Developers have their eye on San Luis Rey Downs Country Club, but not for the usual reasons. The Downs’ owners aim to sell their 185-acre property in suburban San Diego, California to a group that intends to strip away all vestiges of the golf course and restore the site to the condition it was in during the early 1940s. From there, the property can serve as a mitigation bank, and Conservation Land Group will be able to sell mitigation credits to developers and other entities needing to offset the environmental damage they create elsewhere. Residents who live near the club have protested, but at this point their arguments will carry weight only if they put a better offer on the table. And there doesn’t appear to be a compelling reason for them to do so. “The golf course has lost money each of the last nine years,” the club’s owner, Bill Thead, said at a recent public gathering. Roughly speaking, one acre of land equals one mitigation credit, and Conservation Land reportedly believes a credit will sell for anywhere between $20,000 and $200,000.
The asking price for Blarney Golf Resort, in County Cork, Ireland, is falling through the floor. The eight-year-old resort, which is said to be “no more than a stone’s throw” from the famous Blarney Stone outside the city of Cork, has been in the hands of receivers since 2009. The receivers were originally hoping to get €12.5 million ($17.4 million) for the 420-acre property -- it features a John Daly-designed golf course, a 61-room hotel, and meeting space -- but soon dropped their price to €10 million and then to €3.9 million. Today, it’s move-in ready for only €2.5 million ($3.47 million). The Irish Times reports that Blarney’s original owners spent more than €30 million ($41.6 million) to build the place.
Mount Vintage Plantation Golf Club, a 27-hole facility in North Augusta, South Carolina, shut its doors in early February. The Augusta Chronicle, citing “money woes,” says that “the future of the club is unknown.” The club almost bit the dust several years ago, before it was purchased by Mike Hooker in 2011. Hooker’s LLC tried to file for bankruptcy protection in January, but its petition wasn’t accepted.
The long, cold winter will be permanently extended for Sundance Golf & Bowl, a combination golf course and bowling alley in Dayton, Minnesota. The 44-year-old property, which is owned by Robert H. Allen and family, closed in late January. Its 18-hole golf course was designed by Ade Simonson, its original owner. The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports that Sundance is one of five golf properties in the Twin Cities that have closed since September 2013.
Last fall, a golf club in Suffolk, England that’s said to be “thriving, with a growing membership” turned itself over to administrators. The reason: The club’s operator, a group called Golf GB, has “historic debt” that it’s been “unable to service effectively.” The club has assumed a “business as usual” mentality while the administrators look for a buyer.
Eight years after it opened, a debt-riddled golf club in Ontario, Canada is facing an uncertain future. Receivers are now operating OslerBrook Golf & Country Club and searching for a buyer. They may not have to look far, because a group of members is trying to develop a rescue plan. “There is a deal to be done, and we’re confident that we’ll be golfing this year,” the group’s chairman told the Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin. The club, outside Collingwood, features a Graham Cooke-designed course that marketing materials say “combines the traditional elements of both parkland and links styles.”
Clouds are gathering over one of the more affordable 18-hole golf courses in the Valley of the Sun. The owner of Villa de Paz Golf Club, the centerpiece of a 40-year-old community in western Phoenix, Arizona, is said to be under financial stress and looking for a bail-out from a residential developer. One problem, according to KTVK-TV: Under the current zoning, the property must remain a golf course. Things can change, however, and some residents of the community have mobilized to fight a proposed rezoning.
The clock is ticking on the 18-hole golf course at the King’s Deer community outside Colorado Springs, Colorado. The 15-year-old, Scottish-inspired track, designed by Ric Buckton of Redstone Golf, was closed unexpectedly last month. “All of us thought things were going better,” a King’s Deer resident told KRDO-TV. “New memberships were being sold.” The golf course is now controlled by its lender, a bank in Nebraska, which intends to turn it over to receivers and then look for a buyer or lessee. The Colorado Springs Gazette says that residents in the accompanying community, based on conversations with the bankers, are “optimistic” that the course will reopen later this year. There apparently isn’t much chance of the course being redeveloped, as much of it is located in a floodplain.
A Toronto-based lender has foreclosed on a pair of golf properties in the Charlotte, North Carolina area owned by entities related to Jeff Silverstein. Court documents allege that Tradition Golf Club and the Divide Golf Club owe more than $26 million to affiliates of Romspen Investment Corporation. The foreclosure wasn’t unexpected, as Silverstein’s Carolina Trail properties have been under extreme financial duress for more than a year. Three other properties that are part of the trail -- the Highland Creek and Birkdale golf clubs in North Carolina and Waterford Golf Club in South Carolina -- are also in hock to Romspen, but they haven’t been foreclosed upon. Silverstein doesn’t intend to contest the proceedings.
