Four Seasons Las Colinas Sells To Blackstone

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Steve Brown on the latest ownership change at the Four Seasons Resort and Club at Las Colinas, host to the Byron Nelson.

Brown writes:

Since 2010 the 431-room luxury Irving golf course hotel, conference center and spa have been owned by lenders who foreclosed on the property after previous owners defaulted on debt.

Now a company set up by Blackstone Real Estate Advisor has purchased the Four Seasons for an estimated $150 million.

New York-based Blackstone is a major U.S. real estate investor. It acquired the hotel in a private sale from CW Capital, which represented the securitized debt holders on the property.

The TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas may only host the Byron Nelson a few more years as future sponsor AT&T eyes a possible new Coore-Crenshaw design.

Carlsbad As A Golf Center: All A Big Accident

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We know it wasn't the golf architecture that drew the creative types of manufacturing and marketing to set up shop in Carlsbad, now the west coast center of the golf club business.

And as Alan Shipnuck reveals in a look at the industry centerplace for innovation and the next marketing campaign touting the longest and straightest, northern San Diego's allure has nothing to do with the area's wonderfulness.

"Total bull----," says Mark King, the CEO of TaylorMade, who has been making the scene in Carlsbad since 1981. "It's all folklore. The truth is, the whole thing was coincidental. Basically, Ely Callaway lived here because his vineyard was nearby [in Temecula]. After he sold the vineyard in 1981, he was bored, so he bought into a little company in Carlsbad that made hickory-shafted golf clubs. Gary Biszantz was the big car dealer in the area, and he cofounded Cobra Golf with Tom Crow, so in the beginning they used a little tiny office of Gary's to run the company. Gary Adams founded TaylorMade in Chicago, but his West Coast guy, Gordie Severson, lived here. He could have been in Santa Monica, or Santa Barbara, or anywhere, but he happened to be here, so the company moved out here too. It was all a big accident."

Quick PGA Show Look: Cool Push Cart & 2.85 Pound Golf Bag

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I haven't seen a whole lot that excited me product-wise from the PGA Show reports, but two items did stand out on the first day of coverage.

Keely Levins tells us about Oakley's Factory Lite golf bag weighing a miniscule 2.85 pounds.

And Jason Sobel chatted with Kelly Walker to talk about Big Max Golf's American launch of a pretty cool push cart.

A video report you'll want to watch if you are not averse to push carts: