The Week That Was, october 13, 2013

     The number of golfers in the United Kingdom could double if golf course owners did a few simple things, like maybe act friendlier, relax their dress codes, make their venues easier to play, try harder to attract women and children, and let people play for free. Okay, those free rounds wouldn’t last forever. But still, it’s no mean feat to persuade hard-up course owners to give their product away for nothing. Nonetheless, free golf is among the recommendations in a new survey, “Growing Golf in the U.K,” that measured the opinions of 3,500 British residents, fewer than 1,500 of them golfers. The survey has determined that an estimated 8.5 million people in the U.K. -- nearly half of them between the ages of 15 and 39 -- are interested in playing golf, but for various reasons, intimidation being chief among them, can’t quite manage to find their way to a golf course. “What we’ve found,” said Eric Brown of Syngenta, which commissioned the survey, “is that there is very significant latent demand for golf that could be realized if clubs and courses were able to promote themselves in a more friendly, flexible, and family-orientated way.” One noteworthy factoid from the survey: 55 percent of the respondents said that a lack of time didn’t prevent them from playing golf.

     Mike Keiser may not exactly be singing “On Wisconsin,” but he’s pulling out all the stops to find investors willing to fund the construction of his next development venture. Last week, the majority owner of Bandon Dunes did a song-and-dance at the University Club in Milwaukee, where he told an audience of 40 that he’s settled on the architects for the first two courses at Sand Valley, the 1,500-acre golf complex he aims to build near Wisconsin Rapids. The commissions have been won by Tom Doak and Coore & Crenshaw, although Keiser hasn’t decided whose course will be built first. “They both are, I think, geniuses,” he said in a comment published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. If Keiser can come up the money, he’ll break ground on course number one next spring or summer. David McLay Kidd and Jim Urbina, the other architects who were considered, can keep hope alive by reminding themselves that the property Keiser aims to buy can accommodate five golf courses.

     With a $50 million acquisition fund burning a hole in its pocket, Concert Golf Partners has taken possession of its fourth golf property in Florida and its fifth overall. The Newport Beach, California-based company has purchased Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes, which had been under threat of foreclosure by the bank that controlled its mortgage. The property features a 15-year-old golf course designed by Tom Fazio. It’s in suburban Orlando, Florida, just a short drive from Concert’s Heathrow Country Club, so a dual-access membership plan will be offered. Legacy Club had been owned and operated by Heritage Golf Group. The terms of the transaction haven’t been disclosed, but a press release says that it includes “a novel approach to the club membership refund liability.” The purchase is Concert’s third in less than a year. Elsewhere in Florida, it also owns Carrollwood Country Club in suburban Tampa and Golf Club of Amelia Island in metropolitan Jacksonville.

     By this time next week, Billy Casper Golf may have a five-year contract to operate the town of East Hartford, Connecticut’s golf course. East Hartford Golf Club has been losing customers and money for years -- it generated 60,000 rounds a year in the 1970s but reportedly gets only 20,000 today -- and it needs lots of improvements, including a new irrigation system. Worse, the course doesn’t figure to become profitable anytime soon, as its public image has been corroded. That being said, East Hartford officials are wary of the deal BCG has proposed, for it requires a $1 million investment from the town (for new equipment and other expenses) and a promise to cover all future losses at the course. “At the end of the day,” Council Chairman Richard Kehoe told the Hartford Courant, “we’re employing someone that doesn’t have any skin in the game.” The city has been seeking a new operator for months, but it received only two offers, the one from BCG and one from a local group that had no experience in golf management. If an agreement is reached, BCG will take over the course on November 1.

     It sounds as if Gary Player’s design group may be having second thoughts about operating out of suburban Greenville, South Carolina. These days, 90 percent of the firm’s work is being done outside the United States, and airline connections would be easier to make if the staff was still in Florida. “I should be moving everyone to Shanghai,” Marc Player told the Greenville News. “But we prefer Greenville to Shanghai.” What’s more, the firm agreed to relocate to the Cliffs at Mountain Park years ago, before the community went bankrupt and was sold. Today, it has no marketing agreements with the Cliffs’ new owners. It’s merely a tenant, not a business partner. The firm uses its recently opened course at Mountain Park as a showcase for its design talents, but if prospective international clients balk at the travel involved in getting there, things may change. “If my clients say, ‘Well, we’re not flying to America to come and look at how you live, work, and play,’” Player said, “then I have to regroup and reconsider.”

