Once again, Mike Keiser is stirring controversy in Oregon. Just months after the famed, influential developer gave up on his attempt to build a municipal golf complex south of Bandon Dunes, he’s now angling to build an 18-hole course on waterfront property outside Netarts, on the state’s northern coast. If Keiser’s proposal is approved, the track would take shape on property that he plans to lease from a Boy Scouts troop. Note to prospective architects: Coore & Crenshaw has already done a routing. “It’s a beautiful place,” Bill Coore has concluded. Coore didn’t say it, but the site appears to have something else going for it: It looks to be within an hour’s drive of Portland, which is as close as a Keiser complex ever comes to a major city.
While he contemplates his joint venture with the Boy Scouts, Mike Keiser also appears to be eager to revive the great dream of Bandon Muni, but with fewer holes and without the headaches associated with municipal golf. “I hope to do both,” the Chicago-based developer told Golf Advisor. “They could be really good.” Keiser still owns 300 acres south of Bandon Dunes, and these days he’s thinking about what fun it might be to get back to where he once belonged, building an 18-hole track on property that Gil Hanse, the course’s architect, describes as “spectacular.” If Keiser green-lights the venture, Hanse’s course would function as Bandon Dunes’ fifth 18-hole layout.
Regarding the 2020 or 2021 Open Championship, the one that’s been virtually guaranteed to Trump Turnberry: You can forget about it, at least until Donald “the Insulter” Trump rehabilitates his image in Europe and the Middle East. Although the power elites in the U.S. golf industry continue to implicitly support Trump, the Independent on Sunday writes that “his dream of handing over the trophy at the Open is in tatters” because the R&A, the event’s organizer, “has privately decided that his reputation is now so toxic” that his historic Scottish resort “can no longer host the game’s most prestigious tournament.” Nobody has so far been willing to talk on the record, but good old boys at the R&A have begun to say nasty things behind Trump’s back. “Turnberry will be back,” one of them told the newspaper, “but perhaps not Trump Turnberry.” Another one said, “Those who forecast worse would come, including warnings from our American cousins, have been proved correct.” And finally, according to a source who’s said to be “close to the championship committee,” during a recent discussion about Trump, “One word was thrown around: Enough.”
In recent months Donald Trump has insulted Mexicans, John McCain, Univision, Megan Kelly, women in general, Jews, the handicapped, and who knows how many others. Nonetheless, the R&A allowed his increasingly inane comments to slide until he proposed to build a wall around the United States that would deny entry to Muslims. But why was an attack on Muslims the straw that broke the camel’s back? Why didn’t Trump’s many previous insults provoke indignation at the organization that takes pride in being the custodian of golf’s glorious traditions? The Independent on Sunday provides the answer: “Middle East sovereign wealth,” it notes, “is a key element of European Tour golf sponsorship.” So if you’re thinking that the Powers That Be in golf have found a social conscience, think again: They’ll forever tolerate insults to people of all races, colors, and creeds, but they’ll absolutely, positively never offend those who pay the bills.
Speaking of pocket-book issues, just days after it dismissed any notion of severing ties with Donald Trump, a high-profile Middle Eastern developer has apparently reconsidered. Reuters reports that Damac Properties, the company building Trump International Golf Club Dubai (the venue with the Gil Hanse-designed course), has “stripped the property of his name and image.” It’s hard to figure exactly what Damac’s action signifies, because neither it nor Trump has commented on the matter, but both parties have much to lose. If the partnership ends, Damac would have to overhaul its marketing program, and it would likely be forced to offer refunds to everyone who’s already purchased a high-priced house in a community that’s supposed to feature a Trump-branded golf course. Things could potentially be far worse for Trump, however, for such a loss of face would likely prevent him from turning the Middle East into his next gravy train. While we wait for things to shake out, it’s worth noting that both of Trump’s ventures with Damac -- Trump International Golf Club Dubai and Trump World Golf Club Dubai (the venue with the Tiger Woods-designed course) -- are still listed as part of Trump Golf’s portfolio.
