{"id":607,"date":"2011-05-16T21:42:55","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T02:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnstrawn.com\/?p=607"},"modified":"2011-05-16T21:42:55","modified_gmt":"2011-05-17T02:42:55","slug":"columbia-sportswear-ceo-tim-boyle-buys-gearhart-golf-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/golf\/personalities\/607\/columbia-sportswear-ceo-tim-boyle-buys-gearhart-golf-links","title":{"rendered":"Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle Buys Gearhart Golf Links."},"content":{"rendered":"

There hasn\u2019t been a lot of great news in the golf business lately, so when I heard that Tim Boyle, CEO of Columbia Sportswear<\/a>, had bought Gearhart Golf Links<\/a> on the north Oregon coast, I was both encouraged and amazed.\u00a0 Gearhart\u2019s history is richer than its reputation, but it\u2019s still the only public course worth playing along the coast between Astoria and Florence.\u00a0\u00a0 In contrast to the south, where the Bandon Dunes Resort\u2019s astonishing constellation of courses reigns, northern Oregon is bereft of world-class public golf.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tim Boyle Tiptoes into the Frying Pan<\/p><\/div>Born and raised in Portland, Tim, along with his legendary mother, Gert Boyle, built their global brand, Columbia Sportswear, from scratch.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Now a public company, Columbia keeps expanding into new markets, building the company with both innovation and acquisitions, merging fresh brands with Columbia\u2019s solid corporate culture.\u00a0 Mountain Hardwear and Pacific Trail are additions to the homegrown Columbia shop, and the Sorel boot brand, once confined to the north woods and the wilds of Canada, has blossomed since Columbia bought it out of bankruptcy.\u00a0\u00a0 (Columbia took a brief run at golf clothes, but abandoned the chase when results were disappointing.\u00a0\u00a0 The company has had a great run with hiking boots and trail shoes, so maybe some comfortable Columbia golf shoes are on the horizon\u2014the Gearhart line?)<\/p>\n

Civic minded, generous and modest, Tim Boyle has always combined business acumen with civic responsibility.\u00a0 \u00a0I am happy to call Tim a friend.\u00a0 So when I heard that he had bought a golf course, during the worst downturn in the golf business since the Great Depression, I had to ask him: \u201cTim\u2014you\u2019re a smart guy.\u00a0 What in the world were you thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tim, as I expected him to, laughed.\u00a0 He originally was part of a small ownership group which acquired Gearhart after the previous owners went bust about a dozen years ago. \u00a0(The Boyles have a house nearby.)\u00a0 \u00a0A couple of the shareholders made unsuccessful attempts to run the restaurant side of the business, Tim said, before bailing out.\u00a0 Tim recruited his friend Mike McMenamin of the McMenamins<\/a> brewery, restaurant and hospitality chain, to take over, and \u00a0McMenamins continues to run the food and beverage at Gearhart.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like a cold pint of Hammerhead Ale in the Pot Bunker room to top off your golfing experience,\u201d Tim says, previewing the marketing theme for the new and improved Gearhart, coming your way soon.<\/p>\n

Like a lot of golf course proprietors, the family which had run Gearhart Golf Links for many years went sideways when it got too ambitious.\u00a0 The town of Gearhart is a prosperous seaside community, but Oregonians with money have a habit of keeping it in their pockets (or least not showing off and keeping their consumption inconspicuous), so no one in Gearhart had any interest at all in a fancy golf course designed to impress strangers. \u00a0\u00a0This is not Donald Trump\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

After a fire burned down Gearhart\u2019s modest clubhouse, the previous owners erected a fancy new one and spent a lot of money to renovate the course, which made the whole operation tougher and more expensive to run, which is pretty much the standard golf ownership formula for disaster.\u00a0 Once a course starts losing money, it cuts costs by skimping on maintenance, which makes the course less attractive, which reduces demand, and thus the wheel of misfortune rolls on toward insolvency along the gloomy trajectory of failure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The new improved clubhouse....where the troubles began.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cOver time,\u201d Boyle said, \u201cI bought some of the partners out and by last year owned about 40%.\u00a0 In the fall of 2010 we decided to buy the rest.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now it\u2019s a family enterprise again.\u00a0 My son, Joe, and my daughter, Molly, are my partners in our new family business.\u201d<\/p>\n