     After long, drawn-out flirtations with bankruptcy, foreclosure, and a public auction, the deeply troubled Woodlake Golf Club has found a new owner. Anonymous investors operating as Woodlake Acquisition LLC have taken possession of the 186-acre property in San Antonio, Texas, reportedly by agreeing to purchase a lien held by the local water authority. The price: $939,130. The club, once one of the area’s top golf properties, features a Desmond Muirhead-designed course that opened in 1972. A spokesman for the new owners told the San Antonio Express-News that long-overdue course improvements are on the horizon, and perhaps residential development on adjacent property as well.

     Gábor Széles, the wealthy industrialist with a bent for “royal indulgence,” wasn’t just blowing smoke when he said he’d build a golf course in Zalacsány, Hungary. Széles has turned the formerly abandoned Batthyány Castle into a hotel, as he promised he would, and the Zalai Hírlap reports that the Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed golf course that’s under construction on his 400-acre property is expected to open next year. “If this comes through,” Széles told the newspaper, “Hungary will finally step on a growth path it has not been on for about 500 years!” The course will anchor a community called Zala Springs, which at build-out will also have 400 villas, more hotel rooms, and a spa. Széles thinks he can complete the whole shebang by 2016.

     Don Padgett II is hanging up his SoftSpikes. The president of Pinehurst Resort & Country Club will retire next October, after the 2014 men’s and women’s U.S. Open championships are played on Course No. 2 at the famed golf destination in North Carolina. “With the upcoming U.S. Opens and exciting plans for the growth of our membership,” he said in a press release, “I felt this was the right time to begin the transition for the future leadership of Pinehurst.” Padgett worked for ClubCorp for a quarter-century, mostly as the general manager of Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, and he knew Pinehurst well before he arrived in 2004, as his father had worked there as a director of golf. He’ll be succeeded by the resort’s current executive vice president, Tom Pashley.

     Greg Norman, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, the CEO of a multinational corporation, and a guy who’s said to be worth

$300 million, has agreed to become a distributor and “global spokesman” for Organo Gold, a five-year-old company that sells herbal-infused coffees and teas through a network of “independent distributors,” like the people who sell Amway products. Is this an offer Norman really needed to accept? Why would one of the biggest people in golf allow himself to look so small?

The Pipeline, october 11, 2013

     Ibiza may have the coolest club scene on the planet, but it has just one golf course. The 18-hole track at Ibiza Golf Club may soon have company, however, because Grupo Empresas Matutes has floated an idea to build an 18-hole course along the southern part of the island, in an area known as Playa d’en Bossa. GEM believes that Playa d’en Bossa can become “a premier tourist destination in the Mediterranean,” especially if it’s also permitted to build a shopping center, an office park, a sports center, outdoor gathering places, and a bunch of family-friendly entertainment venues. The family-friendly aspect of the attractions is important, because some local residents have grown weary of the all-night bacchanalia that has made Ibiza, which is located off the eastern coast of Spain, “the Gomorrah of the Mediterranean.”

     One of the Middle East’s biggest developers is negotiating to build a golf mega-project at Dubai’s new international airport. Emaar Properties could eventually build as many as four 18-hole golf courses at Dubai World Central, the government-controlled aerotropolis that’s beginning to take shape on nearly 35,600 acres alongside Al Maktoum International Airport. Emaar, the emirate’s largest developer, is best known locally for Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper, and the Downtown Dubai mixed-use complex that surrounds it. But it’s also built two golf properties in Dubai (Arabian Ranches Golf Club and the Montgomerie), and it currently has a second massive golf project, the 1,280-acre Mohammed Bin Rashid City, on its development plate. Emaar has also developed a golf community in India, and in recent years it’s floated plans to build others in Indonesia, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The first phase of development at DWC’s Golf District, which is to occupy 3,700 acres, will consist of an 18-hole course and several hundred villas.

