lexington18thhole.jpg

Leaders at the one-day 36 hole collegiate event at Lexington Golf Club on Monday had better not take the finishing hole for granted.  It is uphill and tricky, and disaster awaits if you miss the green.    

 

    I will be traveling the interstates of Virginia and the Carolinas over the coming week.  Below is my itinerary.  If I will be anywhere near a community in which you are interested, let me know and I will try to stop by for a quick assessment.  I won't have time to play the golf courses but I will snap off a few photos for you and try to get some inside info.
    I'll be traveling from Connecticut and then down through New York State and New Jersey along Interstate 287 to I-78 West and into Pennsylvania.  Near Harrisburg, I'll connect with I-81 and ride it south to Lexington, VA, where I will

If I am near a community in which you are interested, I will stop by and check it out for you.

stop for the night to watch a 36-hole collegiate golf event hosted by Washington & Lee University, where my son attends school and competes for the golf team.  
    Lexington has a nice, classic golf course, the Lexington Golf and Country Club, designed by Ellis Maples and the late Ed Seay, who did a lot of work with Arnold Palmer.  From the tips, the course is only 6,444 yards, but the trees that line the fairways and the contoured greens provide a nice challenge.  Homes in the neighborhood are reasonably priced generally in the low to mid six-figure range, and the town of Lexington is charming and historic.  Lexington is a college town, with Virginia Military Institute's campus abutting Washington & Lee's.  Robert E. Lee was W&L's president after the Civil War and the general and his horse Traveller are in eternal repose on the campus.
    After the golf tournament, I head southeast across southern Virginia and then North Carolina toward the South Carolina coast and Pawleys Island, where I will stay for a couple of days.  Pawleys anchors the lower end of the Grand Strand that is Myrtle Beach, and I will be passing dozens of golf courses and communities.  Later in the week, I head up through Myrtle Beach to the area of Southport, NC, to spend time (and play golf) at Ocean Ridge Plantation and St. James Plantation.  I will also be checking out Brunswick Forest near Wilmington in behalf of one of my readers.  That new community is in the early stages of selling property but is getting some notice by those considering purchase of a lot now that they can build on in a few years.  A golf course is promised in the next two years.
    From Wilmington, I head to the Lynchburg, VA, area for the Old Dominion Athletic Conference golf championship which will be played at Poplar Grove in Amherst.  The winners will get a bid to the NCAA Division III national championships at Chateau Elan outside Atlanta in May.  If it's the Generals, I expect to be at Chateau Elan, camera in hand, cheering silently from the sidelines.
    I'll have my camera and notepad with me this entire trip and will be filing reports from the road.  Please let me know if you have any specific location in mind and, if it is not to far off the beaten path, I will try to check it out. Just click on the "Contact Us" button above this article to get in touch.

mtvintagefirsttee.jpg
The pines, the doglegs, the swirling fairways all hint at a design conscious of the charms of Augusta National, just 20 minutes away from Aiken and Mount Vintage Plantation.


    After the Masters ends on Sunday, the sports pundits will spend a lot of ink and airtime telling us all why Trevor Immelman was able to hang on to his lead going into Saturday, or how Retief Goosen re-discovered his putting stroke to master Augusta's greens, or (yet, once again) how Tiger was able to make his move on Saturday and vault the field.  (Note:  I'm picking Stephen Ames to win, for whatever that is worth.)
    But I'd like to read some commentary about where the winners of the Masters have stayed during the event.  I have a feeling it wasn't at a Holiday Inn Express.  This could be useful in future office pools or my annual competition with friends and son (I rarely win, so I am looking for any little advantage).  
    I'm thinking about this especially this weekend because a few years ago, when I visited Mount

Let me know if you would like me to email a copy of an article I wrote about Aiken's golf communities.

Vintage Plantation in the Augusta area, I found out that a few touring pros and their families rented homes there and at the nearby Woodside Plantation.  Some of the homes rented for thousands of dollars a week.    
    If I were competing in the Masters - dream on -- Mount Vintage would be a great choice to relax and practice away from the glare of cameras and hangers on.  The community is probably familiar to many of you from its ads in golf magazines.  The photograph they use looks, at first glance, as if it is of Augusta National.  Front and center is a dead ringer for the famed Hogan Bridge that leads players over Rae's Creek to the 12th green.  Mount Vintage's bridge is paved with green carpeting as well.  The community, in Aiken, SC, features 27 holes of golf with more planned.  Its doglegs and swirling fairways are not a bad place to prep for the Masters, although no substitute for the real thing.  A few faithful readers of this site have purchased property at Mount Vintage and are quite happy with their decision.  One is planning to build what could be the first "green" home in the community.
    Other communities in the Aiken area also attract players from the Masters during the week.  Nearby Woodside Plantation features three golf courses and price points in the mid-six figures and higher, a little bit lower than Mount Vintage's prices.  Cedar Creek features a course by one of my favorite designers, Arthur Hills, and homes that begin around $300,000 and don't push much past $500,000 (the course is open to the public, unlike the others mentioned).  A number of communities have sprouted up in recent years even closer to Augusta, but I have not visited them yet.
    Aiken is a charming southern town, about an hour from the mountains and five times as far from the ocean.  It is less than a half hour from Augusta.  Let me know if you would like an introduction to a qualified real estate agent in the Aiken area.  There is no cost or obligation to you whatsoever.  Also, I dedicated one of my first newsletter articles to Aiken's communities.  Let me know if you would like a copy and I will email it to you (PDF  file).  Just hit the "Contact Us" button at the top of the page.