In what’s been characterized as “a milestone moment,” a seaside golf destination in Messinia, Greece has commissioned José María Olazábal to design its third and fourth golf courses. The 18-hole tracks will be among the featured attractions at Costa Navarino, a well-financed, 2,500-acre spread that already boasts signature layouts by Bernhard Langer and Robert Trent Jones, Jr. In a press release, Olazábal describes the site he’s been given as “spectacular,” with views that “are simply breathtaking,” and he’s promised to deliver “a golfing experience you will want to return to over and over.” The San Sebastián, Spain-based architect’s courses are under construction, and they’re expected to open in 2021. They’re being built to what a press release calls “the highest international standards,” but Darius Oliver of Planet Golf believes that there’s “a long way to go before [Olazábal} can be considered a genuine architect of ability.”
Pipeline Overflow – Lennar Corporation will build the first of two or three golf courses that will eventually emerge at Babcock Ranch, Kitson & Partners’ slowly emerging mini-city in Charlotte and Lee counties in Florida. The course, part of a community called Babcock National, will be “similar to many of the country clubs Lennar has done in Southwest Florida,” which means that it’ll feature roughly 1,000 houses and an 18-hole, Gordy Lewis-designed golf course. . . . The billionaire who serves as the deputy prime minister of Kosovo hopes to build a resort community that Sputnik News calls “Albania’s first entry into the high-end tourism market.” Behgjet Pacolli has set out to build the to-be-named community outside Tirana, the nation’s capital city, and he’s master-planned it to include houses, a hotel, a shopping mall, a water park, and an 18-hole golf course. . . . David Shipley and some golf-minded associates in Salt Lake City, Utah are looking to resurrect the defunct Wingpointe Golf Course. Shipley told the Salt Lake Tribune that Wingpointe’s 18-hole, Arthur Hills-designed layout, lifeless since 2005, “had a reputation of being one of the great courses in the country” and could, if redesigned and revialized, become “one more reason for people to visit Salt Lake City.”
Sunrise Company, one of the best-known development crews in California’s Coachella Valley, has acquired Andalusia Country Club, a faux-Spanish golf community in La Quinta. The seller was an affiliate of Drummond Company, a coal-mining concern that developed the nearby Rancho La Quinta Country Club and similar golf communities in Alabama (Liberty Park in suburban Birmingham) and Florida (Grasslands Golf & Country Club in Lakeland). Andalusia, which opened in 2005, features an 18-hole, Rees Jones-designed golf course, and Sunrise’s CEO, Randall Bone, believes it’s “one of the finest country club communities in the desert.” It’ll complement Sunrise’s other golf properties, a group that includes two in Rancho Mirage (Sunrise Country Club and Rancho Las Palmas Country Club), four in Palm Desert (among them Indian Ridge Country Club and Palm Valley Country Club), and Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells.
Surplus Transactions – Richard Childress, a famous former NASCAR racer, has accepted $1.2 million for his struggling Sapona Ridge Country Club, a 50-year-old venue in Lexington, North Carolina. The club’s new owner is Mark Moore, who works for Uber. . . . Joseph Lewis, a real-estate broker and a “self-described optimist,” has paid an undisclosed amount for Turquoise Valley Golf Course, an 18-hole track that’s operated since 1908 in remote Naco, Arizona. The Herald/Review reports that Lewis and his partners are Turquoise Valley’s fourth owners “in the past few years.” . . . Regarding American Golf Corporation’s expected sale of Plantation Country Club, in Boise, Idaho: The prospective new owner is Will Gustafson, a California-based developer who’s said to be assessing “the viability of the 18-hole golf course” and “its future potential.” American Golf told KTVB-TV that it’ll continue to manage the club, but it didn’t say for how long.
Duly Noted – It’s smart business when golf courses become more welcoming to women, and the Herald Tribune has provided a fresh reason for owners and operators in Florida to do so: The number of retirement-age women moving into the state these days far exceeds the number of retirement-age men. It’s a demographic shift that has important implications for the future of golf in the Sunshine State. . . . The International Association of Golf Tour Operators has announced its five regional destinations of the year, and they are Scottsdale, Arizona; the Dominican Republic; Spain’s Costa del Sol; Mauritius; and Hua Hin, Thailand. As always, the IAGTO also announced an Undiscovered Golf Destination of the Year: Logroño, a city in the Rioja wine region in in northern Spain. . . . The number-one golf course in China, according to the South China Morning Post, is an 18-hole, Nelson & Haworth-designed track at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai. Coore & Crenshaw’s layout at CITIC Shanqin Bay Golf Club, the top-rated venue on Golf Digest’s China rankings, checks in at number three, behind the crazy salad of 27 holes designed by 27 architects at the 27 Club in Tianjin.
I’ve asked this question before, and I’ll ask it again: Are you wondering how much of a week’s golf news I cover in this blog? The answer is this: Only a fraction of what passes my way. The golf business, particularly the development side of the golf business, has unquestionably perked up in recent years, and there’s no way for me to address all of it. So if your business requires a more comprehensive news digest, 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.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Sunday, October 14, 2018
The Week That Was, october 14, 2018
Gil Hanse will design the second 18-hole course at Les Bordes International Golf Club, a task that was originally to have been done by the late Robert von Hagge. The course will be Hanse’s first in Continental Europe, and he expects to break ground on it in early 2019.
Les Bordes, a 32-year-old venue outside Orleans, in the Loire Valley of central France, was established by Baron Marcel Bich, the founder of the company that makes Bic pens, in the hope of creating “the Augusta National of Europe.” Bich hired von Hagge to design the club’s first course, a layout that’s widely viewed as von Hagge’s “piece de resistance” and that Darius Oliver of Planet Golf ranks as the third-best in the nation. Oliver, a tough critic, notes that the track has a “punishing penal design” and questions some of von Hagge’s design decisions, but he nonetheless concludes that the final product is “attractive, well-constructed, and very enjoyable to play.”
