The American Society of Golf Course Architects apparently has no credible candidate for its most prestigious honor, so it’s giving the 2018 Donald Ross Award to George Bush, who served as our nation’s 41st president. The award is made annually, to an individual who’s made “a significant contribution to the game of golf and the profession of golf course architecture.” John Sanford, the ASGCA’s president, believes that Bush “exemplifies the highest traditions of golf, from displaying the values of good sportsmanship to respecting pace of play and everything in between.” He’s also been accused of groping a half-dozen women, including a 16-year-old.
Regarding the preceding item: The ASGCA officials who made this bewildering and socially odious decision need to defend it or resign.
The defunct Highland Park Country Club, a municipal property in suburban Chicago, Illinois, may get a second life as a Golf Mecca. The money-losing club closed in December and is booked for a sale to a local park district, but a trio of investors believe its 100 acres could be repurposed as a golf practice center. Specifically, David Fairman, Keith Bank, and Dave Esler (yes, the course designer) want to establish a six-hole layout on the property, along with nine “short” holes, a putting course, and other attractions. This is an 11th-hour bid that may not succeed, and at least one of the investors doesn’t think the Mecca (you know, mecca is a Muslim word) has much chance of being especially profitable. The alternative, however, is the park district’s plan: A nature preserve with walking trails.
Pipeline Overflow – Coalville, Utah, which is said to be a “passionately rural town” with a “working-class feel” and not even one stoplight, may soon sprout 500 houses and a golf course. Wohali Partners LLC has identified a 1,500-acre spread west of town for its to-be-named community, and it’s seeking an annexation that’s currently being debated. . . . Tim Lobb has been hired to design what he says will be “the first full 18-hole course” in Ankara, Turkey. The track at Regnum Ankara Golf Estate will be Lobb’s fourth in the nation and his third for developer Fikret Ozturk, who’s master-planned his 500 acres to include houses, a sports club, and a retail/commercial area. . . . Millbrook Resort, on New Zealand’s South Island, is moving ahead with plans to add nine holes to its 27-hole golf complex. The resort is taking its time with the project, which was announced in 2014, but by 2021 or 2022 it expects to have 18-hole tracks designed by Sir Bob Charles and Greg Turner. Eiichi Ishii bought Millbrook in the late 1980s and has set out to create “the best golf and lifestyle resort in the world.”
Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club, ranked by Golf Digest as the #2 golf venue in New Mexico, has changed hands. Roger Cox & Associates has sold the club and its 27-hole, Finger Dye Spann-designed golf complex to Tony Alvarez and Bryan Marsal, a pair of New Yorkers who claim to be experts in turning around under-performing properties. Paa-Ko Ridge’s original 18 opened in 2000, and its third nine was added in 2006. The club, in Sandia Park, has experienced an erosion in play, however, as it attracted as many as 30,000 rounds annually in the early 2000s but has only rung up about 23,000 annually over the past decade. The new owners believe they can “make something special” at the club, though, with special being defined as 18 guest cottages and a lodge with 62 rooms for overnight guests.
Surplus Transactions – A homeowners’ group in metropolitan Richmond, Virginia has paid $2 million for Brickshire Golf Club, the amenity that anchors their community. The 229-acre venue features an 18-hole course, co-designed by Curtis Strange and Tom Clark, that reportedly imitates holes from famous courses around the world. The seller, Traditional Golf Properties, owns two other nearby golf properties, Tradition Golf Club at Royal New Kent and Tradition Golf Club at Stonehouse, both of which are said to be for sale. . . . One of the oldest golf venues in Wisconsin is about to change hands. Come next month, Prestwick Group expects to acquire La Belle Golf Club, which opened in 1896 (with nine holes) as the Country Club of Oconomowoc and later operated as Rolling Hills Country Club. Prestwick hasn’t publicly outlined its plans for the property, but John Meunier, the current owner, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he expects La Belle to be “a fantastic golf property once they’re finished.” The club, which is located in Oconomowoc, now has 18 holes and is open to the public. . . . Just weeks after declaring for bankruptcy protection, a group led by Ryan Voorhees has found a buyer for La Contenta Golf Club, a 45-year-old venue in Valley Springs, California. Gentium Golf has agreed to pay an as-yet undisclosed price for La Contenta, which features an 18-hole, Richard Bigler-designed layout.
The venue that describes itself as “the birthplace of organized golf in the State of Tennessee” has mercifully gone belly up. Country Club of Bristol, originally established in 1894, has been in deep financial trouble for more than a decade, and its fate was all but sealed when Integrity Golf Company walked away from its management contract roughly a year ago. The club closed briefly in 2005 but was rescued by the principals of Interstate Realty Company, but then a bank took it over in 2013 and sold it in 2015 to Bristol Preservation, which now promises to “share any future plans for the club at a later date.” Bristol, which moved to its present location in 1958, once had an A. G. McKay-designed golf course, but the 18-hole track was redesigned by Mark McCumber in 1999.
