A Raleigh golf-course company is betting that buying a Greensboro golf course renowned for hosting the PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship will be a winning move.
"You get only one shot in North Carolina at a place like that," said John McConnell, the serial entrepreneur who founded McConnell Golf, of his firm's acquisition of Sedgefield Country Club.
In McConnell's estimation, Sedgefield ranks second behind legendary Pinehurst No. 2 among the state's best-known courses.
The acquisition announced Wednesday gives McConnell Golf seven courses in North Carolina and South Carolina, including the Raleigh Country Club and Treyburn Country Club in Durham. Financial details weren't disclosed.
As with other McConnell Golf courses, Sedgefield comes with a pedigree. It was designed by acclaimed course architect Donald Ross.
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. Nonetheless, McConnell anticipates investing up to $3 million more in the property over the next couple of years.
His to-do list includes a new fitness center and pool facility. As for the course itself, McConnell said it's in great shape for golf but can be made even better with cosmetic changes such as stone bridges "and other amenities."
Being the home of a PGA Tour event, which got its start as the Greater Greensboro Open in 1938, always has had a minus side for Sedgefield's members: They couldn't play the course at tournament time.
But McConnell Golf has a solution, thanks to the deal it offers members. If they pay the initiation fee at any one of the company's clubs, they can play all the courses.
McConnell said his company has two properties within a 45-minute drive of Sedgefield: Cardinal Golf Club in Greensboro and Old North State Club at Uwharrie Point, which is on Badin Lake between Asheboro and Charlotte.
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.
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