Obviously I have no experience of owning a course, and certainly none of being an entrepreneur. However, years ago I inherited enough money (a modest sum) to consider moving house from a small semi-detached property to a small detached property, which would have followed received wisdom about moving house. We could have borrowed more to increase our investment. But we didn't. We stayed put and used the inheritance to pay off the overdraft and mortgage and slightly to extend the house. It was generally felt that we had made the wrong decision, financially. But we had made the right decision for ourselves. We liked where we lived, we liked our neighbours, we liked our garden. We had to have our property revalued for insurance recently and our investment in this house had certainly not made as great an increase as it would have done had we moved and followed conventional wisdom.
What has this got to do with GCA? Why do you own your golf club? If you are in it to make money you do whatever is necessary to attract members/visitors and you have to provide them with what you want. So, if you were an architect in the UK you would be expected to provide water holes, island greens, fountains looking like jelly-fish, and, of course, USGA specification greens. You would have to provide the clientele with a touch of Florida (or at least Portugal). But it doesn't stop there. You have to supply the helicopter pads, balneotherapy and beauty clinics for wife, riding school for the daughter, off-road driving for son, falconry and pheasant shooting for husband when he has tired of golf in his buggy. Don't forget to call everything a suite, not a room - the Hogan Suite, the Player Suite and so on. And, of course, if it has the Nicklaus name-tag you can charge whatever you like for membership or green fees.
However, while the owner of my nearest such establishment (De Vere Hotels) is probably making a fortune out of its wealthy professional footballer members, the lavish company days and endless nail clinics and hair salons, if I were a golf course owner it would probably still be a muddy field in winter with inadequate drainage, water-logged bunkers and I'd sit in my caravan all day in the hope of just a few idiots foolish enough to pay the £8 green fee to play my nine holes with their temporary greens and rubber mats for tees. Rather like our house and garden, except we don't charge for entry.