Deeds and Weeds

Results for June 2009 Back to Deeds and Weeds Index

A Sound That Makes You Want To Croak

Monday, June 29, 2009 Comments
frogs.jpgNobody wants to live next to an abandoned golf course. But who knew one of the biggest drawbacks is the sound of frogs croaking through the night? That's what North Fort Myers, Fla., residents are griping about in this local news report on CBS affiliate WINK-TV.

They say frogs have "taken over" the old Lochmoor Country Club, which closed a couple of years ago. "There's nothing you can do," one resident complains. "I haven't slept in days."

WINK says a lawyer representing lenders on the property bought it for $650,000 earlier this year but hasn't announced his plans for the property.

A jumping-frog competition, perhaps?

-- P.F.
Posted by Peter Finch
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Wisconsin's Hillmoor GC in limbo

Monday, June 29, 2009 Comments
The other day my colleague Pete Finch wrote about a Wisconsin golf club, Waushara GC, that had been rescued from financial collapse by its own members, who were actually pitching in and working at the course themselves.

Not so happy news, unfortunately, at another Wisconsin facility, Hillmoor GC in Lake Geneva. As detailed in this story in the Janesville (Wis.) Gazette, Hillmoor has been a favorite spot of Lake Geneva golfers since the 1920s. The city owns eight holes. The other 10 were owned by a developer who wanted to acquire the rest, build houses and turn it into a golf community. But when he defaulted on a $23.2 million loan in 2008, his lease on Hillmoor transferred to a lender, Kennedy Funding of New Jersey. 

Kennedy and the Lake Geneva City Council became embroiled in a financial disagreement over Hillmoor, with the result being that all maintenance and upkeep of the golf course stopped. Last week the city council voted to terminate the lease, which means it now owns the golf course. And it doesn't sound as though the city wants to be in the gof business.

The story states, "A report prepared by the committee showed a municipal course could break even if the city purchased the land for $4 million and the course saw an annual profit of $800,000. City officials have been reluctant to seriously consider the idea. 'The question that’s never asked is if the city buys it, how is the city going to pay for it,' [Mayor Bill] Chesen said."

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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Volunteers To The Rescue

Friday, June 26, 2009 Comments
tournaments1_image.jpgHere's a feel-good story to start the weekend right. According to this piece on a Fox News affiliate ("Your Online Source for Balanced News and Severe Weather Coverage"), the Waushara Country Club in Wautoma, Wisc., has pulled itself from the brink by having members volunteer their time working at the club.

That's right -- members are helping with maintenance work, tending bar, running the beverage carts and more, all to keep the 27-hole course afloat.

Struggling financially, the club had to cut its paid staff in half, so it's obviously tough luck for employees who lost their jobs. But head pro Bob VanEffen is quoted as saying the volunteer effort saved the club $250,000 in its first year and it's been profitable ever since. "Without the membership force volunteering, we probably wouldn't be here today," he told the reporter.

He adds: "It's really brought the membership closer together. It's like one big family."

-- P.F.
Posted by Peter Finch
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Report: Reflection Bay Closing

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 Comments
LLV.jpgLake Las Vegas is closing its Reflection Bay course, the Wall Street Journal reports here.

The high-end, once-high-flying resort says it’s shuttering the Jack Nicklaus-designed Reflection Bay course because it is worth  “significantly less” than the $29 million Lake Las Vegas owes to lender Carmel Land & Cattle Co. The resort will lay off nearly all its Reflection Bay employees and the lender will hold a foreclosure sale on the property July 9, the paper says.

The Lake Las Vegas resort, which includes a man-made lake, two hotels and scores of private homes, filed for bankrupcty protection last year. The Reflection Bay course has  4 1/2 stars (out of a possible 5) in the Places to Play ratings of  Golf Digest readers.

The resort recently closed the Falls Golf Club, a Tom Weiskopf layout near the Lake Las Vegas entrance. The community's private South Shore club remains open.


-- P.F.
Posted by Peter Finch
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Homestead Farms For Sale

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 Comments
HomesteadFarmsWAH18.jpgWashington's Homestead Farms Golf Resort is for sale. The asking price: $7.5 million, reports the Lynden Tribune. 

The golf resort, whose 14-year-old course earned 4 stars in Golf Digest's Places to Play reader ratings, is one of several Homestead properties on the block, according to the paper. Its Birch Bay Waterslide park is also available for $5.5 million.

Parent company Homestead Northwest grew to become one of the largest home builders in northwest Washington, but it has struggled lately. A letter from founder Jim Wynstra in May said Homestead would move toward a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but later said  Homestead would seek to avoid bankruptcy, the newspaper reports.

One possible buyer for the golf resort: Lynden's Regional Parks and Recreation District.

-- P.F.


Posted by Peter Finch
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Hockey Stars Sue Over Resort Investment

Friday, June 19, 2009 Comments
Cabo.jpgA messy golf-related story is all over the New York tabloids this morning, and it has nothing to do with the downpour at Bethpage Black. This one is all about a lawsuit claiming that developer Ken Jowdy made off with $25 million that was supposed to be invested in a sprawling Mexican golf resort.

