The Year That Was, december 29, 2013

Part 1: Of Mice & Men

     After crunching numbers with statisticians from Clarkson University, in 2013 Barney Adams concluded that golf participation in the United States will fall dramatically -- perhaps by as much as 50 percent -- over the next 30 years or so. “The long-term forecast stinks,” said the founder of Adams Golf. Adams’ prediction has been dismissed by golf’s institutional powers, but a question lingers: What if he’s right? Because if he is, the implications for golf are grave. Today we bemoan the fact that we have only about 25 million golfers. Would you like to try on 20 million for size? Do you think we could squeeze into a 15?

      You know you’ve reached the pinnacle of your profession when you can claim commissions from both Mike Keiser and Donald Trump. And that’s only part of what Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw did in 2013. On top of agreeing to design tracks for Keiser in Wisconsin and Trump in Virginia, Coore & Crenshaw broke ground on a layout in Nova Scotia, worked up a routing for a PGA Tour-worthy track in Texas, and saw its course in China crack Golf magazine’s top 100.

     While most other golf developers remain curled up in the fetal position, the nation’s most courageous developer continues to thrive. Mike Keiser announced a sixth course for Bandon Dunes, mused about creating a Bandon-like complex on a mystery site north of the existing resort, outlined plans to build “the Pine Valley of the Midwest” in Wisconsin, broke ground on a second course at Cabot Links, and secured approval for the pseudo-municipal complex he aims to build south of Bandon Dunes. When does he get his career achievement award?

     As the demand for “lifestyle” golf has waned, celebrity and “signature” architects have scrambled to find new sources of income. In 2013, Jack Nicklaus agreed to put his name on sunglasses, golf balls, and a line of apparel produced by Perry Ellis International. PEI asserted that its contract would “take Jack’s legacy to the next level,” but that’s true only if the next level is a step down.

     Why is George O’Grady still the CEO of the European Tour? If O’Grady truly believes that “any hint” of racism “has no place on the European Tour,” he should have disciplined Sergio Garcia for making Tiger Woods the butt of an offensive joke about fried chicken. Even a short, ultimately meaningless suspension would have signaled that the business of professional golf takes this issue seriously. Instead, O’Grady forgave and forgot, ensuring that golf’s darkest proclivity would live on. Is it any wonder that golf has trouble attracting minorities?

     At the age of 77, Gary Player became the oldest athlete to pose nude for ESPN the Magazine.

     In 2013, Donald Trump enhanced his reputation as a golf developer with few peers. He wrapped up his overhaul of the Blue Monster at Doral, gave the green light to his second course in Aberdeenshire, completed the major construction at the city of New York’s layout in Ferry Point Park, broke ground on a Gil Hanse-designed track in Dubai, proposed to build a Coore & Crenshaw course in Virginia, and floated an idea for a third company-owned course in New York. If he hadn’t wasted so much time tilting at Scottish windmills, he might have achieved even more.

Part 2: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

     In 2013, only 119 years after it was established, the U.S. Golf Association figured out that slow play is bad for golf.

     The PGA Tour rendered its verdict on anchored putting, revealed plans for TPC Shanghai, and, most importantly, identified new worlds to conquer. The new worlds are in Europe and Asia, as Tim Finchem and his fellow empire builders initiated efforts to take control of the financially drained European Tour and decided to underwrite 12 events in China beginning in 2014. Since they already control the Canadian Tour and PGA Tour Latinoamerica, it’s easy to see the broad outlines of a World PGA Tour taking shape. And yes, Greg Norman is justifiably steamed.

     It was bad enough that Sergio Garcia made a self-acknowledged “totally stupid” joke about serving fried chicken to the only African-American golfer on the PGA Tour. What made it worse was

that he went over to the dark side at a big dinner party attended by virtually every VIP in golf, and not one of them raised a public stink. This sad incident is no laughing matter, because the joke is ultimately on us.