Although doors are being closed on Donald Trump in the Middle East, it appears that he’ll have to hurl many more racial and religious insults before he wears out his welcome with the U.S. golf business. None of the organizations that have scheduled upcoming events at Trump-branded golf properties -- the PGA Tour, the PGA of America, the U. S. Golf Association -- have as yet shown any inclination to relocate them. In fact, last week the PGA Tour, which professes to have “a strong commitment to an inclusive and welcoming environment,” announced that Trump National Doral Golf Club Miami will most definitely host the 2016 WGC-Cadillac Championships. As far as subsequent events at the resort are concerned, the tour remains non-committal: “Immediately after the completion of the 2016 tournament,” it said in a press statement, “we will explore all options regarding the event’s future.” Anyone who believes such comments indicate that a change of venue is on the horizon is giving the tour too much credit.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Friday, December 11, 2015
Desolation Row, december 11, 2015
Rancho Cucamonga, California. First, the bad news: A developer wants to build an apartment complex and a retail center on the Arnold Palmer-designed Empire Lakes Golf Course. And now the good news: Randall Lewis promises to build “very nice housing for singles, couples, and retirees” on the nine-year-old, 160-acre layout. A series of public hearings has been scheduled, with a vote on a zoning change likely to come in the spring of next year.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After a year of talking about it, the city has decided to quit supporting its least-played golf venue. A closing date for Howell Park Golf Course hasn’t yet been set, but the clock is ticking on the 5,779-yard layout. “Instead of a golf course which serves an average of 30 people per day, I prefer serving 3,000 with events, picnics, ball fields, fishing lakes, playgrounds, and other amenities,” a spokesperson for the East Baton Rouge Recreation & Parks Commission said in a press release. In making its decision, BREC acted on a recommendation from the National Golf Foundation, which reportedly believes that Howell Park, a layout that dates from the 1950s, generates the fewest rounds of any 18-hole course in the United States. The NGF has also advised BREC to close J. S. Clark Golf Course, a nine-hole track in Baker, but the agency has so far resisted the temptation.
Washburn, Illinois. At an auction in October, a farmer agreed to pay roughly $868,000 -- $6,200 an acre -- for Snag Creek Golf Course. Not surprisingly, Steve Byrd will soon be tilling the soil at the 18-hole track, which was designed and built by Maynard Christ in 1965. “It would have been nice to see it stay as a golf course,” Christ’s son, Tracy, told the Peoria Journal Star, “but there just wasn’t any interest.”
Montgomery, Alabama. A parade of owners gave it their best shots, but in the end not even footgolf could save Tallapoosa Lakes Golf Course. The 36-hole complex, built on land that had been in Jimmy Dozier’s family since 1937, was undone by a key metric: It rang up roughly 88,000 rounds in 1997, but this year the number is down to roughly 40,000. “It’s a sad situation that all of this is going away,” Dozier told the Montgomery Advertiser. “I just want the public to know that I tried all I could.” Dozier has agreed to sell the property to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the owners of a neighboring casino complex.
Anderson, South Carolina. With no serious buyers on the horizon, the plug has been pulled on Anderson Country Club. “We had hoped to sell it as a country club,” one of the club’s owners, Tony Saad, told the Anderson Independent Mail. “But the revenue generated simply will not support the operation of the club.” Anderson opened in 1918, with a nine-hole, Tom Bendelow-designed course. The second nine arrived in the early 1930s. Saad and his partners, Greg Saad and Dee Watkins, reportedly paid just over $900,000 for the 187-acre property in 2004. They put it on the market a little more than a year ago, hoping it would fetch $1.4 million.
Danville, Pennsylvania. “We thank you all for your patronage!” was the message from the LLC that owns Liberty Valley Country Club, which went belly up in late September. The LLC is hoping to find a buyer for the 18-hole, 25-year-old course.
Livermore, California. Just one year short of its 50th anniversary, Springtown Golf Course went out of business in mid October. Local golfers tried to save the nine-hole municipal layout, but the increasing cost of water and a significant decline in the number of rounds played -- down by 30 percent since 2008, according to the Contra Costa Times -- put the facility’s operator in a financial squeeze. The city says it would welcome new private-sector managers, but none have so far knocked at the door.
