(Photo by Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)
The 61-year-old club with 27 holes designed by Billy Bell, Jr. helped to define the Coachella Valley as a golfing paradise and holds the distinction of being the site of Arnold Palmer’s last PGA Tour win. But with membership down to under 150 equity members, it was open to being sold to South Korea-based SJS Tomorrow and its U.S. operator, Steele Canyon Golf Corporation. The new owner’s turnaround prescription includes reducing outside play while “upgrading the equity concept and making [the club] more exclusive.”
Bermuda Dunes (Calif.) Country Club, with 27 holes designed by William (Billy) Bell, Jr., is one of the courses that helped to define California’s Coachella Valley as a golfing paradise in the 1950s, The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, Calif. reported. The club was part of the old Bob Hope Classic for 49 years, hosting the tournament’s final round 16 times, and it’s where Arnold Palmer won his last PGA Tour event, in 1973.
But while Bermuda Dunes’ 61-year history is as glorious and star-studded as any country club in the Coachella region, its immediate past, and its future, had equity members of the club quite concerned, The Desert Sun reported. Mounting financial pressures and the worries that came with dwindling membership, growing debt and the threat of assessments had remaining members concerned about the club’s very ability to survive.
“We didn’t have the financial wherewithal to make the improvements necessary to bring in new members,” Dave Peat, a 26-year member and President of Bermuda Dunes’ Board of Directors, told The Desert Sun. “Yeah, we probably could have struggled on for another year, maybe.”
What the Board didn’t know was that a South Korea-based company, SJS Tomorrow, was looking to buy equity clubs exactly like Bermuda Dunes—and not to open them up to public play, but rather to enhance the facility’s value by polishing the club’s reputation as a stellar and still-private country club. SJS Tomorrow has now completed its purchase of Bermuda Dunes, The Desert Sun reported, and club members feel the change has provided a new lease on Bermuda Dunes’ future.
SJS Tomorrow, through its operating arm Steele Canyon Golf Corporation, has bought several private courses in Southern California in recent years, including Steele Canyon in San Diego, Pauma Valley Country Club near San Diego, Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta and Dove Canyon in Rancho Santa Margarita, The Desert Sun reported. And while some companies have been buying distressed private clubs and making them semi-private or even public to increase revenue, Steele Canyon’s philosophy is exactly opposite, its lead officer said.
“There are no buses of outside golfers,” Larry Taylor, Steele Canyon’s CEO, told The Desert Sun. “We want to reduce the number of outside tournaments, upgrade the equity concept and make it even more exclusive.”
Currently, 28 percent of Bermuda Dunes’ current play is outside play, either by guests of members or play from other programs that bring in non-members, Taylor said, and Steele Canyon will strive to reduce that number to perhaps under 20 percent.
Looking to find a company to come in to manage Bermuda Dunes, the Board instead found Steele Canyon last May and began discussions to sell the property, including the 27-hole golf course and clubhouse, The Desert Sun reported. The property also includes more than 1,300 homes that are not part of the sale.
Taylor said his company doesn’t look for courses to buy, but will listen to clubs that come to them with interest in selling.
“We wipe out a club’s liability,” he said. “From there, we put in their sales agreement all the rules and regulation the club is currently observing. We want to turn the clubs into the best of both worlds.”
Bermuda Dunes’ membership rolls have been shrinking for most of the last decade, The Desert Sun reported, as the course tried various membership offers and price adjustments to attract new members.
“When I joined the club in 1993, we had 498 equity members,” Peat said. “We are now under 150 equity members.”
But that doesn’t mean that some new and even young members aren’t still attracted to Bermuda Dunes, The Desert Sun reported. Greg Wallis, a 29-year-old, joined Bermuda Dunes two years ago under an executive membership tailored for members under 50 years old, and last year he and his wife bought a house at the club.
“We hit the ball farther, we younger guys, but [the Bermuda Dunes golf course] is still challenging enough to where it is going to challenge you,” Wallis said. “But it is wide enough and playable enough that my wife and I can go out and play on Sunday and have a great time.
“That, and I like the community here,” he added. “I like the history of it. It’s kind of fun taking my dad out and saying, hey, right here is where Palmer won his last PGA Tour event.”
But with no increase in revenue from outside play, how can Steele Canyon make its investment at Bermuda Dunes pay off? The key, Taylor told The Desert Sun, is selling more equity memberships to people excited about the revival of the course, which in turn makes the club more valuable.
“Since the announcement that we were looking to sell the club back in May, we have had 25 members upgraded from associate to equity,” Peat told The Desert Sun. “We brought in 27, 28 new members. So I think there is a little buzz in the community that we are going to be okay.”
Changes that are coming to Bermuda Dunes will include painting the outside of the clubhouse and the grill room before the course re-opens in November, Taylor told The Desert Sun. There is already a tree-trimming project on the course, and lakes, including the lake on the iconic par-5 18th hole of the 18-hole Classic Course, have been cleaned up and had reeds and other vegetation removed. Some changes to the course layout are also planned.
“From the championship tees, [Taylor has said he] wants to add 300 or 400 yards, to play to the original intent of the Billy Bell Jr. design out here,” Wallis said with a smile. “On the [par-3] 17th, he wants to move the tee back about 40 yards. It’s already 210 back there with those two trees [narrowing the tee box].”
Wallis said he is also excited about promises of upgrading the grill room for next year, which would give him and his friends a chance to watch playoff baseball at the facility or watch NFL games on Sunday after a morning round on the course, The Desert Sun reported.
“Those are the kinds of things that younger people want and will get them to come to this club,” noted another member, Donna Long, who recently retired from IBM. Long is a 20-year snowbird resident of the area and part of the committee that negotiated the sale of the club.
“This is our first year to make a commitment to live full-time in Palm Desert [California],” she told The Desert Sun. “We don’t even live inside the walls [of the club], but we were really banking on [it] being the center of our universe here. [The sale] just refreshed what we were hoping would happen.”
There will be other management changes, Taylor admitted, including what he hopes will be better management and tighter control on spending. But he believes a course like Bermuda Dunes, perhaps overshadowed by newer country clubs with high-profile big-name designers and larger, more modern clubhouses, can still find the right market for new members, The Desert Sun reported.
“One thing people aren’t realizing, baby boomers between 50 and 60 years old are coming to the right age,” Taylor said. “They are the ones who are going to be retiring or start slowing down in their lives, and they are the ones who are going to be coming in and joining these clubs.”
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