The market for golf apparel appears to finally be on the rebound, according to a new study by Golf Datatech. The independent research firm reports that the on-course dollar volume in 2011 increased by 8 percent compared to the prior year.

“Through the first 11 months of 2011, every product category shows significant improvement over 2010 dollar sales volume,” said Tom Stine, Co-Founder, Golf Datatech.  “These totals don’t take into consideration December numbers, which reflect the bulk of holiday sales and are likely to further increase these figures considerably.”

Men’s tops, which includes sweaters, vests and fleeces, showed the biggest year-to-year increase as a category — up 21.9 percent. The average retail price was $75.13, a 4.2 percent increase. Men’s bottoms increased by 20.6 percent, with the average sale price for pants and shorts at $49.04, a 2 percent increase. Not all prices were up, however, as men’s shirts dropped by 1.3 percent to an average of $50.42. That was still far higher than off-course prices, which averaged $34.70.

Women’s shirts sold for $45.49, a 2.8 percent increase, and bottoms for $53.61, a 4 percent increase.

For outerwear, the average retail price was $72.79 at on-course locations, which reflects a 0.6 percent increase from 2010, while the average retail price at off-course locations was $62.94, which reflects a decrease of 2.8 percent from 2010.  Overall, outerwear sales have increased 9.4%.

Golf Datatech makes the Golf Apparel Market Reports available on a monthly basis to apparel companies, retailers and golf shop operators and managers, providing a detailed snapshot of apparel sales for every category. The reports list the market shares, retail pricing and inventory levels of virtually every apparel manufacturer, as well as define the market leaders.  

Fore Golf Partners, which acquired Feather Sound Country Club in Clearwater, Fla. in August, recently entered into a lease and management agreement with CNL Lifestyle Properties for Valencia Country Club in Valencia, Calif.

“We are right where we thought we would be,” said Tom Bennison, a partner with Fore. “ We planned to close three to four deals in our first 12 months. So we are on target.”

He said Valencia Country Club is an outstanding club in a great market.

“We are extremely proud to be associated with one of Southern California’s finest private clubs and we look forward to building upon the club’s great reputation and traditions,” he said. “During the next 12 months we will implement a $1 million capital improvement project that will include upgrades to the golf course and clubhouse. We think members will appreciate the enhancements we’re planning for the club.”

Bennison said he is leveraging his personal relationships to quietly acquire private clubs from owners who don’t want to go to market because they don’t want members to be nervous about a change in ownership.

He said it is a competitive environment for buyers looking for deals. He said Fore Golf decided not to limit itself geographically, but to seek out courses that meet its financial thresholds.

 “A lot of courses open at a price and then are closing at a considerable discount,” he said. “It is further confirmation that the bid-ask gap is narrowing and owners are becoming more realistic on what they have. When courses sell at one times revenue, it is hard to value them at two times revenue.”

Borders Golf Group has signed a long-term lease to operate Cancun Country Club in Quintana Roo, Mexico. The resort will be branded as TPC Cancun, the first Tournament Players Club outside of the United States.

Borders Golf Group, based in Reno, Nev., is led by Joseph Petrash, a seasoned executive in the club and hospitality business for the past 31 years, William Timken, a successful 25-year veteran of Wall Street, and Julio Viscontti, an industry veteran with many years of experience in the US, Mexico and Latin America.

The management and development consultant currently has projects in Mexico, Panama, Belize and Colorado.

Cancun Country Club will feature 36 holes of golf designed by Nick Price and Tom Fazio.  The opening date for the Nick Price course is scheduled for January 2012, while construction of the Fazio course should begin in 2012 and be open early in 2014.

The Price course features Platinum Paspalum wall to wall, with undulating but fair greens. 

TPC Cancun is an environmental role model due to its horticultural methods and practices. Both golf courses are considered as leaders in “environmentally friendly” design.  TPC Cancun has been designed to take advantage of abundant environmental wealth and a forest preserved and respected under strict environmental standards.