Von Hagge produced a design for Les Bordes’ second course as well, a layout that was envisioned to be more forgiving than the first, with wider fairways and less treacherous bunkers. But Bich died in 1994 and von Hagge died in 2010, the Great Recession paralyzed the world, and the venture lost momentum. Although the club’s current owners laid plans to begin construction in 2011 (Rick Baril, one of the partners in Von Hagge’s Texas-based firm, was to oversee the construction), they didn’t follow through.
Hanse is expected to deliver a “classic heathland course,” and he told Golf Course Architecture that he’s “excited that the standard of quality is already so high at Les Bordes, so it gives us something to aspire to.” His clients are no doubt excited to use his growing international reputation in their marketing, as they intend to build houses (starting price: $810,000) and a “five-star branded hotel” with “a multitude of amenities for the whole family.”
If all goes as planned, and if the weather cooperates, Hanse’s course might open in early 2020.
Pipeline Overflow – Tower Holdings’ dream of financing its long-overdue golf resort in Australia with cryptocurrency has gone nowhere, so it’s agreed to sell the lease on its property on Great Keppel Island to a Singapore-based investment group, Wei Chao Pty. Ltd. The prospective owners are said to “share the passion for the project” and, more importantly, they have “the financial means and desire to take the project to the next level.” . . . Government officials in Madhya Pradesh, India aim to build a “world-class” golf course on part of a cattle ranch outside Bhopal. For those who are too young to remember, in 1984 a pesticide factory in Bhopal was the site of what’s generally acknowledged to be “the world’s worst industrial disaster.” Several thousand people died, and something like 500,000 were injured. . . . Plans to create a nine-hole, child-friendly track on the site of the former Shallow Creek Golf Course, outside Putnam Valley, New York, appear to have been revived. Rocco Cambareri had hoped to build the course and had secured a $250,000 grant from the Wadsworth Golf Charities Foundation to help do it, but he died last year. According to the News Journal, Larry Nussbaum is stepping up to finish the job his former partner started.
The members of Wimbledon Park Golf Club appear set to sell the lease on their property to their next-door neighbor, the All England Club, the group that hosts the annual Wimbledon professional tennis tournament in London. The All England Club owns the lease on Wimbledon Park’s 73 acres and will assume control of the site in 2041, but it wants to build new facilities sooner rather than later and is willing to pay dearly – £63.75 million (more than $83.8 million) – for the privilege. Assuming the sale is completed (a vote is expected before the end of the year), and assuming my math is accurate, each of Wimbledon Park’s 750 members will pocket almost $112,000 as a result of the sale. The downside is that they’ll lose their Willie Park, Jr.-designed golf course, an 18-hole track that’s been around since 1898. The upside, however, should be obvious.
Surplus Transactions – Club at Fairvue Plantation, a 1,000-acre spread on Old Hickory Lake in Gallatin, Tennessee, has acquired Foxland Harbor Golf & Country Club, and the freshly created 36-hole facility now calls itself Tennessee Grasslands Golf & Country Club. Both golf courses were designed by Bill Bergin, one in 2004 and the other in 2007. . . . Club at Runaway Bay, struggling, a half-century-old facility located roughly 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth, Texas, has been acquired by a family-based group without any golf experience. “We’re just feeling our way along, but it’s not rocket science,” one of the new owners told the Wise County Messenger. The club, which features an 18-hole, Leon Howard-designed golf course, now operates as RB Golf Club & Resort. . . . Andrew Sigler has sold Montcalm Golf Club, a financially challenged, 15-year-old venue in Enfield, New Hampshire, to a pair of club members. Art and Suzanne Langlais paid an undisclosed price for Montcalm, which features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Phil Wogan and George Sargent.
Duly Noted – In what amounts to a significant vote of confidence, Hyatt Hotels Corporation has announced plans to open nine new hotels in Africa in 2019 and 2020. To explain its decision, the big Chicago-based hotelier cited the continent’s “increasingly favorable business climate,” “heightened tourism spend,” and “growing middle class” – all factors that also lay a strong foundation for golf development. . . . China, which is quickly amassing economic and political influence all over the world, has found a new target: The golf business in Ghana. The Chinese ambassador to the West African nation, attending a tournament that he described as “another demonstration of the China-Ghana friendship,” promised to “support the development of the game to an international standard” and “do its best to support professional golfers and to get the youth interested and involved in the game.” . . . More than 50,000 objections have been submitted in protest of expansion plans, including a second golf course, by Trump Aberdeen Scotland. A local elected official called the resort’s recently filed development proposal “the most unpopular set of planning applications ever lodged.”
In compliance with new European laws regarding data collection, I’ve been asked to provide a statement about my use of the data that’s collected about those of you who read the World Golf Report. So here it is: I don’t collect any data. All I do is write what’s on my mind and then post what I write. I don’t know your names or addresses or ages or income levels, and I have no interest in any of that information. That being said, the World Golf Report occupies a slice of cyberspace owned by Google, one of the world’s foremost data collectors, and I’d bet dollars to donuts that Google collects information about you. For what it’s worth, I’ve downloaded an official-looking statement that’s supposed to appear at the bottom of the blog, but I can’t figure out how to load it. If any of you can tell me how, please do.
Les Bordes, a 32-year-old venue outside Orleans, in the Loire Valley of central France, was established by Baron Marcel Bich, the founder of the company that makes Bic pens, in the hope of creating “the Augusta National of Europe.” Bich hired von Hagge to design the club’s first course, a layout that’s widely viewed as von Hagge’s “piece de resistance” and that Darius Oliver of Planet Golf ranks as the third-best in the nation. Oliver, a tough critic, notes that the track has a “punishing penal design” and questions some of von Hagge’s design decisions, but he nonetheless concludes that the final product is “attractive, well-constructed, and very enjoyable to play.”