Gainesboro, Tennessee. Unless a buyer steps up, the lights will go out at Cumberland Bend Golf Course on New Year’s Eve. “I try not to think about it,” Duane Randolph said in a comment published by Club & Resort Business. “You put your heart and soul into something, you’d like to see it go on.” Randolph hopes to get $800,000 for Cumberland Bend’s nine-hole, 45-year-old track. A possible hang-up: Much of the course has been laid out on land owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
London, Kentucky. Crooked Creek Golf Course went dark on April Fools’ Day, and today, nine months later, an expected sale hasn’t yet materialized. Mike Nami bought Crooked Creek, an 18-hole, Brian Silva-designed layout, in 2007 and reportedly made $8 million worth of capital improvements. The investment didn’t pay off, however, because he was forced to close the course for a couple of weeks in 2012 while he negotiated with a prospective buyer. And now he’s closed it again. No telling where we go from here.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After a year of talking about it, the city has decided to quit supporting its least-played golf venue. A closing date for Howell Park Golf Course hasn’t yet been set, but the clock is ticking on the 5,779-yard layout. “Instead of a golf course which serves an average of 30 people per day, I prefer serving 3,000 with events, picnics, ball fields, fishing lakes, playgrounds, and other amenities,” a spokesperson for the East Baton Rouge Recreation & Parks Commission said in a press release. In making its decision, BREC acted on a recommendation from the National Golf Foundation, which reportedly believes that Howell Park, a layout that dates from the 1950s, generates the fewest rounds of any 18-hole course in the United States. The NGF has also advised BREC to close J. S. Clark Golf Course, a nine-hole track in Baker, but the agency has so far resisted the temptation.
Washburn, Illinois. At an auction in October, a farmer agreed to pay roughly $868,000 -- $6,200 an acre -- for Snag Creek Golf Course. Not surprisingly, Steve Byrd will soon be tilling the soil at the 18-hole track, which was designed and built by Maynard Christ in 1965. “It would have been nice to see it stay as a golf course,” Christ’s son, Tracy, told the Peoria Journal Star, “but there just wasn’t any interest.”
Montgomery, Alabama. A parade of owners gave it their best shots, but in the end not even footgolf could save Tallapoosa Lakes Golf Course. The 36-hole complex, built on land that had been in Jimmy Dozier’s family since 1937, was undone by a key metric: It rang up roughly 88,000 rounds in 1997, but this year the number is down to roughly 40,000. “It’s a sad situation that all of this is going away,” Dozier told the Montgomery Advertiser. “I just want the public to know that I tried all I could.” Dozier has agreed to sell the property to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the owners of a neighboring casino complex.
Anderson, South Carolina. With no serious buyers on the horizon, the plug has been pulled on Anderson Country Club. “We had hoped to sell it as a country club,” one of the club’s owners, Tony Saad, told the Anderson Independent Mail. “But the revenue generated simply will not support the operation of the club.” Anderson opened in 1918, with a nine-hole, Tom Bendelow-designed course. The second nine arrived in the early 1930s. Saad and his partners, Greg Saad and Dee Watkins, reportedly paid just over $900,000 for the 187-acre property in 2004. They put it on the market a little more than a year ago, hoping it would fetch $1.4 million.
Danville, Pennsylvania. “We thank you all for your patronage!” was the message from the LLC that owns Liberty Valley Country Club, which went belly up in late September. The LLC is hoping to find a buyer for the 18-hole, 25-year-old course.
Livermore, California. Just one year short of its 50th anniversary, Springtown Golf Course went out of business in mid October. Local golfers tried to save the nine-hole municipal layout, but the increasing cost of water and a significant decline in the number of rounds played -- down by 30 percent since 2008, according to the Contra Costa Times -- put the facility’s operator in a financial squeeze. The city says it would welcome new private-sector managers, but none have so far knocked at the door.
