The largest owner/operator of golf properties in the United Kingdom gives a free introductory golf lesson to women, after which it hands them a brochure that outlines “8 Reasons Why Women Should Play Golf.” Crown Golf’s argument boils down to this: Golf is good exercise that offers women opportunities to socialize and build relationships, wear cool clothes, and get out into the sun and breathe fresh air. Such a pitch may not resonate deeply with men, but women appear to be listening. Crown Golf claims that most of its 25 golf properties have “a higher-than-average percentage of lady members” and that some have a female membership that approaches 20 percent. This is an achievement worth noting, because only about 14 percent of the club members in the U.K. are women.
The San Diego Union-Tribune has documented the incredible shrinking initiation fees at some of Southern California’s premier private clubs. The Bridges in Rancho Santa Fe, which opened in the late 1990s with an initiation fee of $350,000, has cut its entry fee by nearly two-thirds, to $125,000. The levy at the Santaluz Club in San Diego, which charged $140,000 when it opened in 2002, is now $50,000. And the Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, where members once paid more than $100,000, attracts just $20,000 today. “We’re out of the recession, really, but we’ve still got the over-saturation,” said Bruce Bennetts, the general manager of the Farms. “We’ve just got too many golf clubs. We need more of them to close, and then everybody would be healthier.” Of course, it’s important to note that lower prices attract members, and the name of the game in golf these days is monthly dues, not initiation fees.
As a result of “the economic downturn, bad weather, and the long-term decline of the sport of golf,” the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports, city-owned courses in Minnesota “are hitting a rough patch.” Citing 2011 figures provided by the state auditor -- the most recent data available, believe it or not -- the newspaper says that only six of the state’s 40 city-owned tracks managed to turn a profit. Collectively, the courses lost $4.7 million in 2011, 20 percent more than they lost in 2009. “It’s a labor of love, not a labor of making money,” notes Tom Ryan, the director of the Minnesota Golf Association. Despite all the red ink, however, at least some of the state’s city-owned golf properties have reason to be optimistic. Because the recession has claimed so many privately owned properties, the municipals expect to benefit from decreased competition.
On a golf course, a little rough goes a long way. Golfers get peeved when they have to waste time plodding through rough in search of their balls, according to a survey of golfers in the United Kingdom by Syngenta. More than 70 percent of the respondents to the survey, which was conducted in 2011, said that it was of “high importance” to find balls quickly, and 56 percent said that the rough on the courses they play is too thick. Syngenta has also determined that slow play is “a frustration for many players,” and that “discontent” begins to set in when rounds last more than three and a half hours.
As well-heeled golfers show a greater willingness to travel, the people who organize and market golf tours are ringing up sales. Tour operators’ revenues grew by 9.3 percent in 2012, their second straight year of growth, and the International Association of Golf Tour Operators expects another increase in 2013. “I believe we can all look forward to a third consecutive year of golf tourism growth,” the group’s CEO said at a recent industry get-together.
The growth of golf in China hasn’t only benefited U.S. designers and builders. E-Z-GO believes that it controls 40 percent of the market for golf cars in the People’s Republic, which has become one of its top five sales territories. “I think there are 500 golf courses in China right now, and we are working with more of them than anyone else,” Kevin Holleran, the company’s president, told China Daily earlier this year. E-Z-GO’s first Chinese customer was Mission Hills Shenzhen, which was an ideal place to start. In China, the average E-Z-GO car reportedly sells for about $7,200.
In Fort Worth, Texas, the future of municipal golf is being debated. The city’s golf operations have been losing money since 2001, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and today the system is $8 million in the hole. What’s more, in 2012 the city’s golf properties -- now down to four, after the closing of Z Boaz Golf Course -- attracted just 142,000 rounds, down by nearly 50 percent from the 274,000 recorded in 1998. So city officials are asking themselves a question familiar to their counterparts from coast to coast: Should we invest in necessary improvements that might generate more play, or should we cut our losses by closing courses or finding private-sector operators for them? We could learn the answer to that question by the end of the year.
Do nine-hole courses sell themselves short? Of the roughly 16,000 golf facilities in the United States, the National Golf Foundation counts about 4,230 nine-hole facilities, 27 percent of the total. On average, the nine-hole layouts charge $23 a round during their peak seasons, less than half of what 18-hole courses charge ($52).
Friday, November 15, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
The Week That Was, november 10, 2013
Mike Keiser is one step closer to securing approval for the Gil Hanse-designed golf complex he plans to build in Bandon, Oregon. Bandon Western World reports that the state’s parks and recreation department has recommended approval of the land swap Keiser needs to before he can break ground on what’s become the most talked-about municipal golf property in history. If the state’s parks and recreation commission likewise blesses the project -- it’s scheduled to vote on the matter later this month -- then Keiser will be good to go.
Edwin Watts Golf Shops LLC, which sells golf merchandise in 90 U.S. stores and online, is broke and searching for a buyer. The company filed for bankruptcy protection last week, blaming its financial distress on what Reuters described as “increased competition and waning enthusiasm for the sport.” Sun Capital Partners, the private equity firm that acquired the chain from another private equity firm in 2007, hopes to sell it before the end of the year. Edwin Watts, the Florida golf pro who founded the company in 1968, is said to be among the prospective buyers. “I think the company is going to survive,” he told the Northwestern Florida Daily News, “and we hope to potentially figure out a way to get it back.” Edwin Watts calls itself “the most trusted retailer in the industry.”
Proposals are officially being sought from private-sector groups wishing to build a “world-class” golf resort in a western suburb of Liverpool, England. Only the truly elite need apply, however. Wirral Council, which owns 285 acres in Hoylake, has master-planned the property to include a luxury hotel, meeting space, a spa, some houses, and a golf resort that will lure golfers from around the world. Phil Davies, the council’s leader, expects the resort to become “a landmark destination for golf tourism.” The site buts up to Royal Liverpool Golf Club, and the council expects to select its development partner by July 2014, when Royal Liverpool hosts the 143rd Open Championship. Responses from interested parties are due on November 13, 2013.