The younger Boyles are both excellent golfers, but Joe is a recent dad with limited free time, so his handicap is percolating upwards.\u00a0\u00a0 Molly played at the University of Washington\u2014she\u2019s a real stick.\u00a0 Tim plays better, too, than he lets on; he\u2019s a twelve handicap but broke 80 recently, he confessed, at Nanea Golf Club, the Big Island course in Hawaii that Oregon resident David Kidd<\/a> designed for moguls Charles Schwab and George Roberts.\u00a0 Boyle says Nanea is his favorite course, although another Kidd creation, Bandon Dunes, is a strong local contender.<\/p>\n

Gearhart has a lot to recommend it, starting with its history.\u00a0 It\u2019s the oldest golf course in Oregon, and perhaps on the entire west coast.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s not really a links (it has tons of trees and it\u2019s tight, two un-linkslike qualities,) but it is near the coast and its soils drain well.\u00a0 Originally only three greens worth of\u00a0 golf, Gearhart steadily accreted holes until it reached a full 18 sometime around WW I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chandler Egan, the great amateur champion who lived in Medford and during the Twenties designed Eastmoreland, Oswego Lake, Tualatin and Riverside in Boyle\u2019s hometown (as well as laying out an extensive renovation for Waverley Country Club<\/a>, where Boyle is a member), reportedly assisted in the design of the final 18 hole routing at Gearhart over the decade before his death in 1935. \u00a0\u00a0Boyle said he\u2019s going to see if there are any archives which might help establish the course\u2019s provenance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to approach this in two phases,\u201d Boyle says.\u00a0 \u201cFirst we want to get the course\u2019s curb appeal restored.\u00a0 We\u2019ve already remodeled the restrooms.\u00a0\u00a0 We want to put the course on a solid financial footing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 Boyles have hired Greenway Golf from California to put in place a plan to resurrect Gearhart, starting with improved operations.\u00a0 The team is working with a well-known local consulting agronomist, Forrest Goodling, to improve turf quality.\u00a0\u00a0 Boyle wants Gearhart to attract players looking for a straightforward and tranquil place to play.<\/p>\n

David Jacobsen of Portland\u2019s well-known golfing family, himself a great amateur for many years and also a member at Waverley, is a good friend of Boyle\u2019s and an advisor on Gearhart. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cDavid told me we should make Gearhart the place where you have your best round of the summer,\u201d Tim says.<\/p>\n

I have heard David espouse this view before, and it has always made sense to me.\u00a0 The daily fee courses around Portland that are always full and crank out a maximum (if perhaps not optimal) number of rounds each year are the ones which allow medium and high handicappers to score well and not lose a lot of balls.\u00a0 If a player gets really good, David says, he can head down to PGA West for some comeuppance.\u00a0 But in the meanwhile, if golf hopes to attract new players and desist from discouraging its current devotees, it has to offer some opportunities for beginners and hackers to experience some success.\u00a0\u00a0 Boyle intends to put Jacobsen\u2019s formula to the test.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The 18th at Gearhart Golf Links, Oregon<\/p><\/div>\n

Phase 2 is still a bit formless, Tim says, and will depend on the pace and execution of Phase 1.\u00a0 \u201cPhase 1 is really just to make sure we\u2019re not embarrassing ourselves.\u00a0 Perhaps we\u2019ll do some lodging somewhere down the road,\u201d Boyle says.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ll market around the history of the course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given Boyle\u2019s track record, I am sure he will achieve his goals for Gearhart, with help from Joe and Molly and the team of consultants they\u2019ve brought aboard to assist them.\u00a0 I\u2019ve played Gearhart enough to know it can be fun and friendly and exactly the kind of golf course that can meet David Jacobsen\u2019s low expectations.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not a slam, it\u2019s a compliment.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t build a great retail brand without having the kind of x-ray vision that can peer into the consumer\u2019s heart.\u00a0 \u00a0When someone with the marketing acuity and wisdom of Tim Boyle lays down a bet on golf, no matter how modest, it\u2019s a hopeful sign for the future of the industry.<\/p>\n

For more on Gearhart from The A Position, see\u00a0http:\/\/jeffwallach.com\/golf\/1378\/gearhart-golf-links<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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