“Desert Mountain Golf Club bought by members for $73.5 mil” plus 2 more |
- Desert Mountain Golf Club bought by members for $73.5 mil
- Golf Industry's First Carbon Footprint Calculator
- New Golf Books Index
| Desert Mountain Golf Club bought by members for $73.5 mil Posted: 14 Feb 2011 08:39 AM PST by J. Craig Anderson - Feb. 13, 2011 12:00 AM Members of the exclusive Desert Mountain Golf Club in north Scottsdale have completed a deal with owner Crescent Real Estate Holdings to purchase the club's six golf courses, all related facilities and about 500 acres of developable land for $73.5 million. The deal expands on an agreement in the Desert Mountain membership contract that would have required members to buy the club's six golf courses and clubhouse facilities on March 1. Member representatives described the expanded deal as an insurance policy against future changes to the club and its surrounding community of multimillion-dollar homes. Of particular concern, they said, was the large swath of adjacent land, which Crescent ultimately could have sold or developed for any number of residential or commercial projects. Dave Kaplan, who lives in the Desert Mountain community and has been a member of the club since 1997, said he was not surprised that 99 percent of the members who voted on the purchase deal favored it. Of the roughly 2,300 members, 90 percent cast votes, the club's managers say. "I strongly supported Desert Mountain's global asset purchase, which accelerated the turnover process and ensured the future of our community," Kaplan said. It's no secret that dozens of high-end golf courses have struggled to remain private - or even stay open - in recent years. Some have addressed the economic problem by opening the fairways to public play. Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club, near Gold Canyon in the far East Valley, is one of the area's formerly private-only clubs that has been pursuing daily-fee golfers by opening up one of its two courses each day to non-members. Country clubs Red Mountain Ranch in east Mesa, Moon Valley in north-central Phoenix, Corte Bella in Sun City West and Quintero near Lake Pleasant all have altered their policies in recent years to allow some limited use by non-members. Desert Mountain members' bigger concern, according to club President Bob Jones, was making sure the community's vacant land would be developed for purposes that benefited the club and not just the property's owner. "They (Crescent) would have maintained control," Jones said. "They could have sold the land to another developer." To make the deal work financially, Jones and other representatives of the buyers' group obtained financing for a portion of the purchase price. The upshot of that decision was that instead of each member paying an expected $50,000 over many years via fee increases, each member was assessed a one-time fee of $16,500, which Jones said would be the only contribution ever required of them. He added that the group performed extensive due diligence before agreeing on the purchase price. The club has turned a profit every year since 2003, Jones said. He said that the final negotiated price was about one-third of the seller's original asking price. "The developer was hoping to get over $200 million from this deal," he said. Kaplan said he and the other members knew in advance that they would have to contribute some cash, and that he did not consider the $16,500 a financial burden. "I thought it was an amount that the majority of members were very comfortable with," he said. Reach the reporter at craig .anderson@arizonarepublic.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Golf Industry's First Carbon Footprint Calculator Posted: 14 Feb 2011 11:11 AM PST With golf mired in a devastated economy, Environmental & Turf Services (ETS) and the Golf Resource Group (GRG) have released a carbon footprint calculator, a tool that calculates a golf course's carbon impact and helps save money. Released under the name CARBONSAVE®, a co-branding effort of ETS and GRG, the basic golf-specific calculations are free and available to any golf course. The calculator - accessed through the website http://thegolfresourcegroup.com/carbon-footprinting.html - allows the user to input the course's basic resource data relating to the various everyday uses. This includes such inputs as energy use, fertilizer and pesticide consumption, and fuel used, including gasoline and diesel. Mileage driven by company vehicles is also an option. "We've developed this Tier-1 screening level [basic and fundamental] tool to give a golf course a quick-and-easy snapshot of its total emissions and an idea of where to focus attention to reduce its footprint," says Dr. Stuart Cohen, president of ETS of Wheaton, Md. "Courses will know right away which parts of their operation emit the most carbon and which parts sequester (store) the most carbon." Based on national averages, the calculator reports the total net carbon emissions, given in tons, for the entire golf facility. It also calculates the total percentages of emissions attributed to each use, identifying areas of highest priority for reduction and potential cost savings. Reducing a course's carbon footprint decreases resource use that will also lead to cost savings. The program's research suggests energy use accounts for more than 60 percent of a facility's footprint and is the reason GRG became interested in assisting development of the calculator. "When Dr. Cohen first approached us with the idea, I knew right away this was something we needed to be involved with," says Andy Staples, a golf course architect and president of GRG, headquartered in Phoenix. "It's easy to say you want to reduce