Successful entrepreneurs with a passion for the game love to realize their visions through outstanding golf courses. The examples are legion.
The Duke’s Course in St. Andrews, now known as the Craigtoun Course, is part of the Links Trust portfolio, expanding offerings at the Home of Golf in Scotland. The course belongs to the Old Course Hotel, along with the iconic Jigger Inn pub, both owned by the American Kohler Company.
Herbert Vollrath Kohler Jr., the company patriarch who passed away in 2022, built a global empire from his family’s bath and faucet business in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. \”Everyone thinks I’m in the plumbing industry,\” Kohler once said, \”but actually, I’m in fashion.\”
Whistling Straits
To show off Kohler’s elegant products, he created The American Club, a five-star hotel in country-club style. Golf was missing initially, leading him to hire golf architecture genius Pete Dye, who designed Blackwolf Run and then Whistling Straits on Lake Michigan’s shore. The course has hosted three PGA Championships, a US Senior Open, two US Women’s Opens, and the 2021 Ryder Cup.
Whistling Straits, a links-style course with over a thousand bunkers, is a masterpiece of golf course design. The Chicago Tribune once remarked, \”Turning this wasted land into a golf mecca is as unlikely as making art from a toilet. Herbert Kohler achieved both.\”
Bandon Dunes and Other Visionaries
About 3,800 kilometers west, on the Oregon Pacific coast, Mike Keiser pursues his vision of the perfect golf course with Bandon Dunes Resort, featuring courses like Old Macdonald and Sheep Ranch. With his sons Michael and Chris and the Dream Golf label, Keiser has expanded to create destinations like Sand Valley Resort in Wisconsin and Rodeo Dunes.
Near Rome is the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, owned by Lavinia Biagiotti Cigna, who inherited the estate from her mother Laura Biagiotti, a fashion and perfume icon. Together, they brought the Ryder Cup to Rome in 2015, fulfilling Lavinia’s wish to host something truly big in her garden.
Global Golf Ventures and Complex Business
Numerous entrepreneurs worldwide have invested in golf for business or passion, such as Richard Caring with Wentworth Club in England, SAP founders Dietmar Hopp and Hasso Plattner with Terre Blanche and Fancourt, Richard Branson with Necker Island, and J.P. McManus reviving Adare Manor for the 2027 Ryder Cup.
Football brothers Peyton and Eli Manning invested in Sweetens Cove in Tennessee and golf hotels on the British Isles. Entrepreneur Claudia Ebert restored the Budersand Hotel – Golf & Spa on Sylt Island. In Germany