Gainesboro, Tennessee. Unless a buyer steps up, the lights will go out at Cumberland Bend Golf Course on New Year’s Eve. “I try not to think about it,” Duane Randolph said in a comment published by Club & Resort Business. “You put your heart and soul into something, you’d like to see it go on.” Randolph hopes to get $800,000 for Cumberland Bend’s nine-hole, 45-year-old track. A possible hang-up: Much of the course has been laid out on land owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
London, Kentucky. Crooked Creek Golf Course went dark on April Fools’ Day, and today, nine months later, an expected sale hasn’t yet materialized. Mike Nami bought Crooked Creek, an 18-hole, Brian Silva-designed layout, in 2007 and reportedly made $8 million worth of capital improvements. The investment didn’t pay off, however, because he was forced to close the course for a couple of weeks in 2012 while he negotiated with a prospective buyer. And now he’s closed it again. No telling where we go from here.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
The Week That Was, december 6, 2015
Finally, the long overdue, Gil Hanse-designed Riserva Golf Course in Rio de Janeiro has celebrated its “soft” opening, with its official unveiling to come in the spring of next year. For the time being, though, forget that it’ll serve as the venue for the first golf competition that the Olympics have staged since 1904. Never mind that it represents the hopes and dreams of our industry’s institutional leaders, who are betting that it’ll spark both new and renewed interest in golf all over the world. Ignore the fact that it cost $16 million to build, and that its builder -- Pasquale Mauro, a billionaire -- is going to make a small fortune when he sells the condos that have arisen around it. Disregard Brazil’s chilly feelings for golf. Instead, concentrate on this: For as long as it stands, Riserva should remind us of a landmark moment in the history of golf design, the moment when the future of golf architecture was symbolically turned over to a new generation. Riserva might have been designed -- and, some have argued, should have been designed -- by Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, or any one of the better-known old-timers who vied for the opportunity. Instead, the commission went to Hanse, a member of a younger crowd with altogether different ideas about how golf courses should look, feel, and play. It was a changing of the guard. With one fateful decision, golf’s past lost its grip on the present, and the future beckoned.
Callaway Golf doesn’t appear to have any regrets about its decision to start selling its products in India. “As the game is progressing, we are seeing huge growth opportunity,” Oliver “Chip” Brewer, the company’s CEO, told Hindu Business Line. Specifically, Callaway’s five-year-old Indian subsidiary is seeing 20 percent annual growth in sales of golf equipment, thanks mainly to increased corporate sponsorships and a healthy pace of construction. In fact, Brewer believes that India, which currently has roughly 250 courses, will add 50 or more over the next two years.
O.B. Sports has injected some life into Tucson, Arizona’s golf operations, but perhaps not enough to keep the lights on at all five of the city’s courses. Last year, despite increases in both income and the number of rounds played -- more than $1 million for the former, nearly 9,000 for the latter -- the city’s courses still managed to lose $1.1 million. As a result, the city’s debate over taxpayer-subsidized golf has been renewed. “We are going to have to make some hard decisions,” a councilmember told the Arizona Daily Star. Tucson’s city manager told Tucson News Now, “There has to be a conversation about potential closure, or at least scaling back of the golf operations.” City officials engaged in this same conversation two years ago, before they hired O.B. Sports to initiate a turnaround. Since then, according to the Star, O. B. Sports has “completed a facelift of the once-stodgy city golf operation,” and the playing conditions at the courses are “as good as they’ve been in more than 15 years, perhaps longer.” Unfortunately, Tucson’s golf courses have a problem that’s difficult to address: A debt load of nearly $8 million.
Donald “the Candidate” Trump was apparently not sold on buying the Puerto Rican golf course that bears his name. Trump International Golf Club Puerto Rico, a bankrupt venue in Coco Beach, has been sold to a San Juan-based investment group called OHorizons LLC. For just $2.2 million, the LLC acquired a pair of 18-hole, Tom Kite-designed golf courses and a 46,000-square-foot clubhouse. The club was cheap because it’s been operating at a loss for close to a decade, a fact that was obviously not lost on Trump, who’d been “considering making a play” for the property. No word yet on whether OHorizons plans to retain Trump’s management, but Trump Golf no longer lists the property in its portfolio.
Callaway Golf doesn’t appear to have any regrets about its decision to start selling its products in India. “As the game is progressing, we are seeing huge growth opportunity,” Oliver “Chip” Brewer, the company’s CEO, told Hindu Business Line. Specifically, Callaway’s five-year-old Indian subsidiary is seeing 20 percent annual growth in sales of golf equipment, thanks mainly to increased corporate sponsorships and a healthy pace of construction. In fact, Brewer believes that India, which currently has roughly 250 courses, will add 50 or more over the next two years.
O.B. Sports has injected some life into Tucson, Arizona’s golf operations, but perhaps not enough to keep the lights on at all five of the city’s courses. Last year, despite increases in both income and the number of rounds played -- more than $1 million for the former, nearly 9,000 for the latter -- the city’s courses still managed to lose $1.1 million. As a result, the city’s debate over taxpayer-subsidized golf has been renewed. “We are going to have to make some hard decisions,” a councilmember told the Arizona Daily Star. Tucson’s city manager told Tucson News Now, “There has to be a conversation about potential closure, or at least scaling back of the golf operations.” City officials engaged in this same conversation two years ago, before they hired O.B. Sports to initiate a turnaround. Since then, according to the Star, O. B. Sports has “completed a facelift of the once-stodgy city golf operation,” and the playing conditions at the courses are “as good as they’ve been in more than 15 years, perhaps longer.” Unfortunately, Tucson’s golf courses have a problem that’s difficult to address: A debt load of nearly $8 million.
