Golf Community Reviews

Heart of Texas:  Robert Trent Jones Jr. presented Mill Creek Golf Club with a valentine when he designed the course in the 1980s.  The heart-shaped green is at top center in the photo.  Photo by Travis Fell.

 

Golf review:  Mill Creek Golf Club, Salado, TX

    With thousands of golf courses across the U.S., it is impossible for all of us to have an appreciation for more than a small percentage of them.  We rely on the reviews and comments of others to advise that, if we are ever passing through Simsbury, CT, Cedar Rapids, IA, or Salado, TX, for example, we might just want to stop for at least four hours (half if we only have time for nine holes).  I was gratified, therefore, when Letta Meinen, a resident and club member at Mill Creek in Salado, offered to provide an overview of her golf club and community.  I've never been to Salado, but based on Letta's comments, I hope to in the near future.  Her proud reviews of her town, community and golf course follow.  I invite others to share here their own odes to their clubs and communities.

by Letta Meinen

    The Mill Creek Golf Course has been around since the 1960s, originally as a nine-hole layout.  Within the confines of the village of Salado, about halfway between Austin and Dallas/Ft. Worth, the former ranchland was originally untamed country rife with brush, mesquite, live oaks and a range of other flora and wild life.  The course and community are named for the meandering limestone-bottom creek that runs through the property.
    Salado is a small, historic village whose famous and popular Stagecoach Inn restaurant was an official stop on the Chisholm Trail.  (For more history and dozens of photos of the town, visit SmallTownGems.com).  Original investors in Mill Creek saw a different trail, Interstate 35, as bringing enough traffic to the area to justify a golf course.  In the late 1980s, a local investor, Don Mackie, led a group that bought the course and expanded it to 18 holes with a vision of expanding the adjacent residential community.  He organized the Mill Creek Community Association and made plans to build additional homes on the land his group had purchased.  He also built condominiums and town houses that were used mostly as rental properties.  (Mr. Mackie passed away in 2001, before he could realize his vision of a 36-hole golf club.  Morris Foster, a lifelong resident of Salado and a local businessman, purchased the club.)
Mr. Mackie was a friend of golf architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. and hired him to design Mill Creek's first 18 holes. (Jones added another nine holes in the 1990s to accommodate the growing community.)  When friends of Mr. Jones asked him where he was working, he kept answering "in the heart of Texas."  He brought his response to life, designing the green complex on his signature hole at Mill Creek in the shape of a heart, and the tee box in the shape of an arrow.  [Editor's note:  It must be a popular place on Valentine's Day.]  Jones also designed three holes with trees in the middle of fairways.
     The three nines are named the Mill, the Creek, and the Springs, the Mill and Creek being the original 18.  They feature water on eight of the holes, as well as plenty of trees and sand.  The Mill carries a par of 36 and the Creek a 35.  The Spring course is more open, although three holes are ringed by trees; #9 has two of those Jones trees in the fairway.  Par is only 34.  The most challenging combination of nines carries a rating of 72.1, slope of 128 and yardage of just under 6,500.  The Mill Creek pro shop makes sure we play alternate combinations of holes each day, which keeps things challenging and never boring.
     The Mill Creek community, which is not gated, is home to 650 residents.  Condominiums start around $90,000 and patio and single-family homes are in the $150,000 to $1 million category.   Golf membership, which is just $3,000 and $275 per month for dues, is not mandatory for residents, but it does provide advantages.  Active Men's and Ladies Associations sponsor a number of tournaments and other activities throughout the year.  The two swimming pools and tennis court are well used.  Residents are permitted to own and use a golf cart in the community and on the course, with the payment of an annual "trail fee."  A driving range and putting green are available for practice sessions and golf lessons.   As a semi-private club, we encourage large groups to use Mill Creek for their events, but with 27 holes, we always have the extra nine for members to continue playing on the days of the outside events.
     All kinds of artists will feel at home in the Salado area.  Our residents get involved in painting, writing, music, humanities, and drama; throughout the year, the community is host to stage plays, community chorus and art festivals.   Salado also has a great library, several active churches, a number of bed and breakfast inns, as well as shopping that includes boutiques and art galleries.  We have several great gourmet restaurants and excellent coffee shops and tearooms.
     Smack in between the flat metro area of Dallas/Ft. Worth and the Texas Hill Country of Austin, our town is a little bit hills and a little bit farmland.  Salado, which was incorporated just a few years ago, is a few miles from the town of Temple, whose Scott and White Hospital is well regarded; we are also near Killeen, which is home to one of the largest military bases in the nation, Fort Hood.   With Austin and the Dallas/Ft. Worth areas just an hour away, and Houston just three hours, Salado is truly at the heart of Texas.

