Golf Community Reviews

At Colonial Heritage in Williamsburg, VA, the houses are nice and small, but perhaps a little too close for some.

    A few years ago, my wife Connie found in a small shop a wooden board with the words "Simplify. Simplify. Simplify." on it.  It hangs in our kitchen today.  About the same time, she also discovered a book called "The Not So Big House" which, you might have figured from the title, extols the glories of downsizing your living space.  Doing so removes complications from your life, the book argues.  It also lowers your negative impact on the planet, since less space to heat and air condition means less environmental badness.  I thought the downsizing notion made sense, but to cut your living space, say, by half, seemed a little extreme.
    According to an article in the New York Times online real estate section on Friday, an increasing number of people are cutting their living space by even more than half and making do in homes of 1,000 square feet.

The approach to the par 4 10th hole at Colgate requires a deft touch when the pin is up front.  Land beyond the pin and the dowhnill putt is slick.    

    Unless your child is attending the excellent Colgate University or planning to, there really isn't any great reason for you to trek to Hamilton, NY.  It is a good drive - depending on how you define "good ride" - from anywhere.  From our home outside Hartford, CT, it takes about 4 ½ hours.  From most other population centers in the northeast, it takes about the same or longer.
    I find myself in Hamilton this weekend for a wedding, the bride to be the daughter of one of my wife's college roommates.  The groom's parents were kind enough to arrange a block of tee times at Colgate University's home course, Seven Oaks, a Robert Trent Jones Sr., track that mostly doglegs its way across streams and through trees and around the architect's signature sand bunkers.  Getting to the greens, though, is less than half the fun.  The monster putting surfaces were the slickest I have faced in years.
    The course plays somewhat like a Donald Ross track in that the fairways are generous but the area around the greens, and the greens themselves, are where most of the action is.  This is understandable given that Jones actually designed the course in 1934, toward the end of the Ross era, but because of the Depression, didn't get to build it until the 1950s.  The second nine was added in the ‘60s and today, Colgate is regarded by folks who care about such things as one of the best college golf courses in the nation.
    I understand why.  The immaculate greens are huge and sloped, typically back to front and side-to-side, and I felt lost not knowing which side of the pin to play to.  At 6,425 yards from the men's (maroon) tees, where I played, the course certainly is not long, although the tougher holes tend to be the longer par 4s (the 433 6th and 432 9th, for example).  But the 71.8 rating and especially the 136 slope, which represents the degree of difficulty for bogey golfers, is a fair indication of what those greens are like.
    Conditions were immaculate, especially on the bent grass greens which were perfect, held shots and made any putts from above the hole an exercise in frustration.  I read putts from both sides of the holes and yet I read two different breaks, and invariably I guessed wrong.  The surrounding mountains seemed to be of no help in terms of guidance.
    Besides the greens, the most visible feature of the Jones layout are the tee boxes which seem to run forever, permitting the course to be played at varying lengths from each set of tees (it also saves wear and tear on specific areas on the tee boxes).  The course also features a few severe dogleg par 4s where placement rather than length will lead to a potential birdie.  But the best opportunities for birdie are on the par 5s, which are not long but require deft positioning.  Patience on these can lead to virtuous birdies for those who hit their approach shots below the holes.  The par 3s, only one (the 11th at 192 yards) of any great length, also are easy to approach if not to master because of the sloping and extremely fast surfaces.
    Hamilton itself is hard to get to but easy to be in.  In July, even though school is out, the city is abuzz with music on the green and a decent selection of restaurants for such a modestly sized burgh.  The Colgate Inn is the place to stay, a comfortable hotel that is well run and surprisingly alive at night when its bar fills up with locals, summer college students and wedding guests, some of whom order an extra beer to try to forget how many putts from above the hole they hit to the front edge of the greens.
    Seven Oaks Golf Club at Colgate University.  Designed by Robert Trent Jones.  Back tees:  6,915 yards, rating 74.4, slope 144; Maroon tees:  6,425/71,8/136; White (Men), 5,910/69.6/126; Grey: 5,250/72.1/125.  Telephone:  (315) 824-1432. Web: sevenoaks.colgate.edu.  Non-member rates are $70 weekday, $80 weekend with cart fee of $30 (for two).

The R. T. Jones layout at Colgate features a number of severe doglegs. 

DeBordieu is the premier community at the south end of Myrtle Beach's Grand Strand, featuring a Pete Dye golf course and private oceanfront beach that is losing sand.

    Residents of DeBordieu Colony, the upscale community south of Myrtle Beach, are facing a classic battle that is pitting private interests against ecological interests, according to reports in the Myrtle Beach Sun News.  DeBordieu may win the battle, but an ensuing internal war could pit neighbor against neighbor.  As it always seems to be, money will be the issue.   

    DeBordieu, which loosely translated means "close to God," has appealed to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control for

The Arthur Hills designed Palmetto course at The Landings is one of six in the community, the most challenging and, some believe, with the best views. 

    In the last few months, three of your fellow visitors to this space have purchased property in the southeastern U.S., all as second homes.  These couples had in common the wherewithal to afford a second home now, without having to first sell their primary homes.  And all recognized that, although prices in the south may erode a little more in the next year or two, their leverage with the owners and developers who sold them their properties might never be as strong.  
    Two of the couples plan to move to their new homes permanently within

    A real estate agent friend sent me a note about Grey Rock, a community near Lake Lure in North Carolina.  Grey Rock closed its operations last week after three years.  Only three homes have been built at Grey Rock, one of them a House & Garden TV Dream Home.  Grey Rock's developer, Land Resource, also closed six other of its sales offices and laid off a total of 70 employees.
    Although not a golf community -- it is just down the road from Queens Gap, another fledgling community with a Jack Nicklaus Signature course under

    Grey Rock looked promising from its earliest days of operation, and scoring the HGTV Dream Home was a big coup that added luster to its marketing efforts.  It had an experienced developer behind it in Land Resource, which has been in operation since 1997 and whose CEO had experience in the luxury resort business.  Grey Rock sold more than 400 lots in its first few years, not bad in the softening market, but it ran into problems with its infrastructure.  Some of its road construction caused significant soil erosion issues, and Land Resource was fined by the state enviros and then sued by some of its own landowners whose home sites were soiled with extra soil. 

    The pressure from inside and out, plus the eroding market, apparently did the company in.  As in most of these deals, the early investors - many of them pure play speculators -- are the losers when a developer goes belly up.  But we should feel less sorry for them than for the 25 employees at Grey Rock who won't find landing another job easy in the remote Lake Lure area.
    Land Resource's web site is not functioning except for its home page.  Its statement of purpose on the home page ends with the line, "A great eye for beauty combines with a thorough knowledge of property infrastructure to create communities that are wonderfully distinctive and built to endure."  For the sake of those owning property at Grey Rock, we hope the community does endure.  But it will almost certainly be under new ownership.