Keith Cubba, broker with the Land & Investment Group at Colliers International – Las Vegas, announced today that sealed bids are currently being accepted to acquire Stallion Mountain Golf Club, an 18-hole, par-72 championship golf course located just 6.9 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. Bids will be accepted on the foreclosed property through August 16, and bidding instructions, along with complete information on the property, can be found online at www.collierslv.listinglab.com/SMGC.

Situated on a 204-acre site on E. Flamingo Road, Stallion Mountain is located within a 2,600-home, guard-gated community. The property includes a 37,500-square-foot clubhouse with full-service kitchen and restaurant, a second 18,000-square-foot clubhouse and a 16-acre practice facility. The strongest selling point, besides the course’s championship-quality layout and being only 15 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, is a water contract that gives the facility a competitive advantage.

Originally known as Sunrise Country Club, PGA Tour player Jim Colbert built a three-course facility in 1995, and then sold it to Walters Golf in 1997. Two of the courses were subsequently sold off as residential land, and the remaining course was sold in 2006 to private investors for $24.5 million. In 2008, after owners couldn’t meet their debt service, the course was taken back by the lender, Community Bank of Nevada. Upon the failure of Community Bank of Nevada in August of 2009, the FDIC took control of Stallion Mountain Golf Course in receivership.

“Golf Courses rarely trade hands in Nevada, and when they do, they are typically done as off-market deals that aren’t open to public bidding,” said Cubba, who is a member of Colliers’ National Golf Course Brokerage team. “Not only is the Stallion Mountain offering open to public bidding, the course is exceptionally well-positioned in relationship to the general population and the Strip, and the water contract gives a buyer an immediate competitive advantage.”

For more information on Stallion Mountain Golf Club and instructions on how to participate in the auction, please visit www.collierslv.listinglab.com/SMGC or contact Keith Cubba at Colliers International at 702-836-3733.

The Maine Golf Foundation, which is composed of the other major golf associations in the state, signed a letter of intent to take over operations of The First Tee of Maine.

The First Tee is a national program that introduces young people of all backgrounds to golf and the life lessons it teaches. It teaches these lessons through nine core values -- honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, courtesy, judgment, confidence, responsibility and perseverance -- on the course and in class-room settings.

The MGF's goal is to continue to run the First Tee program at Riverside Golf Course in Portland and grow the program statewide.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE>>>

The opening of the Greg Norman designed Temenos Golf Course in 2006 was a first for the tiny island of Anguilla. This multi-million masterpiece, with a dozen holes featuring water and the Caribbean Sea, was Anguilla’s introduction to the game of golf. Two years later, facing a reeling tourism outlook and a pile of mounting debt, Temenos abruptly closed.

In the world of Caribbean golf, Erin Stevens has developed a reputation as a superintendent capable of taking on and turning around golf projects considered high risk/ high gain. In 2009, Anguilla’s Cap Juluca Resorts decided to roll the dice on the re-opening of Temenos. When Cap Jaluca contacted Stevens, he wasn’t the only consultant 12th hole -- BEFOREthe Anguilla management called on to revitalize the course. 

“A couple of other consultants were contacted by Cap Juluca management and asked what they thought it would take to get Temenos up and running. I guess their answers, timeline, and budget didn’t match up with Cap Juluca’s plans,” Stevens said.

Four Months until Christmas
After an initial walk-through of Temenos’ once sterling 18 holes and analyzing the course’s equipment needs, Stevens gave it to Cap Juluca straight. He could bring the 7,000 yards of Bermuda grass back to life. But the timeline of less than four months leading up to the all important Christmas week opening, was daunting. This impending goal was a stretch even for a superintendent who had made a career out of surpassing overly optimistic expectations.Stevens

During the week of his August meeting with Cap Juluca officials, Stevens marched through his standard walk-through of the course. By the time he completed surveying Temenos’ ninth hole, Stevens calculated what he thought was a feasible plan.

Stevens would need to tap everything he had learned during his 13 years in golf course management to revitalize a course that had lain dormant for almost two years. “Besides spraying and spot spraying, we began an aggressive aerating and verticutting program. In addition to the entire course being dead or dormant, we were dealing with nasty weed and pest infestation,” Stevens said. More 12th hole -- AFTERthan once this Maryland native would credit both his naval training and early apprenticeship under Paul R. Latshaw for the regimens he would meticulously implement to revive Temenos.

“I was mentored by Latshaw at Congressional and then again at Riviera. Latshaw was notorious for his aggressive regimens. Working under Latshaw meant being instilled with the basics, as well as learning the latest in cutting edge course technology. We would focus on an individual hole until everything looked just right,” Stevens recalled. More than a decade after his baptism as a superintendent, the 38-year-old Stevens would apply these same rigorous methods to Temenos’ 18 championship holes.

Renovate or Revitalize
Part of the reason Stevens was approved by Cap Juluca for the Temenos project was his belief that major course renovation was not necessary. The other consultants who had interviewed felt that Temenos’ greens and bunkers should be totally re-done. This proposal would prove extremely costly. “I just didn’t feel like I needed to disrupt the structural integrity of the course. The grass was another story. I needed to re-grow or bring back all the dead and dormant grass,” Stevens said.

