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These Guys Aren’t So Good: The PGA Tour and golf itself needs a new mantra
Tuesday, 02 February 2010 08:36
According to Golfweek magazine, a group of golf organizations have hired a high-profile lobbyist to buff the game’s image in Washington. According to Golfweek’s Gene Yasuda, the PGA of America,
Golf has been fortunate that the conduct of its principals has largely matched its principles of honesty and self-regulation.
National Golf Course Owners Association, Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and Club Managers Association of America have contributed a total of $200,000 to engage the firm Podesta Group to change lawmaker perceptions that “associating with golf is somehow a bad thing,” according to a Podesta principal.
The recent turn in golf’s reputation makes one nostalgic for the days when the game was mostly criticized for its mythical uniform -– white belts and shoes, lime green pants, etc. These have been rough months for golf, especially for the PGA: First Tiger Woods’ “accident” and then, this week, allegations by Scott McCarron that Phil Mickelson is a “cheater” because he is using a faux-legal square-grooved wedge in competition. Mickelson’s rejoinder that the club is not illegal and that three other players are using it (out of more than 140 on tour) doesn’t exactly elevate the sport’s honorable image, nor does the ungentlemanly dust-up between the tour’s #2 player and a journeyman.
Golf has been fortunate that the conduct of its principals has largely
Just three tour players, Mickelson included, use a faux-legal square groove club.
matched its principles of honesty and self-regulation. But Tiger’s wayward behavior, Phil’s taking advantage of a loophole, and the serial embarrassments of John Daly argue that the game’s marketing focus should shift away from its stars (unless it could figure out a way to make players like Jim Furyk and Stewart Cink interesting, which it can't).
The PGA Tour’s formerly clever ad line, “These Guys Are Good,” rings hollow; and with the disclosures about Woods, it is filled with unfortunate double entendres. Better the tour should start intensify its inconsisten emphasis on its contributions to charities. Perhaps start with a campaign under the banner “These Guys Do Good.”
Talking the walk: Boomers trending toward urban environments, like Daniel Island
Monday, 01 February 2010 18:42
Daniel Island features Tom Fazio and Rees Jones golf courses as well as a community that puts many houses within walking distance of all shopping and services.
For years, golf communities at a distance from urban areas have been a lure for retirees. Some folks are content with homes far from a bustling city and do not mind being totally reliant on a car to take them to where any action is, modest though that action may be in the boondocks.
Not me. Although I am resigned to live most of the year in a home on the South Carolina coast,
Paris sounds nice a few months a year, but I'll settle for New York or Boston.
which my wife favors, I am insistent that we spend at least a couple of months in some urban environment each year. Paris sounds nice, but I’ll settle for New York or Boston, any place where I can hang up the car keys for an extended period and let my feet (and public transportation) take me where I want to go.
I thought I might be a little odd in this regard, at least as far as baby boomers go. But according to a recent Urban Land Institute report, I’m actually going with the flow. The ULI reports that, “75% of retiring Boomers said that they want to live in mixed-age and mixed-use communities, i.e. in urban settings.”
The report went on to add that, “Not all will want to move to the central city, and walkable, urbanized suburban town centers will see an influx of aging Boomers.”
Near our home in Connecticut, nearly all condos in such a mixed-use development have sold, despite the extreme troubles in the condo market. Blue Back Square in West Hartford is like a mini-city,
“...once the Boomers can sell their homes and buy condos, these centers will thrive during the decade ahead.”
about a six-block square of retail stores, restaurants, shops, fitness centers, parking areas and apartments above it all. Some of the anchor tenants include a Cheesecake Factory restaurant, Whole Foods supermarket, a three-screen cinema, Barnes & Noble bookstore and Crate & Barrel furniture store. Town hall and a large library are within two blocks of Blue Back Square’s edge, and another two blocks takes you into the center of West Hartford, with dozens more restaurants and shops.