Desolation Row Extended – Sometime in 2019, as part of a plan that was hatched several years ago, the city of Plano, Texas expects to close Club at Los Rios and turn its 194 acres into a park. The 18-hole layout was designed by Don January and opened in 1971. The city bought it in 2014, reportedly for $3.5 million. . . . The city of Lindsay, California has pulled the plug on its municipal golf course, a 55-year-old venue that nowadays reportedly gets “very little use.” The nine-hole, Bob Baldock-designed track is slated to become a soccer complex. . . . William Doebler, who was recently found to operate a work environment that was hostile to women, has drawn the curtains on Mississippi Dunes Golf Links, his 18-hole golf course in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. The track is still for sale, as it’s been for months, but now there’s little hope of the property being anything but a subdivision.
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Sunday, March 18, 2018
The Week That Was, march 18, 2018
Ric Kayne is starting to act like the proverbial Ugly American. The California-based billionaire, the owner of the sublime Tara Iti Golf Club – Golf Digest ranks it #6 in the world, after three royals (County Down, Dornoch, and Melbourne), Muirfield, and the Old Course – has begun complaining publicly about proposed legislation that would prevent foreigners like him from owning property in New Zealand and creating their own personal Mar-a-Lago-like enclaves. In fact, Kayne is leveling the same threat that Donald “David Dennison” Trump leveled at Scotland when an ungrateful nation wasn’t bending to his will: If the law passes, Kayne warns, he won’t build a second golf course at Tara Iti or an expensive new house for himself or who knows how many cabins for other wealthy Americans or make any other vitally important investments in New Zealand. It’s hard to figure why Kayne decided to put himself in the middle of such a controversial issue – rich people usually hire lawyers to do their dirty work – but he should learn a lesson from Trump’s experience. If he thinks New Zealand needs him more than he needs it, he’s wrong.
Nick Faldo has been hired to design his third golf venue in Vietnam. This one will be a 27-hole complex in Long An Province, somewhere roughly 40 miles north of Hồ Chí Minh City, that will take shape on what appears to be lackluster farmland. The developer, Hoàn Cầu Group – the company that staged the Miss Universe pageant in Vietnam in 2008 – aims to build “the best golf course in the greater Hồ Chí Minh area,” and to ensure that it succeeds, Faldo and his team intend to create “our own features,” including “lots of water and landscape.” Faldo’s first golf course in the socialist republic, Ocean Dunes Golf Club in Bình Thuận Province, closed in 2014, but his Laguna Lăng Cô Golf Club, outside Hue, is still operating. Hoàn Cầu reportedly owns two golf properties in Vietnam, one of them being Diamond Bay Golf & Villas in Khánh Hòa Province.
Pipeline Overflow – Desert Mountain’s next golf course will be an 18-hole, par-3 track that aims to be “user-friendly, inclusive, and fun but challenging.” The tony private community in Scottsdale, Arizona already has six Jack Nicklaus “signature” tracks,” but its seventh will be designed by Bill Brownlee, one of the developers, and Wendell Pickett, a club member. The track will be accompanied by as many as 190 houses that will cost $1 million or more. . . . Rees Jones has been directed to turn Asiad County Club, in Busan, South Korea, into a venue suitable for LPGA events. Come next summer, after the Open Doctor enhances “the strategy and character of each hole” at Asiad’s 27-hole complex, the property will be re-branded as LPGA International Busan. The mayor of Busan expects the club to become “the heart of golf in Asia.” . . . John Picerne, a Providence, Rhode Island-based developer, has set out to build a golf course on an ancient estate in the southern Midlands of Ireland. The founder of Corvias Group believes that his recently purchased Capard House, which occupies 100 acres in County Laois, is an ideal site for what’s been described as a “private” track.
Our industry’s institutional powers in Australia have unveiled a “wide-ranging” plan to boost participation among girls and women. Golf Australia has launched “Vision 2025” to address what’s said to be “a record low” in participation, as females now account for just 20 percent of the players Down Under. “I think we’ve got some important challenges as a sport, and we need to recognize them,” the group’s CEO said in a press release. Golf Australia aims to increase the level of participation to 30 percent over the next seven years, a goal that it understands will be difficult to achieve. “It’s a massive task,” a board member acknowledged. “That’s why we’ve made it 2025.”
A pair of management companies have teamed up to buy Fox Hollow Golf Club, an under-performing venue in Branchburg, New Jersey that celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. Billy Casper Golf and Morningstar Golf & Hospitality are the principal partners in the investment group that now owns Fox Hollow, which claims to have “an award-winning restaurant with an ‘anything you can think of’ menu.” Matt Galvin, the president of Morningstar, believes that the club is a “gem” that will benefit from his company’s “local presence and hands-on involvement” and GCG’s “marketing prowess and infrastructure.” The club originally had a Hal Purdy-designed course, but in 2000 the track was reportedly “completely redesigned” to make it “more challenging while at the same time improving its playability.”
Surplus Transactions – Last fall, a private equity firm bid $16.1 million at auction for the financially troubled Salilshan Resort, a 250-acre spread in Gleneden Beach, Oregon that features a 53-year-old, Fred Federspiel-designed golf course. The 18-hole track has seen better days – the Portland Business Journal reports that it “averages just six foursomes a day” – but Alpha Wave Investors thinks it’s found a jewel that just needs a little polish. . . . Time appears to be ticking for Emerald Greens Golf Course, an 18-hole track in St. Louis, Missouri. The non-profit group that raises money for the St. Louis Zoo has agreed to buy 425 acres for zoo expansion, and Emerald Greens, which opened in 1994, will be part of the purchase. St. Louis Today reports that the course will remain open “for now.” . . . Terry Sjostrom is about to give up his job as a truck driver, as he’s acquired Birchwood Golf Course in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. The nine-hole layout opened in 1930, and it had been owned and operated by Brian Evenson and members of his family since the late 1970s.