     The original version of this post first appeared in the June 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Tom Watson has been enlisted to design a $550,000, junior- and beginner-friendly golf course in Maryville, Missouri. The nine-hole track will take shape on property adjacent to Mozingo Lake Golf Course, an 18-hole municipal layout, and the St. Joseph News-Press says it’ll be “challenging but not discouraging.” Watson, a Missouri native who now reportedly lives on a farm in Kansas, told the newspaper the course would be “a place for kids to learn how to play the game but also learn what goes along with it.” A local dentist has so far collected more than $125,000 in donations and commitments, the newspaper says, and is hoping to complete the fundraising before the winter ends. Target opening date: Spring 2015.

     An unidentified Chinese ownership group has given a comatose resort community in northeastern Tasmania, Australia a new lease on life. Musselroe Bay will take shape on 4,700 acres near Mount William, about 50 miles east of Bridport, the home of Barnbougle Dunes. Spencer Morgan Group, the community’s original developer, believed that the course would rank among the top 10 in Australia and, like Barnbougle Dunes, attract passionate golfers from all over the world. In fact, it had hired Michael Clayton, who co-designed the first course at Barnbougle Dunes, to design Musselroe Bay’s 18-hole track. Musselroe Bay’s new, Melbourne-based owners aim to begin construction in the spring of next year. Besides the golf course, the community will feature a to-be-determined number of vacation houses, a resort-style hotel with 100 suites and 80 apartments, and an air strip.

     The original version of the previous post first appeared in the August 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     The state government in Penang, Malaysia is seeking proposals from groups willing to build a golf course and a theme park on Batu Kawan Island. The Penang Development Corporation, which is conducting the search, has identified a 475-acre site for an 18-hole (or larger) “international-standard” golf course that may be accompanied by houses and/or a commercial center. The theme park, which will occupy 215 nearby acres, can also be flanked by ancillary development. Both properties are being offered via 30-year leases, with an option for a 30-year renewal, and the groups selected to develop the properties will have four years to deliver in their promises.

     Beginning early next year, Jack Nicklaus’ design firm will put a fresh new face on one of the oldest golf clubs in the Philippines. The two-year makeover will reportedly be the first major renovation in the history of Cebu Country Club, which opened in the late 1920s. The architects at Nicklaus’ North Palm Beach, Florida-based firm plan to stretch the club’s 6,677-yard course to 7,100 yards, regrass the entire 127-acre spread, and redesign and rebuild all of the track’s design elements. To fund the work, the 800-member club has agreed to lease two acres of its property in central Cebu City to a developer who plans to build a condo/hotel and a retail area. When it reopens, Cebu expects to become one of the nation’s premier golf destinations.

     Late last year, Phil Mickelson gave a broad outline of his plans for the makeover of Torrey Pines’ North course, and now his design firm is providing San Diego’s golfers with some details. The cost: $7 million. For such an investment, the municipally owned layout’s tees, greens, and bunkers will be rebuilt, a set of forward tees will be added, a new irrigation system will be installed, and 22 acres of turf will be replaced with what the San Diego Union-Tribune calls “sand material.” No significant design changes appear to be contemplated. “Phil wants this to be a challenge for the better player and fun for the average player,” explained Mike Angus, Mickelson’s director of design. The work is expected to begin in 2015.

     As soon as federal approvals are granted, the Kenya Golf Union expects to break ground on a nine-hole, beginner-friendly golf course in suburban Nairobi. The track will take shape at the Moi International Sports Centre, as part of the KGU’s effort to both grow the game and identify promising juniors who might eventually represent the nation in international tournaments. “We want to bring the sport closer to the ordinary citizen by constructing a course that will be open to all,” the KGU’s chairman, Francis Okwaro, said in a comment published by the Xinhua news service. When the course is completed, the union will begin to identify sites elsewhere in Kenya for similar affordable tracks.

