Just weeks ago, it seemed as if Mike Keiser’s golf venture in the Scottish Highlands had been signed, sealed, and delivered. Keiser and his development partner, Todd Warnock, were celebrating, for Coul Links had, after three years of trying, finally received a thumbs-up from local elected officials. Warnock had joyfully announced that it was “now time to build a golf course.” But an anti-Coul Links campaign that often resembled an anti-Donald Trump campaign ultimately bore fruit, and last week Scotland’s top planning minister “called in” the proposal for the Coore & Crenshaw-designed, stand-alone golf course. As a result, the proposal will be examined by supposedly independent people at the national level, for who knows how long. Warnock has stated that he and Keiser “welcome the opportunity” to plead their case once again, but this is unquestionably a setback for Coul Links. Trump’s course in Aberdeenshire went through the same process and was ultimately approved, but public opinion in Scotland has turned squarely against golf construction on rare, environmentally sensitive dunes. Keiser is no Trump, but Coul Links’ fate now rests in the hands of decision-makers who may not wish to make the same mistake twice.
SouthWood Golf Club, the featured attraction of a planned community in Tallahassee, Florida that professes to offer “an extraordinary way of life,” has changed hands. The Tallahassee Democrat reports that Chip Chaney and nearly two dozen other investors have coughed up “around $1 million” for SouthWood, which was established by St. Joe Company in 2002. The club features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Fred Couples and Gene Bates, and a course official told the newspaper that the goal now is to make it “the premier golf course it once was not all that long ago.” In a comment that doesn’t reflect well on St. Joe, one of the new owners said that “the course hasn’t been shown any love” in recent years.
Surplus Transactions – The days appear to be numbered for what’s said to be “the oldest 18-hole public golf course” in Traverse City, Michigan. Wes Nelson and Carolyn Olsen have accepted an offer for Elmbrook Golf Course, a venue that was designed by their father and has been in business since 1964. The offer came from a development group that will, sooner or later, build houses on Elmbrook’s 223 acres. . . . The residents of Ledgeview, Wisconsin have voted to spend $3.4 million to preserve the 18-hole layout at Ledgeview Golf Course, a facility that opened in 1965. The seller, Greg Runnoe, plans to build condos on Ledgeview’s nine-hole, executive-length track. . . . For an undisclosed price, Concert Golf Partners has reportedly closed on Club at 12 Oaks, the centerpiece of a 1,700-house community in suburban Raleigh, North Carolina. The seller was Landeavor LLC, the developer of the 12 Oaks community and its 18-hole, Nicklaus Design layout.
Surplus Surplus Transactions – Jerry Morris has sold Cottonwood Creek Golf Course, a nine-hole track that’s operated in Chickasha, Oklahoma since 1915. Cottonwood Creek’s new owner, Max Stewart, hasn’t offered any detailed plans for the property, but he told a local newspaper that he aims to “bring some of the Oklahoma City vibes down to Chickasha.” . . . Joe Rivellino has acquired Club on Silver Lake, a venue that’s said to be “one of Western New York’s premier golf course, restaurant, and wedding venues.” The club, which features an 18-hole course that’s operated for nearly a century, had been owned by Rick Fish. In a press release, Rivellino said that he intends to provide “great hospitality and a relaxing, fun experience.” . . . Lakeshore Management, an Ohio-based company that claims to have “extensive experience” in “repositioning real estate assets,” has acquired Pine Mountain Ski & Golf Resort, on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The resort has a hotel, meeting space, and other attractions, including an 18-hole, Jerry Matthews-designed layout that operates as TimberStone Golf Course.
King Carter Golf Club, an 18-year-old venue named after a Virginia politician and businessman who was among the most influential men in the American colonies in the early 1700s, has gone belly up. The club, located on what’s known as the state’s Northern Neck, was purchased on the first day of this month by another fellow named Carter, James N. “Jimmie” Carter, Jr., who immediately closed it. I can’t determine if the Carters are somehow related, but I wouldn’t bet against it. The namesake Carter, Robert Carter, was nicknamed “King,” due in part to his tremendous wealth, his vast landholdings, his 1,000 slaves, and what’s been described as his “autocratic business methods.” The club that bears his name is the centerpiece of a not quite built-out 330-acre community, and it features an 18-hole, Joel Weiman-designed golf course. Jimmie Carter bought the club and the surrounding property from a local bank that had foreclosed on a previous owner in 2010.
Desolation Row Extended – A year after he purchased it, Brad West has decided to pull the plug on Sun Dance Golf Course, an 18-hole track that’s been called one of the “hidden gems” of suburban Spokane, Washington. West, a developer, told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that he’d hoped to continue golf operations on the property but couldn’t because the course “isn’t viable economically, and hasn’t been viable for a while.” . . . It appears that Golf Club of South Carolina at Crickentree, a 31-year-old venue in suburban Columbia, may soon be razed and replaced with houses. The firm that controls the mortgage on the property has declared that the owner is bankrupt, and a foreclosure is imminent. A resident of the accompanying community told the State that the club’s 18-hole course, co-designed by Ken Killian and Dick Nugent, had been “neglected.” . . . Schlitterbahn Riverpark & Resort, a family-oriented venue in Corpus Christi, Texas, has pulled the plug on its golf course. The nine-hole track was designed by Bruce Littell and opened in 1970.
