Golf Community Reviews

        Before I visit a golf community -– and I have visited more than 140 over the last five years –- I conduct research in advance to prepare probing and tough questions for golf community developers, real estate agents and golf professionals.  I pour over the golf community’s web site, look through its marketing materials, talk with local real estate people and visit web sites like CityData.com to see if there is any local buzz about the community.  More often than not, however, the image of the community does not match the reality of a personal inspection.  There is, of course, no substitute for a visit.

        I am currently working with a few of the best golf communities in the southern U.S. to put together weekend visitation programs for readers of GolfCommunityReviews who are considering a move south.  The cost of the “discovery weekend,” including lodging, golf, some meals and a customized tour of the community, will be lower than the published rate and will include some extras, such as a golf tournament on the community's course, side-trips for non-golf-players, and special events (e.g. a local winemaker to lead a tasting).

 

        Transportation to and from the golf communities will be the responsibility of the participants, but we will take care to schedule communities close to good-sized airports and interstate roadways.  If this sounds interesting to you, please respond to the poll question that accompanies this article.  We will need a minimum number of couples to make the visits viable.  Also, if you are interested in visiting a specific community, contact me and I will add it to the list of visits under consideration.  Many thanks, and happy new year.

    --  Larry Gavrich, Editor

'til Debt Do Us Part Award

Winner: Cliffs Communities, upstate SC and NC

Runner-Up: Balsam Mtn. Preserve, Waynesville, NC

 

        Unlike the mythical Icarus, who flew too high and fell to earth, Jim Anthony, developer of the upscale Cliffs Communities, was lucky to have a large group of wealthy residents ready to break his fall.  They loaned him $60 million to finish construction of the amenities he had promised, including a few wellness centers and two new golf courses, one by Gary Player and the other Tiger Woods’ first design on American soil.  Without the loan, Anthony would have been forced to borrow

from an investment group or bank, putting The Cliffs legendary amenities potentially beyond the control of its well-heeled residents.  Not every property owner ponied up the minimum $100,000 contribution to the total loan, but those who did are receiving their choice of a double-digit return or the waiver of club dues over the next seven years.  And should Anthony default on the loan, the residents who loaned him the money will then own the amenities, which is the customary eventual arrangement in most golf communities anyway.

There is no denying the quality of the six Cliffs golf courses, soon to be joined by a new Gary Player layout.  Whether an impending Tiger Woods design will round out the roster is an open question.

 

        As the year ended, one of the finer points of the loan arrangement was revealed as The Cliffs announced it was putting the brakes on all amenities except for the Gary Player designed golf course and clubhouse at Mountain Park, which are nearly complete.  That means the Tiger Woods course won’t open for at least a few years, if ever.  The agreement between the property owners and Anthony had contemplated that if real estate sales lagged expectations, which they have, work on some of the amenities could be suspended.

        At Balsam Mountain Preserve, a single community whose amenities rival those of The Cliffs, including a tough top of the mountain Arnold Palmer course, well-regarded developers Chaffin & Light became a little overextended.  Lucky for the property owners that most of the community's funding was from the investment firm TriLyn, and its principal Mark Antoncic saw more benefit in taking over than in dumping the unsold properties at a loss.  He was nimble enough to foreclose quickly.  Reports from Balsam Mountain are that property sales are creeping along as well as any communities that appeal to the wealthy, and property owners are eager to work with their new hero.

        [Note:  If we were giving out an award for Greatest Display of Loyalty to Someone Who May Not Deserve It, Cliffs Developer Jim Anthony himself would be the recipient.  He stuck by his friend Tiger Woods after the disclosures of the star’s serial adultery.  Anthony was one of a select few in the audience at Woods’ mea culpa press conference which, if we were giving out additional awards related to the Woods imbroglio, would be tops in the category of Most Belated Confession Managed by a Crew of Enablers.  Of course, the Nike ad of Woods’ father imparting advice from the grave gets the award for Creepiest Marketing Ploy of the Year.]

Balsam Mountain Preserve and its dramatic Arnold Palmer layout were saved by the investment firm that had loaned the developer most of his working capital.

