The second golf course at Bahia del los Suenos will be designed by ... Gil Hanse.
It’s not a done deal yet and won’t be announced until later this summer, but the Malvern, Pennsylvania-based architect has been selected to design a walkable 18-hole track (not an executive-length course, as originally planned) at the 4,270-acre resort community on Baja California Sur.
Bahia del los Suenos, the home of Tom Doak’s first course in Mexico, is being developed by PCS Development, Inc., a residential developer based in Los Angeles, California.
"We were looking for an architect who respects the land and was interested in creating an enjoyable golf course," says Charles Freedman, the president of PCS. "It was important to us that people would look forward to playing the course again and again, and that it would be intellectually challenging."
At build-out, Bahia del los Suenos will have 818 single-family houses, 1,143 condos, eight hotels, a beach club, an equestrian center, a private airport, and a possible third golf course.
PCS hopes to break ground on Hanse’s course in late 2010 or early 2011.
BahiaSuenos.com
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
scotland Trump's Dune Deal
Donald Trump has re-named a slice of northeastern Scotland.
Trump International Golf Links Scotland was supposed to have been built on property called Menie Dunes, a name that clearly doesn't satisfy its owner's marketing imperatives.
Trump is now calling the property, near Balmedie in Aberdeenshire, "the Great Dunes of Scotland," a name that, for me at least, conjures up images of thrill rides and amusement parks. Trump believes the new name will resonate with prospective
home buyers, especially those who might associate the original name with a mean, nasty person, or perhaps a bully.
“I think it’s a more appropriate name,” he said in a story posted at the Times Online. “I think it’s a bigger name, I think it’s a better name, and I think it’s a name people can really understand and relate to in Scotland.”
The name change did not endear Trump to any of his Scottish neighbors or weaken the resolve of his critics. But hey, he owns the property. He can call it anything he wants to call it.
The first 18-hole track at Trump International Golf Links Scotland, Trump's piece de resistance, has been designed by Martin Hawtree. Trump has promised that it'll be the finest golf course in the world, and he hopes it'll one day host the British Open.
The course is currently under construction and is expected to open in the spring of 2012.
Here's a link to the Times' story, called "Great Dunes of Scotland!"
Trump International Golf Links Scotland was supposed to have been built on property called Menie Dunes, a name that clearly doesn't satisfy its owner's marketing imperatives.
Trump is now calling the property, near Balmedie in Aberdeenshire, "the Great Dunes of Scotland," a name that, for me at least, conjures up images of thrill rides and amusement parks. Trump believes the new name will resonate with prospective
home buyers, especially those who might associate the original name with a mean, nasty person, or perhaps a bully.
“I think it’s a more appropriate name,” he said in a story posted at the Times Online. “I think it’s a bigger name, I think it’s a better name, and I think it’s a name people can really understand and relate to in Scotland.”
The name change did not endear Trump to any of his Scottish neighbors or weaken the resolve of his critics. But hey, he owns the property. He can call it anything he wants to call it.
The first 18-hole track at Trump International Golf Links Scotland, Trump's piece de resistance, has been designed by Martin Hawtree. Trump has promised that it'll be the finest golf course in the world, and he hopes it'll one day host the British Open.
The course is currently under construction and is expected to open in the spring of 2012.
Here's a link to the Times' story, called "Great Dunes of Scotland!"
Thursday, May 27, 2010
finance Gary Player, Mr. Moneybags
Gary Player is sitting on a veritable king's ransom, and he's going to spend it on some of the planet's premier golf properties.
Player says that he's collected $500 million -- generously provided by investors from Abu Dhabi -- and that he plans to raise another $500 million from sources described as "private and institutional investors."
Marc Player, the eldest son of the Travelers Rest, South Carolina-based golf designer, reports that the $1 billion will buy "iconic resorts where there are existing hotel, residential, golf amenities that have been over-capitalized."
In other words, Player and his partners plan to buy high-profile resort properties at bargain prices.
It's the same old story: In a depressed economy, cash is king.
The fund's first targets have been identified. The National reports that Player's fund is already trying to buy the iconic Turnberry Resort in Ayrshire, Scotland and the luxurious Sea Island resort just outside Brunswick, Georgia (in the United States).
In 2008, Leisurecorp paid more than $100 million for Turnberry, a 45-hole complex that's hosted British Open four times, most recently in 2009. Shortly after the purchase, Leisurecorp's fortunes went south, and its owner, government-based Dubai World, transferred ownership of the resort to another of its subsidiaries and put it on the market.