     As part of an effort to provide its sports network with live programming, in 2013 Fox Sports purchased the rights to broadcast the U.S. Golf Association’s national championships, including the U.S. Open, the U.S. Women’s Open, and the U.S. Senior Open. The price, according to Golf Digest, is $93 million a year for 12 years, a windfall if there ever was one. If things don’t get better for golf pretty darned soon, the USGA’s only excuse will be a poverty of ideas.

     By becoming an advisor to China’s national golf program, Greg Norman found yet another way to market himself. In related sports news, Dennis Rodman became an advisor to North Korea’s national basketball program.

     In an attempt to shore up its bottom line, ClubCorp went public. The nation’s largest owner of private golf properties raised $252 million, money that it’ll use to retire some of the debt that’s slowed its growth.

     The First Tee concluded a fundraising campaign that raised more than $100 million, money that will enable it to teach its “core values” to 10 million children by 2017. Unfortunately, the self-proclaimed “force for good in today’s society” has failed to grow the game, as today our nation has fewer junior golfers (2.5 million) than it did in the mid 1990s (2.8 million), before the group was created.

     In 2013, Pacific Links International established itself as a force that U.S. golf can’t ignore. The Chinese-Canadian company added to its U.S. portfolio by purchasing its first course in California and agreeing to buy its third in Las Vegas, and it inked a deal to provide its vacation club members with access to more than two dozen properties in the PGA Tour’s TPC network. And more growth is on the horizon, because within three years the company aims to offer its members an international stable of 200 properties.

     An estimated 200 golf properties changed hands in 2013, and three of the transactions can legitimately be described as blockbusters. The government of Singapore’s investment arm reportedly paid $1.5 billion for properties that include PGA West, La Quinta Resort & Club, and the Great White track at Doral. Omni Hotels & Resorts picked up five top-of-the-market resorts, among them the Homestead in Virginia, Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Texas, and La Costa Resort & Spa in California. And, in a deal that was scheduled to close by the end of the year, Arcis Equity Partners agreed to buy American Golf Corporation, which owned close to 100 U.S. properties.

     Despite complaints from a surprisingly small number of architects, in 2013 the Old Course at St. Andrews was renovated. So far, the modifications don’t appear to have damaged the layout’s standing with critics or its ranking among the world’s elite.

     The long-simmering debate over men-only golf clubs came to a boil in Scotland, as the nation’s top government official refused to attend the Open Championship in protest of Muirfield’s discriminatory membership. In response, the Royal & Ancient promised to reconsider its practice of awarding golf’s premier championship to all-male clubs such as Muirfield, Royal Troon, and Royal St. George’s. That was in August. The R&A still hasn’t announced its decision.

Part 3: Words of Wisdom

    “If golf were invented today, it would be a nine-hole game.” -- Jerry Tarde, Golf Digest’s editor in chief

     “We’re scared to open our mouths in case we say something that isn’t kosher in 2013. Somebody should tell us what to say, because no one is quite sure what’s right and wrong.” -- Colin Montgomerie, in defense of Sergio Garcia

     “We believe food is going to be the new golf” -- Davis Senza, the CEO of Cliffs Communities’ new management group

Part 4: Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics

     The number of U.S. golfers continues to fall, though the pace of the decline has eased. According to a brief from Pellucid Corporation, the golf industry lost nearly 2 million players in 2011 and 400,000 in 2012. Pellucid estimates the total number still standing is something over 24 million, while the National Golf Foundation counts 25.3 million.

     In 2013, U.S. golf courses didn’t get the weather-related bump they got in 2012. Through September, the number of rounds played nationally was down by 5.2 percent, and the National Golf Foundation suggests that the industry will record a 4 percent decline at year’s end.

     The hottest golf market on earth is no longer churning out courses the way it used to. In China, 52 new courses opened in 2010, 45 in 2011, and 39 in 2012, according to figures provided by Forward Management Group. The Chinese deserve credit for opening roughly 600 courses since 1984, but at the current pace the nation’s inventory won’t hit 1,000 until 2023.

