Golf Community Reviews

        It may seem a sweeping generalization, but the numbers bear it out: Homes in golf rich markets of the southeast are appreciating in value faster than most metro markets in the north. In Avon, CT, for example, where I live most of the year, the median sales price of homes from September to

        But the story is decidedly different in most of the markets of the southeast, where median sales prices over the same period are up anywhere from 3.8% in Chapel Hill, NC, to a whopping 39.5% in Greensboro, GA, home to Reynolds Plantation. After a cursory scan of popular golf areas in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Florida, only the Myrtle Beach area (-17.1%) and Hilton Head Island (-10%) suffered decreases in the two-month period. (There might be others since our scan was not exhaustive.) Yet prices in Bluffton, just off Hilton Head and home to such upscale golf communities as Colleton River, Belfair and Berkeley Hall, increased a robust 37.7%, according to Trulia.

        Healthier economic forecasts and the consumer confidence that follows are restarting the engines of migration from north to south, increasing demand in golf communities from Virginia south. In addition, the healthy Canadian economy, which did not suffer as much as the U.S. economy during the recession, is driving our northern neighbors to

        The impediment to their relocation, of course, has been the decreased value of their primary homes. But for those who have owned their primary homes since well before the market collapse in 2008 and are not overleveraged with home equity loans and second mortgages, they could very well have enough equity to facilitate a relocation south –- as long as they don’t wait too long to move to the most rapidly appreciating markets, like Bluffton, Wilmington, NC (+15.6%) and Williamsburg, VA (+16%).

        The following numbers represent selected metro markets north and south and indicate how median sales prices increased or decreased between 2011 and 2012 (in the September-to-November time period). Our conclusion is that the spreads between prices north and south are, in

        If you are considering a move, please contact us and we will be happy to consider the numbers specific to your situation and help you customize a search for your golf home in the southern U.S.  Our service is strictly private, free and without any obligation to you whatsoever.

Median sales prices (annual % increase/decrease)

        Builders willing to buy individual and clusters of home lots is a sure sign that the residential leisure real estate market is on the mend in selected golf communities. Landfall, the sprawling coastal golf community just outside Wilmington, NC, is a prime example.

        “[Our] least expensive lots have now been bought up, in many cases by builders,” says Landfall Realty General Manager Ken Kirkman, “and the speculative builder is back.”

        Kirkman indicates that his on-site real estate office at Landfall is working with six local builders who have either begun construction of new homes in the golf community, or will shortly. All the new homes have gone through the customary architectural review board (ARB) process to ensure their designs are consistent with other Landfall homes and with the golf community’s overall look.

Just one of the 45 holes of Jack Nicklaus and Pete Dye golf at Landfall.

        The new homes, which will average a little more than 3,000 square feet, are priced in the $600,000 to $750,000 range. Kirkman says the new golf homes are sized smaller than those built before the recession, a response to buyers’ downsized expectations both for space and price.

        “These new homes are selling well, as much of the buying public want new construction and do not want to build,” according to Kirkman. “Yet they don’t want ‘cookie cutter’ homes that are found in many other communities.”

        Landfall features 45 holes of designer golf, 27 by Jack Nicklaus and 18 by Pete Dye, as well as the world-class Cliff Drysdale Tennis Center and all the other amenities of an upscale community.  Golf home prices begin in the high $300s and run well into the millions. (Click here for a selection of current properties for sale in Landfall.) Lot prices begin in the $100s for those considering building their own dream golf home. [Note: The January edition of our free Home On The Course newsletter will consider the up and downsides of taking on such a project. Subscribe by clicking here.]

        For retirees who don’t mind giving up some of the conveniences of nearby urban life in exchange for a quiet, golf community centered life, we found a few gems as October turned to November and we made our final southern swing of the year. Outside Greenwood, SC, which is a sizable town with some good restaurants and all the services a couple should need, the Grand Harbor Golf & Yacht Club community is gaining

The par 4 2nd hole on the Monticello course at Savannah Lakes features the sloping, bunkers, water hazard and rock outcroppings that characterize the rest of the attractive layout.

