Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)

v3.22.1
SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2022
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Basis of Presentation Basis of Presentation The accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes of the Company have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP for interim financial reporting and the instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. The portions of equity in consolidated subsidiaries that are not attributable, directly or indirectly, to us are presented as noncontrolling interest. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated. Accordingly, certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in financial statements prepared under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, have been condensed or omitted. In the opinion of management, all adjustments considered necessary for a fair presentation of the Company’s financial position, results of operations and cash flows have been included and are of a normal and recurring nature. The operating results presented for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any other interim period or for the entire year. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2021 and notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on March 18, 2022. There have been no significant changes to our critical accounting policies as disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.
Use of Estimates Use of Estimates – Our estimates are based on information available to management at the time of preparation of the Consolidated Financial Statements, including the result of historical analysis, our understanding and experience of the Company’s operations, our knowledge of the industry and market-participant data available to us. Actual results have historically been in line with management’s estimates and judgments used in applying each of the accounting policies, and management periodically re-evaluates accounting estimates and assumptions. Actual results could differ from these estimates and materially impact our Consolidated Financial Statements. However, the Company does not expect our assessments and assumptions to materially change in the future.
Seasonality Seasonality – Seasonality can affect our results of operations. Our traditional golf business is subject to seasonal fluctuations as colder temperatures and shorter days reduce the demand for outdoor activities. As a result, the traditional golf business generates a disproportionate share of its annual revenue in the second and third quarters of each year. In addition, our Drive Shack and Puttery venues could be significantly impacted on a season-to-season basis, based on corporate event and social gathering volumes during holiday seasons and school vacation schedules. For this reason, a quarter-to-quarter comparison may not be a good indicator of our current and/or future performance.
Leasing Arrangements
Leasing Arrangements The Company evaluates at lease inception whether an arrangement is or contains a lease by providing the Company with the right to control an asset. Operating leases are accounted for on the balance sheet with the Right of Use (“ROU”) assets in "Operating lease right-of-use assets" and lease liabilities are recognized in "Other current liabilities" and "Operating lease liabilities - noncurrent" in the Consolidated Balance Sheets. Finance lease ROU assets, current lease liabilities and noncurrent lease liabilities are recognized in "Property and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation," and "Obligations under finance leases" and "Credit facilities and obligations under finance leases - noncurrent" in the Consolidated Balance Sheets, respectively.

All lease liabilities are measured at the present value of the associated payments, discounted using the Company’s incremental borrowing rate determined using a portfolio approach based on the rate of interest that the Company would pay to borrow an amount equal to the lease payments for a similar term and in a similar economic environment on a collateralized basis. ROU assets, for both operating and finance leases, are initially measured based on the lease liability, adjusted for initial direct costs, prepaid rent, and lease incentives received. Operating leases are subsequently amortized into lease cost on a straight-line basis. Depreciation of the finance lease ROU assets is subsequently calculated using the straight-line method over the shorter of the estimated useful lives or the expected lease terms and recorded in "Depreciation and amortization" on the Consolidated Statements of Operations.