Donald “the Candidate” Trump was apparently not sold on buying the Puerto Rican golf course that bears his name. Trump International Golf Club Puerto Rico, a bankrupt venue in Coco Beach, has been sold to a San Juan-based investment group called OHorizons LLC. For just $2.2 million, the LLC acquired a pair of 18-hole, Tom Kite-designed golf courses and a 46,000-square-foot clubhouse. The club was cheap because it’s been operating at a loss for close to a decade, a fact that was obviously not lost on Trump, who’d been “considering making a play” for the property. No word yet on whether OHorizons plans to retain Trump’s management, but Trump Golf no longer lists the property in its portfolio.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Transactions, december 4, 2015
Bradenton, Florida. An investment group consisting mainly of executives from Coral Hospitality has acquired Rosedale Golf & Country Club, a 22-year-old venue that features an 18-hole, Ted McAnlis-designed golf course. The new ownership group, CH6, didn’t announce a price, nor did the seller, Newton Developments. The Sarasota Observer reports that CH6 aims to turn Rosedale, the featured attraction of a gated community, into “the premier club in the area.” The group also intends to take the club private, a process that’s expected to take two to five years. One last thing: The Observer also reports that CH6 aims to acquire “about 25 to 40 clubs” in the area between Tampa and Naples over the next few years.
Fort Myers, Florida. As long as we’re discussing Coral Hospitality, it’s worth noting that another entity related to the Naples-based management company -- CH5-Eagle Ridge LLC -- acquired Eagle Ridge Golf Club earlier this year. The club’s Gordy Lewis-designed golf course opened in 1984. “Eagle Ridge’s natural beauty, player-friendly golf course, and exceptional location fits well within the strategic club acquisition plan we are aggressively pursuing,” the managing member of the ownership group told the Business Observer. CH5 paid $1.87 million for the 129-acre Eagle Ridge property. The seller was Redus Properties, Inc., an entity controlled by Wells Fargo Bank.
Loris, South Carolina. Chris Manning has exercised his option to buy Diamond Back Golf Course at Woodland Valley Country Club. Manning, a Myrtle Beach-based real estate investor, is selling houses in the Woodland Valley community, and he began leasing the 18-hole, Russell Breeden-designed golf course from Lee Rawcliffe earlier this year. Diamond Back is Manning’s second golf property. Earlier this year, he and some investor/partners bought Balsam Mountain Preserve, a 4,400-acre community in Sylva, North Carolina that features an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course.
Indio, California. A Canadian who admits to being “a little nutty” has purchased Indian Springs Golf Club. Ken Hanna was joking about being nutty, because he’s a successful businessman in Vancouver who’s been snow-birding to his second home in Indian Springs, a seniors-only community, for several years. “I worked on trying to buy it for, like, two years,” Hanna told the Desert Sun. “I was back and forth -- do I, do I not, do I, do I not. But I just saw the potential, and that is why we did it.” Indian Springs has an 18-hole golf course. A sales price hasn’t been disclosed, but the seller was asking for $6 million.
Hastings, Minnesota. A St. Paul-based investment group has reportedly paid $3.8 million for Hastings Country Club, a 140-acre spread that opened in 1947. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that Hastings “has been saddled with debt and declining membership in recent years.” The clock began to tick on Hastings’ future as a private club last summer, when its 230 members refused to extend a lifeline in the form of a $2,000 assessment. (The vote was 97 percent against.) All Pro Holdings LLC, the property’s new owner, is now calling the venue as Dakota Pines Golf Club.
Bradenton, Florida. ClubCorp didn’t hang on to Legacy Golf Club for very long. Just eight months after purchasing the 18-year-old, Arnold Palmer-designed track, the Dallas, Texas-based private club operator has sold it to a group led by one of its former employees, Jon Whittemore. The price: $3.4 million, which represents a $300,000 profit. Legacy, a daily-fee layout that was built to help sell houses at Lakewood Ranch, is Whittemore’s third course in the area. Over the past year or so, he and his partner, Larry Galloway, have purchased two golf venues in Sarasota, Serenoa Golf Club and Rolling Green Golf Club. They also own golf properties in Arizona, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas.