     If a Canadian group’s calculations about net worth are accurate, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods are, among golfers, in a class of

their own. Palmer is worth $675 million, according to The Richest, while Woods is worth $600 million. Greg Norman checks in at number three ($300 million), followed closely by Jack Nicklaus ($280 million) and distantly by Phil Mickelson ($180 million).

     In a reflection of continued hard times for golf architects, Greg Norman cut his design fee by roughly 30 percent, from $1.25 million to $900,000, according to Forbes Life.

     Nearly 1,300 U.S. golf properties have been sold since 2007, said the National Golf Foundation.

Part 5: May They Rest in Peace

     Lloyd Clifton capitalized on Florida’s residential boom of the late 1980s and 1990s like few of his contemporaries. His architectural career is exemplified by the work he did at the Villages, a huge retirement community near Leesburg, where he and his partners in Clifton Ezell & Clifton Golf Design Group have so far produced or co-produced 11 “championship” venues and 30 nine-hole, executive-length tracks. They’ve also designed more than 40 other courses in the state, among them Grey Oaks Golf & Country Club in Naples, Hunters Creek Golf Course in Orlando, and Remington Golf & Country Club in Kissimmee. Clifton was 89.

     Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, one of the best-known and most-liked people in Europe’s golf business, died in Marbella, Spain at the age of 82. “In many ways, he has been the ‘soul’ of golf in Europe,” the vice chairman of the European Tour said in an obituary. Ortiz-Patiño’s major legacy is Club de Golf Valderrama, his destination golf course in Andalusia, the venue where the Ryder Cup matches were first played in continental Europe. Those matches, in 1997, put the Costa del Sol on the world’s golf map.

     David Pfaff, who worked for both Pete Dye and Landmark Land Company, established his own firm in the mid 1990s but didn’t really make a name for himself until last year, when Royal Isabela Golf Course in Puerto Rico was unveiled. The Golf Channel called the track “possibly the most interesting golf course in the world,” and Forbes said “it is impossible not to be moved” by it. Pfaff was hoping to design Royal Isabela’s second course, but he died while on a golf holiday in New Mexico at the age of 74.

     Dave Thomas was a major influence on the golf industry in Great Britain and Europe. He turned pro in 1949 and played on four

Ryder Cup teams before arthritis prematurely ended his career. Later, as a golf architect, he designed or redesigned a reported 100 courses, among them the Belfry’s Brabazon track, which has hosted four Ryder Cup championships -- more than any other layout on earth. It also seems that he enjoyed himself when he wasn’t working. “He was good company and over-indulged, certainly on good food and good wine,” recalled Peter Alliss, an occasional design collaborator. “How he lived to be 79 is a miracle of the human spirit.”

      Ernie Vossler had a hand in creating one of the most enviable development portfolios in golf history. With colleagues at Landmark Land Company and Landmark Golf Company, Vossler developed at least a dozen golf courses at some of the best-known golf communities in Southern California’s Coachella Valley, among them PGA West, La Quinta Resort & Club, and Mission Hills Country Club. Elsewhere, the group’s creations included Kiawah Island in South Carolina, Palm Beach Polo & Country Club in Florida, and Oak Tree Golf Club in Oklahoma. Vossler died at 84, after an eight-year battle with dementia.

Transactions, december 27, 2013

     Pine Brook Country Club, a 60-year-old facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is expected to have new owners by the end of the year. Lynn Murphy and Lynette Matthews-Murphy agreed to buy the private club from their fellow members last month, at a price that hasn’t yet been disclosed. The Winston-Salem Journal reports that the prospective owners have hired Signature Real Estate to oversee an overhaul of the property’s clubhouse, food-and-beverage operation, and 18-hole, Ellis Maples-designed golf course. Sutton Slawter, Signature’s president, told the newspaper that the planned course renovation “will be aesthetically-pleasing and will return the course closer to its original design.”