ClubLink has given up on its plans to engineer a turnaround at Woodlands Golf & Country Club, the centerpiece of a community that was envisioned to be the Palm Springs of Florida. The largest owner/operator of golf properties in Canada bought Woodlands from its members in 2011, promising to put the property in Tamarac back on its financial feet, but a home builder has persuaded it to get out while the getting is still good. Pending approval by local elected officials, 13th Floor Homes – the same company that hopes to redevelop Carolina Club in metropolitan Miami – will build 525 houses on Woodlands’ 36-hole, Devlin/Von Hagge-designed golf complex. Canadian snowbirds will have fewer choices to play upon if the transaction is completed, but ClubLink will still own six golf venues in the Sunshine State, among them Heron Bay Golf Club in Coral Springs and Palm Aire Country Club in Pompano Beach.
Desolation Row Extended – A marijuana producer has ensured that there will be no future sightings of Bigfoot Golf & Country Club. Patrick Murphy closed the nine-hole layout outside Eureka, California earlier this year, citing financial difficulties, but he doesn’t plan to weed-farm it. Instead, he’s going to open a disc golf course on the property, and then maybe a restaurant and some cabins. . . . Sixty years after it opened, Larkhaven Golf Course is on its way to becoming Charlotte, North Carolina’s next subdivision. A home builder believes that Larkhaven’s 140 acres can comfortably accommodate 350 houses. . . . The final rounds at Glenbrook Golf Course, an 18-hole municipal track in Houston, Texas, will be played on April Fools’ Day. Glenbrook, which has operated since 1935, will become a “marquee” botanical garden.
Nick Faldo has been hired to design his third golf venue in Vietnam. This one will be a 27-hole complex in Long An Province, somewhere roughly 40 miles north of Hồ Chí Minh City, that will take shape on what appears to be lackluster farmland. The developer, Hoàn Cầu Group – the company that staged the Miss Universe pageant in Vietnam in 2008 – aims to build “the best golf course in the greater Hồ Chí Minh area,” and to ensure that it succeeds, Faldo and his team intend to create “our own features,” including “lots of water and landscape.” Faldo’s first golf course in the socialist republic, Ocean Dunes Golf Club in Bình Thuận Province, closed in 2014, but his Laguna Lăng Cô Golf Club, outside Hue, is still operating. Hoàn Cầu reportedly owns two golf properties in Vietnam, one of them being Diamond Bay Golf & Villas in Khánh Hòa Province.
Pipeline Overflow – Desert Mountain’s next golf course will be an 18-hole, par-3 track that aims to be “user-friendly, inclusive, and fun but challenging.” The tony private community in Scottsdale, Arizona already has six Jack Nicklaus “signature” tracks,” but its seventh will be designed by Bill Brownlee, one of the developers, and Wendell Pickett, a club member. The track will be accompanied by as many as 190 houses that will cost $1 million or more. . . . Rees Jones has been directed to turn Asiad County Club, in Busan, South Korea, into a venue suitable for LPGA events. Come next summer, after the Open Doctor enhances “the strategy and character of each hole” at Asiad’s 27-hole complex, the property will be re-branded as LPGA International Busan. The mayor of Busan expects the club to become “the heart of golf in Asia.” . . . John Picerne, a Providence, Rhode Island-based developer, has set out to build a golf course on an ancient estate in the southern Midlands of Ireland. The founder of Corvias Group believes that his recently purchased Capard House, which occupies 100 acres in County Laois, is an ideal site for what’s been described as a “private” track.
Our industry’s institutional powers in Australia have unveiled a “wide-ranging” plan to boost participation among girls and women. Golf Australia has launched “Vision 2025” to address what’s said to be “a record low” in participation, as females now account for just 20 percent of the players Down Under. “I think we’ve got some important challenges as a sport, and we need to recognize them,” the group’s CEO said in a press release. Golf Australia aims to increase the level of participation to 30 percent over the next seven years, a goal that it understands will be difficult to achieve. “It’s a massive task,” a board member acknowledged. “That’s why we’ve made it 2025.”
A pair of management companies have teamed up to buy Fox Hollow Golf Club, an under-performing venue in Branchburg, New Jersey that celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. Billy Casper Golf and Morningstar Golf & Hospitality are the principal partners in the investment group that now owns Fox Hollow, which claims to have “an award-winning restaurant with an ‘anything you can think of’ menu.” Matt Galvin, the president of Morningstar, believes that the club is a “gem” that will benefit from his company’s “local presence and hands-on involvement” and GCG’s “marketing prowess and infrastructure.” The club originally had a Hal Purdy-designed course, but in 2000 the track was reportedly “completely redesigned” to make it “more challenging while at the same time improving its playability.”
