McConnell Golf buys Greensboro course

McConnell Golf now has seven courses in its golfing empire after acquiring the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro.

As with other McConnell Golf courses, Sedgefield comes with a pedigree. It was designed by renowned course architecht Donald Ross and is the home of the PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship. That tournament got its start as the Greater Greensboro Open in 1938.

Details of the acquisition, announced this morning, weren't disclosed.

Raleigh-based McConnell Golf was founded by successful entrepreneur John McConnell. Its holdings include the Raleigh Country Club and Treyburn Country Club in Durham.

"The Greensboro Triad area of North Carolina is a fertile market," McConnell said in a prepared statement. "We believe owning two courses in Greensboro -- one on the north end of the city and one on the south side -- offers our members better value.

McConnell Golf offers its members an unusual deal: If they pay the initiation fee at any one of the company's clubs, they can play at all the course.

All of McConnell Golf courses were designed by prestigious architects -- Greg Norman, Tom Fazio, Pete Dye and Arnold Palmer -- but none of the others host a PGA Tour event.

Sedgefield previously was a private club owned by its members, who invested more than $3 million to restore the course to its original specifications in 2007. Connell expressed interest in acquiring Sedgefield last summer.

McConnell made his first fortune as co-founder and CEO of publicly traded Medic Computer. After Medic was sold for $923 million -- a deal that netted him more than $60 million -- he invested in and became CEO of A4 Health Systems. A4 was sold for $272 million in 2006.