Deeds and Weeds

And He's Off...

10.29.09 | 6:36 PM
Picture 6.jpgYes, the Donald has begun construction of Trump International Golf Links Scotland— a project he promises will include "the greatest golf course in history." Among the first tasks: planting grass to stabilize its environmentally sensitive dunes, the Associated Press reports.

Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., told Scotland's Press & Journal that golfers would be teeing off within 18 months to two years.

The newspaper is reporting Trump may have nearly reached a deal with with several area landowners who have been holding out, refusing to sell him their property.

Meanwhile, a group called Tripping Up Trump continues to protest the project, claiming it will damage the environment. (Trump Jr. had some choice words for the group, who were absent from the site on his most recent visit: "They are probably playing in their sandbox right now," he told the Scotsman newspaper. "It's recess at school and they probably weren't able to get their parents to write them a permission slip to leave.")

Trump's  £1 billion project includes two golf courses, a 450-bedroom hotel, and nearly 1,500 homes. The developer is holding off on the homes for now, hoping for a turnaround in the real estate market. The championship course will be designed by Tom Fazio II, 38-year-old nephew of famed architect Tom Fazio.

-- P.F.

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Balsam Homeowners Rally Against Foreclosure

10.29.09 | 4:28 PM
balsamgolf2.jpgBalsam Mountain Preserve is a high-end North Carolina community with an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course (pictured) and some big financial problems. But its well-heeled homeowners are fighting back against an impending foreclosure by a lender that is owed $20 million.

Passing around the hat, a group of members has raised commitments for nearly $16 million, according to the Smoky Mountain News. The money comes from 65 property owners, representing nearly a third of the community. Their goal: to get control of the property and head off the foreclosure. A hearing on the foreclosure was scheduled for this week but has been postponed till late November.

"Nobody knows what a new owner or someone who took over would do,” the article quotes Nancy Seidensticker, a homeowner, as saying. “It is a little frightening. We don’t want it change. We like it the way it is.”

I know what she means. I visited Balsam Mountain Preserve earlier this month and stayed with a friend who has a home there. It's a beautiful, intensely peaceful spot. The community was developed by Chaffin/Light, the team behind Chechessee Creek and Spring Island in South Carolina and a handful of other luxury properties.

It's not the only area community to run into financial trouble. The developer behind nearby Seven Falls, a community with an Arnold Palmer design of its own, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week, the Hendersonville Times-News reports. The bankruptcy filing shows $47.2 million in liabilities and $60.7 million in assets. National Bank of South Carolina says developer Keith Vinson defaulted on a $15.7 million loan.

-- P.F.


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'Spectacular' Golf Homes For Sale

10.27.09 | 6:22 PM
0053889-1.jpg"Top Ten Real Estate Deals," a self-described independent web site, is featuring what it considers America's 10 Most Spectacular Golf Homes.

Have a look here. Some are nicer than others. In a few, the decor will turn your stomach. But they're all on golf courses and they're all certainly ... big!

The least expensive one is asking a "mere" $3 million. Hint: It's the one in Colorado.

In reverse order, they are at the following clubs:

10. Castle Pines (Castle Rock, Colo.)
9. Bay Colony Golf Club at Pelican Marsh (Naples)
8. Kapalua Resort (Maui). This one is Jim Furyk's home, the web site says.
7. The Bear's Club (Jupiter, Fla.)
6. TPC Las Vegas
5. St. Andrews C.C. (Boca Raton)
4. Big Canyon C.C. (Newport Beach)
3. Paradise Valley C.C. (Paradise Valley, Ariz.)
2. Pebble Beach G. Links
1. Three Ponds (Bridgehampton, N.Y.)

The No. 1 house, which features a private, Rees Jones-designed course, sits on roughly 60 acres (pictured) in the Hamptons. The asking price is listed on Top Ten's site as "upon request" but I emailed the listing broker and got the number: $68 million.

-- P.F.
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For Sale: Norman's Colorado Digs

10.27.09 | 11:09 AM
ISubp9zsdfxcwz.jpgIt's not on a golf course, per se, but Greg Norman's massive Seven Lakes Ranch in Colorado is for sale...and if you can afford the asking price ($55 million) you can probably afford to build your own course on its 11,000 acres.

What you do get: a sporting clays course, a Dance Hall (recently renovated!), horse barn, main staff office, ranch house and maintenance shop, plus almost two miles of private "gold medal" fishing on the White River.

Norman bought most of the acreage from financier Henry Kravis back in 2004. The mailing address is Meeker, Colo.

Here's a link to its listing on Zillow.com. Note the helpful callout showing your potential monthly mortgage payment of $234,991.

-- P.F.
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Golf Course Water Controversy for ex-N.C. Gov

10.24.09 | 4:38 PM
There's a bit of a golf-related controversy in North Carolina involving the state's former governer, Mike Easley.

According to an investigation by The News & Observer in Raleigh, while the state was in the middle of a severe drought in 2002 -- which caused Easley, a Democrat, to impose water restrictions on citizens, including urging them to turn their water faucets off while brushing their teeth -- the governer's golf club, Old Chatham, was allowed to pump up to 450,000 gallons of water a day from a local lake.

Further complicating matters, the newspaper claims the golf club waived Easley's annual dues while he was governor, a savings of about $50,000 which Easley failed to list on his financial disclosure forms.

