It took less than 30 seconds at the microphone before Curtis Crenshaw began to feel Walden Lake’s slings and arrows during the community’s April 10 annual meeting. A minute earlier, Visions Golf LLC Managing Partner Steve Mercer had introduced Crenshaw and fellow Bridgepoint Capital principal, PGA golf professional Jimmy Wright, as the potential buyers of the Plant City community’s country club and two golf courses.
Whether his smile was genuine or forced, Crenshaw kept it on his face throughout the night.
After all, it’s not the first time he’s been under fire. That happened many years ago, the day Crenshaw — then just a boy from 20 miles outside of Thomasville, Ala., population: 4,000 — disobeyed his parents.
“I wanted to play football, and they told me, ‘No,’” Crenshaw remembers. “Well, one day, I decided I would do it regardless. I didn’t get on the bus for the 20-mile ride home. I stayed after school for football and thought I would walk home. (At the end), the only car in the parking lot left was my father’s car. I was petrified, and the only thing he said was, ‘Get in the car.’”
Crenshaw’s father was silent for most of the trip back home. Finally, he asked his son: Do you have any idea how worried your mother was?
Then: If you really want to play football this badly, I will talk to her. But, the day you decide to quit, you are going to get the worst whooping of your life.
Crenshaw didn’t quit. He continued playing throughout high school and even at the University of Alabama for the mighty Crimson Tide.
“I never ever thought about quitting,” Crenshaw says. “I just could never reconcile the fact that if I did quit, I would never be able to look my father in the eye again.”
CURTIS CRENSHAW
Crenshaw was back home from college for a visit when he fell in love with real estate.
“My mom and I were out looking at houses,” he remembers. “She loved looking at houses.”
After graduating in 1963, from the University of Alabama, Crenshaw took a job with Shell Oil Company, in New Orleans. After starting in marketing, he worked his way into the company’s real-estate division and helped select sites for new gas stations. He later moved onto work in a real-estate subsidiary of a company in Birmingham, Ala., where he helped run a 36-hole golf course for the Alabama Power Company. He also began his work in commercial real estate and shopping-center development, and in, 1972, he launched Coastal Companies.
His company had worked on three projects in the Sunshine State before he moved in 1980, to Tampa. He met Wilbur Brantley, brother of Visions Golf LLC partner Earl Brantley, during those early projects in Florida.
To date, Crenshaw’s company has completed about $580 million in projects in eight different states. He says his company manages its portfolio in seven-year plans and currently has concentrated on assisted-living facility projects in Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. And although Walden Lake Golf and Country Club is different from his company’s past work, Crenshaw believes it could be a crowning achievement in his career.
Crenshaw keeps a card in his wallet with a prayer he learned from his old coach at Alabama.
Dear God, it reads. Thank you for giving me this day to do with as I wish. I will use this day to do positive and not negative; for good and not evil.
“It’s not just about how much money you make,” he says. “If we did something, and the end product wasn’t good … there’s not a lot of pride in that.
“Any time someone takes the attitude of, ‘Take the money and run,’ they’re limiting their future to that day,” Crenshaw says. “That’s not something I’ve ever done in my entire life and career, and I’m not starting that now.”
Bridgepoint Capital has tapped golf-course developer Ron Garl, the original golf-course architect for Walden Lake, to redesign the course.
“That’s the most important part of this deal — the golf course and country club,” Crenshaw says. “That’s what these members will be embracing for the next 25 years.”
Crenshaw didn’t meet fellow Bridgepoint Capital principal Jimmy Wright until recently, but it seems the two share that same sentiment.
“He’s one of those people you meet in life and instantly feel like you’ve known them for 30 years,” Crenshaw says.
JIMMY WRIGHT
“We’re not, 20, 30 or 40 years old; we’re not in this for the money at this stage in our lives and careers,” Wright says. “We want to leave this (Walden Lake) as our little legacy. We want to do something for the residents of Walden Lake.
