I can't remember PGA tour stops on one weekend at two courses whose routes I know. But this weekend, I hit the daily double. The PGA's Traveler's Championship is being played at the TPC at River Highlands, just 25 minutes from my home in Connecticut; the Nationwide Tour's Knoxville Open is at Fox Den in Farragut, TN.
You couldn't ask for more contrasting courses...and communities. I've reviewed Fox Den at this site on January 31, and you can read the review by clicking here . In a nutshell, the Willard Byrd course, renovated by Bill Bergin a few years ago, is of the classic style, with subtle, more than dramatic, elevation changes, and water and sand only where they seem necessary to enhance the challenge as well as the view. The surrounding community, not connected to the private course, is a little long in the tooth, with a number of homes reaching the point where some cosmetic and maybe even structural touches would help. Real estate prices reflect the age and condition of the housing stock.
River Highlands, which has been worked over by Pete Dye, Bobby Weed and others in the past, is in the top rank of courses in Connecticut and New England. If you have been watching on television this weekend, you have seen its most dramatic elements, namely the Golden Triangle of holes that begins at the 15th, a short par 4 with a crowned green that is within a driver's range of the tee box. The tee ball almost begs for the big stick since a lay-up leaves a delicate pitch shot or wedge anyway, to an unreceptive green. The medium-long par 3 16th is all carry over a lake to a green that is not deep. Hit the green and par is a possibility, depending on what contours are between your ball and the cup. Miss the green and bogey is almost a certainty.
Then there is #17, with one of the most intimidating tee shots in golf. With that same lake on the right and a steep bank of gnarly rough on the left, a ball in the fairway is a must if you are to have any chance of clearing the water on your approach (and the closer the drive to the water the better). After a successful tee shot, you almost feel relieved to be faced with a shot over water at around 150 to 160 yards to a back-to-front sloping green just beyond the lake.
The community at the edge of the TPC is a mix of town homes and single- family dwellings on smallish lots. They appeal mostly to empty nesters and young singles. Views of the course are from on high - the homes are well above the fairways on the 18th hole and the 12th & 13th; these latter units look across the fairways and down to the Connecticut River. Many units do not have views of the course but are a short walk to the clubhouse. The community is small at just about 200 homes, with prices generally in the $500s to $700s range.
River Highlands offers a range of membership programs from around a $20,000 initiation fee, but one feature is especially attractive; membership confers access to all other TPC courses, which now number 26. River Highlands is considered one of the best by the golfing professionals who return year after year (although tournament officials haven't figured out a way to lure Tiger, even when the sponsor was Buick).
Wretched excess: What $750K can bring you
“What we’re creating here, we think, is a model for the 21stt-century golf club,” says Robert Rubin, creator of The Bridge club on Long Island, in today’s Wall Street Journal.
Let us hope not.
Membership in The Bridge costs $750,000 and $20,000 a year in dues. For that, you get spur-of-the-moment access to the Rees Jones-designed course since membership will cap out at just 150. (Hurry, there are 21 more spots left!)
Mr. Rubin founded the club in large measure to provide himself and his hedge fund and celebrity millionaire friends with an unpretentious environment in which to wear their golf caps backward, if they want. Sounds like some municipal courses we know where you could play every day for 100 years and not spend $750,000, or $20,000 a year.
50% off Mount Vintage memberships
The developers of Mount Vintage Plantation, the golf- and horse-oriented community in Aiken, SC, are running a 50 percent off membership sale for anyone who purchases one of their remaining lots. Full golf initiation is $25,000 currently.
Mount Vintage also provides an a la carte approach to membership fees. Whereas other communities typically offer use of all their facilities for a “full golf” membership fee, Mount Vintage gives its members choices after the payment of the initiation. For example, dues for a full-family golf membership are $205 per month; add the other activities, such as tennis and the fitness center, and the dues are $275. Dues for everything but golf are $100 monthly (after a $1,000 initiation fee).
Mount Vintage also offers what it calls a “permanent membership fee,” which gives members the right to transfer their membership in the club to the eventual purchasers of their homes. The one-time cost is $2,000, which strikes us as a fair insurance premium. If the potential purchaser is a golfer, built-in membership could mean the difference between sale or no sale.
For more information, contact Mount Vintage Sales Agent Geoff Wright at
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