Golf Inc. - Most Influential People In Golf Sales PP 2018

<strong>Golf</strong>’s<br />

SALES<br />

LEADERS<br />

Jeff Woolson<br />

Managing director,<br />

CBRE <strong>Golf</strong> & Resort Group<br />

There must be a reason so few people excel<br />

at golf course acquisition. You might be able<br />

to cobble together a few foursomes, but you’re<br />

not goingto field atournament with them.<br />

Our gut feeling: It’s because their jobs are<br />

really,really hard.<br />

Take buying a member-owned course, for<br />

example. <strong>In</strong> that scenario, prospective buyers<br />

and their representatives have to persuade the<br />

equity partners to sell. Imagine if you were<br />

trying to buy a car that had, say, a dozen<br />

owners, and each one had a different opinion<br />

about the merits of the car. That would be<br />

fun, no?<br />

That’s why <strong>Golf</strong> <strong><strong>In</strong>c</strong>. asked the most active<br />

buyers, sellers and brokers to identify the<br />

people who influence golf course sales the<br />

most.<br />

The results showed that longtime professionals<br />

—those who’veweathered booms and<br />

busts – continue to influence others the most.<br />

They’re well known in the industry, and their<br />

names won’t surprise anyone who’s been<br />

following the ups and downs of golf course<br />

acquisitions over the years.<br />

Jeff Woolson has reached the place he wants<br />

to be in his career. When he started out, he<br />

thought it wouldbe great if one day people<br />

would call and ask, “Are you the golf<br />

course guy?” It happens daily now, he says.<br />

Yes, Woolson is that golf course guy and has<br />

been one of the leading brokers in the industry<br />

for years now. Maintaining that status is<br />

impressive, given how the business continues<br />

to evolve.<br />

For one, deals have become more timeconsuming,<br />

particularly the ones involving<br />

member-owned courses. Woolson recently<br />

brokered the sale of Las Vegas Country Club<br />

for its members, a process that took a full 18<br />

months.<br />

“Those deals are unbelievable grinds,” he<br />

said.<br />

<strong>In</strong> the Las Vegas case, several potential<br />

buyers came forward, and the members had to<br />

whittle it down to two finalists. This wasn’t a<br />

small group of members, either. Try 466. They<br />

had to vote online. And after they went<br />

through negotiations and voted, the original<br />

deal fell through and another buyer had to be<br />

found.<br />

These equity-owned clubs are in demand<br />

because they’re often being operated in a<br />

financially inefficient manner, so they stand to<br />

have alot of upsidepotential.<br />

Many are nonprofits, so making money isn’t<br />

a priority, and board members have a tendency<br />

to overpay staff because they want to be seen as<br />

nice guys, Woolson said.<br />

So professional operators see an opportunity<br />

to cut costs and increase revenue. Members<br />

want out of the ownership business because, in<br />

many cases, they see members walking out the<br />

door and fear a potential death spiral<br />

beginning to unfold.<br />

Another change has been the shrinking<br />

pool of buyers, Woolson said. Some major<br />

purchasers have slowed their acquisition<br />

programs considerably.<br />

While deep-pocketed investors still<br />

exist, they aren’t necessarily sophisticated<br />

when it comes to the golf business, so<br />

those deals can take longer, he said. And<br />

still other sellers are single-course owners<br />

who are getting older and have families<br />

who don’t want to be part of the business.<br />

While golf courses continue to be<br />

shuttered because of a lack of buyer<br />

interest, that’s not necessarily a bad thing,<br />

Woolson contends. “Way too many golf<br />

courses had been built,” he said.<br />

18 <strong>Golf</strong> <strong><strong>In</strong>c</strong>. May/June <strong>2018</strong>