UGOLF, Europe’s largest golf management company, is focusing on growth outside its native France. In the past three years, it has added courses in Rwanda, Madagascar, Egypt and Germany.
In January 2022, these courses were combined with seven in Spain and three in French Polynesia to form UGOLF International, a new company run by Nathanaël Pietrzak-Swirc.
This happened less than a year after UGOLF acquired its biggest European competitor — BlueGreen — in 2021. BlueGreen, also a French operator, managed 48 golf courses at the time of the acquisition. UGOLF now manages 116 18-hole equivalent courses, including 16 in UGOLF International.
“The time was right to do something big outside of France,” Pietrzak-Swirc said.
UGOLF is owned by Groupe Duval, a French real estate company that handles projects from conception to operations, including design, development, and management. While most of the company’s projects are in Europe, 20% are in Africa. Pietrzak-Swirc said this opened the door for UGOLF to expand into Africa.
Groupe Duval was the contractor for a project in Rwanda, and that helped UGOLF secure the golf course management contract for Kigali Golf Resorts and Villas in 2020. 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.
UGOLF had previously acquired courses in Spain in 2014, and more recently was hired to manage courses in French Polynesia and New Caledonia. Because of the distance, the company employs an area manager in the South Pacific to manage the three properties.
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 all of its 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.
“We are focused on helping to grow the game and the market [in these regions],” Pietrzak-Swirc said.
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.
Pietrzak-Swirc, who has managed golf courses in France and Spain, earned his CCM from the CMAA in 2015.