The “...And Yet So Near” Award

Delmarva Peninsula & Bay Creek Golf Resort

 

        The Delmarva Peninsula, an amalgam of the names and abbreviations of the states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia (VA), does not have the cachet for golf of Pinehurst, Kiawah Island or Myrtle Beach, but what it lacks in name recognition it more than makes up for in proximity to the northeastern states -– and outstanding golf courses (92 courses in total for an area about the size of Connecticut).  Those willing to leave the New York area, say, at sunrise, can be on the first tee at a Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Arthur Hills, Arnold Palmer or Gary Player golf course before noon.  You could probably make an early afternoon tee time later that day in Myrtle Beach, but it will take a non-stop plane flight from New York, the risk of lost baggage, the hassles of renting a car and who knows what surprises the airlines may spring along the way.  On the other hand, even if you are driving to Myrtle Beach, golf and a night on the Delmarva is a great trip refresher along the way (the seafood is darn good too).

         You might be inclined to stay right there on the Delmarva because besides the outstanding, and reasonably priced, daily fee golf courses like Baywood Greens (gorgeous floral arrangements on the 27-hole course designed by Brian Ault), Bear Trap Dunes (27 holes by Rick Jacobson, a Nicklaus protégé) and Links at Lighthouse Sound (Arthur Hills), a select number of golf communities dot the peninsula.  The Gulfstream extends to the Chesapeake Bay and can have a warming effect even during winter.  Although you won’t be swimming in the ocean off Rehoboth Beach in January, you will likely be playing golf then, as most area courses remain open year round (as I write this, the expected high in Cape Charles, VA, today is 53; in Myrtle Beach it will reach just 57).

         Among my favorite communities on the Delmarva is Bay Creek Golf Resort, which my wife and I discovered during our son’s college golf conference tournament last year.  As we followed the college golfers around the fine and challenging 18 holes by Arnold Palmer, and later when I played the even testier Jack Nicklaus 18, I was surprised that Bay Creek did not have better name recognition in places like New England, just a half-day’s drive away.  (This was the first golf community in which Palmer and Nicklaus contributed a layout.)  Folks from the middle-Atlantic states, however, are well aware of Bay Creek, and even in the teeth of the recession, the courses are getting frequent play.

        “Our rounds were up a staggering 16% over 2009,” Director of Golf Operations Mark Wesolek wrote me, “and our revenues [ended] the year up as well.  So, I guess the conclusion that can be reached is that our marketing efforts are attracting golfers, and the experience we are offering is retaining them.”  [Full disclosure note:  Bay Creek has advertised in New England Golf Monthly, which publishes a monthly column about golf real estate written by yours truly.]

        The Bay Creek “experience” starts with the golf courses.  Nicklaus took full advantage of the inland extension of the Chesapeake Bay to develop a few holes that could have been swiped from a linksland course in Scotland.  Palmer’s layout, which must be played a few times to appreciate (and to learn to negotiate a few blind tee shots), uses the bay as a curtain behind some of the holes.  Bay Creek offers plenty of real estate options, with prices that reflect its location 20 miles from “civilization” (Norfolk), although nearby Cape Charles is a cute waterfront town.  A section of the Bay Creek community is built around a marina just off the downtown area, separated from the golf courses and main community by about three miles.

         Golf view home sites at Bay Creek begin in the $100s, waterfront home sites in the $200s and estate home sites with multiple views in the $400s.  Condos and town homes are priced from the $200s.  The resort’s two-night/two-day real estate “discovery package” is priced at about 50% of what you would pay for a similar package elsewhere and includes two rounds of golf and a $100 dining certificate. (The on-site restaurant, Aqua, was closed on the Sunday and Monday during our April visit but has been well reviewed.)  Contact me if you are interested in a visit to Bay Creek.

Out along the Chesapeake Bay at Bay Creek, Nicklaus designed two par 3s (#4 at top, and #6) that would be tough enough without the almost constant prevailing winds that come in off the water.  The layout effects a strong bit of links golf before it turns inland for the final nine holes.