        At Savannah Lakes, which sounds like it should be in Georgia but is actually in rural McCormick, SC, we found some of the most reasonably priced real estate anywhere, and two golf courses that will satisfy all but the most picky single-digit players. Lake Thurmond, named for the iconic late South Carolina senator, snakes its way through Savannah Lakes providing finger-shaped coves that are exquisite sites for lots and homes whose prices might surprise those dreaming of a water view. If you would like more information on Savannah Lakes, please contact me.

Lake Oconee comes into play on the par 3 4th on Tom Fazio's Bluff nine on The National at Reynolds Plantation.

        We had put off for way too long a visit to Reynolds Plantation, whose lush roster of amenities, including 6 ½ well-regarded golf courses and on-site Ritz Carlton resort, had always intrigued us. Frankly, we are glad we waited until after the shakeout at Reynolds, with the original developers succumbing to the toxic combination of over-spending and the recession, and white knight MetLife riding into bankruptcy court with the resources and promise to make things right. Things do seem right at Reynolds, the golf courses in splendid condition, the Creek Club (most private of the bunch) as great looking a layout as we have seen in years, and the entire community abuzz with renewed vigor (nothing like a deep-pocketed owner to restore vitality). And with a large supermarket just outside the gates, along with many doctors’ offices, restaurants, an eight-screen Cineplex and a new hospital under construction, the town of Greensboro may be remote (90 minutes from Atlanta) but it doesn’t lack for services. Jere Mills, the longtime real estate professional at Reynolds, features a number of golf homes for sale at Reynolds at GolfHomesListed.

Knowledgeable caddies added to the experience of the best golf course we played in 2012, May River at Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, SC.

        We could not have asked for a better tandem of courses to wind up our year in November than Haig Point and May River. This was our fourth visit to Haig Point, the unique Daufuskie Island golf community reached only by the community’s ferry service. For those intrepid vacation and year round home seekers willing to trade daily access to life’s ordinary conveniences for the romance of pure island living, Haig Point is a perfect choice. The 29 holes of Rees Jones golf was already good, but a recent rehab has made them even better and, in the opinion of some of my fellow SC Golf Rating panel members, put them in a class with Hilton Head’s iconic Harbour Town links. Tom Jackson, our real estate professional in the area, owns property on Daufuskie Island and would be pleased to explain why. Contact us for a referral to Tom.

        Haig Point would have been a perfect capper to the year, but the following day, the SC Panel headed back to the mainland to play Jack Nicklaus’ May River Golf Club in Bluffton, consistently ranked in the state’s top 5. Playing the course with knowledgeable caddies who understood the subtle breaks on May River’s impeccable greens only enhanced the experience. A driver to eight feet on the par 3 17^th and a solidly stroked putt for birdie was your editor’s best-played hole on the best course he played in 2012. The real estate in the surrounding Palmetto Bluff golf community is at the high end, but membership at May River is an expense some will want to bear after they have played it. One way to gain access is to book a night at the Palmetto Bluff Inn, one the best hotels in the nation. (Please contact us if you would like Tom Jackson to provide you with more information about Palmetto Bluff.)

A recent renovation only improved the layout at Haig Point on Daufuskie Island.  The long par 3 15th is only one of the courses challenging one-shotters.

        The housing market also ended 2012 on a high note. All the latest reports from inside and outside the industry are positive. The real estate professionals we work with are reporting a heavier flow of customers than in any year since well before the recession. Prices have bottomed out in most high quality golf communities and are starting to inch up. If our politicians don’t work their negative magic on the economy, the last piece of the puzzle -– companies hiring and relocating workers who then can purchase our primary homes at fair market prices and give us the resources to finally move south –- will fall into place. This coming year could be a big one for the leisure residential market in the southern U.S., and also for those who take advantage of the shrinking number of bargains that remain.

