Well, for starters Golden Valley G&CC is in Golden Valley, Minnesota not Minneapolis, Minnesota...
The golf course that is there now is very good. There are some very fun and steeply sloped greens. The course crosses a couple of roads, a railway, and power lines while seemingly moving through the town of Golden Valley which is a nice sense of place.
It's terrific that Foster accepted the commission at Golden Valley. It would not be a very difficult job to take a very good course and make it great. I'm sure the first item on his agenda will be to take down a million trees which would be awesome.
The club itself is a nice one, but it seems like they have fallen into some typical pitfalls. About 15 years ago they build a HUGE new clubhouse with some very large banquet facilities. (Seemingly every industry breakfast/networking event in town is held there).
I had heard from a member just last night that they have something like $7mln in remaining debt on the clubhouse, which is constraining profitability at the club. I believe they raised dues last winter to help cover the difference but then 30-40 members quit.
So, Concert Golf has come swooping in to offer to purchase the club, assume the debt, and pay for a $3.5mln Keith Foster renovation. But from what I hear there is only a guarantee from Concert Golf that they will operate GVGCC as a private club As so long as they own it. So, they are effective buying the club and the underlying land for ~$11mln creating a future option to sell it. The land today is probably worth $30mln+ easy. So it's a nice deal for Concert Golf, if they can get it.