your footprint, but knowing how to actually do it takes some knowledge and experience." A leader in the energy arena since 2004, GRG feels the easiest way to reduce a course's carbon footprint is in energy reduction. GRG has worked with more than 100 courses in California, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Arkansas, Nebraska and Massachusetts and understands exactly where to look to reduce energy use. Measures to trim emissions can range from simple do-it-yourself conservation efforts to sophisticated measures where an outside consultant is engaged. The calculator also addresses carbon sequestration, using inputs of the acreages of maintained turfgrass, trees, native grasses and shrubs. These areas are used to calculate a total amount of carbon sequestered via natural causes, and may one day be available for sale on a carbon market. One possible use of this information is the phase-in implementation of recently adopted state legislation such as Assembly Bill 32 in California, for which new cap-and-trade regulations were passed December 16, 2010. Another possibility is incentives by public utilities to reduce overall energy use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "We have no idea where the future carbon markets will lead," says Cohen. "But if there is an opportunity for golf to take advantage of selling carbon credits, we want to be right there to help a course take advantage of it." The future of golf development remains uncertain. However, the fact remains that golf courses will have to continue to find new and innovative ways to be more efficient while saving money. ETS and GRG feel that even though courses are now beginning to turn to more drastic cost-cutting measures such as fewer acreages of turf, less water use and reduced overall inputs to the golf course, these changes can have a positive effect on a course's carbon footprint. "We see what courses are going through to survive, and want to be part of the solution," Cohen says. "When a course can save money and do what's right for the environment, that's the definition of a win-win situation." To learn more and to download a free copy of the CARBONSAVE® Carbon Footprint Calculator for Golf, visit http://thegolfresourcegroup.com/carbon-footprinting.html and click to download the calculator. About ETS ETS is a high-tech, science-based environmental consulting firm that services the turf industry (www.environmentalandturf.com). ETS staff have expertise in environmental chemistry, turf agronomy, hydrogeology, hydrology, environmental risk assessment and risk management, geographical information systems, and water-quality monitoring. The 20-year-old firm has done work in approximately 20 states, Canada and China. Its senior scientist, Dr. Stuart Cohen, has given invited lectures throughout the U.S. and in 11 foreign countries on four continents. About GRG GRG is the country's leading resource management consulting group to the golf industry (www.thegolfresourcegroup.com). The firm's owner and principal golf architect, Andy Staples, is an associate member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and has been involved with more than 125 projects throughout the world. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Posted: 14 Feb 2011 01:00 PM PST Throughout the year, we'll be keeping you up to date on the golf books of 2011 — what's out, what's coming out, and what they're all about. Check below for 2010's books. 2011 FEBRUARY Nothing like a big, fat reference book—and at more than 800 pages, this is certainly one of them—to stir the latent curiosity about the game we tend to schlep along with our clubs. As its name suggests, the "Dictionary" is a golfing Webster's, its host of entries—names, places, events, implements, even lingo and terminology—neatly rolled out from Abbot (Margaret Ives) to Zuback (Jason) in alphabetical order. But that's not the half of it, or barely a third; the dictionary section is bracketed by a heft of arcana that serious golfers take pride in being up on: a comprehensive 46-page chronology - dating back to 1297 -- kicks things off, then 400 pages of various results-rich appendices segue into a bibliography so long and luxe that you'd best consider reinforcing your bookshelves before dipping in. Essential Golf Skills: Key Tips and Techniques To Improve Your Golf Game Size matters. This slimmed-down version of "The Complete Golf Manual," a British import that crossed The Atlantic last year, fits nicely in the main pocket of a golf bag. "Essential's" tips are useful, but its drills cover the waterfront. The clear photo sequences that attend them combine with its durable cover and lack of avoirdupois (the book weighs in at about two golf balls and a utility head cover) to form a deceptively thin instructional that's as totable to the range as it is consultable from the easy chair. JANUARY For the intelligent golfer — and you know who you are — "The Intelligent Golfer" is essentially a reminder of what you already know and where you've already been (either awake or in your golf dreams). Its bulk, beyond the pile-up of subtitles, is a general travel guide that rounds up the game's usual suspects — Pinehurst, Bandon, St. Andrews, Lahinch — with a few frills tossed in like how to pack for the journey, how to write a letter to Britain's private clubs for access, and a reminder, when playing Pebble, that poa can be tricky to putt on. Yet even the most intelligent golfer — and, again, you know who you are — can benefit from "IG's" gentle reminders on course etiquette and smart advice for averting the varied disasters of decorum that fate has a knack for twisting us up in. If only "The Intelligent Golfer" offered more of that — a lot more of that — then it would hae been a truly intelligent volume, instead of an introduction to the obvious. 