Many of us will look on with awe tomorrow (Sunday) during the final round of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass when players in competition for victory face the daunting 17th hole with its tiny island green. That green is on my bucket play list, but I have played a par 3 surrounded by marshland maybe 100 times that is every bit as intimidating.
        Although from all appearances, the 13th green at Pawleys Plantation Country Club is smaller than the 17th green at Sawgrass, published measurements indicate it is a couple hundred square feet larger.  But I can't imagine the Sawgrass hole is any more intimidating than Pawleys short par 3.  Jack Nicklaus took care of that in 1988 when he used the old rice plantation dike as the site of the four tee boxes on the hole. (The dike also serves as the tee locations for the longer and hardly less intimidating tee shot to the par 3 17th hole.)  At only ½ mile to Pawleys Island Beach and the Atlantic Ocean, the tee-to-green shot over an expanse of marshland is fully exposed to the elements. Rare is the day when the wind is not blowing one way or the other and, oddly enough, the only “good” wind on the hole is straight in your face because the extra lift of a decent shot will pretty much ensure your ball does not bounce over the typically firm green.  The toughest wind is the one that blows out across the marsh to the island and ocean beyond.
The 13th green at Pawleys Plantation. Tee boxes are off to the left and, on the day of this photo, the wind was blowing from tee to green, making a difficult shot almost impossible to hold on the tiny green.
        That said, a shot to the back of the green under such conditions leaves a strongly downhill putt with the wind blowing back toward a middle or front hole location, running the risk of putting the ball through a thin strip of collar and into the marsh short of the green. Whereas the entrance and exit to the 17th green at Sawgrass is from the back left, at Pawleys the route is from the right, providing a dubious bailout that is no more accessible than the thin runway at Sawgrass. 
        I am sure those who have played #17 at Sawgrass have their pet names for the hole, some not so genteel. At Pawleys Plantation, members like myself have a stock response for first-time visitors who stand on the 13th tee box, mouth agape at the shot before them.
        “Yup,” we say, “the shortest par 5 you will ever play.”

        For months, rumors have been strong in and around the Cliffs communities in the Carolinas that South Street Partners, the firm that owns the amenities at Kiawah Island, were negotiating to purchase The Cliffs from Arendale Partners.  An agreed-upon deal was finally announced late last week.  No financial terms were disclosed.
        The deal was announced separately by both Arendale and South Street.  In their announcement, the new owners indicated that "we acquired all Cliffs Land Partners and Cliffs Club Partners entities previously owned by Arendale Holdings Corp...South Street will oversee the development, management, operations, sales, and marketing for The Cliffs."
        The 50 year old South Street Partners maintains more than $1 billion in assets under management and is headquartered in both Charlotte, NC, and Charleston, SC.  If they work their magic at The Cliffs as they have done at Kiawah, which they purchased in 2013, Cliffs owners can look forward to enhanced real estate values and a continuation of top-drawer club amenities.
        "Since acquiring Kiawah Partners, the master developer of Kiawah Island, SC, in 2013," the South Street letter to Cliffs owners indicated, "median pricing of properties within the community has increased significantly, new home construction is at an all-time high, inventory levels have decreased to the lowest levels in over a decade and sales have topped $1.5 billion."
        Prior to Arendale taking over at The Cliffs, the deluxe group of communities had something of a topsy turvy history.  Jim Anthony acquired thousands of acres of land in the upstate region of South Carolina and began to build high-end golf communities that attracted well-to-do buyers from the Atlanta area and elsewhere around the country.  Drawn by the luxury nature of the amenities Anthony installed inside the gates of the multiple communities -- an equestrian center here, a wellness center there, and beautifully groomed golf courses everywhere -- buyers signed up for club memberships that, at one point, required an initiaion fee of $125,000.  Membership was mandatory at the point of property purchase; if you did not choose to join the club, you were not permitted to join it at a later date, and anyone interested in buying your lot or home at a later date could not join the club.
        Anthony ran into financial trouble just before the recession started in 2008.  A project to build another Cliffs community featuring Tiger Woods' first American design was scrapped as the Anthony real estate empire began to unravel.  After a Texas couple, residents of The Cliffs, stepped in with some temporary life-saving injection of cash, Arendale and others combined to purchase some acreage and the amenities, including the golf courses.  
        A new purchaser must still sign up for membership within a few weeks of closing, but joining fees are now a much more reasonable $50,000, not outrageous when you consider the six clubs and the high standards of maintenance at each.  Given South Street's record at Kiawah, we should expect a continuation of those high standards and, at least, some initial investments to enhance the quality of The Cliffs experience.
        If you are interested in more information about The Cliffs or an introduction to a professional agent who can provide you with a tour of any of the communities, please contact me.
Gary Player did an excellent job of shaping the Cliffs at Mountain Park course in Travelers Rest, SC, not far from the popular city of Greenville. It is one of the half-dozen layouts included with a Cliffs membership.