The Paradise Lost Award (temporarily, we hope)

Haig Point, Daufuskie Island, SC

 

        For years, it probably seemed to residents of Haig Point on Daufuskie Island that the resort just a 10-minute golf cart ride outside the community’s gates was of no real consequence to them.  After all, Haig Point maintained its own ferry service to the vehicle-free island, and the resort’s two excellent golf courses -– one by Jack Nicklaus and the other by the team of Weiskopf & Moorish –- were rated no more highly than Haig’s own 29-hole Rees Jones layout (the two extra holes represent an easier routing of two par 3s).  But when the economy faltered and, along with it, the 5,000 acre Daufuskie Island Resort and Spa, outsider interest in living in an island paradise with a bankrupt resort dried up.  Today, property prices in Haig reflect anxieties about the resort’s future and the viability of island living itself.  Recently, we spotted a $14,000 Haig Point lot that included the golf club initiation fee (“…a $65,000 value,” the listing touted).  Homes in Haig Point are priced at significant discounts to similar properties on the mainland.

        Many baby boomers would lust after such bargain prices in a community as lush and lovely as Haig Point, but the catch is that carrying costs are significantly higher than most communities on the mainland; between the golf dues and property owner fees, a property owner is committed to as much as $17,000 annually.  And construction costs are about three times those on the mainland, owing to the need to ship all materials and labor to the golf community.  That private ferry, which is the lifeline of the island community, is expensive.

         In November, the golf resort was put up for auction.  A nice-sized audience was in attendance in a Hilton Head hotel ballroom, some of them curious and interested onlookers from Haig Point.  Bidding was to start at $16 million for the resort, its spa, dozens of unsold lots, and Nicklaus’ Melrose golf course.  Unfortunately, no one bid.  Subsequently, the judge overseeing the bankruptcy case ruled that creditors could sell off pieces of the resort if a single buyer did not emerge.  The future of Daufuskie Island is still at sea.

The Jack Nicklaus designed Melrose Course at the former Daufuskie Island Resort is still open, but the bankrupt resort is not.  Homes and properties in the adjacent community are selling at a discount, as are properties in the nearby and separate golf community of Haig Point.

        Toby Tobin, our favorite Florida real estate blogger, picked up our story about the suspension of spending on many of the uncompleted amenities at The Cliffs Communities.  In the article, we contrasted the attitudes of Cliffs property owners toward their developer, Jim Anthony, with those of owners in golf communities formerly developed by Bobby Ginn.  One of Toby's readers took issue with our characterization of the differences.  Below is the reader's email and Toby's emphatic (we think brilliant) rejoinder.

 

From: XXXX

Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2010

To: 'Toby Tobin'

 

        Your comment regarding Ginn in the Cliffs article is way off, Toby:  “Cliffs’ Jim Anthony is no Bobby Ginn; Cliffs properties may have lost some significant value in the last three years, but their owners still speak of Anthony in reverential terms (the opposite of how Ginn owners feel about their bankrupt developer).  They want Anthony’s vision to triumph as much as they want their investments to hold.”

        The reference to Ginn owners feeling differently about “bankrupt developer” is simply not true.  Those with negative comments are the minority and NOT the majority at all…Although the minority can be vocal at times and appear much larger.  Your article needs corrected/clarified (sic). You have NO basis for that comment other than those who got caught with their pants down and are bitter.  Further Ginn owners do of course want to see Bobby’s vision carried out, why would they (sic)….just like at Cliffs.

 

Toby Tobin’s response:

 

Dear XXXX,

 

Though the article to which you refer appeared on GoToby.com, I was not the author. Having said that, I support his portrayal of Bobby and Jim Anthony.  No correction is necessary.

 

I have said many times that Hammock Beach is the most viable of all Bobby’s developments.  Owners there have much to be pleased about, except the NOPC (Notice of Potential Change), that is. (When Bobby sold Hammock Beach and Ocean Hammock properties, did his vision include a beachside hotel?)

 

On the other hand, property owners from the Gardens, Yacht Harbor Village, Conservatory, Bella Collina, Reunion, BriarRose, Burke Mt., Quail West, Tesoro, Cobblestone Park, Ginn sur Mer, and the residents of Minturn CO do not speak about Bobby in favorable terms. I know because I have talked to hundreds of them. They weren’t caught with their pants down. Their pockets were artfully fleeced.

