On Grand Strand Golf: Founders Group International preparing for busy 2016

Founders Group International is gearing up for a 2016 that will be its first full year as the primary player in the Myrtle Beach golf market with the ownership of 22 Grand Strand courses.

General manager Tom Plankers said the company, which is comprised of investors from China, has made and is continuing to make improvements to each of its golf properties, is revamping and creating some membership programs, and is creating a real estate division to market and sell some of the non-course property it has acquired.

FGI purchased 22 courses between September 2014 and this past April, as well as a membership program, tee time call center, two golf package companies and a few popular golf- and tourism-related websites. Twelve courses and the ancillary businesses were acquired in the final purchase in April of most of National Golf Management’s assets.

It’s likely to add more courses in 2016. Founders Group president Nick Dou said last month the company has identified at least one more course and is working toward a closing. “We just keep looking to see if there are good buys out there,” Plankers said.

FGI owns more than 300 acres of undeveloped land at Wild Wing Plantation, TPC Myrtle Beach and International World Tour Golf Links, 200 lots at Wild Wing, and the fledgling 80-resident multifamily Stonewall Villas development in Longs.

Lot sales is expected to begin early in 2016 around Wild Wing. The land has already been surveyed for sales and development, and three model homes are being built to give lot buyers some ideas and options as consumers will be able to choose their homebuilder.

FGI has made investments in their purchases. “I know for 2015 and 2016 we’ve done a lot of improving on the golf courses we have,” Plankers said. “One thing Founders Group has done very well is to put back into the golf courses. We’ve done something at every golf course. We continue fixing things and making things better.”

A current renovation project at TPC Myrtle Beach involves the clubhouse, cart paths, bunkers and tree removal to improve grass growing conditions and alleviate cart damage from roots. A room on the end of the clubhouse that is connected to the dining area is being turned into a bar and lounge area, and FGI hopes community residents will frequent the bar and restaurant.

Plankers said about $500,000 has been spent at Litchfield Country Club on the pro shop, clubhouse and cart shed renovations.

FGI is creating or expanding on single-course memberships for a few of its courses, including TPC Myrtle Beach, International World Tour, River Hills Golf & Country Club and Pine Lakes Country Club, where a special events director has been hired to focus on weddings and banquets.

Food and social functions may be part of some memberships. “We like to see members participate in our clubs,” Plankers said. “We want members to come back to our clubs.”

Those courses will still be part of the Prime Times Signature Card membership plan, which includes all 22 FGI courses. Plankers said there are more than 5,000 Prime Times members.

A new regular Prime Times membership is $225 and a renewed membership is $125, and membership includes a $50 gift card for merchandise, food and beverages at member courses. A member can bring three guests per round for $5 above the discounted Prime Times rate per player.

A Prime Times Honors Club membership is additional for members of one of FGI’s individual courses and is $495, which includes numerous tournaments and outings and longer booking windows. Guests pay the same rates as Honors Club members.

Prime Times members accumulate points each round that build toward free rounds.

Plankers said no life membership plans at any courses are being eliminated for members who paid thousands of dollars in initiation fees prior to FGI’s ownership, though the annual and monthly dues plans for those members may be altered.

“We’re not rocking the boat. We’re just leaving them as they are,” Plankers said. “That’s what they were promised when they bought in, and we feel obligated to live up to the obligations even from the old owners. The membership structure will stay the same; the fees will change a little bit. We’ll make it very reasonable.”

Plankers said FGI is slightly raising the green fee rates it gives to golf package providers.

“That’s what the whole beach has to start doing is raising rates,” Plankers said. “We are raising rates, though we’re not raising rates dramatically. But we’ve got to get back to where it’s got to be reasonable. It’s a business, and any business has to be profitable. That’s my job to make sure it is.”

There have been no layoffs or pay cuts at any courses, according to Plankers, instead there have been some hirings and pay raises, particularly on maintenance staffs. “A lot of golf course maintenance departments were short-handed so we hired more maintenance people,” Plankers said. “We value our employers very much.”

FGI principal owners Dou and Dan Liu have moved to Myrtle Beach. “Nick and Dan are still very excited about Myrtle Beach and this is home for them now,” Plankers said. “This year, 2016, is setting up to be a pretty good year. We’re up in bookings already for spring, so we look very optimistically on what’s going to happen in 2016.”

Lockwood improving

The operators of Lockwood Folly Country Club in Holden Beach, N.C., a 6,657-yard Willard Byrd design that opened in 1988, plan to close the course for about two months from June 20 to mid-August and reopen with new greens and other improvements.