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Sunday, August 19, 2018
The Week That Was, august 19, 2018
The people who opened the first Seve Ballesteros-designed golf course in the United Kingdom are pressing ahead with their plans to build what they call “the first U.K. golf course designed from scratch by Dye Designs.” Tony and Anne Menai-Davis, the owners of Shire London, recently secured permission to build Dye London, an 18-hole track in the suburbs of England’s capital city that they believe will “attract golfers from all over the globe.” The course, to be co-designed by Perry Dye and Cynthia Dye-McGarey, is scheduled to open in 2023. It’ll complement the Menai-Davis family’s nearby West London Links, “a modern vision of links golf” that was created by other architects at Dye Designs. West London Links is expected to debut in 2020. According to a press release, both of the forthcoming courses will “echo the sort of golfing tests which Tour superstars face in major championships” but nonetheless offer “player-friendly family golf for all lovers of the sport.”
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the January 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Pipeline Overflow – By year’s end Brian Curley, now flying solo as a golf architect, expects to open the first of what could be as many as 10 courses at FLC Đồng Hới Golf Links. The Paradise Valley, Arizona-based designer says that the course, part of a 7,500-acre resort community in Vietnam’s Quảng Bình Province, “looks like Tara Iti” and will be “the most natural-looking golf course in Vietnam and maybe all of Asia.” Curley’s second course at Đồng Hới is ready to be grassed and figures to open in 2019. . . . A Spanish leisure company and tour operator has set out to build La Finca, a mega-resort community outside La Romana, in the Dominican Republic. Globalia Corporación Empresarial SA, the parent company of Air Europa, Be Live Hotels, and some travel agencies, has master-planned La Finca to include houses, an estimated 1,000 hotel rooms, a golf course, and other attractions. . . . Golf courses sometimes die forever, but sometimes they die and then come back to life. A case in point: Iron Oaks Golf Course in Beaumont, Texas, which went belly up last year but is expected to re-open sometime this year, after renovations are completed. Brent Coon, a local lawyer, has assumed a lease on Iron Oaks, which features a Johnny Barlow-designed course that opened in 2005.
Monte Ahuja has acquired a struggling private club in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, and with it a pair of 18-hole golf courses. Ahuja’s Areco Golf LLC has reportedly paid $3.6 million for Mayfield Sand Ridge Club, a member-owned facility that offers play at both Mayfield Country Club in South Euclid and Sand Ridge Golf Club in Chardon. Ahuja views golf as “more a passion than a business,” but he also owns Barrington Golf Club in Aurora, so he made his recent purchase with eyes wide open. “I’m not in golf to make money,” he told Crain’s Cleveland Business. “No one would be in golf to make money.” Mayfield features a Bert Way-designed track that opened in 1911, while Sand Ridge has a 20-year-old Tom Fazio-designed layout. Ahuja has promised to continue offering golf at both facilities for at least 10 years.
Surplus Transactions – At an auction in July, an investor from Corpus Christi, Texas bid roughly $1.3 million for Keweenaw Mountain Lodge, a 167-acre vacation spot in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. John Lamb has about a month to complete the purchase, which will bring him a collection of cottages and a nine-hole golf course, all of which were built during the Great Depression to inject some life into the local economy. . . . To bolster their home values, the property owners in the Stonebridge community outside New Orleans, Louisiana have purchased their most valuable amenity. They bought Golf Course at Stonebridge, a track that opened in 1984, from Duininck Brothers, the golf construction company. . . . Because he got “tired of working the hours I work now,” 71-year-old David Puckett has sold Portland Golf Club, a nearly century-old venue in Portland, Indiana. The club, which is now owned by Daniel Carr and Jeremy Kunkler, features a “difficult but friendly” 18-hole course.
Surplus Surplus Transactions – Acting through an LLC, Clinton M. Holcomb and Lucas G. James have reportedly paid $2.58 million for Arrowhead Golf Club, a 158-acre spread in metropolitan Buffalo, New York. The club, which opened in 2003, features an 18-hole, Scott Witter-designed golf course that the Buffalo News describes as “a combination of a links and parkland-style course.” . . . To energize a retirement that reportedly “got boring,” Ernest and Kathy Dunn have paid an undisclosed amount for Carthage Country Club, in Carthage, Texas. The new owners told the Panola Watchman that they aim to “improve the atmosphere” and “create a family environment” at the 53-year-old facility, whose centerpiece is a nine-hole course. . . . On the first day of 2018, Leif Knudsen and Nick Lesar closed on their purchase of the former Whitewater Country Club, a venue that’s operated in Whitewater, Wisconsin since 1934. The property, which features a nine-hole course, now calls itself Willow Brook Golf Course.
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the January 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Pipeline Overflow – By year’s end Brian Curley, now flying solo as a golf architect, expects to open the first of what could be as many as 10 courses at FLC Đồng Hới Golf Links. The Paradise Valley, Arizona-based designer says that the course, part of a 7,500-acre resort community in Vietnam’s Quảng Bình Province, “looks like Tara Iti” and will be “the most natural-looking golf course in Vietnam and maybe all of Asia.” Curley’s second course at Đồng Hới is ready to be grassed and figures to open in 2019. . . . A Spanish leisure company and tour operator has set out to build La Finca, a mega-resort community outside La Romana, in the Dominican Republic. Globalia Corporación Empresarial SA, the parent company of Air Europa, Be Live Hotels, and some travel agencies, has master-planned La Finca to include houses, an estimated 1,000 hotel rooms, a golf course, and other attractions. . . . Golf courses sometimes die forever, but sometimes they die and then come back to life. A case in point: Iron Oaks Golf Course in Beaumont, Texas, which went belly up last year but is expected to re-open sometime this year, after renovations are completed. Brent Coon, a local lawyer, has assumed a lease on Iron Oaks, which features a Johnny Barlow-designed course that opened in 2005.
