Golf Community Reviews

    We are putting the finishing touches on the next issue of Home On The Course, our exclusive free newsletter that provides helpful information and observations about golf communities, as well as reviews and news updates on specific communities and golf courses.
    The August issue will include an article on the "Theory of Relativity" when looking for a home in a golf community.  We explain how you should not get hung up on expenses such as taxes and golf initiation fees, but rather look at the total cost of living when searching for a second home or retirement home.  We will also list a few properties currently for sale in communities we have visited and can recommend.  And we will check in with a few of our favorite realtors around the southeast for their updates on local market conditions.
    Home On The Course and this web site are the only places you will find unbiased, objective observations about golf developments; all other sites are paid fees to promote the golf communities they list.  We are beholden to no communities, and when we visit we pay for our own green fees and accommodations.  You get only honest opinions from us, not hype.
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    Faithful reader Rick Vogel was kind to give us a heads up that Golf Channel plans to devote its Golf in America show on Tuesday to the Ginn Resorts saga.  The show airs at 10 p.m. on most cable channels.
    The promo for the show at The Golf Channel web site hints at an expose, using the potential of "fraud" in its teaser.  For those interested in golf real estate and especially the high-end variety, the show should provide some useful lessons in what to look for -- and what to avoid -- when shopping for a home in a golf community.
    I'll have some thoughts about the show here on Wednesday.  (Note:  The Golf Channel web site is a bit sloppy, with videos that stop midway through and promotions for events that have passed.)

    If my mother were alive today, she would be embellishing her warnings to me about unhealthy foods, spending too much money in restaurants, and walking through "bad" neighborhoods with the following admonition:  Don't believe everything you read on the Internet (except, of course, what you read at her son's web site...).
    Such caution occurred to me as I did research online today for an article I am preparing on Cobblestone Park, the troubled Ginn Resort community

near Columbia, SC, that seems to be moving toward a point of stabilization under the management of the same folks who own and manage Reynolds Plantation in Georgia.  Ginn's organization, as any frequent reader of this space knows, has been forced to shed most of its high-end golf communities (Tesoro, Laurelmor, RiverTowne and others) in the face of a huge loan default after the company overspent and under-managed its properties.  Of course they blamed their demise on the economy (doesn't everyone?).
    My Internet search led me to a two-year old posting on a real estate web site by an Orlando, FL, agent offering two properties for sale in Cobblestone.  His hyperventilating words, written in 2007, remind us that few things we read on the Internet can be trusted, and that real estate prices, like everything else, cannot defy the laws of gravity forever.  Here's what he wrote just two years ago:  
    "When it comes to beautiful real estate, then these two lots for sale in Cobblestone Park, SC, are quite possibly the very best value not only in the community, but perhaps in the State... and if you know anything about that particular company [Ginn], then you know this is the best of the best.  And now you can become part of this incredible place for less than $300,000!  And not only that, you will get a $20,000 golf membership included in your purchase."
    Just two years later, "that particular company" is virtually out of business, golf membership is priced at just $1,805, and the lots that were "the very best value" at $300,000 are now selling for, gulp, $75,000.  That drop in value of 75% outdoes Miami and Las Vegas and is in contention with Detroit for most precipitous declines in the nation over the last few years.  As my mom might have warned me, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

The University Golf Club at Cobblestone Park hosts the Unviersity of South Carolina golf teams and is an interesting modern layout in excellent condition.  The previously private club is also a bargain, at $1,800 to join or $49 to play as a walk on.  The par 3 17th hole is shown.   

 

    That said, I believe properties in Cobblestone Park, which range from $60,000 to $110,000, could very well now turn out to be the value plays they were touted as two years ago, especially when the clubhouse is finished and the ownership of the community is settled.  I played the University Club golf course at Cobblestone last week and found its 27 holes well conditioned and interestingly laid out.  The previously private club is now open to the public and a bargain at just $49 per round, cart included.  

    There are enough homes built and occupied in the community to give it a neighborhood feel, although any new owners may find their already established neighbors a little prickly over having overpaid substantially a few years ago.  Still, the good news for them is that the more new residents, the greater the chance that the clubhouse and other amenities will be finished sooner rather than later. 

    If you want more information and opinions about Cobblestone Park, please contact me.  I will have more to say about Cobblestone Park in the next Home On The Course newsletter, which will publish this coming week.  To ensure you receive a copy, sign up using the convenient box at the top left above.  Be assured we will never share your name or email address with anyone.