The party’s over at Cypress Bay Golf Club, an 18-hole course on the Grand Strand in South Carolina that’s said to be “on the low end of green fees in the Myrtle Beach golf market.” Cypress Bay’s Russell Breeden-designed course opened in 1972. It was sold to a residential developer last year, and the new owner shut off the lights for good in late February. Development activities are expected to begin later this year, and houses will likely be on sale in mid 2015.
Cheval Golf & Country Club, the centerpiece of a gated, new-money community in suburban Tampa, Florida, has filed for bankruptcy protection. Cheval owes almost $5 million to various creditors, but the Tampa Bay Business Journal reports that it registered a slight uptick in revenues last year. “Golf memberships and revenue are now stabilized,” the Journal writes, “and the club believes it can successfully reorganize by restructuring the golf course loan and other financing agreements.” The club features an 18-hole, Steve Smyers-designed golf course that opened in 1985. Surrounding the course are 1,100 upscale houses, an equestrian center, and a large bronze horse.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Sunday, March 2, 2014
The Week That Was, march 2, 2014
Mike Keiser’s forthcoming golf complex in Rome is already having an impact on golf development in Wisconsin. Herb Kohler appears ready to green-light a fifth Pete Dye-designed course for his American Club in Sheboygan, and Andy Ziegler has unveiled a possible “short” or par-3 layout at Erin Hills in suburban Milwaukee. While those venues prepare for a more competitive future, it looks as if Keiser has settled on a near-term development plan for Sand Valley. According to the Golf Channel, the Chicago-based developer intends to build three golf courses over the next eight years.
At Chambers Bay, will two Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed courses be better than one? Bob Sonnenblick thinks so. The Los Angeles-based developer has proposed to build a clubhouse, a 220-room hotel, a conference center, and a complementary 18-hole track at the municipal venue outside Tacoma, Washington. Unlike Chambers Bay’s existing course, Jones’ second track will welcome carts. Sonnenblick has until mid June to line up financing, an issue that he doesn’t believe will be a problem. “There’s a lot of money around today for well-conceived, well-located, first-class projects,” he told the Tacoma News Tribune. If Sonnenblick gets all his ducks in line, construction could begin next summer, after the U.S. Open is contested at the facility.
Donning its green eye shades, the National Golf Foundation has tallied 4,050 private clubs in the United States, an 8 percent decline from the number (4,400) counted in 2008. The decline is only incidentally a function of a rotten economy, the NGF believes, and more a result of desperate revenue-seeking clubs opening up to the public. “Since 2008,” the group has concluded, “more than 400 changed their operating model from exclusively serving members and their guests to opening their doors (some a little, some a lot) to public play.” One other noteworthy fact: The NGF reports that the nation’s private golf clubs now have roughly 1.9 million members, a number it describes as “significantly below peak.”
The number of naturalist, destination-worthy golf courses in the pipeline on Tasmania may soon be reduced by one. Citing concerns about coastal erosion and evaporating water supplies, the Clarence City Council has nixed a proposed Mike Clayton-designed layout that was to be built at Seven Mile Beach, outside Hobart. The Hobart Mercury describes the council’s rejection as “a dramatic setback” but notes that the decision could be overturned by a local planning commission later this year. Mat Goggin, the course’s developer, hasn’t commented on the matter, but a spokesperson for his group warns that the project’s denial would compromise the island’s opportunity to become an international golf mecca. To tighten the screws, the spokesman claimed that Clayton, the co-designer of the first course at Barnbougle Dunes, believes the layout at Seven Mile Beach is “going to rate higher than Barnbougle.”
Australia’s foremost casino operator has purchased one of greater Melbourne’s high-profile, high-luxury golf properties. Crown Resorts reportedly paid $67.6 million ($60.2 million in U.S. currency) for Capital Golf Club, a sumptuous, 17-year-old property that features a Peter Thomson-designed golf course. Crown has managed the facility since it opened and has been angling to buy it for years. The seller was Lloyd Williams, a local developer who fashioned the track out of what’s been described as a flat, featureless site. He reportedly took his inspiration from Steve Wynn’s Shadow Creek Golf Club. Crown is controlled by James Packer, one of Australia’s richest people. Packer’s holdings include Ellerston Golf Club in New South Wales, which features one of Australia’s top-rated golf courses.
Singapore will lose part of its golf inventory in coming years, but local golf leaders believe that the popularity of the game will remain undiminished. In fact, Channel News Asia reports that the Singapore Golf Association “is confident that interest will continue to grow among amateurs and that there will be capacity to meet demand.” The number of golfers in the city-state has increased by 13 percent in recent years, according to the SGA, from 27,649 in 2009 to 35,785 in 2013.
Regarding the proposed rezoning and redevelopment of Hampshire Country Club: The village of Mamaroneck, New York has called the developer’s bluff. The village has denied a request for permission to build 121 condos and a parking lot on Hampshire’s property, potentially setting up a battle over the future of the club’s 18-hole, Devereux Emmet-designed golf course. The question now is whether the developer, a group controlled by Westport Capital Partners and New World Realty Advisors, will follow through on its threat to raze the course and replace it with 106 McMansions. The property is already zoned for a subdivision, but the Westchester Business Journal reports that local anti-development forces believe the proposal on the table “will not pass muster in terms of compliance with environmental impact reviews.” This is a dispute that has it all -- money, power, greed -- and is therefore definitely worth watching.