        Please contact me if I can assist you in thinking through the process of searching for your golf community home.

The golf course at Grand Harbor on Lake Greenwood is "revolutionary," with its mimic of ruins from a nearby battle during the War of Independence.

        Like a round of golf, photographing a golf course for an amateur like myself can be a challenging experience. Some golf courses, even those with a little contour in them, are flat looking, and they translate that way to the camera. If I find an interesting hole or two per course, I am as happy as I am making a couple of birdies.

        It is rare to encounter 18 golf holes on one course that scream for a camera. In my experience, just a relative few courses scored a perfect 18 in that regard, among them Pine Valley, Kapalua Plantation on Maui, the Old Course at St. Andrews and Sunningdale outside London. Other great courses like Augusta National, Shinnecock Hills and Winged Foot come close, but there are one or two holes that, for a rank amateur photographer like yours truly, are impossible to make as interesting visually as they are to play.

Par 3 at Creek Club, with water, bunkers and mounding.  Still, the pin was in a bowl-shaped part of the green, and quite accessible. (More photos below.) All photos by Larry Gavrich.

        This year, I photographed one golf course that offered 18 holes I couldn’t screw up, with a camera at least. The Creek Club at Reynolds Plantation, designed by the under-heralded Jim Engh, is what the French refer to as trompe l’oeil, or “trick the eye.” That is because every hole appears impossibly difficult to play and yet, according to the club’s professional, Wes Forester, my eyes (and camera) didn’t pick up the “funneling effect” on many of the greens and in many of the sloping fairways. In other words, you have to be pretty wild off the tee and on your approaches not to take advantage of sloping that protects you from the creek and can send a slightly errant approach shot toward the middles of greens.

        Creek Club is the only strictly private golf club of Reynolds’ six and a half beautifully conditioned layouts. (Guests of the on-site Ritz Carlton have access to the others.) Those willing and able to pay the surcharge initiation fee to play it and the other 5+ courses will find Creek Club a feast for their eyes –- and a bit of an ego booster.

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        Reynolds Plantation is one of the success stories of 2012 among golf communities. Thanks to its purchase by MetLife and Daniel Corporation, Reynolds not only survived some tough financial issues but also now has the financial backing to maintain its roster of top-drawer amenities. Golf homes for sale at Reynolds Plantation start in the high $100s (condos) and reach well into the millions for sites with great views of Lake Oconee. For a selection of lots and golf homes for sale, please see GolfHomesListed.

        Hitting practice shots on the range at Heritage Bay Country Club in Naples, FL, is a slam dunk, literally. The “aqua” range features a few flags stuck into greens for aiming purposes, but from a few feet in front of the tee stations to about 200 yards out, everything is water. The practice golf balls are special; they fly about half as far as normal golf balls -- and they float. That makes collecting the golf balls a lot easier for Heritage Bay employees.

        But what is good for operations is not necessarily so for golfers. On the range, there is a tendency to over-swing a bit to compensate for the hollow golf balls' shorter flights.  That seems to defeat the entire point of attempting to find your golf swing's rhythm before you start your round.  And after whacking a small bucket of balls toward the island flags, I found it took a few holes on the golf course before my Bridgestones felt normal.

        I suppose if one approaches the practice range as a place to limber up only, forgets to worry about distance and direction and compartmentalizes the image of every golf ball finding a watery grave, then the aqua range won’t affect your round. That is the way it should be since the golf course at Heritage Bay is excellent and, oddly, doesn’t feature all that much water in play.  Condominiums in Heritage Bay begin as low as the mid $100s.

On the practice range at Heritage Bay, every shot finds the hazard.

        In those halcyon days of yesteryear -– the early 2000s -- when the value of golf community homes seemed to jump 15% annually, it made some sense to buy a condo, use it two weeks a year for the family vacation, and rent it out the rest of the year. The net rental income rarely paid for all

        Pawleys Plantation, a top golf community in Pawleys Island, SC, is one such possibility. Although my wife and I already own a couple of properties in the community and surely do not need another, I am sorely tempted by a two-bedroom, two-bath end-unit “golf villa” that has come on the market for just $110,000. A bit of simple math shows how good a deal this could be.