Von Hagge produced a design for Les Bordes’ second course as well, a layout that was envisioned to be more forgiving than the first, with wider fairways and less treacherous bunkers. But Bich died in 1994 and von Hagge died in 2010, the Great Recession paralyzed the world, and the venture lost momentum. Although the club’s current owners laid plans to begin construction in 2011 (Rick Baril, one of the partners in Von Hagge’s Texas-based firm, was to oversee the construction), they didn’t follow through.
Hanse is expected to deliver a “classic heathland course,” and he told Golf Course Architecture that he’s “excited that the standard of quality is already so high at Les Bordes, so it gives us something to aspire to.” His clients are no doubt excited to use his growing international reputation in their marketing, as they intend to build houses (starting price: $810,000) and a “five-star branded hotel” with “a multitude of amenities for the whole family.”
If all goes as planned, and if the weather cooperates, Hanse’s course might open in early 2020.
Pipeline Overflow – Tower Holdings’ dream of financing its long-overdue golf resort in Australia with cryptocurrency has gone nowhere, so it’s agreed to sell the lease on its property on Great Keppel Island to a Singapore-based investment group, Wei Chao Pty. Ltd. The prospective owners are said to “share the passion for the project” and, more importantly, they have “the financial means and desire to take the project to the next level.” . . . Government officials in Madhya Pradesh, India aim to build a “world-class” golf course on part of a cattle ranch outside Bhopal. For those who are too young to remember, in 1984 a pesticide factory in Bhopal was the site of what’s generally acknowledged to be “the world’s worst industrial disaster.” Several thousand people died, and something like 500,000 were injured. . . . Plans to create a nine-hole, child-friendly track on the site of the former Shallow Creek Golf Course, outside Putnam Valley, New York, appear to have been revived. Rocco Cambareri had hoped to build the course and had secured a $250,000 grant from the Wadsworth Golf Charities Foundation to help do it, but he died last year. According to the News Journal, Larry Nussbaum is stepping up to finish the job his former partner started.
The members of Wimbledon Park Golf Club appear set to sell the lease on their property to their next-door neighbor, the All England Club, the group that hosts the annual Wimbledon professional tennis tournament in London. The All England Club owns the lease on Wimbledon Park’s 73 acres and will assume control of the site in 2041, but it wants to build new facilities sooner rather than later and is willing to pay dearly – £63.75 million (more than $83.8 million) – for the privilege. Assuming the sale is completed (a vote is expected before the end of the year), and assuming my math is accurate, each of Wimbledon Park’s 750 members will pocket almost $112,000 as a result of the sale. The downside is that they’ll lose their Willie Park, Jr.-designed golf course, an 18-hole track that’s been around since 1898. The upside, however, should be obvious.
Surplus Transactions – Club at Fairvue Plantation, a 1,000-acre spread on Old Hickory Lake in Gallatin, Tennessee, has acquired Foxland Harbor Golf & Country Club, and the freshly created 36-hole facility now calls itself Tennessee Grasslands Golf & Country Club. Both golf courses were designed by Bill Bergin, one in 2004 and the other in 2007. . . . Club at Runaway Bay, struggling, a half-century-old facility located roughly 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth, Texas, has been acquired by a family-based group without any golf experience. “We’re just feeling our way along, but it’s not rocket science,” one of the new owners told the Wise County Messenger. The club, which features an 18-hole, Leon Howard-designed golf course, now operates as RB Golf Club & Resort. . . . Andrew Sigler has sold Montcalm Golf Club, a financially challenged, 15-year-old venue in Enfield, New Hampshire, to a pair of club members. Art and Suzanne Langlais paid an undisclosed price for Montcalm, which features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Phil Wogan and George Sargent.
Duly Noted – In what amounts to a significant vote of confidence, Hyatt Hotels Corporation has announced plans to open nine new hotels in Africa in 2019 and 2020. To explain its decision, the big Chicago-based hotelier cited the continent’s “increasingly favorable business climate,” “heightened tourism spend,” and “growing middle class” – all factors that also lay a strong foundation for golf development. . . . China, which is quickly amassing economic and political influence all over the world, has found a new target: The golf business in Ghana. The Chinese ambassador to the West African nation, attending a tournament that he described as “another demonstration of the China-Ghana friendship,” promised to “support the development of the game to an international standard” and “do its best to support professional golfers and to get the youth interested and involved in the game.” . . . More than 50,000 objections have been submitted in protest of expansion plans, including a second golf course, by Trump Aberdeen Scotland. A local elected official called the resort’s recently filed development proposal “the most unpopular set of planning applications ever lodged.”
In compliance with new European laws regarding data collection, I’ve been asked to provide a statement about my use of the data that’s collected about those of you who read the World Golf Report. So here it is: I don’t collect any data. All I do is write what’s on my mind and then post what I write. I don’t know your names or addresses or ages or income levels, and I have no interest in any of that information. That being said, the World Golf Report occupies a slice of cyberspace owned by Google, one of the world’s foremost data collectors, and I’d bet dollars to donuts that Google collects information about you. For what it’s worth, I’ve downloaded an official-looking statement that’s supposed to appear at the bottom of the blog, but I can’t figure out how to load it. If any of you can tell me how, please do.
