Yale | Next Karsten Creek?

[Ira Fishman]

And Payne-Whitney, the School of Drama, Sterling Library, Medical School? I have no idea how Yale chooses its priorities. I have had no connection to the University since I graduated and do not have any nostalgia about the school, but I do know that it is easy to be facile about the place that golf fits within the choices at hand.


Ira

[David_Tepper]

Latest news from the Yale Director of Athletics:

https://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2020/7/6/yale-ad-course-remains-closed-course-landscape-experts-to-be-called-in

[Drew Maliniak]

Latest Golf Magazine article:

https://golf.com/travel/courses/will-yale-golf-course-ever-return-former-glory/


Thoughts:

Yale G.C. does have the bones of a great course -- and is still a great course. (Full disclosure: I played for Princeton but had a good relationship with the track, despite the slightly unfriendly confines.)

But it felt like a state park golf course where you can tell the state didn't always prioritize a random asset, unless a true moneymaker/tourism generator (think RTJ trail, even though it loses money now).

I think what Tom says about the University not being able to sell the land is interesting. But likely not true here because the course is so old. And universities have had success breaking those agreements.

More likely, Yale worries about its name being tarnished if frankly either it becomes "too nice," becoming a bastion only for the wealthiest alumni (think Karsten Creek or Blessings). Or they let an outside group manage it, which rankles the local union. But Yale would also lose control of its name, which does matter. Reputational risk often drives many decisions. Plus they don't see the course as a "draw" the way University of Texas and Texas Tech do. It's more like NCR, a perk for the professors and administrators.

As a counterpoint, Princeton's course, while not amazing example of Flynn but solid, has handled this tension pretty well because Princeton leased the land to the members for 100 years or so way back when. So you have folks who care about golf calling the shots. But Princeton still has a big stick to control the members (many of whom are professors).

Princeton still isn't ideal though if you're aiming for a truly amazing golf course, which Yale is. There is one who-knows-if-true story that one Princeton official when looking at plans to grow the school said "does the golf course need 18 holes? Does 14 work?"

The endowment though is a red herring. Ivy schools can't spend it because it hurts their rankings and shows weakness. It exists only to grow, never to be spent.

So it's actually important that Yale golf and the club run sustainably and need pretty regular outside injections of cash.

Here's a pretty interest paper on the topic of endowment spending:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1444978