Milford, Connecticut. Sacred Heart University has agreed to pay $6 million for a 150-acre tract that includes Great River Golf Club. “We have been looking for good deals on land,” a spokesperson for the school told the Connecticut Post. “This is definitely a good deal.” Sacred Heart’s golf teams already practice at Great River, which features an 18-hole, Tommy Fazio-designed course, and before too long the university intends to make the club to anchor degree programs in golf and hospitality management. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the year. Sacred Heart is buying the parcel from Fairfield-based United Properties, a company controlled by the family of Alfred Lenoci.
Lenoir City, Tennessee. Avalon Golf & Country Club, which reportedly has an appraised value of $3.7 million, has been sold at auction for $750,000 ($814,000 including fees). Tony Hollins, the CEO of Knoxville-based EdFinancial Services, placed the winning bid for the 150-acre property, which features an 18-hole, Joe Lee-designed golf course. The club is the centerpiece of a 20-year-old, 430-acre community that was developed Paul Gillenwater and David Burleson, both of whom are deceased. Their heirs have no interest in golf.
Devils Lake, North Dakota. This being the holiday season, the city of Devils Lake has accepted a gift: Creel Bay Golf Course. Creel Bay’s 250 members made the donation, though they plan to continue operating the facility’s bar and grill. “We will maintain our organization,” the president of Devils Lake Town & Country Club told the Grand Forks Herald. Creel Bay opened in the early 1920s, as a nine-hole layout, and it got a second nine in the early 1990s. The newspaper reports that the property is scheduled to change hands on January 1, 2016.
Naco, Arizona. Turquoise Valley Golf Course has been sold, but not to the fellow who was willing to pay $600,000 for it. Harold Vaubel made the high bid for Arizona’s oldest golf course at an auction in June, but he didn’t complete the transaction due to a medical issue. Pete Lawson has now agreed to sell Turquoise Valley to Bob Barnes and Dave Cartun, who offered $100,000 less than Vaubel. “Our strategy for making Turquoise Valley successful,” Barnes told the Sierra Vista Herald, “is to extend a friendly, quality, fun, and affordable experience not only to our Bisbee golfers but to the communities of Sierra Vista, Douglas, and the entire golfing and non-golfing community of Cochise County. We know we have to expand the focus to attract non-golfers.” In addition to the golf course, Barnes and Cartun are buying an RV park and a restaurant.
West Palm Beach, Florida. A development group led by Domenic J. Gatto has coughed up $26 million for President Country Club, a venue that once had 36 holes but now has just 18. The seller, an entity controlled by George T. Elmore, reportedly paid $11 million for the club in 2011, but last year he secured permission to add more than 100 single-family houses and vacation villas, a 250-room hotel, and a spa to the property. In other words, he added value to his property.
Fort Myers, Florida. As long as we’re discussing Coral Hospitality, it’s worth noting that another entity related to the Naples-based management company -- CH5-Eagle Ridge LLC -- acquired Eagle Ridge Golf Club earlier this year. The club’s Gordy Lewis-designed golf course opened in 1984. “Eagle Ridge’s natural beauty, player-friendly golf course, and exceptional location fits well within the strategic club acquisition plan we are aggressively pursuing,” the managing member of the ownership group told the Business Observer. CH5 paid $1.87 million for the 129-acre Eagle Ridge property. The seller was Redus Properties, Inc., an entity controlled by Wells Fargo Bank.
Loris, South Carolina. Chris Manning has exercised his option to buy Diamond Back Golf Course at Woodland Valley Country Club. Manning, a Myrtle Beach-based real estate investor, is selling houses in the Woodland Valley community, and he began leasing the 18-hole, Russell Breeden-designed golf course from Lee Rawcliffe earlier this year. Diamond Back is Manning’s second golf property. Earlier this year, he and some investor/partners bought Balsam Mountain Preserve, a 4,400-acre community in Sylva, North Carolina that features an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course.