Turnberry isn't Dubai World's only golf holding. Through various subsidiaries, the cash-strapped company also owns a golf course in South Africa and Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, the site of the richest golf tournament on earth (the Dubai World Championship). It also owns small pieces of Troon Golf and GPS Industries.
Sea Island, which has a pair of 18-hole golf courses, hosted the G8 Summit in 2004, but it laid off something like 500 employees (about a quarter of its staffers) in 2008, and its owners, a group led by Bill Jones III, defaulted on loans in both 2009 and 2010. It used to have a third 18-hole course, but a lender now controls it.
"We see this as a perfect storm," Marc Player said at the recent KPMG Golf Business Forum in Belek, Turkey. "There may not be a lot of guys hiring us to design golf courses, but maybe we can acquire the ones that are distressed."
Here's a link to the National's story, "Golf Fund Tees Off in Capital."
Player says that he's collected $500 million -- generously provided by investors from Abu Dhabi -- and that he plans to raise another $500 million from sources described as "private and institutional investors."
Marc Player, the eldest son of the Travelers Rest, South Carolina-based golf designer, reports that the $1 billion will buy "iconic resorts where there are existing hotel, residential, golf amenities that have been over-capitalized."
In other words, Player and his partners plan to buy high-profile resort properties at bargain prices.
It's the same old story: In a depressed economy, cash is king.
The fund's first targets have been identified. The National reports that Player's fund is already trying to buy the iconic Turnberry Resort in Ayrshire, Scotland and the luxurious Sea Island resort just outside Brunswick, Georgia (in the United States).
In 2008, Leisurecorp paid more than $100 million for Turnberry, a 45-hole complex that's hosted British Open four times, most recently in 2009. Shortly after the purchase, Leisurecorp's fortunes went south, and its owner, government-based Dubai World, transferred ownership of the resort to another of its subsidiaries and put it on the market.
Turnberry isn't Dubai World's only golf holding. Through various subsidiaries, the cash-strapped company also owns a golf course in South Africa and Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, the site of the richest golf tournament on earth (the Dubai World Championship). It also owns small pieces of Troon Golf and GPS Industries.
Sea Island, which has a pair of 18-hole golf courses, hosted the G8 Summit in 2004, but it laid off something like 500 employees (about a quarter of its staffers) in 2008, and its owners, a group led by Bill Jones III, defaulted on loans in both 2009 and 2010. It used to have a third 18-hole course, but a lender now controls it.
"We see this as a perfect storm," Marc Player said at the recent KPMG Golf Business Forum in Belek, Turkey. "There may not be a lot of guys hiring us to design golf courses, but maybe we can acquire the ones that are distressed."
Here's a link to the National's story, "Golf Fund Tees Off in Capital."
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
talking points Tom Fazio on Golf and its Discontents
In an interview posted at GolfTheMidAtlantic.com in April, Tom Fazio talked with Jeffrey Randall about the current state of golf development in the United States.
Fazio isn't hopeful about the near term and won't predict when things will get better. Nonetheless, he believes the industry will work its way through the hard times and, with the economy improving, he's looking forward to designing more courses both in the United States and around the world
Here's a little of what Fazio had to say.
On whether the golf market will improve anytime soon: No. No. And the reason for that is, we have an oversupply of golf courses. We're not going to go back to where we were several years ago, where we had a couple hundred golf courses opening every year. Do the math. From 1992 to 2006 or 2007, we had an average of probably 250 golf courses opening up every year. In that 15 or so years, that's about 3,750 golf courses of some fashion or form.
If you look at the marketplace, you only need so many. And if you look at the economics, we have this supply of them, and now we have to fill them up. And that's what it's going to take in order for there to be any demand to build more.
On reports that as many as 20 percent of the existing U.S. golf facilities will close over the next five years: It's probably possible. It's close to it. Again, that's a very negative way to look at it, but that's also the real world. It's not because golf is bad. Yeah, maybe it's because golf is expensive, but it's our society, it's our timing.
Or maybe golf isn't for everybody. Maybe we don't need to grow the game, because it doesn't fit.
On when the golf business will recover: I don't know. I think it'll recover, but . . . I don't think we're going to go back to a couple hundred golf courses being built every year. I don't think we're going to go back to the boom of what we saw for a long period of time.
On where golf development goes from here: I don't see what we're going through as being a serious problem in the big-picture scheme of things. I think it's just one of the cycles we're in. We're going to have these downturns, and we're going to have these problem places, but we're going to work through it because of the oversupply. I just don't see it all as doom and gloom.
