Goodbye, Golf?

By Debbie Sullivan Reslock

It was once thought that the demand for golf would require building a course a day to keep up. The forecast was wrong. In fact, in the last 10 years there have been more closings than openings. According to Steve Mona, CEO of the World Golf Foundation, there were an estimated 15,200 courses at the end of 2015, resulting in a net reduction of about 1,000 courses since the numbers hit their peak.

Golf was the primary amenity in many master planned communities. "We were constructing courses to serve a real estate purpose and not necessarily the golfers in the market," says Chris Monti, senior design associate at Bobby Weed Golf Design. "And as a result, we're sitting here with a gross oversupply."

The economic downturn exposed a number of courses scrambling with maintenance and debt payments. The game itself was blamed for being too difficult, too expensive, and too time-consuming to play. Although the number of golfers is stabilizing, Mona estimates another 500 courses could close in the next two to five years as the natural attrition of supply and demand continues.

When 150-plus acres of open space goes away, it can soon leave behind overgrown weeds and angry neighbors. But because of their size, layout, and location, golf courses can often be converted to other uses. Repurposing is one option. It involves selling a parcel of the land while keeping at least a portion for golf. Funds are then available for needed improvements or to retire part of the club's debt. Potential developments include everything from housing and urban farms to lakes, nature preserves, and trails.

"Abandoned Sand Trap" by Steve Rhode, Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Recycling the fairways

When a community is faced with losing its course, repurposing can be a great compromise, says Bobby Weed, president and CEO of Bobby Weed Golf Design.

"There's a current inventory of golf courses struggling to be competitive in the marketplace, with declining infrastructure and increased financial pressures," he says. "But if they can be renovated, they have a significant leg up in improving their financial position."

Repurposing can also smooth over public opposition.

"Any time you're dealing with open space, even if it's a private golf club, there's an assumption that it's essentially de facto public space," Monti says. "Loss of open space is something that people are very resistant to. But most can accept converting 10 to 30 acres of a 150-acre parcel if it allows the remainder to continue as sustainable open space."

Weed Design is working on the Princeton-area Greenacres Country Club in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (pop. 3,887). Carving out 14 acres from the 155-acre distressed course will allow a 100-unit attached residential development and a more compressed 18-hole course and practice range.

Monti believes it's an excellent scenario for a struggling golf course. "The new home owners will become social members of the club, which will serve as the amenity for the community. The club will realize the dual benefit of the land transaction and the perpetual cash flow from the influx of new members," he says.

"Repurposing has actually created a nice problem for them to have," says Monti. "They're deciding now how much debt they want to retire and how much to fund improvements to the clubhouse and course."

Converting an entire course can meet with strong resistance, according to Weed, but so far they've had unanimous approvals from all governing agencies for their partial conversion projects. "We maintain a space for golf, create a tax base for the municipality, and most likely raise the values of the existing residential area which might have been declining along with the course."

Losing the golf but keeping the green

The struggling 136-acre Meadowbrook Golf and Country Club in Prairie Village, Kansas (pop. 22,000), is undergoing an entire renovation, but they were able to keep a large section as open space. A joint collaboration between the owner, city, and county resulted in an 84-acre park in exchange for allowing more density on the development parcel, according to Quinn Bennion, the city administrator.

"The developer owned the land so we were really fortunate to have someone willing to work with us and all the entities to make it happen," Bennion says. "And with two-thirds of the redevelopment as a county park, it was easier for the residents to get behind the project. After that, the other processes became more administrative than political."

Along with the park and activity building, the project includes 70 town homes, 53 single-family homes, 330 senior housing units, 280 multifamily units, and a 50-room boutique hotel. Construction on the park is set to begin next March and the housing will start this fall.

The city created a TIF district to fund the park purchase, and Bennion says TIF dollars will be used to pay off the issued bonds. "TIF is paying for the park and some amenities. The county is paying to rebuild the clubhouse and add to the park amenities and the developer is paying for their portion."

Bennion believes the opposition would have been stronger if the project had been all private development, but the public park component smoothed over a lot of concerns. " The neighbors can still look out on green grass and know it's going to be a park forever," says Bennion, adding that the dense housing in the city was also a positive.

"More population means more people to show up at our stores and pay taxes," he says. "We ended up with a park but we also ended up with a way to pay for it."

A second chance for smart development

A total renovation is also planned for the 160-acre Empire Lakes golf course in Rancho Cucamonga, California (pop. 175,000). After the course was sold to a Southern California development company, the Lewis Group, the lost green space created an opportunity for infill development within the community, which will bring housing, commercial, and transit together.

"One of the biggest advantages of the course closing may have been the rare opportunity for the city to reach its goals on such a scale and where all of the features, amenities, and infrastructure were present," says Candyce Burnett, the city's planning director.

The proposed redevelopment, to be constructed in three phases over the next eight to 10 years, is a mixed use, transit-oriented, high-density development with between 2,650 and 3,450 dwelling units and up to 220,000 square feet of nonresidential space.

The project will include market-rate apartments, condominiums, and single-family homes, Burnett says, directed toward entry-level home owners, people downsizing to smaller homes, and seniors. It will integrate well with its surroundings, which include a nearby rail line, multifamily residences, numerous commercial centers, and the substantial employment base beyond Rancho Cucamonga in the neighboring cities of Ontario, Upland, and Fontana.