     After more than a decade’s worth of planning, and with approvals finally in hand, Thomas Na says he’ll break ground on his golf training center in suburban Christchurch, New Zealand in early 2014. The Christchurch Golf Resort has a new name, however -- it’s now called Whisper Creek -- and in 2015, when its 18-hole golf course opens, it’ll wear Nick Faldo’s “signature.” But not much else has changed for Whisper Creek, which is being created to attract Asian and European students looking for careers in golf management. In addition to the 18-hole course, which Faldo will co-design with Kristine Kerr of Kura Design, the 393-acre community will include a golf academy with a nine-hole practice course, 113 apartments for students and their families, 140 single-family houses, and a recreation center. Faldo has been designing the course “in his head for the past four years,” according to a local newspaper.

     The original version of this post first appeared in the August 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

The Week That Was, october 6, 2013

     Donald Trump has floated an idea to build a golf course on property in New York that the federal government uses as a testing facility for animal diseases. If he can win community approval and settle on a price with the Obama administration, Trump would build the track on Plum Island, an 840-acre tract off Long Island. No specifics have yet been announced. Due to the nature of the research that’s conducted there, Plum Island -- a place Hannibal Lechter called “Anthrax Island” -- is restricted territory controlled by Homeland Security. It’s for sale, though, as its disease center will be relocated to Kansas in 2019. Trump, who believes he’s universally adored -- really, he told Newsday that he’s “adored all over the world” -- has promised to build “a really beautiful, world-class golf course.” Of course, he’ll first have to prove that the site isn’t a threat to public health.

     The owners of Gamble Sands, a soon-to-open links-like course outside Brewster, Washington, are inviting comparisons to Bandon Dunes. Their 18-hole course has been designed by a Bandon-endorsed architect, it’s emerging on a sandy stretch of property in a remote part of the Pacific Northwest, and it seems likely to be joined by a hotel and at least one more 18-hole layout. Needless to say, David McLay Kidd was directed to design a world-class, destination-worthy track. “My task was to build an awesome golf course,” he said during a preview tour of the property. “There are no excuses. If it’s not a good course, it’s all my fault.” Gamble Sands is scheduled to open next summer. It’ll no doubt steal some business from Bandon Dunes, but in North America alone it’ll also compete with Streamsong, Cabot Links, the new courses in the Sand Hills of Nebraska, and, eventually, Mike Keiser’s planned complex in Wisconsin. Clearly, the competition for the “naturalist” dollar is getting fierce. How many more Bandon-inspired venues can the market accommodate?

     One of Jackson, Wyoming’s highest-profile real estate busts, Snake River Sporting Club, is about to lift the curtain on its second act. An Atlanta, Georgia-based investment firm, Cygnus Capital, bought the bankrupt 359-acre property earlier this year, and the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports that its minimally maintained 18-hole golf course is expected to reopen in the spring of 2014, after improvements are made to its turf. Snake River, which once called itself “the ultimate outdoor community in the western United States,” was among the first victims of the real estate scourge that swept the nation during the Great Recession. Its centerpiece, a Tom Weiskopf-designed track, will eventually be flanked by 65 estate houses (43 lots have reportedly been sold), and Cygnus has acquired a nearby ranch where Snake River’s members will be able to keep their horses.

     Scotland may love golf, but these days many of its clubs are in the financial wringer. Over the past 18 months, according to Golf Magic, 80 of the nation’s clubs have desperately turned to the Scottish Golf Union for business planning advice. “We have more courses than we need for the current playing numbers,” noted Hamish Grey, the golf union’s CEO. Golf Magic also reports that 597 of the nation’s clubs are looking for members.

     Mark Lin of the Motley Fool has given ClubCorp’s stock issue a lukewarm endorsement, calling it “a rare opportunity to own a stake in the country’s largest golf club operator, with high customer retention and stable revenues.” Lin notes that ClubCorp’s membership has fallen from 84,410, the number it hit in 2006, but he likes its quality, as the average member reportedly has an annual household income of $180,000 or more and owns a house worth somewhere between $500,000 and $600,000. He’s impressed that ClubCorp has posted revenue growth in recent years (4.7 percent in 2011 and 4.9 percent in 2012), and he believes that the company can in the future “accentuate its advantages” because it owns more than three-quarters of the properties it manages, many of them in what he calls “prime locations.” What Lin doesn’t mention is ClubCorp’s debt, which has made other stock analysts wary.