Indio, California. A Canadian who admits to being “a little nutty” has purchased Indian Springs Golf Club. Ken Hanna was joking about being nutty, because he’s a successful businessman in Vancouver who’s been snow-birding to his second home in Indian Springs, a seniors-only community, for several years. “I worked on trying to buy it for, like, two years,” Hanna told the Desert Sun. “I was back and forth -- do I, do I not, do I, do I not. But I just saw the potential, and that is why we did it.” Indian Springs has an 18-hole golf course. A sales price hasn’t been disclosed, but the seller was asking for $6 million.
Hastings, Minnesota. A St. Paul-based investment group has reportedly paid $3.8 million for Hastings Country Club, a 140-acre spread that opened in 1947. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that Hastings “has been saddled with debt and declining membership in recent years.” The clock began to tick on Hastings’ future as a private club last summer, when its 230 members refused to extend a lifeline in the form of a $2,000 assessment. (The vote was 97 percent against.) All Pro Holdings LLC, the property’s new owner, is now calling the venue as Dakota Pines Golf Club.
Bradenton, Florida. ClubCorp didn’t hang on to Legacy Golf Club for very long. Just eight months after purchasing the 18-year-old, Arnold Palmer-designed track, the Dallas, Texas-based private club operator has sold it to a group led by one of its former employees, Jon Whittemore. The price: $3.4 million, which represents a $300,000 profit. Legacy, a daily-fee layout that was built to help sell houses at Lakewood Ranch, is Whittemore’s third course in the area. Over the past year or so, he and his partner, Larry Galloway, have purchased two golf venues in Sarasota, Serenoa Golf Club and Rolling Green Golf Club. They also own golf properties in Arizona, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas.
Milford, Connecticut. Sacred Heart University has agreed to pay $6 million for a 150-acre tract that includes Great River Golf Club. “We have been looking for good deals on land,” a spokesperson for the school told the Connecticut Post. “This is definitely a good deal.” Sacred Heart’s golf teams already practice at Great River, which features an 18-hole, Tommy Fazio-designed course, and before too long the university intends to make the club to anchor degree programs in golf and hospitality management. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the year. Sacred Heart is buying the parcel from Fairfield-based United Properties, a company controlled by the family of Alfred Lenoci.
Lenoir City, Tennessee. Avalon Golf & Country Club, which reportedly has an appraised value of $3.7 million, has been sold at auction for $750,000 ($814,000 including fees). Tony Hollins, the CEO of Knoxville-based EdFinancial Services, placed the winning bid for the 150-acre property, which features an 18-hole, Joe Lee-designed golf course. The club is the centerpiece of a 20-year-old, 430-acre community that was developed Paul Gillenwater and David Burleson, both of whom are deceased. Their heirs have no interest in golf.
Devils Lake, North Dakota. This being the holiday season, the city of Devils Lake has accepted a gift: Creel Bay Golf Course. Creel Bay’s 250 members made the donation, though they plan to continue operating the facility’s bar and grill. “We will maintain our organization,” the president of Devils Lake Town & Country Club told the Grand Forks Herald. Creel Bay opened in the early 1920s, as a nine-hole layout, and it got a second nine in the early 1990s. The newspaper reports that the property is scheduled to change hands on January 1, 2016.
Naco, Arizona. Turquoise Valley Golf Course has been sold, but not to the fellow who was willing to pay $600,000 for it. Harold Vaubel made the high bid for Arizona’s oldest golf course at an auction in June, but he didn’t complete the transaction due to a medical issue. Pete Lawson has now agreed to sell Turquoise Valley to Bob Barnes and Dave Cartun, who offered $100,000 less than Vaubel. “Our strategy for making Turquoise Valley successful,” Barnes told the Sierra Vista Herald, “is to extend a friendly, quality, fun, and affordable experience not only to our Bisbee golfers but to the communities of Sierra Vista, Douglas, and the entire golfing and non-golfing community of Cochise County. We know we have to expand the focus to attract non-golfers.” In addition to the golf course, Barnes and Cartun are buying an RV park and a restaurant.
