唐纳德·特朗普：让高尔夫服务于富裕精英

    唐纳德·特朗普是2016年美国总统大选候选人，也是一位真正的房地产巨头和商业大亨。他名下的生意包括多家酒店、一个选美比赛、一个时装品牌、一家杂志以及一款香水品牌等。他还拥有15座高尔夫球场，只是最近有报道称他将旗下高尔夫业务的价值高估了10亿美元。

    特朗普的高尔夫球场也许即将受到前所未有的关注。

    由于针对墨西哥人的争议性言论，西班牙语电视台Univision、美国全国广播公司和梅西百货本周纷纷和特朗普分道扬镳。人们的注意力可能很快转向特朗普在高尔夫领域的合作伙伴，如美国职业高尔夫球协会（PGA）和凯迪拉克。PGA和特朗普的正式合作始于去年。凯迪拉克虽未向特朗普提供赞助，但拥有WGC凯迪拉克锦标赛冠名权，该赛事今年的举办地正是特朗普建于迈阿密的Trump National Doral高尔夫球场。墨西哥对凯迪拉克而言举足轻重，那里是凯迪拉克SRX的生产基地，该车型占凯迪拉克美国销售额的40%左右。对此凯迪拉克尚未发表评论。PGA则向《财富》杂志发出如下声明：

    “特朗普先生最近表示，关于他此前对墨西哥移民的评价，高尔夫行业‘知道 他说的没错’。对此我们必须声明，这些言论并不代表本协会成员机构的观点。虽然LPGA、PGA、PGA巡回赛和USGA通常不会对总统候选人发表评论，但我们秉承的精神是让高尔夫运动拥有包容和友善的环境，而特朗普先生所言并不符合这样的精神。”

    在特朗普 2月份宣布参选总统之前，他曾接受《财富》杂志电话专访，重点就是高尔夫生意。近10年来，美国高尔夫球场的数量一直处于净下降态势，但特朗普对高尔夫运动的未来很乐观。

    鉴于特朗普加入了美国总统之争，而且正在争取广大美国民众的支持，他对这项运动的看法就变得特别重要。

    我们对本次采访的内容进行了编辑，并公布如下。

    《财富》杂志：近年来高尔夫运动陷入了困境，很多球场都关门歇业。你为什么还要继续收购高尔夫球场呢？

    唐纳德·特朗普：只要有很棒的地产，就还是一桩很好的生意。但地点必须非常理想，球场也必须很出色。我有最好的球场，位置也是最好的。比如，我们在迈阿密多拉（Doral）的蓝魔球场已经开业，每场球能给我带来475美元，这项业务一直都是这么的成功。

    我得说，继续收购高尔夫球场的难度非常、非常大。而且你说对了，高尔夫球场建的太多。不仅数量多，位置也差，前不着村后不着店。这是泰格·伍兹带来的变化。

    很多人都把高尔夫的滑坡直接归咎于走下坡路的伍兹。他们现在开始寻找“下一个伍兹”，但我不相信他们能找得到。

    这种观点有些道理。伍兹有着难以想象的影响力。我妻子对高尔夫毫不感冒。两年前大师赛开打时，我想她绝不会看电视转播。但我打电话问她在干嘛时，她说：“我在看伍兹”。我觉得这事非常有趣，伍兹的影响力可见一斑。

    伍兹的生活并不轻松，走在大街上会被人们围起来索要签名。他一直都过得不轻松。但我觉得现在出现了麦基尔罗伊等一些年轻好手。我们刚刚宣布将在迪拜建第二座高尔夫球场。这座球场为伍兹设计的，但未能动工。我们收购了这个项目，并和伍兹达成了使用协议，随后我们会把这个搁浅的项目建起来。

