Lindsey Designs Career One Course At a Time

Lyndy Lindsey’s occupation has been built with that one secret ingredient most professionals strive for — turning a hobby into a career.

“For 22 years, I have lived a dream of building golf courses,” he said. “That was a dream for me.”

Lindsey, 44, was a member of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class in 2001.

At the time, he was designing the golf courses and adjoining apartment buildings for Fayetteville-based Lindsey Management Co., the massive property management and multifamily housing operation founded in 1985 by his father, real estate magnate Jim Lindsey.

After Lyndy Lindsey’s success in 1992 with the design of Lost Springs Golf & Athletic Club in Rogers, LMC expanded to golf course development and management in 1994.

By 2001, Lindsey had designed more than 20 courses in six states.

Today, with 37,416 units, the company has grown to become the largest property management firm of multifamily housing in Arkansas, and has a presence in Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

The number of golf courses accompanying those apartment communities — ranging from 27-hole championship courses to much-shorter, nine-hole courses comprised of only par-3 holes — has swelled to 42.

Half of those are in Arkansas — Lindsey designed all of them — and a few have hosted state championships conducted by the Arkansas State Golf Association.

LMC hasn’t opened a new golf course in two years because of a sluggish economy, but there are projects on the drawing board, Lindsey said.

Coming through the pipeline in the next couple of years is a nine-hole regulation course in Lawrence, Kan., which will be the company’s third course in the state.

Lindsey said a road that runs through the property was recently renamed Rock Chalk Boulevard, a reference to the popular chant associated with the Kansas Jayhawks.

“You would think if we build that thing with Rock Chalk Boulevard going right through the middle of us, it would be a home run,” he said.

A project that has been scrapped, however, was the addition of an extra nine holes at The Links at Rainbow Curve Golf & Country Club just off Arkansas Highway 12 in Bentonville.

The numbers just didn’t add up, Lindsey said. The project will go forward with the addition of 480 units to the existing 492 on the property, but the golf course will remain nine holes.

“To be truthful, it just costs money to build a golf course,” he said. “In most cases, it can make the difference in the project working and the project not working.”

Lindsey’s dream of designing golf courses began right about the time his dream of playing golf for a living ended.

As a young amateur, he was known for prodigious length, and was talented, even setting a course record in July 1988 of 8-under 64 on a course that can never be broken — Longhills Golf Course in Benton, now closed.

Lindsey played that day with Jay Fox, executive director of the ASGA, and former Razorback All-American golfer Chris Little — who also shot 64 that day.

“It was one of the best ball-striking rounds I ever saw,” Fox remembered. “Lyndy had the ability to do things with the golf ball that many of us couldn’t do, because of his length.”

After graduating from the University of Arkansas, where he was a four-year letterman as a tight end for the Razorbacks football team, Lindsey played golf on some of the mini-tours in Florida.

But the realization came quickly that his game — though good — was not good enough.

After returning to Arkansas, Lindsey dove headlong into the company’s golf course operations.

Lindsey said the company adds about 1,400 units annually, and he expects to maintain that pace in the coming years.

“I don’t know how much golf will be out there, but we’re always trying to find the next location to keep the train moving,” he said. “If golf is a part of it, we’ll figure that thing out. If it’s not a part of it, then so be it. But I love it.”

Lindsey, who will celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary in August, spends most of his time watching his four children and their activities.

“Probably 80 percent of my weekends each year are gobbled up watching our kids’ events,” he said. “They are all very active in sports.”