     An entity affiliated with the University of Louisville has reportedly “reached a deal” to acquire Cardinal Club, a facility whose centerpiece is a Spencer Holt-designed golf course. The club made its debut in 2001, as part of a chain known as University Clubs of America, and it’s served as the home of the university’s golf teams since that time. U of L Card Game reports that the university group will buy the property, in suburban Louisville, Kentucky, from Tom Musselman’s Champion’s Way LLC. Champion’s Way bought the club from Arnold Palmer Golf Management in 2003.

     A home owners’ group in Newport News, Virginia has closed on its planned purchase of Kiln Creek Golf Club. “We now have the opportunity to control our own destiny and protect home values for our residents,” the president of The Villages of Kiln Creek Owners’ Association said in a comment published by the Williamsburg Yorktown Daily. The association paid $3.5 million for an 18-hole, Tom Clark-designed golf course, an abandoned nine-hole course, a 15-room hotel, two restaurants, and the usual recreational amenities. The assets acquired by the association reportedly have an assessed value of $6.3 million. The seller was Dick Ashe, who’d hoped to build houses on the defunct nine-hole course. The home owners will maintain the track as open space and may put a conservation easement on it. Affinity Management has been hired to operate the golf course, which will be open to the public.

     If the city of Middletown, Ohio winds up selling its municipal golf complex, it may not have many options to choose from. Only one prospective buyer, Howard Jackson of Midd Cities Partners, showed up at the open house for Weatherwax Golf Course, a 36-hole facility that reportedly loses about $150,000 a year on top of $250,000 in debt service. Middletown, which is broke and desperate, wants to sell the complex so it can focus on “core city services,” according to the request for proposals it recently issued. Midd Cities is a local real estate management firm with industrial and business parks in its portfolio. Jackson told the Hamilton Journal-News that his company planned to maintain the golf courses, which were designed by Arthur Hills, and called Weatherwax “a good fit for us.” The city is accepting proposals until January 15, 2014.

     A group of more than 100 home owners in rural Norfolk, Nebraska have reportedly raised enough money to buy the centerpiece of their community. The Eldorado Hills Community Association won’t say what it agreed to pay for Eldorado Hills Golf Club, but earlier this year the sellers, Eric Waddington and Mark Mooberry, were asking for $1.4 million. The club features an 18-hole course that opened in 1987. The association, a non-profit group, was aiming to take possession of the property in early December. It plans to lease the course to Dave Johnson, its pro.

     Twin Lakes Golf Course, a non-operational 18-hole golf course in Arab, Alabama, may soon be purchased and revived by one of its former superintendents. “I’m pretty sure this is going to happen,” David Chastain told the Arab Tribune. The newspaper reports that Chastain and the course’s owner, Bill Pike, “essentially have agreed upon the details of a possible deal,” although no specifics have been revealed. Pike has been down this road before, however, and a sale is no sure thing. He bought Twin Lakes in 1973, sold it in the mid 1990s, and, as the mortgage holder, took possession of it again in 2010. Since then, several prospective owners have come and gone, including one who wanted to build apartments on the property. The golf course has been closed since 2011. If Chastain follows through on the purchase, Pike has agreed to provide financing.

      The city of Edinburg, Texas is negotiating to buy Ebony Hills Golf Course, a track that it’s operated via a lease for the past half-century. “It makes great sense,” the city’s mayor told the McAllen Monitor. The city expects to pay about $2.25 million for Ebony Hills, which features a nine-hole layout that opened in 1927. By buying the property, the city controls its future. The mayor believes that municipal operation is “a service for the community, to provide a quality of life.” The course’s owner, a group led by William Minyard, believes that the property is worth more than $4.5 million.

