Scratch Golf purchased two Alabama courses from Honours Golf in July — Craft Farms Golf Course and Peninsula Golf and Racquet Club, both in Gulf Shores.
Scratch Golf is owned by The United Company, which is a diversified energy and private investment company in Bristol, Virginia. The United Company also owns The Olde Farm, in Bristol.
Bill Palmer has run Scratch Golf since 1988, when the company was founded to develop Hilton Head National Golf Club in South Carolina. A year later it acquired 36-hole Jacaranda Golf Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The company has developed and owned other courses over the years, but at the time of the acquisition only had Hilton Head National Golf Club and Jacaranda Golf Club.
Honours Golf, which was founded by Bob Barrett, managed 16 courses when it was acquired by Troon in 2014. But Barrett and Rob Shultz retained ownership of Craft Farms and Peninsula Golf and Racquet Club.
Steve Ekovich, managing director of Leisure Investment Properties Group, brokered the deal.
“The seller was very concerned that this be sold to the right buyer, someone who was going to take their existing vision and enhance the asset and not put less money into them and do the opposite,” Ekovich told a local news source, OBA. “We had multiple offers on the property. They consistently told us we want to do the right thing for the community with the right buyer and we believe Scratch Golf is that buyer. They’ve got a great reputation, they run really high-quality assets and I think the community is going to be really excited about what they are going to do with the properties.”
Ekovich said Scratch is looking to expand their golf footprint and the course was only marketed for three weeks.
“We only took it out to the top 15 buyers in the market,” Ekovich said. “A portfolio with golf assets of this size is not going to be something that normal people are going to be able to acquire.”
There are 27 holes of golf at the Peninsula Golf and Racquet Club and 36 at Craft Farms. Both clubs are daily fee/resort facilities with a variety of family friendly amenities.
“Peninsula is more of a private club,” Ekovich said. “They have an indoor-outdoor pool, but they allow resort play and Craft is really semi-private, they have a lot of resort play and they have members. And, also, the public can play there.”
Also included in the sale was Coastal Alabama Golf which is a destination golf marketing company that sells golf vacation packages and earns…
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