The Week That Was, august 4, 2019

     Later this year, Dolphin Capital Investors reportedly expects to start building what it once described as “probably the most exclusive development in Greece.” Kilada Hills, a long-overdue, 585-acre spread, will take shape on a Peloponnesian island, and it’s been master-planned to include roughly 500 villas, a high-end hotel, a marina, a winery, an olive-oil processing facility, an equestrian center, a beach club, the obligatory spa, and an 18-hole, Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course. The course will be the Nicklaus empire’s first in a nation that’s desperate to generate income from tourism. Dolphin was founded in 2004 by two executives from Soros Real Estate Partners, Miltos Kambourides and Pierre Charalambides. It owns the Playa Grande golf resort in the Dominican Republic and the Venus Rock golf resort in Cyprus, and it has a handful of other golf ventures on its to-do list. It had hoped to open Kilada Hills in 2011.

     Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the November 2008, September 2012, and January 2014 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Pipeline Overflow – In the summer of 2020, Forest Dunes Golf Club expects to climb aboard the short-course bandwagon. Riley Johns and Keith Rhebb, graduates of the Coore & Crenshaw School of Design, are putting the finishing touches on a 10-hole, par-3 course at the 17-year-old resort in northern Michigan, which built its reputation with a Tom Weiskopf-designed layout and cemented it with Tom Doak’s much-discussed reversible track. . . . The revitalized North and South tracks at Peninsula Kingswood Country Golf Club, a venue in suburban Melbourne, Australia that dates from the 1960s, have been compared to “Sandbelt gems like Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath” and praised as “a gift to the game of golf.” In large part, the credit reportedly goes to Michael Cocking of Ogilvy Clayton Cocking Mead, the firm that oversaw the re-do. . . . Greg Norman’s well-regarded layout at BRG Đà Nẵng Golf Resort, on Vietnam’s tourist-friendly Central Coast, will soon have a companion. Nicklaus Design is wrapping up construction of the second nine at its forthcoming 18-hole course, a track that Golfasian believes is “not as unique as the Norman course” but nonetheless “a good test of golf.”

     GreatLife Golf & Fitness, a recreation-focused company that owns, manages, or leases roughly 70 golf properties in the Midwest, has agreed to buy Woody Austin’s private golf club in Wichita, Kansas. For an undisclosed price, Austin, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour, is selling Willowbend Golf Club, a 32-year-old venue that features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish. Austin, who bought Willowbend in 2013, describes the course as “a formidable test for any golfer.” A GreatLife executive views Willowbend as “just an incredible golf product” and the acquisition as a step in making Wichita one of his company’s key golf markets. Assuming the transaction closes, Willowbend will be GreatLife’s second facility with a Wichita address (Tallgrass Country Club was the first), and one of four that the company owns in the area. Another purchase is on the horizon, as the Wichita Eagle reports that the company “is acquiring” Prairie Trails Golf Course in El Dorado, a property that it currently manages.

     Surplus Transactions – Art and Suzanne Langlais have become the sole owners of Montcalm Golf Club, a 16-year-old venue in Enfield, New Hampshire that’s been described as “financially challenged.” The couple had previously owned a 50 percent interest in Montcalm, which features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Phil Wogan and George Sargent. . . . Jodi Elsing and Molly Demaske are the new owners of Castle Rock Golf Course, a 45-year-old, Art Johnson-designed track in New Lisbon, Wisconsin. Elsing and Demaske are the daughters of, respectively, Gary Van Pee and Jim Van Pee, the brothers who’ve owned the 18-hole course since 1979. . . . Scott Smith and Chad Kreidermacher, the owners of a bar in Lewiston, Minnesota, have purchased Lewiston Country Club. The club, which features a nine-hole course that dates from 1970, now operates as Heartland Country Club.

     Duly Noted – Nick Faldo has begun to sell a “premium” design service, just as Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Greg “the Living Brand” Norman, and other “signature” designers have long done. Clients who pay the higher fee will receive more from Faldo, especially on the marketing side, but I’m wondering what this portends for his firm’s standard products. They’ve been devalued, right? . . . The British PGA has added Modry Las Golf Resort, which it regards as “Poland’s foremost golf venue,” to its fast-growing collection of branded properties. The collection features properties that offer, in the PGA’s words, “the very best golf, leisure, and accommodation possible.” Golf Digest regards the resort’s 10-year-old, Gary Player-designed layout as the nation’s third best. . . . According to the National Golf Foundation, the average U.S. golfer is a 46-year-old male who comes from a household that earns more than $100,000 annually. Don’t know why the NGF didn’t mention it, but that average U.S. golfer is also white.

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