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GAME PLAN
CONSTRUCTION BLITZ
Henry DeLozier is a principal in the Global Golf Advisors
consultancy. DeLozier joined Global Golf Advisors in 2008 after
nine years as the vice president of golf for Pulte Homes. He is a
past president of the National Golf Course Owners Association’s
board of directors and serves on the PGA of America’s Employers
Advisory Council.
uring the Blitz, Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously advised
his fellow Britons, “When you’re going through hell … keep going.”
The same advice has applied for golf course builders since 2007,
when construction slowed from the previous record-setting decade.
During golf’s blitz, most course builders soldiered onward, adapting
to new market conditions and tepid demand. What‘s next for course construction?
For answers, the wisdom of recent presidents of the Golf Course Builders Associa-
tion of America is insightful.
THE BEST OF TIMES
After the National Golf Foundation produced findings in the late 1980s suggest-
ing that golf demand was sufficient to sustain 365 new golf courses per year – a
golf course a day – high net worth individuals, homebuilders, fraternity broth-
ers, land developers and darned near anyone who ever wanted to own a golf
course wanted to build one.
The exuberance for new golf courses led to a boom in construction like
never before. NGF data indicates that more than 3,400 golf courses were built
between 1995 and 2005. Then the housing market went cold and the oversupply
of golf in most markets revealed a serious market imbalance. All of a sudden, it
wasn’t a great time to be a course builder.
The downturn that impacted course development so dramatically forced
many builders to adapt and reinvent themselves. They became smaller and
more nimble. Some diversified beyond golf – into sports fields and playgrounds.
Today, as many developers look to less capital-demanding amenities for master-
planned communities, most builders are keeping their lights on through renova-
tions and remodeling.
As the housing cycle built momentum over the past year, new golf projects
have emerged. But the pace is a drip compared to last cycle’s flood.
DESIGN, BUILD WITH END IN MIND
Tommy Sasser, who has built more than 100 courses with Jack Nicklaus and
others, believes golf construction will become an even more detailed endeavor
as environmental limitations, zoning and cost restraints impact construction.
“Design and construction will have to develop ways and means to decrease or at
least stabilize the cost of construction and the impact on long term maintenance
cost,” he says.
Designers and builders need to bring courses online with the end result in
mind. “The developer wants to sell real estate; the membership wants a facility
22 OCTOBER 2015 golfcourseindustry.com
for recreation, and a place to enjoy
community living at a price that won’t
break the bank,” Sasser says. “Devel-
opers eventually turn clubs over to a
membership. So they need to design
and construct a facility that makes
that easier.”
LIMITED BUDGETS FOR ‘COOL’
Tom Shapland of Wadsworth Golf
Construction was GCBAA president
during the toughest years of the
recession. He offers these insights:
“Do not overreach.. When someone
says, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we…,’
remind yourself that your business
plan did not include large sums of
money for cool. And, third, borrow
enough to pay for the project plus a
contingency plus the interest on the
loan. Everyone needs to be paid and
decisions critical to the success of the
project should not be made on a cash-
flow basis.”
Why does anyone develop golf
projects in today’s market? The
answer remains the same as it has
for decades: Only big views of water
and mountains rival golf as a source
of incremental revenue from lot
premiums. In addition, golf serves as
a means to meet permitting and plan-
ning requirements for the open-space
and community-drainage stipulations
with which developers must reckon.
From our vantage point, we see the
next generation of courses character-
ized by the following:
• Efficient and sustainable designs
with reduced maintenance costs.
• Changes in irrigation planning
and bunker design and shaping that
reduce construction costs.
• Grasses that require less irriga-
tion, drainage and mowing.
• Courses that address a wider audi-
ence of players, especially women and
beginners. Courses will be built – although
not at the pace as the ‘90s. Nor will
they resemble immaculate landscapes.
That’s just one of the ways the game is
adapting to a changing marketplace.