Sunday, October 7, 2018
The Week That Was, october 7, 2018
Vietnam welcomed 13 million international visitor arrivals last year, a record number, and it’s set out to attract 20 million by 2020. Such traffic has made the nation a hot spot not just for golf construction but also for hotel construction, both of which can be viewed as barometers for the economy in general. In a collection of opinions and predictions packaged by a Vietnamese news service, real-estate professionals generally agree that the nation is “one of the hottest markets for hotel investment in the Asia Pacific” and still has “huge untapped potential.” They warn of hurdles that must be overcome, however, among them “poor tourism infrastructure” (in particular, substandard transportation and unreliable electricity and high-speed internet), a lack of government-sponsored marketing and promotion, and tourism policies that “are not conducive to growth.” All that being said, Jones Lang LaSalle predicts that 118 new hotels will debut in the socialist republic by 2022, a 15 percent increase over the 748 currently in operation.
It took nearly two decades, but Crossroads Ventures has fended off a parade of environmentalists and other opponents and won permission to build Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park, a four-season community northwest of Kingston, New York. Belleayre, which will corporate both new and existing features, will include ski areas, houses, time-share condos, places to eat and drink, and what Crossroads once promised would be an organic golf course. Years ago, the commission for the course went to Davis Love III, and there’s no reason to suggest that the developers’ plans have changed. Some of Crossroads’ principals are now beyond retirement age, but they still believe that their proposed resort will be “a major catalyst for not just the stabilization but for the revitalization of the area.”
Pipeline Overflow – Toll Brothers has secured a preliminary approval for a subdivision it wants to build at the long-overdue Prasada (a.k.a. Prasada Lake Village) community in suburban Phoenix, Arizona. The big homebuilder’s plans call for a nine-hole, executive-length golf course that will eventually be stretched to 18 holes, all of them to be created by Nicklaus Design. . . . A Pakistani news service says that a group of Japanese investors has “deep interest” in developing a golf course and related tourist-related attractions in Karachi and Gwadar. Can’t say for sure if their interest will lead to actual construction, but it’s further evidence of the heat that’s being turned up on golf construction in a nation not usually associated with the sport. . . . Details are scanty, but a nine-hole golf course may soon emerge in Meru, the sixth-largest city in Kenya. The Kenya Golf Union expects the track to attract 1,500 members and host one of the nation’s long-running tournaments.
Pipeline Overflow Overflow – Greg “the Living Brand” Norman’s third golf venue in Vietnam is scheduled to open later this month. The 27-hole complex, KN Golf Links Cam Ranh, will be the centerpiece of KN Paradise, a 2,000-acre resort community outside Cam Ranh, an area along the nation’s southern coast that Norman’s clients claim is “on the cusp of becoming the next great hot spot in Southeast Asia.” The facility’s 18-hole track will reportedly play “hard and fast,” while the nine-hole layout will give the impression of “a tropical Augusta.” . . . Three is also the charm for the Nicklaus empire, which has opened its third course in Russia, all of which are located in Moscow and its suburbs. In a comment published by Golf Course Architecture, Jack Nicklaus said that the 18-hole, Nicklaus Design track at Raevo Golf & Country Club took shape on “a uniquely special piece of property” and will be “natural, playable and memorable.” . . . European Golf Design reports that it’s wrapped up construction on Dubai Hills Golf Club, an 18-hole track that will anchor a “serene, lush lifestyle destination” outside arid Dubai. The community’s developers say that the course, designed by Gary Johnston, will be “one of the key golfing destinations in the Middle East region.”
Duly Noted – Another year in business, another year of losses for Trump Turnberry: The tony resort in Scotland finished $4.5 million in the red last year, and the Washington Post says its owner, the U.S. president, has so far lost “at least $212 million” on his most prestigious golf venue – $144 million on renovations and operating costs on top of a $67 million purchase price. As in previous years, however, the Trump Organization insists that profits are right around the corner. . . . In its proposal to host this year’s Ryder Cup competition, France promised to grow the game by opening 100 new golf facilities for beginners and time-pressed experienced golfers. Today, the promise is all but realized, as the Independent reports that 93 of the facilities are already in operation. . . . It’s virtually certain that Cuba will fall short of the 5 million international visitors that it hoped to attract this year, but it’s going to come close. Tourism ministers in island nation expect to count 4.8 million foreign visitors, a record number.
It took nearly two decades, but Crossroads Ventures has fended off a parade of environmentalists and other opponents and won permission to build Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park, a four-season community northwest of Kingston, New York. Belleayre, which will corporate both new and existing features, will include ski areas, houses, time-share condos, places to eat and drink, and what Crossroads once promised would be an organic golf course. Years ago, the commission for the course went to Davis Love III, and there’s no reason to suggest that the developers’ plans have changed. Some of Crossroads’ principals are now beyond retirement age, but they still believe that their proposed resort will be “a major catalyst for not just the stabilization but for the revitalization of the area.”
Pipeline Overflow – Toll Brothers has secured a preliminary approval for a subdivision it wants to build at the long-overdue Prasada (a.k.a. Prasada Lake Village) community in suburban Phoenix, Arizona. The big homebuilder’s plans call for a nine-hole, executive-length golf course that will eventually be stretched to 18 holes, all of them to be created by Nicklaus Design. . . . A Pakistani news service says that a group of Japanese investors has “deep interest” in developing a golf course and related tourist-related attractions in Karachi and Gwadar. Can’t say for sure if their interest will lead to actual construction, but it’s further evidence of the heat that’s being turned up on golf construction in a nation not usually associated with the sport. . . . Details are scanty, but a nine-hole golf course may soon emerge in Meru, the sixth-largest city in Kenya. The Kenya Golf Union expects the track to attract 1,500 members and host one of the nation’s long-running tournaments.
