Of the $6 million, $2 million will be pitched in by the city and they’re attempting to raise an additional $4 million from private donations. Thus far, they have raised $2.5 million. The design will be done, for free, by Raymond Floyd. The Palm Beach Daily News estimates that the value of the design at $700,000.

$700,000? For a design of a par 3 golf course? Has anybody ever got $700,000 for the design of a par 3 golf course – ever?

Now the $6 million does include a new clubhouse as well. Must be a heck of a clubhouse, especially for a par 3. The architect of the clubhouse is donating his services and so is an interior designer. And the price tag is still $6 million.

And get this, apparently the course isn’t going to change much.

The course will stay true to the original 1960 Dick Wilson design with minor modifications, Floyd said. The location of the holes will be the same, but the direction of two will be revised.

So, the course routing isn’t changing, outside of changing the direction of two holes, and the cost for the design would have been $700,000? I’d really like to know how that number was arrived at.

I like to do a math exercise to see how long it’s going to take to get the money back. According to the course’s website, the green fee for a non-resident is, at peak time and with cart, is $46.19. Let’s assume every single player is paying that price, the highest possible. In order for the town to get its $2 million back, it will take 43,000 18-hole rounds. That’s being super optimistic too – the average green fee is almost certainly going to be at least half that, pushing the break even number to over 85,000 18-hole rounds. To get back the $6 million, it’s going to take more than 250,000 18-hole rounds.

That’s an amazing number to fathom for a par 3 golf course – even in Palm Beach.

It’s allowed a number of those who dislike Trump to come out of the woodwork.

Is Trump arrogant? Of course. But so what? So is the average retail consumer – if you’ve ever had the pleasure of working retail, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Most people dislike Donald Trump because he’s rich – not because he’s a bully. People can only be a bully if they’re empowered to be a bully – usually by people who want his money. An excellent example are the citizens and politicians of Rancho Palos Verdes.

The fact of the matter is that nearly every developer has dreamed of suing communities they work in for any number of perceived (and sometimes even real…) ridiculous regulations. Trump is suing for a number of reasons – he wasn’t allowed to plant a screen of ficus trees, wasn’t allowed to build a terrace on the clubhouse and wasn’t allowed to rename a street. Now, as ridiculous as a $100 million lawsuit is, so are regulations that don’t allow you to plant a screen of ficus trees, build a terrace, build a flagpole or rename a street.

People say that Trump doesn’t like to play by the rules – because he’s Donald Trump. That may or may not be the case – but I do know that most everybody doesn’t like to play by the rules in some aspect of their life. However, we all love rules when they don’t apply to us and really love rules when they apply to some “evil, rich developer”.

Some rules are, in fact, ridiculous.

So, while I expect this case to be settled long before it reaches court, I’m actually looking forward to the seeing the merits of the case and the city’s defense of its regulations. That is what is at the heart of this lawsuit. Not Donald Trump, $100 million, ficus trees or egos. But a defense of regulations that don’t allow a person to plant a screen, build a terrace or rename a street on their property.

I wonder why that is? To keep people from discussing them? He doesn’t want anybody to steal his ideas?

There are a few places where we get to see some idea of what the routing looks like for some of these golf courses. Here is the routing for the Cliffs course in High, North Carolina. (Click for larger.)

I’ll be the first to admit that judging any golf course by a routing is unfair – we can’t see the topography, although Tiger said that he wanted the course to be walkable, which means that the topography can’t be too severe, even if the course is in the mountains.. The fairways and greens won’t look exactly like what is shown and bunkers won’t be in the same place. There may even be more or fewer bunkers on each hole.

Now, that being said, we can still get a feel for what the design intent will be. We have returning nines that are segregated from one another – the front nine is on the west side and the back nine is on the east side. The good news is that the course is a “core course” – there is very little housing on the course. It is mostly along holes 5-8, which you can sort of see in this picture. It looks like there might be housing along 16-18 at some point in the future, but it’s difficult to tell with any certainty. Having looked at the routing for a little while, I don’t see anything of particular note. Holes 9 and 17 look somewhat interesting, but the rest look like copies of one another. I’ll be curious to see how the greens and their surrounds turn out – will there be bold green contours in the mold of Augusta or the sand hills of Australia that Tiger has praised in the past? Will more strategic elements be included?

