Deeds and Weeds

Results for November 2009 Back to Deeds and Weeds Index

'People Are Cutting Golf Out of Their Diets"

Monday, November 23, 2009 Comments
Roger Vincent had a story in Sunday's Los Angeles Times about the difficult state of the golf course and golf real estate business in this country. Having read a similar version of this story more than once in the last 12 months, I would say there wasn't a lot that was new here, other than an update on where we are with course closures in the U.S. in 2009 (114 through September, according to Vincent and the National Golf Foundation, offset by 44 course openings).

Still, it's a worthwhile read, since it pulls together all of the relevant statistics and details about the struggling golf business, as well as focuses specifically on the Southern California market. Imagine, for instance, being able to buy a Los Angeles area country club of $6.5 million (as Vincent reports of Chevy Chase CC in Glendale)? You couldn't get a bathroom in Malibu so cheap...

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
Keywords:

Long Island Club, Wrecked by Madoff, Finds Buyer

Monday, November 23, 2009 Comments
North Shore CC, a 95-year-old club on Long Island that was decimated by the Bernie Madoff scandal and facing possible closure, has found a savior. Don Zucker, a New York real estate developer, has offered to buy the club from its members for $12.5 million. Details here in the New York Post.

According to the story, the club's membership rolls had declined from 175 to 110 in the wake of the Madoff financial bombshell ("Bernie did a lot of damage here," one unidentified member told the Post) and more than two dozen employees had been laid off.

But Zucker has big plans to revive the club, which has an A.W. Tillinghast desgined course, from cutting membership dues by 40 percent to adding amenities (like a luxury health spa). "I always wanted to own a golf course," Zucker told reporters.

--G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
Keywords:

Ballamor Opening For Public Play

Monday, November 23, 2009 Comments
balamor.jpgBallamor, an Egg Harbor, N.J., private club that opened in 2001, has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Starting next year it will become a daily-fee public course, the Press of Atlantic City is reporting.

The problem has simply been a lack of members, the article quotes marketing manager Liz Norton-Scanga as saying. A "bummed out" member told the paper Ballamor had 200 to 225 members at its peak, well short of the projected 350.

Another member, Jack Feinberg, is quoted as saying management "had assured us they were going to try ... to keep it a private club. They talked to nobody (about bankruptcy) as far as I know.”

Designed by Brian Ault, Ballamor intends to charge $50 per round in the off-season and twice that in the peak golf months. The green fee includes a cart.

-- P.F.


Posted by Peter Finch
Keywords:

Moonlight Basin Files Chapter 11

Thursday, November 19, 2009 Comments
Moonlight basin.jpgMoonlight Basin, a high-end golf-and-ski resort with a partially completed Jack Nicklaus course (pictured), has filed for bankruptcy protection. So reports New West.

The move came just one day before a foreclosure that would have handed the keys of the ambitious Montana development to Lehman Brothers, its primary lender. (Lehman itself declared bankruptcy protection last year.) The bankruptcy should allow six-year-old Moonlight Basin to operate its ski business this season. The fate of its golf course, known as the Reserve, is less clear.

Court documents show Lehman has provided $3.6 million to maintain operations since its $100 million loan to Moonlight Basin went into default last fall. New West cites sources "familiar with the situation" who say the resort's value today is likely less than $50 million, despite appraisals showing it to be worth more than $200 million.

-- P.F.
Posted by Peter Finch
Keywords:

Rich Folks Live Near Trump Course

Thursday, November 19, 2009 Comments
getImage.jpgWe got an email this week from Donald Trump with a photocopy of this Washington Post story attached. Dated Nov. 7, it concerns Loudoun County, Va., and the many yuppies living there.

A study found, as the article notes, that the county  "boasts the nation's highest concentration of residents 25 to 34 with salaries of $100,000 or more -- about 10 percent of the population vs. 2 percent nationally."

Donald helpfully scribbled on the news clipping: "Home of Trump National. Great!"

Indeed, Trump's latest golf course acquisition -- the former Lowes Island Club, now Trump National Washington D.C. -- is featured prominently in the article. "The wealth [in the county] is astonishing. And you're only going to see that grow," the article quotes Eric Trump, Donald's son, as saying. Eric is overseeing the golf course project.

Trump National D.C. has two courses, one designed by Tom Fazio and the other by Arthur Hills.