The original version of this post first appeared in the November 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
For months, Chinese investors have been buying golf properties on coastal Queensland, Australia. Now they’ve made what the Malaysian Insider calls “the first significant Chinese investment in New Zealand’s tourism sector.” A Shanghai-based group, Shanghai CRED Real Estate, has purchased the 2,790-acre Peppers Carrington resort on the North Island’s Karikari Peninsula. The resort’s amenities include villas, a lodge, vineyards, and an 18-hole golf course that was, in 2003, redesigned by the late Matt Dye. (He was one of Pete Dye’s nephews.) Shanghai CRED plans to market Peppers Carrington to Chinese vacationers looking to lounge on beaches they’ve not yet visited. “Affluent Chinese tourists tend to use Chinese tourist agencies, which in turn prefer to recommend Chinese-owned resorts internationally,” said Guo Gui, Shanghai CRED's general manager. Shanghai CRED describes itself as “China’s largest real estate group.” It bought Peppers Carrington from Paul Kelly, a U.S. investment banker.
A decade or so ago, Russia’s over-excited golf promoters predicted that the nation would open 500 golf facilities -- nine- and 18-hole courses, driving ranges, practice centers -- by 2018. In light of new economic data, however, the federation’s golf dreams may need to be deferred. Russia’s oil boom has ended, and the Putin government now expects to record average annual growth in the neighborhood of just 2.5 percent through 2030. “The factors behind the sharp economic growth in the pre-2008 crisis years are exhausted,” the nation’s economic minister said in a comment published by the Wall Street Journal. As a result of the contracting economy, the newspaper says, “salaries and pensions will rise more slowly,” and consumer spending “will crimp.” If you’re keeping score, KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice has determined that Russia nowadays has just 16 golf properties -- among them, just seven 18-hole courses -- and a measly 4,500 registered golfers.
Just when you start to believe that the divorce between golf and residential real estate is final, along comes Henry DeLozier to broker a reconciliation.
“As housing continues its recovery,” DeLozier contends in a story for Golf Course Industry, “more golf communities and clubs will be developed because golf courses remain extremely attractive amenities.”
Extremely attractive to whom? The number of U.S. golfers continues to shrink, and evidence suggests that most home buyers nowadays would prefer to live in communities with amenities such as lakes, organic gardens, and hiking paths. Does anyone believe that millions of prospective home buyers who’ve been reading ad nauseam in recent years about golf communities going bankrupt are now itching to buy into one? Today, anyone who really wants to live in a house along a golf course fairway can have his pick of them, from coast to coast.
Taylor Morrison currently has a pair of golf communities under construction in Florida, but are other major home builders planning to build any? Toll Brothers? Del Webb? And if the opportunity would happen to materialize, how many lenders would be willing to finance them?
DeLozier knows the golf and housing industries well, because he used to help develop golf communities for Pulte Homes. In fact, he’s likely had a hand in the development of more golf communities than anyone on earth.
So he knows that precious few U.S. golf communities sold even half of their houses to golfers. The majority of the residents in these communities bought for the views, not the golf, foolishly believing that their sight lines would be forever protected. They learned the hard way. But the next wave of buyers already knows the score. What sort of premium will they be willing to pay for a lot next to an expensive, hardly used amenity that can close on a whim and, under the right conditions, be replaced by rows of townhouses?
“No one wants to see a return to the poor decision-making that led to too many overbuilt markets and under-financed properties,” De Lozier writes.
Agreed. But the problem isn’t simply that golf courses built primarily to sell real estate contributed to overbuilding. The problem is that they were, by and large, lousy layouts -- needlessly difficult, with fairways choked by houses and routings that could only be negotiated with carts. They took the fun out of golf, caused millions to flee the game, and ruined the business for everybody.
DeLozier is right on target when he writes that the housing industry has a crucial impact on “unemployment, consumer confidence, and discretionary spending.” In this general sense, the health of the housing market most certainly affects the golf industry. But in this general sense, it also affects sales at restaurants, movie theaters, sports events, and everything else in our lives.
No matter what the experts may say, the golf industry doesn’t have a special connection to the housing industry. For a few decades in every century, when houses are selling like hotcakes, home builders simply make it seem as if there is.
Billy Casper Golf has secured a contract to operate its second golf property in Florida. The firm has signed a five-year contract to manage Colony West Country Club, a 36-hole municipal facility that’s been closed since August. BCG aims to reopen the complex before the end of the year. “Billy Casper Golf is the best choice to move Colony West forward,” said Michael Cernech, the city manager for the city of Tamarac. “Its extensive experience with these types of projects and powerful marketing platform will re-establish Colony West as a favorite among residents and visitors.” Over the life of the contract, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports, BCG will be paid $497,000 to manage the complex and receive $250,000 for start-up expenses. BCG also operates Eastpoint Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens.
Sequoia Golf’s national expansion plans have reached the Pacific Northwest. The company has been hired to operate Mill Creek Country Club, a financially troubled facility in suburban Seattle, Washington. “They showed a clear understanding of our situation and presented a realistic vision for how they could help the club deal with its issues and move forward,” the club’s treasurer said in a press release. Mill Creek, owned by its members since 2007, has what it’s described as “a financial obligation we will not be able to deal with” -- it involves $100,000 payments due to some of its members -- and has discussed a sale with interested suitors. However, earlier this year it told the News of Mill Creek that it had restructured its debt and now has “at least five more years to build membership.” Sequoia hasn’t announced its strategy for rebuilding the club’s membership, but the press release suggests that it’ll involve its PlayAway program, which will give Mill Creek’s members access to a network of 450 private clubs and resorts in North America.
The pickings were slim, but Golf Digest has managed to find 15 courses worthy of being called the best new tracks of 2013. “Quantity is still down,” writes Ron Whitten, “but quality has never been better.” Whitten’s favorites appear to be the Red and Blue courses at Streamsong in Florida (“the golf destination of the year, maybe the decade”), but he also had nice things to say about Sewailo Golf Club in Arizona (“a fantasyland carved from flat desert”), the Grove in Tennessee (“probably Greg Norman's best American design in years”), and the Resurrection Course at Mystic Creek in Arkansas (“Best course in Arkansas? Someday, maybe”). To supplement the new courses, the magazine also identified 14 noteworthy renovations and redesigns.