Monte Ahuja has acquired a struggling private club in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, and with it a pair of 18-hole golf courses. Ahuja’s Areco Golf LLC has reportedly paid $3.6 million for Mayfield Sand Ridge Club, a member-owned facility that offers play at both Mayfield Country Club in South Euclid and Sand Ridge Golf Club in Chardon. Ahuja views golf as “more a passion than a business,” but he also owns Barrington Golf Club in Aurora, so he made his recent purchase with eyes wide open. “I’m not in golf to make money,” he told Crain’s Cleveland Business. “No one would be in golf to make money.” Mayfield features a Bert Way-designed track that opened in 1911, while Sand Ridge has a 20-year-old Tom Fazio-designed layout. Ahuja has promised to continue offering golf at both facilities for at least 10 years.
Surplus Transactions – At an auction in July, an investor from Corpus Christi, Texas bid roughly $1.3 million for Keweenaw Mountain Lodge, a 167-acre vacation spot in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. John Lamb has about a month to complete the purchase, which will bring him a collection of cottages and a nine-hole golf course, all of which were built during the Great Depression to inject some life into the local economy. . . . To bolster their home values, the property owners in the Stonebridge community outside New Orleans, Louisiana have purchased their most valuable amenity. They bought Golf Course at Stonebridge, a track that opened in 1984, from Duininck Brothers, the golf construction company. . . . Because he got “tired of working the hours I work now,” 71-year-old David Puckett has sold Portland Golf Club, a nearly century-old venue in Portland, Indiana. The club, which is now owned by Daniel Carr and Jeremy Kunkler, features a “difficult but friendly” 18-hole course.
Surplus Surplus Transactions – Acting through an LLC, Clinton M. Holcomb and Lucas G. James have reportedly paid $2.58 million for Arrowhead Golf Club, a 158-acre spread in metropolitan Buffalo, New York. The club, which opened in 2003, features an 18-hole, Scott Witter-designed golf course that the Buffalo News describes as “a combination of a links and parkland-style course.” . . . To energize a retirement that reportedly “got boring,” Ernest and Kathy Dunn have paid an undisclosed amount for Carthage Country Club, in Carthage, Texas. The new owners told the Panola Watchman that they aim to “improve the atmosphere” and “create a family environment” at the 53-year-old facility, whose centerpiece is a nine-hole course. . . . On the first day of 2018, Leif Knudsen and Nick Lesar closed on their purchase of the former Whitewater Country Club, a venue that’s operated in Whitewater, Wisconsin since 1934. The property, which features a nine-hole course, now calls itself Willow Brook Golf Course.
Sunday, August 12, 2018
The Week That Was, august 12, 2018
On an as-yet unknown date, Nicklaus Design will break ground on what’s said to be its seventh course for one of Vietnam’s most determined golf developers. A press release offers virtually nothing the way of details, but it appears that Sean Quinn is working on a routing for a presumed 18-hole layout – it appears to be part of a venture called Paradise – that BRG Group aims to build in or near Huế, a vacation destination along the nation’s Central Coast. In 2016, Nicklaus agreed to design 10 courses for BRG, a partnership that’s so far produced Legend Hill Golf Resort and the third course at Kings Island Golf Resort, both in greater Hà Nội. For what it’s worth, Quinn has described the property in Huế as “stunning,” with “beautiful beaches” that will be viewed from several holes.
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the August 2016 and November 2016 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Regarding the aforementioned 10-course deal between Nicklaus Design and BRG Group: In a press release issued last month, the Empire claimed to be working with BRG “to develop 20 golf courses in Vietnam.” In addition, the North Palm Beach, Florida-based firm now contends that it’s “playing the lead role in developing courses across the country,” a claim that FLC Group and Vingroup would probably dispute.
Pipeline Overflow – It took something like eight years, but come this fall the Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort & Spa expects to open all 18 holes at what might eventually be Uganda’s premier golf course. The resort boasts of having “the only clubhouse in Uganda with a fully-fledged pro shop selling world-class golfing merchandise,” and it calls Kevin Ramsey’s course “a challenging layout for the ever-evolving golfer looking for an enjoyable golfing experience.” . . . Just months after it became the 27th link in the still-growing chain of European Tour Properties, the course that intends to redefine “the good life for affluent Georgians” has likewise made its debut. Tbilisi Hills Golf Club, which features a Lassi Pekki Tilander-designed course, is being marketed as an escape from “the tribulations of Tbilisi,” a city that’s said to have an unemployment rate of 22.5 percent. . . . An Indian motorsports company has hopped aboard the “short-course” bandwagon. Autocar India aims to build a race track in Andhra Pradesh that will be accompanied by a small, resort-style hotel and attractions including an “automotive-themed amusement park” and a five-hole golf course.
The members of Old Hickory Country Club, a struggling venue in suburban Nashville, Tennessee, have sold their property to a group led by a local restaurateur. Steve Smith and his partners reportedly paid $2.3 million for Old Hickory, which has, according to the Tennessean, lost roughly 200 members over the past two decades. The club was established as an employee perk by E. I. DuPont Nemours & Company in 1926, with a six-hole course that grew to 18 holes in 1941. Smith has promised to elevate the track to “an A-level course instead of a B-level,” and the club, which currently has 325 members, believes he’s going to make it “one of the nicest country clubs in Davidson County.”