     The municipal golf courses in Hartford, Connecticut appear to be in horrible condition, and a financial audit places the blame on both the city and its golf management company. A city-commissioned report has determined that MDM Golf Enterprises, the firm hired to manage the Keney Park and Goodwin Park golf courses, failed to make promised capital improvements that might have attracted more play and generated increased revenues. However, the report also criticized the city’s department of public works for having “little, if any contact” with MDM and failing to diligently oversee the operation of important city assets. If there’s a silver lining in this dark cloud, it’s this: The city has allocated $5 million for capital improvements to the courses next year, according to the Hartford Courant, and it’ll consider allocating a similar amount in 2015.

     An investment group led by a pair of Albuquerque, New Mexico’s top amateur golfers has been created to acquire the city’s Four Hills Country Club. Jerry and Larry Lujan, who are brothers, are trying to hammer out a deal with the mortgage company that controls Four Hills Country Club, a 55-year-old property that the Albuquerque Journal describes as being “beleaguered.” If the Lujans and their four partners are successful, they plan to change Four Hills’ name to The Canyon Club and to make improvements to its Bob Baldock-designed course. “It will be a brand-new club,” Jerry Lujan told the Journal. Four Hills’ members have reportedly blessed the Lujans’ proposal. The Lujans believe that The Canyon Club can attract 200 equity members (initiation fee: $25,000) and 150 non-equity members.

     In a recent interview with Golfers on Golf, Mike Keiser provided a couple of noteworthy details about the state of the business at Bandon Dunes. He reports that the resort’s Preserve course -- “a great betting course,” he called it -- generates 16,000 rounds a year, a number that he deems “a great success.” A round at the 13-hole, par-3 layout costs $100. Keiser also said a round at the Gil Hanse-designed municipal complex he aims to build would charge a mere $10 a round for residents of Coos and Curry counties and offer 50 percent discounts to all other Oregon residents. He didn’t say what the rest of the world would pay for the privilege, but he noted that we’d be paying the bills.

     After complaining incessantly about the deleterious effects that balls designed for distance have had on the game of golf, Jack Nicklaus has decided to introduce his own line of golf balls. They come in colors that correspond to a golfer’s skill level: black for those who play from the back tees, blue for those who play from the middle tees, and white for women, because no man will ever buy them.

Operations, october 4, 2013

     In one fell swoop, Billy Casper Golf has added 13 golf properties to its fast-growing collection. The baker’s dozen had been managed by an affiliate of Kitson & Partners, a Florida-based firm led by former professional football player Syd Kitson. The group consists mostly of properties in Florida (among them Ibis Golf & Country Club in West Palm Beach and Talis Park Golf Club in Naples), with others in Arizona, Hawaii, and Indiana. In a press statement, Kitson said that it turned over its golf holdings to BCG so it could “focus even more on our core business of real estate investment and development in a market that is on the rebound.” The biggest development venture on its plate is Babcock Ranch, which is slated to emerge on 92,000 acres in Charlotte and Lee counties in Florida. With the Kitson collection, BCG now has management contracts on more than 150 U.S. golf properties.

     Nearly a dozen management firms expressed an interest in operating Red Wing, Minnesota’s 36-hole golf complex, but only one of them has taken the trouble to respond to the city’s request for proposals. City officials, who’d hoped to have an operator in place this month, expressed “shock and disappointment” at the lack of interest, according to the Rochester Post-Bulletin. “I don’t know what to make of that,” a councilmember said. “Maybe that the golf business is not good.” Mississippi National Golf Links has been closed since late 2012, when its operator, Wendell Pittenger, gave up his lease due to financial trouble. His unexpected departure led the city to file a lawsuit that may have scared off some potential operators, although the parties recently settled their differences. The lone response to the city’s RFP came from a local non-profit group that’s been trying to get control of Mississippi National since 2010. The city has so far resisted the group’s advances, but at this point it doesn’t have any other viable options.