        First, the price: Comparable units along the 10^th fairway of the Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course at Pawleys Plantation are listed at $125,000 and above. Just before the recession, these units sold for around $200,000. This latest offering is a “short sale,” which means that the owner owes more on the unit than its market value, and the bank holding the note will have the last say on the sale. A buyer able to pay all cash will have a leg up.

        Second: It is possible to cover the carrying costs by renting out this unit to vacationing golfers and families. We estimate the total of taxes, homeowner association fees and other incidental costs will range up to about $600 per month, or $7,200 per year. Condo units of this type rent for an average $800 per week, more during the peak spring and fall seasons, slightly lower during the summer seasons, and lowest during the winter

Most of the back nine at Pawleys Plantation plays beside and over the marsh that separates the golf community from the homes on the Atlantic Ocean, seen in the distance here beyond the 16th green.

        For those wondering if 15 weeks of rental income is a realistic number, we point to a VRBO (Vacation Rental by Owner) listing in Pawleys Plantation in the same group of units as the one for sale. Already, through June, the owner has rented the unit for more than 10 weeks, with the fairly busy summer and very busy fall seasons not yet booked. (The rate for the unit is $700 weekly, with an additional $90 cleaning fee at the end.)

        Third: The golf course at Pawleys Plantation is one of the best on the Grand Strand of Myrtle Beach, challenging and beautiful all in one, especially the back nine, which plays along and, at one point over, marshland. As you face the par 3 13^th hole, “the shortest par 5” in South Carolina, you look out across the marsh to Pawleys Island and the Atlantic Ocean about a half mile away, only a five-minute drive to its wonderful public beach. You may not be able to put a monetary value on it, but a couple of weeks a year, you can play hero to your golfing buddies or your family. That’s certainly worth something.

        Fourth: The ultimate payoff, assuming the overall economy continues to improve and the leisure residential market along with it, is that your condo will appreciate in price. Precise price forecasts are impossible, but we know what condos like this one sold for before the economy went squishy. If your condo recovers only half its former peak value, and you were to sell it in five years for, say, $150,000, don’t pull a muscle patting yourself on the back.

        Cathy Bergeron of The Litchfield Company in Pawleys Island has listed this property and others in Pawleys Plantation at our GolfHomesListed web site. Feel free to browse and register or sign in there for more details on the golf villa or any other golf homes for sale in the community.

        Golf is a tough enough game without unwanted distractions. When we play an unfamiliar golf course, we especially appreciate signs at the tee boxes that show the layouts of the holes. Better yet, we prefer yardage books. Anything that takes the guesswork out of shot-making and frees us, mentally, to concentrate on our strokes, will enhance the experience of a round on an untested golf course.

        Sometimes, though, as we found occasionally in 2012, golf courses can provide too much of a good thing in the way of guidance. And for your peace of mind and your golf game, that can be a bad sign.

The kids are all right…if you don’t slice

        We played the Linkside course at Pebble Creek Country Club in Greenville, SC, with Lyn Young, who owns the club’s two 18-hole layouts -– one private (Linkside) and one open to the public (Creekside). A sign at the tee box on the par 4 dogleg right 9^th hole issues an intimidating warning to those trying to cut the dogleg on the 390-yard hole: “Do Not Cut Corner…Children Are At Risk…You Are Responsible.” The sign scared me into aiming left and then, of course, I hooked the shot, leaving a long approach shot to the green. As we advanced down the fairway, I noted that the backyard of the house at the elbow of the dogleg was covered in netting anyway. And, on this day and at this time, there was no one in the backyard. Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Where eagles cannot soar