Slow play got you down? Looking for a way to speed things up? Maybe you should take a flyer on Wild Golf, a novelty golf game created by Wilderness Xtreme Sports. Wild Golf is played like traditional golf, but holes are won and lost according to the time it takes to play them, not by counting strokes. Players sprint to their balls as fast as they can and don’t waste precious seconds lining up their shots. “It’s tailor-made for today’s got-to-have-it-now, short-attention-span society,” one of the creators told the Southgate Press & Guide. One caveat, particularly for older golfers: Those par-5s can kill you.
At Chambers Bay, will two Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed courses be better than one? Bob Sonnenblick thinks so. The Los Angeles-based developer has proposed to build a clubhouse, a 220-room hotel, a conference center, and a complementary 18-hole track at the municipal venue outside Tacoma, Washington. Unlike Chambers Bay’s existing course, Jones’ second track will welcome carts. Sonnenblick has until mid June to line up financing, an issue that he doesn’t believe will be a problem. “There’s a lot of money around today for well-conceived, well-located, first-class projects,” he told the Tacoma News Tribune. If Sonnenblick gets all his ducks in line, construction could begin next summer, after the U.S. Open is contested at the facility.
Donning its green eye shades, the National Golf Foundation has tallied 4,050 private clubs in the United States, an 8 percent decline from the number (4,400) counted in 2008. The decline is only incidentally a function of a rotten economy, the NGF believes, and more a result of desperate revenue-seeking clubs opening up to the public. “Since 2008,” the group has concluded, “more than 400 changed their operating model from exclusively serving members and their guests to opening their doors (some a little, some a lot) to public play.” One other noteworthy fact: The NGF reports that the nation’s private golf clubs now have roughly 1.9 million members, a number it describes as “significantly below peak.”
The number of naturalist, destination-worthy golf courses in the pipeline on Tasmania may soon be reduced by one. Citing concerns about coastal erosion and evaporating water supplies, the Clarence City Council has nixed a proposed Mike Clayton-designed layout that was to be built at Seven Mile Beach, outside Hobart. The Hobart Mercury describes the council’s rejection as “a dramatic setback” but notes that the decision could be overturned by a local planning commission later this year. Mat Goggin, the course’s developer, hasn’t commented on the matter, but a spokesperson for his group warns that the project’s denial would compromise the island’s opportunity to become an international golf mecca. To tighten the screws, the spokesman claimed that Clayton, the co-designer of the first course at Barnbougle Dunes, believes the layout at Seven Mile Beach is “going to rate higher than Barnbougle.”
Australia’s foremost casino operator has purchased one of greater Melbourne’s high-profile, high-luxury golf properties. Crown Resorts reportedly paid $67.6 million ($60.2 million in U.S. currency) for Capital Golf Club, a sumptuous, 17-year-old property that features a Peter Thomson-designed golf course. Crown has managed the facility since it opened and has been angling to buy it for years. The seller was Lloyd Williams, a local developer who fashioned the track out of what’s been described as a flat, featureless site. He reportedly took his inspiration from Steve Wynn’s Shadow Creek Golf Club. Crown is controlled by James Packer, one of Australia’s richest people. Packer’s holdings include Ellerston Golf Club in New South Wales, which features one of Australia’s top-rated golf courses.
Singapore will lose part of its golf inventory in coming years, but local golf leaders believe that the popularity of the game will remain undiminished. In fact, Channel News Asia reports that the Singapore Golf Association “is confident that interest will continue to grow among amateurs and that there will be capacity to meet demand.” The number of golfers in the city-state has increased by 13 percent in recent years, according to the SGA, from 27,649 in 2009 to 35,785 in 2013.
Regarding the proposed rezoning and redevelopment of Hampshire Country Club: The village of Mamaroneck, New York has called the developer’s bluff. The village has denied a request for permission to build 121 condos and a parking lot on Hampshire’s property, potentially setting up a battle over the future of the club’s 18-hole, Devereux Emmet-designed golf course. The question now is whether the developer, a group controlled by Westport Capital Partners and New World Realty Advisors, will follow through on its threat to raze the course and replace it with 106 McMansions. The property is already zoned for a subdivision, but the Westchester Business Journal reports that local anti-development forces believe the proposal on the table “will not pass muster in terms of compliance with environmental impact reviews.” This is a dispute that has it all -- money, power, greed -- and is therefore definitely worth watching.
