Golf Community Reviews

        Golf Tips magazine agrees with us.  In the slick magazine’s Golf Travel Annual edition, published in December, the editors feature “Live the Dream!  Best Golf Communities.”  Four of the 15 communities they anoint have been reviewed in HomeOnTheCourse’s first four issues, four others are on our list to visit and review, and one we played years ago (and didn’t realize it was part of a community).  The only difference between the magazine’s reviews and our own is the depth of explanation – theirs is a paragraph long – and the uniformly gushing nature of their comments (some of the communities’ golf courses are advertisers).
    Cuscowilla, The Cliffs Communities, Haig Point and Pawleys Plantation come in for star treatment in Golf Travel Annual.  The magazine calls the Cuscowilla layout (bunker on hole #1 at right), by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw “one of the most breathtaking golf experiences in the Southeast.”  It is a terrific golf course because it doesn’t take your breath away with dramatic, view-over-everything vistas.  You, the fairway and the green before you are often all you see or care about on Cuscowilla’s natural landscape.  
    Some of the Cliffs Communities golf courses, on the other hand, do take your breath away, especially the one a half-mile up Glassy Mountain, a top-of-the-world Tom Jackson design.  Golf Travel Annual misleads a little when it implies the Cliffs at Mountain Park, with a design by Gary Player, is one of the five current communities in the Cliffs portfolio; it was only recently announced, and the course won’t be ready until at least 2008.  Also, when touting the feature that membership in one of the Cliffs clubs provides access to all, the magazine should alert its less-than-Forbes 400 readers that initiation fees run more than $100,000.
    We can’t quibble with the magazine’s brief description of a place we loved for its splendid isolation, Haig Point on Daufuskie Island, GA.  More livable year round than the also agreeable Bald Head Island in North Carolina, Haig Point’s Rees Jones layout captures all the local elements –- marsh, live oak forests, the Atlantic Ocean and views to Hilton Head Island and the lighthouse behind the 18th green at Harbour Town.  Haig Point members who want to experience other good golf courses don’t have to leave the island – The Melrose Club (Nicklaus) and Bloody Point (Moorish/Weiskopf) are but a short golf cart ride away at the Daufuskie Island Resort.  Haig Point’s year-round residents are a hardy, organized breed who manage their lives around the community’s thankfully frequent ferry schedule.   And home prices are surprisingly reasonable, and most include the club’s initiation fee of $65,000.  However, $10,000 annual club dues and other fees more than make up for the “free” initiation.
    We were pleased, and surprised, to see our own summer community on the list.  Pawley’s Plantation’s golf course in Pawleys Island, SC, is not private, with non-member play rather liberally applied to those staying on property and in a select number of hotels in the area.  The Jack Nicklaus designed layout, circa 1989, winds its way on the front nine through stands of pine and oak trees, as well as lagoons, and then emerges into the marsh for holes 12 through 18 (only the par 4 15th returns briefly to the woods). 
    The signature par 3 13th is a hole members and visitors alike love to hate; it is a mere 130 yards or so from the men’s tees to the island green (with just a thin spit of land to the right, enough to contain the dreaded drop area).  The wind is almost always blowing in from the left, forcing an aiming line out over the marsh in order to have a go at the tiny green.  Pray hard if the wind is behind you; the green is quite firm, and your lob or sand wedge had better land on the front third, an area just 20 feet or so deep, or you’ll find the marsh behind the bulk-headed green.  When the tide is out, dozens of golf balls dot the mud in front of the green, just adding to your anxiety from the tee.  We look forward to playing #17 at Sawgrass so we will be able to testify to what we know intuitively is true – the 13th at Pawley’s is tougher.
    We haven’t played all the courses Golf Travel Annual cites, although we are planning on hitting most of them.  But of all the courses they mention, Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley, ME, would be hard to beat.  It is in the middle of nowhere, four hours from any city of consequence (Boston and Montreal), and better known for its skiing than its golf.  ‘Tis a pity.  We played Sugarloaf a half dozen years ago, and the Robert Trent Jones, Jr. design was a revelation for its views from the elevated tees, dramatically tilted fairways and roller coaster rides from tee to green that never seem to induce anything approaching vertigo.  Sugarloaf is one of the toughest courses we have ever played, with comparisons to Pine Valley not overstated, certainly in terms of how much you have to think and how hard you have to bear down on virtually every tee shot.  Even good drives to the elbow of the many doglegs skittered in the direction of the woods.  And the shot from the five story high 11th tee to the slim, front to back green with the Carrabassett River lapping at its left side was just one of many Kodak moments at Sugarloaf seared into our memory.  If there are any homes abutting the golf course today, they have been built since our visit.
    The Golf Travel Annual article features courses north of Myrtle Beach that are on our list to visit and review.  Virtually all the 15 courses highlighted are in the southeast, with just one in Arizona (Whisper Rock in Scottsdale) and one in Los Cabos, Mexico (El Dorado).  Web site for the magazine is www.golftipsmag.com; however, articles from the annual publication are not posted at the site.