Pipeline Overflow Overflow – Greg “the Living Brand” Norman’s third golf venue in Vietnam is scheduled to open later this month. The 27-hole complex, KN Golf Links Cam Ranh, will be the centerpiece of KN Paradise, a 2,000-acre resort community outside Cam Ranh, an area along the nation’s southern coast that Norman’s clients claim is “on the cusp of becoming the next great hot spot in Southeast Asia.” The facility’s 18-hole track will reportedly play “hard and fast,” while the nine-hole layout will give the impression of “a tropical Augusta.” . . . Three is also the charm for the Nicklaus empire, which has opened its third course in Russia, all of which are located in Moscow and its suburbs. In a comment published by Golf Course Architecture, Jack Nicklaus said that the 18-hole, Nicklaus Design track at Raevo Golf & Country Club took shape on “a uniquely special piece of property” and will be “natural, playable and memorable.” . . . European Golf Design reports that it’s wrapped up construction on Dubai Hills Golf Club, an 18-hole track that will anchor a “serene, lush lifestyle destination” outside arid Dubai. The community’s developers say that the course, designed by Gary Johnston, will be “one of the key golfing destinations in the Middle East region.”
Duly Noted – Another year in business, another year of losses for Trump Turnberry: The tony resort in Scotland finished $4.5 million in the red last year, and the Washington Post says its owner, the U.S. president, has so far lost “at least $212 million” on his most prestigious golf venue – $144 million on renovations and operating costs on top of a $67 million purchase price. As in previous years, however, the Trump Organization insists that profits are right around the corner. . . . In its proposal to host this year’s Ryder Cup competition, France promised to grow the game by opening 100 new golf facilities for beginners and time-pressed experienced golfers. Today, the promise is all but realized, as the Independent reports that 93 of the facilities are already in operation. . . . It’s virtually certain that Cuba will fall short of the 5 million international visitors that it hoped to attract this year, but it’s going to come close. Tourism ministers in island nation expect to count 4.8 million foreign visitors, a record number.
Sunday, September 30, 2018
The Week That Was, september 30, 2018
England Golf reports that the most “enterprising” and “innovative” clubs under its jurisdiction are “increasingly ready to evolve to meet their customers’ needs,” and as a result they’re enjoying “a great demand for golf.” According to data gathered in a recent questionnaire, today the average club in England has 484 members, up from 460 in 2016. The secret, says England Golf, lies in some combination of a welcoming atmosphere, flexible membership options, regular communications with members, new income streams, improved off-course experiences, and “fun golf formats.” Even better, golfers appear to be willing to shell out more for golf memberships nowadays. The average adult golfer in England pays £40 ($52) more than he or she did in 2016, while the average senior pays £50 ($65) more.
For the second time this year, an investment vehicle linked to Blackstone Group has acquired a prominent golf property in a desirable golf market. In early 2018, the huge, New York City-based investment company reportedly paid roughly $330 million for Turtle Bay Resort, a 1,300-acre spread with a 36-hole complex on the northern coast of O’ahu, Hawaii. And just weeks ago, an entity controlled by Blackstone’s top executives paid an undisclosed price for JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa, a Texas property that’s home to TPC San Antonio. The TPC features a pair of 18-hole tracks, one designed by Greg “the Living Brand” Norman and the other by Pete Dye. The former hosts the Valero Texas Open, an annual event on the PGA Tour. But Blackstone doesn’t figure to be a permanent presence in San Antonio. Like other private-equity firms, it typically buys undervalued properties, puts them in a stronger financial position, and then sells them.
Surplus Transactions – David Cuthbertson, a home builder, has turned over Larkin Golf Club to Wingate University. Larkin, which has operated in Statesville, North Carolina since 1996 (it was originally known as Fox Den Golf Club), features an 18-hole, Clyde Johnston-designed golf course. It’s Wingate’s second golf property, as the university accepted Stonebridge Golf Club in Monroe as a gift in early 2018. . . . Signal Point Club, a 55-year-old venue in Niles, Michigan (it’s just north of South Bend, Indiana), has become the second golf property for an investment group led by Tim Firestone, Eric Haag, and Joe Herbert. Signal Point features a nine-hole layout that was designed by Robert Bruce Harris. Its new owners also own Blackthorn Golf Club, an 18-hole track in South Bend. . . . The city of Attleboro, Massachusetts has reportedly paid $3.3 million for Highland Country Club, a bankrupt nine-hole venue that’s been in business since 1901. The city hopes to find a private-sector management company that’s willing to operate the 93-acre venue, whose troubles have been blamed on a “declining membership and reduced interest in golf.”
Just three years after it opened, Adena Golf & Country Club has gone belly up. Frank Stronach, the Canadian billionaire who reportedly spent $50 million to create the club, his self-designed 18-hole golf course, and whatever else he managed to finish at his 420-acre property in Ocala, Florida, has decided that he can’t stomach any further financial losses. In a farewell address, Adena told its members that it had hoped to become “the finest private club in all of Florida,” and it apologized because it could “no longer bring you the first-class membership experience that you have come to enjoy.” Stronach made his money (Forbes says he’s worth $1.5 billion) in auto parts, and it seems that his true sports passion is thoroughbred horse racing.
Desolation Row Extended – Crane Creek Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Kilbourne, Illinois, didn’t open this year and has presumably breathed its final breath. Crane Creek’s owner, Joel Hirsch, attributed the 20-year-old course’s persistent financial losses in part to its location, as Kilbourne is “a long way” from Peoria and Springfield, the closest nearby population centers. . . . You can also say goodbye to Jones Creek Golf Club, a 32-year-old, Rees Jones-designed golf course outside Augusta, Georgia. The club’s owners blame the property’s demise on what’s been described as “issues of water runoff from a nearby lake.” . . . Pines Golf Course & Driving Range, an 18-hole, par-3 track in Groton, Connecticut, will soon be razed so its 34 acres can become farmland. The course, which had operated for more than a half-century, has at one time or another also been known as Birch Plain Golf Course and Trumbull Golf Course.
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 you require a more comprehensive news digest, 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.