Empire Golf Inc. was picked to manage and operate the Bidwell Park Golf Course in Chico, Calif.

The win marks Empire’s entry into the community of Chico, located about 90 miles north of its headquarters in Rancho Murieta, Calif.

Empire is gaining ground in the Northern California landscape, with five existing management projects: Ancil Hoffman Golf Course in Carmichael, Cherry Island Golf Course in Elverta, DarkHorse Golf Club in Auburn, Oakmont Golf Club in Santa Rosa and the Auburn Valley Golf Club in Auburn.

The latest five-year agreement with Bidwell, approved by a unanimous vote of Bidwell Park Golf Club’s board of directors, will kick off Oct. 1, 2012.

Empire Golf will provide fee management services for complete facility operations at the 18-hole municipal golf course.

“Empire Golf has had successful working relationships with municipal and private partners for over 25 years,” said Rod Metzler, CEO of Empire Golf, which manages semi-private and daily fee facilities.

Bidwell has a capital improvement plan in place to modernize the facility.

The 18-hole, par 72 public golf course is one of Northern California’s original Municipal Golf Courses, in existence since 1929.

The front nine holes feature a scenic setting of natural wilderness and the back nine are set in the foothills of Bidwell Park.

Every September Bidwell Park Golf Course plays host to The Chico City Championship, the second oldest match play tournament in California.

Amenities at Bidwell Park include a clubhouse, daily food service, golf shop, practice putting and chipping greens and a practice bunker.

KemperSports took a swing and won two new management contracts at the end of 2011 — Eagle Ridge Golf Course in Gilroy, Calif. and Prairie Club in Valentine, Neb.

Shapell Homes, a top California homebuilder, tapped the Northbrook, Ill.-based managment company to oversee Eagle Ridge, marking KemperSports’ twentieth property in the state. The 18-hole daily fee golf course in Silicon Valley, located about 30 minutes from San Jose and Monterey Bay, is attached to Shapell Homes’ Creekside residential community.

Designed by Ron Fream and David Dale, in conjunction with Johnny Miller Design, Eagle Ridge features tree-lined fairways, stream beds, lush hollows and native vegetation. The 12-year-old course features a 40-station driving range, two putting greens, a practice bunker and short-game area that are all open to the public.

Eagle Ridge Golf Course has also played host to a variety of qualifying tournaments for events such as the USGA Public Links, USGA Women’s Open, PGA Champions Tour Siebel Classic and numerous NCGA (Northern California Golf Association) events.

Along with the 18-hole golf course with clubhouse and restaurant, other residential amenities include a few miles of pedestrian trails, three parks, two tennis courts, two basketball half-courts, a swim center, recreation center and greeting station. Homes start from the low $600,000s.

KemperSports also won a contract to manage Prairie Club in Valentine, Neb. Located in the Sand Hills region of the state, the 46-hole resort features two 18-hole courses (The Dunes Course and The Pines Course), a 10-hole par 3 course (The Horse) and a western-style Prairie Club Lodge.

The Prairie Club opened in May 2010 to much acclaim and was quickly named one of the “Top 25 Golf Resorts in the U.S.” by Golfweek magazine. Both The Dunes Course and The Pines Course were listed in the “Top 10 Best New Courses” by GOLF Magazine in 2010.

KemperSports’ management portfolio currently includes more than 100 golf courses and private clubs across the U.S., many of which are ranked in the Top 100 in the U.S.

The company also recently scored two management renewal contracts, including Heron Glen Golf Course in Ringoes, N.J. and Ridge Creek Dinuba Golf Club in Dinuba, Calif. KemperSports has managed both since they opened, in 2002 and 2008, respectively.

Golf Baan Stippelberg in the Netherlands beat out several storied golf course developments to be named Development of the Year for 2011, Golf Inc. magazine announced on December 7. The course was designed by Philip Spogard and Michiel van der Vaart of Spogard & VanderVaart Golf Course Architects.