 

On the other hand, property owners at The Cliffs Communities are generally pleased with the job Jim Anthony is doing; enough to loan him a lot of money. I can’t imagine Bobby being able to raise $60,000,000 from his property owners.  Moreover, The Cliffs Communities are not subject to a flood of lawsuits by their property owners.  Nor are they burdened with debt.

 

Did Bobby’s vision include taking credit for building the FL Turnpike interchange at Tesoro, then sticking the property owners with the bill?

Did Bobby’s vision include keeping the millions of dollars of membership deposits rather than depositing them in the promised escrow accounts until the amenity facilities were completed?

Did Bobby’s vision include mortgaging four of his projects to a $675 million loan, then keeping $330 million from the loan proceeds for himself and Lubert-Adler?

Did Bobby’s vision include shifting the ownership of land to be used for the Tesoro Beach Club and the third golf course outside the Tesoro entity shortly before closing on the Credit Suisse loan?

Did Bobby’s vision include not paying millions of dollars of Reunion CDD assessments, leaving the CDD in a very serious financial condition?

Did Bobby’s vision include a beach house at Quail West, a beach house and third golf course at Tesoro, a sports complex and equestrian center and docks at Bella Collina, two golf courses at Ginn sur Mer, a clubhouse at Cobblestone Park, a golf course and shooting facility at BriarRose, a golf course at Laurelmor?

Did Bobby’s vision include a misleading video portrayal of the source of funds for the Ginn sur Mer escrow account?

Was it ethical for Bobby and Lubert-Adler to flip lots owned beneficially by them for huge profits when the profits rightfully belong to the Lubert-Adler investors?

 

Are you suggesting that these problems were brought on by “those who got caught with their pants down and are bitter?”

 

“The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.” -- Friedrich Nietzsche

 

I hope you and your family have a very Happy New Year.

 

Regards,

 

Don "Toby" Tobin

www.GoToby.com

        Thousands of baby boomers and others who had previously envisioned a warmer, less expensive life continued to put off going south in 2010 as the economy and prices they could fetch for their primary homes went south, metaphorically speaking.  The lack of buyers, especially in the mid-six-figures and beyond, put an extraordinary amount of stress on golf communities that had not developed most or all of the adjacent real estate or, even worse, had not built and paid for their promised amenities.  At year’s end, even the mighty Cliffs Communities announced (internally only, of course) that they were putting the brakes on the first American Tiger Woods golf course, at least for now.

        Still, flowers can grow on a dung heap economy, and we salute those that persevered with distinction.  Only golf communities we visited are included in our first annual series of awards because, as advertising budgets go down, we are skeptical about the hype coming directly from many golf communities.  And, anyway, we stopped believing everything we read after the Chicago Tribune declared on its front page, “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.”

 

Best Golf Community Owned by Austrians and Located Next to a Sage Farm

Winner:  Scotch Hall Preserve, Merry Hill, NC

Runner-Up:  None

 

        Old Arab proverb:  “Why should a man die whilst he has sage in his garden?”  The herb has long been thought to be a cure for many common ailments and an effective preservative of meat.  Indeed, sage aids in digestion of fat rich foods and, for that reason, has long been included in recipes for sausage, turkey and patés.

        The Austrian developers of Scotch Hall Preserve in rural North Carolina, just 20 minutes from the small but historic

town of Edenton, are hoping that curative winds from the 2,400-acre sage farm across the street will blow in their direction.  Opened just a few years before the economy sank, Scotch Hall Preserve was originally named Innsbrook, a consciously Americanized spelling of its owners’ hometown of Innsbruck.  The name was changed in honor of a historical landmark at the edge of the community’s property and, no doubt, for greater relevance to an American market (the switch came shortly after the owners hired the firm IMI to handle sales and marketing activities for Scotch Hall).

