From the Fringe: Vegas Market Loses Another Golf Course Property

By DENNIS SILVERS

It seems like the Las Vegas Valley is losing golf courses faster than I lose my golf balls hitting into the water.

The Legacy Golf Club, in the city of Henderson, has just recently been sold to Par Excellence Drive Trust, LLC, which is actually made up of three separate trusts. Par Excellence Drive has purchased the 177-acre property that was managed by OB Sports Golf Management, which is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The golf course property was sold to a consortium of local businessmen who immediately closed the course, driving range and clubhouse.

While the exact sales price has not yet been disclosed, this writer for LVSportsBiz.com was told on good authority that the selling price “was a steal” as the golf course had been bleeding money for several years.

While the sale affects golfers from around the Valley, it also affects the various vendors that were doing business with the golf course. And, in fact, some vendors were still owed money at the time of the course’s closing.

The new owners say they are considering various options as to what they would like to see happen to the property. They noted they wanted to create a “use development” that will also be enjoyed by the surrounding homeowners.

At first, speculation surfaced there was for homes to be built on the golf course property with commercial development built on the property’s west side fronting Green Valley Parkway.

But there’s one small problem facing the developers: The deed for the golf course property states it has to stay a golf course for many years to come. This situation will most likely turn into another Silverstone Golf Club and Badlands Golf Course type scenario that will end up being settled by the Planning Commission and the courts.

The bottom line is a lot of employees, some working there for a long time, face an uncertain future. As earlier reported in LVSportsBiz.com, the golf business, in general, is soft as there are concerns about golf courses making money — especially here in Southern Nevada.

Golf course owners are doing what they need to do to survive and I wonder if closing yet another golf course will help the situation at all. Time will only tell.

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CHIP SHOTS

The renowned Jack Nicklaus designed Reflection Bay at Lake Las Vegas apparently has fallen on some hard times. A big parcel of land that was used for its practice range was sold to a developer who has announced that he will build 99 homes on the parcel.

Golfers are being directed to a newly constructed “warm up area” that consists of hitting balls off of mats into a net. As most golfers would tell you, “it’s just not the same.”

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Last week, a “meeting of the minds” was held in Las Vegas with both business people and golf course folks discussing ideas to revise and revamp plans to help sell and market golf here in the Las Vegas market.

Executives from both Troon Golf Management and the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority (LVCVA) met for a one-day meeting to kick around ideas on how to kick start the golf course market in Vegas to help golf course operators and related businesses.

I will have more on some of those Vegas golf marketing plans and ideas in a future column for LVSportsBiz.com.

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Listen to Dennis Silvers on the radio as he hosts America’s longest running golf talk radio program, The 19TH Hole Weekend Edition on CBS Sports Radio 1140. His show had been described as “a way of life” for golfers in Southern Nevada.
Dennis also hosted the first televised golf show in the history of Nevada on cable TV, which won the Community Broadcasters Award in its first season. Dennis also appears regularly on KSNV-NBC Channel 3 on Sports Night in Las Vegas. The 19TH Hole Weekend airs Saturdays from 6am-8am PST on CBS Sports Radio 1140 and is streamed live over www.19thholeradio.com.