-- P.F.
Posted by Peter Finch
Keywords:

Amelia Island's Bankruptcy Filing

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 Comments

images.jpgAmelia Island Plantation has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the Associated Press is reporting. The Florida resort said in court documents it would not have enough cash on hand to meet payroll this Friday without help from a group of homeowners who have been negotiating a possible investment.

The resort has four golf courses: Ocean Links (pictured), Oak Marsh, Long Point and Amelia River. All operations will remain open during the bankruptcy reorganization, the AP quotes President Jack Healan as saying.

The company has 825 employees and a semi-monthly payroll of more than $800,000, the AP says.

-- P.F.



Posted by Peter Finch
Keywords:

Waverly Oaks Deal On Hold

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 Comments
hollywood-east-snow-lg.jpgWaverly Oaks Golf Club in Plymouth, Mass., was supposed to be plowed under before Christmas. The plan was to turn the daily fee course into a 240-acre movie and TV studio—a "Hollywood East" that would be known as Plymouth Rock Studios. The groundbreaking was just weeks away.

But now the Boston Globe is reporting that the $550 million deal is on hold as the studio scrambles to make alternate plans for its funding.

Quoting from the paper: "News of the financial turnabout comes just a week after the Globe began making inquiries about the background of the studio’s would-be financier, Prosperity International LLC, of Orlando, Fla."

Which makes me wonder, what about the golf course? The Brian Silva-designed 18, which I played a few years ago and liked, gets 4 stars out of a possible 5 in Golf Digest's Places to Play reader ratings. Its web site implies it was staying open till Nov. 29, right before the movie-studio groundbreaking, though the Globe says it closed on Nov. 1. Either way, it looks like area golfers may be getting a reprieve...of no telling how long.

-- P.F.


Posted by Peter Finch
Keywords:

Omaha's Ironwood CC to Close

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 Comments
Ironwood CC, one of the oldest golf clubs in Omaha (founded in 1924, and originally called Highland CC) will close at the end of this year, unable to make the debt payments on a huge loan it took out in 1999 to pay for capital improvements. The property is to be sold at a trustee auction Jan. 22. Details in this story in the Omaha World-Herald.

Sadly, the aspects of Ironwood's troubles are all-too-familiar in the private club world these days. Ten years ago, when the golf business was much more bullish than it is now, the club felt it needed a better clubhouse in order to compete with other golf facilities in Omaha -- so it borrowed $10.7 million for that and other internal projects.

But the economy soured, and Ironwood's membership plummeted -- the story says the club now has between 200-225 members, down from a one-time high of 350 members (plus 250 more who were social members only). That means a lot less business for that new clubhouse, which probably was a factor in the loan becoming overdue.

-- G.R.

Posted by Geoff Russell
Keywords:

The Twisty Tetherow Tale

Monday, November 9, 2009 Comments
6_Tetherow.jpgThe short history of Tetherow -- a high-end golf community in Oregon with a highly regarded David McLay Kidd-designed course -- has more than its share of twists and turns. Here's an article in the Bend Bulletin that'll bring you up to speed, if you are so inclined.

The condensed version: Only 59 of 302 plots have sold and just "a handful" of homes have been built on them. The master developer, Arrowood Tetherow, had to unload most of its residential lots, plus the property where it planned to build a hotel and the golf course itself. Now it's getting pressure from another one of the developers, Virtual Realty Enterprises of St. Louis, which has filed a notice of default for failure to pay $12 million on an $18 million line of credit, the Bend paper reports. The credit line is secured by two lots and 12 acres set aside for overnight accommodations.

“Like any other property you bought two years ago, it's probably worth half now," the paper quotes residential lot owner Gwil Evans as saying. "But I think that location will be among the first to come back and will do better than any other (Central Oregon) golf course location."

The course, as we noted back in May, is now owned by a company headed by Chris Van der Velde, who played briefly on the PGA Tour. Originally intended to be super-private, Tetherow is basically open to the public now. Our colleague Matt Ginella played the course earlier this year and loved it. Here's the online version of his report.

-- P.F.
Posted by Peter Finch
Keywords:

Search

most emailed

most commented

most viewed

Close

Thank you for signing up for the Tip of the Week newsletter.

You will receive your first newsletter soon.
Subscribe to Golf Digest
Subscribe today