     KemperSports has the inside track on a contract to manage the 18-hole municipal golf courses in Modesto, California. The city and the Illinois-based management firm are reportedly negotiating a two-year deal to operate the Dryden and Creekside layouts, which the Modesto Bee says are “a financial drain on the city’s stressed general fund budget.” If an agreement is reached, KemperSports could assume control of the properties by the middle of this month. KemperSports’ management fees will be paid by ValleyCrest Golf Course Maintenance, the firm that currently maintains the courses, which will see its contract extended until October 2015. KemperSports manages more than a dozen municipal courses in California, and it counts the cities of Carlsbad, Palm Desert, Ventura, and Yorba Linda among its clients.

     A quintet of management firms is vying to operate the city of Sanford, North Carolina’s Donald Ross-designed golf course. The city has received responses to a request for information from three firms that currently manage golf properties in the state -- Billy Casper Golf, Pope Golf, and Warrior Asset Management -- and from a pair of companies based in Georgia, International Golf Services and Trademark Golf Management. The submissions are being reviewed, according to the Sanford Herald, but no meetings with the private-sector groups have yet been scheduled. The city’s course opened in 1934. Parts of it have been redesigned by Rick Robbins.

     Glen Cannon Country Club, in Pisgah Forest, North Carolina, has cut its ties with Billy Casper Golf. The club, which opened in the mid 1960s, has “deteriorated immensely” since BCG began managing it in late 2011, a member told the Hendersonville Times-News. In particular, the members say, BCG’s inexperienced staffers didn’t maintain the golf course properly, failed to attract new members, and left “tens of thousands of dollars” in past-due bills. The Times-News says that Glen Cannon is now in “a dire financial position.” BCG declined to respond to the members’ complaints, saying it was bound to silence by a confidentiality agreement. For the time being, at least, the members appear to be managing the club.

     A family-owned golf course in Stillwater, Minnesota has been turned over to a Minneapolis-based management firm. For the next five years, Northco Golf & Hospitality Group will operate Sawmill Golf Club, a facility established by the Nicholson family some 40 years ago, according to the Stillwater Gazette. “There’s an incredible amount of potential at Sawmill,” Northco’s president, Frank Jermusek, told the newspaper. “It’s a great piece of property.” The Gazette says that Northco currently manages more than 120 golf courses, but that can’t possibly be true. One thing’s for sure, though: Northco plans to change Sawmill’s name. The new name hasn’t yet been revealed, however.

The Week That Was, september 29, 2013

     The Nicklaus empire’s Chinese affiliate has snuggled up to one of the true high flyers in the nation’s golf industry. Nicklaus China, an entity created last year, will lend its development expertise and design talents to the golf operations of Hainan Airlines, which hopes to elevate the quality of its 13 golf properties in China and the United States. “Golf course developers in China are looking for leadership and expertise in the golf and real estate arenas,” Jack Nicklaus noted. According to a press release, the partnership is expected to “lead to the re-design and re-branding of many of the HNA facilities.” The properties to be upgraded haven’t been identified, but HNA Development Company says it owns seven on Hainan Island, among them Kangle Garden International Golf Club and Sun River Golf Club, and four others elsewhere in the People’s Republic. And at one time or another it had also planned to build courses in Chengde (Hebei Province) and Tianjin. Nicklaus’ architectural team is also expected to evaluate the two properties that HNA owns in the United States, starting with the former Pasadera Country Club in Monterey, California, which is now known as Nicklaus Club Monterey. If the name change is a harbinger of things to come, we may soon see the Nicklaus name on other HNA-owned properties, including Somers Pointe Golf Club in Somers, New York.

     Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the January 2012 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Mike Keiser’s rumored golf resort in Wisconsin is looking more and more like a sure thing. The resort already has a name, Sand Valley, and Keiser hopes to break ground on its first 18-hole golf course next year. In a conversation with Rory Spears, a Chicago-based radio-show host, Keiser said that he’s “very close to a purchase agreement” for a 1,500-acre spread with the potential to become “the Pine Valley of the Midwest,” except that it may have as many as seven golf courses. A designer for course number one hasn’t yet been selected, but Keiser has whittled his options to four: Tom Doak, Coore & Crenshaw, David McLay Kidd, and Jim Urbina. Keiser says that he won’t build a second course unless the first one attracts 25,000 rounds, but what are the chances of that not happening?