    现在国外似乎都在建高尔夫球场。美国的高尔夫球场已经过剩，市场已经饱和，目前看来其他国家正要重蹈覆辙。

    噢，现在亚洲的高尔夫市场处于繁荣期。他们喜欢这项运动。这个领域正在急速扩张，总统杯也首次在亚洲举行，他们则将其视为高尔夫界的奥林匹克。中国和韩国的高尔夫市场非常之好。

    高尔夫行业本身没有问题。只要操作得当，它就真的是一桩好生意。高尔夫俱乐部的成员能在俱乐部待50年。

    Donald Trump is a 2016 presidential candidate, but he is also a real estate magnate and business tycoon whose portfolio includes hotels, a beauty pageant, a fashion line, a magazine, a cologne, and more. He also happens to own 15 different golf courses, though a recent report suggests that he has overstated the value of his golf empire by $1 billion.

    Trump’s golf interests may be about to come under the spotlight more than ever before.

    This week, Univision, NBC and Macy’s all cut ties with Trump because of his controversial comments about Mexicans. Attention could soon turn to some of Trump’s golf partners, including the PGA and Cadillac. The PGA entered into an official partnership with Trump last year. Cadillac is not a Trump sponsor but has naming rights to the WGC-Cadillac tournament, which was held this year at Trump National Doral, his course in Miami. Cadillac has a huge operation in Mexico: The Cadillac SRX is made there and accounts for some 40% of Cadillac’s U.S. sales. Cadillac had no comment for this story. The PGA sentFortune this statement:

    “In response to Mr. Trump’s comments about the golf industry ‘knowing he is right’ in regards to his recent statements about Mexican immigrants, we feel compelled to clarify that those remarks do not reflect the views of our organizations. While the LPGA, PGA of America, PGA Tour and USGA don’t usually comment on Presidential politics, Mr. Trump’s comments are inconsistent with our strong commitment to an inclusive and welcoming environment in the game of golf.”

    In February, before he was a presidential candidate, Trump spoke to Fortune by phone for an exclusive interview focusing on the business of golf. For nearly 10 years in a row, more courses in the U.S. have closed than opened—but he is bullish on the sport’s future.

    Now that he’s running for office, seeking to appeal to a broad swath of the American population, his comments about the sport are especially relevant.

    What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation.

    Fortune: Golf has struggled in recent years, with so many courses closing. Why have you continued to buy?

    Donald Trump: If you have great property, it’s still a great business. But you have to have great locations and really good courses. I have the very best courses, in the best places. At Doral [in Miami], as an example, our “Blue Monster” course opened up, and I’m getting $475 a round, it’s just been so successful.

    I will say this: It is very, very hard to buy golf anymore. And you’re right, they just built too many. They built too many courses and they did it in bad locations, in the middle of nowhere. It was the Tiger [Woods] revolution.

    A lot of people put golf’s decline squarely on Tiger’s decline. Then they look around for “the next Tiger,” but I’m not convinced there is a next Tiger.

    There is some truth to that. The force of Tiger is unbelievable. My wife couldn’t care less about golf. Two years ago, The Masters was on. And she wouldn’t care to watch The Masters, no way. But I called her up, asked what she was doing, and she said, “I’m watching Tiger.” I thought that was very cute. But it was also very emblematic of the power of Tiger.

    It’s not an easy life, his life of walking down the street and having people mob you for an autograph. He hasn’t had it easy. But I think you have Rory [McIlroy], and you have some other good young stars coming along. We just announced a second course in Dubai. That was the Tiger one that they stopped, and we just bought it and made a deal with Tiger to go and build the course that they were going to build and never did.

    It seems like all the course building is happening abroad now. They overbuilt in the U.S., saturated that market, so now they’re going to go open too many in other countries.

    Oh, the boom times are in Asia now. They love golf. That place is exploding, and the Presidents Cup is going there for the first time, and those people consider it akin to the Olympics. China, South Korea — golf is just doing so well there.

    The golf business alone is fine. It’s a really good business when you hit it right. You have members that will stay with you for 50 years.