"Being surrounded by industrial businesses and a transit train commuter station will create housing options for those wanting an urban, transit-oriented lifestyle," says Burnett.

"In the beginning, there was some push back from golfers," Burnett says. "And as we got into the environmental process, a few more concerns came up regarding potential trafic and noise." But the public was engaged early in the review process and encouraged to attend meetings, a planning commission workshop, and hearings. Burnett says they also used social media and a webpage to regularly update the review status, maps, staff reports, and the environmental impact report.

"Our city's actually close to 90 percent built out. And so in terms of consolidating enough land to do a project like this, especially adjacent to transit opportunities, was a rare chance," Burnett says.

Golf course communities that work

Although golf course communities have gotten a black eye during the decline, it would be inaccurate to assume they're all struggling.

Tom Page, general manager of Magnolia Green, a master planned community near Richmond, Virginia (pop. 220,000), understands the development challenges but doesn't see the game of golf as the problem.

For courses in trouble, Page says it's generally either the result of poor execution or they're located in areas that got way overbuilt. "There's 200 to 250 golf courses within 20 miles of Myrtle Beach," Page says. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that's just not sustainable."

'One of the biggest advantages of the course closing may have been the rare opportunity for the city to reach its goals on such a scale and where all of the features, amenities, and infrastructure were present.'
—CANDYCE BURNETT, PLANNING DIRECTOR, RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CALIFORNIA

At 30 percent built-out, Magnolia Green is a classic mixed use community. Approved for 3,550 homes, of which 1,180 can be multifamily, the 2,000- acre site includes 400 acres for the golf course and open space and 200 acres of commercial property.

Selling mostly to families with young kids, their primary focus is the area's award-winning school system, Page says. But the planned amenities include something for everyone — a Jack Nicklaus-designed course, clubhouse, tennis facility, aquatic center, and miles of trails and sidewalks. A site has been dedicated to the county for an elementary school as well as 28 acres for a county park.

But what comes first is a great land plan, Page says, designed so that everyone is part of the golf experience, not only those who live on the course. To make sure that happens? "Hire the land planner first," Page recommends. "Not the golf course architect."

Adapting to changes

Golf courses provide appealing and often scarce tracts of land for development, frequently causing a community to respond. In Colorado, Jefferson County voters approved a tax increase to purchase a local course while a sale was pending that would have resulted in a 400-home community.

At least one deed-restricted neighborhood found relief in court to keep the new owner of its closed course from developing the property for other land uses. In Ahwatukee, Arizona, a judge ruled that the golf course must remain a golf course, finding it to be the intention of the Declaration of Covenants, Restrictions, and Easements.

But after changing the zoning to open space, from residential, on a defunct course — after it was already sold to a developer — Escondido, California, ended up in court fighting an owner-filed lawsuit arguing an illegal taking. The judge's ruling returned the residential zoning but both sides were locked in such a contentious relationship that the settlement stipulated that another development company should handle the project.

Empire Lakes, Rancho Cucamonga: This early Community Vision plan for the Empire Lakes course, presented at a community meeting in December 2015, called for highly connected spaces. Medium- to high-density homes would be within walking or biking distance to transit, jobs, mixed use areas, and commercial services, with a pedestrian friendly street, the Vine, acting as the community spine. Courtesy City of Rancho Cucamonga, California.

The future of the sport

Although the sport may be missing from some new master planned communities, several abandoned or bankrupt golf projects are getting infused with capital from new investors.

But Weed acknowledges there are still courses that need to close. "Some just aren't viable," he says. "You can't save every one of them."

World Golf Foundation's Mona puts the closings into perspective. "What's happening is a natural correction of supply and demand so we're not alarmed by it," he says.

But he also notes that golf is adapting to lifestyle changes, balancing the traditional 18-hole golfers with those looking for quicker play or relaxed rules. Repositioning themselves, golf course owners are looking for other ways to stay in the game.

Reducing an 18-hole layout to nine or fewer makes it easier to play and less costly to maintain. New revenue streams can result from creative reuse, including renting the driving range out for concerts during off times or opening the fairways for cross-country skiing in winter.

Well-executed golf course developments will continue to be popular, according to Page.

"Studies have shown only 15 percent of people who buy in golf communities actually play the game. They buy there because if it's designed properly, it's really just a manicured greenbelt winding through the community," he says.

But the golf and other amenities need to appeal to everyone. "The old model of a club that is strictly catering to old men smoking cigars is probably not going to make it," Page says.

Weed believes there may be fewer residential golf projects because core course development takes less acreage and is more efficient.

"We need to bring the business side back to operations," he adds. "But we also need more affordable golf that requires less time to play and more playable [and shorter] courses."

"There's plenty of golfers. I don't accept the notion that if we're not adding to that inventory year after year that we somehow have a problem," says Monti. "It's a specialty sport. It's not for everyone and never has been. Golf can only be so big and perhaps we've found as many golfers as there naturally is going to exist."

While it appears the rumor that golf is dead was greatly exaggerated, what the future holds for the sport is still unfolding. Which seems somehow suitable for a game that Page says can never be mastered.

But learning how to create successful golf course developments and renovate those that aren't sustainable is something all communities are hoping they can do.

Debbie Sullivan Reslock is a freelance writer and partner with Reslock and Sullivan, LLC in Evergreen, Colorado.