    The Mill Creek web site is at MillCreek-Golf.com.

Jones' gotcha:  The finishing hole on the short, but tricky Spring nine at Mill Creek features not one but two trees dead smack in the middle of the fairway.  Photo by Letta Meinen

The Arthur Hills course at the age-retricted Colonial Heritage community in Williamsburg, VA, is one of the toughest layouts I've played in recent years, with many forced carries, as this one on the 13th hole.  Perhaps that is why the community is targeting a "younger" demographic, 45 year olds.

    As I reported here yesterday, I attended this past weekend's Live South Show in Greenwich, CT.  Live South brings a few dozen communities to a hotel exhibition space where local people can take a one-stop shopping spin through the hall, ask questions of each community's agents, sign-up to receive marketing materials and, if inspired, arrange for a visit and tour.  The next show stop is in Parsippany, NJ (click here for the Live South web site and show schedule).
    Although the agents I spoke with were still smarting from the worst sales year in their experience, they were ever hopeful that things will pick up this year.  Already, as a few told me, they had sold more properties in January alone than they had in the previous three months.  In one case, that was just six properties.  I have also noticed at real estate discussion boards on the internet that agents in some areas of the northern U.S. saw a similar uptick in activity in January.  The Cliffs is backing up its own optimism with a spend of more than $14 million for promotion in 2009.  In this economy, that is quite a statement, at least for The Cliffs.
    Here are some notes on my discussions at Live South.  

Forty-five is the new 55
 
    Colonial Heritage, an age-restricted community in Williamsburg, VA, has

lowered its minimum age for residency to 45; it previously advertised that it was only for those 55 and over.  The agent at the Colonial Heritage booth, sponsored by the developer Lennar, said that the new push is appealing mostly to out of state residents who have visited the popular Williamsburg area previously.  Colonial Heritage has to be careful, though, about being too successful with this new demographic.  Age-restricted communities lose their "exclusive" status, by law, when the number of those 55 and over dips below 80% of all residents, a reality the Lennar agent acknowledged.

Grape expectations?

    River Landing, a community adjacent to I-40 in North Carolina, will open its new 59,000 square foot clubhouse in April.  The community, which was developed by a local family, features 36 holes by Clyde Johnston, a respected southern golf course architect.  Golf membership is $28,000, with dues of around $400 per month, reasonable for 36 holes of quality golf (and a big clubhouse).  Although River Landing is a little remote, at 30 minutes to Wilmington and 75 minutes to Raleigh, services are developing nearby, including a Super Walmart opening next summer.  More than 1,100 of the community's 1,500 lots have been sold, and 300 homes are in.  Lots in River Landing start around $80,000 and reach $500,000 for those on the river.  Most homes are in the $300,000 to $1 million range.  Next month, construction begins on a new neighborhood called The Vineyards; the developers have planted 18 acres of grapes within the neighborhood. 

High-end competition on Lake Keowee

    I visited The Reserve at Lake Keowee four years ago and I was eager to find out how things were progressing.  Slowly, is my impression after a discussion with the community's representatives.  The Reserve is just down the road from a few of the Cliffs Communities properties on Lake Keowee, and the two developers appeal to a similar demographic -- the well to do who are able to purchase $1 million and up homes.  That is a lot of competition at the high end in what is still a remote area of South Carolina, although The Reserve will appeal more to families than the ultra-sophisticated Cliffs.  The Reserve has sold just 700 lots to date of its total 1,400; 100 homes are built with another 75 under construction.  I recall from my visit four years ago a string of townhouses that run along the edge of a "great lawn" that sweeps down from the beautiful clubhouse to the edge of the lake.  Everything is within an easy walk of the huge townhouses, which are each well over 3,000 square feet -- the clubhouse and first tee of the Jack Nicklaus golf course, large outdoor pool, clay tennis courts, and the marina.  Prices for the four remaining homes begin at $1.4 million.  Golf club membership is $60,000, with dues of $420 per month.