Surplus Transactions – Last fall, a private equity firm bid $16.1 million at auction for the financially troubled Salilshan Resort, a 250-acre spread in Gleneden Beach, Oregon that features a 53-year-old, Fred Federspiel-designed golf course. The 18-hole track has seen better days – the Portland Business Journal reports that it “averages just six foursomes a day” – but Alpha Wave Investors thinks it’s found a jewel that just needs a little polish. . . . Time appears to be ticking for Emerald Greens Golf Course, an 18-hole track in St. Louis, Missouri. The non-profit group that raises money for the St. Louis Zoo has agreed to buy 425 acres for zoo expansion, and Emerald Greens, which opened in 1994, will be part of the purchase. St. Louis Today reports that the course will remain open “for now.” . . . Terry Sjostrom is about to give up his job as a truck driver, as he’s acquired Birchwood Golf Course in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. The nine-hole layout opened in 1930, and it had been owned and operated by Brian Evenson and members of his family since the late 1970s.
ClubLink has given up on its plans to engineer a turnaround at Woodlands Golf & Country Club, the centerpiece of a community that was envisioned to be the Palm Springs of Florida. The largest owner/operator of golf properties in Canada bought Woodlands from its members in 2011, promising to put the property in Tamarac back on its financial feet, but a home builder has persuaded it to get out while the getting is still good. Pending approval by local elected officials, 13th Floor Homes – the same company that hopes to redevelop Carolina Club in metropolitan Miami – will build 525 houses on Woodlands’ 36-hole, Devlin/Von Hagge-designed golf complex. Canadian snowbirds will have fewer choices to play upon if the transaction is completed, but ClubLink will still own six golf venues in the Sunshine State, among them Heron Bay Golf Club in Coral Springs and Palm Aire Country Club in Pompano Beach.
Desolation Row Extended – A marijuana producer has ensured that there will be no future sightings of Bigfoot Golf & Country Club. Patrick Murphy closed the nine-hole layout outside Eureka, California earlier this year, citing financial difficulties, but he doesn’t plan to weed-farm it. Instead, he’s going to open a disc golf course on the property, and then maybe a restaurant and some cabins. . . . Sixty years after it opened, Larkhaven Golf Course is on its way to becoming Charlotte, North Carolina’s next subdivision. A home builder believes that Larkhaven’s 140 acres can comfortably accommodate 350 houses. . . . The final rounds at Glenbrook Golf Course, an 18-hole municipal track in Houston, Texas, will be played on April Fools’ Day. Glenbrook, which has operated since 1935, will become a “marquee” botanical garden.
Sunday, March 11, 2018
The Week That Was, march 11, 2018
The rumor mill is working overtime in Charlotte, North Carolina, as presumed insiders believe that McConnell Golf has its eyes on Ballantyne Country Club. John McConnell told the Triangle Business Journal that he has “no money,” but nobody takes such comments seriously. Heck, less than a year ago he put in an offer on Southern Pines Golf Club, in Southern Pines, North Carolina.
Despite all the sweet talk from the hype-meisters at the National Golf Foundation, evidence continues to indicate that the golf industry is nowhere near firing on all cylinders. The latest underwhelming data comes from the recent Golf Industry Show, which managed to lure just 11,700 attendees – a 14 percent decline from the number counted in 2017 and, according to Turfnet, nearly 1,200 fewer than average number that the show has welcomed over the past five years (12,900). Attendance at the GIS hit its high-water mark in 2008, when more than 25,700 people passed through its turnstiles, but it’s been on a slow decrease ever since. There are lots of reasons to be optimistic about golf’s near-term future, but there are also lots of reasons to remain wary.
Amazon hasn’t yet committed to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but the PGA of America has. In a move that’s reportedly been percolating for five years, the West Palm Beach, Florida-based institutional power intends to relocate its headquarters to the Panther Creek master-planned community in Frisco, where it would enjoy a 45-hole golf complex and facilities worthy of hosting events such as the Ryder Cup and the PGA Championship. Although the move hasn’t been officially confirmed, Golf magazine indicates that the PGA has already tabbed Gil Hanse to design the facility’s championship course and Beau Welling to deliver the complementary 18-hole track and the obligatory nine-hole “short” course. The golf complex will eventually be flanked by a resort-style hotel, meeting space, and a PGA-branded golf academy. Again, the PGA hasn’t yet corroborated any of Golf’s reporting, but Hanse’s course is expected to open in 2020.
Pipeline Overflow – An agency of the Croatian government is looking for investors who might be willing to build a resort community on “neglected land” along Prukljan Lake, near the town of Skradin, The 350-acre site can accommodate a hotel, a water park, a marina, and a 27-hole golf complex, and Total Croatia News says that “several European and U.S. investors” have expressed an interest in the development opportunity. Perhaps more importantly, the news service reports that “all explosive devices have been removed” from the property. . . . By the end of this year, Duros Land Properties expects to wrap up construction on an 18-hole golf course at Northside Beacon, a 500-acre planned community in Cebu Province, Philippines. Duros’ president, Rafaelito Barino, has designed the golf course, which will be accompanied by several thousand houses and condos, the usual commercial and community amenities, and attractions designed to appeal to Japanese vacationers. . . . Some Qatari money is going to help build the slow-developing Mandalika Resort on Lombok Island in Indonesia. Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al Thani, who’s been described as “Qatar’s top business personality,” hopes to establish a hotel at the 3,000-acre waterfront spread, which has been master-planned to include luxury villas, theme and amusement parks, entertainment venues, conference facilities, shopping areas, a “world-class” marina, and at least one 18-hole golf course.
