Distressed golf academy in NMB being sold; managing partner explains $2M fraud charge
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Champions Golf Academy is in the process of selling its facility at Barefoot Resort in North Myrtle Beach to pay off heavy debt, and embattled managing partner Jose Fernandez explained why he is facing a $2 million embezzlement charge.
Fernandez said Thursday he is selling the 10,000 square-foot golf training facility and the 1.73 acres of land on which it sits on the expansive Barefoot driving range for approximately $1 million to Golf Tourism Solutions, though he intends to continue operating the academy without a host facility.
Golf Tourism Solutions, a technology and marketing agency that promotes the Myrtle Beach market, has been seeking a home for its Project Golf nonprofit initiative that would likely house a junior golf organization and host activities for juniors and veterans.
GTS president Bill Golden confirmed Thursday the agency is interested in purchasing the property but did not want to comment further because a sale has not been completed.
Fernandez acknowledged the academy’s debt, including a $91,000 lawsuit filed Monday in Horry County by American Express for the alleged non-payment of credit card use, and Fernandez is still facing a fraud charge from a March 13 arrest.
He is accused of embezzling more than $2 million on another project at Barefoot that was partially tied to the academy, and admitted to The Sun News on Thursday that he did move $2 million from the construction account to keep the golf academy afloat. The academy needed the money, he said, and “it wasn’t being used.”
According to a North Myrtle Beach Police report, Fernandez, whose full name is Jose Manuel Fernandez Del Puerto, transferred $2 million in construction funds between March 2015 and January 2018 from a Wyndham Gardens resort/hotel project to a personal checking account.
The project began in 2014 and was to include a 138-room hotel and adjacent 20-unit multifamily and classroom building that could house students from the neighboring academy, but it has experienced financial setbacks and delays.
Fernandez said the academy and resort project had common investors from Mexico who were organized under Olmeca Capital for the project, and Barefoot Resort & Golf owner Sammy Puglia was also a 20 percent partner in the Wyndham Gardens project. Puglia offered no comment Friday through Barefoot Resort general manager Dave Genevro.
Fernandez said he used the $2 million to pay current and past due academy operating expenses and bills to vendors, and said he has the documentation to show how the money was transferred and spent.
Though he’ll be more than $1 million short of fully reimbursing the construction funds from the academy sale after settling debts, he said he has guaranteed his partners will be reimbursed through property he owns in Mexico.
“I’m taking the loss,” he said. “I put up some property of my own to the partners. The $2 million taken from the Olmeca account was mine, I brought it from Spain. I gave them property in Mexico as a guarantee.”
Fernandez said parties are still trying to build the Wyndham Gardens project, but he is no longer involved.
He said he is hoping for leniency from the prosecutor and judge considering he is reimbursing the project partners.
Fernandez is a Mexico native and national who has lived in Myrtle Beach for the past decade through an E2 Visa for foreign investors working in the U.S., he said.
A failing school
The golf and academic academy that primarily hosts international students opened in 2012 and offers its students housing at The Farm in Carolina Forest, schooling at Risen Christ Christian Academy — classes have been held at the golf facility — and golf training.
The academy held the name of golf legend Greg Norman from its opening until this past March, when Norman pulled his name from it in the aftermath of Fernandez’s arrest.
Fernandez said the academy is down from 11 boarding students this past spring semester to just two this fall, ages 18 and 14. He expects students from Colombia, Italy and Spain to enroll in the spring to bring the total to four or five and he’ll “try to grow if from there again.”
Students are still housed at The Farm, now attend classes at the Risen Christ campus and will receive golf instruction from director of instruction Eddie Overstreet — a Coastal Carolina graduate and former Wizard head pro — at a few area golf courses.
Fernandez said the academy has arranged access to The Dunes Golf and Beach Club and Founders Group International courses, including Myrtle Beach National and the Grande Dunes Resort Course.
The academy building and property had an appraised value as of March of $909,410, with the building itself appraised at $683,300, according to Horry County records.
Records submitted to the court by American Express National Bank in its suit against the academy and Fernandez show the bill reached at least $111,000 and a $20,000 payment was made in August 2018, which was apparently the last payment made. The account has since been closed by the bank.
The academy is behind in other payments as well.
Callaway Golf has an outstanding default judgment against it for nearly $35,000 that was awarded last October, and the academy has unpaid property taxes from 2017 and 2018 totaling more than $17,000, according to Horry County Treasurer’s Office records. Nearly $16,000 will be due from 2019 taxes.
The sale “will clear everything and I’ll start from fresh,” said Fernandez, who hopes to eventually find a new academy home.
He said the academy has impacted about 700 junior golfers since its opening through the boarding program and summer programs, and he believes an academy on a smaller scale could be financially successful.
“A smaller business model works,” he said. “We set up a structure to have more than 50 students per semester and that cost us too much. I did that [smaller scale] last year, and we were able to pay some of our past accounts payable.”
What’s next
If a sale to Golf Tourism Solutions closes, the academy facility would likely become the home of the Project Golf grow the game initiative.
In May, GTS expressed an interest in partnering with Horry County to establish Project Golf at the closed former Midway Par 3 facility on U.S. 17 Business near Market Common and Myrtle Beach International Airport.
A Project Golf facility would likely involve The First Tee youth golf and development organization. Other golf-related organizations, including those that impact veterans, would also be candidates to use the facility.
The Barefoot facility already includes indoor hitting bays, a driving range and a short-game practice area that could be used for instruction.
At Midway, the airport, which is owned by Horry County, is looking to buy the property from Burroughs & Chapin Co. at the recommendation of the Federal Aviation Administration, which promotes airports purchasing land both in front of and behind runways for “runway protection zones.”
GTS expressed interest in that property after Midway closed, to the extent of having engineers draw up design proposals for its use. Champions Golf Academy already has many of those proposed features.
This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 9:55 AM.