Surplus Transactions – After protracted negotiations, Michael Lundy has won shareholders’ approval to buy Watertown Golf Club, a venue in Watertown, New York that’s operated since 1926. The club features an 18-hole course that claims to “both challenge and relax players.” . . . To ensure the viability of their home values, the residents of a long-established private community in Roanoke, Virginia have purchased Hunting Hills Country Club from its original developer. The residents reportedly paid $1.9 million for the club and its 18-hole, Buddy Loving-designed golf course, and they hope to generate additional income by welcoming public play. . . . SpiritLife, an addiction-treatment center outside Indiana, Pennsylvania, has purchased a nearby nine-hole, executive-length track. The Indiana Gazette reports that Cherrywood Golf Course, which has operated since 1987, is “a great family-oriented type of place for all ages” that was “kind of going downhill.”
Duly Noted – Greg “the Living Brand” Norman, who admits to having his “fair share of joint issues,” has become a pitch man for a vitamin supplement that claims to promote “joint comfort, mobility, and an active lifestyle.” Norman’s new income source is the same company that sells Nugenix, the libido enhancer. . . . Arthur Hills’ design firm, most recently known as Hills & Forrest International Golf Course Architects, has added Shawn Smith as a partner and now calls itself Hills • Forrest • Smith Golf Course Architects. In a press statement, the semi-retired company founder highlighted Smith’s “passion for the unique architectural elements of the classic courses.” . . . The world’s largest golf-course management company has purchased America’s largest operator of tennis facilities. Troon hasn’t announced what it paid for Cliff Drysdale Management, but it calls its new subsidiary “a natural fit” and indicated that it intends to “focus on increasing the popularity of tennis on a global scale.”
In compliance with new European laws regarding data collection, I’ve been asked to provide a statement about my use of the data that’s collected about those of you who read the World Golf Report. So here it is: I don’t collect any data, and I don’t put any cookies into your computers. All I do is cover some of the news and then post what I write. I don’t know your names or addresses or ages or income levels, and I have no interest in learning any of that information. That being said, the World Golf Report occupies a slice of cyberspace controlled by Google, one of the world’s foremost data collectors, and while I can’t say for sure whether Google collects such information, I’d be surprised if it didn’t. Google claims that it’s provided me with an appropriate statement regarding this matter that’s supposed to appear at the bottom of my blog, but if it was there I wouldn’t be writing this.
Some information in the preceding post first appeared in the August 2016 and November 2016 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
Regarding the aforementioned 10-course deal between Nicklaus Design and BRG Group: In a press release issued last month, the Empire claimed to be working with BRG “to develop 20 golf courses in Vietnam.” In addition, the North Palm Beach, Florida-based firm now contends that it’s “playing the lead role in developing courses across the country,” a claim that FLC Group and Vingroup would probably dispute.
Pipeline Overflow – It took something like eight years, but come this fall the Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort & Spa expects to open all 18 holes at what might eventually be Uganda’s premier golf course. The resort boasts of having “the only clubhouse in Uganda with a fully-fledged pro shop selling world-class golfing merchandise,” and it calls Kevin Ramsey’s course “a challenging layout for the ever-evolving golfer looking for an enjoyable golfing experience.” . . . Just months after it became the 27th link in the still-growing chain of European Tour Properties, the course that intends to redefine “the good life for affluent Georgians” has likewise made its debut. Tbilisi Hills Golf Club, which features a Lassi Pekki Tilander-designed course, is being marketed as an escape from “the tribulations of Tbilisi,” a city that’s said to have an unemployment rate of 22.5 percent. . . . An Indian motorsports company has hopped aboard the “short-course” bandwagon. Autocar India aims to build a race track in Andhra Pradesh that will be accompanied by a small, resort-style hotel and attractions including an “automotive-themed amusement park” and a five-hole golf course.
The members of Old Hickory Country Club, a struggling venue in suburban Nashville, Tennessee, have sold their property to a group led by a local restaurateur. Steve Smith and his partners reportedly paid $2.3 million for Old Hickory, which has, according to the Tennessean, lost roughly 200 members over the past two decades. The club was established as an employee perk by E. I. DuPont Nemours & Company in 1926, with a six-hole course that grew to 18 holes in 1941. Smith has promised to elevate the track to “an A-level course instead of a B-level,” and the club, which currently has 325 members, believes he’s going to make it “one of the nicest country clubs in Davidson County.”
Surplus Transactions – After protracted negotiations, Michael Lundy has won shareholders’ approval to buy Watertown Golf Club, a venue in Watertown, New York that’s operated since 1926. The club features an 18-hole course that claims to “both challenge and relax players.” . . . To ensure the viability of their home values, the residents of a long-established private community in Roanoke, Virginia have purchased Hunting Hills Country Club from its original developer. The residents reportedly paid $1.9 million for the club and its 18-hole, Buddy Loving-designed golf course, and they hope to generate additional income by welcoming public play. . . . SpiritLife, an addiction-treatment center outside Indiana, Pennsylvania, has purchased a nearby nine-hole, executive-length track. The Indiana Gazette reports that Cherrywood Golf Course, which has operated since 1987, is “a great family-oriented type of place for all ages” that was “kind of going downhill.”