     The end is near for Cypress Bay Golf Club, a 41-year-old facility in Little River, South Carolina, as the club will breathe its last breath on February 28, 2014. Cypress Bay has been sold to Mungo Homes, which intends to replace its Russell Breeden-designed golf course with houses. The Myrtle Beach Sun-News reports that the course occupied “the low end of green fees in the Myrtle Beach golf market.” Mungo bought Cypress Bay from a group led by Ralph Teal, a local developer. The price wasn’t disclosed. Teal’s group owns Wild Wing Plantation, a 27-hole complex in nearby Conway.

     Just days before Christmas, Tom Day signed on as the new owner of Elks Country Club in West Lafayette, Indiana. The property will henceforth be known as West Lafayette Golf & Country Club, a name that echoes the one it was born with, West Lafayette Country Club. Day, a long-time member, didn’t disclose the purchase price. However, he told the Lafayette Journal & Courier that he plans to create a “family-oriented” club with golf, swimming, and tennis options. “I believe the community needs something like this,” he said. The club says that its 6,256-yard course was designed by Bill Diddel and opened in 1930. Other sources say the track was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1940.

The Week That Was, december 23, 2013

     More than 100 members of Japan’s Professional Golfers Association have lost their jobs in the wake of a scandal involving two of the group’s top executives. The executives had played golf and shared a meal with the head of an organized crime group earlier this year, and they were dismissed in October. Now, the PGA has effectively cleaned house, as its chairman, its four vice chairmen, 20 board members, and all 91 of its area representatives have resigned en masse. The officials reportedly took the action to restore public trust in the PGA. “We take the matter very seriously,” the group’s current vice chairman said in a comment published by the Guardian. “We want to do our utmost to prevent something similar from happening again.” A new slate of officials will be elected next month.

     The Indian government may discipline some of the nation’s top army officials, who’ve been accused by a public-accounts committee of building as many as 90 golf courses on properties that were supposed to be used exclusively for military training purposes. The committee also appears to be ticked off that the army sold golf memberships to civilians and foreign diplomats and pocketed the revenues generated by the courses. “The committee deplores the gross misuse of golf courses and recommends that [the] entire policy of golf courses be revisited and remedial action be taken to ensure that facilities for armed forces personnel are not abused in any manner,” the committee’s report concluded. The committee has recommended that India’s defense ministry hold an inquiry and make the officers involved accountable.

     The city of Midland, Michigan hopes that Billy Casper Golf can heal its ailing golf course. BCG will take over management of Currie Municipal Golf Course, a 45-hole facility, on January 1. Currie has posted losses in four of the past five fiscal years and is currently almost $2.1 million in the hole. Rounds have fallen from nearly 60,000 in 2008 to less than 40,000 in 2013. According to a report by WSGW News Radio, however, BCG has promised to turn a profit within five years.

     A Raleigh, North Carolina-based investment group has purchased Grande Dunes, a golf community in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina that was begun by Burroughs & Chapin just after the turn of the most recent century. For an undisclosed price, LStar Management has acquired a 2,200-acre spread that includes, among other things, a marina, a waterfront café, 770 acres of developable property, and an 18-hole, Nick Price “signature” golf course. (The track, which is private, was co-designed by Craig Schreiner.) “It’s really a one-of-a-kind facility,” LStar’s managing partner, Steve Vining, said to the Myrtle Beach Sun News. “It was just a great opportunity, frankly.” LStar has appointed McConnell Golf to oversee the golf course and other operations at Grande Dunes. McConnell owns seven golf properties in the Carolinas (among them Treyburn Country Club in Durham, North Carolina and Musgrove Mill Golf Club in Clinton, South Carolina) but the contract at Grande Dunes is the first for its recently established management wing. LStar didn’t buy Grande Dunes’ 18-hole Resort course, which is still owned by B&C.