Edwin Watts Golf Shops LLC, which sells golf merchandise in 90 U.S. stores and online, is broke and searching for a buyer. The company filed for bankruptcy protection last week, blaming its financial distress on what Reuters described as “increased competition and waning enthusiasm for the sport.” Sun Capital Partners, the private equity firm that acquired the chain from another private equity firm in 2007, hopes to sell it before the end of the year. Edwin Watts, the Florida golf pro who founded the company in 1968, is said to be among the prospective buyers. “I think the company is going to survive,” he told the Northwestern Florida Daily News, “and we hope to potentially figure out a way to get it back.” Edwin Watts calls itself “the most trusted retailer in the industry.”
Proposals are officially being sought from private-sector groups wishing to build a “world-class” golf resort in a western suburb of Liverpool, England. Only the truly elite need apply, however. Wirral Council, which owns 285 acres in Hoylake, has master-planned the property to include a luxury hotel, meeting space, a spa, some houses, and a golf resort that will lure golfers from around the world. Phil Davies, the council’s leader, expects the resort to become “a landmark destination for golf tourism.” The site buts up to Royal Liverpool Golf Club, and the council expects to select its development partner by July 2014, when Royal Liverpool hosts the 143rd Open Championship. Responses from interested parties are due on November 13, 2013.
The original version of this post first appeared in the November 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
For months, Chinese investors have been buying golf properties on coastal Queensland, Australia. Now they’ve made what the Malaysian Insider calls “the first significant Chinese investment in New Zealand’s tourism sector.” A Shanghai-based group, Shanghai CRED Real Estate, has purchased the 2,790-acre Peppers Carrington resort on the North Island’s Karikari Peninsula. The resort’s amenities include villas, a lodge, vineyards, and an 18-hole golf course that was, in 2003, redesigned by the late Matt Dye. (He was one of Pete Dye’s nephews.) Shanghai CRED plans to market Peppers Carrington to Chinese vacationers looking to lounge on beaches they’ve not yet visited. “Affluent Chinese tourists tend to use Chinese tourist agencies, which in turn prefer to recommend Chinese-owned resorts internationally,” said Guo Gui, Shanghai CRED's general manager. Shanghai CRED describes itself as “China’s largest real estate group.” It bought Peppers Carrington from Paul Kelly, a U.S. investment banker.
A decade or so ago, Russia’s over-excited golf promoters predicted that the nation would open 500 golf facilities -- nine- and 18-hole courses, driving ranges, practice centers -- by 2018. In light of new economic data, however, the federation’s golf dreams may need to be deferred. Russia’s oil boom has ended, and the Putin government now expects to record average annual growth in the neighborhood of just 2.5 percent through 2030. “The factors behind the sharp economic growth in the pre-2008 crisis years are exhausted,” the nation’s economic minister said in a comment published by the Wall Street Journal. As a result of the contracting economy, the newspaper says, “salaries and pensions will rise more slowly,” and consumer spending “will crimp.” If you’re keeping score, KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice has determined that Russia nowadays has just 16 golf properties -- among them, just seven 18-hole courses -- and a measly 4,500 registered golfers.
Just when you start to believe that the divorce between golf and residential real estate is final, along comes Henry DeLozier to broker a reconciliation.
“As housing continues its recovery,” DeLozier contends in a story for Golf Course Industry, “more golf communities and clubs will be developed because golf courses remain extremely attractive amenities.”
Extremely attractive to whom? The number of U.S. golfers continues to shrink, and evidence suggests that most home buyers nowadays would prefer to live in communities with amenities such as lakes, organic gardens, and hiking paths. Does anyone believe that millions of prospective home buyers who’ve been reading ad nauseam in recent years about golf communities going bankrupt are now itching to buy into one? Today, anyone who really wants to live in a house along a golf course fairway can have his pick of them, from coast to coast.
Taylor Morrison currently has a pair of golf communities under construction in Florida, but are other major home builders planning to build any? Toll Brothers? Del Webb? And if the opportunity would happen to materialize, how many lenders would be willing to finance them?
DeLozier knows the golf and housing industries well, because he used to help develop golf communities for Pulte Homes. In fact, he’s likely had a hand in the development of more golf communities than anyone on earth.
So he knows that precious few U.S. golf communities sold even half of their houses to golfers. The majority of the residents in these communities bought for the views, not the golf, foolishly believing that their sight lines would be forever protected. They learned the hard way. But the next wave of buyers already knows the score. What sort of premium will they be willing to pay for a lot next to an expensive, hardly used amenity that can close on a whim and, under the right conditions, be replaced by rows of townhouses?
“No one wants to see a return to the poor decision-making that led to too many overbuilt markets and under-financed properties,” De Lozier writes.
Agreed. But the problem isn’t simply that golf courses built primarily to sell real estate contributed to overbuilding. The problem is that they were, by and large, lousy layouts -- needlessly difficult, with fairways choked by houses and routings that could only be negotiated with carts. They took the fun out of golf, caused millions to flee the game, and ruined the business for everybody.
DeLozier is right on target when he writes that the housing industry has a crucial impact on “unemployment, consumer confidence, and discretionary spending.” In this general sense, the health of the housing market most certainly affects the golf industry. But in this general sense, it also affects sales at restaurants, movie theaters, sports events, and everything else in our lives.
No matter what the experts may say, the golf industry doesn’t have a special connection to the housing industry. For a few decades in every century, when houses are selling like hotcakes, home builders simply make it seem as if there is.
Billy Casper Golf has secured a contract to operate its second golf property in Florida. The firm has signed a five-year contract to manage Colony West Country Club, a 36-hole municipal facility that’s been closed since August. BCG aims to reopen the complex before the end of the year. “Billy Casper Golf is the best choice to move Colony West forward,” said Michael Cernech, the city manager for the city of Tamarac. “Its extensive experience with these types of projects and powerful marketing platform will re-establish Colony West as a favorite among residents and visitors.” Over the life of the contract, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports, BCG will be paid $497,000 to manage the complex and receive $250,000 for start-up expenses. BCG also operates Eastpoint Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens.