    Quick, what's the first course that comes to mind when you hear the word "Pinehurst?"  Pinehurst #2?  One of the other numbered courses? Maybe Pine Needles or Mid-Pines, the Ross classics?  Most of us plebes wouldn't think of Forest Creek.  And, apparently, the club and its members like it that way, tossing around the notion of "exclusive" the way Paris Hilton tosses down...well, we won't go there. 
    All this is to say that we were stunned and excited recently when we noticed one of those little Google ads for Forest Creek on a Wilmington, NC, real estate company's site.  We thought maybe the club that counts Michael Jordan as a member was going a little more prole.  We clicked on the ad and were taken to the forest green colored (clever) Forest Creek web site.  We hit the "Enter" button and didn't hit the "Skip Intro" button because the two shots of the golf course were as gorgeous as a 2-iron to 10 feet.  We hungered for more shots of the renowned Fazio design but, alas, our hopes were dashed. 
    Country club web sites tend to pour it on thick, with paeans to their golf pros, clubhouses, members, amenities and on and on.  But Forest Creek is not like any other golf club, and its web site is not like any other web site.  We had but two options to proceed:  Either sign in with our membership password (we don't have one) or call a phone number in Pinehurst to speak with a membership representative.  It was not a toll-free number either. 
    If you have to ask how much, you probably can't afford it.  Oh yes, the web site is www.forestcreekgolfclub.com.  Please send photos.

    During a research trip to Wilmington, NC earlier this month, I stayed in a warm and inviting bed and breakfast inn, The Taylor House.  Located in the city’s historic district, Taylor House is about a 10-minute walk to the gas lit Front Street and some of the city’s best restaurants and shops.  As I pulled up to the house at sundown, I could not help but notice the for-sale sign out front.
    After about a dozen years, proprietors Scott and Karen Clark have decided to “move on,” in Scott’s words.  But they aren’t moving away, content to continue to raise their 13-year old daughter in a town they have come to love after domiciles in New York City, upstate New York and the west coast.  The Victorian was built in 1905 and features six bedrooms, a full bath in each one.  A dramatic wooden staircase, stained glass windows, original tile are just a few of the house’s architectural details.  The Clarks have accessorized nicely, especially with the early-20th Century table lamps that are attractive beacons in the windows at night.
    My two-night stay at the inn was everything the promoters of bed and breakfast places say it should be – warm, friendly, personal, comfortable and relaxing.  All the rooms at Taylor House have cute names.  I stayed in the one at the back of the house, Serenity, the smallest of them all but plenty for me.  Its two windows each looked out on a garden.  The bed was comfortable and fit for a queen, both in terms of its size and the style of its headboard, which would have made Queen Victoria feel at home.  The gas fireplace on the cold nights I stayed came in handy; the rush of gas provided quick warmth to the room, although Scott was right to warn me to be careful not to singe my eyebrows when I lit the thing.  The only picky little criticism I have is that the shower was too small, maneuverability affected by a faucet handle that protruded from the wall.  I kept bumping into it, sending a burst of ice cold water my way (at least I didn’t push it in the direction of scalding hot).
    Breakfast was a hoot, especially the second morning.  At my first breakfast, which included a soothing plate of scrambled eggs and cheese, fruit and a muffin, Scott leaned against the antique sideboard as he filled me in on local history, the specifics of the house and his take on the local restaurants.  He warned me that a honeymoon couple would be arriving that evening.  The next morning I sat down with the happy couple, both well into their 70s.  I think the proud groom had practiced his line when he smiled at me and said, “I hope we didn’t keep you up last night.”  His wife, way past the blushing stage, laughed contentedly at the joke.  I was all too happy to be the butt of it, and resisted the temptation to ask if they stayed in the Joy or Love room.
    The house is on the market for $795,000 and does seem most suited to a B&B business (unless you need four mothers in law suites!)..  Rates at Taylor House begin at $125 a night, breakfast included, but discounts are available.  My initial email was greeted with a quick response and the offer of a rate of $90.  The inn’s web site is www.TaylorHouseBB.com.  I’ll post some comments in the coming weeks about the golf communities in the area, as well as some notes on the two restaurants I sampled for dinner.