Slow play got you down? Looking for a way to speed things up? Maybe you should take a flyer on Wild Golf, a novelty golf game created by Wilderness Xtreme Sports. Wild Golf is played like traditional golf, but holes are won and lost according to the time it takes to play them, not by counting strokes. Players sprint to their balls as fast as they can and don’t waste precious seconds lining up their shots. “It’s tailor-made for today’s got-to-have-it-now, short-attention-span society,” one of the creators told the Southgate Press & Guide. One caveat, particularly for older golfers: Those par-5s can kill you.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Transactions, february 28, 2014
Greg Norman’s flat-lining golf community in Loudoun County, Tennessee has finally found a buyer. An affiliate of The PNL Companies, a Dallas, Texas-based group that invests in troubled real estate, has acquired Tennessee National, a 1,450-acre waterfront spread that opened in 2006. As part of their effort to get the development ball rolling again, the new owners plan to build a long-awaited marina on Watts Bar Lake and unveil some new housing options for the gated community. Tennessee National was initiated by John “Thunder” Thornton, a Chattanooga-based developer, and Medallist Development, a firm created by Norman and Macquarie Bank. The partners put the property up for sale in 2010, shortly after one of their sales pitches -- one that offered a chance to buy lakefront property for “pennies on the dollar!” -- failed to strike a nerve.
An auctioneer without any golf experience is the new owner of Weatherwax Golf Course, a money-losing municipal venue in Middletown, Ohio. Myron Bowling told the Hamilton Journal-News that he’s “never held a golf club” and doesn’t expect to take up the sport anytime soon. To get the 36-hole, Arthur Hills-designed golf complex back on its financial feet, Bowling said, he and his partners plan to cut costs and invest in improvements that will attract local golfers. No specifics were offered. The city accepted $1.6 million for the 425-acre property. After it deducts the sales commission ($80,000), pays off the debt on the complex’s bonds ($750,000) and its golf carts ($502,644), and springs for some purchaser-requested odds and ends ($30,000), Middletown will pocket $95,000.
A Hong Kong-based movie producer and soccer addict has made a small splash in Bulgaria’s tiny golf business. Steven Lo, the chairman of BMA Entertainment Holdings, Ltd., has acquired St. Sofia Golf Club, one of the capital city’s (and the nation’s) most prominent golf properties. St. Sofia’s 18-hole course opened in 2004 and was redesigned by Paul McGinley in 2012. Before the Gary Player-designed courses at BlackSeaRama and Thracian Cliffs opened, it was generally regarded as the nation’s top golf property. Lo owns a soccer team in Hong Kong and serves as the vice chairman of the city’s football association, and he has a passion for horse racing. BMA owns a bunch of movie theaters and is involved in a variety of arts- and sports-related activities, among them music production, book publishing, and celebrity management. It appears that the purchase of St. Sofia is Lo’s first move into the golf business, and there’s no reason to believe that it’ll be his last.
A Chinese investor has purchased Chalet Hills Golf Club, a financially challenged property in Cary, Illinois. In a transaction that closed late last year, Leli Zhou reportedly paid $1.55 million for Chalet Hills, which has been operated by a receiver since 2011. The receiver, operating on behalf of a Chicago-area bank, was hoping to get $2.75 million. Chalet Hills features an 18-hole layout that was designed by Ken Killian, who once called it “the greatest course I have ever designed.” Chris Charnas, the broker who facilitated the transaction, believes that Zhou will employ “a fresh approach to marketing” and “should be able to reinvigorate the asset.” In 2012, the Cary Park District had considering buying the course but passed on the opportunity.
On the final day of 2013, an Edmonton-based trailer-manufacturing company took possession of its first golf property. Denille Industries, Ltd., which operates as Auburn Rentals, bought Shadow Mountain Golf Course, a distressed facility in Cranbrook, British Columbia. Shadow Mountain features an 18-hole, Wayne Carleton-designed course that opened in 2009. “We have some plans of diversifying into land development,” a company official told the Cranbrook Daily Townsman, “and this golf course was kind of phase one of our future goals and visions of diversification.” Shadow Mountain, which rang up 19,000 rounds in 2012, has been operated by a receiver since January 2013. The sales price hasn’t been announced, but the receiver was asking for $3.75 million.
Late last year, the village of Homer Glen, Illinois closed on the largest land purchase in its history. The Chicago Tribune reports that the village paid $3.3 million for Woodbine Golf Course, a 106-acre spread that features an 18-hole, Gordon Cunningham-designed layout. The sellers, Jim and Patricia Ludwig, are said to be eagerly looking forward to retirement and, presumably, equally happy to avoid a bankruptcy filing. The course will operate through the 2014 season and then most likely disappear. The village thinks it’ll make an ideal park.
Canada’s premier golf operator has added to its inventory in Ontario. ClubLink has purchased Hidden Lake Golf Club, a 36-hole facility that occupies roughly 500 acres in Burlington. The Burlington Post describes Hidden Lake as “a strategically located, successful course” and one of the area’s most popular. George Tidd, one of the sellers, credited the facility’s success to “offering the public golfer a great experience at an affordable fee.” ClubLink owns and operates more than three dozen golf properties in Ontario and Quebec and several others in Florida.