Cliffs notes

    Speaking of The Cliffs Communities, representatives at their booth said sales were off about 20% last year, but that plans keep chugging along to add to their impressive golf course portfolio.  A new course designed by Gary Player, who has moved his company's offices to The Cliffs, should be ready for play next spring, and earth is being moved for the new Tiger Woods course, his first in the U.S., at High Mountain, near Asheville.  Full-family golf membership The Cliffs has reached the $150,000 mark, but that entitles the member access to any of the six courses in place now and the Player and Woods courses later.  Driving distance between the farthest Cliffs courses is a little over an hour, but some are within just 20 minutes or so of each other.  And they are all beautifully conditioned, as one should expect for those kinds of prices.  Any new property owner has the choice to purchase the refundable membership at the time they purchase their property.  If they decline, they will not be able to buy the full golf membership later (unless, of course, they buy an additional developer property).  If they sell their home and the purchaser opts for membership, The Cliffs will refund the initiation fee almost right away.  If the buyer does not opt for membership, the seller might have to wait six months for the refund, according to the agent at the Cliffs booth.

Impressive track record for developer at Wild Wing

    For those looking for a significantly more modestly priced golf community experience, Myrtle Beach's Wild Wing could fill the bill.  Wild Wing includes 27 holes of excellent golf on a property that once was home to 72 holes.  Plantation Sales LLC, which has been in business since 1964, purchased the entire property a few years ago.  They retained the old Avocet course, the best of the four layouts, as well as nine holes of the old Hummingbird course.  The developers are offering free membership with the purchase of a home (the courses are open to the public).  At $175 per month in dues, three or four rounds a month are the breakeven point (membership also brings discounts on food and pro shop merchandise).  Lots at Wild Wing start in the $90,000 range and run to $230,000 for a view of both water and golf.  Plantation Sales has been affiliated with a number of top-notch and successful properties over the years, including the Governor's Club, a private community with 27 holes of Jack Nicklaus golf in Chapel Hill, NC, as well as the lauded Pawleys Island golf courses of Caledonia and True Blue.

 The Reserve at Lake Keowee course is vintage Jack Nicklaus.

    I spent a few hours yesterday at the Live South real estate show in Greenwich, CT.  The number of exhibitors was down to about 30, well off the 70 of just two years ago and less than the "45+" that Live South advertised at its web site.  Although exhibitors I spoke with are keeping a stiff upper lip, they are concerned after suffering their worst year in 2008, with sales off more than 25% in some communities.
    The problem is that the migration from north to south has ground almost to a halt.  People who have lost 20% or more in their primary homes, and more in their stock portfolios, have shelved their relocation plans.  Real estate agents north and south say 2008 was the worst year for sales in their careers.  However, those same agents say January sales were a significant improvement over a dismal fourth quarter of 2008.
    "Some sellers can't wait anymore," said Susan Albright, a Fairfield County (CT) real estate agent who spoke at the show.  She offered as reasons health issues, job relocation and the desire to get on with their lives, including retiring to their dream homes.  Ms. Albright also added that those who want or need to sell their homes this year should be doing so sooner rather than later.
    "Spring is the time when people are looking at homes to get their children ready for school in the fall," she said.  Summer, she added, may be too late in the current economy to find enough buyers.

    Exhibitors echoed her experience, a few saying that sales in January were greater than the three preceding months.  They are cautiously optimistic that performance will continue.    

    One couple at Ms. Albright's presentation has been searching aggressively for their perfect southern community.  They complained that many communities are not sharing information about resale properties and are, instead, pushing their developer lots and homes.  Most exhibitors I spoke with said they handle re-sales as well as new properties.  But when I asked about the referral fees they were paying to agents who send them customers, they indicated they are paying more for new properties than for those owned by their residents.  If you are looking at a partially completed community, make sure you inquire about all properties available.  Re-sales are often lower priced, sometimes by a significant measure.
    Bottom line:  Golf communities in the south are desperate and ready to deal.  If you have plans to relocate there, and the means to do it, now is a good time to "run the numbers."  Keep in mind that cost of living in most parts of the south is lower than elsewhere; by relocating, you could recoup some of your lost equity just in living expenses.  If you want some help with some cost of living comparisons for southern communities, let me know by clicking on the Contact Us button at the top of the page.  There is no obligation or fee whatsoever.