 
Marsh grass, live oaks and sand give Haig Point's layout a strong links feel. Wind and views of the Calibogue Sound only add to the effect.

Golf Community Review 

    If you have a bit of the Garbo in you, Haig Point on Daufuskie Island, SC, may float your boat.  Isolated and reached only by an hourly ferry from Hilton Head Island across the Calibogue Sound, the small community offers upscale leisure living and one of the best golf courses we've played in the last year, a 27+ hole Rees Jones layout that winds through live oaks and marsh and eventually along the Calibogue.  Why 27+ holes?  Jones was so smitten with the terrain he just couldn't help routing two holes in two different ways.
    Only 100 families live full time in Haig Point, but residents never feel alone.  They are a tightknit group, both because they have to be and, it seems, want to be.  We were greeted warmly when we met some of them for drinks on a Friday night in November in the community's "mansion," and later the clubhouse dining room was filled with chatty members who bellied up to the piano and belted out a few songs after dinner. 
    The mansion, which includes a few guest rooms for those visiting friends or looking at property, had been relocated by boat in the 1980s from somewhere in Georgia and reconstructed at Haig Point, just west of the ruins of the former slave quarters.  The slave homes' tabby material was made from a mix of oyster shells and a kind of concrete, and it was a little eerie to see the contrast of modern and 18th Century, of luxe and servitude, side by side.  The original developers of Haig Point, International Paper, left the ruins in place as one reminder that Daufuskie had a sobering history before it gave way to mostly leisure living.  Another such reminder is the Mary Field School, where author Pat Conroy taught Gullah children in the 1960s (Jon Voight had the starring role in the 1970s film of Conroy's island experience).  The school is still in use although the Gullahs, for the most part, are gone. 
    Real estate prices in Haig Point are almost too good to be true, with cottages and single family homes nestled in the live oaks going for hundreds of thousands of dollars less than comparably scaled homes on the mainland, and with $65,000 club membership fees thrown in for good measure on most sales.  But you know that when things seem too good to be true, there is usually a catch or two; at Haig Point, there are a couple of catches.  One is that carrying costs are high, with club dues running more than $10,000 a year.  And if your fellow members decide they want to rehab the clubhouse or beach club, you will share in the potentially steep assessment.  After all, on an island where virtually everything is shipped in, including labor, prices are much higher than on the mainland (Note:  If you buy a piece of property at Haig and elect to build a house, your construction costs could reach as high as $500 a square foot, compared with around $200 on Hilton Head). 
    And then there is the most obvious "catch" of all, Daufuskie Island's isolation, a half hour boat ride from the mainland, and if you need provisions or just want to get away, there is only one way in and one way out.  That said, those who have chosen Haig Point love it and speak of their community as an oasis of calm.  They are a hardy and upbeat group, an engaging mix of former captains of industry, a few architects, real estate people and consultants who can work via satellite from the island, with the occasional flight from Savannah to meet with clients.  Those clients should hold out for meetings occasionally at Haig Point.  It's a wonderful, soothing and friendly place, and for its residents, half the fun is getting there.
    We spent two days at Haig Point and also played the nearby Melrose Club at the Daufuskie Island Resort (we'll comment on Melrose and its fine Jack Nicklaus course at a later time).  In a later post, we'll also discuss our visit to Bald Head Island, site of the only other "true" island golf community off the east coast.