Jacksonville, Florida-based Arendale Holdings has become the sole owner of the Cliffs Communities, a cluster of seven flamed-out, high-end golf communities in the Carolinas. “We believe the Cliffs is poised for a vibrant future for its residents, club members, and employees,” an Arendale spokesperson said in a press release. Operating as Silver Sun Partners LLC, Arendale and its former partners -- the Carlile Group and SunTx Urbana -- freed the Cliffs collection from bankruptcy protection in 2012. Arendale acquired the interests of its partners in late December 2013. Sadly, the press release didn’t address the development prospects for the Cliffs at High Carolina, a community outside Asheville, North Carolina that was supposed to feature Tiger Woods’ first U.S. golf design. High Carolina may not have much of a future, but it sure was fun while it lasted.
An auctioneer without any golf experience is the new owner of Weatherwax Golf Course, a money-losing municipal venue in Middletown, Ohio. Myron Bowling told the Hamilton Journal-News that he’s “never held a golf club” and doesn’t expect to take up the sport anytime soon. To get the 36-hole, Arthur Hills-designed golf complex back on its financial feet, Bowling said, he and his partners plan to cut costs and invest in improvements that will attract local golfers. No specifics were offered. The city accepted $1.6 million for the 425-acre property. After it deducts the sales commission ($80,000), pays off the debt on the complex’s bonds ($750,000) and its golf carts ($502,644), and springs for some purchaser-requested odds and ends ($30,000), Middletown will pocket $95,000.
A Hong Kong-based movie producer and soccer addict has made a small splash in Bulgaria’s tiny golf business. Steven Lo, the chairman of BMA Entertainment Holdings, Ltd., has acquired St. Sofia Golf Club, one of the capital city’s (and the nation’s) most prominent golf properties. St. Sofia’s 18-hole course opened in 2004 and was redesigned by Paul McGinley in 2012. Before the Gary Player-designed courses at BlackSeaRama and Thracian Cliffs opened, it was generally regarded as the nation’s top golf property. Lo owns a soccer team in Hong Kong and serves as the vice chairman of the city’s football association, and he has a passion for horse racing. BMA owns a bunch of movie theaters and is involved in a variety of arts- and sports-related activities, among them music production, book publishing, and celebrity management. It appears that the purchase of St. Sofia is Lo’s first move into the golf business, and there’s no reason to believe that it’ll be his last.
A Chinese investor has purchased Chalet Hills Golf Club, a financially challenged property in Cary, Illinois. In a transaction that closed late last year, Leli Zhou reportedly paid $1.55 million for Chalet Hills, which has been operated by a receiver since 2011. The receiver, operating on behalf of a Chicago-area bank, was hoping to get $2.75 million. Chalet Hills features an 18-hole layout that was designed by Ken Killian, who once called it “the greatest course I have ever designed.” Chris Charnas, the broker who facilitated the transaction, believes that Zhou will employ “a fresh approach to marketing” and “should be able to reinvigorate the asset.” In 2012, the Cary Park District had considering buying the course but passed on the opportunity.
On the final day of 2013, an Edmonton-based trailer-manufacturing company took possession of its first golf property. Denille Industries, Ltd., which operates as Auburn Rentals, bought Shadow Mountain Golf Course, a distressed facility in Cranbrook, British Columbia. Shadow Mountain features an 18-hole, Wayne Carleton-designed course that opened in 2009. “We have some plans of diversifying into land development,” a company official told the Cranbrook Daily Townsman, “and this golf course was kind of phase one of our future goals and visions of diversification.” Shadow Mountain, which rang up 19,000 rounds in 2012, has been operated by a receiver since January 2013. The sales price hasn’t been announced, but the receiver was asking for $3.75 million.
Late last year, the village of Homer Glen, Illinois closed on the largest land purchase in its history. The Chicago Tribune reports that the village paid $3.3 million for Woodbine Golf Course, a 106-acre spread that features an 18-hole, Gordon Cunningham-designed layout. The sellers, Jim and Patricia Ludwig, are said to be eagerly looking forward to retirement and, presumably, equally happy to avoid a bankruptcy filing. The course will operate through the 2014 season and then most likely disappear. The village thinks it’ll make an ideal park.
Canada’s premier golf operator has added to its inventory in Ontario. ClubLink has purchased Hidden Lake Golf Club, a 36-hole facility that occupies roughly 500 acres in Burlington. The Burlington Post describes Hidden Lake as “a strategically located, successful course” and one of the area’s most popular. George Tidd, one of the sellers, credited the facility’s success to “offering the public golfer a great experience at an affordable fee.” ClubLink owns and operates more than three dozen golf properties in Ontario and Quebec and several others in Florida.
