Southeast golf communities dominate T&L list

Balsam Mountain Preserve's golf course, designed by Arnold Palmer, could be the most scenic of any in North Carolina. The community made T&L's top 100 list.

    Travel & Leisure Golf magazine has published its "America's Top 100 Golf Communities" list, and southeastern communities dominate both the top 10 and top 25.
   Palmetto Bluff, the Bluffton, SC, community cum resort whose inn is one of the most celebrated and expensive in the region, holds down second place on the T&L list, just behind Pronghorn in Bend, OR. The Cliffs Communities, as a group, which dot the western Carolina mountains, took the fifth spot, followed by Kiawah Island, SC, the Greenbrier Sporting Club in White Sulphur Springs, WVA, and Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, GA.
   The T&L list emphasizes privacy, although its explanation of its rankings indicates that "limited public access"

Texas has no golf communities represented on the top 25 list.

such as resort guests is permitted but "may detract from a community's ranking." That certainly was not the case with Palmetto Bluff, which is featured in the magazine's January/February issue.
   Southeastern golf communities rounding out the top 25 are: Sea Island, GA (11), Windsor in Vero Beach, FL (16), Spring Island, Okatie, SC (17), Isleworth, Windermere, FL (21), Wade Hampton, Cashiers, NC (22), and The Bear's Club, Jupiter, FL (24). Wade Hampton, it should be noted, is #1 on the latest list of Golfweek magazine's top golf communities. Golfweek emphasizes the quality and design of the golf course, and its relationship with the adjacent community. They favor courses that are as separated from housing as possible.
   I found it interesting that one of the fastest growing states, and one with scores of golf communities developed over the last decade, Texas, does not have a representative on the top 25 list. In the state by state list that follows the top 25, three Texas communities, including Barton Creek in Austin, are listed.
   I have personal knowledge of some of the communities on the list, having visited and reviewed them. They include Amelia Island Plantation in Florida; The Ford Plantation, near Savannah, GA; Bald Head Island and Balsam Mountain Preserve in North Carolina; and the Cliffs Communities and Reserve at Lake Keowee in SC. I would be happy to send anyone a copy of my reviews of these fine communities. Click here to provide your email address.
   Bluffton, SC, is the most popular town on the list, contributing four communities to the list. (In addition to Palmetto Bluff, they are Belfair, Berkeley Hall and Colleton River.) Homes at second-ranked Palmetto Bluff start around $1.2 million; homes at the other three start around $500,000, with home sites available at all these communities for those who would prefer to build their dream homes to their own specifications. Two other communities that made the list -- Spring Island and Oldfield -- are just 14 miles from Bluffton, and Dataw Island Club, Briars Creek and Long Cove on Hilton Head are also within an hour's drive. With homes beginning at $280,000, Dataw offers the lowest prices among the top communities.
   Suffice to say, you could build yourself a nice "discovery" weekend in and around Bluffton, or in the mountains of North Carolina or in many of the areas of Florida. I would be happy to make the arrangements for anyone interested in doing so. Contact me for some ideas.

Guests contemplating purchase of property at Ford Plantation, near Savannah, GA, which made T&L's top 10 list, could score an overnight stay in Henry or Clara Ford's room in the community's clubhouse. The Pete Dye golf course is special too.

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Monday, 19 January 2009 09:25

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