For the second time this year, an investment vehicle linked to Blackstone Group has acquired a prominent golf property in a desirable golf market. In early 2018, the huge, New York City-based investment company reportedly paid roughly $330 million for Turtle Bay Resort, a 1,300-acre spread with a 36-hole complex on the northern coast of O’ahu, Hawaii. And just weeks ago, an entity controlled by Blackstone’s top executives paid an undisclosed price for JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa, a Texas property that’s home to TPC San Antonio. The TPC features a pair of 18-hole tracks, one designed by Greg “the Living Brand” Norman and the other by Pete Dye. The former hosts the Valero Texas Open, an annual event on the PGA Tour. But Blackstone doesn’t figure to be a permanent presence in San Antonio. Like other private-equity firms, it typically buys undervalued properties, puts them in a stronger financial position, and then sells them.
Surplus Transactions – David Cuthbertson, a home builder, has turned over Larkin Golf Club to Wingate University. Larkin, which has operated in Statesville, North Carolina since 1996 (it was originally known as Fox Den Golf Club), features an 18-hole, Clyde Johnston-designed golf course. It’s Wingate’s second golf property, as the university accepted Stonebridge Golf Club in Monroe as a gift in early 2018. . . . Signal Point Club, a 55-year-old venue in Niles, Michigan (it’s just north of South Bend, Indiana), has become the second golf property for an investment group led by Tim Firestone, Eric Haag, and Joe Herbert. Signal Point features a nine-hole layout that was designed by Robert Bruce Harris. Its new owners also own Blackthorn Golf Club, an 18-hole track in South Bend. . . . The city of Attleboro, Massachusetts has reportedly paid $3.3 million for Highland Country Club, a bankrupt nine-hole venue that’s been in business since 1901. The city hopes to find a private-sector management company that’s willing to operate the 93-acre venue, whose troubles have been blamed on a “declining membership and reduced interest in golf.”
Just three years after it opened, Adena Golf & Country Club has gone belly up. Frank Stronach, the Canadian billionaire who reportedly spent $50 million to create the club, his self-designed 18-hole golf course, and whatever else he managed to finish at his 420-acre property in Ocala, Florida, has decided that he can’t stomach any further financial losses. In a farewell address, Adena told its members that it had hoped to become “the finest private club in all of Florida,” and it apologized because it could “no longer bring you the first-class membership experience that you have come to enjoy.” Stronach made his money (Forbes says he’s worth $1.5 billion) in auto parts, and it seems that his true sports passion is thoroughbred horse racing.
Desolation Row Extended – Crane Creek Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Kilbourne, Illinois, didn’t open this year and has presumably breathed its final breath. Crane Creek’s owner, Joel Hirsch, attributed the 20-year-old course’s persistent financial losses in part to its location, as Kilbourne is “a long way” from Peoria and Springfield, the closest nearby population centers. . . . You can also say goodbye to Jones Creek Golf Club, a 32-year-old, Rees Jones-designed golf course outside Augusta, Georgia. The club’s owners blame the property’s demise on what’s been described as “issues of water runoff from a nearby lake.” . . . Pines Golf Course & Driving Range, an 18-hole, par-3 track in Groton, Connecticut, will soon be razed so its 34 acres can become farmland. The course, which had operated for more than a half-century, has at one time or another also been known as Birch Plain Golf Course and Trumbull Golf Course.
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 you require a more comprehensive news digest, 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.
Sunday, September 23, 2018
The Week That Was, september 23, 2018
In recent weeks, course owners and operators in Canada have been contemplating potential weed problems, and they aren’t talking crabgrass. Our neighbor to the north is on track to legalize recreational use of marijuana next month, and the nation’s courses are trying to figure out what it means to their business. According to a survey of nearly 5,500 Canadian golfers, about 14 percent expect to fire up while they play, and the number increases to about 50 percent for golfers under the age of 35. With such data in mind, more than one-quarter of the 56 golf facilities that were polled said that they might begin selling marijuana if they’re allowed to, just as they sell beer and liquor. It’s worth noting, of course, that golfers have long been getting high on fairways, and one respondent to the survey acknowledged that “I can’t remember the last time I heard a complaint.”
Can’t say how much pot golfers will soon be smoking at Osprey Valley Golf Club, but they’ll be doing it at Canada’s first Tournament Players Club. The freshly rebranded TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, in suburban Toronto, features a trio of 18-hole, Doug Carrick-designed golf courses, all of which are ranked among the top 100 on SCOREGolf’s list of the nation’s best tracks (at #48, #51, and #55). The TPC Network, which is licensed by the PGA Tour, now consists of 33 properties, five of them outside the United States.
The government of Romania has green-lighted a variety of potential economy-boosting projects, including a golf course that will take shape at a resort in Costinesti, a village along the Black Sea coast. The package of projects consists mostly of things like rail lines and hydroelectric power plants, but it includes a collection of what Romania Insider calls “luxury resorts” that will stretch across two miles of waterfront. In all, the four resorts will occupy 2,000 acres and offer more than 4,000 hotel rooms in addition to the usual assortment of tourist attractions. Assuming that any of them are actually built, they’ll be done in partnership with private-sector development groups.
Pipeline Overflow – The city of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, is thinking about turning one of its “golfing gems” into a track worthy of high-level professional events. The city has hired a team of consultants, including course designer Graham Marsh, to scope out the future of the South course at North Adelaide Golf Course. If the idea is approved, at least part of the course will be redesigned and the entirety of it will be upgraded to “international standard.” . . . Mixta Nigeria has apparently been directed to build a golf course and a “world-class golf resort” at an emerging mini-city outside Benin, the capital of Edo State in Nigeria. Details are scarce, unfortunately, but the state’s executive governor told the Daily Trust that “the same people who built Lakowe Golf Resort in Lagos” – that would be Mixta Nigeria – are behind the one in Benin. . . . Nothing is official, but community activists in greater Mumbai believe that India’s navy has set out to build a golf course at its station in Hamla. The navy denies the allegation, but India has a lot of courses at military bases.