The clubhouse at Cobblestone Park is just waiting for a new owner to complete it.  For current residents of the golf community, that day cannot come too soon,

by Larry Gavrich, editor

 

    Hundreds of thousands of homeowners will make a fateful choice in the coming months.  No matter the condition of the market, they will list their homes for sale because they have to or want to.  Most of them will ask for

the help of a real estate agent.  The smartest homeowners will choose their listing agents with something approaching the care and rigor with which they choose a doctor or lawyer.  But many will simply pick someone they know or have heard of, or someone recommended by friends who may have sold their homes in a different housing environment or under entirely different circumstances.
    Real estate agents reflect the general population and come in all types:  smart ones and dumb ones, aggressive ones and passive ones, intellectually curious ones and those who don't read the local newspaper.  Some will do their best for you and others will hardly do anything at all to move your house.  Most will sound good during the courtship phase, especially when they present a comparative market analysis (CMA) on your house and a selling estimate that exceeds your expectations.  Your first instinct might be to go with that agent, since the difference between what you thought your house would fetch and their "prediction" will pay for their commission.  Resist the urge to fall under the spell of a high estimate with all the vigor of Jack Bauer (the hero of the TV show "24" who never buckles under temptation or torture).
    Your house is worth only what someone will pay for it, not what someone paid for a similar home at the other end of your neighborhood a month ago or for the home next door where your neighbors added a $100,000 upscale kitchen two years ago.  Never accept just one CMA; ask three different agents to provide you with one CMA each, then throw out the high estimate (the agent may be pandering to you, consciously or unconsciously) and the low estimate (the agent might be looking to sell your home within a few days) and go with the agent with the middle estimate (unless he or she can't put two cogent sentences together).
    In the current market, there is one other way to choose a listing agent, and that is by asking the contenders one simple question:  "Have prices bottomed in our area?"  If the quick answer is "Yes," then move on to the next agent, and the one after that...until you find one who is either honest enough or smart enough to say, "I don't know."  Any right thinking industry observer or market economist this side of the ever-misleading National Association of Realtors cannot know if prices have hit bottom.  They may look at a slight price increase in some markets from April to May, as reported earlier this week, and say, "See, prices are turning around."  But that is akin to fans of the woeful Washington Nationals baseball team thinking that a two-game winning streak will eventually lead to winning the World Series.  Eventually, maybe, but we can only hope it happens in our lifetimes because then we know we will have lived a long time.
    An agent who sees a price reversal trend clearly is ignoring or denying the reality of some coming badness that may significantly affect housing prices.  The next wave of mortgage loan resets is looming, and many more owners will come to realize that those cheap loans they took on when prices were a rocket ship upward are no longer affordable.  More foreclosures will ensue, with pressures on pricing in the markets hardest hit.  Also, we have no idea when the dismal employment figures will turn around; we could very well be headed into deeper double-digit territory before the unemployment rolls begin to thin.  People without incomes, or fears of losing theirs, are not going to buy homes unless their jobs (and lives) depend on it.  This will tamp down price appreciation for another year or two, since general economic trends typically lag unemployment trends.
    Although you don't want Chicken Little for a real estate agent, you don't want Pollyanna either.  The more sober your agent is about market conditions, the more realistic he or she will be about your prospects for a sale, and what price will attract buyers to your home in a thin market.  Finally, understand that a real estate agent does not really care about what price you fetch for your home.  A $30,000 price difference is a big deal to you as the seller, but a 3% listing commission on $30,000 probably means about $400 to the listing agent (remember, the agent's broker gets a healthy cut).  Suffice to say that agents care about a quick sale much more than they do final selling price.
    All this concern about prices leads to a conclusion that everyone with a home to sell should try to wait until the market improves, right?  My strong response is "No," not if you have been planning to move and are in the black in terms of your home's value (that is, you can sell it for more than the remaining mortgage balance).  Keep in mind that as you have lost value in your home, virtually everyone else has lost value in theirs, including the one you will buy next.  And if your relocation will result in a cost of living decrease for you (and your family), the improvement in your lifestyle and the relief of moving on with your life will lift a big weight off your shoulders.  

    I am a licensed real estate agent who does not take any listings for homes, although from time to time I will advertise homes at this site and in my newsletter, Home On The Course, if I think they represent excellent value to my readers, and if I have personally visited the golf community in which they are located.  I do refer readers and other customers to qualified real estate agents in the southern U.S., for which I receive referral fees if my customers purchase a property.  I never charge my customers any fees, nor do the real estate agents I engage, and there is absolutely never any obligation to purchase.  