2010 The updated, second edition of "Journey" is, like its predecessor just that — a journey, with a comprehensive itinerary that neatly balances the pleasures of good travel: superior sightseeing and food for thought. Alighting on — and illuminating — every linksland layout in Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales, its combination of dreamy photography and insightful, if undercooked, prose makes "Journey" the rare large-format golf book: its achievement actually surpasses its considerable ambition. Golf Style: Homes and Collections Inspired by the Course and the Clubhouse And now for something completely different — a kind of golfing hybrid that manages to cross Architectural Digest with Town & Country, Martha Stewart Living, GQ and Travel & Leisure. A big book with broad taste and cornucopian scope, it pulls back the curtain on the golfing interiors of Donald Ross's famed Dornoch Cottage and Duffy Waldorf's wine cellar; it tours Celtic Manor and The American Club (with special attention to the plumbing fixtures); it serves up the recipe for the Junior League of Augusta's Pink Pound Cake; it tours galleries of golf art, fashion, and ephemera; and, since 'tis, after all, the season, it even rolls out advice for a golf-themed Christmas. As with Santa, seeing is believing, and "Golf Style" is quite a sight in its balance of class and kitsch. NOVEMBER Not everything Thompson bet on involved a golf ball, but, thankfully, enough did to include this colorful presentation of one of the most colorful characters of the 20th century in this space. He could hit a ball a mile — or at least 500 yards (on a frozen lake — to win a wager). He could outsmart Al Capone and Arnold Rothstein, trade card tricks with Houdini, lose a million at pool to Minnesota Fats, win zillions at the poker tables, marry five times, and murder five times, though the numbers attached to these last two are purely coincidental. Damon Runyon based Sky Masterson on him. But how good a golfer was Thompson? Good enough to shoot 66 right handed, 65 lefty, and let a duly impressed Ben Hogan in on his secret: "Golf's not for me," admitted Thompson. "I couldn't afford the pay cut." How Titanic is that? True Links: An Illustrated Guide to the Glories of the World's 246 Links Courses Peper, the former editor of GOLF Magazine, and Campbell, his equivalent at Golf Monthly across the Pond, team to make knowledgeably genial guides for this comprehensive expedition through the wildest, windiest and most rugged subset of the planet's golfing grounds. Good as they are, though, it's Iain Lowe's dazzling photography that will lure you into return trips through its pages. A word of caution: Given the salivation level of the journey, packing a bib might prove prudent. Power Golf: Championship Secrets From a Golf Legend Originally published eight years before "Five Lessons," "Power Golf" — in its first printing — had one important asset its successor lacked: Hogan and his swing sequence captured in photographs. Later editions — and this is a reprint of one — sadly swapped the pics out for drawings. Still, after all these years, "Power Golf" remains a fascinating window into Hogan's golfing mind, and its "Eight Hints on How To Lower Your Score" — beginning, not surprisingly, given the author, with PRACTICE in all caps — are as biblical in their import as the day Hogan descended the mountain with them. Dave Pelz's Golf Without Fear: How to Play the 10 Most Feared Shots in Golf With Confidence Golf is not exactly rocket science, though both can be dangerous enterprises. Pelz, who was a rocket scientist — and some of his earlier books read like it — continues to approach the game with scientific precision, but his approach is simply more approachable now. His advice for playing golf's 10 biggest knee-knockers — from lag putts and buried lies to hitting through trees — is built on the down-to-earth concept that anxiety trumps technique. Heed his counsel for eliminating the angst, and instead of blowing up over your next greenside pitch you just might find yourself chilling like liquid oxygen. The Spirit of Golf and How It Applies to Life: Inspirational Tales From the World's Greatest Game An import from Down Under, "Spirit" is a fine collection of anecdotes that could easily be dismissed via the treacle of its title. It shouldn't be. The stories themselves — some funny, some poignant, some stirring — easily stand on their own, covering fairways from Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer and Bobby Jones to Bob Hope, Gerald Ford and the unforgettable (who?) Maurice Flitcroft. That grander designs — about patience, perspective, consistency, daring, courage and more — can be culled from all of them, even Jimmy Demaret's impure insight into professionals at Seminole, makes them — and there are scores — worth relishing one by one. Sam: The One and Only Sam Snead Some years ago, the one and only Barkow, a grand continuing presence among golfing scribes, filtered the Snead myth and caricature through his experienced typewriter and out of it came a rich illustrated biography smart and thorough enough to let Snead stand on his own two limber legs. Scrape the façade from the Slammer and there's real gold underneath in the wealth of human nature that Barkow reveals through new reporting and his own long memory and insight. Sadly, "Sam" disappeared shortly after publication, a calamity happily rectified with a new edition designed more to be read than looked at. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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