     ClubCorp has also completed an end-of-year transaction, picking up Chantilly National Golf & Country Club in Washington, DC’s Virginia suburbs. The seller was Wimsatt Farms, an entity based in Kentucky. ClubCorp prides itself on “building relationships and enriching lives,” a phrase it saw fit to trademark. The publicly traded firm has promised to upgrade Chantilly National’s Ed Ault-designed course, which opened in 1960 and was remodeled by P.B. Dye in the early 1990s. Eric Affeldt, ClubCorp’s president CEO, said that the purchase and the forthcoming renovations demonstrate the firm’s “strategic pursuit of growing through value-enhancing acquisitions, reinvention through capital investments, and adding reciprocal benefits for our more than 370,000 members.” Chantilly National, which calls itself “a place you call home,” is the third golf property that ClubCorp has purchased this year. The others: Oak Tree Country Club in Edmond, Oklahoma and Cherry Valley Country Club in Skillman, New Jersey.

     Like a latter-day Friedrich Nietsche, the head of the Scottish Golf Union believes that what doesn’t kill a golf club makes it stronger. Hamish Grey, the union’s long-time CEO, has seen many members go out of business since the onset of the Great Recession, and he concedes that others will follow. But he aims to slow the losses by persuading the union’s 576 remaining clubs to adopt business practices that can maintain their financial health. “Clubs are now having to ask themselves, How can we run ourselves better?” he said in a conversation with the Scotsman. “If clubs can get their houses in order in these tough times, then they can come out in a much stronger position on the other side.” In particular, Grey is urging the union’s members to market themselves aggressively, create more welcoming environments for prospective new members, and replace one-size-fits-all membership plans with a range of flexible options tailored to their prospects’ needs. Still, however, the losses mount. Grey has a big job ahead of him.

     The new owners of Woods Valley Golf Club, in Valley Center, California, aim to offer their customers “a cleaner course, and a course that’s in better condition.” The San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians, which purchased Woods Valley in October, will make unspecified improvements to the club’s 10-year-old, Dave Ginkel-designed layout and, within two years, build a new clubhouse. In addition, in the hope of creating “a more professional atmosphere,” it’s installed JC Resorts as the club’s manager. “Our plan is to put a little money into this course, because we want to be one of the top golf courses in San Diego,” the president of the tribe’s economic development agency told the Valley Roadrunner. Among the items on the to-do list: The tribe aims to get all seven of the layout’s waterfalls working again. At this time, only three are said to be operational.

Vital Signs, december 20, 2013

     A year after an early spring helped to boost the annual number of rounds played by 5.7 percent, U.S. golf course owners and operators got no such weather-related luck in 2013. Through October, according to PGA PerformanceTrak, the number of rounds played nationally has dropped by 4.4 percent. The National Golf Foundation appears to be hoping for a year-end loss of about 4 percent. As a result of this decline, revenues from greens fees at U.S. facilities have fallen by about 3 percent, although PerformanceTrak reports that owners and operators are seeing some slight increases in their merchandise and food-and-beverage sales.

     It’s been “a modestly successful year” for golf course owners and operators in central Oregon, according to the Bend Bulletin, but it was filled with “peaks and valleys” that couldn’t easily be explained. “It seemed like an odd year,” said a pro in Redmond. “I never really felt that there was a reason for periods of time during the year that we did well and periods of time when we did not do well.” The director of golf at a course in La Pine said, “It was strange as far as when the highs and lows were and how it would change. It’s not as consistent as it used to be.” Such comments beg a question: Is this the new normal?

     Morgan Housel of the Motley Fool believes that 2013 was “a breakthrough year” for the U.S. economy. In a letter to investors (sorry, it isn’t available online), Housel identifies three important economic factors that he says have largely been overlooked. First, in what he describes as “the most significant statistic I've seen in at least five years,” he points out that Americans currently have the lowest debt burdens on record, which in his mind sets the stage for “the kind of lasting economic growth we haven't experienced since the 1990s.” Second, health-care costs have fallen dramatically, which to him suggests that the national debt isn’t likely to reach catastrophic levels anytime soon. And third, the federal budget deficit has declined by 60% over the past three years, an indication that Uncle Sam is doing a better job of living within his means. “I’m confident that the economy has far more going in its favor today than risks stacked against it,” Housel writes. Finally, the economy appears to be turning the proverbial corner. Let’s hope the golf industry is right behind it.

