Georgia-based Canongate Golf has established a beachhead in what it hopes will become the company’s third major cluster market for its reciprocal play-based private club model.
Canongate’s parent company, Sequoia Golf, headed by Joe Guerra, purchased Blackstone Country Club in Aurora, Colo., in October from developer Lennar Homes, which opened the Jay Morrish-designed course in 2007. The sale price was not disclosed.
Canongate’s initial acquisition in the Denver area likely signals additional acquisitions or management contracts for the company in the region. Its typical business model involves acquisition of clubs with modest initiation fees and reciprocal playing privileges at other Canongate clubs, a model the company developed initially in Georgia, where it now has 24 clubs with 27 courses.
The company has been active on both the acquisition front recently as well, adding lease deals or third party management contracts. With its move into the greater Houston, Texas, market, where it now owns five clubs and six courses following the recent acquisition of 27-hole South Shore Harbour Country Club in League City near Galveston Bay, Canongate now owns or operates more than 30 courses and clubs and has added at least six new properties in 2009.