     As some of us try to survive the current economy and digest the financial ramifications of selling our deflated homes and putting the equity into another in a more favorable climate, it is a good idea to figure cost of living adjustments into the equation.  Depending on where you own now and what area you are eyeing for your next home, the differences in living expenses and housing fall somewhere between ho-hum and windfall.
    The problem is that some of the widely used sources of data differ wildly in their comparisons.  Where to Retire magazine, for example, which boasts 700,000 subscribers, publishes an easy to use chart that provides the cost of living differences between two cities (pages 168/9 in the March/April 2009 issue).   For example, according to the chart, whose data is furnished by the Council of Community and Economic Research's ACCRA Cost of Living index and chambers of commerce information, a move from Milwaukee, WI, to Myrtle Beach, SC, will result in a decrease of 8% across all major expenses, including housing.  But when you make the same comparison at the "Sperling's Best Places" web site, the Milwaukee to Myrtle Beach move indicates a 42% increase in cost of living.  I ran comparisons for other moves to Myrtle Beach, and the results were equally perplexing.  Buffalo to Myrtle Beach a decrease of 3% in Where to Retire and increase of 53% at Sperlings; Boston to Myrtle Beach indicated decreases of 30% and 7%, respectively; and Hartford to Myrtle decreases of 23% and 15% respectively, a narrower gap but still different enough to be less than helpful.
    I have calls into both Where to Retire and Sperlings and hope to reconcile the differences between them in the coming days.  Once I can explain their conflicting conclusions, I'll provide some market-to-market comparisons in this space.  I hope their explanations are simple enough that I won't have to use the word "respectively" again.

    Real estate agents are, generally speaking, an optimistic bunch.  Their rose-colored glasses are always at least half full of hopefulness.  That is the salesperson in them, but it bubbles over into their after-hour conversations as well.  Over recent days, I have spent numerous hours on web site discussion boards frequented by realtors, and I found few discouraging words about the near-term prospects for the residential housing market.
    This was typical:  "In the San Antonio (TX) area, we are seeing the investors from out of state starting to come back.  There is much more activity overall than just a month ago.  Investors and homebuyers are realizing this is a great time to buy, with lots of inventory, motivated sellers and great rates."
    "In my area, homes are still seeing appreciation -- and the ‘overstocked' inventory that was on the market over the past year is decreasing," wrote a Raleigh, NC, realtor.  "Market activity has increased dramatically over the past two months."
    Even the prospects for newly built developments received shout outs.  "We have seen traffic increase tremendously at a new construction site (55+ community)," wrote a realtor who sells near the Pennsylvania and Delaware state lines, "and I've submitted and received multiple offers [for properties]."
    All these rosy reports certainly fly in the face of the national media's gloomy reports and continually dismal economic data.  But as one agent gently chided me after I asked about his bullish predictions for his island community in Florida in the face of economic chaos, "Real estate is local and....here the buyers we are working with are mostly local people."
    That sounds a bit too much to me like the movie The Truman Show.  (Truman, who is played by Jim Carrey and whose entire life is one big televised soap opera, eventually gets off the island.)  There is a whole world out there with icky little inconveniences like unemployment, job security fears, and huge stock market portfolio losses.  The consequences reach into every crevice of the nation, and reasonable people believe the worst is yet to come, including massive consumer credit defaults and a plummet in the commercial real estate industry.  As for the defrosting of credit necessary to restart the economy, how many believe that bank CEOs who gave themselves $30 million bonuses after their businesses lost billions are really going to take any direction from Congress?
    In the face of all that, it is hard to imagine any safe haven market, although there is little doubt that housing prices in some areas of the country sunk so far so fast that they are now attracting buyers once again.  Are they false positives?  Some of them will be.  But there are some phenomenal buys out there, with circa 1999 prices attached to them.  The recent spurt of buying activity could be a positive signal, given the reports of local real estate agents.  Even eternal optimists are sometimes right.

As if the finishing hole at Caledonia is not challenging enough, other golfers can gather on the deck overlooking the 18th green and cheer you -- or jeer you -- on.  Caledonia, whose high-season green fee is close to $200, can be played at a significant discount with the Myrtle Beach Golf Passport card.