Duly Noted – Greg “the Living Brand” Norman, who admits to having his “fair share of joint issues,” has become a pitch man for a vitamin supplement that claims to promote “joint comfort, mobility, and an active lifestyle.” Norman’s new income source is the same company that sells Nugenix, the libido enhancer. . . . Arthur Hills’ design firm, most recently known as Hills & Forrest International Golf Course Architects, has added Shawn Smith as a partner and now calls itself Hills • Forrest • Smith Golf Course Architects. In a press statement, the semi-retired company founder highlighted Smith’s “passion for the unique architectural elements of the classic courses.” . . . The world’s largest golf-course management company has purchased America’s largest operator of tennis facilities. Troon hasn’t announced what it paid for Cliff Drysdale Management, but it calls its new subsidiary “a natural fit” and indicated that it intends to “focus on increasing the popularity of tennis on a global scale.”
In compliance with new European laws regarding data collection, I’ve been asked to provide a statement about my use of the data that’s collected about those of you who read the World Golf Report. So here it is: I don’t collect any data, and I don’t put any cookies into your computers. All I do is cover some of the news and then post what I write. I don’t know your names or addresses or ages or income levels, and I have no interest in learning any of that information. That being said, the World Golf Report occupies a slice of cyberspace controlled by Google, one of the world’s foremost data collectors, and while I can’t say for sure whether Google collects such information, I’d be surprised if it didn’t. Google claims that it’s provided me with an appropriate statement regarding this matter that’s supposed to appear at the bottom of my blog, but if it was there I wouldn’t be writing this.
Sunday, August 5, 2018
The Week That Was, august 5, 2018
The United States is nowadays home to 2,497 municipal golf facilities – a record number and 17 percent of our nation’s total supply of golf courses, according to data provided by the National Golf Foundation. A golfer is mostly likely to stumble across one in Utah, where half of the state’s 112 golf facilities are government-owned, but the largest number of municipal layouts are in California (179), Illinois (178), and Texas (176).
Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, India, is searching for a private-sector partner willing to build a residential community with an 18-hole golf course. The city’s development authority is dangling a 90-year lease on 65 acres known as Vasant Kunj Yojana, which is expected to emerge in a neighborhood called Gomti Nagar. Unquestionably, this would be a tight squeeze for a regulation-size layout. To generate interest in the venture, the development authority will also offer leases on nearby commercial sites.
Pipeline Overflow – Jumping on the “short”-course bandwagon, later this month the Greenbrier Sporting Club, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, figures to debut a replica track called the Ashford. The Ashford’s nine par-3 holes will reportedly play to 835 yards, which is a mere 100 yards longer than just one par-5 hole at Gallery Golf Club in Marana, Arizona. . . . As if anyone needs more evidence of Pakistan’s emergence as a hot spot for golf development, a government-controlled entity is looking for a private-sector group to help build M-3 Industrial City, a 4,500-acre spread outside Faisalabad. M-3 has been master-planned to include houses, office and industrial space, shopping areas, and a golf course. . . . Next month, Pinehurst Resort & Country Club expects to take the wraps off its back-to-the-future No. 4 course, an 18-hole layout that’s said to have “a special place” in the resort’s history. The redesign was overseen by Gil Hanse, who was directed to create a course that’s “more natural and authentic to the sandhills of North Carolina.”
Stockton University is going to pocket just over $21 million for one of its dormitories – the one with the 36-hole golf complex. A Florida-based investment group has agreed to buy the university’s Stockton Seaview Hotel & Golf Club, a 670-acre venue in Galloway, New Jersey that’s served as a home away from home for a couple hundred well-off students in recent years. In addition to its 296-room hotel, the club features a pair of “classic” 18-hole golf courses produced by time-tested architects: The Bay course, a co-design by Hugh Wilson and Donald Ross that dates from 1914, and the Pines course, a co-design by William Flynn and Howard Toomey that dates from 1929. While the university may no longer offer housing with easy access to quality golf, this fall it reportedly plans to open an upscale beachfront dormitory in Atlantic City.
Surplus Transactions – Speaking of advanced education, for the second time this year a school in North Carolina is going to take possession of an 18-hole layout. In January, Wingate University reportedly accepted Stonebridge Golf Club, in Monroe, as a gift, and any day now David Cuthbertson, a home builder, expects to donate Larkin Golf Club. Cuthbertson estimates that Larkin and its Clyde Johnston-designed track are worth more than $20 million, a number that the school hasn’t disputed. . . . ClubCorp has paid an undisclosed price for Brookstone Golf & Country Club, a “lifestyle” venue in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. The club features an 18-hole, Larry Nelson-designed course that opened in 1998. It appears that the seller was American Golf Corporation, a company that’s been lightening its load for a decade or more. . . . The former owner of a lumber company has acquired a nine-hole course that was created by legends from the Golden Age of golf architecture. Frederick Dill, who doesn’t play golf, paid $500,000 for Hooper Golf Club, a 90-year-old venue in Walpole, New Hampshire that was co-designed by Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek. Dill told a local newspaper that he didn’t want the course to “go down the drain.”
Stan Richards has purchased his third golf course. For $525,000, Richards now owns Lakeview Greens Golf Course, an 18-hole track in the farm country north of Muncie, Indiana. But Lakeview Greens isn’t likely to complement Richards’ nearby golf properties, Albany Golf Club in Albany and Blackford Golf Club in Hartford City. To the Muncie Star Press, it appears that Lakeview Greens’ 108 acres are being plowed under.
