Officials of Golden Bear International Inc. of North Palm Beach, Florida, and Dallas-based ClubCorp said today the joint venture will build three golf course products: Private golf and country clubs; upscale daily-fee golf courses; and "The Bear's Best," a series of daily-fee courses that will feature replications of Nicklaus-designed golf holes.

Course layouts will be by Nicklaus Design, headed by legendary golfer and architect Jack Nicklaus. Certain projects might be co-designed by Nicklaus and other family members involved in Nicklaus Design, including son Jack Nicklaus II. The courses and country clubs will be operated by Club Corporation of America (CCA), a unit of Dallas-based ClubCorp founded by Robert H. Dedman Sr. and now headed by his son, Bob Dedman Jr., Chief Executive Officer.

The management committee for the venture includes: Ira Fenton, President of Golden Bear Financial Services; Tim Kenny, Senior Vice President of Business Development of Golden Bear International; Tom Bennison, Senior Vice President of New Business for CCA; and Dave Richey, Senior Vice President of Development for CCA.

The joint venture's first project is The Golden Bear Golf Club at LionsGate in Overland Park, Kansas, near Kansas City. A letter of intent to build the private golf club and 18-hole golf course has been signed with Synergy Development, the developer of the 1,000-acre master-planned community. Ground-breaking is anticipated for this fall.

Approximately 50 percent of the joint venture's projects will be the construction and development of new private golf and country clubs; 30 percent, daily-fee golf courses (open to the public); and 20 percent re-design and financing of existing clubs and courses.

"The Bear's Best" courses will consist of 18 holes selected by Nicklaus from among the 160 courses designed worldwide by Nicklaus Design. Each project will feature a different 18-hole selection, depending upon the location, climate and terrain. Specific holes for the initial projects have not been determined. Although these courses will be open for individual play, the joint venture plans to focus its marketing efforts on attracting corporate, association, convention and charity tournaments and outings. The venture also will provide turnkey re-design, financing and management to member-owned clubs and independently owned golf courses.

"I personally will be involved in the selection of holes because nobody knows these courses like I do," Jack Nicklaus said. "The venture with Robert Dedman and ClubCorp is a great fit between our two companies." In addition to Kansas City, targeted metropolitan areas for the new courses include Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas, Orlando, Palm Springs, Phoenix and San Antonio.

Golden Bear International and ClubCorp previously have been associated in golf course projects, notably the Jack Nicklaus/Jack Nicklaus II Signature courses at Aspen Glen Club in Carbondale, Colorado, and the Golf Club at Indigo Run on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Both clubs are owned and operated by an affiliate of ClubCorp. The recent completion of these two outstandingly designed courses prompted the two companies to explore a closer relationship, officials said.

Golden Bear International and ClubCorp now are working together, as golf course architect and owner, respectively, on the Aliso Viejo resort project currently under construction in Newport Beach, California. Officials of the two companies pointed out that the new venture brings the firms together for the first time as joint owners, although both organizations will continue to pursue and grow their respective core businesses.

"It takes two things to make a good deal -- the quality of the deal and the people who come with it. This is a super 'win-win' relationship," said Robert H. Dedman Sr., Founder and Chairman of the Board of ClubCorp. "You don't have to be a golfer to understand that Jack Nicklaus personifies the game of golf's rich history and its winning traditions. And Nicklaus-designed courses exemplify the best of golf's beauties and rigors."

Dedman said he and Nicklaus share the desire to leave as legacies the commitment to maintain golf at its highest level in the future. Nicklaus added, "The golf courses I design will be here long beyond my golf game and my lifetime -- and that excites me."

Golden Bear International, a privately owned company controlled by the Nicklaus family, is involved in golf course design, residential community development, golf equipment and the production of televised golf events. The 41-year-old ClubCorp is the world's largest owner and manager of private clubs and resorts. Through its affiliate companies, ClubCorp currently owns or operates more than 200 private city clubs, country clubs, golf courses and resorts. Among the company's nationally recognized properties are Pinehurst Resort Country Club in Pinehurst, North Carolina (site of the 1999 U.S. Open); Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, (site of the NEC World Series of Golf and future site of the World Golf Championship); Indian Wells Country Club in Indian Wells, California (site of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic); and Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California (home of the Nabisco Dinah Shore).