Jacksonville, Florida-based Arendale Holdings has become the sole owner of the Cliffs Communities, a cluster of seven flamed-out, high-end golf communities in the Carolinas. “We believe the Cliffs is poised for a vibrant future for its residents, club members, and employees,” an Arendale spokesperson said in a press release. Operating as Silver Sun Partners LLC, Arendale and its former partners -- the Carlile Group and SunTx Urbana -- freed the Cliffs collection from bankruptcy protection in 2012. Arendale acquired the interests of its partners in late December 2013. Sadly, the press release didn’t address the development prospects for the Cliffs at High Carolina, a community outside Asheville, North Carolina that was supposed to feature Tiger Woods’ first U.S. golf design. High Carolina may not have much of a future, but it sure was fun while it lasted.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
The Week That Was, february 23, 2014
After crunching the relevant financial numbers and weighing the likely impact of economic trends, the National Golf & Resort Properties Group has concluded that “the golf industry has turned the corner.” Steven Ekovich, one of the group’s founders, believes that “brighter days are ahead,” thanks largely to strong corporate earnings that have increased consumer confidence, particularly among wealthy Americans. “The better a golfer feels,” Ekovich writes, “the more likely cost of play becomes less of an impediment to hitting the links.” He suggests that private clubs will benefit before daily-fee tracks do, because their members “tend to be more invested in the stock market, better educated, and better off than your average public, occasional golfer.” It’s an argument we’ve heard before, and one that rings particularly true in our industry: As the wealthiest go, so goes golf.
Water resources in California may be running dry, but a desert community in the Borrego Valley nonetheless plans to quench the thirst of a Tom Fazio-designed golf course that was forced to close three years ago. The Borrego Water District has agreed to provide water to the owners of Rams Hill, a long-troubled planned community located roughly midway between Escondido and the Salton Sea. In exchange, the developers have promised to buy hundreds of acres of grapefruit and palm-tree groves and to let them go fallow. “We need the golf courses,” the head of the local chamber of commerce told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Golf courses bring in people with disposable income.” The developers aim to turn on the taps as soon as they can and to reopen the golf course in November.
An expiration date is on the horizon for several golf properties in land-scarce Singapore. The city-state’s government doesn’t plan to renew the ground leases on Keppel Club and Marina Bay Golf Club, both of which will expire within a decade, and three other venues will need to give up some of their property (including one of the four 18-hole golf courses at Singapore Island Country Club) before their leases are renewed. The government is taking the action to prepare for the future, as a housing shortage is looming in the former British settlement. By reducing supply, the closings will increase the value (and price) of club memberships in Singapore, which currently has 14 private clubs and three public tracks.
Conservative lawmakers in Utah are angling to turn over the state’s golf properties to the private sector. A representative in Utah County has introduced legislation that would force the state’s division of parks and recreation to privatize its four properties (a total of six golf courses), with a request for proposals to be issued by October 15, 2014. The legislation runs counter to advice offered by the National Golf Foundation in 2012, after it evaluated the state’s golf operations. The NGF recommended that “the present self-operation system should be continued” through the 2015 fiscal year, with privatization to be considered only if the golf operation’s financial picture doesn’t improve. The NGF’s analysts believe that “these golf courses are important to the state of Utah and add value to the state’s overall park system.” Why don’t the state’s elected officials see things the same way?
Pacific Links International, the Chinese-Canadian company that’s rapidly becoming a force in U.S. golf, has closed on its purchase of DragonRidge Country Club. DragonRidge, a 12-year-old property in Henderson, features an 18-hole course co-designed by Jay Morrish and David Druzisky. PLI, a group led by Du Sha, owns two other golf properties in the Las Vegas area, SouthShore Golf Club and Southern Highlands Golf Club, both of which were acquired in 2011. It aims to buy at least five properties in and around the city, so it can offer week-long golf vacations to the people in its fast-growing membership club. The company also owns five courses in Hawaii and one each in California and West Virginia.
Regarding the Trump Organization’s recent purchase of the Lodge at Doonbeg, in County Clare, Ireland, one question remains unanswered: What was the selling price? Various sources peg it at €15 million or £12.4 million (both about $20.6 million), which was the amount that the resort’s receivers were asking for. As for Donald Trump himself, he’s letting on like he got himself a bargain. “In some of our places in Manhattan,” he told the Irish Independent, “it wouldn’t get you an apartment.”
More than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and 50 years after the Civil Rights Act, Dallas Country Club has finally admitted its first local black member. He is Kneeland Youngblood, a graduate of Princeton University and a long-time physician who co-founded Pharos Capital Group, which today has more than $1 billion in assets under management. Youngblood has been active in politics since the age of 14, and he currently serves on the boards of several corporations, among them Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Burger King, and The Gap, Inc. Youngblood formally applied for membership to the club 13 years ago. He now has the privilege of paying a $137,000 initiation fee.
