The members at Hawk’s Nest Golf Club have a clear choice.
They can sell to the Heritage Golf Group, a nationally recognized company that promises to elevate the stand-alone, Jim Fazio-designed course into the same lofty category as Florida’s five-star best.
They can sell to The Moorings, which offers them a yacht club, tennis complex, swimming pool, fitness center and spa, as well as the only executive-style layout designed by renowned golf-course architect Pete Dye.
Or they can sell to three of their own, a trio of Hawk’s Nest members – two of them occupying seats on the board – who say they want to take over the club just long enough to rebuild its withering membership and bolster its financial health, then sell it back to the members.
Those are the options members will consider when they vote in the coming weeks on which offer to accept.
A premier golf course.
Top-shelf club amenities.
Or continued independence.
And, based on my conversations with knowledgeable sources who attended the presentations made by each group to Hawk’s Nest members last week, there’s no telling which way the vote will go.
“I’d say it’s probably between Heritage and The Moorings, given what those two are offering, but it’s difficult to predict,” one source said. “I’m sure some people would like the club to remain independent and member-owned.
“That said, the club was founded by members who valued a superior golf experience, and the Heritage Group made a very impressive presentation,” he continued. “If they buy Hawk’s Nest, they plan to make the upgrades to the course and clubhouse necessary to raise its prestige and use it as one of their showcase clubs. That appeals to a lot of members.
“But The Moorings will get a lot of votes, too,” he added, “because of all the amenities offered there.”
If none of the three bids gets a majority of the ballots cast – Hawk’s Nest currently has 144 members – the party that finishes third will be eliminated and there will be a runoff election between the two top vote-getters.
Two sources said the vote could be taken in the next couple of weeks.
Once the members decide, it could take up to six months for the two sides to complete their due diligence, negotiate the details of the purchase agreement and close the deal.
Regardless of which offer is accepted, Hawk’s Nest members will be granted membership in the new owners’ club.
“There’s no rush,” one source said, “but the membership has decided this sale is going to happen, so I think you’ll see this done fairly soon.”
According to my sources, who agreed to speak only under the condition they remain anonymous, Hawk’s Nest is carrying a debt of slightly more than $2 million and has lost more than 100 members since its pre-recession heyday.
A recent appraisal of the 300-acre property, however, placed its value at $5.5 million.
“We’re not under water. We’re perfectly solvent,” one source told me. “There’s no impending doom.”
All three bids would cover the debt and provide additional reserves to fund improvements to Hawk’s Nest, which opened in October 1987 and has operated as an equity-member-owned club since September 1993.
“No matter how the vote turns out,” another source said, “Hawk’s Nest wins.”
The same can’t be said of The Moorings, which must provide its golfing members with a full-length, championship-caliber layout to remain competitive in this market for younger executives and retirees who won’t be satisfied with an 18-hole, par-64 “short course” that spans only 4,434 yards.
In recent years, The Moorings has relied on reciprocal agreements with other local clubs to meet this demand, only to see those relationships end for varying reasons. Such an agreement with Bent Pine is scheduled to expire next month.
It was no real surprise, then, to see The Moorings jump into the bidding for Hawk’s Nest – the last of the three parties to do so – relying on 25 members to each put up $100,000 in exchange for an exemption from all club dues for the rest of their lives and the lives of their spouses.
It could be a good deal for those 25 investors. It would be even a better deal for The Moorings, if Hawk’s Nest members vote to accept the $2.5 million offer and give the island club an asset it sorely needs and desperately wants.
Ironically, The Moorings could win even if it loses the vote – as long as the three-member Hawk’s Nest group comes out on top.
How, you ask?
My sources tell me the three Hawk’s Nest members also happen to be members at The Moorings, so it’s fair to wonder: If their offer is accepted, might they build a bridge connecting the clubs in some way?
Better yet: Might they consider some type of merger, or even an outright sale?
Certainly, it’s possible.
“That’s not what they’ve said,” a source said. “They’re saying they want to keep the club independent, build it back up to where it was, then eventually sell it back to the membership.”
But what if the membership doesn’t grow fast enough? What if the economy backslides? What if these three members begin to question their investment and The Moorings tempts them with another offer?
What if they simply withdraw their offer at the last minute and throw their support behind The Moorings’ bid?
For the record: No one else has raised such a possibility, or even suggested something like that could happen. And, at this point, I have no good reason to question anyone’s intentions.
Truth is, I don’t know who the three members are, and none of my sources would identify them. I’m merely laying out the facts I’ve uncovered and using them to outline possible scenarios.
Similarly, I don’t know enough Hawk’s Nest members to get a feel for how they’ll vote.
But I know this: Hawk’s Nest is a golf club, and sources I trust tell me a sizable percentage of Hawk’s Nest’s core members joined the club to play golf on a challenging, well-maintained, championship-caliber course in a picturesque setting.
They weren’t looking for a country club. They weren’t looking for a yacht club. They weren’t looking for tennis courts, or a swimming pool, or a fitness center and spa.
They’re all about the golf.
That’s why, if I were a betting man, I’d put my money on the Heritage group, which owns four clubs in South Carolina (Port Royal Golf & Racquet, Shipyard Golf, Oyster Reef Golf and Palmetto Hall Plantation, all on Hilton Head Island), two in Florida (TPC Tampa Bay and TPC Prestancia in Sarasota), and one each in Georgia (Champions Retreat in Augusta), Virginia (The Dominion in Glen Allen) and Texas (Meadowbrook Farms in Katy).
The Heritage folks are all about golf, too – about award-winning golf courses, about first-class service, about meticulous attention to detail in every aspect of their operations.
They possess the resources and expertise needed to take Hawk’s Nest to yet-unseen heights.
I could be wrong, of course, but I’m guessing those things matter most to a membership that values a superior golf experience.
If so, the members at Hawk’s Nest Golf Club have a clear choice.