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 Trump on Tuesday will stage the grand opening of Trump Links at Ferry
Point, his latest golf enterprise, where he oversaw the
transformation of a New York City dump into a jewel of a public
course designed by Jack Nicklaus.
"We're very proud of it. It's doing great business. People are
thrilled," the businessman told Reuters from behind his massive desk
on the top floor of Trump Tower on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.
"And I’m happy because I did a good thing for the city."
A very good thing, at least, for Big Apple golfers with the means to
pay weekday green fees from $175 for city residents to $225 for
those from beyond its borders, including cart.
The treeless links-style course with dramatic mounds dotting the
fairways, stretches from the foot of the Whitestone Bridge in the
Bronx with views of the Manhattan skyline and East River.
"It's the best municipal course in the world," said Trump, not prone
to understatement. "It will be the home of many majors over the
years."
When real estate magnate and avid golfer Trump jumped into the golf
business some 20 years ago he began by building courses. After the
market swooned he took to 'buying low' and rebuilding distressed,
luxury properties.
MAJOR ARRIVAL
Despite some sagging economic results in the industry, Trump said
his golf interests are thriving.
"Golf is doing great," he said in his man-cave of a 26th floor
executive office, surrounded by plaques and golf trophies and a
picture window view of Central Park greenery. "Places that should
never have been built have now disappeared."
When he started, he said his goal was to host majors. Trump now has
17 courses and a string of majors lined up.
Trump National Bedminster (New Jersey) will be hosting the 2017 U.S.
Women's Open and 2022 PGA Championship.
Trump National Washington, D.C., set along the Potomac River, will
be site of the 2017 Senior PGA Championship.
Trump National Los Angeles will host the 2015 PGA Grand Slam of
Golf, featuring winners of the year's four majors.
International acquisitions include Turnberry in Scotland, Trump
International Golf Links Scotland in Aberdeen and Doonbeg in
Ireland, now Trump International Golf Links, Ireland.
Turnberry is holding the Women's British Open this year and remains
a candidate to host a fifth British Open.
FEATHER RUFFLING
Some feathers have been ruffled with Trump's rise.
He was a vocal critic of the U.S. Golf Association's presentation of
the 2014 men's and women's U.S. Opens at Pinehurst, where native
grasses were planted to conserve water as part of a USGA initiative
giving a browned look to the event.
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"I like the brown at Turnberry," Trump said about the vegetation at
the seaside course. "But I didn’t like the brown at Pinehurst
because it was artificial.
"I love Mike (Davis, USGA executive director). I just thought that
it wasn’t good for television. I don’t think it played well on
television and I don’t think it was good for golf."
In the highlands of Scotland, Trump took to tilting at windmills.
His Aberdeen project hit a snag when he sought to eliminate
alternative energy windmills he felt marred views from the course.
"I’ve been really successful in stopping the windmills. These
windmills are a blight," he said. "I've been suing the Scottish
government for about five years."
PGA of America chief executive Pete Bevacqua called Trump a positive
force in golf.
"He just gets the game. He loves the game, he puts his effort, his
personality and his energy behind the game," Bevacqua told Reuters.
"I wish more people with his influence and resources would become
passionate about this game. Right now, he has the Midas touch in
golf."
Trump, who made his fortune in real estate, has combined his zest
for the art of making a deal with his sport of choice.
Of the distressed sale that brought him the coastal property south
of Los Angeles, Trump said: "You couldn’t buy a piece of land like
that for a billion dollars today. And I bought it for $27 million.
Six hundred acres on the ocean in Los Angeles."
Looking tan and fit with his famed comb-over carefully in place,
Trump recalled how he took on the Ferry Point project that had
languished for decades.
"It was a horrible, horrible disgrace. They asked me numerous times
during the course of years because I get things done," he said. "But
we could never make a deal. Then Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg said can
you take a look at it, it’s a disaster.
"I got it built."
(Editing by Frank Pingue)
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