts, the 18-hole layout at the New Giza community in suburban Cairo, Egypt has finally been unveiled. The course is among the final ventures initiated by Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the now-defunct Australian “signature” design firm founded by golf legend Peter Thomson. Tim Lobb, who’s been overseeing the construction, views the process as “a labor of love.”

     Tam O’Shanter Country Club, a venue on New York’s Long Island that was once accused of entertaining its members with strippers and prostitutes, has changed hands. Titan Golf LLC, a New Jersey-based owner/operator, has reportedly paid $15 million for Tam O’Shanter, an under-performing club that it views as “the jewel of the North Shore.” The club, which occupies 157 acres in Brookville (“of the best zip codes in the country,” according to Titan) has been in business since 1962, and it features an 18-hole, Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course. Titan also owns another golf property on Long Island, Woodmere Club, and it’s on the prowl for other private clubs that might benefit from an infusion of investment.

     Surplus Transactions – Pending a successful closing, homeowners operating via the University Park Recreation District will acquire University Park Country Club, a property developed by Pat Neal and Rolf Pasold in the early 1990s. The sale includes a 27-hole, Ron Garl-designed golf complex, the usual assortment of vertical structures, and 100 acres of raw land, all to be sold for nearly $17 million, a price that some residents believe is inflated. . . . Though he’s acknowledged that “buying a golf course in the winter is a bad idea,” last month Bob Friend reportedly paid $1.2 million for Brookwoods Golf Club, a 43-year-old facility in suburban Richmond, Virginia that employs him as its superintendent. He bought Brookwoods, which features an 18-hole, Algie Pulley-designed track, from Gilbey and Brian Campbell, who’ve described the property as “a workingman’s golf course.” . . . For a price of $650,000, the Nez Perce Tribe has taken ownership of Clarkston Golf & Country Club, a 45-year-old property that the Lewiston Tribune says has fallen “on financial hard times.” The club is located in Clarkston, Washington, across the Snake River from Lewiston, Idaho, and the tribe intends to transform its 18-hole, Keith Hellstrom-designed course into what the newspaper says will be “a premier golf course for the area.”

     Duly Noted – As its relationship with Keith Foster fades from memory, Olympia Fields Country Club has enlisted Andy Staples to oversee a makeover of its South Course, an 18-hole track that was co-designed by Willie Watson and Tom Bendelow. The club, a Golden Age property in Chicagoland that will host next year’s BMW Championship, hasn’t yet secured member approval and financing for the overhaul, however. . . . Golf magazine reports that Vietnam is now home to “an estimated 30,000” golfers, a number it views as “a tenfold increase from 20 years ago.” Unfortunately, the magazine didn’t cite a source for its comments. . . . Regarding those 30,000 home-grown golfers in Vietnam: They apparently view golf the way most American golfers did in the 1980s and 1990s. Jack Nicklaus II told Golf that his most important client emphasizes “beauty and difficulty,” and Brian Curley reported that “a lot [of] golfers here are gluttons for punishment and seem to think it’s not golf if you don’t lose a few sleeves along the way.”

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