This kind of manufactured urban setting is not new, although the momentum has stalled somewhat during the last five years (hasn’t everything?) as the condo resale market has virtually collapsed. But, adds the Urban Land Institute, “once the Boomers can sell their homes and buy condos, these centers will thrive during the decade ahead.”
Few of these urban centers have the space to include golf courses within their perimeter, but one place that comes close is Daniel Island, outside of Charleston. Daniel Island is more or less self-contained, with many attractive Charleston style homes within walking distance of supermarket, offices, shops and restaurants. Two 18-hole golf courses (Tom Fazio and Rees Jones) are within the confines of Daniel Island but a short drive from most of the housing. Still, Daniel Island captures the spirit of what is often referred to as “new urbanism.”
If the demographers and sociologists are right, Daniel Island could be ahead of its time.
The clubhouse at Colleton River, where some property prices are as low as $20,000, looks out to the Pete Dye golf course and beyond to marsh and river. The community also includes a Jack Nicklaus Signature course.
Golf lot prices hit harder than homes. I was surprised to see a “foreclosure” golf-view lot for sale for just $49,900 in the upscale Colleton River community just off Hilton Head. At .59 acres, this is no patio lot. I figured the bank was desperate to cash out, but when I looked further at prices in Colleton River, they were as low as $20,000 (not foreclosures). “…lots in our golf communities have all taken a big hit,” says Bluffon, SC, area real estate agent Tom Jackson. “Great timing for someone who wants to build.” Figure $175 a square foot to build a home in keeping with those around it, and you could be all set for under $550,000 in one of the south’s best regarded golf communities. Most homes in Colleton River range from the high six figures to $1 million plus. The golf is excellent, featuring both Jack Nicklaus and Pete Dye golf courses that are studded with live oaks and marsh views.
Here we go again? Most economists point to minimal down payments and low interest loans as fundamental reasons for the current housing mess. My brother Bob, a San Francisco-based financial
"Curing a debt bubble with more debt" just doesn't work.
adviser, included a simple but compelling chart in his latest newsletter to clients that implies déjà vu all over again. It showed that the FHA (Federal Housing Authority) mortgage program requires just a 3.5% down payment for a home, or $7,000 on a $200,000 home. Figure in $1,500 in closing costs, and the total $8,500 cash needed by a buyer of modest means is totally covered by the current government homebuyer credit. “Curing a debt bubble with more debt,” Bob writes. He concludes that “zero down, courtesy of the government…will ensure that a whole generation of marginal borrowers will keep the housing recovery on shaky ground.” I hope the economic wizards in Washington know more than Bob, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Cliffs Communities in UK press report. United Kingdom newspaper reporters love a good scandal, and they have probably written as much as U.S. papers have about Tiger Woods’ problems. This past week, the Guardian of London’s web site took a more business-oriented tone and looked at the
Tiger Woods used his family to help promote only one of his business dealings, his design for The Cliffs Communities.
prospects for Woods’ fledgling golf design business. “For all that was written about the hypocrisy of Tiger Woods,” wrote Guardian blogster Lawrence Donegan, ”…there was only one sponsorship deal in which he explicitly used his family as a selling point, and that was the deal he had with a golf course community in South Carolina called The Cliffs.” (See our earlier discussion of the Cliffs dilemma by clicking here.) Also last week, a Golfweek article speculated that “any route they [The Cliffs] take could be challenging, considering what has been an almost singular reliance on Woods.” The Cliffs ducked all Golfweek inquiries about their marketing plans regarding Woods. The longer Woods stays out of the public eye, the tougher it will be for The Cliffs to generate the property sales they need at High Carolina. And when Woods eventually returns, he may be embraced by the golf nuts who follow his every swing, but whether that translates into $1 million property sales remains to be seen.