        The 1,000-acre Scotch Hall Preserve is nicely sited along the peaceful Albemarle Sound, and its Arnold Palmer golf course, designed by Palmer architect Erik Larsen, is fun to play and considered by the North Carolina Golf Rating Panel as #45 in a state chock-a-block with excellent layouts (see NCGolfPanel.com).  IMI and the Austrians have priced properties appropriately, and the $300,000, ¾ acre lots with 10-mile views along the sound and ability to install a boat dock are among the lowest-priced waterfront properties in my experience.  Golf course properties are available in the $100s, and cottage style homes of around 2,600 square feet start in the $500s.

        A total of 42 of 93 lots in Phase 1 at Scotch Hall Preserve remain for sale, and the membership roll at the golf club is wide open (initiation fee of $15,000 is included in the price of a property and monthly dues are less than $200).  Golf communities like Scotch Hall are eager to sell property (and produce cash flow), which tilts the negotiation process toward serious buyers.

        You can read my original review of Scotch Hall Preserve by clicking here.  Contact me if you would like more information and to make a visit to stop and smell the sage at Scotch Hall Preserve.

At under 300 yards from the blue tees, the 12th hole at Scotch Hall Preserve is one of those short par 4s that beg you to go for the green, and then punish you for missing.

 

     When Cliffs Communities residents and club members loaned developer Jim Anthony more than $60 million to complete the amenities he had promised, including Tiger Woods’ first American golf course design, they made sure the money would be spent wisely.  The loan agreement between Anthony and the lender group, self-named ClubCo, includes a clause that calls for a reduction in spending if real estate sales and cash flow fall short of certain levels.

        According to a letter sent to ClubCo members earlier this month, parts

of which a Cliffs member has shared with Golf Community Reviews, spending has been deferred for most amenities other than the almost finished clubhouse and Gary Player golf course at Mountain Park.  The stoppage includes the golf course, maintenance facility and clubhouse at High Carolina, site of the Tiger Woods golf course, as well as a wellness center, spa and restaurant at The Cliffs at Keowee Springs.  Some renovations and expansion of amenities at the other Cliffs communities have also been halted, but according to the Cliffs member who shared the contents of the letter with us, “in the grand scheme of things, nothing major.”

        The Mountain Park course and clubhouse are set to open in the fall of 2011.  Player moved his U.S. golf design operations to The Cliffs and purchased a large home there.  The Tiger Woods course is a couple of years from completion and, let’s face it, does not have the same cachet it had before a certain fateful Thanksgiving night 13 months ago. (Anthony and Woods announced the High Carolina plans the summer before the star’s car crash and revelations of serial adultery.)  High Carolina was “an unnecessary addition to the Cliffs formula,” according to our reader, and “…the debt raised may accelerate a split off of High Carolina, something I view as inevitable, and hopefully before it destroys value [in] the rest of the Cliffs.”

        “Six courses to play is perfectly adequate,” he added, echoing what we have heard from other Cliffs members who play their home course most of the time, other nearby Cliffs courses occasionally, and the ones an hour away rarely.  The three courses on Lake Keowee (Vineyard, Falls and Springs) are less than 20 minutes from each other, and those closer to Greenville, SC (Glassy, Valley, and Mountain Park when completed) are less than 30 minutes from each other.  The “outlier” is The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, a challenging Jack Nicklaus course, which appears to be self-sustaining given the lure of nearby Asheville, NC.

Cliffs developer Jim Anthony and the group of residents who loaned him $60 million have suspended work on most of the communities' unfinished amenities, including the Tiger Woods golf course at High Carolina.  Pictured is an established equestrian center at The Cliffs at Keowee.

 

        During my first visit to The Cliffs in 2006, I marveled at the high-end amenities that included equestrian centers, wellness centers, expansive clubhouses, nature trails (with on-staff naturalists) and plans for even more.  I wondered out loud to a friend how such spending could be sustained, even from the sales of home sites in the high-six figures.  Of course, an ascendant housing market coupled with a huge and well-to-do baby boomer cohort caused many buyers not to think twice about subsidizing amenities they might never use.  (Quick, think of all the golfing equestrians you know!)  Then credit default swaps exerted their gravitational pull on the housing market and all those baby boomers’ plans.  The Cliffs is not alone among high-end golf communities with cash flow issues.