Sequoia Golf’s national expansion plans have reached the Pacific Northwest. The company has been hired to operate Mill Creek Country Club, a financially troubled facility in suburban Seattle, Washington. “They showed a clear understanding of our situation and presented a realistic vision for how they could help the club deal with its issues and move forward,” the club’s treasurer said in a press release. Mill Creek, owned by its members since 2007, has what it’s described as “a financial obligation we will not be able to deal with” -- it involves $100,000 payments due to some of its members -- and has discussed a sale with interested suitors. However, earlier this year it told the News of Mill Creek that it had restructured its debt and now has “at least five more years to build membership.” Sequoia hasn’t announced its strategy for rebuilding the club’s membership, but the press release suggests that it’ll involve its PlayAway program, which will give Mill Creek’s members access to a network of 450 private clubs and resorts in North America.
The pickings were slim, but Golf Digest has managed to find 15 courses worthy of being called the best new tracks of 2013. “Quantity is still down,” writes Ron Whitten, “but quality has never been better.” Whitten’s favorites appear to be the Red and Blue courses at Streamsong in Florida (“the golf destination of the year, maybe the decade”), but he also had nice things to say about Sewailo Golf Club in Arizona (“a fantasyland carved from flat desert”), the Grove in Tennessee (“probably Greg Norman's best American design in years”), and the Resurrection Course at Mystic Creek in Arkansas (“Best course in Arkansas? Someday, maybe”). To supplement the new courses, the magazine also identified 14 noteworthy renovations and redesigns.
Friday, November 8, 2013
The Pipeline, november 8, 2013
Borrowing an idea from its European counterpart, the Asian Tour has set out to bring what it calls “a new type of lifestyle” to Vietnam. The lifestyle will emerge at Dalat at 1200, a resort community in Dalat, “the city of eternal spring,” and it’ll be accompanied by an 18-hole, championship-caliber golf course. The course has been designed by Kyi Hla Han, a professional golfer from Myanmar who was a star on the Asian Tour in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Today, he serves as the tour’s executive chairman. Tang Kay Hwa of Centurion Group Development, the tour’s development partner, has said that Dalat at 1200 will be “a resort where you can get back to nature to de-stress and re-charge.” The community is the initial venture in the tour’s planned Asian Tour Destination network, which aims to create a collection of upscale golf communities whose identity is closely connected to the tour and which may host professional events. The European Tour has established a similar network of eight “destination” communities in England, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, and Holland, and it’s always looking to add more.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
A fatiguing economy and a moratorium on golf construction have clearly put a chill on the formerly white-hot golf development industry in China. Richard Mandell, a North Carolina-based architect, believes that, despite the hype, there are no more than 50 to 75 courses currently under construction in the People’s Republic. “I don’t think there’s much breaking ground right now,” he says. “It’s never been growing as fast as people who haven’t been there thought it was.” Mandell continues to find opportunities, however. The first 18 at his Skydoor Golf Club in Zhangjiajie, Hunan is open, and its owners plan to break ground on a third nine any day now. What’s more, Mandell has agreed to design two other courses in China. In other words, since the most recent moratorium took effect in 2011, Mandell has completed one course and put himself in position to design two others. “If you have the right connections and money,” he notes, “you can get a project permitted.”
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Some of China’s most promising golfers will soon be training at a Greg Norman Champions Golf Academy in Georgia. In his capacity as an adviser to China’s national golf team, Norman expects Olympic hopefuls to make regular visits to practice facilities that he’s designed, including a forthcoming venue at the LakePoint Sporting Community in Emerson, a town roughly 50 miles northwest of Atlanta. “I could not think of a better place for GNCGA to build our second golf academy in the United States,” Norman said in a press release. The 30-acre practice center, which is scheduled to open in late 2014, will feature a nine-hole, par-3 course and a Norman-branded bar and restaurant. Last year, Norman opened a similar facility in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The first private golf club in St. Andrews, Scotland will likely be the most expensive member-owned golf property in Great Britain. St. Andrews International Golf Club, which will feature a 19-hole, Tom Weiskopf-designed layout, has priced its initiation fees as high as £200,000 ($320,000), an amount far beyond the reach of most Scots. “The market for this place is basically people resident some distance away, more than likely overseas,” a spokesman for the club told the Dundee Courier. “We’ve had big interest from Asia in particular.” St. Andrews International’s developers hope to attract 500 members. Those who choose to pay top dollar for the privilege can stay in the club’s accommodations for three weeks annually, and they’ll be guaranteed a room whenever the Open Championship is played at the Old Course. The club is expected to open in 2016.
Economic sanctions may derail Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but its golf ambitions remain on track. An 18-hole, Phil Ryan-designed golf course is under construction in suburban Tehran, as the centerpiece of a 3,500-acre, Western-style community that’s being developed by TSI Group. Following an approved but flawed model, TSI will reportedly flank the course with houses, a hotel, a retail/commercial area, schools, and other attractions. “We are now trying to create a new lifestyle for people,” TSI’s president, S. J. Mousavi, told The Business Year. “A large country like Iran needs more residential housing, sports and leisure complexes, and commercial activities.” Other courses have been proposed in Iran, but none have been built. It appears that the nation currently has just one course, a 13-hole track at the Enghelab Sport Complex in Tehran.
A golf course may soon sprout up next to an all-grass air strip that’s being built in Middleton, New Hampshire. Charles Therriault aims to transform a 200-acre parcel into Therriault’s Landing, which will feature a small hotel, a ballroom, party rooms, a spa, a restaurant, and a bar. “What we’re really doing is being a premier wedding facility,” Therriault told the New Hampshire Union Leader. If he can get his plans approved, Therriault hopes to break ground on the venue in the spring of 2014.