        Arriving early in the afternoon for a four-day visit to Greenville, SC, I stopped for a warm-up nine holes at the Creek Country Club, just outside of town. The layout at the public Creek golf course was pretty straightforward… until I reached the tee box on the short par 4 6^th hole and was greeted with a sign that, in emphatic language, forbade me to attempt to reach the green that was just 275 yards from the tee -– the last 75 yards almost straight down a steep hill. I followed orders well, laying up 100 yards short of the green, almost to the end of the fairway and just 15 yards short of the steep drop down to the green. This was that rarest of par 4s for a medium length hitter like me -– a reachable green -- and I was tempted to go back to the tee and pull out the driver for a go at the green and a possible eagle. But I settled for a half wedge down the hill and a routine two putts for par.

Degree of difficulty = 7

        Sometimes it is better off not knowing what lies on the other side of a fairway hill. But when a golf course announces at the tee box that such a hole presents disaster potential, you don’t take your club back with a whole lot of confidence. At the par 4 4th hole at Hickory Knob State Park golf course near McCormick, SC, the fairway disappears about 190 yards from the tee. The tee box greets you with a sign that is half-demand, half-warning about the hole’s degree of difficulty: “Please limit your play on this hole to seven strokes.” This caused our foursome, before we teed off, to drive up to the edge of the fairway where we immediately understood the Hobson’s choice off the tee box; lay-up with an iron and leave a long approach shot over muck and mire (a dried out lake bed) or hit driver and take your chances with a shorter approach off a downhill lie from gnarly rough. Either way, a triple bogey is in play, but some things are better left unsaid at the tee box.

Announcing the Blindingly Obvious

        Some reminders before the golf swing are helpful. “Take it back slow and straight.” “Head down and follow through.” Even “Avoid that bunker on the right.” However, we found the tee sign at the finishing hole at Imperial Golf Club in Naples, FL, to be helpful to a fault: “Please Be Aware of Homes to the Left.” You can hide bunkers, streams, ponds and even the occasional green from the player’s view. But homes on a golf course are pretty tough to conceal, especially from members of a private golf club like Imperial.

A Sign of Respect

        Green Valley Country Club in Greenville, SC, features a stone marker beside most of its tee boxes. Many are dedicated in memoriam to former members, paid for by their former fellow members or family members. There is even one, at the 18^th tee box, for George Cobb, Sr., who originally designed Green Valley in 1955. But the stone marker at the 16^th (below) is targeted to all members and guests who pass that way. Amen.

This time of year, the news media likes to publish their “best of” lists and top annual awards. People must like them because the media publish them year after year. Beginning today, we extol the virtues of a few of our favorite communities

        At this time last year, Greensboro, GA’s Reynolds Plantation, which covers 80 miles of Lake Oconee shoreline an hour and a half northeast of Atlanta, seemed down and almost out. Homeowners had voted, quite emphatically, to reject an offer from Mercer and Jamie Reynolds to buy the

Lake Oconee is never far from any of the 6 1/2 golf courses at Reynolds Plantation.  On the par 3 3rd at Tom Fazio's 27-hole National course, a narrow finger of the lake makes it clear that you are playing the "Cove" nine.

        During our recent visit, we saw no visible sign that Reynolds had ever been in trouble –- the golf courses and their clubhouses were pristine, the 38,000 foot Lake Club was bustling with workout sessions, lunch crowds and other activities, and residents were roundly pleased that their

        Reynolds and other Georgia golf communities received a big boost when the State announced that state tax on retiree income for those 65 and older will be phased out in 2016.  Next year, the exclusion will be $100,000, with $150,000 in 2014 and $200,000 in 2015.  The exclusion for residents 62 to 64 remains at $35,000.

        Furnished golf villas at Reynolds Plantation start in the high $200s, single-family homes from the low $400s, and lots from around $50,000, with some lake view properties beginning in the low $100s.  For a list of current Reynolds Plantation properties for sale, visit GolfHomesListed. Or contact us for more information and to arrange a "discovery" visit to Reynolds. The golf courses there are open all year.