 In the history of critical writing, today's launch of golfcommunityreviews.com won't amount to a hill of beans for anyone but my wife and kids -- and them I am not too sure about.  They thought I spent enough time already hunched over my laptop. 
    Now this.  After almost a year of publishing the HomeOnTheCourse advisory newsletter (see HomeOnTheCourse.com), I am more convinced than ever that there is a big need for unbiased information about golfing communities.  Sure, you can find tons of material on the subject online, but virtually every scrap of it is hype, promoted by the communities themselves or their marketing agents.   After 30+ years in corporate communication, and having banged out plenty of press releases, my nose can smell the subtle techniques the marketing experts use. 
    A few months ago we read in a magazine with the helpful-sounding name Resort Living that one group of communities offers "one of the most comprehensive golf memberships" anywhere.  Resort Living may sound like a Travel & Leisure clone, but our radar told us something was funny (even T&L doesn't often use such overheated superlatives).  With a little research, we discovered that Resort Living is published by the same company responsible for marketing that group of communities.  (Okay, it's the well-appointed Cliffs Communities, and we can't quibble with the claim, just that it is promotion in the guise of objectivity.)
    Aside from support of truth, justice and American blunt honesty, this blog will share more subtly shaded information about golf communities; e.g. how they differ, one to the other, in terms of their golf courses, their residents, proximities to things that matter besides golf (like health care, culture, restaurants, transportation) and the range of real estate available. We'll continue to look at the cities nearby and what they offer in the way of lifestyle choices. We intend to appeal primarily to those looking for retirement or second-home properties, but what we have to say will be equally germane to the investor looking to park some money in a relatively safe, and potentially rewarding, place.  After all, the old real estate saw holds true for everyone -- Location. Location. Location.
    We will continue to travel so that we can provide information from on location -- there's that word again -- not just material cobbled together from the internet, the Wall Street Journal, and other sources we review daily.  But we will also be a consolidator of information, saving you time and money by being your eyes, ears and representative as you face some major investment decisions about vacation or retirement real estate.  When you spend the time and money to travel to investigate golf course communities, we want to arm you with the most objective information possible.
    Now here's the truth in advertising statement:  This venture isn't entirely altruism, although we do feel as if we are on a mission.  Our humble little blog will be gussied up by those intrusive sponsored ads from Google and others; this helps us pay the electricity bills and supplement this author's fixed income.  But rest assured that a community whose unsolicited ad pops up on our site will be treated with the same objectivity as one that never advertises, and that we are as likely to bury an advertiser as we are to praise it, although we will more often choose to review those communities we can recommend than those we can't.  We don't want to waste your time and ours savaging places that clearly offer bad golf and sub-standard real estate options.
    We hope also that if you return to this site, you find enough value in our observations and research that you will opt for the more in-depth reviews in our HomeOnTheCourse advisory newsletter, which we will soon offer at a nominal annual charge.  More information on HomeOnTheCourse will be forthcoming.
    Finally, from time to time, you may find that we hop the tracks a little and raise an issue unrelated to golf or real estate.  I hope you will join me in the occasional musing.  My wife and children are tired of taking the brunt of my observations about political correctness and other pet peeves.  So the price you pay to read this blog will be the occasional observation from your editor.  I look forward to your own comments.  I hope we all have some fun and learn from each other's experience and interests in golf-related living.  Golf is a game for life, and my mission is to help you find the best possible place to play it for the rest of your days.     
    Happy reading.

    Larry
   

   We often come upon private golf clubs not connected to a planned community.  They offer all the privileges of golf community courses but with the extra flexibility of choosing a home anywhere.  In the case of the excellent Tom-Fazio designed Thornblade Club in Greer, SC, the adjacent neighborhood of mostly single-family homes, with a few condos, is worth serious consideration.