It took more than a decade, but the members of struggling Lonsdale Golf Club have secured permission to redevelop part of their golf course. “It’s been quite a journey,” Ross McKenzie, the leader of the club’s redevelopment effort, told the Surf Coast Times. The club, in Victoria, Australia, plans to relocate four of the course’s 18 holes, to create room for 100 houses. It believes that the income from the lot sales will ensure its financial future. The redesign will be overseen by Michael Clayton, who co-designed (with Tom Doak) the original course at Barnbougle Dunes. Clayton will likely have time to take on several other assignments before he turns his attention to Lonsdale, however, because the club thinks it’ll take four years before it generates enough money to build the new holes and make other improvements to the layout.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
One more year: That’s how long Talisker Corporation has to complete the golf course at the Canyons, one of the ski resorts in Park City, Utah. The course was originally supposed to open in 2002, back when the Canyons was owned by American Skiing Corporation and before acrimony and litigation gummed up what little progress had been made. Deadlines have come and gone, including one that called for the course to open this fall. Now Summit County has agreed to another extension, mostly because it had no other options. Gene Bates has transformed the track, which had been originally planned as a 6,200-yard resort course, into what’s been described as a “dramatic 7,000-yard mountain golf course with spectacular views and very memorable holes.” Talisker’s new deadline is September 2014. Let’s hope the course is worth the wait.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
A fatiguing economy and a moratorium on golf construction have clearly put a chill on the formerly white-hot golf development industry in China. Richard Mandell, a North Carolina-based architect, believes that, despite the hype, there are no more than 50 to 75 courses currently under construction in the People’s Republic. “I don’t think there’s much breaking ground right now,” he says. “It’s never been growing as fast as people who haven’t been there thought it was.” Mandell continues to find opportunities, however. The first 18 at his Skydoor Golf Club in Zhangjiajie, Hunan is open, and its owners plan to break ground on a third nine any day now. What’s more, Mandell has agreed to design two other courses in China. In other words, since the most recent moratorium took effect in 2011, Mandell has completed one course and put himself in position to design two others. “If you have the right connections and money,” he notes, “you can get a project permitted.”
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Some of China’s most promising golfers will soon be training at a Greg Norman Champions Golf Academy in Georgia. In his capacity as an adviser to China’s national golf team, Norman expects Olympic hopefuls to make regular visits to practice facilities that he’s designed, including a forthcoming venue at the LakePoint Sporting Community in Emerson, a town roughly 50 miles northwest of Atlanta. “I could not think of a better place for GNCGA to build our second golf academy in the United States,” Norman said in a press release. The 30-acre practice center, which is scheduled to open in late 2014, will feature a nine-hole, par-3 course and a Norman-branded bar and restaurant. Last year, Norman opened a similar facility in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The first private golf club in St. Andrews, Scotland will likely be the most expensive member-owned golf property in Great Britain. St. Andrews International Golf Club, which will feature a 19-hole, Tom Weiskopf-designed layout, has priced its initiation fees as high as £200,000 ($320,000), an amount far beyond the reach of most Scots. “The market for this place is basically people resident some distance away, more than likely overseas,” a spokesman for the club told the Dundee Courier. “We’ve had big interest from Asia in particular.” St. Andrews International’s developers hope to attract 500 members. Those who choose to pay top dollar for the privilege can stay in the club’s accommodations for three weeks annually, and they’ll be guaranteed a room whenever the Open Championship is played at the Old Course. The club is expected to open in 2016.
Economic sanctions may derail Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but its golf ambitions remain on track. An 18-hole, Phil Ryan-designed golf course is under construction in suburban Tehran, as the centerpiece of a 3,500-acre, Western-style community that’s being developed by TSI Group. Following an approved but flawed model, TSI will reportedly flank the course with houses, a hotel, a retail/commercial area, schools, and other attractions. “We are now trying to create a new lifestyle for people,” TSI’s president, S. J. Mousavi, told The Business Year. “A large country like Iran needs more residential housing, sports and leisure complexes, and commercial activities.” Other courses have been proposed in Iran, but none have been built. It appears that the nation currently has just one course, a 13-hole track at the Enghelab Sport Complex in Tehran.
A golf course may soon sprout up next to an all-grass air strip that’s being built in Middleton, New Hampshire. Charles Therriault aims to transform a 200-acre parcel into Therriault’s Landing, which will feature a small hotel, a ballroom, party rooms, a spa, a restaurant, and a bar. “What we’re really doing is being a premier wedding facility,” Therriault told the New Hampshire Union Leader. If he can get his plans approved, Therriault hopes to break ground on the venue in the spring of 2014.
It took more than a decade, but the members of struggling Lonsdale Golf Club have secured permission to redevelop part of their golf course. “It’s been quite a journey,” Ross McKenzie, the leader of the club’s redevelopment effort, told the Surf Coast Times. The club, in Victoria, Australia, plans to relocate four of the course’s 18 holes, to create room for 100 houses. It believes that the income from the lot sales will ensure its financial future. The redesign will be overseen by Michael Clayton, who co-designed (with Tom Doak) the original course at Barnbougle Dunes. Clayton will likely have time to take on several other assignments before he turns his attention to Lonsdale, however, because the club thinks it’ll take four years before it generates enough money to build the new holes and make other improvements to the layout.
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the September 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
One more year: That’s how long Talisker Corporation has to complete the golf course at the Canyons, one of the ski resorts in Park City, Utah. The course was originally supposed to open in 2002, back when the Canyons was owned by American Skiing Corporation and before acrimony and litigation gummed up what little progress had been made. Deadlines have come and gone, including one that called for the course to open this fall. Now Summit County has agreed to another extension, mostly because it had no other options. Gene Bates has transformed the track, which had been originally planned as a 6,200-yard resort course, into what’s been described as a “dramatic 7,000-yard mountain golf course with spectacular views and very memorable holes.” Talisker’s new deadline is September 2014. Let’s hope the course is worth the wait.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
The Week That Was, november 3, 2013
Maybe the sky isn’t quite the limit for golf in China. David Townend, the director of Troon Golf's operations in Asia and Australia, estimates that there are currently just 700,000 golfers in the People’s Republic, far less than many others believe, and that only half of them have actually played on a golf course. (So far, they’ve been limited to playing at driving ranges.) What’s more, Townend tells the Wall Street Journal that he thinks China won’t exceed 1,500 courses, which is just 900 more than the existing number. It’s also worth noting that if Townend’s numbers are correct, then China’s 600 existing golf courses each cater to fewer than 600 golfers.