    Myrtle Beach is hot this summer.  No, that doesn't mean thousands of people are beating a path to the Grand Strand to play golf and hang out on its excellent beaches.  It is just plain hot, north of 90 degrees every day and typically humid.  Some like it hot, but many do not, and now a Myrtle Beach golf resort is appealing literally to those who need a vacation but want to pay only what they think their vacation is worth.
    Premier Resorts at the Barefoot Resort is inviting guests to stay for fivedays and four nights beginning any Sunday in August to name their own price upon checkout.  "You tell us what your stay was worth to you," the ad at the Premier Resorts web site says, "no strings attached and no fine print.  You simply tell us what you want to pay for your stay, pay that amount and go have a nice day!"
    The psychology here is interesting.  Premier must believe both that it can provide a quality stay for its patrons and, also, that those patrons, if satisfied, will pay a fair price for the stay.  Premier is betting that the definition of "fair" will at least cover their costs and set the hook for a return visit at some other time at "normal" prices.  One wonders, though, if you stay at a place for say, $50 a night, will you return another time $125 a night or more, no matter how good a time you had?  Maybe...
    As you would expect, there are a limited number of rooms available for the Premier package, so book soon if you can.  Myrtle Beach offers the biggest buffet of golf anywhere, including four excellent courses at the Barefoot Resort.  For the most part, all courses on the Grand Strand are lightly trafficked in the heat of the summer, and the prices are the lowest of the year.  Make sure you have access to cold water or Gatorade and you should be fine.
    Click here for more details.  I know the Myrtle Beach area well, its golf courses and golf communities, and if you want a recommendation, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Story and photos by Larry Gavrich

 

    In five years of visits to more than 100 golf communities, I rate only a handful near perfection, say a 9 or higher on a 10-point scale.  Ford Plantation, with its exquisite Pete Dye golf course, would be one of them.  The Cliffs Communities is another, although their hyper-marketing machine

tries way too hard to push the notion of perfection.  And, recently, a visit to Spring Island, north of Savannah, made me wish I had invested more wisely -- make that a lot more wisely -- in order to afford the rustic Low Country homes on the nicely wooded properties near the best Arnold Palmer course I have played, Old Tabby Links.  All these communities have a few things in common that include, as you might imagine, some lofty prices for real estate (millions) and club memberships (as much as $150,000), and the kind of attention to detail that CEOs and other successful, high-wage earners expect.
    But Briar's Creek, a community that belongs in the company of the best golf course developments, does one thing much better than the rest -- it personalizes to the maximum the experience for all its visitors in a way that makes prospective buyers or even a golf community blogger feel as if they are Norm walking into the Cheers bar.  Briar's Creek management makes sure that everybody knows your name.
    It started for me at the gate, where I thought the guard might open my car door and give me a hug.  "Welcome to Briar's Creek, Mr. Gavrich," he said with overflowing enthusiasm.  "We have been waiting for you."  The name recognition (and enthusiasm) extended later to the general manager of the clubhouse, the gentleman who took our golf clubs at the bag drop and the waitress in the clubhouse.  No introductions necessary; they all knew my name.  At first it felt a little spooky but it didn't take long for me to start feeling, well, kind of special....and a little jealous of the handful of people living at Briar's Creek and the couple of hundred more who will join them, including some impressive names I spotted on the beautiful wooden lockers in the men's locker room.  (For privacy reasons, I won't mention them here but one is top dog at a mega-billion dollar global corporation.)

The longest forced carry from the blue tees at Briar's Creek is at #11, which requires a poke of more than 180 yards.    

 

    Briar's Creek is the brainchild of successful Charleston-area custom homebuilder Steve Koenig.  Mr. Koenig has a decades-long reputation for building upscale, exquisite homes in the Low Country, and he has extended his vision to a beautiful 900-acre property on Johns Island, just northwest of Kiawah Island.  Kiawah is where Briar's Creek residents head when they need their beach fix; it is just 10 minutes away.  Charleston, a more ambitious drive on the local two-lane road, is only 30 minutes away, a small inconvenience for exposure to a city that offers plenty to do and arguably the best restaurants in the southeast.
    Every new construction start is greeted with intense interest and celebration by the Briar's Creek staff.  Although Briar's Creek began selling home sites in 2003, the community is still in an early stage of development, with just eight homes built (or under construction).  Of the mere 113 total home sites, 78 have been sold (although eight are back on the market as re-sales). I am by nature leery about developments that have not built all the promised amenities, and Briar's Creek still has its pool, tennis courts, spa and boathouse to go.  But its critical amenities, the golf course and clubhouse, as well as a modest, temporary fitness center, nature trails and a community boat dock, are firmly in place.  The rest are likely to follow soon, especially when more homes are built and new residents arrive.    

