golf business
New Life to Lost Courses When not renovating courses, the Places get as far away from golf as possible. Here they are near the Ngoragora Crater in Tanzania, May 2016
A golf club closed for two years
with 6 feet tall weeds growing over 170 acres – who wants that? Enter Bill Place and Su Lee, married owners of Ace Golf in Tampa, Florida. Now renovating their fourth failed golf club since 2005, the couple see opportunity, not demise, in the golf industry. Four-star Golf Digest Plantation Palms Golf Club in Land O’ Lakes closed in May 2014 following several years ownership by three American Indian partners, culminating with them fist fighting in the clubhouse. A perennial favorite Dave Harmon-designed Tampa Bay Golf course was shuttered, greens left to die, and vandals moved in. After many failed potential buyers, Plantation Pam’s HOA struck a deal with Place. The community would purchase a social membership for every one of their 821 homes for the next 5 years, amounting in a $625,000 investment to get their club and property values back. Place bought the club and is now renovating it with a re-open date in November. Bill Place and Su Lee don’t play golf. They met while working corporate jobs at GTE (now part of Verizon). Bill left his job in 1991 and two years later started their first Ace Golf driving range while Su kept the paycheck 12
and benefits coming. They both work together now, Su on Accounting/Finance and Bill on Marketing/Operations, about 10 feet apart in their Tampa home. In 2005, the couple bought Pebble Creek Golf Club, invested almost $2 million in renovations and returned the club to profitability. In 2010 and 2011, they did the same with Wentworth Golf Club and Crescent Oaks Country Club in Tarpon Springs. “Golf isn’t dying”, according to Place, “it’s just in need of a new paradigm”. We buy clubs cheap, invest heavily
in renovations, and add services to make them community centers with broader appeal. At Plantation Palms, for example, Place and Lee are building a miniature golf course, lighting and expanding the golf range, building a new 3,000 square foot wedding and events center, and adding a Mulligans Irish Pub (a concept they developed and now have at 2 of their other 3 clubs). “We start the kids in mini-golf, migrate them to junior golf lessons, and make them into golfers on the big course”, adds Place, “Life is Good!”
Southern Golf Central • Volume 17, Issue 5