Announcing the First Home On The Course

Discovery Weekend

The Landings, Savannah, GA

        Over recent months, we have asked visitors to this site to indicate their personal preferences for the location of their future golf community home.  After tabulating more than 100 votes, the results are clear:  Almost 43% of those who voted prefer a coastal location, besting the second choice of “lake oriented” by 23 percentage points.

        The coast has the most, according to our readers, and therefore we

        The Landings is one of the most financially stable golf communities that we have visited; its residents not only own the community and its amenities but also the Landings Realty Company, the real estate firm located just inside the gates.  The private golf courses at The Landings include designs by Tom Fazio, Arnold Palmer and Arthur Hills.  All other amenities, including tennis, swimming pools, fitness centers and boating through the adjacent marsh, are available to Landings residents.

        Transportation to The Landings, which is located just 26 miles from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, will be the responsibility of each couple attending the Discovery Weekend.  Golf carts will be available to guests while on site for travel around the community.  Landings officials and your editor will be available throughout the weekend to answer questions and provide optional visits to individual properties currently for sale.

        If you would like to register to attend the Discovery Weekend or have questions about it, please contact us by clicking here and indicating your interest in the message box.  Even if you have not considered the Savannah area for your future vacation or retirement home, you will be pleasantly surprised at all The Landings has to offer.  The deadline to sign up is November 1.  We look forward to seeing you at The Landings the first weekend in December.

        (Please note:  With airline prices lowest 21 days in advance, those flying to Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport should consider making reservations early in November.)

* single participants invited as well.

        Nicklaus, who designed the 7,400-yard course (from the tips), purchased one of the 25 villas on the property.  The golf course has been shortened to 6,800 yards this weekend for the Southworth Senior PGA Professional National Championship, but if the Golden Bear is in residence, he may hear some screams of agony coming from the back tees.  Creighton Farms has played 3 strokes more difficult than River Creek in Leesburg, the other golf course being used for the event.  (At a rating of 77.0 and slope of 152, the tips at Creighton Farms might have created a bit of embarrassment for the old guys.)  Be that as it may, Oklahoma golf club pro James Kane shot a three-under 69 at Creighton Farms to put himself in a good place going into the second day of the tournament today.

        I published an extensive review of Creighton Farms after my visit last year; you can read it and check out the scorecard by clicking here. The golf course was one of the best I played in 2010.

The Jack Nicklaus layout at Creighton Farms gets off to a rollicking start with a dogleg left to a well protected green complex.  The rest of the course is as imaginative, challenging and fun as the starter.

        Although the Arnold Palmer designed golf course is not surrounded by a golf community, it does feature a handful of cottages that were made available for a modest fee to members of McConnell’s seven other golf courses.

        “Even if we had filled the cottages all the time,” the McConnell spokesperson told me, “that wasn’t enough [to sustain the club].  We funded it for as long as we could.”

Musgrove Mill is a tough golf course, rated the 14th best layout overall in the golf rich state of South Carolina.  It will close at the end of November.

        Musgrove Mill is ranked the 14^th best course in the golf rich state by the South Carolina Golf Rating Panel; your editor is a member of the panel and has been invited to play in an outing at Musgrove Mill the week after next.  The course has also made Golfweek’s top 100 list of modern golf courses.  I have played Musgrove Mill once and found it quite challenging, with significant changes in elevation and forced carries over nasty bunkers, especially around the large and swirling greens.  I look forward to one more go at it before it closes.

        Musgrove Mill and The Reserve at Pawleys Island are the two McConnell golf clubs at the furthest distances from the group’s core courses in the Raleigh and Greensboro areas (including Raleigh Country Club and Sedgefield in Greensboro, both designed by Donald Ross).  But Pawleys Island, located on the coast just south of Myrtle Beach, is more of a destination than is Clinton, which is about 45 minutes from Greenville.

        Despite the closing of Musgrove Mill, the McConnell Group continues to look for additional courses to add to its portfolio, although “we prefer they be a little closer to each other [than Musgrove Mill was],” said the spokesperson.  He was not specific but said the firm has looked at golf courses on the Carolinas coast, as well as some closer to their Raleigh headquarters area.

        The Musgrove Mill closing is not likely to put a dent in McConnell’s acquisition program.  On the contrary, it just make them even hungrier to add another quality layout to the portfolio soon.