For just $8, I had a perfect seat behind home plate and the protective screen at Coastal Federal Field in Myrtle Beach.

    I looked squarely into the face of true retirement yesterday, and it was good.
    Like many of you, I can't really see myself retiring fully to a life of pure leisure and hobbies.  My work is essentially my hobby.  And after working in corporate America for more than 35 years, it is tough to grind to a complete halt; I might complain about the stress I felt in the 9 to 5 world, but the opposite of stress is not, well, to do nothing.  (Actually, do you know anyone who really worked 9 to 5?  It was more like 7 to 7, if you count commuting time.)
    Of course, one great benefit to being totally disengaged from the routine of working even part time is the trade of a scheduled life for one of spontaneous leisure.  I had a great example of that yesterday.
    I awoke around 7 a.m., put up a pot of coffee and looked outside to find a perfect morning, absolutely a great day for golf.  I had nothing scheduled for the day (other than yesterday's article, which was mostly prepared already) and I was in no rush to play (early morning temps were in the 50s, and I was looking forward to 70 later in the morning).  I went out to breakfast in Georgetown, SC, at the charming, homey Thomas' Café on Front Street; the crab and shrimp omelet hit the spot as I read the sports section from the Myrtle Beach Sun Times.  Myrtle Beach is home to a Single A minor league baseball team - very "minor" for those who know what the Single A league is like - and the Sun Times indicated that the Pelicans were playing a rare morning game, first pitch at 10:35.
    Good days for golf are equally good days for baseball, and how often does one get the chance to watch pro ball before noon?  I hustled home to get my camera and headed for the ballpark along with hundreds of others who had the same idea.  I asked for a seat behind home plate, up under the press box, and was impressed that it only cost $8, cheap entertainment even on a fixed income.  I had the perfect scan of the entire field, and it didn't matter that I was looking through the protective screen.  I hoped that a foul ball would bounce off the press box and into my waiting arms - I've snared a foul ball only once in 52 years of attending baseball games - but the closest I came was about five yards away.  
    The game was not well played - the Pelicans lost to the Winston-Salem Warthogs - but the field was a deep green, the weather was perfect and it was, after all, spring baseball. There is nothing like it, except for maybe that first round of spring golf.  But I can always play tomorrow.  And although I'm not quite ready to cold turkey retire, yesterday brought me about nine innings closer.

    It is true that the numbers of golf rounds played in recent years is down.  And every day, it seems, another golf course is put up for sale or plowed over to make way for more profitable condo developments.  But if you are one of those who believe that rumors of the demise of golf are greatly exaggerated, there are ways to make the contrarian play and bet otherwise. 

    You can, for example, buy a home on a golf course and wait for renewed interest in the game to juice up the value of your home.  Or you could invest in a private equity firm like KSL Capital Partners, which bought Club Corp's huge portfolio of courses last year, including the Homestead, Firestone and Barton Creek in Austin, TX.  Or if you are more hands on (and have huge cojones), you could even buy your own golf course; many are for sale right now at prices that begin below $1 million and rise to many millions (check out one list at Coldwell Banker's national golf sales site).   
    But if you just want to make a fairly passive bet, and have a little patient capital to do it, then perhaps a "lifestyle" real estate investment trust (REIT) is a viable option.
    The CNL Lifestyle Company is one such REIT that targets golf specifically and is counting on the tsunami of baby boomers to justify its investments.  CNL, which is headquartered in Orlando, predicts that the 96 million people in the U.S. over the age of 50 in the year 2010 will spend a decent part of their $17 million in assets on tee times.  It is hard to argue with the numbers or the logic; all that money is going to be chasing some leisure time activities, and there are just so many cruises one can take.  And, according to the National Golf Foundation, for example, a 60-year old golfer spends three times as much time playing golf as a 30 year old.  (CNL can only hope those 30 year olds play three times as much golf when they are 60.)
    CNL, which owns 52 private and public golf courses, also invests in ski areas, marinas and shopping malls.  Most of the REIT's golf properties are in the southwestern and western U.S., but they do own a few in Florida, Palmetto Hall Plantation on Hilton Head and the Sugarloaf Resort in Carrabassett, Maine, site of a Robert Trent Jones course that is one of the best and toughest I have ever played.  
    For a full list of CNL's properties, as well as their investment philosophy, check out the CNL web site.
    [Note:  I don't own any shares in CNL, nor am I recommending it as an investment.]

 The community adjacent to the Lexington Golf Club features homes from about $300,000 up to $700,000.  At back left, behind the 7th green, a three-bedroom home with views down the fairway and to the Blue Ridge Mountains is listed for $395,000.

    I use a broad definition for "golf community."  Any neighborhood or community that is adjacent to or connected in some fashion to a golf club is a golf community in my eyes.  The community does not need to be gated and the golf club does not need to be private, but there does need to be some connection one with the other, either by geography or membership.  
    Lexington Golf Club meets my definition easily.  I walked the 18 holes of the course in Virginia yesterday, and the dogwoods and azaleas had just begun to pop their vibrant colors.  The course is still rounding into shape, but the mostly green of the fairways and rough were a brilliant contrast to the flowering trees and bushes.  The layout is a classic design by Ellis Maples and Ed Seay, two well-respected architects who have done much of their work in the southeast.  At 6,500 yards from the tips, which is where six collegiate teams played yesterday in the annual Buck Leslie Invitational, the course is not long, but the fast, sloping greens and tricky doglegs make up for any lack of length and put a premium on ball positioning.
    Vacationers or retirees could have a very nice golf life in the community surrounding the course.  Lexington is a nice little town with enough restaurants, coffee shops, interesting boutiques and a movie theater to keep most from pining for the big city (the "big" city of Roanoke is within an hour).  With two universities, Washington & Lee and Virginia Military Institute, the town provides a constant stream of entertainment and mind-expanding lectures, as well as some college courses the public is invited to attend.  Winter, of course, is the heart of the school year, when related activities are at their height and ease a little the pain of the golf course closing for the season.     

    Real estate in Lexington is a bargain, with old, well-preserved houses within walking distance of campus and most services starting in the mid-six figures.  Homes outside town are considerably less expensive.  I picked up a brochure from a box in the backyard of a home behind the 7th green at Lexington Golf Club yesterday; the screened rear porch of the home looked back down the tree-lined fairway and out to the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east.  At 2,000 square feet (3 BR, 2 BA), the $395,000 asking price seemed reasonable enough (and property taxes of $2,400 annually even more reasonable).  And membership initiation at Lexington Golf Club is just $1,500 and dues only $175 per month, ridiculous (in the best possible way) for golf of this quality.
    You will never see an ad for the Lexington Golf Club across the gutter in Golf Magazine or Digest from an ad for The Cliffs or Reynolds Plantation or any other planned community for that matter.  But if all you are looking for is membership in a fine and unpretentious club with a classic, well-tended golf course, there is Lexington, and its adjacent community, and many other clubs like it out there waiting for you. 

The dogleg right par 5 6th hole at Lexington dares you to go for the green from a sidehill lie in the fairway.  A stream runs in front of the green and any shots past the pin face a slick shot coming back down the putting surface.