Stevens’ initial plan included an aggressive aerating program. His team also flushed the soils, while adding nutrients, and maintaining a rigorous fertilizer and chemical regimen. Another key element of his future success would be finding the people and the equipment necessary to fill some glaring holes in his operation.

“I was able to bring back many of the key employees who worked at Temenos previously. Temenos is the only golf course on the island. So it wasn’t like I had other courses to tap from. I also hired top notch mechanics from Canada and Switzerland to repair the equipment fleet that had broken down,” Stevens explained.

The clock was ticking and Stevens made early initial progress. Then the unthinkable happened, Temenos was shut down for the month of October due to a break down in contract negotiations with the previous owner. “The fact we were able to open Christmas week, after taking a month off, could only be attributed to the strict programs we implemented the first month on the job. My team hung in there during all this and really did a terrific job,” Stevens said.

Challenges are par for the course in the life of a superintendent. Stevens discovered early on that a superintendent often needs to turn negatives into positives. “When I worked on the El Camaleon Golf Course project in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, we were hit by Hurricane Emily and Hurricane Wilma during the course’s building process. Our two ocean holes were destroyed twice. Today, the 7th and 15th holes are even more beautiful than the original design, Stevens said.

Amazing Before and After
Comparing the before and after photos of the Temenos metamorphosis is stunning. Temenos’ after photos are not only a testament to the highly disciplined grass program implemented by Stevens’ team, but also a credit to a very creative water management program. “Temenos is water management at its finest. We’re working at about 50% of the water capacity that the course ran on previously. This project has been a reminder that every course needs to honor sustainability and manage its water in good conscience,” Stevens said.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of Stevens’ Temenos experience? “For me it’s seeing the reaction of golfers viewing the course for the first time. Most golfers will never know what the course looked like back in August,” Stevens said with a smile. Sometimes in the world of golf course construction, the “after” is all one needs to know.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tim Cotroneo is a freelance writer from Lino Lakes, MN, with a passion for golf and a future Caribbean zip code.
 

Standing outside the Custis-Lee Mansion on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery before the start of this year’s Renewal & Remembrance event, I didn’t realize how undulating the cemetery’s 624 acres are. From this vantage point, once the home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, only a fraction of the 300,000 grave sites that fill the cemetery are visible.

But as we walked up a hill to another section of Arlington National to begin our day’s work, our perspective broadened, and we could see thousands of additional white tombstones dotting the green landscape. Later, as we moved to the area where JFK is buried, and then through another valley and up another hill to the Tomb of the Unknown, there were more graves. So many graves.

As I looked across the grounds, the sounds of men and women at work Ken  Kloppblending with a respectful quiet, I felt small and humbled. I think it’s probably impossible to be part of PLANET’s Renewal & Remembrance and not be overcome with emotion. Deep sorrow mixes with equal parts pride, patriotism and thankfulness in this most reverent of places.
We had been spreading limestone over parts of the cemetery for about an hour when we heard the sounds of the day’s first funeral procession approaching. First the band members; then the caisson team of seven white horses, and then a horse-drawn carriage holding a casket draped with an American flag. I later learned that more than 20 such processions happen each day.

Under the shade of giant oak trees, we stopped our work and removed our caps as the procession moved past and on to the grave of yet another American hero. As it did, I looked into the first car that followed the caisson team and my eyes met those of a woman whose expression made me think she was a recent widow. In unison, two strangers nodded: a woman whose husband had given everything he had, including a life with this woman; and a man spreading limestone, simply giving a day’s work.

Again, I felt small, but also part of something that was much bigger than me.  Here were 500 volunteers from throughout the green industry. Chemical and fertilizer formulators, distributors, irrigation and landscape contractors, many of us competitors on any day other than this one. But on this day, we were one. Part of an industry that thinks it’s important to take a day each year to lend its knowledge and muscle to maintain the pristine beauty of this national treasure.
 
I imagined that the woman probably had children, although I couldn’t see any inside the car. And I thought of my own two kids, who at that moment were visiting with their mom in another part of the cemetery, happily planting flowers and watching innocently as a color guard laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
 
When our work was done and I was reunited with my family, I asked my wife if she thought our youngest, 5-year-old Kenny, understood why we had come to Washington for this event and what made Arlington National Cemetery so special.
 
“I think so,” she said. “You know how he’s always saying that he wants to be a superhero when he grows up? He just told me that he’s changed his mind. Now he wants to be either a superhero or a soldier.”
After the 14th annual Renewal & Remembrance event, I’m now convinced those professions are one and the same.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ken Klopp, LebanonTurf’s national account manager for lawn care, was among more than 400 members of the green industry who spent July 19 helping maintain the grounds at Arlington National Cemetery as part of the 14th annual Renewal & Remembrance event conducted by the Professional Landcare Network. Many of the landscape and lawn care professionals also visited lawmakers on Capitol Hill on July 20 to discuss issues facing the industry.