"This is just a total shock to me that they would give up that water then," Lynn Featherstone, a board member of the Haw River Assembly, an advocacy group that monitors local water issues, told the newspaper. "That was a very bad year. ... This is the first we've heard of it."

Easley, who has denied any wrongdoing, refused an interview request from the newspaper.

You can read the story about the controversy here.

--G.R.
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Erin Hills Sold: What's Its Open Status?

10.23.09 | 10:47 AM
Erin Hills GC, the much ballyhooed new (opened in 2006) Wisconsin layout that hosted the 2008 U.S. Women's Public Links, is going to host the 2011 U.S. Amateur, and is supposedly under serious consideration to host the 2017 U.S. Open, has been sold. 

Owner Bob Lang, a greeting card and stationary tycoon who conceived of and bankrolled the project, has agreed to sell the facility to Milwaukee businessman Andy Ziegler. Details in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel here.

"After 11 years as the owner and developer of Erin Hills, I welcome and support Andy Ziegler, who has the commitment and resources to take Erin Hills to the height of her potential," Lang said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Ryan Herrington, writing about the transaction for GolfDigest.com here, gives an update on Erin Hills' chances for getting the 2017 U.S. Open.

-- G.R.
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Neighborly Spirit

10.22.09 | 3:43 PM
golf.northgatepan.jpgA group of Reno neighbors is attempting to buy the closed Northgate Golf Course and turn it into a city park. True, it won't be a golf course anymore...but to their thinking, an empty course is much better than a big, ugly housing development.

Here's a report in the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Under one plan being considered, residents would pay either $12,000 or $6,000 spread out over 30 years, with the higher fees for those who are either on the course or have great views." One of the neighbors pushing the plan has told homeowners their property would likely decline by $50,000 if the property is developed.

-- P.F.



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Kapalua's Bay Course For Sale

10.19.09 | 12:01 PM
KapaluaBay.jpgThe Bay Course at Maui's Kapalua Resort is on the market and the seller would like roughly $30 million, says the listing agent, Jeff Woolson of CB Richard Ellis. That's $20 million less than the resort's Plantation Course fetched earlier this year.

The Bay Course, which carries four and a half stars (out of a possible five) in Golf Digest's Places to Play reader ratings, is a resorty Arnold Palmer/Francis Duane design that hugs the Pacific Ocean. Until this year it was the site of the LPGA Kapalua Classic, which fell victim to the economy.

The adjacent Plantation course, also with four and half stars, is a Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw layout. It hosts the PGA Tour season opener each January. It is now controlled by TY Management Corp., an investment company incorporated in Hawaii.

My colleague Matt Ginella has lots of good info about visiting Kapalua in this Golf Digest article from early 2009.

Resort developer Maui Land & Pineapple Co. unloaded Plantation and is now selling the Bay Course as part of a plan to focus on its core development business, Woolson says.

Though the market is distressed, he assures the Bay Course property is not. "It generates significant gross revenue and positive net income," Woolson says. The owners are estimating it will host 36,000 rounds this year. That's down from roughly 40,000 in 2008.

Woolson, whose firm recently brokered the Yellowstone Club sale and also has the listing on the Kingsmill Resort in Virginia, imagines an international buyer might step up for the Bay Course. "We've had most interest from within the U.S.," he says, "but a lot of good responses from overseas as well."

-- P.F.

 
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Sutton's Boot Ranch Faces Foreclosure

10.14.09 | 2:06 PM
boot ranch.jpgTexas's Boot Ranch Golf Club, with a course designed by Hal Sutton as well as financial backing from the 14-time PGA Tour winner, is about to be foreclosed on, the San Antonio Express-News is reporting.

Lehman Brothers pumped $73 million into the struggling Fredericksburg, Tex., community in 2007, a year after the course opened. Now in bankruptcy reorganization, Lehman intends to sell the course and the undeveloped lots surrounding it, Sutton said in a statement released with partner Ken Jowdy of Legacy Properties. The statement said the sale will end their companies' involvement in Boot Ranch.

Lot prices in the community originally ranged from $400,000 for 3 acres to $1.75 million for 28 acres, which included the $175,000 fee to join the golf club. As of Wednesday, roughly 130 club memberships had been sold and the clubhouse village was nearly done, the newspaper reports.

The Sutton-Jowdy statement said an interim operator will run their club in their absence.

-- P.F.






 
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Shrinking Chardonnay

10.14.09 | 9:57 AM
Chardonnay1.jpgNapa Valley's Chardonnay Golf Club, a well-regarded course that earned 4 stars (out of 5) from Golf Digest readers in its Places to Play ratings, is bowing to economic pressure and shutting nine of its 27 holes, according to today's Napa Valley Register. It appears much of the property will be used for additional vineyards.

The semi-private club opened in 1986 with 18 holes and expanded to 27 the next year. Soon it added another nine and created the private Club Shakespeare Napa Valley, which operated through 2003, at which point it reverted to 27 holes, the Register reports.

Ken Laird, operator of the Laird Family Estates winery in Napa, bought the club for $16.1 million in 2005.

The new 18-hole routing, which will include the Meadows nine it its entirely and a mixture of holes from the other nines, is set to open Dec. 1. Golfers can continue to play the course during the renovation, the paper says.

-- P.F.

 
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