We found out that, even in the current economy, that property sales weren’t too shabby. They sold $40 million worth of real estate in November. With property prices starting at $500,000 and going to over $3 million, that’s a decent haul. Probably enough to cover the cost of construction, land costs and Tiger’s design fee for the course. Maybe even a road or two in the subdivision.

The golf course at Punta Brava is quite different since it’s along the Pacific Ocean. The best I could come up with for a routing is below (that Tiger’s hand in the picture…). (Click for larger version.)

This is a different animal than the Cliffs. We see some pretty dramatic holes in 4, 9, 10, 16, 17 and 18. I’m sure the view on every hole will be spectacular. The internal holes also have some interesting features, like the shared bunkers on holes 3 and 4 and again on holes 14 and 15. The biggest downside I see to this design are all of the parallel holes, but that’s a minor quibble. This is actually a course that should be pretty interesting.

I’m looking forward to seeing some of the actual construction photos from the golf courses as well as how it’s played as a finished product. Hopefully his courses will live up to his playing ability.

Unfortunately, I came away totally disappointed. The public golf is pretty bad. The best of the public accesible lot is undoubtedly the City of Wilmington’s Municipal Course. It’s an old Donald Ross course that underwent a renovation in the late 1990s. Golf Club Atlas’ profile of the course details how Ron Prichard, along with the Donald Ross Society, restored the bunkers to give the course a lot of life. I walked the course, which was a pretty easy walk, and really enjoyed many of the holes. It is incredibly affordable.

The other courses that I played included Echo Farms Golf Club, Beau Rivage Golf Club, Castle Bay Golf Club and Magnolia Greens Golf Club. The publicly accesible golf courses I did not play that are in the area were the Cape Golf Club, Belvedere Country Club, Olde Point Golf Club, Porters Neck Golf Club and Topsail Greens Golf Club. The Cape was undergoing a total renovation and was closed. What I saw from driving around the courses at Belvedere, Olde Point and Topsail Greens was totally uninspring. Portners Neck is a Tom Fazio design that I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to play. From what I saw of the few greens driving around the course, they did show some interesting contours that would have been fun to play. Magnolia Greens, which gets high marks in Golf Digest’s Places to Play (4 stars…) was about as boring and lifeless a golf course that I’ve ever played. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how or why people rank it as high as they do.

There are three private clubs that I never did get a chance to play. I was able to see some of Cape Fear Country Club, another Donald Ross layout. It was recently restored by Kris Spence and it looked fantastic. The day I was setup to play it, it poured and I never got a chance to get back to the course. The ultra-private Eagle Point by Tom Fazio is reportedly a really good tract. And there are two courses located inside a planned development called Landfall. One course by Jack Nicklaus and one by Pete Dye. I was able to see a little of the courses in Landfall – they looked in immaculate shape, but not very unique.

There is one course under construction – the terribly named Cape Fear National Country Club. It is part of a planned development already well under construction and with many homes already occupied. While it isn’t scheduled to open until late 2009, an article The Real Estate Channel caught my eye because of the comments made by Cape Fear National’s architect, Tim Cate.

“It’ll blow everything out of the water up there,” says Cate, who also is working on a fourth new course at the Ocean Ridge resort-style community in Sunset Beach, N.C., called Jaguar’s Lair.

“You could bring (Cape Fear) down here (to Myrtle Beach) and it would be one of those top-five, best new courses and all that stuff. Up there in Wilmington they’ve never had competition like they have down here.

“I think the people that play it are going to be pretty surprised at what they see.

They’re going to see a sophisticated, detail level of golf that they probably don’t even know about. It’s a very good project with very good developers. And KemperSports is top of the line.  Everybody’s just totally committed to make Cape Fear really good.”

Those are pretty interesting comments made by Mr. Cate. He must have seen the same thing that I saw – rather unispired golf. Hopefully his golf course will be something that adds an interesting twist to an otherwise rather boring golf landscape.

In the good times, golf courses were getting rezoned and bulldozed for shopping centers and subdivisions. Now, the economy is taking a bite out of them on the other side – this time, simply closing down.

As is the case with many architects in today’s economy, the only action is overseas.

Consider Rick Jacobson, a golf course architect in Libertyville, Ill. For nearly two decades, the founder of Jacobson Golf Course Design designed and renovated courses in Chicago suburbs, such as Bloomingdale and Winnetka, as well as nationally. But in the last few years, Jacobson – who has worked with Jack Nicklaus on a number of projects – has focused on a new market: China.

