(
)
Despite a persistently sluggish US economy, Donald Trump is going for the green.
The famously brash developer has been snatching up golf courses across the country at a dizzying pace — some at bargain-basement rates, according to reports.
And while some would see the acquisitions and the millions of dollars the Trump Organization plans to invest in the properties to upgrade their facilities as a risk — as the number of rounds of golf played in the US has dropped in each of the past five years, according to the National Golf Foundation — the Donald, of course, sees nothing but opportunity as his upgraded courses, he confides, make “millions of dollars.”
That was clear last Friday night when Trump invited 320 members of the former Ritz-Carlton Golf Club & Spa in Jupiter, Fla., to a ritzy dinner at Trump International in Palm Beach. The Jupiter club, to be renamed Trump National Golf Club at Jupiter after the developer bought it this month, had seen better days of late and was selling memberships at steeply discounted rates.
There was a long waiting list of prospective members hoping to get in at those discounted rates.
Well, Trump had this to say to them: “You’re fired.”
The Donald tossed the Ritz list and is said to have already put together a 100-person waiting list of his own — at a time when the economy remains tough, unemployment high and interest in golf is waning, except, he says, at his courses.
The Jupiter purchase brings to 10 the number of Trump National golf clubs in the continental US, including the Ferry Point course in The Bronx, which is under development. He also has Trump Internatinoal clubs in Los Angeles; Palm Beach; Aberdeen, Scotland and Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
Trump and a group of Chinese groups are believed to be the only ones snatching up US golf courses. In March, he paid a reported $3 million for a club in Charlotte, NC, after he spent $150 million for the famed Doral Golf Resort in Miami.
Morgan Stanley paid $501 million for Doral in 2007, according to a report.
Beginning in 2007, the number of rounds of golf played in the US each year has fallen by 0.5 percent, 1.8 percent, 0.6 percent, 2.3 percent and 2.5 percent, according to the NGF.
Trump doesn’t appear concerned as folks flock to his courses to experience the Trump lifestyle.
At the dinner Friday night, Eric Trump, the developer’s son, promised members of the newly christened Trump course at Jupiter that “millions and millions” of dollars would be poured into the facility.
The ballroom will be enlarged, the locker rooms upgraded and the Jack Nicklaus-designed course tweaked.
As a kicker, the Jupiter members will also receive reciprocity privileges at all the Trump clubs, Trump said, including the nearby oceanfront Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach and the former Doral resort in Miami.
“It sounds good,” said Jupiter member Dr. Joseph Saponaro. “The club we joined was good but it disintegrated.”
During his remarks, The Donald was taken aback when he mentioned adding a forward ladies tee to the ninth hole to make it easier to hit over the water. The women in the audience responded with a resounding “No.”
“We’ll have to report back to Jack on that,” Trump said.