     Will fast-aging populations in Asia create opportunities for the development of Sun City-style golf communities? By 2017, India is expected to have roughly 118 million residents over the age of 60, and China will have 217 million. What’s more, Bloomberg reports that “an increasing number of those retirees will be wealthy,” because by 2018 the Asia-Pacific region is expected to get a 75 percent increase in millionaires, to 11.5 million. But communities for active adults are an anomaly in cultures built on close family ties. Can developers persuade senior citizens to live in places so alien to them?

     When it comes to golf development in Cuba, nothing ever seems to change. The operative description remains “all talk, no action.” Now more than ever, however, the nation may need the kind of spark that golf might provide. In what is disappointing news for a nation whose economy increasingly depends on tourism, through the first 10 months of this year the total number of international travelers to Cuba fell by 1.2 percent from the same period in 2012. Might this decline finally grease the wheels in Cuba’s approvals process?

The Week That Was, december 15, 2013

     Las Vegas Sands has abandoned its plans to build EuroVegas, its pie-in-the-sky resort outside Madrid, Spain. The massive resort had been master-planned to have six casinos, a dozen hotels, three golf courses, and lots of other attractions. Sheldon Adelson, the 80-year-old multi-billionaire who controls Las Vegas Sands, pulled the plug on it partly because he wasn’t given the tax relief he demanded and partly because he believes there are greener pastures in Asia. “There is a time and place for everything,” he said in a comment published by the New York Times, “and right now our focus is on encouraging Asian countries like Japan and Korea to dramatically enhance their tourism offering through the development of integrated resorts there.” The Spanish government rolled the dice on EuroVegas in the hope of creating thousands of desperately needed jobs. But the odds were stacked in Adelson’s favor, and, as he knew, the house always wins.

     The people at the National Golf Foundation are getting positively Orwellian. As part of what appears to be a re-education program, the trade group now contends that two-thirds of the nation’s 21 million “lapsed” golfers -- a group it defines as people between the ages of 18 and 69 who haven’t played for two years -- “aren’t really golfers at all.” These folks aren’t really golfers, the NGF argues, because they “were never committed to the game.” If they’d truly been committed, the logic goes, they’d still be golfers. Such redefinition is enough to make your head spin, because it suggests that what matters nowadays to the NGF is not how a person spends his time and money but what he feels in his soul. And it begs two questions: First, if lapsed golfers aren’t really golfers, then why did the NGF count them as golfers before they lapsed? And second, how many of the nation’s current crop of golfers -- 25.3 million of them -- aren’t really golfers?

     Lloyd Clifton, who capitalized on Florida’s residential boom of the late 1980s and 1990s like few other golf architects, died last week. Clifton’s architectural legacy is arguably the work he did at the Villages, a gigantic retirement community near Leesburg. He and his partners in Clifton, Ezell & Clifton Golf Design Group -- his son George and Ken Ezell -- have so far produced or co-produced 11 “championship” venues at the community, along with 30 nine-hole, executive-length tracks. Others will follow. They’ve also designed more than 40 other courses in the state, among them Grey Oaks Golf & Country Club in Naples, Hunters Creek Golf Course in Orlando, Remington Golf & Country Club in Kissimmee, and West Orange Country Club in Winter Garden. “The only day he didn't get up out of bed was the day he died,” his son George told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “His body just wore out.” Clifton was 89.

     At long last, the cash registers have begun to ring at Chambers Bay, the course in suburban Tacoma, Washington that will host the U.S. Open in 2015. Chambers Bay, which opened in 2007, is “on pace to have its best year since 2008 and may be close to escaping a cycle of borrowing to pay off debt,” according to the Tacoma News Tribune. The course broke even in 2008 but has operated in the red until this year, when it finally began to generate the interest its proponents predicted. Through the first nine months of 2013, the Pierce County-owned property has rung up more than 32,500 rounds, 15 percent better than it did during the same period in 2012, and revenues from greens fees and other golf operations are up by nearly $1 million, a 27 percent increase. Local officials attribute the financial boost to increased play from non-resident golfers, who are willing to pay a premium -- as much as $219 -- for the privilege of playing a U.S. Open venue.