Old MacDonald, the latest course by Mike Keiser and Tom Doak in Bandon Dunes, Ore., placed second in the competition, followed by Mission Hills, Hainan, the 180-hole giant development in China, designed by Schmidt-Curley. 

“The magnitude of many of the entries for Development of the Year were outstanding — from U.S. to International submissions,” said Katina Cavagnaro, publisher of Golf Inc. “We expanded the number of finalists from three to five because of the unparallelled quality of the entrants.”

The magazine will honor the three winners and five finalists in the upcoming Winter issue of Golf Inc. magazine. Finalists included Barnbougle Lost Farm in Tasmania; Black Jack Crossing in Lajitas, Texas; Castiglion del Bosco in Tuscany, Italy; Eléa Golf Club in Cyprus; and The Gary Player Signature Course at Thracian Cliffs Golf & Beach Resort in Bulgaria.

More than 30 projects from 19 countries were judged. There were four entries from the U.S., three from China and two from Mexico, Abu Dhabi, Bulgaria, Italy, Netherlands and Korea. Other countries included Australia, Bahamas, Cyprus, Fiji, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, and Sweden. Judges for the contest were Sam Sakocius, president at Project Control International Ltd., who is based in China, and Rick Baril, principal at Von Hagge, Smelek & Baril, and winner of last year’s competition. 

Billy Casper Golf further expanded its portfolio with the addition of country clubs in North Carolina and Alabama.

The Vienna, Va.-based company now has more than 130 golf courses, country clubs and resorts in its portfolio.

In November the golf company was picked to manage the semi-private Glen Cannon Country Club in Pisgah Forest, N.C., just south of Asheville.

Glen Cannon’s 6,548-yard golf course is known for its views of the Blue Ridge Mountain range and its signature No. 2 hole featuring a cascading waterfall behind the green. The site also features five tennis courts, pool, adjacent clubhouse and pro shop.

Billy Casper Golf plans to re-structure membership classifications to align with market demographics.

“We have a solid membership plan in place to elevate participation and attract new members,” said Peter Hill, Chairman and CEO of BCG. “Sprinkle in regulated daily-fee play and Glen Cannon is on even better footing.”

In November the company also sealed a deal to manage Country Club of Brewton in Brewton, Ala., a semi-private site home to top PGA Tour players Bubba Watson, Heath Slocum and Boo Weekly.

Opened in 1997, the 18-hole, 7,019-yard layout features tree-lined fairways, elevation changes and two lakes which come into play, as well as a full-service driving range and practice facility.

Other amenities include tennis courts, swimming pool, children’s play area, 16,000 square-foot clubhouse with hard cherry furnishings, a pro shop and locker rooms. 

BCG will handle aspects of the clubs’ member programs, course operations, golf course and property maintenance, sales, marketing and public relations, staffing and training, merchandising, restaurant, financial management and special events.

BCG said it would enact its “BCGreen” initiative at the sites, which aims to conserve, protect and enhance the environment.

In October, Billy Casper Golf scored three new projects — two in Florida and another in North Carolina. In 2011, the company has assumed operation of 18 private, public and resort properties, many within upscale within master-planned communities.

Hurricanes, torrential downpours, fires and other unusual natural disasters hit the U.S. golf industry hard this year, and the damage was evident in September’s snapshot report by PGA PerformanceTrak.

Golf courses in states like Pennsylvania and Ohio were particularly affected by the harsh elements, according to Joe Rice, director of membership at the National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA), which compiles the monthly report using rounds and revenue data in conjunction with the PGA.

“They had a horrible spring and courses opened late,” he said. “Then they were hammered again not too long ago.”

Rounds were down 3.4 percent across the U.S. and days open fell 1.9 percent in September, compared to the performance of the same courses tracked a year earlier. Rounds ar down 2.2 percent for year-to-date.

“It’s kind of what I’d call a tale of two cities,” Rice said. “If you draw a horizontal line across the country, courses to the north have had a bad season and the south has had a good season. It tells us it’s about weather.”