The second-oldest golf course in Idaho is about to change hands. Just weeks after unloading a property outside Atlanta, Georgia, American Golf Corporation has found an as-yet unidentified buyer for Plantation Country Club, a venue that’s operated in Boise since 1917. A price hasn’t been announced, but the Idaho Statesman reports that the property has an assessed value of $2.6 million. Plantation was originally known as Boise Country Club, and it opened with a six-hole course. Today it has an 18-hole, Chandler Egan-designed layout. I can’t explain why American Golf has become such an active seller, but it’s worth noting that it’s also put Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course, in Irvine, California, on the market. It’s also worth noting that American Golf will continue to manage Plantation after it’s sold.
Surplus Transactions – Tony Soletti, a Florida-based insurance man, has reportedly paid $2.3 million for River Club, the centerpiece of a 30-year-old, 700-house community in Bradenton. The semiprivate club’s 18-hole course, a Ron Garl design, is said to be “one of the most challenging layouts in the area.” Soletti figures that River Club will complement his nearby Links at Greenfield Plantation, which he’s owned since 2012. . . . An unidentified buyer has paid an undisclosed price for Escalon Golf Course, a nine-hole, 34-year-old layout in Escalon, California. A spokesperson for the seller, a group led by the family of Tom and Betty Hagan, told the Escalon Times that the new owners plan to continue golf operations and have “really big plans.” . . . Gene Hoffman and Scott Covalt have acquired Fox Ridge Golf Club, a 19-year-old venue in suburban Waterloo, Iowa. The new owners told a local newspaper that they intend to improve the 18-hole layout “in every way, shape, and form.”
A high-end community in suburban Indianapolis, Indiana is going to lose its golf course. Gray Eagle Golf Course, which opened in 2001, will close next year, a victim of “decreased or stagnant golf participation over eight years,” according to the Indianapolis Star. “The older generation is dying, and the younger generation is not taking their place,” one of the course’s owners, Mark Thompson, told the newspaper. Gray Eagle’s 18-hole layout was designed by Art Kaser, who works for Thompson’s company. The company tried to persuade the homeowners in the accompanying community to buy the course, but they declined, and the city doesn’t want it either.
Desolation Row Extended – A Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course in Rio Rico, Arizona (it’s south of Tucson) is about to bite the dust. A date for the closing of the 47-year-old track at Rio Rico Golf Club hasn’t been announced, but the CEO of Heritage Hotels & Resorts, the club’s owner, told Nogales International that it’ll be “soon.” . . . Elected officials in Snohomish County, Washington hope to find a new operator for Kayak Point Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Stanwood that’s going to close next month if they aren’t successful. Though the Ron Fream design has been described as “one of Washington's most popular courses,” its current management company says it’s “struggled to remain viable in an increasingly challenging business environment.” . . . A year before he was expected to, Chuck Bennell has stuck a fork into his Tam O’Shanter Golf Course. Bennell had said that he expected to close the 36-hole complex in Canton, Ohio next year or perhaps in 2020, but it appears that last year’s successful rezoning pushed his plans for the property ahead.
Duly Noted – The Robb Report recently threw a few softball questions at Greg “the Living Brand” Norman, and he replied with a flurry of buzz words and phrases, among them “welcoming,” “connectivity,” “social media,” “streaming,” and “solar panels.” When he was asked about potential areas of growth, he nominated China and Cuba, though he made it clear that he doesn’t expect the growth to be imminent. . . . The increasing popularity of high-profile, easily marketable courses in Vietnam is taking its toll on golf tourism in Thailand. To boost its prospects, the nation’s tourism authority wants you to know that Thailand is a “World Class Golf Destination,” with a “vast choice of golf courses” (roughly 250) that attracted 400,000 international golf travelers in 2016, presumably the last year for which data is available. . . . Slovakia is home to an estimated 8,000 “registered” golfers, a number that the Slovak Spectator believes is “too few” to support “the number of golf courses that have been developed in the country.” As a result, the newspaper says, most of the nation’s golf resorts “are struggling financially.” (Sorry, I can’t find a link to this story.)
In compliance with new European laws regarding data collection, I’ve been asked to provide a statement about my use of the data that’s collected about those of you who read the World Golf Report. So here it is: I don’t collect any data, and I don’t bake any cookies into your computer. All I do is write little stories and then post what I write. I don’t know your names or addresses or ages or income levels, and I have no interest in any of that information. That being said, the World Golf Report occupies a slice of cyberspace owned by Google, one of the world’s foremost data collectors, and I’ll willing to bet that Google collects whatever it can about you. Incidentally, Google has provided me with an official-looking statement that’s supposed to appear at the bottom of the blog, but I can’t figure out how to load it.
Can’t say how much pot golfers will soon be smoking at Osprey Valley Golf Club, but they’ll be doing it at Canada’s first Tournament Players Club. The freshly rebranded TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, in suburban Toronto, features a trio of 18-hole, Doug Carrick-designed golf courses, all of which are ranked among the top 100 on SCOREGolf’s list of the nation’s best tracks (at #48, #51, and #55). The TPC Network, which is licensed by the PGA Tour, now consists of 33 properties, five of them outside the United States.
The government of Romania has green-lighted a variety of potential economy-boosting projects, including a golf course that will take shape at a resort in Costinesti, a village along the Black Sea coast. The package of projects consists mostly of things like rail lines and hydroelectric power plants, but it includes a collection of what Romania Insider calls “luxury resorts” that will stretch across two miles of waterfront. In all, the four resorts will occupy 2,000 acres and offer more than 4,000 hotel rooms in addition to the usual assortment of tourist attractions. Assuming that any of them are actually built, they’ll be done in partnership with private-sector development groups.
