Residents to owners: A true golf success story

Mark Woodward

As we shift into 2016, and moved by Golfdom’s January cover story about the prognosis for golf this year, I’ve been inspired by a true golf success story that, despite the sport’s struggles in recent years, shows me that the game is alive and well. I’ve been fortunate to be involved in a recent project demonstrating that although golf is a big business, it’s truly a small community for those of us in the industry.

On Jan. 1 of this year, we took over management of a 27-hole Mesa, Ariz., property whose story is inspirational and shows that if golfers put their collective minds to something, great things can happen.

The golf course was owned and operated by a developer in the business of selling homes. The neighborhood has 2,400-plus homes, and the developer was close to building out the community and wanted to sell the golf course.

What happened next is amazing.

Five residents who didn’t know each other got together and developed a plan to purchase the golf course from the developer. Their idea was simple: Convince 400 of the 2,400 residents to put up $5,000 each and raise $2 million. The developer’s asking price was less than $2 million, but this group of retired businessmen planned to place the remainder of the money in a reserve fund earmarked for emergencies and capital improvements.

When we started discussions with this resident group months ago, we honestly didn’t think it could pull this off. I think the developer also was less than confident, to the point where I believe he was entertaining other offers.

Most of you probably can read between the lines and are ahead of me. In two months this group raised the $2 million. It also had a waiting list of many other residents who, although they didn’t play golf, wanted to participate by donating money to keep the No. 1 community asset (the golf course itself) in great shape, thereby protecting their property values.

One of these board members is a longtime friend of mine and actually had been the owner/operator/concessionaire who operated the golf shops at a course I once managed. He called me and asked if we’d be interested in providing the group with a proposal to be its management company.

The board members (who were all successful in business) fully understood that they didn’t know how to operate a golf course — and more important — didn’t want to. They all are retired and want to play golf and not worry about the day-to-day operations of a golf facility.

We were hired. Time and time again during negotiations they said, “That’s why we hired you. You’re the golf experts.”

Obviously, this is exactly how it should be from our perspective, and we were honored to come on board, partner with them and manage their facility.

As I mentioned earlier, we took over managing the golf course on Jan. 1, which is right in the peak golf season here in the desert Southwest, and things are going extremely well.

The board is willing to put some money into capital improvements in the golf shop, the food/beverage area, and for the maintenance staff (in the form of some new equipment). Following their success in purchasing the course, they now are raising donations from the other residents to add an incredible patio onto the side of the golf shop. In fact, the goal is to raise $170,000 and start construction in the summer. I have no reason to believe they won’t accomplish this goal as well.

I’ve been in the business for 47 years, and this certainly is one of those true golf success stories that make you proud to work in the golf industry.