     The year-old craftsman-style clubhouse is warm and comfortable without being ostentatious, although it is clear that expensive materials were used in its construction (especially the wood that festoons the walls, banisters, period furniture and lockers).  The building sits atop the highest point on the property, and its backside looks out across the marsh and toward Kiawah Island, providing commanding views for diners in the spacious restaurant downstairs and gentlemen answering the call of nature upstairs in the locker room.  Marshes are fascinating ecosystems, and it is not unusual to see a marsh deer prancing by at low tide, as I did when I drove up to the clubhouse.  Briar's Creek retains a naturalist on staff to explain such wonders and to take residents on guided walks and boat trips around the property and Johns Island.
    We sat down for a late lunch after our round of golf on a quiet Thursday afternoon.  We were the only ones eating at 3:00 p.m.  The waitress told us the chef had left 15 minutes earlier and that the menu would be limited.  She served us our drinks and returned a few minutes later to announce we could have the run of the menu, and that she had called the chef and he had insisted on returning to cook for us.  The food -- I ordered the shrimp burger sandwich, made in the fashion of a crab cake -- was excellent, and I am confident members don't mind the $1,000 annual food minimum.
    The golf course and expansive practice area -- practice range and green next to each other -- receive just as much attention as the clubhouse, and then some.  My two playing partners and I warmed up for our round under the watchful eye of golf professional Chris Edwards; we were the only three people on the practice tee.  According to my host, Chuck Finney, director of sales at Briar's Creek, one of the golf pros is typically lurking near the range, available to dispense swing advice if requested.  It is certainly a comfort to receive a bit of "free" advice and a pep talk just before you go out to play.  Such service is included in the Briar's Creek refundable initiation fee of $100,000 -- dropped from $160,000 just this week -- and dues of $11,700 annually, $5,850 for those who do not reside on site.  The club maintains a group of member cottages for members visiting from out of town, as well as for prospective buyers.

    The surrounding marshland is a strong element of the beautifully manicured golf course.  Forced carries from the tee boxes are frequent, but only a few of them are daunting if you choose to play from the correct tees (and get your tee shots airborne).  Finney and Richard Seay, real estate executive for the community, were excellent guides for my round at Briar's Creek, and they pointed me to tee markers in the ground that showed both the distance to the hole and the distance to clear the marsh. The longest forced carry was 181 yards from the penultimate tee boxes we played (total yardage 6,740, rating 72.7 and slope 136). Nothing seems to force a golfer to keep his head down like the threat of a ball dribbling into the marsh ahead, and I drove the ball well most of the day.  Chuck told me that, a day earlier, he had played with two couples, all prospective purchasers.  The women "dribbled" the ball off most of the front tees, but when they came to the one forced carry from the ladies tees (about a 40-yard carry), they both cleared it.
    Developer Koenig and his wife were so impressed with the smart design Rees Jones provided that they commissioned a portrait of the architect; it hangs inside the clubhouse opposite the staircase that ascends up to the locker and meeting rooms.  In the painting, Mr. Jones is smiling confidently.  He has reason to, having mastered an impressive piece of marshland property and sculpted a challenging course of which no member is likely to tire.

The craftsman style clubhouse at Briar's Creek.

 
    At just a couple of miles from the ocean, the Briar's Creek course has a little bit of a links land feel to it, the fairway grass thinner than more inland courses but dense enough for the ball to sit up perfectly.  The club head moves through the ball without much resistance, a good thing since approaches to the sloped, good-sized greens must be unerring to avoid the dreaded three putt.  The greens were fast and almost without any evidence of ball marks, since Briar's Creek averages just a few rounds a day.  During our round, I spotted only one other group on the course.  
     Golfers who pay such a high tariff to play should not have to bother calling for tee times, and Briar's Creek does not disappoint on that score.  Most of the club's current 200 members (membership will be capped at 360) are from off property, many of them Kiawah Island residents, and many of those contemplating a move to the much less crowded, totally un-resort like Briar's Creek.  Their only wait to play is for a playing partner to show up.
    Properties at Briar's Creek begin in the $300s and can go as high as $2 million for a site that has it all -- privacy, views of the marsh and a boat dock from which you can make your way to the Intra-Coastal Waterway and the Atlantic beyond.  Homeowners spend an average of $400 a square foot to outfit their new homes, putting the total cost of a home at Briar's Creek well into the millions.  At such prices, the $100,000 fully refundable equity membership is almost a rounding error, but those who can afford to call Briar's Creek home will find plenty of personal touches, and a place where everybody knows your name.

