Golf Inc - April 2008 - (Page 44)

Who’s who in Mexico-Caribbean golf management ClubCorp: Owns and operates four golf clubs in Mexico. Grupo Echavarria: Owns and operates three golf clubs in Mexico. Grupo Mayan Golf: Owns and operates five golf clubs in Mexico Grupo Questro: Owns and operates five clubs in Mexico. KemperSports: Manages one fourcourse property in Puerto Rico; involved in planning of a club in Nicaragua. Troon Golf: Manages seven clubs on six different Caribbean islands and four in Mexico. Southworth Management: Operates two clubs in Puerto Rico, one in the Dominican Republic. Marriott Golf: Operates two clubs in Caribbean, one in Costa Rica. Troon’s Palmilla Arroyo course in Baja California There are three major Mexican-owned golf companies — Grupo Questro, Grupo Mayan and Echavarria. Questro owns and operates four golf clubs in the Los Cabos area of Baja California and is building another in Puerto Penasco, a resort area south of Tucson, Ariz. It also has a number of other projects on the horizon. The company has been a major developer in Mexico for many years, said Nubia Sarabia, assistant director of golf for Questro, but has only been involved with golf 15 years. Questro has hired major U.S. architects including Robert Trent Jones II, Norman and Nicklaus. “All the developments involve real estate because it is perceived that golf adds value to the real estate,” Sarabia said. “Although the company owns all its golf clubs now, it would like to expand to managing courses on a contract basis in the long run.” Grupo Questro courses are now open to the public, but one of them, Club Campestre San Jose, on the Sea of Cortez, will be private. Some American management companies are cautious about signing on clients south of the border. OB Sports Management, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., worked for seven years with three different owners of a golf club called Laguna del Mar in Puerto Penasco, an area popular with Arizonans. “The first owner built and grew in a 9-hole course, but he never built the second 9 or sold enough units. Now it has been sold again, and we’re no longer involved,” said C.A. Roberts, vice president of business development for OB Sports. But late in 2007, the company was hired to manage Las Palomas, designed by architect Forrest Richardson. Besides having golf, the Puerto Penasco resort includes two condo high-rises. Puerto Penasco, just four hours from Phoenix, is a good fit for OB Sports, Roberts said. Las Palomas’ biggest goal is to sell its condos, but offering guests an outstanding golf experience helps sell real estate. OB focuses on marketing, operations and maintenance. “We give them templates for human resources and accounting, but they run those operations themselves,” Roberts said. Now OB-managed clubs in Phoenix, California and Las Vegas market visits to Rocky Point to their customers. Is the firm actively looking for new work in Mexico or the Caribbean? “We generally don’t set a region and try to grow there,” Roberts said. “When we hear of opportunities or get referrals, we decide if we want to do it. If we have three or four courses in a region, we might do more. If only one, we’d be more cautious.” Roberts said the company still would consider deals that involved a developer or architect with whom they had a previous relationship. “That’s different from going down there by ourselves,” he said. “As you grow a company, sometimes exotic places sound really good. But if it’s more trouble than it’s worth, you wouldn’t do it.” The most high-profile American 44 Golf Inc. April 2008 operator in Mexico and the Caribbean is Troon Golf, which manages seven courses on six different Caribbean islands and four courses in Mexico. “We’re known for the course conditions we can deliver in difficult climates like rain forests and deserts,” said Jarrad Evans, a Troon vice president of business development. Clients in those areas covet that expertise in agronomy and Troon’s ability to place top-quality people in key jobs, he said. Some Troon courses were previously operated by owners, but most of its business in Mexico and the Caribbean has come from new development. “Water availability and bad quality effluent are our biggest problems,” Evans said. “Courses have to be tolerant of treated effluent with a high level of salt. New grasses like paspalum can help. But in the Caribbean you see some courses that didn’t do appropriate water testing before they were built and now have to rely on the government for their water. From Cabo to Mexico City water conditions can vary vastly. Government

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Golf Inc - April 2008

Golf Inc - April 2008 Contents Editors Column Birney Takes NGCOA Helm Construction Costs on the Rise KemperSports Adds 14 Courses Americas: Fazio Designs St. Kitts Layout Europe/Africa: Seaside Resort Planned in Egypt Asia/Australis: Faldo Opens New Chinese Course High-Tech Tools: New Technologies that can Help Operators There's No Economic Slump at Still-Popular Reynolds Plantation Tim Moraghan Wants to Make Golf Fun Again Why a $1.5 Billion Resort has Made Environmental Protection a Top Priority Most Admired Operators Marketing Experts Make Their Pitch for Golf Courses From Korea, with Cash Last Word

Golf Inc - April 2008

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