Desolation Row Extended – The fate of Links at Queen Creek, an 18-hole track in greater Phoenix, Arizona, has been sealed. The 24-year-old course will operate through the winter but close in the summer of 2019, eventually to be replaced with houses, a hotel, a shopping area, and places to eat and drink. . . . You can stick a fork into Cedar Creek Golf Club, an 18-hole, 53-year-old track outside Fort Wayne, Indiana. Elected officials in Allen County have approved a rezoning of the club’s 116 acres, an expanse that Dave Gilbert and his partners is ideally suited for a subdivision. . . . The New York Chiropractic College, in Seneca Falls, New York, has pulled the plug on its nine-hole golf course. The school believes that the demise of Cayuga Links supports “good environment and good fiscal stewardship.”
Duly Noted – The group that oversees Scotland’s most environmentally sensitive and important properties has determined that the construction of Martin Hawtree’s golf course at Trump Aberdeen Scotland partially destroyed up to 168 acres of legally protected sand dunes – sand dunes that the Trump Organization promised would not be harmed. And, in what is surely a related story, elected officials in the Scottish Highlands have postponed making their final decision on the fate of Mike Keiser’s Coul Links proposal. . . . For the second consecutive time, SCOREGolf has judged Cabot Cliffs – a “jaw-dropper” that “has it all” – to be Canada’s top golf course. The Cliffs’ companion course in Inverness, Nova Scotia, Cabot Links, checks in at number four, though it offers the “purest golf experience in Canada.”
Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, India, is searching for a private-sector partner willing to build a residential community with an 18-hole golf course. The city’s development authority is dangling a 90-year lease on 65 acres known as Vasant Kunj Yojana, which is expected to emerge in a neighborhood called Gomti Nagar. Unquestionably, this would be a tight squeeze for a regulation-size layout. To generate interest in the venture, the development authority will also offer leases on nearby commercial sites.
Pipeline Overflow – Jumping on the “short”-course bandwagon, later this month the Greenbrier Sporting Club, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, figures to debut a replica track called the Ashford. The Ashford’s nine par-3 holes will reportedly play to 835 yards, which is a mere 100 yards longer than just one par-5 hole at Gallery Golf Club in Marana, Arizona. . . . As if anyone needs more evidence of Pakistan’s emergence as a hot spot for golf development, a government-controlled entity is looking for a private-sector group to help build M-3 Industrial City, a 4,500-acre spread outside Faisalabad. M-3 has been master-planned to include houses, office and industrial space, shopping areas, and a golf course. . . . Next month, Pinehurst Resort & Country Club expects to take the wraps off its back-to-the-future No. 4 course, an 18-hole layout that’s said to have “a special place” in the resort’s history. The redesign was overseen by Gil Hanse, who was directed to create a course that’s “more natural and authentic to the sandhills of North Carolina.”
Stockton University is going to pocket just over $21 million for one of its dormitories – the one with the 36-hole golf complex. A Florida-based investment group has agreed to buy the university’s Stockton Seaview Hotel & Golf Club, a 670-acre venue in Galloway, New Jersey that’s served as a home away from home for a couple hundred well-off students in recent years. In addition to its 296-room hotel, the club features a pair of “classic” 18-hole golf courses produced by time-tested architects: The Bay course, a co-design by Hugh Wilson and Donald Ross that dates from 1914, and the Pines course, a co-design by William Flynn and Howard Toomey that dates from 1929. While the university may no longer offer housing with easy access to quality golf, this fall it reportedly plans to open an upscale beachfront dormitory in Atlantic City.
Surplus Transactions – Speaking of advanced education, for the second time this year a school in North Carolina is going to take possession of an 18-hole layout. In January, Wingate University reportedly accepted Stonebridge Golf Club, in Monroe, as a gift, and any day now David Cuthbertson, a home builder, expects to donate Larkin Golf Club. Cuthbertson estimates that Larkin and its Clyde Johnston-designed track are worth more than $20 million, a number that the school hasn’t disputed. . . . ClubCorp has paid an undisclosed price for Brookstone Golf & Country Club, a “lifestyle” venue in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. The club features an 18-hole, Larry Nelson-designed course that opened in 1998. It appears that the seller was American Golf Corporation, a company that’s been lightening its load for a decade or more. . . . The former owner of a lumber company has acquired a nine-hole course that was created by legends from the Golden Age of golf architecture. Frederick Dill, who doesn’t play golf, paid $500,000 for Hooper Golf Club, a 90-year-old venue in Walpole, New Hampshire that was co-designed by Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek. Dill told a local newspaper that he didn’t want the course to “go down the drain.”
Stan Richards has purchased his third golf course. For $525,000, Richards now owns Lakeview Greens Golf Course, an 18-hole track in the farm country north of Muncie, Indiana. But Lakeview Greens isn’t likely to complement Richards’ nearby golf properties, Albany Golf Club in Albany and Blackford Golf Club in Hartford City. To the Muncie Star Press, it appears that Lakeview Greens’ 108 acres are being plowed under.
Desolation Row Extended – The fate of Links at Queen Creek, an 18-hole track in greater Phoenix, Arizona, has been sealed. The 24-year-old course will operate through the winter but close in the summer of 2019, eventually to be replaced with houses, a hotel, a shopping area, and places to eat and drink. . . . You can stick a fork into Cedar Creek Golf Club, an 18-hole, 53-year-old track outside Fort Wayne, Indiana. Elected officials in Allen County have approved a rezoning of the club’s 116 acres, an expanse that Dave Gilbert and his partners is ideally suited for a subdivision. . . . The New York Chiropractic College, in Seneca Falls, New York, has pulled the plug on its nine-hole golf course. The school believes that the demise of Cayuga Links supports “good environment and good fiscal stewardship.”