ClubCorp

Robert H. Dedman Sr.

Robert H. Dedman, Founder and Chairman of the Board of ClubCorp International, has B.A., B.S. and LL.B. degrees from The University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Laws degree from Southern Methodist University (SMU) and five honorary doctorate degrees from other universities.  Dedman College of SMU and Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports at SMU are named after him.
Eight hundred National Merit Scholars at The University of Texas at Austin are named Dedman Merit Scholars because of scholarship funds contributed by him. Dedman Memorial Hospital and Dedman Medical Center in Dallas are also named after him.  He was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame in 1987, received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Texas in 1976, the
Humanitarian of the Year Award in Dallas in 1980, the Outstanding National Business Leader Award in 1985 and the Marketer of the Year Award in Dallas in 1986.  In 1989, he received the Horatio Alger Award, and in 1997 he received Number One Philanthropist Award from the Dallas Historical Society.  He is currently a member and past chair of the Board of Trustees of SMU.  He served
for six years as a director of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and twice as Chairman of the Texas Department of Transportation.
 

Robert H. Dedman Jr.

Bob Dedman is President and Chief Executive Officer of Club Corporation International and Chairman of Club Corporation of America.  Born in 1957, he has a B.A. degree in economics from The University of Texas at Austin, and an M.B.A. degree with highest honors and a Juris Doctor degree cum laude from Southern Methodist University.  He served as Director of Corporate Planning for ClubCorp from 1980-1984.  He served as an associate of Salomon Brothers Inc. from 1984-1987, specializing in mergers and acquisitions.  He returned to ClubCorp in 1987 as Chief Financial Officer and was named President and Chief Operating Officer in January 1989.  He was elected President and Chief Executive Officer in April 1998.  He serves as a member of the board of
directors of ClubCorp, European PGA Tour Courses, the Texas Research League, Southern Methodist University Alumni Center Committee and The University of Texas at Austin Development Board.  He is a national trustee of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and past chairman of the Texas Business Hall of Fame. His memberships also include the Young President's Organization, the Society of International Business Fellows and Southern Methodist University's 21st Century Council.
 

Golden Bear International, Inc.

Jack Nicklaus

Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus is the winner of 100 tournaments around the world, including 71 on the PGA Tour and 10 on the Senior PGA Tour.  He has a record 18 major championship wins and was the PGA Tour's top money-winner eight times, with career official earnings approaching the $6 million mark. His Senior PGA Tour official career earnings have surpassed $2.5 million. Twice he has been honored as the 'Golfer of the Century' and he was named PGA Player of the Year five times.  In 1993, GolfWorld magazine named him Golf Course Architect of the Year.  Nicklaus has been designing courses for almost 40 years.  This 'second career' began just weeks before he won his first British Open title in 1966 when famed designer Dick Wilson came to rejuvenate Nicklaus' home course of Scioto in Columbus, Ohio.  Nicklaus appointed himself Wilson's tag-along assistant.  Three years later, Nicklaus and Pete Dye teamed to do the Top100 design of Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  Among the most recognized Nicklaus-designed courses are Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio; Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Alabama; Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock, Colorado; Desert Highlands in Scottsdale, Arizona; Westin Kauai Lagoons resort's Kiele Course in Kauai, Hawaii; Gut Altentann in Salzburg, Austria; Annandale Golf Club in Jackson, Mississippi; and the Loxahatchee Club in Jupiter, Florida.
 

Jack Nicklaus II

Jack Nicklaus II has emerged as a respected golf course designer with at least a dozen courses open for play worldwide.  Jack II has studied and learned from the many courses on which he and his father have played around the globe and, of course, from the designs of his father.  Jack II has designed noted courses at Hanbury Manor outside London; Legacy Golf Links in Pinehurst, North Carolina; the Heritage course at Ibis Golf and Country Club in Palm Beach County, Florida; and the Medallion Club in Westerville, Ohio. His design career also has been influenced by an avid interest in the outdoors.  He also has several co-design projects with his father includingthe signature courses at the Golf Club at Indigo Run in Hilton Head, South Carolina, the Golden Bear Golf Club at Hammock Creek in Palm City, Florida and Aspen Glen Club in Carbondale, Colorado.