Okay, let's assume that not many new courses are going to be designed in the near future, so golf course architects . . . won't have as many golf courses to design. Well, so what? That's just the way it is.
Fazio isn't hopeful about the near term and won't predict when things will get better. Nonetheless, he believes the industry will work its way through the hard times and, with the economy improving, he's looking forward to designing more courses both in the United States and around the world
Here's a little of what Fazio had to say.
On whether the golf market will improve anytime soon: No. No. And the reason for that is, we have an oversupply of golf courses. We're not going to go back to where we were several years ago, where we had a couple hundred golf courses opening every year. Do the math. From 1992 to 2006 or 2007, we had an average of probably 250 golf courses opening up every year. In that 15 or so years, that's about 3,750 golf courses of some fashion or form.
If you look at the marketplace, you only need so many. And if you look at the economics, we have this supply of them, and now we have to fill them up. And that's what it's going to take in order for there to be any demand to build more.
On reports that as many as 20 percent of the existing U.S. golf facilities will close over the next five years: It's probably possible. It's close to it. Again, that's a very negative way to look at it, but that's also the real world. It's not because golf is bad. Yeah, maybe it's because golf is expensive, but it's our society, it's our timing.
Or maybe golf isn't for everybody. Maybe we don't need to grow the game, because it doesn't fit.
On when the golf business will recover: I don't know. I think it'll recover, but . . . I don't think we're going to go back to a couple hundred golf courses being built every year. I don't think we're going to go back to the boom of what we saw for a long period of time.
On where golf development goes from here: I don't see what we're going through as being a serious problem in the big-picture scheme of things. I think it's just one of the cycles we're in. We're going to have these downturns, and we're going to have these problem places, but we're going to work through it because of the oversupply. I just don't see it all as doom and gloom.
Okay, let's assume that not many new courses are going to be designed in the near future, so golf course architects . . . won't have as many golf courses to design. Well, so what? That's just the way it is.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
australia Norman Closes His Australian Shop
Greg Norman Golf Course Design has closed its office in Sydney, Australia.
"The closure of the golf course design office," writes Nick Tabakoff of the Daily Telegraph, "signals that Norman's company no longer sees Australia as its key Asia-Pacific hub."
The empire's new Asia-Pacific hub is China, where Greg Norman, the conglomerate's legendary boss, has spent considerable time over the past year or so. Great White Shark Enterprises recently opened a sales and marketing office in Beijing.
As of Wednesday night, the news about the shut-down in Sydney hadn't yet been posted on Norman's website, shark.com, where a nice collection of men's polo shirts and jackets are on sale at 50 percent off. The website still prominently lists the Sydney office as one of its design centers.
Practically speaking, the downsizing means that Norman has said good-bye to Harley Kruse, one of his longtime (10 years) Australian designers, and two other staffers. Last year, Norman cut his ties with Bob Harrison, who'd been on the payroll for 22 years.
All of Norman's designers will now operate out of the company's office West Palm Beach, Florida.
The news comes just days after Norman received a "lifetime achievement award" at the KPMG Golf Business Forum in Belek, Turkey. Though he's closed his design office, Norman continues to operate a beef export business and a wine-related enterprise in Australia.
Here's a link to "The Shark Greg Norman Chases the Golf Dollar in Asia."
"The closure of the golf course design office," writes Nick Tabakoff of the Daily Telegraph, "signals that Norman's company no longer sees Australia as its key Asia-Pacific hub."
The empire's new Asia-Pacific hub is China, where Greg Norman, the conglomerate's legendary boss, has spent considerable time over the past year or so. Great White Shark Enterprises recently opened a sales and marketing office in Beijing.
As of Wednesday night, the news about the shut-down in Sydney hadn't yet been posted on Norman's website, shark.com, where a nice collection of men's polo shirts and jackets are on sale at 50 percent off. The website still prominently lists the Sydney office as one of its design centers.
Practically speaking, the downsizing means that Norman has said good-bye to Harley Kruse, one of his longtime (10 years) Australian designers, and two other staffers. Last year, Norman cut his ties with Bob Harrison, who'd been on the payroll for 22 years.
All of Norman's designers will now operate out of the company's office West Palm Beach, Florida.
The news comes just days after Norman received a "lifetime achievement award" at the KPMG Golf Business Forum in Belek, Turkey. Though he's closed his design office, Norman continues to operate a beef export business and a wine-related enterprise in Australia.
Here's a link to "The Shark Greg Norman Chases the Golf Dollar in Asia."
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