The Week That Was, june 2, 2019

     Jack Nicklaus has become a founding partner of the Flag, an “exclusive yet attainable” membership club that promises to debut next year with nine golf options in southern Florida, central Florida, Arizona, and North Carolina. The club, which will inevitably draw comparisons to the Dormie Network, says that it’ll be “redefining private golf membership” thanks to “reasonable yearly dues” (no initiation fees) for “everyone seeking an elevated golf experience.” Such experiences, as defined by the Flag, will include “the best elements of the world’s finest private golf clubs,” notably concierge services, fitness and recreation centers, swimming pools, spas, and on-site “luxury accommodations.” In addition to serving as a marketing force, Nicklaus will ensure the quality of the golf experience, as he’s going to establish the “design philosophy” that will ostensibly draw members to the Flag. In phase one of the roll-out, he’ll oversee the creation of five “newly developed” courses and the re-creation of four as-yet unidentified existing tracks. Notably, he’s agreed to design some and re-design others and also “work with other renowned, industry-leading course designers.” The Flag acknowledges that “only those who truly love the game” will become members, but it has enough faith it its concept to say that it intends to eventually spread into other North American markets as well as into Europe and Asia.

     Just three years after he cut the ribbon on American Lake Veterans Golf Course, a track in suburban Tacoma, Washington that was created to help rehabilitate injured military veterans, Jack Nicklaus is undertaking a similar project with a charity that provides scholarships to the children of fallen and disabled soldiers. The forthcoming course, a Nicklaus signature design called American Dunes Golf Club, will take shape in Grand Haven, Michigan, on property currently occupied by Grand Haven Golf Club. Nicklaus’ partner in the venture, Major Dan Rooney, hopes that American Dunes will be “a safe haven for veterans who find rehabilitation through the recreation of the game” and “forever stand as a tribute to the men and women of our military.” If Rooney’s name rings a bell, it’s probably because he conceived Patriot Golf Day, an annual fund-raising event that’s now more than 10 years old. Grand Haven has been in his family for more than two decades, and a press release says that its 18-hole track, a co-design by Bruce and Jerry Matthews, will be “totally redesigned and re-imagined by Nicklaus and Nicklaus Design.” Assuming that construction proceeds without any snafus, the partners aim to open American Dunes on Memorial Day in 2020.

     Pipeline Overflow – The Manila Jockey Club, a horse-racing institution in the Philippines, has set out to develop a resort community, including a golf course, on a 260-acre waterfront parcel in Occidental Mindoro Province, south of Manila. In addition to the golf course, the master plan for the property includes a variety of housing types, hotels, a marina, a yacht club, and retail and commercial areas. . . . As part of an effort to spark tourism and economic development, government officials in Tanga, Tanzania have set out to build what’s been described as “a state-of-the-art” golf course. If all goes as expected (and the Daily News reports that “preparation is on a top gear”), the course will open in 2022. . . . The government agency in charge of building Jewar International Airport, in Greater Noida, India, may allocate space for a golf course in the 3,100-acre property’s master plan. The airport is scheduled to open in 2023, provided that several development obstacles – including the relocation of nearly 9,000 families – can be overcome.

     For roughly $800,000, a price that represents the amount of its debt, a nearly century-old golf club in New Castle, Pennsylvania has changed hands. The new owner of New Castle Country Club is Avalon Holding Company, which has promised to “create a whole new world” at the 96-year-old venue that now operates as Avalon Field Club at New Castle. The new ownership group, led by Ron Klingle, owns three other golf properties: Avalon at Buhl Park in Sharon, Pennsylvania, Avalon Lakes Golf Course in Warren, Ohio, and Avalon at Squaw Creek Golf Course in Vienna, Ohio. The trio features courses by Tom Bendelow, Pete Dye, and Stanley Thompson, and the club in New Castle has an A. W. Tillinghast-designed golf course that claims to be “largely unchanged since its creation.”

     Surplus Transactions – With a bid of $800,000, a Kentucky-based bank has taken possession of a nearly century-old venue in Newport, New Hampshire. Newport Golf Club, which features an 18-hole course that dates from 1921, hasn’t opened this year, and a local newspaper doesn’t know “when, or if, Newport will ever open for play again.” . . . The town of Southold, New York, on the North Fork of eastern Long Island, has agreed to pay $5.2 million for the development rights to Island’s End Golf Course. Island’s End, which has operated since 1914, features an 18-hole, Herbert Strong-designed layout that will presumably remain in operation for the foreseeable future. . . . Coast MNH, a company based in Newport Beach, California, has purchased a mobile-home park in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and it may resurrect the property’s defunct nine-hole golf course. MHP, an acronym for Manufactured Housing Partners, also plans to build – you guessed it – manufactured housing on the property.

     Duly Noted – Hank Haney: Great golf instructor, horrible talk-show host. Despite what he said and implied, on satellite airwaves, about the LPGA Tour, his supporters insist that he’s neither a sexist nor a racist. Here’s what can’t be debated, though: He’s disqualified to work for the PGA Tour. If Haney is reinstated after serving his deserved suspension, the message will be clear: Golf’s oft-repeated commitment to women’s golf is a fraud. . . . The Australian Golf Industry Council has crunched the numbers for its latest “National Competition Rounds Report,” and it’s determined that in 2018 marginally fewer golfers (328,516, a decrease of 0.65 percent from 2017) are playing slightly more golf (10.43 million rounds, an increase of 1.8 percent). The rounds were recorded overwhelmingly by men (82 percent) who are aged 60 and over (63 percent), usually on Saturdays (34 percent). . . . Half of the world’s 56 million golfers play golf while they’re on vacation, according to the International Association of Golf Tour Operators. That’s why new golf destinations are sprouting up throughout Asia, Europe, and Southeast Asia, the result being that competition for golfers’ money is becoming more intense.

     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 – a weekly compendium of stories collected from newspapers, magazines, and other sources – 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.