Bloomberg Mag-Kauri/Kidnappers

[Steve_Roths]

In the August issue of Bloomberg Magazine there is a good article about Julian Robertson. It covers his two golf courses in N.Zealand and has a lot of good pictures of the course and of Cape Kidnappers clubhouse.  From the pictures Kidnappers clubhouse looks absolutely perfect.  

You can find Bloomberg Magazines at Borders/BN or you get it automatically if you have the dual screen thing going on your desk.

[Philip Gawith]

Steve - the Cape Kidnappers clubhouse is indeed a wonderful place and quite unique in my experience. It is quite small, modelled on a sheep station and simply though very tastefully decorated. It helps, of course, that the setting is so good. Because the course is so high end, I doubt there are ever too many people there which allows the clubhouse to remain small, and lends to the air of exclusivity.

[Scott Coan]

Here's a link to the Bloomberg article:

http://www.capekidnappers.com/publicity/pdf/bloomberg_20060703.pdf

I just finished reading Dream Golf and it's quite an interesting contrast in how Mike Keiser's Bandon Dunes resort has evolved compared with Julian Robertson's two NZ properties, Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers.

Bandon going like gangbusters and the NZ courses bleeding money daily.  Obviously quite a difference in terms of location but I can't help but think that if Mr. Roberston had taken the "Bandon approach" and built a loyal following of keen golfers and fair price instead of whacking players $400 green fees and offering luxurious $1000/night accomodation that he may have a bit more business.

I suppose a better comparison would be with Barnbougle, and even there you can see Mr. Keiser's influence.  A fantastic course and top-of-the-line cottages and restaurant/clubhouse but at a fair price.

I guess when you are a billionaire in your seventies you don't care if your courses are making money.  Except I bumped into a guy on a plane ride to Wellington that Mr. Robertson had hired to tell him why his courses are bleeding so much money.  Perhaps he will start seeing the light.  Funny thing is he picked Tom Doak as a result of a visit to Bandon so you would have thought that he had his business model right there in front of him...    

I pity the poor bastards working at his NZ courses.  They are lucky if they get 20 players a day.  Don't get me wrong, they are fantastic properties and awesome golf courses but they are very remote and one must go a bit batty with no customers around all day, day after day after day.  No big surprise that the staff changes from visit to visit.  

[Wayne_Kozun]

Bandon going like gangbusters and the NZ courses bleeding money daily.  Obviously quite a difference in terms of location but I can't help but think that if Mr. Roberston had taken the "Bandon approach" and built a loyal following of keen golfers and fair price instead of whacking players $400 green fees and offering luxurious $1000/night accomodation that he may have a bit more business.

But how many locals are there?  The whole country only has a population of 4 million.  In North America there are 330 million people.  There is no way you can compare the two given the 80x difference in size of markets.

[Scott Coan]

Certainly the difference in market size is massive, but there are plenty of golfers in NZ/AUS that could be filling his fairways (and would be if the price were more reasonable.)  

Don't forget that nearly everbody told Mr. Keiser that he was a lunatic for building a resort 4+ hours away from the nearest big airport.  Somebody coming from the east coast of the States would have themselves quite a long journey to get to Bandon; 6 hour flight + 4 hour drive plus all the incidental time in between.  NZ is an 11 hour flight from LA or SF.  Not that much difference at the end of the day.  I would bet that 1000 times more golfers have made the east coast trek to Bandon than have made the west coast trek to NZ.