Dick Kiko Jr. estimates that his family's auction and real estate companies have sold at least a dozen current or former golf courses in the last couple of decades.
"It's succession planning," said Kiko, the CEO of KIKO Auctioneers, a fourth-generation Canton company that says it hosts more than 1,100 auctions per year. "Their kids are gone and these dudes are 75, 80 years old running these golf courses, going, 'I don't have another fight in me after this.' "
In late September, a KIKO auction resulted in a 146-acre property that includes Rolling Acres Golf Club in Nova selling to multiple buyers for a total of more than $1.3 million. The land was divided into nine parcels, and an unidentified buyer purchased three parcels that includes the golf course, a bar and a three-bedroom home.
The seller, Mark Taylor, operates Rolling Acres Golf Club LLC, which, according to Ashland County land records, purchased the property at 63 State Route 511 for $1.25 million in 2004.
Kiko expects the deals to close in late November or early December. The plan for now, he said, is to convert Rolling Acres into a nine-hole golf course with a neighboring home development.
The 75-year-old, family-owned company he runs has three more golf-related auctions on tap in the next month.
First up was a Nov. 12 auction of more than 30 acres in Columbiana. The property includes Whispering Pines, a nine-hole golf course that closed in 2016 after more than 50 years in business.
On Nov. 25, KIKO will be selling items from the Barberton Brookside Country Club in Norton. The golf course is slated to be the future site of a $98.9 million, 490-home development.
Then on Dec. 5, KIKO will travel to Tuscarawas County to auction off a 280-acre, eight-parcel property in New Philadelphia. There, the auction house will sell Oak Shadows, a scenic golf course that has been in operation since 1995.
Sure, it's been a really good year for the Northeast Ohio golf industry, which has seen increases in rounds played and revenues in the 20% range at many facilities. But, Kiko points out, the industry was down for quite a while, as evidenced by the dozens of courses that have closed in the area in the last few years.
"They made more money," he said of golf course operators in 2020. "But they still don't make a lot of money. I don't care what you say."
Kiko said he knows of two operators who plan to sell their courses but first want to "make as much money as they can" during a productive 2020, then put their courses on the market in the spring.
"Because they're tired," Kiko said. "They're tired of the run."
Renny Wolfson doesn't sound like a beaten-down golf course owner.
Rather, the 71-year-old and Mark Tiefel, his 68-year-old business partner, say it's time to move on from their 12-season tenure as the owners of The Historic Tanglewood Club in Chagrin Falls.
Wolfson and Tiefel have had the 130-acre golf course on the market for more than a year. The pandemic impacted the potential market for the posh club, which in typical years has an events schedule that is consistently booked.
Tanglewood's events slate picked back up in August, Wolfson said, and its golf revenues have soared 30% during a year in which more people have worked from home and have looked to golf as a safe form of recreation.
Tanglewood general manager Tom Scheetz said the club's golf revenues are at their highest point in a decade, helped in part by "being the only game in town" during the shutdown.
A few days before the first weekend in November, Tanglewood already had 164 golfers lined up to play on a Saturday in which the weather was expected to top 60 degrees.
"It's just been amazing," Wolfson said.
Then why sell?
When Wolfson and Tiefel purchased Tanglewood, it was two years removed from going into foreclosure.
The course had deteriorated, and the owners have put almost $1 million into renovations that included an extensive makeover of the clubhouse.
"Once you hit a bad spot like that, it takes a while to get the public to re-embrace you," Wolfson said.
Restoring the facilities, along with what the owner describes as marketing methods that are "a little more sophisticated" than a typical golf course, have gotten Tanglewood back on track.
The next step is finding a buyer, though Wolfson stresses there is no rush. Tiefel lives in the Tanglewood Lake development that surrounds the course, and the owners want to be certain that their replacement is a quality fit.
"It's time to move on," Wolfson said. "We have a great partnership with the homeowners, and we want to take some time so that we can make sure that our successor also has that relationship with them."
Several of Tanglewood's local competitors — a group that includes Berkshire Hills Golf Course in Chesterland, Wicked Woods Golf Course in Newbury Township, Auburn Springs Country Club in Chagrin Falls and Aurora Golf Club — have closed during the ownership of Wolfson and Tiefel.
"There's certainly been a culling over the last few years," Wolfson said.
Now, golf is on the rebound. Courses have posted gains in rounds played in consecutive years, and operators have called 2020 the best year for the industry since the Tiger Woods-inspired boom in the early to mid-2000s.
Factor in a real estate industry that's been boosted by low interest rates and demand that's exceeded supply in many locations, and Kiko believes now could be the time for some operators to put their courses on the market.
"It's shifting from golf courses are dead to, 'Hey, there are some that are left that are worth keeping alive,' " he said.
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With industry on rebound, some Northeast Ohio golf course owners look to cash out - Crain's Cleveland Business
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