West Palm Beach, Florida. A development group led by Domenic J. Gatto has coughed up $26 million for President Country Club, a venue that once had 36 holes but now has just 18. The seller, an entity controlled by George T. Elmore, reportedly paid $11 million for the club in 2011, but last year he secured permission to add more than 100 single-family houses and vacation villas, a 250-room hotel, and a spa to the property. In other words, he added value to his property.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
The Week That Was, november 22, 2015
Howard Hughes Corporation has sold Club at Carlton Woods, a venue that’s been described as “the social and residential hub for the elite” at the Woodlands, a huge planned community north of Houston, Texas. HHC reports that the club, which features two 18-hole courses -- one designed by Jack Nicklaus, the other by Tom Fazio -- was a financial drain, as so far this year it’s lost $4.4 million. Nonetheless, the sale enabled the company to book “net cash proceeds of $25.1 million and a pre-tax gain of $29.1 million.” HHC didn’t identify Carlton Woods’ the new owner, and I can’t find any other reports of the transaction on the internets.
Persistent hard times in Victoria, Australia’s over-saturated golf market may lead to the creation of a “super club” in the world-famous Sandbelt. Three of the Melbourne area’s top golf properties -- Huntingdale Golf Club, Sandhurst Club, and Patterson River Golf Club -- have tentatively agreed to a merger, pending approval by their members. In a press release, Sandhurst’s chairman says that the proposal “brings together the most critical ingredients -- branding, capacity, and capital -- to ensure survival and prosperity in what is a tumultuous period in the golf industry.” Members of the “super club” will have access to 63 golf holes, according to the press release, which means that one of the clubs is going to lose nine of its holes. It’s hard to imagine the 18-hole, Charles Alison-designed course at Huntingdale -- “the Home of the Australian Masters” -- being touched, which suggests that the shrinkage will occur either at Sandhurst, a 36-hole complex that serves as the home of the PGA of Australia, or at Patterson River, which has been looking for merger partners for years and has apparently agreed to a “sale of excess land.” The proposed merger has been called “groundbreaking,” but it really isn’t. Half of the golf clubs in Australia are said to be operating under “financial duress,” and last year the editor of a golf publication in Australia predicted that as many as 20 percent of metropolitan Melbourne’s clubs will close over the next decade. A vote on the merger is expected to take place early next year.
Turkey has been itching to get into the Ryder Cup conversation for years, and now the president of the nation’s golf federation is taking dead aim on the event’s 2026 edition. “We will be the strongest bidder for 2026,” Ahmet Agaoglu vowed in a comment published by the Scotsman. “I will not die until I have the Ryder Cup played in this country.” Of course, it’s going to be a while before the European Tour and its partners pick a winner for an event that’s still more than a decade away. Come early December, though, the tour will reveal the last nation standing for the 2022 Ryder Cup. The Scotsman appears to be putting its money on Germany.
Persistent hard times in Victoria, Australia’s over-saturated golf market may lead to the creation of a “super club” in the world-famous Sandbelt. Three of the Melbourne area’s top golf properties -- Huntingdale Golf Club, Sandhurst Club, and Patterson River Golf Club -- have tentatively agreed to a merger, pending approval by their members. In a press release, Sandhurst’s chairman says that the proposal “brings together the most critical ingredients -- branding, capacity, and capital -- to ensure survival and prosperity in what is a tumultuous period in the golf industry.” Members of the “super club” will have access to 63 golf holes, according to the press release, which means that one of the clubs is going to lose nine of its holes. It’s hard to imagine the 18-hole, Charles Alison-designed course at Huntingdale -- “the Home of the Australian Masters” -- being touched, which suggests that the shrinkage will occur either at Sandhurst, a 36-hole complex that serves as the home of the PGA of Australia, or at Patterson River, which has been looking for merger partners for years and has apparently agreed to a “sale of excess land.” The proposed merger has been called “groundbreaking,” but it really isn’t. Half of the golf clubs in Australia are said to be operating under “financial duress,” and last year the editor of a golf publication in Australia predicted that as many as 20 percent of metropolitan Melbourne’s clubs will close over the next decade. A vote on the merger is expected to take place early next year.
Turkey has been itching to get into the Ryder Cup conversation for years, and now the president of the nation’s golf federation is taking dead aim on the event’s 2026 edition. “We will be the strongest bidder for 2026,” Ahmet Agaoglu vowed in a comment published by the Scotsman. “I will not die until I have the Ryder Cup played in this country.” Of course, it’s going to be a while before the European Tour and its partners pick a winner for an event that’s still more than a decade away. Come early December, though, the tour will reveal the last nation standing for the 2022 Ryder Cup. The Scotsman appears to be putting its money on Germany.
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