The Week That Was, may 19, 2019

     The city of Bloomington, Minnesota and a charitable foundation have floated an idea to revitalize the moribund Hyland Greens Golf & Learning Center and create what a proponent has described as “the home of golf in Minnesota.” If the deal is consummated, PGA Reach Minnesota will raise the money for a course overhaul led by Nicklaus Design, lease the 60-acre property, and assume management of the city-owned nine-hole, par-3 layout, which has in recent years suffered from what’s politely been called “a continued gap between expenses and revenue.” The course would be re-designed especially for juniors, and, using a model that was pioneered elsewhere, it would be flanked by a home for the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame, classrooms, office and event space, a 20,000-square-foot clubhouse, and indoor golf practice areas. Until PGA Reach stepped into the picture, the city had considered selling Hyland Greens to a residential developer.

     Pipeline Overflow – India’s Golf Industry Association, a group created to grow the game in the world’s largest democracy, has floated a plan to build 10 golf courses. As best I can tell, however, the group hasn’t announced a construction schedule, identified the locations (except to say that the courses will be built “across the country”), and, most importantly, said how it plans to pay for the work. . . . Though yet another year has passed without a groundbreaking for a new golf course in Cuba, a Chinese news service reports that the developers behind the much-discussed Bellomonte Golf & Country Club aim to “begin construction works in 2020.” When we last heard, Hong Kong-based Beijing Enterprises Holdings, Ltd., had partnered with a Cuban group to develop Bellomonte, which is to take shape in a fishing village located a half-hour’s drive east of Havana. . . . A huge expanse (6,340 acres) of land in the state of Osun, in Nigeria, has been allocated for Oranmiyan New Town, which has been master-planned to include 3,000 housing units, a retail/commercial area, “uninterrupted electricity,” a polo ground, tennis and squash clubs, a botanical garden, “good road networks,” and an 18-hole golf course.

     Pipeline Overflow Overflow – Siam Country Club’s fourth course, a Brian Curley-designed layout dubbed Rolling Hills, is scheduled to open in September. The club, in golf-happy Pattaya, Thailand, has a well-deserved reputation for high-quality golf, and Golfasian believes that its Old course, an Ichisuke Izumi design, “should be on every golfer's bucket list of courses to play.” . . . Before the end of the year, the Dakak Resort, on Mindanao Island in the Philippines, expects to debut the second nine of its Greg Norman-designed golf course. The resort promises “an unforgettable experience” on the waterfront venue, which aims to take golf in the scandalously repressive nation “to a place it hasn’t been.” . . . After more than two years of construction, the city of Edina, Minnesota has unveiled Richard Mandell’s re-do of Braemar Golf Course. The new 18-hole track is all that remains of a larger complex that’s been on the endangered list since 2013, if not before, and most likely represents a last stand for municipal golf in the Minneapolis suburb.

     With a decision informed by “our hearts, not our heads,” a group of members have acquired Blandford Club, a financially troubled venue in suburban Springfield, Massachusetts that’s operated since 1909. The price: $200,000, plus an assumption of the club’s debts. “We are just a group of people who love the course and didn’t want to see it go,” the leader of the new, five-member ownership group told the Springfield Republican. “We made a commitment to keep it open, and we are trying to do what we can to bring it back.” The new owners feared that Blandford and its nine-hole golf course would be replaced with houses. Now known as Blandford Country Club, the 56-acre property was “getting older” and suffering from “deteriorating membership.”

     Surplus Transactions – Sterling Golf Management has agreed to sell Shattuck Golf Club, a 28-year-old venue in suburban Manchester, New Hampshire, to Doni Ash, a local restaurateur. Shattuck features an 18-hole, Brian Silva-designed course that Golf Digest once ranked as the 43rd hardest in the United States. . . . Bicknell Country Club, a going concern in Vincennes, Indiana since the mid 1920s, has changed hands. Dan and Michelle Shepherd are the new owners of Bicknell (it now operates as High Pointe Golf Course), which features an 18-hole, 5,800-yard course. The Shepherds told the Vincennes Sun-Commercial that they aim to restore the vibe Bicknell had in the 1980s, when it was “packed and the course shape was terrific.” . . . If they can raise $3 million, Dennis and Luann Sampson will buy Vista Royale Golf & Country Club, the centerpiece of a seniors-only community in Vero Beach, Florida. A local newspaper reports that Vista Royale’s 27-hole complex isn’t profitable, but the Sampsons believe the loss of the courses “would have an effect on our property values.” A negative effect, it should be noted.

      Duly Noted – Rankings may be distasteful to many course designers, but Mike Keiser knows their value. “They are extremely important,” the developer of Bandon Dunes and other impeccable golf properties said in an interview with Bandon Western World. “I would like to say they are incidental, but in the golf world, everybody follows them. And I’ve found they are accurate from an architectural view. I think if you talk to any golf raters, they would agree.” . . . Sweetens Cove Golf Club, the low-budget, no-amenities marvel outside Chattanooga, Tennessee, isn’t operating on a shoestring anymore. The five-year-old venue, by all accounts one of the world’s finest nine-hole courses, has attracted several new investors this year, notably Andy Roddick, the tennis star, and Peyton Manning, the retired quarterback, restaurateur, and insurance-company pitchman. . . . Budget cuts may spell the end of as many as four of the 10 municipal golf courses in Louisville, Kentucky. No final decisions have been made, and proposals from private-sector operators will be solicited, but the city has determined that it could save $550,000 if it pulls the plug on a quartet of its properties.

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