Man with the millions

A massive £50 million hotel and golf development is being planned for St Andrews, bringing with it the prospect of 300 new jobs. Behind the project is the American entrepreneur Dr Donald Panoz. From his home in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr Panoz explains his proposals.

The Courier, 14 September 1998

"Hey don't tell me about last weekend's weather," drawls Donald Panoz. "I don't want to build a hotel and golf resort where the weather isn't good."

He’s joking, but, otherwise, the weather appears one of the few elements not within this tycoon’s compass or grasp.

Donald Panoz came late to golf, later to St Andrews, and he is hurrying to catch up.

He didn’t start playing until he was 21 years old, “while at military academy at West Greenboro where Sam Snead was the golf instructor back in the late 1940s and early 1950s.”

As for his first trip to the home of golf, it only came in 1995, the year fellow American John Daly trashed the Old Course to win The Open.

“The cloak of history which surrounded that town was awe inspiring,” Dr Panoz recalled.

Now he is back big time, promising Scotland’s largest conference hotel, 80 executive lodges and two 18-hole golf courses on a spectacular site overlooking St Andrews harbour.

Having the wherewithal to convert the 360-acre Kingask Farm into a massive golf resort is one thing. Playing St Andrews at its own game is another.

“You know, to just try and say we want to produce a links course that looks like St Andrews, would be anti-climatic. I don’t think it is on the cards to try to copy the home of golf. Best to leave that alone.

“We need to do something that’s exciting, something that has a style to it. I think we need to look back in history when we are designing it and to use some of the artefacts which exist on the property. In fact I am a firm believer in a couple of things; one is that there is a subtle difference of excellence. It does not have to be ostentatious. The next thing is that you get one chance to make a first impression.

“So I look forward to working with the community to bring them another asset which, hopefully, will measure up to the assets they already have.”

His proposals, which are subject to formal planning procedures, already involve some of golf’s best-known names.

“We have four guys on call just now for the design team - Gene Sarazen, Jack Nicklaus, Bruce Devlin and Sam Torrance, although we haven’t finished our agreements with them yet.”

Each course would be a co-design he says with American golf legend Sarazen taking an active part in one of them. Mr Sarazen, who won the first of his two US Opens 76 years ago, has successfully advised Dr Panoz on two courses in North America.

“I didn’t get to meet Gene until he was 88 years old,” said Dr Panoz. “He’s 96 now. He’ll hit a ball occasionally, but at 96 he doesn’t play much nowadays. But we arrange things for him. I get him to Augusta every year for the Masters and I got him over to Scotland. I’m kinda his transportation board!”

Dr Panoz has formed the St. Andrews Bay Development company which has appointed Cupar planners Montgomery Forgan Associates, in conjunction with Dundee architects the Parr Partnership, to design and supervise the hotel and clubhouse construction at Kingask, understood to be costing £25 million.

But his own background is more business than birdies.

He established the Elan Pharmaceutical Company in Ireland and spent 27 years living and working there. His Chateau Elan resort near Atlanta, Georgia, is renowned as one of the most elegant resort destinations in America and includes The Legends Course, host of the USPGA Gene Sarazen World Open for the past five years.

He is widely known for his Panoz classic sports and racing cars. Last year he co-sponsored two 230mph Panoz GT1 cars for Noel Edmonds’ team in the Le Mans 24-hour Race, which was watched by 70,000 Britons.

“I still have three race tracks, the famous Seebring track in Florida, one in Atlanta and another, Mosport, in Canada,” he said.

“It is an interest that we have found works very well with our hospitality sector, and one which works well with our interest in race cars and building sports cars. But at another level, we have found that people have not paid much attention to these tracks. Buying them, we can upgrade them and make them a lot better.”

It sounds rather unlikely, but Dr Panoz is officially retired.

“People say to me, ‘Don, you’re retired, why are you doing this?’ I reply that retirement is all about getting rid of the things you don’t like to do and only doing the things you like to do.

“I am still excited by the opportunity to create something that needs to be done - for whatever reason. And at St Andrews I see a need to do something a little bit different. I see a need to do it properly, with good services, amenities and facilities. And I think that will be an asset to the community.

“I really believe you have to be part of the community if you are going to be successful in what you are trying to create. If you don’t do it well, and you don’t make it attractive in the right manner, then it is not going to be successful and everybody will have wasted their time.

“In our lives, we are faced with many challenges every day. We find we can take care of mundane things by rote, or by habit. But every once in a while, there will be a challenge which is not just a challenge, but an opportunity. Then you have something that can really excite you - and this is what St Andrews has done for me.

“I have a personal motto that I used in Ireland, in fact Riverdance wrote a song about it, called Take Time To Dream. I told people that you need to let your imagination wander for a little bit every day and to think about ‘What if?’ That’s how I began to think about St Andrews.”

After a quarter of a century in Ireland, he reckons he has tilted more to the west and now sees Georgia as his home. In December he will celebrate his 44th wedding anniversary to Nancy. They have four daughters and a son - and 10 grandchildren!

“Nancy has been to Scotland twice, and a few years ago she took the family on a 10-day Scottish walk which she greatly enjoyed. Inside of our soul, we’re very sympathetic to Scotland.”

If Fife planners are sympathetic towards Dr Panoz, his St Andrews golf complex will be up and running in time for the Millennium Open on the Old Course in 2000.

Meanwhile, Don Panoz has already decided who will hit the first drive at Kingask. Gene Sarazen.