For Sale: Balmoral Woods

The Morning Nine for Monday, January 20, 2014

                              Writing from Chicago

    News and views for the third Monday in January, and buddy, can you spare $1.5 million?    

    1. If you want to buy a golf course – and a good one – get in touch with the Mortell family. Balmoral Woods, the challenging, fun course in Crete the family has owned and cared for from the beginning, is for sale.
    The price: $1.5 million, down from the original $1.9 million. Crete’s off the beaten path unless you’re in the south suburbs. That’s helped keep the green fee down over the years, making Balmoral one of the most affordable top-grade courses, but it also means the sale price may not be as high as the quality of the course would warrant.
    Here’s what you’d get: Eighteen holes winding across hill and dale on 124 acres (110 owned, the rest on a long-term lease) designed in two stages, first by Arthur Davis and Ron Kirby in 1975, then expanded in 1977 by George Fazio and owner Don Mortell, that were converted from bluegrass to bentgrass about a decade ago. A 10,000 square-foot clubhouse with a banquet room for 160 sitting high on a hill in the northeast corner of the property. A range that’s not as close to the clubhouse as you’d like – probably the only logistical drawback considering the course was originally nine holes and the clubhouse was actually a hotel – now a senior citizen center – that sits between the current sixth green and seventh tee.
    You’d also get a steady clientele that isn’t as large as it once was – the problem for virtually every public course. More than one owner will tell you the dip that followed the attack on Sept. 11, 2001, never fully rebounded. In the sales listing on the Links Capital Advisors web site, this is noted: “Club needs new owner with aggressive marketing campaign to increase rounds and revenue.”
    One thing the Mortells haven’t done over the years is engage in the coupon chase that many other courses in the south suburbs and across the border in Lake County, Ind., go for. There are discount rates, but they’re not crazy. The belief is that the golf course should pay for itself, not be subsidized by bar and restaurant business.
    The next notation: “Club has positive cash flow.”
    But for how long? That’s the $1.5 million question.

    2. Balmoral is the site of the annual start to amateur tournament play each year, in the form of the Will County Amateur. Any new owner would be expected to continue that, including the traditional awarding of the Brown Jacket, one of Don Mortell’s old sport coats. A tradition unlike any other ... hey, is that phrase taken?

    3. Balmoral on the block follows the sale of private Bull Valley in Woodstock and public Chalet Hills in Cary to different parties in the last few months. Chalet Hills, a similar facility to Balmoral Woods, was offered for $2,150,000, which shows the old adage in real estate still applies: location, location, location. Bull Valley, well down in membership the last few years, was said to go for $1.55 million.

    4. Patrick Reed first came to our attention – almost everybody’s attention outside of his family – with a good showing in the John Deere Classic last year. A big start and diminutive wive Justine carrying his bag made for easy columns and fun feature stories. He followed that up with a win later in the year, and Sunday proved he wasn’t a one-hit wonder by hanging on to win the old Bob Hope Desert Classic – these days with an insurance company as the title sponsor and former president Bill Clinton schmoozing – in La Quinta and Palm Springs, Calif.
    And with his brother-in-law on the bag. Justine is pregnant, but once the girl they’re expecting is born, Justine returns to work.

    5. Memo to Phil Mickelson: Just because you can try a right-handed shot to get out from under a bush in the final round in the middle of the desert doesn’t mean you have to. Taking a penalty drop would have been less penalizing than the double-hit-creating triple-bogey 7 you fashioned en route to missing the title in Abu Dhabi. But hey, better there than Pinehurst, no?

    6. Memo to Rory McIlroy: When taking relief, take complete relief. No more standing on the hazard line while hitting a shot after dropping out of the hazard. That two-stroke penalty on Saturday put you in the same second-place boat with the aforementioned Lefty in Abu Dhabi, and gave the win to the one and only Pablo Larrazabal on Sunday.

    7. In case you were wondering, it’s official: The Illinois Open is back at The Glen Club this summer. Mark down July 21-23 on your calendar. Meanwhile, the WGA has strung together an intriguing list of local courses to host the Western Junior the next few years. It’s at Flossmoor Country Club this year (June 16-20), venerable Riverside Golf Club in 2015, Rich Harvest Farms in 2017, and Evanston Golf Club in 2018. The 2016 Junior is TBA. And this year’s soiree at Flossmoor is the 100th anniversary of the inaugural, held at Chicago Golf Club.

    8. Yes, that was a U.S. Open promo last night on Fox’ NFC Championship telecast. Fox’s USGA package starts in 2015, which means it will be televising the U.S. Amateur from Olympia Fields Country Club on Fox and cable network FS1. No word on commentators. How about Joe Buck and Greg Norman in the tower behind 18?

    9. Finally, the big circuit drops in – undoubtedly via hang-glider – to Torrey Pines this week. That means one E.T. Woods will be on the premises for his first start of 2014, and the official 2013-14 season. So will a certain P.A. Mickelson. How timely, what with no football and the return to network television, that being CBS. The public is invited to tune in.

    – Tim Cronin