David Preisler’s golf company has acquired a flood-prone golf club in Conroe, Texas. On the first day of the new year, Preisler Golf Properties took possession, for an undisclosed amount, of River Plantation Country Club, a nearly 50-year-old venue that features a 27-hole, Jay Riviere-designed golf complex. The seller was an entity called River Plantation Properties, with a reported ownership stake by Arcis Golf. Preisler is probably best known in the Lone Star State as one of Kevin Costner’s playing partners in Tin Cup, but his company also owns Oakhurst Golf Club in Porter, another northern suburb of Houston. News of Preisler’s purchase likely comes as a relief to River Plantation’s home owners, who feared that the golf course would be sold for more residential development.
Surplus Transactions – The Tom Fazio-designed golf course in Bradenton, Florida, the golf amenity for the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, is about to change hands. Dallas, Texas-based Ashford Hospitality Prime has agreed to put on the Ritz for $171 million, a price that will deliver a 266-room hotel, meeting space, a beach club, several eateries, and various other attractions, including the Ritz-Carlton Members Club and its 12-year-old, 18-hole track. . . . Can’t say exactly when it happened, but Badin Inn Golf Club has a new owner. The century-old venue outside Albemarle, North Carolina now belongs to Bert Seale, a former professional golfer who aims to redesign its 18-hole, Ed Seay-designed layout and open “a top-level academy that will be recognized worldwide.” Seale is now calling his property the Historic Badin Golf Resort & Inn. . . . Molly Reese has brought Ironwood Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Cookeville, Tennessee, back into her family. Reese’s grandfather, John Stites, designed and built Ironwood in the early 1970s but sold it in the early 1980s. Reese and her husband bought it from its fourth owner, Elaine Garrison, for an undisclosed price.
A home builder has laid a claim on Carolina Club, the financially challenged, 47-year-old centerpiece of a seniors-only community in metropolitan Miami, Florida. “Even in an age-restricted community,” the president of 13th Floor Homes told the South Florida Business Journal, “it’s not an amenity many buyers are seeking.” A price hasn’t been disclosed. 13th Floor believes that Carolina’s 140 acres, now occupied by an 18-hole, Devlin/Von Hagge golf course, can comfortably accommodate 350 houses and, believe it or not, 80 acres of open space. Pending approvals for its plans, the company will buy the club from J&D Golf Properties, which has owned it since 2002. And it’s worth noting that 13th Floor is looking to buy other golf properties in South Florida as well, as it’s proposed to build houses on two golf courses at the Woodlands community in Tamarac.
Desolation Row Extended – The homeowners’ group that’s operated Shamrock Golf Club and its 18-hole golf course since 2013 has surrendered. The group won’t extend its lease on Shamrock, and the club, in Burlington, North Carolina, is slated to be sold to a home builder. Shamrock, which opened in 1956, closed in 2011 but was revived when the homeowners decided that they couldn’t live without it. Now, apparently, they can. . . . Art Braswell has pulled the plug on his Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course. The centerpiece of Calimesa Country Club had operated since 1950, but it closed last fall, a victim of a sour golf market in Calimesa, California. Braswell has claimed that the club was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and he told the Calimesa News Mirror that he “should have closed it years ago.” . . . Time has run out on St. Helens Golf Course, a struggling nine-hole track in suburban Portland, Oregon. The course has been in business since 1959, but Suki Chung, its owner, thinks his 77 acres would be more valuable as an RV park.
Despite all the sweet talk from the hype-meisters at the National Golf Foundation, evidence continues to indicate that the golf industry is nowhere near firing on all cylinders. The latest underwhelming data comes from the recent Golf Industry Show, which managed to lure just 11,700 attendees – a 14 percent decline from the number counted in 2017 and, according to Turfnet, nearly 1,200 fewer than average number that the show has welcomed over the past five years (12,900). Attendance at the GIS hit its high-water mark in 2008, when more than 25,700 people passed through its turnstiles, but it’s been on a slow decrease ever since. There are lots of reasons to be optimistic about golf’s near-term future, but there are also lots of reasons to remain wary.
Amazon hasn’t yet committed to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but the PGA of America has. In a move that’s reportedly been percolating for five years, the West Palm Beach, Florida-based institutional power intends to relocate its headquarters to the Panther Creek master-planned community in Frisco, where it would enjoy a 45-hole golf complex and facilities worthy of hosting events such as the Ryder Cup and the PGA Championship. Although the move hasn’t been officially confirmed, Golf magazine indicates that the PGA has already tabbed Gil Hanse to design the facility’s championship course and Beau Welling to deliver the complementary 18-hole track and the obligatory nine-hole “short” course. The golf complex will eventually be flanked by a resort-style hotel, meeting space, and a PGA-branded golf academy. Again, the PGA hasn’t yet corroborated any of Golf’s reporting, but Hanse’s course is expected to open in 2020.