Duly Noted – The group that oversees Scotland’s most environmentally sensitive and important properties has determined that the construction of Martin Hawtree’s golf course at Trump Aberdeen Scotland partially destroyed up to 168 acres of legally protected sand dunes – sand dunes that the Trump Organization promised would not be harmed. And, in what is surely a related story, elected officials in the Scottish Highlands have postponed making their final decision on the fate of Mike Keiser’s Coul Links proposal. . . . For the second consecutive time, SCOREGolf has judged Cabot Cliffs – a “jaw-dropper” that “has it all” – to be Canada’s top golf course. The Cliffs’ companion course in Inverness, Nova Scotia, Cabot Links, checks in at number four, though it offers the “purest golf experience in Canada.”
Sunday, July 22, 2018
The Week That Was, july 22, 2018
Through the first six months of this year, golf-course owners and operators in Myrtle Beach are ringing up fewer rounds than they did in 2017. According to data compiled by the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association and Golf Tourism Solutions, the number of rounds played in the vacation spot in South Carolina, long a bellwether of the golf economy, is down by 2.5 percent. Tracy Conner, the executive director of the owners’ association, acknowledged the decline, blaming it on “a much more difficult year in terms of weather,” but he’s optimistic about the future, for he’s concluded that on weekends with favorable weather, “our rounds will out-perform last year’s pace.” That being said, the Myrtle Beach area has recorded declines in play in 13 of the past 14 years.
Discovery Land Company has laid plans to build a high-end golf community in suburban Austin, Texas. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company owns at least 16 golf properties in the United States, Mexico, and the Bahamas, and the to-be-named venue in Driftwood will be its second in Texas, joining Vaquero Club in greater Dallas/Fort Worth. DLC hasn’t said when construction would begin, but the 500-acre spread in Austin is expected to include houses, a retail/commercial area, and an 18-hole golf course. It’s no stretch to assume that the course will be designed by Tom Fazio, who’s created probably a dozen for DLC, among them Estancia Club in Scottsdale, Arizona; Gozzer Ranch in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Iron Horse in Whitefish, Montana; the Madison Club in La Quinta, California; and Summit Club outside Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pipeline Overflow – The Nicklaus empire has proposed to build its first golf course in Northern Ireland. If elected officials in Belfast approve the idea, the track will take shape on a 200-acre tract called Giant’s Park. Jack Nicklaus has so far opened two “signature” layout in Ireland, in Dublin and County Kilkenny. . . . A “world-class” 18-hole golf course is expected to take shape in Bodh Gaya, a village in Bihar, India that draws Buddhist pilgrims from Japan, Thailand, and other nations. In addition to the golf course, the Hindustan Times says the state also wants to develop hotels, “a musical park,” and “an ultra-modern gymnasium.” . . . Jeff Brauer’s redesign of the 18-hole course at the Southern Hills Golf Club, in Liberty City, Texas, is scheduled to be officially unveiled next month. The venue is now known as Tempest Golf Club, and Brauer expects it to have “the best course in East Texas.”
Saticoy Partners has set out to restore a William F. Bell-designed layout in metropolitan Los Angeles “to its rightful place as one of the great golf courses in California and all of the United States.” The new ownership group paid an undisclosed price for Saticoy Club, whose 18-hole course has over the years been refreshed by Robert Muir Graves and, in what appears to be a collaboration, John Harbottle and Tom Doak. Saticoy Partners has hired Arnold Palmer Design Company to oversee the next wave of renovations.
Surplus Transactions – Toll Brothers has agreed to sell Snowmass Club, a 200-acre venue outside Aspen, Colorado with a Jim Engh-designed golf course, for “around $20 million.” Assuming the sale is completed, ABA Hospitality intends to restore the club, which is currently open to the public, to its “private roots.” . . . A minor golf landmark, Indian Lake Golf Club in Central City, Pennsylvania, has changed hands again. Indian Lake Borough reportedly paid $600,000 for the 18-hole track that markets itself as Arnold Palmer’s first design, though the King designed only nine holes. The property last turned over only about a year ago, to a group that had hoped to preserve a “little piece of Arnie.” . . . For an undisclosed price, Greg McKush has acquired Montgomery National Golf Course, an 18-hole track in greater Minneapolis, Minnesota. The course, which made its debut in 1970, was designed by Joel Goldstrand.
City officials in Wichita, Kansas have voted to pull the plug on L. W. Clapp Golf Course, an 18-hole track that’s operated since 1923. Clapp lost $235,000 in 2017, and the Wichita Eagle reports that all five properties in the city’s portfolio have been “bleeding money” in recent years. “I think we have too many golf holes and not enough golfers,” the director of parks and recreation told the newspaper. “We don’t even have money to pay our bills to make it to the end of this year.” Part of Clapp’s problem is that it uses potable water, which costs more than $100,000 a year.
Desolation Row Extended – Cavaliers Country Club, a 146-acre venue in Newark, Delaware that’s said to be experiencing “sagging business,” will soon bite the dust. Cavaliers, which dates from about 1960, will be replaced with more than 700 houses. . . . The curtains have been drawn on Quail Walk Country Club, a 44-year-old facility in Wetumpka, Alabama. “If I’m ever going to retire, now is the time,” the club’s owner, 78-year-old Earl Singleton, told WSFA-TV. Singleton, who’s owned Quail Walk for a decade, isn’t a golfer and likely won’t become one. . . . Come the end of the current golf season, golfers who live in and around Worcester, Massachusetts will say goodbye to Dunroamin Country Club. The club, which features a nine-hole course, has been around since the mid 1960s. The Republican says that it once had 200 members but today has just 28.