Last month, Jacobson agreed to design a 27-hole course in Hong Kong. It’s his third venture in China, following the 36-hole Lion’s Lake Resort course near Guangzhou and Chaozhou, an 18-hole resort course.

”In the foreseeable future we won’t see growth like the 1990s in the U.S. again,” said Jacobson, who also agreed to design a course in the Italian province of Calabria this year. “Some of the projects were ill-conceived. Some courses were just a temporary fad until they could flip it to a developer.”

The unfortunate part of the current situation is that there must be a lot of architects without work. The list here on EarthGolf contains more than 240 architects currently in the business. Granted, some of them are not in the US and some work together in firms, but with just 80 courses opening in the US last year and almost certainly fewer next year, times could not be more difficult for golf course architects.

Davis Love III, who is also in the golf course design business, had this to say about the economy.

As one of my friends has been saying, he says, I planned for a slow down; not a meltdown. You know, I don’t think we can predict, because what we were predicting six months ago what were predicting in our golf design business what we predicted six months ago we’ve completely thrown out the window.

Now we run them down. Okay, we’re going to project zero that way we won’t miss. So who knows where it’s going to go. I’d love to sit down with Greg and say, all right, and Arnie and Jack who are all in the same kind of business, like, What do you project? Same with the Del Webb guys. What do you guys project? Nobody has anything good to say. I don’t know.

Some of the publicly built courses over the past few years are beginning to see some major pushback. Take the case of the Neshanic Valley Golf Course in New Jersey, a 27-hole course designed by Hurdzan/Fry and opened 2004 and 2005. The county spent over $19 million on the golf courses and now they’ve got trouble as the rounds at the golf course have fallen off sharply. Revenue for the facility is $3.7 million a year, down nearly $200,000 from the previous year.

Even high end courses, like the Tom Fazio designed Hasentree Golf Course near Raleigh, North Carolina, couldn’t escape the collapsing residential real estate market. It is facing foreclosure – and it was a project expected to be worth in excess of $1 billion when complete.

It is likely to be a rough go for the next several years in the golf course industry. It will be interesting to see where things go and how the market will respond to the ecomoic meltdown. As golf course architect Mike Nuzzo points out in this post, it is possible to build a very good golf course under budget. However, it takes an old way of thinking – looking to the property to define the golf course instead of dictating to the property where the golf course should go. It also takes an architect actually concerned about the costs and committed to designing for a budget, something the big name architects have never had to do. That is almost certainly going to change going forward.

Colin Montgomerie and Vijay Singh are two big stars to cash in on the trend, adding their names to a who’s who of golfers with course interests in the booming country.

“There’s certain meetings this week while I’m here and we hope to do that,” Montgomerie said, when asked if he planned to design courses in India.

“We look forward to it.”

Singh, a Fijian of Indian heritage, said he already had plans to design a signature course in the tourist state of Goa.

“Hopefully I can get a lot more opportunities to design golf courses here,” he said.

“I’m doing a few more in the Asian region but here in India, that’s the first one and probably after that we’ll see if we can get some more.”

The Classic was held on the Arnold Palmer-designed DLF Golf and Country Club here, while Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman have also charted courses and Nick Faldo and Ernie Els have layouts in the works.

Well, nobody can blame these guys for taking a paycheck. The question, as is always the case, is what level of involvement will they have? There aren’t any regular tour stops in India – and for Els and Singh, tournament golf is still a high priority. How they will balance family, tournament golf and golf courses in India would seem fairly tricky. Especially with the difficulty of putting together a piece of property large enough for a golf course.

According to Narain, one of the main difficulties in establishing courses is buying land, which is usually held in small parcels by various families.

“If you want to put together 200 acres, you might have to negotiate with 200 owners,” he said. “It can take up to five or 10 years sometimes.”

Negotiations can turn ugly, as in 2002 when thousands of homes in Chandigarh were knocked down to make way for a golf course. One man died after setting fire to himself in protest, reports said.

CLOSURES OUTPACE OPENINGS IN 2007

NGF has identified 113 golf courses, in 18-hole equivalents, that opened for business in the U.S. in 2007. During the same period, there were 121.5 golf course closures, resulting in a net negative of 8.5 courses. This year’s story is much the same as 2006 when the number of closures outnumbered openings by 26.5.

