Source: Press Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.)
The H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation has donated thousands of dollars to cancer research, sent children all over the nation on field trips - even helped pay for a fledgling university in Palm Desert.
Now the Coachella Valley-based foundation, valued at more than $455 million in 2002, is giving away an entire golf course. Foundation officials announced Wednesday that it will donate its under-construction golf course to the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, a celebrity-studded charitable golf tournament that generated $1.5 million for local organizations last year.
Once the transaction is complete early next year, the course will be the only charity-operated tournament on the PGA Tour to own its own facility.
Starting in 2006, the course will become a tournament host course. The new course, being built on 250 acres of unincorporated land north of Palm Desert, will be known as the Classic Course at NorthStar.
When the tournament is not going on, proceeds from public patrons will go to local charities, said John Foster, a tournament board member. The board does not have projections of yearly revenue, Foster said.
However, Palm Desert's municipal golf course, Desert Willow, generated $ 1.3 million in profits in the past fiscal year, according to city figures. But that amount includes a substantial number of golf rounds at a reduced cost for
residents, City Manager Carlos Ortega said.
Tim Crosby, director of tournament business affairs for the PGA Tour, said NorthStar could generate significant profits.
"If I had the choice to play golf at a course where my money was going to charity or into someone's pocket, I would play for the charity," Crosby said. "This is an unusual and exciting opportunity, especially in such a golf-crazy community."
Proceeds from the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic are distributed to 40 local charities, including Boys and Girls Clubs in several Coachella Valley cities. Money also goes to the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage.
It has not been determined whether the foundation or the Chrylser Classic will operate proposed developments surrounding the course such as a resort hotel and condominium complex, foundation president Ronald Auen said.
This is not the only tournament on the PGA Tour that owns its own facility, Crosby said. The privately owned Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, operates the golf course that hosts the Bank of America Colonial each May.
However, it is the first charity-run tournament to own its own course, Crosby said. The majority of PGA Tour competitions are charity-run.
"This is really unprecedented," he said.
Since it will own the facility, the Classic now has more control over the course before and after the tournament, said Bob Combs, PGA Tour senior vice president for communications. The tournament will also save thousands of dollars on course rental fees.
"They will be able to generate some extra money for donations,"
Combs said.
Susan Smith, administrative coordinator with the Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy at USC, said the gift of a golf course shouldn't come as a surprise because gifts of land, buildings and even revenue from leases are becoming more common in the nonprofit community. "It's become quite a trend," Smith
said.
NorthStar will alternate as a host course with the city-owned SilverRock Resort in La Quinta, which earlier this year signed a 15-year agreement to be a host course starting in 2006, tournament spokeswoman Pat Bennett said. Professional golfers play the final round of the weeklong tournament at the host
course.
The foundation has been building NorthStar since 2003, when it purchased the property on the corner of Cook Street and Interstate 10. The course was designed with the tournament in mind, and the foundation sought input from the Classic and the PGA Tour, said Richard Oliphant, a local developer and the
owner's representative for the golf course.
In May, the tournament inked an agreement to add two new courses - SilverRock and NorthStar - to its four-course rotation, starting in 2006. The other two golf courses for that year have not been determined, Bennett said.
The 7,536-yard, Arnold Palmer-designed championship course will feature tree-lined fairways, 30 acres of water features and five tee placements on every hole. It will also include stadium seating at the 18th hole.
The Berger Foundation makes substantial grants to charities, both locally and nationally. It also owns real estate that it leases to public charities and operates senior housing, according to its 2002 tax return.
The addition of NorthStar will not affect the next Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, which kicks off Jan. 23. Rounds will be played at the Palmer Course at PGA West, La Quinta Country Club, Bermuda Dunes Country Club and Tamarisk Country Club in Rancho Mirage.
