SPOTLIGHT ON ASIA Thailand concentrates on green fees and tourism, remains buoyant By ANDREW OVERBECK are the seaside resort towns of Cha-Am year to help offset the increased costs of However, The Royal Hua Hin PHUKET, Thailand — While Thailand and Hua Hin. Golf in Thailand made its equipment and spare parts. On the whole, is not to be left out of the mix, having struggles to come to grips with the eco- start in Hua Hin, with the Royal Hua Hin the Springfield club is the best positioned recently gotten a facelift from Tony Tay- nomic situation, the golf course industry golf course which was built in the 1920s and most played in the Hua Hin area. lor and his company, Quality Golf Con- in Southern Thailand remains fairly ac- by British railway engineers. From the upside to the downside. Hua sultants. The famous and oft-photo- tive, with management shuffles, redesign In the last five years, the golf develop- Hin has its share of lemons. Notably the graphed -3 14th hole was recently work, and even a new course or two. ment in the area has exploded, with six Milford International Club, which has the redesigned as were the 15th boxes. One of the main reasons that golf in courses now firmly established in the advantage of a seaside location unlike There is currently a plan to give the course Southern Thailand is alive and well is marketplace. any other of the area a gradual renovation. because they rely more on income from The Springfield Golf and Country Club golf courses. The man behind the green fees and tourism related services has arguably made the fastest and stron- However, the fantas- tourist growth in the Hua than from housing and membership sales. gest entry into the golf market in this tic view is blocked by a Hin area is Frank They have successfully adjusted their area. It's been experiencing consistent huge 30-story condotel. Gilbride, the operator of strategies from attacking the decidedly growth every year since opening and have The project was Hua Hin Golf tours. flat real-estate and membership-sales made an operational profit this year. It's doomed from the out- Hua Hin has been op- market and focused, instead, on green now going ahead with the expansion of set — they paid Robert erating for six years and fees to make a profit. the Nicklaus-designed project, adding McFarland for his de- have experienced 40- However, this reliance on steady tour- another 18 holes that will be a desert- sign and then at- percent growth yearly. ism dollars has also lead to some market style layout. tempted to build the course from the topo- In the last two years his firm has experi- inefficiencies, and, as in the rest of Thai- Further, it successfully opened its 170- graphic maps. enced a boom, with business up 65 per- land, the south has its share of delin- room beach resort that sits on the Gulf of Another course that more deserves at- cent in the last year and a projected 100- quent owners. Predictably, this situation Siam. In addition, it's going ahead with tention and fiscal input is Palm Hills Coun- percent increase this year. varies from area to area. the construction of 145 villa homes at the try Club. The Max Wexler-designed golf Hua Hin Golf Tours is well on track to Just a two-hour from Bangkok golf course that will go on sale in Decem- course was given its final shape with as- surpass 10,000 green fees this year. ber of 1998. Both the beach side condos sistance from the landscape designers Gilbride insists that "word of mouth is and golf course villas will be offered on a Belt Collins and Associates. The course, still our best advertiser," but concedes Andrew Overbeck is currently on a Watson time-share basis, which will serve to fur- however, suffers from a lack of financial that the depreciated baht has made va- Fellowship studying golf course development ther guarantee profits. support. cationing in Thailand all the more at- in Asia and is regularly contributing to All of these successes, however, have The professional courses in the area tractive. GCN. He is visiting both existing golf courses not fully insulated them from the eco- are doing well, with the Roger Packard Gilbride offers a five-night, four-golf and those under construction in Thailand, nomic crisis as green fees were raised designed Lakeview Country Club recently course package for less than $250 US. China and Vietnam. and membership dues were initiated this signing on with the Imperial Hotel Group. Continued on page 66

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CIRCLE #116 SPOTLIGHT ON ASIA GUEST COMMENTARY Thailand report Sukitti Klangvisai, was not originally in- hensive appraisal is complete. The tended to service the amount of rounds Griffiths/Appraisal conventional wisdom sees the de- Continued from page 15 that it sees per day. Continued from page 14 signer as a golf guru. It is a more The golf market in Hua Hin is growing As Course Manager Keat Lau puts it, fallen, new player numbers are down misguided custom than ever because consistently. But the overall quality of the "we did not anticipate the boom. Mind and new course growth has also of the high levels of capital costs, the destination justifies you, it is still a four dropped. greater risk of failure today and the tourist packages and hour golf course, but There has to be many lessons in this neglect of more important factors long-term vacation- the fairways are tight for all of us. The underlying causes of all which are so crucial to success. ers. The potential for and the greens and these trends, (common, incidentally, to Design — good, bad or inappropri- this area is great since are too small." most of the EU) were: the golf industry ate — is perceived, unconvincingly, as it offers outstanding Further, they are is fragmented and lacks a single lead a prime marketing factor in signature value for anyone's having to recon- institution equipped to promote and megabuck projects. Recent history money and since it is struct many areas of market the game effectively; rapid ex- shows us this all too well/Success de- so close to Bangkok. the course as the pansion of the golf services sector in the pends, to a far greater extent, on key While the tourist land continues to late 1980s/early 1990s led to quality appraisal factors rather than design. compact and change. versus membership suffering badly; the widespread influ- For instance, negative appraisal In order to combat sales competition is ence of the Design Led Syndrome (DLS) makes design unnecessary. evenly split in Hua Hin, the Phuket mar- this they have built the first nine holes of coupled with the neglect of proper ap- Some of the troubled courses men- ket is dominated by the tourists. their new championship course. praisal; a