True story.  I thought I was meeting my friend and former colleague Alden for a cup of coffee this morning, something we try to do every three months or so.  Instead, Alden showed up with Annette, whom I also once worked with, and the two of them presented me with a certificate labeled the "Cupid Award."  It was signed by both and cited me "For fulfilling [the] role in bringing together the lives of Alden and Annette just as it was meant to be, just at the right time."
    Alden and Annette were oozing mutual love at Starbucks this morning.  They announced that they are going shopping for an engagement ring this week.  My role in all this was totally involuntary.  Four years ago Annette, former director of admissions at a small local college, had some organizational issues.  Alden, an internal organizational consultant in the corporation I worked for, had the right skills for the job.  It only seemed right that I put them together for purely professional reasons, but it took one or two presentations - Alden is very smooth, Annette a good listener - for them to fall in love.

    I probably know more about golf course real estate than I do about affairs of the heart.  If I can help bring two people together without trying, maybe I can help others find their home on the course.  Please give me a try by registering here and by also considering a subscription to our newsletter, which we will launch in the coming weeks for the reasonable price of $39 annually (six information packed issues).  If I can provide any advice, please don't hesitate to contact me (contact button at right).

    I could never hope to hit a 95 mph rising fastball.  Or move a 300 pound lineman out of the way in football.  Or beat a pro basketball player in a game of one on one (if he was really trying).  There is no sport I can think of where I could do anything as well as the best professional...except in golf.

    Perhaps you've read about Jacqueline Gagne of California, a 46-year old who maintains a seven handicap.  In the first four months of this year, she made 10 holes in one, all verified by the local newspaper in Rancho Mirage, CA.  The odds, according to a piece last week in the Wall Street Journal , are about 12 septillion to 1.  That would be a 12 followed by 24 zeroes.

    Most of us would kill for just one of those aces, but Ms. Gagne's feat reminds us that, for a moment, rank amateurs like us can be as good as Tiger or Phil or any of them.  And the odds are something less than 12 septillion to 1.

Fazio's fairways at Champion Hills keep homes and OB stakes at bay.

    For the last week, we ran a poll to ascertain our readers' favorite golf course architects.  Albeit with only a few votes cast, the results are not surprising, with one exception.  Arthur Hills, whose work we respect, garnered as many votes as Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio.  Pete Dye was the other vote getter.     

    The results prompted an informal investigation of a few communities with courses designed by our top four vote getters.  We looked at Fazio's Champion Hills in Hendersonville, NC; Nicklaus' Cliffs at Walnut Cove in Asheville; Dye's Ford Plantation in Richmond Hill, GA; and Hills' The Ridges in Jonesborough, TN.  To get a feel for the relationship between designer cachet and prices, we looked at the most expensive home that is currently on the market in each community, as well as an example of a more moderately priced home.  And we computed the cost per square foot of the homes.  Of course, prices are the consequence of lots of factors, and our little investigation is neither scientific nor conclusive.  If nothing else, it is a good excuse to talk about four fine communities, three of which we have visited.     

    With hundreds of his golf courses built or in construction around the world, Nicklaus is arguably the most financially successful of the group, benefiting by the name recognition he built during his legendary career.  He builds sometimes brawny, sometimes quirky but almost always interesting layouts.  His design for the Cliffs at Walnut Cove is a little more brawn than quirk, in a beautiful setting ringed by the Blue Ridge Mountains.  One of the three Cliffs courses used for the Nationwide Tour's BMW Charities tournament this past weekend, Walnut Cove was the toughest course on the tour in 2005 and the 10th toughest last year.  The most expensive home on the market in Walnut Cove is listed at $5.495M for 7,000 square feet of living space ($785 a square foot).  A more reasonably priced home is offered at $1.295M for 3,000 square feet ($432 per foot).
    Champion Hills in Hendersonville, NC, is a refined community with a typical Tom Fazio course, which is to say you could play it every day and never tire of it.  Fazio grew up in the area and still owns real estate in the community.  He figures prominently in Champion Hills' marketing, which plays up his local-boy status.  You can tell when you play Champion Hills that he lavished particular attention on it.  Funneled fairways are generally set well below the well-spaced houses, which has the double benefit of keeping out of bounds stakes to a minimum while providing dramatic views of the golf course from rear decks of the homes.  A couple of years ago, Champion Hills' dedicated membership developed a long-term strategic plan that would be the envy of some corporations, and they set about improving an already well-conditioned golf course.  You will find a few home sites available at Champion Hills in the ½ to two-acre range for $100,000 to $365,000; the ones toward the top of the range will have mountain views.  The most expensive home currently for sale in the community is available at $3.575 for 7,527 square feet ($475 per square foot).  More representative is a listing for $985,000 for 4,454 square feet ($221 per foot).     

