The Pellucid Perspective - April 2011 - (Page 15)

The laST worD few weeks ago, while skimming The Wire for any newsworthy notes before turning to the weekly golf page of the San Diego Union-Tribune (semi-cleverly designated as Page Fore), I ran across a potential deal that sure beats the usual weekday afternoon discount golf offers. The Resorts of Tullymore & St. Ives in Stanwood, Mich., is offering to buy your house for its appraised value if you purchase a home or condo in their community. Talk about music to the ears of Southern California golfers whose homes are underwater or would just like to move to a state that’s not overcrowded, over-taxed, expensive and broke but can’t sell their homes for a fair price! There’s got to be a catch, right? Not according to Terry Schieber, CEO of Tullymore. Schieber said that even if your house is worth $600,000 and you buy a house or condo at Tullymore & St. Ives for $500,000, you get to pocket the difference. Of course most of those Southern Californians would have to spend some of that profit on winter clothes (and live in Michigan), but still, as golf deals go, that beats 2-for-1 golf for $50 or a free hot dog and a drink at the turn. Schieber says Tullymore is able to make an offer like that because they own all their properties and have no debt. Well, that’s nice for them, but they won’t be debt-free for long if they’re buying Southern California properties for more than their homes are selling for. Interesting times, interesting concept. Can’t sell your home? Call Tullymore Resort A On the other hand, while it will be quite some time before Mr. Woods completes enough design projects to qualify for American Society of Golf Course Architects membership, it’s a good bet that some of his recent expenditures have been funded by upfront payments on design fees that in Dubai’s case were reported to be in excess of $20 million. Kind of makes a Nicklaus design fee of just over $2 million for a course that went bust look like a bargain. Solving the over-supply problem Tiger name can’t trump economy As noted elsewhere in this issue, a number of courses crafted by some of the best known names in modern golf course design have gone belly up and hit the foreclosure circuit. Tiger Woods has apparently joined those illustrious ranks before his designs hosted their first golfer. The Tiger Dubai course, which was at least partially completed, is reportedly going to once again be just one big sand trap in the wake of its developers’ financial collapse. Construction plans for the oceanfront Punta Brave ultra-private enclave in Baja California have been shelved for the time being, as have the bulldozers at his High Carolina layout for Jim Anthony’s Cliffs Communities near Asheville, N.C. Anthony has said that the High Carolina course construction will start up again this summer, but time will tell. www.PellucidcorP.com The number of course closures will undoubtedly continue to outpace U.S. course openings for many years to come, which will provide a slight improvement in our current over-supply, although the demand part of the equation is still in doubt. Perhaps a recent strategy in Ireland could be implemented here to nudge the supply down even further. The Irish government, which obviously pays more heed to the complaints of golf course owners (at least the “prominent” ones) than the U.S. leadership, recently decreed that highway signage for all but some of the country’s most prestigious courses should be removed. Apparently Ireland has the same supply-demand imbalance that the U.S. does when it comes to golf courses, whose land, many feel, could be better utilized. So, on the theory that if people can’t find the courses, they can’t play them, the government has given some of the Irish mom & pop courses a little nudge toward turning their acreage into potato farms or microchip manufacturing plants. Just a thought. Dumb move of the month This will strike those few of you who know how I broke my leg in November as ironic, but I have to nominate the Stacy Lewis family, and particularly her mom, for participating in one of the more foolish traditions in professional golf, the victory plunge into Poppie’s Pond by the 18th hole after the Kraft Nabisco LPGA tournament in Rancho Mirage a couple of weeks ago. Shockingly, on a leap into about 18 inches of water, Mrs. Lewis broke her leg! Obviously it was not Mommy’s Pond. I guess it’s fortunate that the 18th green at Augusta National is nowhere near Rae’s Creek, although we’ve already seen Phil’s vertical leap, so he wouldn’t have much of a fall when he hit bottom. n as noted elsewhere in this issue, a number of courses crafted by some of the best known names in modern golf course design have gone belly up and hit the foreclosure circuit. Tiger woods has apparently joined those illustrious ranks before his designs hosted their first golfer. The Pellucid PersPecTive 15 http://WWW.PELLUCIDCORP.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - April 2011

The Pellucid Perspective
Contents
Cover Your Asset
NGCOA Ponders Becoming Southwest Airlines?
Is E-Mail Dead?
Foreclosures Opening New Avenues for Managers
Mar 2011 YtD Weather Impact, Feb 2011 YtD Utilization
An App a Day Takes Your Money Away
Comings & Goings
Golf Deals to Forget
Phoenix, AZ Core Business Statistical Area (CBSA)
Can’t Sell Your Home? Call Tullymore Resort

The Pellucid Perspective - April 2011