Water resources in California may be running dry, but a desert community in the Borrego Valley nonetheless plans to quench the thirst of a Tom Fazio-designed golf course that was forced to close three years ago. The Borrego Water District has agreed to provide water to the owners of Rams Hill, a long-troubled planned community located roughly midway between Escondido and the Salton Sea. In exchange, the developers have promised to buy hundreds of acres of grapefruit and palm-tree groves and to let them go fallow. “We need the golf courses,” the head of the local chamber of commerce told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Golf courses bring in people with disposable income.” The developers aim to turn on the taps as soon as they can and to reopen the golf course in November.
An expiration date is on the horizon for several golf properties in land-scarce Singapore. The city-state’s government doesn’t plan to renew the ground leases on Keppel Club and Marina Bay Golf Club, both of which will expire within a decade, and three other venues will need to give up some of their property (including one of the four 18-hole golf courses at Singapore Island Country Club) before their leases are renewed. The government is taking the action to prepare for the future, as a housing shortage is looming in the former British settlement. By reducing supply, the closings will increase the value (and price) of club memberships in Singapore, which currently has 14 private clubs and three public tracks.
Conservative lawmakers in Utah are angling to turn over the state’s golf properties to the private sector. A representative in Utah County has introduced legislation that would force the state’s division of parks and recreation to privatize its four properties (a total of six golf courses), with a request for proposals to be issued by October 15, 2014. The legislation runs counter to advice offered by the National Golf Foundation in 2012, after it evaluated the state’s golf operations. The NGF recommended that “the present self-operation system should be continued” through the 2015 fiscal year, with privatization to be considered only if the golf operation’s financial picture doesn’t improve. The NGF’s analysts believe that “these golf courses are important to the state of Utah and add value to the state’s overall park system.” Why don’t the state’s elected officials see things the same way?
Pacific Links International, the Chinese-Canadian company that’s rapidly becoming a force in U.S. golf, has closed on its purchase of DragonRidge Country Club. DragonRidge, a 12-year-old property in Henderson, features an 18-hole course co-designed by Jay Morrish and David Druzisky. PLI, a group led by Du Sha, owns two other golf properties in the Las Vegas area, SouthShore Golf Club and Southern Highlands Golf Club, both of which were acquired in 2011. It aims to buy at least five properties in and around the city, so it can offer week-long golf vacations to the people in its fast-growing membership club. The company also owns five courses in Hawaii and one each in California and West Virginia.
Regarding the Trump Organization’s recent purchase of the Lodge at Doonbeg, in County Clare, Ireland, one question remains unanswered: What was the selling price? Various sources peg it at €15 million or £12.4 million (both about $20.6 million), which was the amount that the resort’s receivers were asking for. As for Donald Trump himself, he’s letting on like he got himself a bargain. “In some of our places in Manhattan,” he told the Irish Independent, “it wouldn’t get you an apartment.”
More than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and 50 years after the Civil Rights Act, Dallas Country Club has finally admitted its first local black member. He is Kneeland Youngblood, a graduate of Princeton University and a long-time physician who co-founded Pharos Capital Group, which today has more than $1 billion in assets under management. Youngblood has been active in politics since the age of 14, and he currently serves on the boards of several corporations, among them Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Burger King, and The Gap, Inc. Youngblood formally applied for membership to the club 13 years ago. He now has the privilege of paying a $137,000 initiation fee.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Vital Signs, february 21, 2014
After three consecutive years of declines in attendance, the crowds were a bit larger at this year’s Golf Industry Show. The event, held earlier this month in Orlando, Florida, attracted 14,147 people, an increase of 8 percent over the number recorded in 2013. The show’s audience had been shrinking since 2011, when 14,781 people came through the gates. In terms of attendance, the show’s high-water mark came in 2007, when it attracted 23,109 people.
Like their U.S. counterparts, golf clubs in the United Kingdom are populated mostly by people who are going gray. According to a survey by Sky Sports News, the dominant age group at more than 80 percent of the U.K.’s clubs consists of people over 50, while only 1 percent of the clubs claim a membership dominated by people aged between 31 and 40. The survey, which polled 254 clubs, also determined that 70 percent have lost members over the past five years.
The United States has roughly three times as many golfers as Japan -- 24.5 million versus 8 million -- but the Japanese spend more on apparel, according to the U.S./Japan World Golf Market Report. When apparel and equipments sales are combined, however, U.S. purchases amounted to $5.1 billion in 2013, while Japanese purchases totaled $3.7 billion.
When it comes to deferred capital investment, the past inevitably catches up with municipal golf operations. To quote an ancient television commercial: You can pay me now, or you can pay me later. This is where the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota currently finds itself, as its six golf properties require an estimated $34 million in improvements to remain competitive in their markets. Jim Keegan of Golf Convergence, who was hired to analyze the collection, has advised the city to close one of the deteriorating properties and spiff up the others, but where is the money supposed to come from? Although a master plan for renovations is currently being developed, the city may be forced to seek help from the private sector.
