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Term limit: Private should mean members-only, nothing else
Friday, 23 February 2007 18:00
An article we are writing about Porters Neck Plantation Country Club in Wilmington, NC, and one we received in an email from our friends at Golf Vacation Insider got us thinking about the true definition of a private club.
Porters Neck, which has been available for public play for a few decades, recently raised its greens fees by about 60% to over $100 and its initiation fees for new members to $30,000. Last year, the members commissioned more than $1 million of work on the Tom Fazio golf course and added two tennis courts. The club is also in its second go-round with Creative Golf Marketing, a firm that specializes in raising the membership rolls at private clubs (Porters Neck has even enrolled in CGM's 180-course "Private Club Network," which provides access to all the courses for members of clubs in the network). Put all that together and the club is signalling its intention to be members-only. Yet when asked if they plan to go private, Porters Neck officials say, “We’ve always been private.” What they mean, they explain, is that they have always been “privately owned.” Come on: Private means members-only, not the opposite of municipally owned.
The emailed article from Golf Vacation Insider describes how non-members can gain access to the “private” Gallery Club in Tucson where Tiger et al are competing in the Accenture Match Play Championship this weekend on the club’s South course (as we write this, Tiger has just lost to Nick O'Hern). The North and South courses, according to GVC, alternate days when they are open to public play; in other words, on a day when the South is private, the North is public, and vice versa. That’s great for us golfers traveling in the Tucson area but, by definition, the club is not private.
Like the word “unique” – how unique is very unique? -- privacy should never be qualified. That’s why we would outlaw the meaningless but ubiquitous term “semi-private” in favor of the more accurate “public access.”
Of course, as always, we invite alternate views. Just register or sign in and leave your comment here...on our semi-private blog site.
The realtor's forecast: Bright and sunny, with not a chance of clouds
Thursday, 01 March 2007 18:00
No matter how bad or good the real estate market is, the marketeers who represent them will always find the glass full. We received an email from a marketing firm that represents a few communities we know, and we just had to chuckle at the way they paint lipstick on the pig.
When the market was booming, the urge from the real estate industry went something like this: "You better buy now, because prices are going up and you won't be able to afford the house you want a year from now." The logic was unbeatable...if you consider real estate an investment, rather than shelter.
Now that the market is in the tank, here's what the nattering nabobs of optimism say (and this is a direct quote from a company called GamePlan Resort Solutions): "We are in the midst of a strong ‘Buyer’s Market’ which means that it is a great time to buy while the incentives are plentiful, interest rates are low, and sellers are motivated."
Well, yes, it is a great time to buy...if you have the cash and if you are looking for a home. Unspoken, of course, is that if you own a home, you are going to have to be a motivated seller in order to buy one of those homes being offered by another motivated seller. Ergo, you accept less for your house and then have less to pay for their house.
Resort Solutions also quotes news reports to show that, "Recently there have been indicators that the economy is accelerating and the real estate market is gradually coming back to life." The company's email was sent to us on Wednesday (Feb. 28), the day after the 400+ point loss on the Dow Jones Industrials, demonstrating, yet again, that Pollyanna is alive and well, and probably selling condos in Miami.
We have all been there. We are playing a two-dollar Nassau and it comes down to that three-foot putt on the 18th for a tie or a win. Our partner looks at us expectantly. We feel confident, or maybe not. But it is only three lousy feet. We've made them all day. Perhaps we think about what it might be like to have that same putt to win the Masters or the U.S. Open. How the crowd will erupt, how our wife or girlfriend will rush the green, throw her arms (and maybe legs) around us and we won't even be embarrassed because we have won the whole thing.
And then we miss the putt. We slink off to the 19th hole, our partner's "that's okay" small compensation (and we don't believe him anyway). But a few beers later, the pain dissipates and we get on with life, never to remember the missed three-foot putt until, of course, the next crucial three foot putt.
We thought of this yesterday after watching Heath Slocum miss something a little over the dreaded three feet which would have sent him into sudden death with Mark Calcavecchia at the PODs Championship, one week after Boo Weekley missed the same length putt that would have won the Honda Classic, what would have been his maiden win (and all the riches and security that would have led to). He lost in a four-man playoff the next day (how excruciating that night's sleep must have been). The next time I stand over a three footer for the win, I'm going to think about Weekley and Slocum, about how much a missed three footer cost them relative to what it will cost me, and I might, just might, do a better job of getting the putter head through the ball. Unless, of course, my partner threatens to throw his arms and legs around me.
People who live in glass houses should not live mid fairway
Monday, 12 March 2007 18:00
People who don't play golf purchase homes on a course for the nice views and
the expected appreciations for their properties. When we push the occasional
drive beyond the OB stakes and into a backyard, we can always tell if the home
is owned by a golfer or not. The golfer, if he is out back, will be holding the
ball and toss it back to us, a knowing smile on his face. The non-golfer will
have a scowl on his face, not acknowedge the location of the ball, and grunt (or
worse) if we move to retrieve it.
Should any non-golfers be reading this
and in the market for a home on the course, here's our take on the best
positions for your home. First, behind a tee looking down the fairway; the
views will be great and you'll have no chance to be in the way of a 100 mph
pellet rocketed at your home. Next choice is at greenside on a par 3,
preferably left of the green (ball flights from those who hook the ball, we all
know, are more predictable than from those who slice). A body of water
separating you from the green adds an extra measure of precaution -- and helps
with the view as well. The worst place for your house is about 200 yards down
the right side of a par 4 or par 5; if you must have your house there, have a
strong roof, preferably not metal, and shatterproof glass. Avoid the ubiquitous
stucco exterior so popular in Florida and Arizona lest the outside of your house
wind up looking as if it were in downtown Baghdad.
Consider yourself
warned.
Two
degrees of separation: If you need to live at mid fairway, try to get a body of
water between you and a big slice. This home at Debordieu near Georgetown, SC,
is well positioned for dent-free living.
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