         Developers who pushed an all-amenities-to-all-people business model have had a sobering few years.  Although he certainly could be accused of overreaching, The Cliffs’ Jim Anthony is no Bobby Ginn; Cliffs properties may have lost some significant value in the last three years, but their owners still speak of Anthony in reverential terms (the opposite of how Ginn owners feel about their bankrupt developer).  They want Anthony’s vision to triumph as much as they want their investments to hold.  In an ironic way, the economy may have done Anthony and The Cliffs a favor.  The members who loaned Anthony the $60 million will act as a governor on his loftier -– and expensive –- dreams.

        This new financial partnership among owners and developer, as well as spending to match cash flow, could very well become a model for other upscale golf communities that got way ahead of themselves.

The golf at all six Cliffs courses is undeniably excellent, which makes some members wonder if the Tiger Woods course, which will follow a new Gary Player course, is necessary.

On a late summer afternoon, the sun over the Blue Ridge Mountains casts some long shadows across the Blue Ridge Shadows golf course in Front Royal, VA.

 

        Unplanned rounds of golf on unknown golf courses sometimes turn out to be the most interesting.  It’s one thing to visit and play a new golf course based on the reviews of others, but there is something especially exhilarating about stumbling across a good one on your own and being able to tell others about it.

        In September, I checked into a Holiday Inn in Front Royal, VA, on my way to visit a few golf communities in Virginia.  I noticed there was a golf course next door to the hotel.  After checking into my room on the 6^th floor and looking out the window to a well-contoured green below that was surrounded by water and sand, I grabbed my camera and decided to give it a go before the sun went down.

        I had never heard of Blue Ridge Shadows, an upscale public facility whose course was designed by the respected Tom Clark -– he’s the Clark in the Ault-Clark golf design shop.  Blue Ridge Shadows won’t win many awards for subtlety, at least not the first time you play it.  It features blind tee shots to banked fairways, some unseen trouble just off the fairways (woods, severe drop offs, rocks) and a few greenside water hazards that can bring out the worst in whoever is responsible for pin-position placements.  Nevertheless, a few holes were memorable, if maddening.  I won’t forget the opening hole, for example, a short par four that requires a drive over a hill, with a large pond off the fairway to the left.  I struck what I thought was a perfect drive over the middle of the hill but came to find my ball at rest at the leftmost edge of the fairway, just six yards from the water.  Since the pond extended to the very front left edge of the green, with the pin on the bottom level of the green just over the water, the proper play was to the right front edge of the green.  If I had not hit the shot I wanted to, I might not remember the hole quite as fondly as I do.  I wound up missing a 10-foot birdie putt, but was ecstatic with par.

        Blue Ridge Shadows opened for play in 2007, and anyone with just a passing understanding of recent economic history knows what happened the following year.  Just five months after it opened, the golf club filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, something of a preemptive move since its assets were a few million more than its liabilities.  It emerged from those proceedings but it was with no surprise that I came to find out this week that the club is up for sale, listed at just under $5 million (that includes the 4,500 square foot clubhouse, which sits on the highest peak on the golf course).  It is a fine layout in a nice location -– a couple of miles north of I-66 and just six miles from I-81, a major north/south route -– and you have to believe that some arrangement can be made between the hotel, which was clean, efficient and a bargain at under $90 for the night, and the golf course to generate some nice golf packages (the young lady at the hotel told me there was no such arrangement).

        The $5 million asking price for Blue Ridge Shadows in the current market seems a little steep.  By comparison, the outstanding Federal Club course outside Richmond sold a year ago for just over $2 million.  Golf Property Analysts has the Blue Ridge Shadows listing and indicates the golf course is on a 200-acre plot of land, a nice sized property that might eventually accommodate additional real estate (I saw a few nice homes around the edges of the course).  Here’s hoping that some investor is attracted to Blue Ridge Shadows.  The golf course is the best in the immediate area and a nice distraction for players traveling west on I-66 from Washington, D.C. and south on I-81 from the population centers in the northeast.

Sight unseen:  From the teebox at Blue Ridge Shadows' first hole (top), the play appears to be straight down the middle on the dogleg left hole.  But once the ball disappears over the hill, it bounces hard left, near the water that guards the front edge of the green.