Pipeline Overflow – An agency of the Croatian government is looking for investors who might be willing to build a resort community on “neglected land” along Prukljan Lake, near the town of Skradin, The 350-acre site can accommodate a hotel, a water park, a marina, and a 27-hole golf complex, and Total Croatia News says that “several European and U.S. investors” have expressed an interest in the development opportunity. Perhaps more importantly, the news service reports that “all explosive devices have been removed” from the property. . . . By the end of this year, Duros Land Properties expects to wrap up construction on an 18-hole golf course at Northside Beacon, a 500-acre planned community in Cebu Province, Philippines. Duros’ president, Rafaelito Barino, has designed the golf course, which will be accompanied by several thousand houses and condos, the usual commercial and community amenities, and attractions designed to appeal to Japanese vacationers. . . . Some Qatari money is going to help build the slow-developing Mandalika Resort on Lombok Island in Indonesia. Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al Thani, who’s been described as “Qatar’s top business personality,” hopes to establish a hotel at the 3,000-acre waterfront spread, which has been master-planned to include luxury villas, theme and amusement parks, entertainment venues, conference facilities, shopping areas, a “world-class” marina, and at least one 18-hole golf course.
David Preisler’s golf company has acquired a flood-prone golf club in Conroe, Texas. On the first day of the new year, Preisler Golf Properties took possession, for an undisclosed amount, of River Plantation Country Club, a nearly 50-year-old venue that features a 27-hole, Jay Riviere-designed golf complex. The seller was an entity called River Plantation Properties, with a reported ownership stake by Arcis Golf. Preisler is probably best known in the Lone Star State as one of Kevin Costner’s playing partners in Tin Cup, but his company also owns Oakhurst Golf Club in Porter, another northern suburb of Houston. News of Preisler’s purchase likely comes as a relief to River Plantation’s home owners, who feared that the golf course would be sold for more residential development.
Surplus Transactions – The Tom Fazio-designed golf course in Bradenton, Florida, the golf amenity for the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, is about to change hands. Dallas, Texas-based Ashford Hospitality Prime has agreed to put on the Ritz for $171 million, a price that will deliver a 266-room hotel, meeting space, a beach club, several eateries, and various other attractions, including the Ritz-Carlton Members Club and its 12-year-old, 18-hole track. . . . Can’t say exactly when it happened, but Badin Inn Golf Club has a new owner. The century-old venue outside Albemarle, North Carolina now belongs to Bert Seale, a former professional golfer who aims to redesign its 18-hole, Ed Seay-designed layout and open “a top-level academy that will be recognized worldwide.” Seale is now calling his property the Historic Badin Golf Resort & Inn. . . . Molly Reese has brought Ironwood Golf Course, an 18-hole track in Cookeville, Tennessee, back into her family. Reese’s grandfather, John Stites, designed and built Ironwood in the early 1970s but sold it in the early 1980s. Reese and her husband bought it from its fourth owner, Elaine Garrison, for an undisclosed price.
A home builder has laid a claim on Carolina Club, the financially challenged, 47-year-old centerpiece of a seniors-only community in metropolitan Miami, Florida. “Even in an age-restricted community,” the president of 13th Floor Homes told the South Florida Business Journal, “it’s not an amenity many buyers are seeking.” A price hasn’t been disclosed. 13th Floor believes that Carolina’s 140 acres, now occupied by an 18-hole, Devlin/Von Hagge golf course, can comfortably accommodate 350 houses and, believe it or not, 80 acres of open space. Pending approvals for its plans, the company will buy the club from J&D Golf Properties, which has owned it since 2002. And it’s worth noting that 13th Floor is looking to buy other golf properties in South Florida as well, as it’s proposed to build houses on two golf courses at the Woodlands community in Tamarac.
Desolation Row Extended – The homeowners’ group that’s operated Shamrock Golf Club and its 18-hole golf course since 2013 has surrendered. The group won’t extend its lease on Shamrock, and the club, in Burlington, North Carolina, is slated to be sold to a home builder. Shamrock, which opened in 1956, closed in 2011 but was revived when the homeowners decided that they couldn’t live without it. Now, apparently, they can. . . . Art Braswell has pulled the plug on his Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course. The centerpiece of Calimesa Country Club had operated since 1950, but it closed last fall, a victim of a sour golf market in Calimesa, California. Braswell has claimed that the club was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and he told the Calimesa News Mirror that he “should have closed it years ago.” . . . Time has run out on St. Helens Golf Course, a struggling nine-hole track in suburban Portland, Oregon. The course has been in business since 1959, but Suki Chung, its owner, thinks his 77 acres would be more valuable as an RV park.
Sunday, March 4, 2018
The Week That Was, march 4, 2018
Never mind that the Trump Organization lost its court battle against some disgruntled members of Trump National Golf Club Jupiter, and never mind that it quit fighting even though it vowed not to. Instead, focus on how the Very Stable Genius’ golf operation so adroitly minimized its losses, a move it’s been perfecting for decades. The judge in the case ordered a payment of $5.77 million, but the plaintiffs have agreed to accept, pending the court’s approval, just $5.44 million. The agreement is easily justifiable for both sides, as it ends the court proceedings and allows the parties to happily go their separate ways. The net result, however, is an extra $330,000 in the president’s pocket, an amount that certainly takes some of the sting out of losing. The plaintiffs’ attorney called the settlement “an exclamation point on a big win.” Doesn’t he realize that his clients got less than the law said they deserve?