     The end is near for Jeff Silverstein’s Carolina Trail. Silverstein, the principal of IRI Golf, has agreed to place the trail’s five remaining properties into foreclosure, with a bankruptcy filing and a sale to follow. “They should be sold pretty quickly,” he told the Charlotte Observer. “Within 60 or so days.” The group consists of four company-owned venues in metropolitan Charlotte, North Carolina -- among them Birkdale Golf Club in Huntersville, The Divide Golf Club in Matthews, and Waterford Golf Club in Rock Hill, South Carolina -- and Tradition Golf Club in Charlotte, which is leased. The other Carolina Trail courses, Skybrook Golf Club in Huntersville and Charlotte Golf Links in Charlotte, were placed into receivership last summer. Last month, Traditional Golf Properties took over management of the trail’s final five.

     Greg Norman, the “signature” golf course architect, credits his success to “vertical” thinking -- the kind of how-can-we-capitalize-on-this exploitation that he says made Ralph Lauren what he is today. Here’s how Norman explained the shape of his mind in an interview with Golf magazine: “When someone comes to me with millions or even tens of millions of dollars to design a course as part of a real-estate development or resort, I know I can leverage it by, say, stocking the cellars with my wine, the pro shop with Greg Norman Collection clothing, the kitchen with my Greg Norman Australian Prime steaks. They’re already investing in the value of my brand, so why not add some scale to it?” It’s unfortunate that Norman views Lauren as a role model, for Lauren built his success on a fake name, WASP idolatry, and the vacant gazes of beautiful models. Today, he’s known mostly for producing a line of over-priced goods that nobody with good taste would ever buy. Is that the kind of legacy Norman intends to leave? Because while he thinks vertically of squeezing money out of his clients, his competitors are thinking horizontally about producing great golf courses.

     The Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence, Inc. has reportedly paid $4.7 million for Standard Country Club, one of the oldest private enclaves in Louisville, Kentucky. The club, which was founded in the 1870s, is said to be $4 million in debt. Standard features an 18-hole golf course that was designed by Robert Bruce Harris and opened its first nine in the early 1950s. The fund, which reportedly has more than $90 million in the bank, has previously invested in medical real estate and local health-care operations. For the time being, it plans to continue operating Standard as a private club, under a lease agreement. It’s begun to evaluate its options, however, and early next year it expects to engage the local community to determine the future use of the 150-acre property.

     A company founded by Hale Irwin wants to buy a semiprivate golf club in Colorado’s Animas River Valley. Irwin Golf Management has submitted an undisclosed offer for Dalton Ranch Golf Club, which features an 18-hole, Ken Dye-designed golf course. The club is the featured attraction of a community just north of Durango. The club’s members now have 30 days to match Irwin’s offer, according to the Durango Herald. If they choose to proceed with a purchase, they’ll have an additional 30 days to secure financing and close on the transaction. Irwin’s company manages one golf property, Terradyne Country Club in Andover, Kansas.

     The Red Headed Stranger wants to sell his golf course. Willie Nelson, a legend in American music, hopes to get $3 million for Pedernales Golf Club in Spicewood, Texas. The country-music singer and songwriter reportedly bought the club and its nine-hole, 45-year-old golf course out of bankruptcy in 1979 (at the time, it was known as Briarcliff Yacht & Golf Club) and has reportedly been covering its losses of late. “Whoever buys this will have to have deep pockets,” said the course’s pro. “It’s expensive to run.” The club, which is also known as Willie Nelson’s Cut ’n’ Putt, includes a recording studio.