American Golf Corporation Not So American, According to Many Americans
American Golf Corporation: Readers Sound Off
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (August 20, 2002) - Outside of my chosen profession, I am a "glass half full" person when it comes to golf courses. I search for the ray of hope in any golf course when I am not searching for my ball. If the conditions are commensurate with the price, and the service in the proshop and around the course rivals or exceeds that at my local neighborhood bar, I will quietly go about my business of hooking drives and three-putting.
Yet, it has become impossible for me to apply this philosophy -- try as I might -- to golf courses managed by the American Golf Corporation. It's not that I have sampled many of their facilities, because I haven't. But you, oh loyal reader, have. And you email me time and time again to let me know how disappointed you were with the entire experience.
And I am not talking about the kind of disappointment you get from missing the first five minutes of Pardon The Interruption. I am talking full-on, "what do you mean there are no nude photos of Anna Kournikova at this website!" kind of disappointment.
This basic issue, according to the dozens of emails I received over the past year and hundreds of posts in golf-related chat rooms and message boards across the Internet, is this: the American Golf Corporation is taking over perfectly good golf courses and ruining them. They are buying up leases across the country for chump change, lowering the bottom line by paying their employees like fast food workers, and they are conditioning their courses like a Scottish sheep farm. In the process, they are saving their clients big bucks and seemingly pissing off a vast majority of the golfing population.
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Common sense and the laws of competition tell us that not all of American Golf's 300 plus golf facilities are overpriced goat ranches, or golfers simply wouldn't return to the scene of the crime on a daily basis. But where there is this much smoke, don't you think there has to be fire?
So what exactly, you ask, are the golfers saying?
Mike Ross, an 18 handicap from San Jose, Calif., says, "I've been very disappointed in the apparent results of American Golf management at two should-be-fabulous courses that I've played in the last year. Koolau on Oahu, Hawaii and Monarch Bay course in San Leandro, CA."
Ross claims the greens at Koolau were some of the worst he's even seen. Koolau, with a slope rating around 160, bills itself as the toughest track in the nation and charges accordingly. Ross also claims that nearly half the fairways at the Monarch Bay were either barren, or being resodded at the time of his playing, due to a couple years worth of abuse by American Golf.
"The greens were horrid at Koolau," Ross goes on to say. "Barely there at all on some holes. The staff said that above average rains caused a fungus that hurt the greens. But every other course I played -- including some muni's -- had much better greens than this high-end course, though they all said the rains were tough."
As for Monarch Bay, Ross says, "I heard a variety of reasons
for the debacle: wrong grass was put in initially; improper drainage;
improper watering; improper soil foundation; salt spray (that
was ludicrous as there are few whitecaps on the bay there, and
local oceanside courses like Sharp Park, Half Moon Bay, Pacific
Grove, and Pebble Beach know how to handle salt spray). Whatever
the cause, one gets the impression that American Golf should have
known better -- or at least caught the problem before it got this
bad."
Interesting? Yes. Conclusive? Not exactly, but the list goes on and on.
One email pinned the demise of the historic Austin Country Club, now Riverside Golf Course, on American Golf. Another accused the company of taking Tatum Ranch in Cave Creek, AZ, running it into the ground, remodeling it, making it private, and then charging a princely sum to join. Message boards cite American Golf as the reason for the demise of Superstition Springs Golf Club in Mesa, AZ, and the culprits behind the ruination of Stonecreek Golf Club's (Phoenix) greens.
So why not just ask American Golf about what is going on at these and other courses? Well, I did.
Company spokesman John Flaschner says that (and this is true)
American Golf doesn't own Tatum Ranch and any decisions regarding
going private and the cost of membership where made by the owners.
He also says the course is in incredible shape and sports a brand
spanking new clubhouse. As for Superstition Springs and Stonecreek,
the former is reportedly in fine shape he says, and the later
only has trouble with its greens when there is a torrential downpour
(its built in a flood plain).
Enough anecdotal evidence from bitter readers and company lines from lap dogs! Maybe former American Golf employees, without bones to pick, could shed some light on the rumors. I had email exchanges with two of them. Both had nothing but negative things to say about their former employer, and both (big surprise) wish to remain anonymous. Take this for what it is worth, but I take it as another piece of the puzzle.
How about industry peers, other companies in the golf course operations business? I talked to some of them too, and they echo the sentiments of the readers and ex-employees that American Golf is cutting way too many service and maintenance corners. Of course, they have to sit across the table from these people at conferences, focus groups and other industry shindigs, so they have to play nice and speak only off the record.
American Golf recently announced that it would be merging with another golf course management behemoth, National Golf Properties. No one at American Golf would comment on the new marriage, which leads me to believe that the prenuptial agreement must have been a little bit dicey.
So, what does this relentless banter from golfers across the country and off the record whispering from industry insiders amount to? It could mean there is a great big ole bully of a golf course management firm out there running facilities with only the bottom line in mind. Or it could just mean that there is a strong, random sample of disgruntled duffers, spiteful ex-employees and jealous competitors looking to get over on the 800-pound gorilla.
Whatever the case, buyer beware when you buy American.
Shane Sharp is a Contributing Writer with TravelGolf.com where his column appears weekly. If you have an experience, good or bad, from an American Golf Corporation operated facility you'd like to share, contact him at sharp@travelgolf.com.