Southern courses enjoyed more days open, whereas northern states saw double-digits decreases in days open over a year earlier. Minnesota, for example, saw a 10.5-percent drop in days open over September 2010 and New York was down 11.4 percent.

Aggregate rounds played at resort facilities — which are commonly concentrated in warm southern states — continued to climb, with a 2.7-percent increase over September 2010. Monthly fee revenue, which is typically tied to the number of rounds and weather conditions, slumped 2.5 percent compared to a year earlier.

The results serve as a snapshot of the golf market; there were 2,687 facilities that responded, or just a sliver of the number courses that dot the U.S. The PGA and NCGOA are considering ways to improve reporting methods, like including more detailed information about weather-related data.

“There are lots of schools of thought in the industry as it relates to reporting rounds and how you factor in weather,” he said.

Billy Casper Golf has scored three new projects in the past few weeks — two in Florida and another in North Carolina. The Vienna, Va.-based company now has 130 golf courses, country clubs and resorts in its portfolio.

Earlier this month, it won the rights to manage Black Mountain Golf Course in the foothills of western North Carolina, 17 miles east of Asheville. The 18-hole course opened in 1929 as a nine-hole course designed by legendary architect Donald Ross, and the back nine debuted in 1962.

Convergent Capital Partners LLC, the new owner of Emerald Greens Golf Resort and Country Club in Tampa, tapped BCG to manage its 27 holes. The Gulf Coast property, which includes an array of condos, villas and townhomes, features three, distinct nine-hole layouts called Meadow, Cypress and Pine.

Before October was up, BCG was tapped to manage Eastpointe Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., an upscale community of 875 homes with an 18-hole private course acting as the centerpiece. It’s known in the Southern Florida golf community for its contouring on the green complexes and indigenous wildlife.

BCG will handle aspects of the Florida clubs’ member programs, and at all three sites, the company will take charge of course operations, golf course and property maintenance, sales, marketing and public relations, staffing and training, merchandising, restaurant, financial management and special events.

BCG said it would enact its “BCGreen” initiative at the sites, which aims to conserve, protect and enhance the environment.

The latest project ups the company’s management portfolio to 14 in Florida and 21 in the Southeast. 

In 2011, the company has assumed operation of 16 private, public and resort properties, many within upscale within master-planned communities.

Sequoia Golf, which did not add its first management contract until 2008, has more than 22 properties under contract and hopes to double that business over the next two years.

“We own more clubs than we manage and that adds a lot of value,” said Ken Guerra, executive vice president of Sequoia. “As owners, every property has had to be repositioned and so we have gotten very good at that. And most management properties need to be repositioned.”

Joe Guerra, Ken’s brother, started the company, officially known as Sequoia Golf Holdings, in 2002 with the acquisition of seven courses in Atlanta. The company grew through acquisitions, building tight clusters in Atlanta, Houston and most recently Denver. It currently owns 30 properties.

But in recent years the company has found more opportunity in third-party management than in ownership. It has been one of the primary management companies for Textron Financial, which has been repossessing and retaining courses.

“Textron has a great portfolio and they are not willing to sell at the bottom of the market,” said Joe Guerra, President and CEO. “They have been very careful and are the perfect client for us. They have experience and intelligence to know when to cut or when to invest into property.”

Sequoia has taken over management of ten Textron properties, three of which have since been sold.

Ken Guerra said his company generally recommends more bold repositioning plans than other management companies.

“We have a lot of experience with capital investments,” he said. “We are very good at that, and have an in-house [construction company].”

In addition to Greenscapes, its construction arm, the company also has an in-house clubhouse design team, IT services, and marketing arm.

“We have had to adapt because we have had such a large portfolio [of owned courses],” Joe Guerra said. “We don’t see too many other management companies that can duplicate these services.”

Joe said the company has never lost a management contract and will not take on a client unless they know they can add value.

“We are generally following another professional management company in and we can still offer greater efficiency,” said Ken Guerra.

An expanded profile of Sequoia Golf will appear in the Winter issue of Golf Inc. magazine.