    One of the best golf courses we have played in the last few years is Pete Dye's track at Ford Plantation, just south of Savannah.  Set along the Ogeechee River, the links style course does not seem manufactured in a Pete Dye way; the customary moguls and railroad ties are at a minimum and do not interrupt the natural flow of the routing, although the customary breezes provide all the challenge you need.  The course is the centerpiece for a community loaded with history and class.  General Sherman spared the plantation during his burning spree at the end of the Civil War, and we wouldn't be surprised if the beauty of the landscape softened his pyromaniac tendencies a little.  Less than a century later, Henry Ford made the place his southern home, and those who take the official real estate tour at Ford Plantation have the chance to sleep in the room where Clara Ford slept while her husband was tinkering with who knows what (or whom) in his workshop a hundred yards across the lawn.  Ford Plantation home sites are available in the $395,000 to $750,000 range and at two to six acres.  Most expensive on the market now is a 5,600 square foot house priced at $3.45M ($616 square foot).  Less extravagant is a $1.25M home that comprises 3,200 square feet ($391 a foot).     

    Arthur Hills was a surprise vote getter in our poll, and we are glad he was.  We think he is the most underrated of designers working today (he's been at it for four decades, so he must have learned a few things along the way).  His work at the Palmetto Course at The Landings at Skidaway Island in Savannah and at the little known and rural River Islands Course in Tennessee show a masterly balance between challenge and playability, with tough medicine for those who don't think their way around the course (Don't short-side yourself next to an Arthur Hills green without being prepared to pay).  We haven't played his course at The Ridges in Jonesborough, TN, but we note it is long and well regarded.  The most expensive home we found available in The Ridges might be a misprint at $1.85M for 13,000 square feet (a puny $142 per foot), so we will rely, for the sake of our comparisons, on the more reasonably listed home for $1.2M for 3,500 square feet ($343 per foot).
    In most cases, there seems to be a direct relationship between the quality of golf course designers and the quality of the communities in which their courses are located.  You likely won't go wrong following any of these winners.  If you would like us to contact real estate agents at any of these communities, or an agent who can show you homes in these and other golf course communities in the area, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sometimes the most direct approach is not a straight line, as is the case at this short par 4 dogleg right at Pete Dye's Ogeechee Golf Club at Ford Plantation.

    We are hearing from real estate agents that homes at the top of the market are lingering longer on the MLS (multiple listing service) and fetching a smaller percentage of their asking prices than down-market homes. 

    Wilmington, NC, is one example of the phenomenon.  In April, homes in the Hampstead area just north of the city, in zip code 28443, took an average 133 days to sell at an average price of $369,000, 89% of the asking price.  In the Wilmington zip code of 28405, where homes were listed at an average $293,000, they sold in April in 73 days and at an impressive 98% of their asking price.

    With the stock market remaining strong, at least for now, there is not too much downward pressure on pricing for owners of higher end homes.  But a stock market correction could certainly change that.

    Our friend Adam Ney is a leading exponent of green businesses and lifestyles in the state of Connecticut.  He maintains an interesting web site called Building Connecticut Green.  Last month Adam masterminded a clean-up of the road that runs alongside his town golf course, Wintonbury Hills in Bloomfield. 

    Wintonbury Hills is not your average muni; it was designed by Pete Dye for the princely sum of $1 as a favor to friends of his in town, and it is the equal -- in layout and condition -- of most local private courses.  Adam arranged for a few of his fellow club members to help pick up trash along the road, and then played the course.  This might be a day of fun and productivity you can organize at your own course, whether it is private or public.  For Adam's article, click here .