“We know they’re suspicious, because they have gotten burned,” he says. “What we need to do is show who we are and what we stand for. I want to be able to puff my chest out and show my 12 grandkids what Granddad did.”
For Wright, Walden Lake would be the crowning achievement on a long, celebrated career in the sport.
Growing up in Enid, Okla., Wright was introduced to golf in the sixth grade, when he took a job as a caddie.
“In those days, it was either that or a newspaper route,” he says.
It didn’t take long for the game’s hooks to sink themselves into Wright. The first time he took to the links himself with a set of loaner clubs, he shot a 72 on the first nine holes. Four years later, he shot a 28 on the same nine.
“Golf just came naturally to me,” he says. “I had a natural swing, and I didn’t try to pattern myself after anyone. I just picked up the club and played.
“You can play golf your whole life,” Wright says. “As long as you can get out of bed, you can play golf. It’s the ultimate game against yourself. You will never beat yourself; that challenge is there every single day. And when you hit that perfect shot … there’s nothing in life that gives you that same high.”
In high school, Wright won a state championship in golf and began considering a career as a professional golfer. He attended Oklahoma State University and was a three-time All-American. He won the Oklahoma State Amateur Championships in 1960 and turned professional one year later. Following college, he played the PGA Tour for two years.
He joined the U.S. National Guard in 1963. Upon completing his duties, he resumed his career in golf as an assistant at the famous Winged Foot Golf Club, in Mamaroneck, N.Y.
“My wife and I got married on March 28, a Saturday, in Oklahoma, and I was supposed to be at Winged Foot April 1,” Wright says. “We had $200 cash, and everything I owned was in the car.”
About a year later, Wright was selected to become the head golf professional at Inwood Country Club on Long Island, N.Y. While there, he continued playing part-time on the PGA Tour.
Following 10 years at Inwood, Wright held the same position at Fenway Golf Club, in Scarsdale, N.Y.; The Falls County Club, in Lake Worth; and The Oaks Club, in Osprey. Then, in 2005, he was named director of golf of The Concession Golf Club, in Bradenton.
Wright is a seven-time Metropolitan New York Player of the Year. He played in 26 major championships and 13 PGA championships and is the only club professional to play in all four majors.
Should Bridgepoint Capital take ownership in Walden Lake, Wright will manage the country club and golf amenities through a hand-selected team.
“I won’t be there 50 to 60 hours a week, but I will have team that will be in constant contact with me,” he says. “I’m really excited about the chance to bring Walden Lake back to its glory days.”
Contact Michael Eng at meng@plantcityobserver.com.
WLCA AMENDS MOTION OF OPPOSITION
The Walden Lake Community Association amended May 12 the motion stating its opposition to the development plan Visions Golf LLC submitted to Plant City. The sale of the country club and golf courses to Bridgepoint Capital is contingent upon the city approving Visions Golf’s rezone request.
The amended motion is as follows:
“The WLCA Board of Directors objects to and recommends denial of the rezoning application of Visions Golf, LLC to the Plant City City Commission.
We make this recommendation because the rezoning:
1. Is not compatible with our community of mostly owner-occupied, single-family residential;
2. Deteriorates our quality of life within Walden Lake of open space, lakes, scenic views and vistas;
3. Destroys the property values, current scenic views and vistas of those who live on the closed, abandoned and unkept Hills 18-hole golf course and the entire community;
4. Increases significantly traffic and congestion onto Timberlane Drive, Griffin Boulevard and Clubhouse Drive;
5. Substantially reduces the pervious, open-space surfaces to developed impervious surfaces, increasing storm water runoff and drainage;
6. Utilizes our green, pristine, premier community and rights-of-way that we have funded and maintained for more than 30 years for their development efforts, with no guaranteed return on our investments; and
7. Destroys Walden Lake as a currently master-planned, mostly single-family, built-out community, with nearly a 30% increase in mostly higher density, multi-family units.
This motion is made in good faith to reflect the concern of the WLCA board of directors about the rezoning of four large pristine parcels for more housing (mostly multi-family) inserted into our community.”