Just weeks after he was rebuffed by a golf club in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, Peter Nanula was welcomed by one in Lake Worth, Florida. By an overwhelming margin (405-13), the members of Fountains Country Club, the financially distressed centerpiece of a community that opened in the early 1970s, have agreed to sell their property to Nanula’s Concert Golf Partners. Fountains features a trio of 18-hole, Devlin/Von Hagge golf courses, but only two are currently operating. Although a price hasn’t been officially disclosed, a report on the community’s website indicates that Concert has agreed to assume the club’s debt ($10 million) and promised to make $11 million worth of future capital improvements. (Part of the money – an expected $5 million – will come from the sale of property currently occupied by Fountains’ defunct North Course.) Among other things, Concert has also promised to operate 36 holes for at least two years, after which it reserves the right to close nine holes. Florida has proved itself to be a land of opportunity for Nanula, as his company now owns six golf venues in the Sunshine State. All told, Concert owns 17 properties in 11 states.
Surplus Transactions – For an undisclosed price, OC Welch has agreed to buy Wilmington Island Club, a venue in Savannah, Georgia that features an 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed golf course. “It’s buying a piece of history,” he told the Savannah Morning News. Welch also manages Bacon Park Golf Course, a municipal track in Savannah that likewise features a Ross course. . . . Also for an undisclosed price, Bill Vaughan has purchased the 1,023-acre Rainmakers community outside Ruidoso, New Mexico. The Texas-based developer told the Ruidoso News that he intends to take the property “to the next level and make it the best resort in New Mexico and the Southwest.” Rainmakers features an 18-hole, Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed golf course that opened in 2008. Golf Digest thinks it’s the fourth-best track in the state. . . . For $550,000, Brad Mitchell and Ali Serrani have acquired Milestone Golf Club, a 12-year-old venue in Whitehall, New York. The property features a nine-hole layout that was designed by the seller, Bruce Jones. Serrani told the Rutland Herald that she and Mitchell, her future husband – they plan to get married on the eighth tee in October – plan to revitalize the club but “keep it for the blue-collar guy.”
An entire catalog of criticisms has been leveled at signature architecture over the years, but one stands out: The biggest names in the business, it’s often said, simply roll out courses on an assembly line, favoring quantity over quality. The signatures have always denied the charge, naturally, but one of their own recently acknowledged its veracity. Thad Layton, a long-time associate at Arnold Palmer Design Company, told Golf Advisor that during the heyday of the development boom, when his firm’s courses were much in demand, he and his colleagues didn’t have enough time to produce “truly great” work. “We had a huge staff, and there were a lot of people who wanted Arnold Palmer-designed golf courses,” Layton confessed. “When you’re doing that much volume, it’s harder to pay attention to the finer details to make a golf course truly great.” Today, of course, the late King’s firm is no longer the factory it used to be, and Layton says “we have the time to spend on site and pay attention to those details.” His new, fresh take may resonate with prospective clients, but it’s probably small consolation to the hundreds who paid top-dollar for the company’s previous work.
Vietnam is still on pace to meet its goal of opening 96 courses by the year 2020. The socialist republic currently has 60 courses, according to a report from the nation’s ministry of natural resources and environment, and it’s expected to have “around 100” by its self-imposed deadline. The outlook for golf development after 2020 is still anyone’s guess, but it’s hard to imagine the nation’s tourism officials advocating for a complete shut-off.
It’s back to the drawing board for Darius Oliver, who’s suffered a setback in his plans to design what his clients hoped would be “one of the world’s most spectacular destination golf courses” on Kangaroo Island in Australia. The team that aims to build Cliffs Kangaroo Island – the same team that created the exhilarating Cape Wickham Links on Tasmania’s King Island – had asked to buy some state-owned waterfront property for Oliver’s course, but their request was denied. So Oliver, the publisher of Planet Golf, will have to limit his ambitions to inland property, perhaps to the same area that Greg Norman had identified when he produced his routing for the Cliffs. His course will still be built, but it won’t have the coastal pizazz that helped to make Cape Wickham the #24 track on Golf Digest’s list of the world’s 100 greatest golf courses.
Pipeline Overflow – Kazakhstan’s 10th golf course could take shape at a Disneyland-inspired amusement park in suburban Almaty, the nation’s largest city. Kazakhstan & Central Asia This Week (sorry, no link available) reports that the park, to be called Happy Land, is being developed by a company called Happylon, and it’ll include a resort-style hotel, a spa, and a golf course. . . . A Ben Davey-designed golf course will be the featured attraction of Baihua Ridge, an emerging resort on Hainan Island. The island is a popular vacation spot – it’s China’s version of Hawaii – but the 18-hole track is likely to frustrate many golfers, as Davey acknowledges that “the steep grades and dense jungle will make retrieving errant shots impossible.” Davey, an Australian architect who apprenticed with Tony Cashmore, expects the course to open next year. . . . Later this year, Putrajaya Holdings hopes to break ground on Putrajaya, an “eco destination township” in Sepang, Malaysia. In addition to “calming waves, soothing sea breezes, and swaying palms,” the 1,678-acre waterfront spread will feature houses, hotels, a 27-hole golf complex.
Warning to anyone who plans to take a golf holiday in Australia: Beware of angry kangaroos. Last month, a kangaroo attacked a golfer during an otherwise uneventful a round in Queensland, and an expert on marsupials predicts that such assaults will likely become “more common” in the future. The expert is still trying to determine whether the kangaroo was mad at the world in general or at golfers in particular.