short-term approach leading tioned earlier would perhaps never All of the other courses on the island The Phuket area has the benefit of a to over investment in a favorable cli- have been built at all, or at least built feed off the world-famous Blue Canyon steady stream of tourists. The latest mate with wide- differently, had Country Club. The club is now managed Johnnie Walker Tournament at Blue Can- spread over-borrow- proper appraisal by Pointe International, a management Until recently, a serious yon brought more golf tourists than the ing and excessive preceded design: firm based in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, impediment for golf local clubs could handle. Therefore, there capital expenditure. not least with bet- which is starting to spread its interna- is simply no need to bother with exten- Clearly the golf developers has been the lack ter market re- tional wings. sive housing or membership sales to re- industry has not of a professional, commercial search and more However, they have not yet found a cover costs. served most recent or academic critical scrutiny rigorous sensitiv- permanent general manager and man- After Phuket, you must travel further developers, nor its ity analysis. agement leadership is constantly chang- south through five provinces before you millions of potential of the golf industry. There is Ventures go ing. They are soon going to up the ante in reach the next outcropping of golf customers, very no golf developers guide. The bust because DLS the golf market in Phuket when they open courses. The Songkhla Province, near well — especially diverts attention the new 18-hole lake course that was developers are, therefore, the Malaysian border, is home to two beginners—the life at a critical period jointly designed by Gary Player and professional golf courses. Currently, the blood of the game. vulnerable to risk. from the vital ap- Yoshikazu Kato. only 18-hole golf course in the area, the All parts of the praisal disci- The course is almost completely shaped Hat Yai Resort and , has a good industry are affected by this neglect plines, which are dealt with later in and should be open by the beginning of market position. and some suffer as a direct conse- this article. The beneficiaries of this next year. It will reportedly be more ac- However, in his disgust with the out- quence. In the United Kingdom, the are often second or even third owners cessible to the general golfing public than come of the course, Robert McFarland markets have changed somewhat who buy failed projects at well below the original Canyon course. took his name off the design. since the golf boom and beginners are original costs. While Blue Canyon may be justified in The combination of a strong tourist at last out in front in the demand stakes. In 1996,758 British courses changed its pricey green fees, the other courses market and concentrated growth has British beginners are at least as nu- hands in this way. One recent deal in on the island are merely riding the coat- helped Southern Thailand become a merous as the 3 million active players, France involved a package of some 30- tails. This hasn't sound golf market. a large latent demand. Imbalance on plus hotels. In the 1980s and early 1990s, stopped the golfers The unavoidable the supply side (new courses) has led a benign investment climate encour- from coming how- While Blue Canyon may be cost of the devalua- to too many 18-hole courses and hardly aged terms of 25-percent equity and 75- ever, and the justified in their pricy green fees, tion of the baht and any academy courses, which is sur- percent debt. courses make the other courses on the island are course mismanage- prising as the latter have very good Over-borrowing and extravagant in- around 95 percent merely riding the coattails. This ment has hurt some profit potential when properly re- vestment then occurred, ignoring the of their profits from hasn't stopped the golfers from golf courses, but searched and executed. longer term view — threat of rising tourist greens fees. coming however, and the courses the sales remain Until recently, a serious impedi- costs and interest rates. The first golf make around 95 percent of their steady. However, ment for golf developers has been When the climate changed, the prob- course built in profits from tourist greens fees. the market poten- the lack of a professional, commer- lems emerged. Golf investment is a Phuket was the tial is far from ex- cial or academic critical scrutiny of long- term business, there are no quick Phuket Country ploited. the golf industry. bucks anymore. Golf development is Club, which opened in 1989. The course, If more owners would continue to re- There is no golf developers guide. specific to markets, location, site util- which is owned by the mayor of Phuket, invest in their golf courses, the area would The developers are, therefore, vulner- ity and built facilities: only the last in- Phummisak Hong Syok, has now ex- really take off and become a topnotch able to risk on at a couple counts: the volves designers. panded to 27 holes. golfing destination. lack of published guidance; variable The aim of appraisal must be to However, the 18-hole resort layout is Clearly the entire industry would quality in the service and supply sec- match market demands in and be- beginning to show its age, mostly due to benefit from this investment and at the tor as inexperienced experts and de- yond the catchment with compatible the constraints of the layout and the qual- moment there are some sure signs that signers emerged during the early golf and other built facilities in order ity of initial construction. The course, the market is slowly heading in this 1990s financial misjudgements. to achieve a high degree of compat- which was designed by the local Dr. direction. These are just a couple reasons why ibility between them as a foundation the common errors of successive of a healthy bottom line. Please con- YOUR "ONE-STOP" SOURCE HIGHLIGHT GOLF HOLES, booms recur. sider the neglect of the beginner in FOR AMERICA'S LEADING IMPROVE VISIBILITY GOLF SURFACES & SUPPLIES! & MAINTAIN CONSISTENCY It is no coincidence. all of this. However, for those of an inquisitive The appraisal format is well tested in THE POROUS CERAMIC U.S. GOLF HOLE PARTAC SOIL CONDITIONER mind, a new, mold-breaking report the international marketplace. It lists GOLF COURSE PARTAC Afcu, TARGETS must be very welcome. the activities essential for identifying W "Golf Futures 1997 - 2007: A Golf realistic viability prospects — the bot- TOP-DRESSING I** COLORED CERAMIC * GREEN SAND Industry Analysis" was produced by tom line. 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