Feature: The Golf Name Game
July 2, 2004
“If Shaquille O’Neal helped design the Staples
Center, would that make it a better place to play basketball? I don’t think so,”
says Geoff Shackelford, a golf course design columnist for Golfdom magazine and
author of numerous books about the subject, including The Art of Golf Design and
The Golden Age of Golf Design. “I just don’t understand the allure that some of
these golf course communities have when even the casual observer can tell you
that the courses themselves are typically compromised by the needs of the
developers to generate quick sales.”
Shackelford, who calls himself “a grump
and a purist and a throwback to the classic era of golf course design,” says the
pressure to design golf courses that generate high-volume real estate sales
often means that excellent designers are overlooked because they will not
compromise their design for the marketplace. A case in point, he says, is the
team of two-time Masters winner Ben Crenshaw and designer Bill Coore. “They
design brilliant courses, but for some reason their courses don’t generate great
real estate sales,” Shackelford says. “For instance, at Cuscowilla Golf Club on
Lake Oconee, Ga., they designed a course that took into consideration the
natural elements of the terrain and came up with a classic design that is
unique, that you want to play over and over again. But the real estate sales
never hit like they were expected to. Meanwhile, just down the road at Great
Waters [at Reynolds Plantation], the Nicklaus course was built with the
development in mind—and it went like gangbusters.”
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Tom
Fazio’s Quarry Course at Black Diamond Ranch, Lecanto, Fla. (Click image to enlarge)As for what the future holds, some real estate analysts fear that the sagging popularity of golf—a sport that has suffered a six percent decline in players since 1999—combined with an overbuilding of golf course communities might torpedo the value of a golf course home.
Not so, says Hegarty. “First off, 60 percent of the people who live on golf courses don’t play golf,” he says. “Plus, in the years ahead, it will get increasingly difficult to find big tracts of land where a golf course community can be built and where the proper permitting can be obtained. So, in one sense, buying a home on a golf course by a marquee designer is like buying oceanfront property. There may well come a time when they just aren’t making it anymore.”
Golf Research Group
www.golf-research.com
Golf Property
Analysts
www.golfprop.com
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