Just weeks after a British firm suggested that golf clubs would prosper if they allowed beginners to play for free, Tiger Woods has made essentially the same recommendation. While collecting a multimillion-dollar appearance fee for a performance in China, professional golf’s top-ranked and richest player advised the planet’s facility owners to take a cue from Mission Hills Haikou and offer complimentary rounds to kids under 16. “I think it should be duplicated around the world,” Woods said in a comment published by Golf Club Business. “It’s definitely a model that people should be looking at.” Seeing as how Woods can afford to put his money where his mouth is, what are the chances that the soon-to-open course he’s designed in Mexico will offer rounds for kids on the house?
More evidence of an improving U.S. economy: Realtors in Park City, Utah, a favorite haunt of the rich and famous, report that real estate sales through the first three quarters of 2013 “have been very strong,” with both prices and the number of sales increasing as inventories shrink. Sales of single-family houses are up by 18 percent compared to the same period in 2012, and the median sales price has increased by $60,000, to $810,000. Houses priced at $2 million or more showed a major increase, as sales were up by more than 30 percent. The people who are buying houses in Park City may not be joining any of the area’s private golf clubs, but it isn’t because they don’t have the money.
How much do golfers really care about golf course design? Based on the results of a recent survey, “Growing Golf in the U.K,” Syngenta has concluded that course design is “the most important factor in attracting golfers to visit a golf course,” or at least a golf course in the United Kingdom. The firm says that course design matters most to low handicappers, men, and younger players and that “clubhouse factors” -- things like the quality of a course’s food and the merchandise in its pro shop -- hardly matter at all. For this reason, it advises course owners wishing to generate more rounds to invest in their courses instead of their clubhouses. “If you have a capital sum to invest,” writes Rod Burke, one of Syngenta’s business managers, “redesigning holes, upgrading bunkers, and investing in tools to improve turf quality is going to assist in attracting more players and deliver a better return than spending money on improving clubhouse facilities.” Burke also counsels course owners to heed the quality of their turf, particularly their greens, because “the condition of the playing surfaces” gives golfers “the greatest satisfaction” during their rounds.
The cash registers keep ringing at Black Knight International. Last week, on his 78th birthday, Gary Player announced that he’s signed a three-year contract to serve as “a global ambassador” for Berenberg, Germany’s oldest bank. The parties are long-time allies, as the 423-year-old financial institution has been supporting Player’s charitable activities for years. As part of the agreement, Player will host Berenberg-sponsored events in Europe and the United States.
Electronic Arts, the video game designer, is going to put a new face on its golf franchise. Calling it a “mutual decision,” EA has cut its ties with Tiger Woods, its meal ticket for the past 15 years. The company hasn’t fully explained why it’s ended the relationship, but CMSWire says that sales of “Tiger Woods PGA Tour” have been “lackluster” of late and suggests that Woods doesn’t have the marketing power he once did, particularly among younger gamers. “A lot of this has to do with younger golfers coming in and picking away at Tiger,” an athletic branding consultant told the web magazine. “Look at Rory McIlroy: He is the next Tiger Woods. EA probably wants to find somebody younger.” EA will reportedly enlist the PGA Tour to help it develop its next golf game, and ESPN says that Woods is negotiating his “video game rights” with an unnamed company.
With his first Branson, Missouri-area golf course closed and under seemingly endless renovation, Johnny Morris has purchased a second. Morris, the billionaire who owns the Bass Pro Shops chain, has acquired Murder Rock Golf & Country Club and adjacent property in nearby Hollister. Murder Rock’s 18-hole track, which was designed and built by Landmark Land Company, anchors Branson Creek, a 7,500-acre community that’s reportedly been master-planned to accommodate 12,000 houses. Morris bought the property from Glenn Patch, a Florida-based developer. He plans to turn Murder Rock into an amenity for his Big Cedar Lodge, which has a nine-hole, Jack Nicklaus “signature” course that, despite assurances of an imminent reopening, has been shuttered since 2010, if not before. And vacationers may also have to wait a while to play Murder Rock, as Morris has closed it for renovations.
Hampton Golf Management has signed a 10-year lease on Mill Cove Golf Course, a 23-year-old facility owned by Jacksonville, Florida’s airport authority. The firm plans to give the property’s Arnold Palmer-designed golf course a $1 million overhaul that will require it to remain closed until next summer. “We’re committed to getting this course back in shape and make it one of the best public golf experiences in the area, as it was when it first opened,” the firm’s president, M. G. Orender, told the Florida Times-Union. Hampton Golf has negotiated a free ride for the first seven years of the contract, unless the course’s annual revenues exceed $1.2 million. The company operates 15 other golf properties, 11 of them in Florida.
A black eye for golf in Vietnam: A golf course in greater Hanoi has banned the head of a government-owned company from its premises for a year, and it’s asking the rest of the nation’s courses to do the same. Nguyen Duc Son, the chairman of Hanoi Housing Management & Development Company, allegedly whacked a caddie on the head after he was given what he described as “an unnecessary reminder.” The caddie, who was carrying for another player, was briefly hospitalized. The Thanh Nien Daily reports that the incident has “attracted public attention,” with golf’s critics complaining that it reveals “the lifestyle of nouveau riche.”
Just weeks after a British firm suggested that golf clubs would prosper if they allowed beginners to play for free, Tiger Woods has made essentially the same recommendation. While collecting a multimillion-dollar appearance fee for a performance in China, professional golf’s top-ranked and richest player advised the planet’s facility owners to take a cue from Mission Hills Haikou and offer complimentary rounds to kids under 16. “I think it should be duplicated around the world,” Woods said in a comment published by Golf Club Business. “It’s definitely a model that people should be looking at.” Seeing as how Woods can afford to put his money where his mouth is, what are the chances that the soon-to-open course he’s designed in Mexico will offer rounds for kids on the house?
More evidence of an improving U.S. economy: Realtors in Park City, Utah, a favorite haunt of the rich and famous, report that real estate sales through the first three quarters of 2013 “have been very strong,” with both prices and the number of sales increasing as inventories shrink. Sales of single-family houses are up by 18 percent compared to the same period in 2012, and the median sales price has increased by $60,000, to $810,000. Houses priced at $2 million or more showed a major increase, as sales were up by more than 30 percent. The people who are buying houses in Park City may not be joining any of the area’s private golf clubs, but it isn’t because they don’t have the money.