    Not every golfer needs or wants to belong to a private club.  Sure, the privacy part of it and the ability to walk up and play without a tee time is a luxury, but it can be a costly one.  For the price of initiation fees at The Cliffs Communities, for example, you and your significant other could play Pebble Beach and the Old Course at St. Andrews for 15 years, airfare and nice accommodations included (Cliffs membership is $150,000 for access to seven courses).
    The Myrtle Beach Golf Passport is again being offered this year to residents of North and South Carolina, as well as second homeowners in the Myrtle Beach area.  At just $39 for membership, it is the best way to sample a range of highly rated golf courses at deep discounts.  It is also a good reason for golfers who enjoy a variety of layouts to consider a vacation or retirement home between Southport, NC, and Georgetown, SC, a span of exactly 100 miles and encompassing every conceivable type of community, with golf or without, at every price point.
    The Passport, which is sponsored by the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association, provides multiple rounds at virtually every daily fee course on the Grand Strand, including Caledonia Golf and Fish Club, rated by respondents to the Zagat survey as good as the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island; TPC at Myrtle Beach; True Blue Golf Club; Heritage Golf Club; Tidewater Golf Club; Pawleys Plantation; Grande Dunes; and the courses at Barefoot Landing, including those designed by Love, Fazio and Norman.  The discounts, which are typically about 40% off list prices but sometimes more, are good not only for the card holder, but also for up to three guests.  Most courses are available even during the busy seasons in the spring and fall.
    The Passport also is good for discounts at some of the more popular local restaurants, include Austin's in Pawleys Island, which I can testify is quite good.  Cardholders receive a 25% discount on their entrees at the participating restaurants.  The card is also good for a 10% discount on merchandise at a large local golf retailer.
    Passport applicants must either show proof of residency or proof of ownership of a second home in the area (a utility bill worked for me).  For more information, check out the Myrtle Beach Golf Passport web site, which includes a list of all participating courses, or call them at (843) 477-8822.

The classic, Donald Ross designed Oyster Harbors is one of the best golf courses on Cape Cod.

    The latest data on home inventories hints at the thrashing the vacation home market is taking across the land, and especially on the traditionally bulletproof Cape Cod, in Massachusetts.  People worried about job loss or saddled with growing interest rates on variable rate mortgages on their primary homes are hedging their bets before they have to hit the panic button and unload their treasured vacation homes at deeper discounts.
    The real estate brokerage firm Zip Realty published its latest report on

housing stock for sale in the nation's largest metropolitan areas, and although the overall news is positive -- inventories down nationwide to a nine-month's supply -- one New England county sticks out in a negative way.  Barnstable County, which includes most of Cape Cod, showed roughly a 200% increase in the number of homes on the market from January 08 to January 09 and a similar increase from December to January.  In all, 5,484 homes in Barnstable County were on the market at the end of January, up from just 1,805 the month before.  Barnstable's numbers made the Boston metro area one of the few in Zip Realty's study of 29 metros that increased its inventory of homes month over month.  Even Miami saw a reduction, of about 4%.
    Depending on what real estate reports you read, home prices on Cape Cod decreased by about 12% last year, with a median sales price of $330,000.  Golf club choices in the area are varied, ranging from one of the best public courses in the nation, Cranberry Valley in Harwich, to the higher end, quite private Donald Ross designed Oyster Harbors in Osterville.  Membership fees on the Cape have been traditionally high, but like real estate in the current economy, they too could be on their way back to Earth.

    I had my first appointment with my new dentist this morning.  Since we had never met, he drilled me, pardon the pun, with questions about what I do.  I told him I help folks, mostly baby boomer golfers, to find their dream vacation or retirement home on a golf course.  He owns a second home on Johns Island, near Charleston, but not on a golf course, although he plays on occasion.
    I asked about his plans for retirement.  He said in a few years, he and his wife would probably move to South Carolina, if he could sell his house in Connecticut.  This, of course, led me to my common refrain, of which my dedicated readers are probably tired, that people are foolish to hold out for the price they think their house is worth, rather than take what the market will give them and move south, if that is what they were planning.
    "They want what they want," I said of my fellow boomers.
    To which my wise new dentist responded, "Well, we are baby boomers, aren't we?"