What’s In A Signature?

Dan Gleason’s Golf Business Monthly analysis of name architects includes some eye opening quotes and notes. Gleason writes that a South Carolina-based golf research firm Sportometrics has conducted intensive quantitative research on the value of name designer.

 “There were 80 variables that went into a study that took into consideration the green fees charged at the courses designed by high-profile names and included both public green fees and private club guest fees. Ben Crenshaw’s name generated the highest added value in the study.

 “If you have a signature course and are charging a $90 fee, for example, and there is an equally dazzling “no name” course down the road charging $70, are golfers going to pay the extra $20 for the name? Not likely!”

Gleason also reports on the intimate Curley and Schmidt project in China where they “completed perhaps the biggest single project in the history of golf, Mission Hills in China,” where some of IMG, err, golf’s finest lent their name to courses they couldn’t describe if they had to: Annika Sorenstam, David Leadbetter, David Duval and Jose-Maria Olazabal.

David Fry of WCI Communities puts the celebrity designer debate into perspective. “I can’t forecast the true value of the celebrity name of an architect,” he says, “even after the course is operational and all the homes and memberships are sold. The bottom line is building a quality product, regardless of the name you put on the course. That’s where the rubber really meets the road.”