How much do golfers really care about golf course design? Based on the results of a recent survey, “Growing Golf in the U.K,” Syngenta has concluded that course design is “the most important factor in attracting golfers to visit a golf course,” or at least a golf course in the United Kingdom. The firm says that course design matters most to low handicappers, men, and younger players and that “clubhouse factors” -- things like the quality of a course’s food and the merchandise in its pro shop -- hardly matter at all. For this reason, it advises course owners wishing to generate more rounds to invest in their courses instead of their clubhouses. “If you have a capital sum to invest,” writes Rod Burke, one of Syngenta’s business managers, “redesigning holes, upgrading bunkers, and investing in tools to improve turf quality is going to assist in attracting more players and deliver a better return than spending money on improving clubhouse facilities.” Burke also counsels course owners to heed the quality of their turf, particularly their greens, because “the condition of the playing surfaces” gives golfers “the greatest satisfaction” during their rounds.
The cash registers keep ringing at Black Knight International. Last week, on his 78th birthday, Gary Player announced that he’s signed a three-year contract to serve as “a global ambassador” for Berenberg, Germany’s oldest bank. The parties are long-time allies, as the 423-year-old financial institution has been supporting Player’s charitable activities for years. As part of the agreement, Player will host Berenberg-sponsored events in Europe and the United States.
Electronic Arts, the video game designer, is going to put a new face on its golf franchise. Calling it a “mutual decision,” EA has cut its ties with Tiger Woods, its meal ticket for the past 15 years. The company hasn’t fully explained why it’s ended the relationship, but CMSWire says that sales of “Tiger Woods PGA Tour” have been “lackluster” of late and suggests that Woods doesn’t have the marketing power he once did, particularly among younger gamers. “A lot of this has to do with younger golfers coming in and picking away at Tiger,” an athletic branding consultant told the web magazine. “Look at Rory McIlroy: He is the next Tiger Woods. EA probably wants to find somebody younger.” EA will reportedly enlist the PGA Tour to help it develop its next golf game, and ESPN says that Woods is negotiating his “video game rights” with an unnamed company.
With his first Branson, Missouri-area golf course closed and under seemingly endless renovation, Johnny Morris has purchased a second. Morris, the billionaire who owns the Bass Pro Shops chain, has acquired Murder Rock Golf & Country Club and adjacent property in nearby Hollister. Murder Rock’s 18-hole track, which was designed and built by Landmark Land Company, anchors Branson Creek, a 7,500-acre community that’s reportedly been master-planned to accommodate 12,000 houses. Morris bought the property from Glenn Patch, a Florida-based developer. He plans to turn Murder Rock into an amenity for his Big Cedar Lodge, which has a nine-hole, Jack Nicklaus “signature” course that, despite assurances of an imminent reopening, has been shuttered since 2010, if not before. And vacationers may also have to wait a while to play Murder Rock, as Morris has closed it for renovations.
Hampton Golf Management has signed a 10-year lease on Mill Cove Golf Course, a 23-year-old facility owned by Jacksonville, Florida’s airport authority. The firm plans to give the property’s Arnold Palmer-designed golf course a $1 million overhaul that will require it to remain closed until next summer. “We’re committed to getting this course back in shape and make it one of the best public golf experiences in the area, as it was when it first opened,” the firm’s president, M. G. Orender, told the Florida Times-Union. Hampton Golf has negotiated a free ride for the first seven years of the contract, unless the course’s annual revenues exceed $1.2 million. The company operates 15 other golf properties, 11 of them in Florida.
A black eye for golf in Vietnam: A golf course in greater Hanoi has banned the head of a government-owned company from its premises for a year, and it’s asking the rest of the nation’s courses to do the same. Nguyen Duc Son, the chairman of Hanoi Housing Management & Development Company, allegedly whacked a caddie on the head after he was given what he described as “an unnecessary reminder.” The caddie, who was carrying for another player, was briefly hospitalized. The Thanh Nien Daily reports that the incident has “attracted public attention,” with golf’s critics complaining that it reveals “the lifestyle of nouveau riche.”
Friday, November 1, 2013
Operations, november 1, 2013
The city of Pacific Grove, California is thinking about turning over its highly desirable golf property to the private sector. Pacific Grove Golf Links, an 81-year-old layout co-designed by Jack Neville and Chandler Egan, would surely generate interest among the nation’s management companies, for many people consider it to be “the poor man’s Pebble Beach.” Financially speaking, the course has been neither a boon nor a bane -- “It’s roughly breaking even,” Mayor Bill Kampe told the Monterey Herald -- but the city wonders whether professionals might improve its bottom line. Besides, it’ll soon need upgrades that the city can’t afford to pay for, including a conversion to reclaimed water. City officials plan to discuss their options next week.
Many residents of the Maldives fear that their island nation will soon be consumed by rising seas, but not Czech entrepreneurs Jiří and Radka Šmejc. The couple has created Velaa Private Island, a small, exclusive, one-of-a-kind resort on Fushivelavaru Island that they promise will provide “calm for the mind, nourishment for the body, and memories for the heart.” The place had better deliver all that and more, because the Telegraph reports that a night in the nicest accommodations will cost a vacationer $30,000. Velaa Private Island will have 48 villas and other places to stay, a spa, a restaurant, a champagne bar, and a golf academy designed by José María Olazábal. To manage the golf facility, the Šmejcs have hired Troon Golf, which promises “the most unique golf experience the world has to offer.” Velaa Private Island is expected to begin offering “the vacation of a lifetime” by the end of the year.
The Hudson County Improvement Authority has hired KemperSports to oversee the construction of a nine-hole, player-friendly course that will take shape on part of a reclaimed landfill in Jersey City, New Jersey. “They have a proven track record of building strong public awareness, working with local schools, and finding creative ways to attract residents and seniors to public courses,” said Norman Guerra, the authority’s CEO. Lincoln Park West Golf Course has been designed by Roy Case, a Royal Palm Beach, Florida-based architect who’s made a career of working on what he calls “difficult sites.” He’s done at least two courses on landfills, in Houston, Texas and West Palm Beach, Florida. When Lincoln Park West opens, most likely in the summer of 2015, KemperSports will operate it.
