UGOLF is Europe’s largest golf management company and is actively pursuing new contracts in Northern Europe and Africa. It acquired seven courses in Spain in 2014, and acquired its closest competitor, Bluegreen, in 2021. At the time, UGOLF had 59 courses and Bluegreen managed 47, all in France.
UGOLF is owned by Groupe Duval, a French real estate development company with 20% of its projects in Africa. That opened the door for UGOLF in 2020 to take over management of Kigali Golf Resorts and Villas in Rwanda. . The 27-hole property in the nation’s capital opened in 2021 to much acclaim, and soon UGOLF was fielding calls from other golf courses in Africa.
Since then, it has added contracts in Madagascar, Egypt and Germany. In January 2022, these courses were combined with seven in Spain and three in French Polynesia to form UGOLF International, which has 16 courses. It is a new company run by Nathanaël Pietrzak-Swirc.
“The time was right to do something big outside of France,” said Pietrzak-Swirc.
UGOLF is best known for its golf academy, which employs 196 golf instructors who teach the game to 20,000 new golfers each year. It is taking the academy to its new locations to help grow the game in countries like Rwanda that have few golfers.
“The DNA of the group is UGOLF Academy,” Pietrzak-Swirc said. “It is a strong program that creates new golfers. This is the main thing that differentiates us from other companies.”
UGOLF is pursuing two strategies. In Europe, it is focused on adding courses in Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Scandinavia where it offers an operations contract where it takes all the risk.
In Africa, South America and elsewhere, it offers a consulting and advice contract where it does not take the risk of performance.
Pietrzak-Swirc said Africa is a good target for the company, as 40% of the countries speak French, with a total population of more than 400 million. In fact, Africa represents more than 50% of the French speaking world.