In addition to the fixed minimum payments required under the lease arrangements, certain leases require variable lease payments, which are payment of the excess of various percentages of gross revenue or net operating income over the minimum rental payments as well as payment of taxes assessed against the leased property. The leases generally also require payment for the cost of insurance and maintenance. Variable lease payments are recognized when the associated activity occurs and contingency is resolved.
The Company has elected to combine lease and non-lease components for all lease contracts.
Impairment of Long-lived Assets Impairment of Long-lived Assets The Company periodically reviews the carrying amounts of its long-lived assets, including real estate held-for-use and held-for-sale, as well as finite-lived intangible assets and right-of-use assets, to determine whether current events or circumstances indicate that such carrying amounts may not be recoverable. The assessment of recoverability is based on management’s estimates by comparing the sum of the estimated undiscounted cash flows generated by the underlying asset, or other appropriate grouping of assets, to its carrying value to determine whether an impairment existed at its lowest level of identifiable cash flows. If the carrying amount is greater than the expected undiscounted cash flows, the asset is considered impaired and an impairment is recognized to the extent the carrying value of such asset exceeds its fair value. The Company generally measures fair value by considering sale prices for similar assets or by discounting estimated future cash flows using an appropriate discount rate.
Cash and Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash Cash and Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash — The Company considers all highly liquid short-term investments with maturities of 90 days or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. Substantially all amounts on deposit with major financial institutions exceed insured limits. The Company has not experienced any losses in the accounts and believe that the Company is not exposed to significant credit risk because the accounts are at major financial institutions.
Accounts Receivable, Net Accounts Receivable, Net — Accounts receivable are stated at amounts due from customers, net of an allowance for doubtful accounts of $0.9 million as of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021. The allowance for doubtful accounts is based upon several factors including the length of time the receivables are past due, historical payment trends, current economic factors, and our expectations of future events that affect collectability. Collateral is generally not required.
Membership Deposit Liabilities Membership Deposit Liabilities - Initiation fees are non-refundable and recorded as revenue over the expected seven year life of an active membership. Until 2021, private country club members generally paid an advance initiation deposit upon their acceptance as a member to the respective country club that is refundable 30 years after the date of acceptance as a member. The difference between the initiation deposit paid by the member and the present value of the refund obligation is deferred and recognized into golf operations revenue in the Consolidated Statements of Operations on a straight-line basis over the expected life of an active membership, which is estimated to be seven years. The present value of the refund obligation is recorded as a membership deposit liability in the Consolidated Balance Sheets and accretes over a 30-year nonrefundable term using the effective interest method. This accretion is recorded as interest expense in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.In 2002 American Golf Corporation ("AGC"), when it was owned by a previous owner, entered into a Restated Membership Deposit Assumption Agreement, with two trusts established by a previous owner of AGC (the “Trusts”) under which the Trusts agreed to unconditionally assume the obligations of AGC to refund certain membership deposit liabilities ("MDLs") in exchange for shares in AGC. The MDLs assumed were refundable 30 years from the date of acceptance of the member with the first liabilities assumed by the Trusts becoming refundable in 2020. The total redemption value of membership deposit liabilities assumed by the Trusts was $181.9 million. No asset was recorded at the time of our acquisition of AGC in recognition of this assumption agreement for the $181.9 million of liabilities assumed by the Trusts for the following reasons. 1) the substantial time period between the assumption of the liabilities and the first liabilities becoming refundable; 2) the inability of AGC to verify and monitor the assets of the Trusts to ensure the ability to perform under the terms of the assumption agreements; 3) the fact that the Trusts are not required to maintain any assets that would support such performance; 4) the Trust settlors were not required contractually to fund the Trusts; and 5) The Company does not have the ability to determine the likelihood that the Trusts will meet their obligations. In the event the Trusts are not able to fulfill their obligations, the Company would be responsible for refunding the outstanding balance of the MDL and therefore, recognizes these MDLs on its balance sheet. Though the Trusts initially assumed $181.9 million of MDLs the balance of related MDLs carried on the books of AGC, as of March 31, 2022, has been reduced to an undiscounted nominal value of $115 million through various assignments to third parties and partial membership refunds due to membership transfers. To-date, the Trust has met all of their obligations that have come due for which the Trust assumed responsibility under the Restated Membership Deposit Assumption Agreement. As of March 31, 2022 the Trusts had refunded a total of approximately $0.3 million of MDLs, all of which they were obligated to pay under the terms of the assumption agreements.
Fair Value Measurements
Fair Value Measurements

The fair value of financial instruments is categorized based on the priority of the inputs to the valuation technique and categorized into a three-level fair value hierarchy. The fair value hierarchy gives the highest priority to quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities (Level 1) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (Level 3). The Company follows this hierarchy for its financial instruments measured at fair value.

Level 1 - Quoted prices in active markets for identical instruments.
Level 2 - Valuations based principally on observable market parameters, including:
quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets, inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for the asset or liability (such as interest rates and yield curves observable at commonly quoted intervals, implied volatilities and credit spreads), and
market corroborated inputs (derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data).
Level 3 - Valuations determined using unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity, and that are significant to the overall fair value measurement.

The Company’s real estate securities and debt obligations are currently not traded in active markets and therefore have little or no price transparency. As a result, the Company has estimated the fair value of these illiquid instruments based on internal pricing models subject to the Company's controls described below.
With respect to fair value estimates generated based on the Company’s internal pricing models, the Company’s management validates the inputs and outputs of the internal pricing models by comparing them to available independent third-party market parameters and models, where available, for reasonableness. The Company believes its valuation methods and the assumptions used are appropriate and consistent with those of other market participants.

Fair value measurements categorized within Level 3 are sensitive to changes in the assumptions or methodologies used to determine fair value and such changes could result in a significant increase or decrease in the fair value. For the Company’s investments in real estate securities categorized within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy, the significant unobservable inputs include the discount rates, assumptions relating to prepayments, default rates and loss severities.
All of the inputs used have some degree of market observability, based on the Company’s knowledge of the market, relationships with market participants, and use of common market data sources. Collateral prepayment, default and loss severity projections are in the form of “curves” or “vectors” that vary for each monthly collateral cash flow projection. Methods used to develop these projections vary by asset class but conform to industry conventions. The Company uses assumptions that generate its best estimate of future cash flows of each respective security.
Liabilities for Which Fair Value is Only Disclosed
 
The following table summarizes the level of the fair value hierarchy, valuation techniques and inputs used for estimating each class of liabilities not measured at fair value in the statement of financial position but for which fair value is disclosed:
Type of Liabilities Not Measured At Fair Value for Which Fair Value Is Disclosed Fair Value Hierarchy Valuation Techniques and Significant Inputs
Junior subordinated notes payable Level 3 Valuation technique is based on discounted cash flows. Significant inputs include:
l Amount and timing of expected future cash flows
l Interest rates
l Market yields and the credit spread of the Company
Income Taxes In assessing the realizability of deferred tax assets, management considers whether it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. The ultimate realization of deferred tax assets is dependent upon the generation of future taxable income during the periods in which temporary differences become deductible.
Earnings Per Share Basic EPS is calculated by dividing net income (loss) applicable to common stockholders by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding during each period. Diluted EPS is calculated by dividing net income (loss) applicable to common stockholders by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding plus the additional dilutive effect of dilutive securities during each period. The Company’s dilutive securities are its options and RSUs.