While KemperSports tends to the venture in New Jersey, it’s having trouble making ends meet at Palm Harbor Golf Club, a property owned by the city of Palm Coast, Florida. The Illinois-based management company, the self-described “most trusted name in golf,” took over the club’s operations in 2009, the year the city acquired it, and anticipated turning a profit by this year. However, the club hasn’t managed to finish in the black even once. Palm Harbor is expected to attract roughly 39,000 rounds of golf in the current fiscal year, down from about 44,000 in the year previous, and its loss will likely reach $100,000. KemperSports blames the deficits on hard times in the golf business and what the Palm Coast Observer calls “unfriendly weather.” But the firm insists that Palm Harbor won’t bleed red ink forever. In fact, it promises to turn a profit next year.
Changes are on the horizon at Vista Verde, an 825-acre golf community in Rio Verde, Arizona. Vista Verde’s new owner, an LLC with ties to TerraWest Communities, plans to change the community’s name, add an “amenity center,” upgrade its 18-hole, Ken Kavanaugh-designed golf course, and bring in OB Sports to oversee the golf operation. Mike Jesberger, the principal of TerraWest, told the Fountain Hills Times that OB Sports will assume management of the facility “in the near future.” Vista Verde was built in the mid 2000s to complement a pair of nearby communities, Rio Verde and Tonto Verde, both of which have 36-hole golf complexes. Vista Verde was also supposed to get a second 18, but TerraWest has declined to pursue the opportunity. TerraWest bought Vista Verde from a trust that includes David Ritchie, the community’s original developer, reportedly for $45 million.
It took nearly a year, but the city of Burbank, California has finalized a contract for the private operation of DeBell Golf Club. Scott Scozzola, the director of golf at the 27-hole complex, has relieved the city of a headache by agreeing to a lease that the Burbank Leader says obligates him to pay $300,000 annually. Shortly after he takes the helm, in January 2014, Scozzola will also provide the city with a capital improvement program, as the complex has several pressing needs. Only one problem: DeBell, which is paying off a loan used to build a $9.4 million clubhouse, doesn’t generate enough income to pay for the upgrades that ought to be done immediately, let alone the forthcoming work that will inevitably be required. So now the city has another headache: How to find $600,000, the estimated cost of the first wave of upgrades.
Many residents of the Maldives fear that their island nation will soon be consumed by rising seas, but not Czech entrepreneurs Jiří and Radka Šmejc. The couple has created Velaa Private Island, a small, exclusive, one-of-a-kind resort on Fushivelavaru Island that they promise will provide “calm for the mind, nourishment for the body, and memories for the heart.” The place had better deliver all that and more, because the Telegraph reports that a night in the nicest accommodations will cost a vacationer $30,000. Velaa Private Island will have 48 villas and other places to stay, a spa, a restaurant, a champagne bar, and a golf academy designed by José María Olazábal. To manage the golf facility, the Šmejcs have hired Troon Golf, which promises “the most unique golf experience the world has to offer.” Velaa Private Island is expected to begin offering “the vacation of a lifetime” by the end of the year.
The Hudson County Improvement Authority has hired KemperSports to oversee the construction of a nine-hole, player-friendly course that will take shape on part of a reclaimed landfill in Jersey City, New Jersey. “They have a proven track record of building strong public awareness, working with local schools, and finding creative ways to attract residents and seniors to public courses,” said Norman Guerra, the authority’s CEO. Lincoln Park West Golf Course has been designed by Roy Case, a Royal Palm Beach, Florida-based architect who’s made a career of working on what he calls “difficult sites.” He’s done at least two courses on landfills, in Houston, Texas and West Palm Beach, Florida. When Lincoln Park West opens, most likely in the summer of 2015, KemperSports will operate it.
While KemperSports tends to the venture in New Jersey, it’s having trouble making ends meet at Palm Harbor Golf Club, a property owned by the city of Palm Coast, Florida. The Illinois-based management company, the self-described “most trusted name in golf,” took over the club’s operations in 2009, the year the city acquired it, and anticipated turning a profit by this year. However, the club hasn’t managed to finish in the black even once. Palm Harbor is expected to attract roughly 39,000 rounds of golf in the current fiscal year, down from about 44,000 in the year previous, and its loss will likely reach $100,000. KemperSports blames the deficits on hard times in the golf business and what the Palm Coast Observer calls “unfriendly weather.” But the firm insists that Palm Harbor won’t bleed red ink forever. In fact, it promises to turn a profit next year.
Changes are on the horizon at Vista Verde, an 825-acre golf community in Rio Verde, Arizona. Vista Verde’s new owner, an LLC with ties to TerraWest Communities, plans to change the community’s name, add an “amenity center,” upgrade its 18-hole, Ken Kavanaugh-designed golf course, and bring in OB Sports to oversee the golf operation. Mike Jesberger, the principal of TerraWest, told the Fountain Hills Times that OB Sports will assume management of the facility “in the near future.” Vista Verde was built in the mid 2000s to complement a pair of nearby communities, Rio Verde and Tonto Verde, both of which have 36-hole golf complexes. Vista Verde was also supposed to get a second 18, but TerraWest has declined to pursue the opportunity. TerraWest bought Vista Verde from a trust that includes David Ritchie, the community’s original developer, reportedly for $45 million.
It took nearly a year, but the city of Burbank, California has finalized a contract for the private operation of DeBell Golf Club. Scott Scozzola, the director of golf at the 27-hole complex, has relieved the city of a headache by agreeing to a lease that the Burbank Leader says obligates him to pay $300,000 annually. Shortly after he takes the helm, in January 2014, Scozzola will also provide the city with a capital improvement program, as the complex has several pressing needs. Only one problem: DeBell, which is paying off a loan used to build a $9.4 million clubhouse, doesn’t generate enough income to pay for the upgrades that ought to be done immediately, let alone the forthcoming work that will inevitably be required. So now the city has another headache: How to find $600,000, the estimated cost of the first wave of upgrades.
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