The scenic course has holes alongside the Lockwood Folly River and marsh, and the Atlantic Ocean can be viewed between Oak Island and Holden Beach.

Old TifDwarf Bermudagrass on greens will be replaced with Sunday ultradwarf Bermuda. Other course renovations are planned including bunker improvements, the leveling of some tee boxes, and the clearing of some trees to open the course up a bit for playability and agronomic benefit.

The semi-private course is open to public play but owned by its members, who voted to make the changes. “It’s been a long time coming and we’ll be able to pull the trigger this summer,” said Lockwood Folly head pro Eric Morgan.

The property will also have a new clubhouse that is slated to open sometime next fall. The old clubhouse has been demolished and a pro shop and grill is now housed in a temporary triple-wide trailer.

The new clubhouse will be two stories with patios and verandas overlooking the Lockwood Folly River and Intracoastal Waterway. It will include a bar and full-service restaurant with dinner service and Sunday brunch for both members and visitors.

The old clubhouse had a small grill and seated up to about 50 people. “The new building is going to be three to four times the size of what our original building was,” Morgan said. “The view is going to be incredible.”

Top juniors named

The South Carolina Junior Golf Association, an arm of the South Carolina Golf Association, has named its junior players of the year based on the Heritage Classic Foundation Rankings through Dec. 1.

Trent Phillips of Inman is the 2015 Jay Haas Boys Player of the Year and Ashley Czarnecki of Greenville is the Beth Daniel Girls Player of the Year.

Rankings are based on points compiled through finishes in more than 200 state and national events over 12 months.

Czarnecki won the Beth Daniel Award by a comfortable margin over Gracyn Burgess of Lexington and was presented the award by Daniel on Dec. 23 during a ceremony at the Country Club of Charleston.

Her highlights included wins in the George Holliday Memorial Junior at Myrtle Beach National Golf Club on Thanksgiving Day weekend, Cobbs Glen Junior, Women’s S.C. Golf Association Junior Girls Championship, S.C. Girls Match Play and a Hurricane Junior Golf Tour event. She also had runner-up finishes in the Junior Players Championship, Carolinas Junior Championship and Class AAAA state high school tournament.

Phillips reached the match play portion of the U.S. Junior, won the Class AAAA high school individual title and won three SCJGA titles including the Players Championship and Grant Bennett Florence Junior.

Phillips will be presented his award by Haas at a ceremony at Thornblade Club in the near future.

CGA honors juniors

Czarnecki earned a sweep of the Carolinas junior honors by also being named the Carolinas Golf Association junior girls player of the year. Christian Salzer of Sumter, who won a pair of tournaments on the Strand in the past seven months – the South Carolina Junior at The Dunes Golf and Beach Cub and Tilghman Junior Championship at the Surf Golf and Beach Club – is the CGA boys player of the year.

Salzer and Czarnecki each also finished second at their respective Carolinas Junior and SCJGA Players championships. Salzer also won the Jimmy Anderson Junior, was medalist in Big I sectional qualifying and was a runner-up in the Carolinas Junior and Jimmy Self Invitational.

All CGA players of the year will be honored during Carolinas Golf Night at the Country Club of Charleston.

SCGA names players

For the second consecutive year and fourth time in the last nine years, a South Carolina Gamecock has won the SCGA Player of the Year award. This year, Matt Nesmith of North Augusta claims it.

While a college junior, Nesmith recorded a top-five finish against an international field in the Jones Cup Invitational and fourth-place finish in the Southern Am, won the SEC Championship, qualified for the U.S. Open, reached the second round of match play in the U.S. Am, and won the Players Amateur at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton.

Nesmith joins Will Murphy (2014), touring professional Mark Anderson (2009) and Florida club pro Patrick Rada (2007) as players who have recently won SCGA Player of the Year while members of the USC golf team.

Rick Cloninger of Fort Mill joined the senior ranks in 2012 and has now captured SCGA Senior Player of the Year honors every year since, adding his fourth consecutive award in 2015. In addition to his typical wins and high finishes in Carolinas events, Cloninger reached the Round of 16 in match play at the U.S. Senior Amateur.

Nesmith and Cloninger will be honored at the SCGA’s 13th annual Golf Day Awards Dinner and Banquet on Jan. 9 at Columbia Country Club in Blythewood.

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 7:37 PM with the headline "On Grand Strand Golf: Founders Group International preparing for busy 2016."