Duly Noted – Marcia Chambers, recently remembered as “the voice of reason on all golf’s really serious issues of the law and discrimination,” died last week, at the age of 78. Chambers did valuable service to golf by writing about racism and sexism at private clubs, subjects that reporters these days do their best to ignore. . . . The K Club, once described as “probably the most opulent golf resort in Ireland,” is for sale. The owner, Michael Smurfit, hopes to get €80 million (more than $93.8 million) for the 550-acre spread in County Kildare that hosted the Ryder Cup matches of 2006.
Discovery Land Company has laid plans to build a high-end golf community in suburban Austin, Texas. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company owns at least 16 golf properties in the United States, Mexico, and the Bahamas, and the to-be-named venue in Driftwood will be its second in Texas, joining Vaquero Club in greater Dallas/Fort Worth. DLC hasn’t said when construction would begin, but the 500-acre spread in Austin is expected to include houses, a retail/commercial area, and an 18-hole golf course. It’s no stretch to assume that the course will be designed by Tom Fazio, who’s created probably a dozen for DLC, among them Estancia Club in Scottsdale, Arizona; Gozzer Ranch in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Iron Horse in Whitefish, Montana; the Madison Club in La Quinta, California; and Summit Club outside Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pipeline Overflow – The Nicklaus empire has proposed to build its first golf course in Northern Ireland. If elected officials in Belfast approve the idea, the track will take shape on a 200-acre tract called Giant’s Park. Jack Nicklaus has so far opened two “signature” layout in Ireland, in Dublin and County Kilkenny. . . . A “world-class” 18-hole golf course is expected to take shape in Bodh Gaya, a village in Bihar, India that draws Buddhist pilgrims from Japan, Thailand, and other nations. In addition to the golf course, the Hindustan Times says the state also wants to develop hotels, “a musical park,” and “an ultra-modern gymnasium.” . . . Jeff Brauer’s redesign of the 18-hole course at the Southern Hills Golf Club, in Liberty City, Texas, is scheduled to be officially unveiled next month. The venue is now known as Tempest Golf Club, and Brauer expects it to have “the best course in East Texas.”
Saticoy Partners has set out to restore a William F. Bell-designed layout in metropolitan Los Angeles “to its rightful place as one of the great golf courses in California and all of the United States.” The new ownership group paid an undisclosed price for Saticoy Club, whose 18-hole course has over the years been refreshed by Robert Muir Graves and, in what appears to be a collaboration, John Harbottle and Tom Doak. Saticoy Partners has hired Arnold Palmer Design Company to oversee the next wave of renovations.
Surplus Transactions – Toll Brothers has agreed to sell Snowmass Club, a 200-acre venue outside Aspen, Colorado with a Jim Engh-designed golf course, for “around $20 million.” Assuming the sale is completed, ABA Hospitality intends to restore the club, which is currently open to the public, to its “private roots.” . . . A minor golf landmark, Indian Lake Golf Club in Central City, Pennsylvania, has changed hands again. Indian Lake Borough reportedly paid $600,000 for the 18-hole track that markets itself as Arnold Palmer’s first design, though the King designed only nine holes. The property last turned over only about a year ago, to a group that had hoped to preserve a “little piece of Arnie.” . . . For an undisclosed price, Greg McKush has acquired Montgomery National Golf Course, an 18-hole track in greater Minneapolis, Minnesota. The course, which made its debut in 1970, was designed by Joel Goldstrand.
City officials in Wichita, Kansas have voted to pull the plug on L. W. Clapp Golf Course, an 18-hole track that’s operated since 1923. Clapp lost $235,000 in 2017, and the Wichita Eagle reports that all five properties in the city’s portfolio have been “bleeding money” in recent years. “I think we have too many golf holes and not enough golfers,” the director of parks and recreation told the newspaper. “We don’t even have money to pay our bills to make it to the end of this year.” Part of Clapp’s problem is that it uses potable water, which costs more than $100,000 a year.
Desolation Row Extended – Cavaliers Country Club, a 146-acre venue in Newark, Delaware that’s said to be experiencing “sagging business,” will soon bite the dust. Cavaliers, which dates from about 1960, will be replaced with more than 700 houses. . . . The curtains have been drawn on Quail Walk Country Club, a 44-year-old facility in Wetumpka, Alabama. “If I’m ever going to retire, now is the time,” the club’s owner, 78-year-old Earl Singleton, told WSFA-TV. Singleton, who’s owned Quail Walk for a decade, isn’t a golfer and likely won’t become one. . . . Come the end of the current golf season, golfers who live in and around Worcester, Massachusetts will say goodbye to Dunroamin Country Club. The club, which features a nine-hole course, has been around since the mid 1960s. The Republican says that it once had 200 members but today has just 28.
Duly Noted – Marcia Chambers, recently remembered as “the voice of reason on all golf’s really serious issues of the law and discrimination,” died last week, at the age of 78. Chambers did valuable service to golf by writing about racism and sexism at private clubs, subjects that reporters these days do their best to ignore. . . . The K Club, once described as “probably the most opulent golf resort in Ireland,” is for sale. The owner, Michael Smurfit, hopes to get €80 million (more than $93.8 million) for the 550-acre spread in County Kildare that hosted the Ryder Cup matches of 2006.
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