“The development business has run full circle,” says NGF vice president Greg Nathan. “Developers are now being more prudent about the decision to build, and are doing more due diligence on where to build, and at what price point.”

Closures
Many courses close because of higher and better economic use of land, rather than business failure. Courses may be sold to developers when the underlying land has greater commercial real estate value than cash flow value as a golf course. In these cases, the land may have been unwittingly warehoused by the original owner, then sold by the owner’s heirs as a favorable exit strategy.

A disproportionate number of closures were “non-traditional” facilities – either stand-alone 9-holers or short courses (executive or par-3). In 2007, they accounted for 43% of total closures but only 20% of total U.S. supply.

Five-year trend
Looking at the past five years combined, there have been 678.5 openings vs. 491.5 closures for a net positive of 187 courses, or a modest 37.4 per year. That equates to less than three-tenths of a percent of total supply being added per year. In other words, the overall number of golf courses is virtually unchanged from five years ago.

Looking Ahead
While it’s too early to forecast 2008 openings, given the number of courses currently under construction, we expect the number of new courses built in 2008 to be similar to 2007.

This is not shocking given the over supply of golf courses in most areas of the country. It’s also not surprising given the current real estate market. I would predict this trend continuing for another 2 or 3 years at least. I would also expect the number of course closings to decline and the number of new courses openings to steeply decline.

The reason for the number of closings declining is that land development is slowing tremendously. Many courses that close end up as re-development projects. Those won’t happen as often, taking pressure off courses to sell.

The reason for the steep decline in new courses is similar to the decline in course closings, only at a much larger scale. The majority of new golf courses are associated with a residential development. With residential development at extreme lows, that translates to less demand for golf courses – a lot less.

A developer lost the first round late Tuesday in a battle with Lake Lanier residents who fought a plan to turn Forsyth County’s oldest golf course into a massive, 772-unit retirement community.

Wellstone Communities LLC of Cumming has an option to buy the 37-year-old Lanier Golf Club, provided it is rezoned by Forsyth County for a mix of residential and commercial uses.

…

John Lowery, president and chief executive officer of Wellstone, took the vote in stride.

“It’s just the first round,” he told staff. “We’re going to win this thing.”

The opposition side also had brought an engineer/environmentalist to sway the planning commission.

Glynn Groszmann, an engineer hired by the opposition, told the planning commission that the Wellstone’s plan will disturb a sizable amount of streams and could not be permitted under state regulations and the federal Clean Water Act.

In my opinion, that argument is not germane to the rezoning case. It is not up to either the planning commission or the County’s board of commissioners to determine the merits of a project’s rezoning based on a rezoning plan that doesn’t necessarily reflect what will actually be built. Often times, rezoning plans haven’t even been reviewed by an engineer to determine the feasibility of building what is proposed. While the use of an engineer claiming that the plan would not be permitted is a good political tactic, it has no basis in fact. The plan doesn’t constitute an attempt to obtain a land disturbance permit, nor necessarily satisfy any (let alone all) regulations that will apply to the site.

ASHEVILLE, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–It’s official: the world’s number one golfer, Tiger Woods, will design his first American golf course at The Cliffs at High Carolina, the eighth community in The Cliffs’ collection of private, master-planned residential developments and the second project for the recently-formed Tiger Woods Design. Also announced today were Woods intentions to take an active role with the development of the master plan for The Cliffs at High Carolina.

My goal is to design a handful of very unique courses around the world, and The Cliffs is a perfect fit for my first American design,” Tiger Woods said. “Seeing what they’ve created with some of the world’s best designers is very inspiring, and I’m looking forward to adding my own style into the mix.”

Woods continued, “I chose The Cliffs at High Carolina because of the great people and the amazing location. I’m really looking forward to making it a premier destination to share with my friends and family.”

Each of The Cliffs’ communities is located in the Carolina Preserve – a quality-of-life corridor connecting Asheville, North Carolina to Greenville, South Carolina that features fourteen state parks, three national forests, and one national park.

The Cliffs at High Carolina: Panoramic Playing in the Carolina Preserve

“When I first visited High Carolina, I loved the site and the spectacular 50-mile views of the Asheville area and the Blue Ridge Mountains,” Woods stated.

He continued, “When I got to the top of the mountain and looked across those meadows I knew this would be the site of my first American design. I hope this will become one of the most talked about views in the country.