Here's the New York Post version. Here's the Daily News.

The plaintiffs in the suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, include nearly two dozen National Hockey League players. They're asking for their $25 million back and another $15 million in damages.

Jowdy told the New York Daily News the lawsuit is meritless. "There's not one statement of fact" in it, he's quoted as saying.

The golf resort in question is Diamante Cabo San Lucas, a 1,500-acre property overlooking the Pacific. Two courses are planned, one designed by Phil Mickelson and the other by Davis Love III (or "Dave" Love III, as  Jowdy's web site calls him).

Jowdy's Legacy Properties developed the Boot Ranch Club in Texas, with a Hal Sutton-designed course. Other projects include one in San Diego (Diamante Del Mar) and another in middle Tennessee (Laurel Cove).

-- P.F.



Posted by Peter Finch
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A Bayou Bailout

Thursday, June 18, 2009 Comments
storytop_neworleans.jpgLouisiana's state legislature is preparing to bail out the money-losing TPC Louisiana outside New Orleans, site of the Zurich National event on the PGA Tour. If approved, the state money would come to $9.2 million, reports the Times-Picayune, on top of the $18.4 million Louisiana has already spent on the project.

The fear is that the course's  financial losses will drive away PGA Tour Inc., which operates  TPC Louisiana. Apparently there's a clause in the course's contract that would allow it to revert to the private donors of the land unless it is maintained by pro golf tournament operators.

The course, designed by Pete Dye, was named one of Golf Digest's Best New Upscale Public courses when it opened in 2004.

Not everyone thinks the bailout is such a great idea, particularly since Louisiana is facing big budget cuts. "We ought not be in the golf course business, " the newspaper quotes state Sen. Rob Marionneaux as saying. Marionneaux leads the Senate revenue committee. "Particularly this year we ought not to be doing it," he said.

-- P.F.


Posted by Peter Finch
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Mexico's Loreto Bay Resort Shuttered

Thursday, June 18, 2009 Comments
Loreto Bay, a planned eco-friendly community in the Baja Sur California peninsula about 750 miles south of San Diego whose owners had visions of becoming a rival to Los Cabos, has hit a speed bump. TSD Loreto Partners, its development group, announced that all construction activity would be suspended as of June 6, and that Loreto Bay Resort -- home to a 155-room hotel and 18-hole golf course with views of the Sea of Cortez -- would close. 

The cause, not surprisingly, is the stumbling economy. As this story in the San Diego Tribune explains, the development has sold fewer than 800 of its planned 6,000 lots, and its primary lender is Citigroup Property Investors, whose parent bank has been hit hard by the recession.

There is some good news: The story reports that Fonatur, the tourism development arm of the Mexican government, wants to take over and reopen the Loreto Bay Resort's hotel and golf course until a new buyer can be found.

"The golf course is an important attraction in Loreto, and its loss would be a great blow, from which this tourist destination would not easily recover," said Narciso Agúndez, governor of Baja California Sur.

Last year, in happier economic times, the New York Times profiled Loreto Bay, its history and its development plans, in a story you can read here. 

-- G.R.

Posted by Geoff Russell
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A New Course In Kansas

Monday, June 15, 2009 Comments
casino_644.jpgPrairie Band, a Native American casino in Topeka, Kans., is building an 18-hole golf course, the Associated Press is reporting.  Native American PGA Tour member Notah Begay III is the co-designer, along with Jeff Brauer. It'll be Begay's first design. Brauer is architect of the highly regarded Giants Ridge Golf Club in Minnesota, among others.

The AP says Prairie Band's course will be called the Firekeeper and will be open by next summer.

-- P.F.


Posted by Peter Finch
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'It Was Ego Gone Wild'

Monday, June 15, 2009 Comments
Thumbnail image for MI-AR137_WCLUB_20080704115953.jpgWow. Quite a profile of Edra Blixseth in yesterday's New York Times business section. Here's the link.

I've been following the Yellowstone Club saga fairly carefully over the past couple of years and, still, yesterday's lengthy feature by Amy Wallace included a lot of fresh material. Yes, much of it is gossipy personal stuff...but hey, it made for good reading.

Among the stranger tidbits: Some people apparently believe that Edra and her ex-husband, Tim, are secretly still together and plotting to take over the Yellowstone Club again. If so, she is doing an awfully convincing job of playing the bitter ex-wife. At one of Edra's parties, she had voodoo dolls and pinatas shaped liked Tim. 

Elsewhere in the article, she describes him as an uncontrollable spender who threw money around to help him get through a midlife crisis. After receiving a fateful $375 million loan from Credit Suisse several years ago, she says, "it was ego gone wild."

(It should be noted that Edra spends pretty freely herself. Wait till you get to the bit about the, um, camel scrotum...)

Tim Blixseth had no comment for the article.

-- P.F.




Posted by Peter Finch
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