Golf developers looking to make a mark in India might be wise to avoid Goa. The state reportedly attracts more than 2.5 million vacationers annually, but its coastline is suffering as a result. In 2011, a report by India’s National Institute of Oceanography concluded that Goa’s coastal waters were unsafe for bathing and fishing. And Down To Earth, citing a government study issued in 2012, reports that “the state’s beaches are degrading, groundwater table is going down, and there is lack of sewerage and solid waste management.” India’s tourism officials have been eagerly touting Goa’s golf-development prospects for years, but the tourist traffic will disappear without the state’s famous, welcoming beaches.
Chinese tourists are the world’s biggest spenders, and recent trends suggest that more than 100 million of them will be globe-hopping this year. Agence France Presse reports that 97 million Chinese traveled to other nations in 2013, a nearly 17 percent increase from the 83 million who went abroad in 2012. To put these numbers into perspective, the nation had just 29 million outbound travelers in 2004. And nowadays, they don’t travel cheap. “Chinese tourists spend so much abroad,” a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the news agency, “that some foreigners are calling us ‘walking wallets.’” The amount they spent in 2013 isn’t available, but it amounted to $102 billion in 2012, and AFP asserts that they were “almost certain to have surpassed that record last year.”
For years, Croatia’s tourism officials have been trying in vain to persuade developers to add dozens of courses to the nation’s inventory. Now they may have some ammunition to help spark golf construction: The nation attracted 12.4 million tourists last year, a record number and 5.5 percent more than it welcomed in 2012. Croatia may not yet generate enough tourist traffic to support even 10 more courses, but it can probably use more than the five it currently has.
The U.S. military operates 194 golf properties, according to a count by Mother Jones. The vast majority are located on air force, army, and navy bases in the United States, though roughly 30 can be found at installations in Germany, Japan, South Korea, and seven other nations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.
Like their U.S. counterparts, golf clubs in the United Kingdom are populated mostly by people who are going gray. According to a survey by Sky Sports News, the dominant age group at more than 80 percent of the U.K.’s clubs consists of people over 50, while only 1 percent of the clubs claim a membership dominated by people aged between 31 and 40. The survey, which polled 254 clubs, also determined that 70 percent have lost members over the past five years.
The United States has roughly three times as many golfers as Japan -- 24.5 million versus 8 million -- but the Japanese spend more on apparel, according to the U.S./Japan World Golf Market Report. When apparel and equipments sales are combined, however, U.S. purchases amounted to $5.1 billion in 2013, while Japanese purchases totaled $3.7 billion.
When it comes to deferred capital investment, the past inevitably catches up with municipal golf operations. To quote an ancient television commercial: You can pay me now, or you can pay me later. This is where the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota currently finds itself, as its six golf properties require an estimated $34 million in improvements to remain competitive in their markets. Jim Keegan of Golf Convergence, who was hired to analyze the collection, has advised the city to close one of the deteriorating properties and spiff up the others, but where is the money supposed to come from? Although a master plan for renovations is currently being developed, the city may be forced to seek help from the private sector.
Golf developers looking to make a mark in India might be wise to avoid Goa. The state reportedly attracts more than 2.5 million vacationers annually, but its coastline is suffering as a result. In 2011, a report by India’s National Institute of Oceanography concluded that Goa’s coastal waters were unsafe for bathing and fishing. And Down To Earth, citing a government study issued in 2012, reports that “the state’s beaches are degrading, groundwater table is going down, and there is lack of sewerage and solid waste management.” India’s tourism officials have been eagerly touting Goa’s golf-development prospects for years, but the tourist traffic will disappear without the state’s famous, welcoming beaches.
Chinese tourists are the world’s biggest spenders, and recent trends suggest that more than 100 million of them will be globe-hopping this year. Agence France Presse reports that 97 million Chinese traveled to other nations in 2013, a nearly 17 percent increase from the 83 million who went abroad in 2012. To put these numbers into perspective, the nation had just 29 million outbound travelers in 2004. And nowadays, they don’t travel cheap. “Chinese tourists spend so much abroad,” a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the news agency, “that some foreigners are calling us ‘walking wallets.’” The amount they spent in 2013 isn’t available, but it amounted to $102 billion in 2012, and AFP asserts that they were “almost certain to have surpassed that record last year.”
For years, Croatia’s tourism officials have been trying in vain to persuade developers to add dozens of courses to the nation’s inventory. Now they may have some ammunition to help spark golf construction: The nation attracted 12.4 million tourists last year, a record number and 5.5 percent more than it welcomed in 2012. Croatia may not yet generate enough tourist traffic to support even 10 more courses, but it can probably use more than the five it currently has.
The U.S. military operates 194 golf properties, according to a count by Mother Jones. The vast majority are located on air force, army, and navy bases in the United States, though roughly 30 can be found at installations in Germany, Japan, South Korea, and seven other nations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.
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