     While he formulates plans for his forthcoming golf venture in Wisconsin, Mike Keiser continues to add attractions at his celebrated property in Oregon. Bandon Dunes has begun to offer its guests preview rounds at the Punchbowl, its 3.5-acre putting course. “You will find every kind of putt that you can imagine out there,” Tom Doak said in a comment published by the Eugene Register-Guard, “and probably a few that you’ve never dreamed of.” The course, which was co-designed by Doak and Jim Urbina, has been modeled after similar facilities at St. Andrews in Scotland and the Pinehurst resort in North Carolina. It’ll make its official debut in May 2014.

     ClubCorp took home less than anticipated from its initial public offering. The Dallas, Texas-based management firm had been expected to sell its share at $16 to $18, but it ended up asking for just $14. As a result, ClubCorp and its owner, KSL Capital Partners, raised $252 million instead of $300 million or more. ClubCorp didn’t provide a rationale for its pricing, but an online investment analyst, Seeking Alpha, had advised against the purchase, citing “anemic” membership growth, a “very high” valuation, and “a large amount of insider selling.” In the end, ClubCorp sold 13.2 million shares and KSL sold 4.8 million.

     KemperSports has been hired to rescue the fast-fading Arlington Club in suburban Lexington, Kentucky. Arlington, a private country club owned by Eastern Kentucky University and whose members consist mostly of alumni, was forced to close its restaurant and catering operation last year. The club’s problem, declining use, has also begun to affect its 44-year-old golf course. A board member concedes that “professional management will benefit the club and our members going forward.” A press release doesn’t say when KemperSports begins its tenure, but its primary task will be to attract new members, particularly young families with children.

     Golf clubs in need of revitalization have a new group to call, as a group of Texas-based investors are looking to buy private clubs, provide financing to entities that wish to acquire private clubs, and invest in member-owned private clubs seeking to upgrade their facilities. The recently established group, Millennium Club Partners, is led by Tom Bennison, a golf industry veteran and a former principal of Fore Golf Partners. It doesn’t expect to have a shortage of opportunities, as it believes private clubs in the future must not only offer golf but also “a broad range of family-oriented amenities including resort-style pools, expansive fitness facilities, modern clubhouse décor, and exceptional dining experiences.” Bennison’s partners are Christopher Bancroft, a one-time director of Dow Jones & Company, the entity that formerly owned the Wall Street Journal; John Pigott and Bruce Leadbetter, a pair of Dallas, Texas-based investors; and Harold Handelsman, the legal representative for the Pritzker family.

     Signature Group has been enlisted to master-plan the future of a group that aims to become a major player in Asian golf. Tim Trinka believes that Signature can help his Asian Golf Industry Federation become the organization that leads “the responsible development of golf in Asia.” To reach that goal, he says, the AGIF needs to develop “a strategic plan that will offer a successful path for our organization to provide long-term benefits to the industry in the region.” Signature, which is based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, expects to produce the master plan and a “sponsorship engagement program” by the end of the year.

     The new owner of IMG Worldwide will have an opportunity to capitalize on the 10-year history of the golf industry’s premier international get-together. IMG has acquired the Golf Business Forum, an annual conference created by KPMG that’s given golf professionals a convenient excuse to visit Italy, Dubai, Scotland, the Czech Republic, and other worthy destinations. Andrea Sartori, the face of the accounting firm’s golf advisory practice, believes that IMG “will help bring new life to the event” and take both it and KPMG’s online Golf Business Community “to new levels.” Forstmann Little, IMG’s owner since 2004, is said to be reviewing offers for its sports management and marketing colossus, which could be worth $2 billion.

     The world’s most under-appreciated golf market, Africa, has 828 golf courses, according to CNN. More than half of them -- 450 -- are in South Africa, but the news service reports that 43 of the continents nations have at least one golf course.