Just weeks after he was rebuffed by a golf club in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, Peter Nanula was welcomed by one in Lake Worth, Florida. By an overwhelming margin (405-13), the members of Fountains Country Club, the financially distressed centerpiece of a community that opened in the early 1970s, have agreed to sell their property to Nanula’s Concert Golf Partners. Fountains features a trio of 18-hole, Devlin/Von Hagge golf courses, but only two are currently operating. Although a price hasn’t been officially disclosed, a report on the community’s website indicates that Concert has agreed to assume the club’s debt ($10 million) and promised to make $11 million worth of future capital improvements. (Part of the money – an expected $5 million – will come from the sale of property currently occupied by Fountains’ defunct North Course.) Among other things, Concert has also promised to operate 36 holes for at least two years, after which it reserves the right to close nine holes. Florida has proved itself to be a land of opportunity for Nanula, as his company now owns six golf venues in the Sunshine State. All told, Concert owns 17 properties in 11 states.
Surplus Transactions – For an undisclosed price, OC Welch has agreed to buy Wilmington Island Club, a venue in Savannah, Georgia that features an 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed golf course. “It’s buying a piece of history,” he told the Savannah Morning News. Welch also manages Bacon Park Golf Course, a municipal track in Savannah that likewise features a Ross course. . . . Also for an undisclosed price, Bill Vaughan has purchased the 1,023-acre Rainmakers community outside Ruidoso, New Mexico. The Texas-based developer told the Ruidoso News that he intends to take the property “to the next level and make it the best resort in New Mexico and the Southwest.” Rainmakers features an 18-hole, Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed golf course that opened in 2008. Golf Digest thinks it’s the fourth-best track in the state. . . . For $550,000, Brad Mitchell and Ali Serrani have acquired Milestone Golf Club, a 12-year-old venue in Whitehall, New York. The property features a nine-hole layout that was designed by the seller, Bruce Jones. Serrani told the Rutland Herald that she and Mitchell, her future husband – they plan to get married on the eighth tee in October – plan to revitalize the club but “keep it for the blue-collar guy.”
An entire catalog of criticisms has been leveled at signature architecture over the years, but one stands out: The biggest names in the business, it’s often said, simply roll out courses on an assembly line, favoring quantity over quality. The signatures have always denied the charge, naturally, but one of their own recently acknowledged its veracity. Thad Layton, a long-time associate at Arnold Palmer Design Company, told Golf Advisor that during the heyday of the development boom, when his firm’s courses were much in demand, he and his colleagues didn’t have enough time to produce “truly great” work. “We had a huge staff, and there were a lot of people who wanted Arnold Palmer-designed golf courses,” Layton confessed. “When you’re doing that much volume, it’s harder to pay attention to the finer details to make a golf course truly great.” Today, of course, the late King’s firm is no longer the factory it used to be, and Layton says “we have the time to spend on site and pay attention to those details.” His new, fresh take may resonate with prospective clients, but it’s probably small consolation to the hundreds who paid top-dollar for the company’s previous work.
Vietnam is still on pace to meet its goal of opening 96 courses by the year 2020. The socialist republic currently has 60 courses, according to a report from the nation’s ministry of natural resources and environment, and it’s expected to have “around 100” by its self-imposed deadline. The outlook for golf development after 2020 is still anyone’s guess, but it’s hard to imagine the nation’s tourism officials advocating for a complete shut-off.
It’s back to the drawing board for Darius Oliver, who’s suffered a setback in his plans to design what his clients hoped would be “one of the world’s most spectacular destination golf courses” on Kangaroo Island in Australia. The team that aims to build Cliffs Kangaroo Island – the same team that created the exhilarating Cape Wickham Links on Tasmania’s King Island – had asked to buy some state-owned waterfront property for Oliver’s course, but their request was denied. So Oliver, the publisher of Planet Golf, will have to limit his ambitions to inland property, perhaps to the same area that Greg Norman had identified when he produced his routing for the Cliffs. His course will still be built, but it won’t have the coastal pizazz that helped to make Cape Wickham the #24 track on Golf Digest’s list of the world’s 100 greatest golf courses.
Pipeline Overflow – Kazakhstan’s 10th golf course could take shape at a Disneyland-inspired amusement park in suburban Almaty, the nation’s largest city. Kazakhstan & Central Asia This Week (sorry, no link available) reports that the park, to be called Happy Land, is being developed by a company called Happylon, and it’ll include a resort-style hotel, a spa, and a golf course. . . . A Ben Davey-designed golf course will be the featured attraction of Baihua Ridge, an emerging resort on Hainan Island. The island is a popular vacation spot – it’s China’s version of Hawaii – but the 18-hole track is likely to frustrate many golfers, as Davey acknowledges that “the steep grades and dense jungle will make retrieving errant shots impossible.” Davey, an Australian architect who apprenticed with Tony Cashmore, expects the course to open next year. . . . Later this year, Putrajaya Holdings hopes to break ground on Putrajaya, an “eco destination township” in Sepang, Malaysia. In addition to “calming waves, soothing sea breezes, and swaying palms,” the 1,678-acre waterfront spread will feature houses, hotels, a 27-hole golf complex.
Warning to anyone who plans to take a golf holiday in Australia: Beware of angry kangaroos. Last month, a kangaroo attacked a golfer during an otherwise uneventful a round in Queensland, and an expert on marsupials predicts that such assaults will likely become “more common” in the future. The expert is still trying to determine whether the kangaroo was mad at the world in general or at golfers in particular.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