 

     Briar's Creek Private Golf Retreat, 4000 Briar's Creek Lane, Johns Island, SC.  Web:  BriarsCreek.com.  18 holes of Rees Jones designed golf.  Black tees:  7,130 yards, rating 74.0, slope 141.  Blue tees: 6,740, 72.7, 136.  White tees: 6,302, 70.0, 126.  Green tees: 5,944, 68.0, 120.  Women's yellow tees:  5,371, 72.8, 127.  Women's red:  4,773, 69.7, 118.

Home sites priced $300s to $2 million.  A few built homes available from $3 million.

     For more information or to have me arrange a conversation with any of the Briar's Creek sales staff, contact me by clicking here. 

There are two ways to approach the green at the challenging par 5 18th at Briar's Creek.  Top, you can hit a long-iron lay-up short and left of a grove of trees on the right or, bottom, you can bust a fairway wood to the end of the fairway beyond the trees, the more conventional and easier approach.

    In recent weeks, my mailbox has been hit every few days by emails from Brunswick Plantation announcing that economists have declared the end of the housing market's troubles and that sales of homes in Myrtle Beach are rising. "Top Economists Say Housing Market at Bottom and Economy Stabilizing - Time to Buy at Brunswick Plantation, Calabash NC," was the subject of the latest missive, which arrived today.
    True, the latest housing market reports are encouraging, with a reduction in the numbers of homes for sale to a level that represents a modest

buyer's market, rather than the wild buyer's market we have lived through over the last few years.  About six months worth of inventory is considered balanced; anything more than that tilts the market in favor of those who have the wherewithal to make offers.  In this market, sellers have not refused any reasonable offers (and have accepted some unreasonable ones).  On Daniel Island, for example, one home sold recently for $725,000 after being purchased for $950,000 just two years ago, and that price was considered a bargain at the time.
    I have been giving Brunswick Plantation credit for its aggressive moxie in its emails up until this latest blast.  For example, its discovery package, priced at $10 per night, has been by far the lowest of any I have encountered, although I pity the poor couples that have had to sit still for the real estate presentation and tour.  Brunswick isn't giving away overnight accommodations without a reasonable expectation of sales.
    But this latest spate of emails from the community distorts reality when it indicates, "Economists are saying nationwide housing has hit bottom. Historically, prices will begin to rise, so now is the time to buy."  Easy for them to say; prices always rise at some point after they fall.  The question is when, and although the respected Case/Shiller report today indicated a slight rise in prices in May, there is too much uncertainty over employment to start celebrating just yet.  Potential buyers at Brunswick Plantation and other communities won't take the plunge until they sell their current homes, and they won't do that until they get what they think is fair value for those homes.  
    Even those economists who see inventories going down worry about unemployment and lingering foreclosures effects on home prices.  For those with financial security, bargains will continue to be there, and the latest uptick in prices could very well be a false positive. 

    Brunswick Plantation should read economists' reports all the way to the end.

    Golfers in the Columbia, SC, area have some nice choices of courses, both private and public.  Today, I drove the fairways of the Columbia Country Club in the town of Blythewood, just outside the state capital city.  I was "caddying" for my son in the U.S. Amateur qualifying tournament; the U.S.G.A. permits caddies to drive the players clubs around on the cart and to offer advice.
    Although Tim missed the cut by one stroke after shooting a 74, we both liked the golf course.  One member told us initiation fees are about $3,000 and dues less than $300 per month, taxes and assessments included.  In my experience, this is a quite reasonable tariff for an established, well maintained and fully amenitized club.  The 27 holes by Ellis Maples are carved among the Carolina pines, with smooth fast greens that test the mettle of even the best putters.  The course wasn't too difficult -- witness the 41 golfers that shot 73 or better to make it to a second day of qualifying -- but I could see playing it a few times a week and being quite content.
    After the morning round at the club, we packed up our clubs and headed for Cobblestone Park, about 15 minutes away but also in Blythewood.  Cobblestone, which I will report on fully here in the next few days, has gone through some changes of ownership, and the 27-hole golf course has gone from private to public in recent months (a billboard on the interstate announces it).  At just $49, cart included, it is one of the better buys in daily fee golf.

Columbia area golfers get plenty of practice in bunkers at Columbia Country Club (top) and Cobblestone Park.