“The land lends itself to a walking golf course,” added Woods. “Walking is integral to golf, and it will be very unique to have a walking golf course at elevations up to 4,000 feet.”

Jim Anthony, Founder and President of The Cliffs Communities, stated, “What excites us about working with Tiger is the alignment of our visions to enhance the golf experience by working with the land, beauty and conservation — an overall commitment to excellence.

“The Cliffs at High Carolina will offer the unique combination of an unparalleled mountaintop golf experience and convenient access to all that the city of Asheville offers,” Anthony continued.

An acclaimed city nationally and even internationally for its wealth of cultural and outdoor offerings, Asheville, North Carolina has received myriad honors and distinctions from the most well-known publications and independent sources:

        One of the "Top 20 Places to Live in the World" by Barron's

       One of the "Top 10 Places to Buy a Second Home" by MSN Money

        One of the "Best Five Places to Retire" by Money Magazine

      #1 Adventure Town in America by National Geographic Adventure

The Best Golf Experience in America. The Best Club Membership in the World.

Tiger Woods’ design will bring The Cliffs’ line-up of championship courses to eight, with the additional seven unique designs located minutes apart and accessed by one membership. Resort Living Magazine described The Cliffs’ membership as “one of the most comprehensive and impressive club memberships in the world.”

The Cliffs’ Members enjoy a golf experience unlike any other in the world, as a renowned group of designers has come together over its 16-year history to create an unrivaled collection of golf courses. Two Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses, one bordering Pisgah National Forest with views of the Asheville mountains and one situated along the shores of Lake Keowee, are coupled with two lakeside Tom Fazio designs: one with eight of its 18 holes boasting mountain-lake views and the second under construction at Keowee Springs Lodge and Spa, America’s First Luxury Family Wellness ResortSM^SM. The new Gary Player Signature “river course” under development at The Cliffs includes a layout of 14 of its 18 holes along the NortSaludada River, while minutes away, a parkland Valley course designed by Ben Wright showcases an incredible amphitheater of the Blue Ridge Escarpment. The Cliffs at Glassy, a Tom Jackson design rated Fourth Most Scenic in the Nation by Golf Digest behind only Augusta National, Pebble Beach, and Cypress Point, is South Carolina’s only mountaintop course.

And now, to add to The Cliffs’ collection of unique course experiences is Tiger Woods’ first American design!

“Our Company’s goal is simply to create the best place to live, work and play in America,” Anthony concluded.

The quotes attributed to Tiger don’t sound like Tiger at all. The news from the press conference don’t include the above quotes.

TRAVELERS REST, S.C. — On the heels of Sunday’s victory in the PGA Championship, today Tiger Woods officially announced he will design his first course in the United States at The Cliffs at High Carolina.

Woods will design his first course in the United States at The Cliffs at High Carolina.

Sitting beside The Cliffs Communities president and founder Jim Anthony, Woods answered questions from media members Tuesday afternoon.

“Jim is the major reason why I chose The Cliffs as my first American design,” Woods said. “The commitment to wellness and the example he leads in that pursuit are in line with my own interests.”

Woods also commented on the natural beauty of the area.

“You can’t mess this up,” he said. “It’s an amazing piece of property with a southern view of seven mountain ranges.”

Woods assured the gathering that he would be involved in the day-to-day groundwork of the course’s creation and stressed that High Carolina will be a walking-only course.

When asked if he planned on buying property in the Cliffs Communities, Woods responded, “Yes.”

It’s too bad that they didn’t expand on what exactly “buying property” means. Often times, a high profile designer is given first pick of lots – either given to him or purchased at below market value, which then they can sell for a tidy profit. Or will Tiger be building a “vacation home” there – someplace he rarely (if ever) visits, but which the golfers and neighbors can point to and say, “That’s Tiger’s house.”

Finally, Tiger drags out the dreaded “all in front of you” design philosophy.

Woods, who is designing his first course in Dubai, said he wants his initial U.S. course “to be difficult and challenging, but fair.” Two things it won’t have are blind shots or manmade lakes and waterfalls.

“I’m more of a minimalist,” Woods said. “I enjoy older- style golf courses that are right in front of you, where they basically left the ground where it was and put the course on top of it. I won’t move a lot of dirt.”

In any event, it’s going to be interesting to follow the development of this course over the next couple of years.