Greg Norman strips Myrtle Beach golf academy of his name

Golf legend Greg Norman has pulled his name from the Greg Norman Champions Golf Academy at Barefoot Resort in North Myrtle Beach in the aftermath of the arrest of the academy’s managing partner on charges of embezzling more than $2 million on another project.

Jose Manuel Fernandez Del Puerto professed his innocence in an interview with The Sun News on Wednesday, and said the international golf academy will continue as Champions Golf Academy and is accepting students for the 2019-20 school year.

“We’re still moving forward,” said Fernandez, who posted a statement on Facebook this week. “So far nothing has changed. The academy has been the same, obviously with a bit more tension of what the [heck] happened, but that doesn’t change anything. We still have our summer camps, we still have class 2019-2020 open.”

Fernandez was arrested on March 13. According to a North Myrtle Beach Police report, he is accused of withdrawing $2 million in construction funds from a Wyndham Gardens resort/hotel project that is near the academy on the expansive Barefoot Resort driving range.

The report alleges that between March 2015 and January 2018, Fernandez had access to the funds and transferred more than $2 million from the business account to a personal checking account.

Fernandez posted $100,000 bond after a night in Horry County’s J. Reuben Long Detention Center.

“I can tell you I didn’t [steal money],” Fernandez said. “I have proof of every single money that has been in that account, in and out, where it goes and where it went.”

Fernandez is a Mexico native who has lived in Myrtle Beach for the past decade through an E2 Visa for foreign investors working in the U.S., he said.

The international academy at Barefoot opened with Norman’s name in 2012 and offers its students housing, schooling and golf training. Students attend the Risen Christ Christian Academy – classes are held at the golf facility – and are housed at The Farm in Carolina Forest.

Norman has pulled his name from the academy, according to Jane MacNeille, director of communications for the Greg Norman Company.

She released a statement to The Sun News that read: “We have been made aware of the unfortunate incident surrounding Mr. Jose Fernandez Del Puerto, and have terminated his license to use the Greg Norman name or continue any further association between his businesses and Greg Norman. We do not have any other comment at this time.”

Academy in flux

Fernandez said he accepted Norman’s decision and admits that the academy, which he said has 11 international students this semester, is having financial difficulties. But he believes it can be up to date on its payments by the end of the summer.

Callaway Golf has an outstanding default judgment against it for nearly $35,000 that was awarded last October, and the academy has unpaid taxes from 2017 and 2018 totaling more than $17,000, according to Horry County Treasurer’s Office records.

“We’re trying to figure out how to pay [Callaway] off, and we will pay them off in payments,” Fernandez said.

The unpaid county taxes include more than $14,350 for the academy building and 1.73 acres of land it sits on, and more than $3,200 for personal property owned by the academy. Fernandez said Wednesday he thought the real estate taxes had been paid and he plans to pay them by early April.

Fernandez also settled a civil lawsuit filed against him by Carolina Forest Rental Properties last June. Fernandez said the suit arose because of a dispute: the rent was increasing and he wanted the carpets replaced after nearly a decade of student living.

The academy land and building at Barefoot have an appraised value of $909,410. The building itself is appraised at $683,300, according to Horry County records.

“The dollar strengthening and all that hit me,” Fernandez said. “With the hotel situation it was really a drag in my pocket. I haven’t gone sideways yet and I’m working on not going there. It has not been great, but I cannot say it has been bad at the academy. The (resort project), well it is what it is and we just have to fight it off.”

Fernandez said the academy has had to release some employees for financial reasons, including one who handled his accounting. “We had to kind of restructure what we could afford and what we couldn’t afford and just kind of settling as much as we could,” Fernandez said. “I’m sure by this August [the bills] will be clear.”

Fernandez said summer camps last year earned $229,000 with 52 students coming for at least two weeks from numerous countries, and he hopes to clear at least $150,000 this summer to cover his existing debt.

He said the academy has never consistently made money.

“The golf academy itself has never been profitable but we have been injecting money into it and keeping it open because it has given us so much networking around the world with a lot of people that we have done businesses with, and it’s great to have it open,” Fernandez said. “And my passion has always been to assist golfers and try to get them to college. Ninety-two percent of our kids have gone to college. It has been amazing.”

Coastal Carolina graduate and former Wizard head pro Eddie Overstreet is the academy’s lead instructor, and Golf Academy of America grad and former World Tour Golf Links employee Tyler Foust is the academy’s other instructor. Fernandez plans to hire another instructor if necessary for next school year.

There were 14 students in the first semester this school year but three fulfilled their curriculums, Fernandez said, adding that current students include five from Mexico, two from Colombia, two from Austria, and one from both Germany and Venezuela. He said no students have withdrawn in the two weeks since his arrest.

A delayed project

Fernandez explained his involvement in the Wyndham Gardens project and how he and his group of investors from Mexico, organized under Olmeca Capital, fell short on funding.

Fernandez said Olmeca Capital is 80 percent of Vermex Hotels LLC, which was established to own and operate the hotel, and Barefoot Resort owner Sammy Puglia is 20 percent of Vermex. The project began in 2014 and was to include a 138-room hotel and adjacent 20-unit multifamily and classroom building that could house golf academy students.

He said an investor who was going to be the guarantor of a bank loan that was needed to finish construction backed out of the deal, and Olmeca was unable to secure a loan. “We couldn’t get the loan and the company needed money,” Fernandez said. “We were in a hard spot.”

Fernandez said a buyer for the hotel project emerged. He said RAM Investments of South Florida Inc. had an agreement to buy the project and it was set to close last October. But the closing was postponed a couple times and by mid-January it was canceled, and a payment to builder Baldwin Construction of North Myrtle Beach was coming due.

“When that got canceled obviously everybody started feeling kind of nervous about the money we have to pay J.O. Baldwin, the builder,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez said Baldwin now has a lien on the project, and Horry County court records show the construction company has a default judgment awarded in October against Vermex Hotels for nearly $1.4 million.

He said Puglia, Olmeca investors and Baldwin are still trying to build the hotel project, and that he is still an Olmeca partner but is working on divesting.

Fernandez said he was the president of Olmeca but gave up his responsibilities to another partner about a year ago. “I didn’t want to get into any conflict of interest or any dispute,” Fernandez said. “We’ve been dealing with the situation for a year and everything was fine until I got arrested.”