Grape expectations. Homes in golf communities in Florida suffered some of the nation's worst price drops in the earliest days of the housing crisis. Since 2005, many homeowners associations and developers have been retrenching, cutting costs and staff to get by. The last thing they are spending money on is marketing, especially fancy brochures, but one Florida golf community is bucking that trend. I settled back in my recliner early one morning this week, opened up my copy of the Wall Street Journal, and a large, eight-panel, full-color brochure from Vineyards fell to the floor. Vineyards is located in Naples and features condos starting in the $400s and single-family homes from the $600,000s in an amenity-rich community. The Vineyards brochure declared the development is “debt free,” which is a very nice place to be these days. I will write more about Vineyards in coming weeks.
A robot comes out of its hole and sees its shadow… PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, wants the organizers of the annual Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA, to
The groundhog, an official said, "is treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania."
replace Punxsutawney Phil with a robot. PETA believes it is unfair to keep the animal in captivity and to subject it to bright lights and big crowds that gather at the annual celebration. The organizers of Groundhog Day, upon which a prediction of the spring season depends and one entertaining movie was made, counter that the animal lives in a climate-controlled enclosure that is inspected annually by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. A comment by Groundhog Day official William Deeley put everything in perspective and, perhaps, PETA in their place, when he said, “the groundhog is treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania.” We await additional comment from People for the Ethical Treatment of Children Organization (PETCO).
Pall in the family: Glenmore shoulders on in the wake of embezzlement
Saturday, 30 January 2010 07:40
The clubhouse and golf course at Glenmore are up for sale in the wake of an embezzlement by a member of the family that owns the club.
Glenmore, just outside Charlottesville, VA, and one of my favorite communities, has been living a nightmare since last July with the news that a family member had embezzled $700,000, mostly from the coffers of the homeowner’s association but a portion from the golf club as well. Mike Comer, 45, both the president of the Glenmore Golf Club and treasurer of the HOA, disappeared in July after being called to a special meeting with Glenmore officials to discuss irregularities in the community’s balance sheet. He was found a month later, arrested and indicted in September.
Comer is the husband of former Glenmore director of golf Kandi Kessler, daughter of the
The son-in-law of the developer skimmed a reported $700,000 from Glenmore's HOA and golf club.
late Frank Kessler, a revered local businessman who developed Glenmore. Mr. Kessler had a well-earned reputation for fair dealings as well as a conservative approach to financing. The goodwill he built was transferred to his surviving family members, so much so that the homeowner’s association members had never pushed for an audit of the organization’s finances until this past summer, when HOA leaders noted the financial inconsistencies and invited Comer to the meeting he never attended.
The family has paid back half the money lost and has pledged to return the rest by this August. A few developer lots remain in the almost totally built community, and the family has reportedly pledged to sell them if necessary to cover the balance. Because of the humiliation brought upon them and a loss of appetite for managing the club, they have put the golf course and clubhouse up for sale. According to people I know at Glenmore, two potential buyers have emerged, one a wealthy resident of the community. The club’s value is estimated around $4 million. Homes in Glenmore are priced generally in the mid- to high-six figures.
Glenmore's John LaFoy golf course is links style, in keeping with the overall Scottish theme in the community.
With all the tumult, Glenmore is in better shape financially than you might think. On-site real estate sales director Tom Pace told me that he has seen more potential buyers visit the community in January than in the entire second half of 2009. The homeowner’s association had enough in reserve to cover expenses in the short term; residents saw their annual dues increase to a modest $797 from $766. Residents in dozens of troubled communities in Florida and elsewhere only wish their dues had gone up $31. The Glenmore Club, which charges $20,000 for initiation fees per couple and a modest $500 per month in dues, lost a handful of members to nearby Keswick Club. The Keswick clubhouse is a baronial work of art, but its Arnold Palmer golf course is much fussier than the classy John LaFoy layout at Glenmore.
Glenmore has handled the embezzlement by being upfront and forthright about it. Before they toured the community, a couple I referred to Glenmore met with Tom Pace who informed them of the embezzlement and explained the steps Glenmore was taking to weather the storm. That is precisely the way to handle it.
The Glenmore family may be shattered, but family values seem to have survived intact.
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