Pipeline Overflow – The city of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, is thinking about turning one of its “golfing gems” into a track worthy of high-level professional events. The city has hired a team of consultants, including course designer Graham Marsh, to scope out the future of the South course at North Adelaide Golf Course. If the idea is approved, at least part of the course will be redesigned and the entirety of it will be upgraded to “international standard.” . . . Mixta Nigeria has apparently been directed to build a golf course and a “world-class golf resort” at an emerging mini-city outside Benin, the capital of Edo State in Nigeria. Details are scarce, unfortunately, but the state’s executive governor told the Daily Trust that “the same people who built Lakowe Golf Resort in Lagos” – that would be Mixta Nigeria – are behind the one in Benin. . . . Nothing is official, but community activists in greater Mumbai believe that India’s navy has set out to build a golf course at its station in Hamla. The navy denies the allegation, but India has a lot of courses at military bases.
The second-oldest golf course in Idaho is about to change hands. Just weeks after unloading a property outside Atlanta, Georgia, American Golf Corporation has found an as-yet unidentified buyer for Plantation Country Club, a venue that’s operated in Boise since 1917. A price hasn’t been announced, but the Idaho Statesman reports that the property has an assessed value of $2.6 million. Plantation was originally known as Boise Country Club, and it opened with a six-hole course. Today it has an 18-hole, Chandler Egan-designed layout. I can’t explain why American Golf has become such an active seller, but it’s worth noting that it’s also put Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course, in Irvine, California, on the market. It’s also worth noting that American Golf will continue to manage Plantation after it’s sold.
Surplus Transactions – Tony Soletti, a Florida-based insurance man, has reportedly paid $2.3 million for River Club, the centerpiece of a 30-year-old, 700-house community in Bradenton. The semiprivate club’s 18-hole course, a Ron Garl design, is said to be “one of the most challenging layouts in the area.” Soletti figures that River Club will complement his nearby Links at Greenfield Plantation, which he’s owned since 2012. . . . An unidentified buyer has paid an undisclosed price for Escalon Golf Course, a nine-hole, 34-year-old layout in Escalon, California. A spokesperson for the seller, a group led by the family of Tom and Betty Hagan, told the Escalon Times that the new owners plan to continue golf operations and have “really big plans.” . . . Gene Hoffman and Scott Covalt have acquired Fox Ridge Golf Club, a 19-year-old venue in suburban Waterloo, Iowa. The new owners told a local newspaper that they intend to improve the 18-hole layout “in every way, shape, and form.”
A high-end community in suburban Indianapolis, Indiana is going to lose its golf course. Gray Eagle Golf Course, which opened in 2001, will close next year, a victim of “decreased or stagnant golf participation over eight years,” according to the Indianapolis Star. “The older generation is dying, and the younger generation is not taking their place,” one of the course’s owners, Mark Thompson, told the newspaper. Gray Eagle’s 18-hole layout was designed by Art Kaser, who works for Thompson’s company. The company tried to persuade the homeowners in the accompanying community to buy the course, but they declined, and the city doesn’t want it either.
Desolation Row Extended – A Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course in Rio Rico, Arizona (it’s south of Tucson) is about to bite the dust. A date for the closing of the 47-year-old track at Rio Rico Golf Club hasn’t been announced, but the CEO of Heritage Hotels & Resorts, the club’s owner, told Nogales International that it’ll be “soon.” . . . Elected officials in Snohomish County, Washington hope to find a new operator for Kayak Point Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Stanwood that’s going to close next month if they aren’t successful. Though the Ron Fream design has been described as “one of Washington's most popular courses,” its current management company says it’s “struggled to remain viable in an increasingly challenging business environment.” . . . A year before he was expected to, Chuck Bennell has stuck a fork into his Tam O’Shanter Golf Course. Bennell had said that he expected to close the 36-hole complex in Canton, Ohio next year or perhaps in 2020, but it appears that last year’s successful rezoning pushed his plans for the property ahead.
Duly Noted – The Robb Report recently threw a few softball questions at Greg “the Living Brand” Norman, and he replied with a flurry of buzz words and phrases, among them “welcoming,” “connectivity,” “social media,” “streaming,” and “solar panels.” When he was asked about potential areas of growth, he nominated China and Cuba, though he made it clear that he doesn’t expect the growth to be imminent. . . . The increasing popularity of high-profile, easily marketable courses in Vietnam is taking its toll on golf tourism in Thailand. To boost its prospects, the nation’s tourism authority wants you to know that Thailand is a “World Class Golf Destination,” with a “vast choice of golf courses” (roughly 250) that attracted 400,000 international golf travelers in 2016, presumably the last year for which data is available. . . . Slovakia is home to an estimated 8,000 “registered” golfers, a number that the Slovak Spectator believes is “too few” to support “the number of golf courses that have been developed in the country.” As a result, the newspaper says, most of the nation’s golf resorts “are struggling financially.” (Sorry, I can’t find a link to this story.)
In compliance with new European laws regarding data collection, I’ve been asked to provide a statement about my use of the data that’s collected about those of you who read the World Golf Report. So here it is: I don’t collect any data, and I don’t bake any cookies into your computer. All I do is write little stories and then post what I write. I don’t know your names or addresses or ages or income levels, and I have no interest in any of that information. That being said, the World Golf Report occupies a slice of cyberspace owned by Google, one of the world’s foremost data collectors, and I’ll willing to bet that Google collects whatever it can about you. Incidentally, Google has provided me with an official-looking statement that’s supposed to appear at the bottom of the blog, but I can’t figure out how to load it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
