Pyramid scheme:  Glenmore's driving range is amply sized and professionally outfitted.

Golf Course Review 

    Glenmore is one of those communities that suddenly appears along a stretch of country road and, yet, is close to everything.  Just a 20-minute drive to the University of Virginia, the gated Glenmore is also conveniently close to all other conveniences and necessities, like hospitals and shopping within 15 minutes.  Its east-of-Charlottesville location offers alternative air transportation options for those willing to drive about an hour to Richmond International Airport.  The Washington, D.C., area airports are two hours away. 
    Glenmore appeals to those who still work and those who don’t with roughly equal numbers of retirees, young families and empty nesters who are still working at least part time.  “The home office,” says lead broker Tom Pace, “is an important room to have [in Glenmore].”
    Housing runs the gamut in the community.  We found what Glenmore calls their “Scottish Homes” to be especially interesting.  Eleven choices of models are available.  At 2,100 to 3,700 square feet on lots from 2/10 and acre to ½ acre, these low maintenance homes fetch prices from around $550,000 to $800,000.  For $1,000 annually, an outside contractor handles all landscaping on the property, including mowing, mulch, fertilizer and aeration.  As for homes in the rest of the 1,300-acre community, they tend toward indigenous brick exteriors, with a good representation of hardy plank and stone.  Pace says Glenmore’s “bread and butter” house is about 3,000 square feet and sells for around $750,000.  There are no multi-family homes in Glenmore, although cottages are available (close together and some as small as 1,700 square feet) in the $400K range.  Owners of the cottages are required to purchase landscaping services for about $800 annually.  Houses in the rest of Glenmore range in price from $550,000 to more than $2 million.
    Glenmore has not been stingy with its non-residential land; 500 acres, including walking trails, a two-acre park, athletics fields and the golf course, will not be developed.  Just a small handful of Glenmore’s 800 lots remain available, and almost 700 of them have houses already.  This is a popular community near a popular town for both workers and retirees, and Glenmore’s resale values over the last few years have been strong. 
    The John LaFoy-designed golf course, which preceded the rest of the community, has the same kind of wide appeal as does the community that surrounds it.  LaFoy, a former president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, is an authority on the classic designers, and among his body of work are renovations of courses originally designed by Alister Mackenzie, Seth Raynor, A.W. Tillinghast, Donald Ross and Charles Blair MacDonald.  As we made our way around Glenmore’s challenging track, we saw multiple classic influences in the Scottish-style bunkering, undulating and large greens, and sometimes dramatic changes in elevation (a number of those big greens sat well above the fairways). 
    Tree lines provided nice framing for both fairways and some of the greens, and houses rarely encroached.  Greens were aerated and heavily top-dressed when we played the course, but the rest of the layout was in nice condition; we didn’t have a bad lie in fairways.  Our only wish is that Glenmore would relocate the large, dark scoreboard that dominates the back of the 18th green.  Better to let the dramatic clubhouse form an uninterrupted backdrop on this good finishing hole.
    Full family golf membership initiation fee is $20,000 with monthly dues of $411, both reasonable not only for golf of this quality but also for the 15 tennis courts (nine lighted), fitness center, and large swimming pool, as well as both casual and more serious dining in the clubhouse, with views out to and across the Rivanna River to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.
    From the Scottish style homes to the golf course design unashamedly influenced by Ross, McKenzie and the other greats, Glenmore is true to its name.  Coming up the long, uphill finishing hole to the dramatic clubhouse, only the elimination of the scoreboard and addition of a bagpiper might have improved the scene.  For info, contact Lead Broker Tom Pace at 800-776-5111, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Website:  www.glenmore.com

Eyes have it:  You wonder if architect John LaFoy was having a little fun when he put a "human face" on one of the holes at Glenmore.

House on the hill:  Keswick Hall dominates the landscape at Keswick Estate, as do the sand bunkers at the Arnold Palmer-designed course.

    Keswick Estate tends to its image with more care and self-consciousness than any other golfing community in the Charlottesville, VA, area.  It offers no condos or patio lots; the price points on its lots and large houses ensure that no riff raff will sully the community’s image or resale values.  The owners, British firm Orient-Express, welcome well-heeled guests in the 48-room Keswick Hall, a circa-1912 yellow stucco mansion that was purchased and tripled in size by Sir Bernard Ashley in 1990, who sold land and mansion to Orient-Express in 1999.
    One of the first things Cary Brent did in 2002 when Orient-Express hired him as director of estate development at Keswick was to double the price of the fledgling community’s lots.  It made him a popular guy among those who had paid modest prices for their properties.  It also helped remake the property’s image and reflected the Orient-Express plan to go slow in selling properties.  Brent says Orient-Express did not want to sell out the lots in just one or two years, preferring to take some time to upgrade the community’s reputation (and its selling prices).  The strategy appears to have worked; only a handful have sold in each of the last four years, but prices have increased significantly.  Today, with homes priced at $1.5 million and above, Keswick is at the highest end of Charlottesville’s golf community market.
    “People who live here [at Keswick],” Brent says matter of factly, “can live anywhere in the world.”
    Why then Keswick?  For one thing, privacy counts most in the community, which is home to a number of current and former CEOs, investors and entrepreneurs.  A manned security gate controls access to the community and resort house.  Membership in the golf club is capped at 450, but the roster is well short of that today and may never reach maximum, although the course has a few members from the surrounding community.  The club generates only 10,000 rounds a year, and an average round clocks in at just 3½ hours.  The Initiation fee for full golf is relatively low at $27,000, with dues a modest $365 per month.  Membership, which includes use of the five tennis courts and three swimming pools (indoor and outdoor), is not mandatory for homeowners.
    At 600 acres, with two-acre minimums for lots, Keswick is small as well as exclusive.  Thanks to local zoning regulations that have designated the town as “agricultural,” Keswick won’t have to bother with encroaching real estate development.  Despite its location in the middle of Virginia horse country, Keswick is just a 15-minute drive to Charlottesville and all it has to offer.  Grocery shopping and a hospital are even closer.
    We found the golf course a pleasant routing but overwrought in a few places.  We can’t say we are the biggest fans of Arnold Palmer courses, and Keswick did not cause us to reevaluate.  Palmer has reworked the Fred Findlay design by adding some huge traps, distracting from the natural contours and elevations that give the course its true character in the first place. Findlay has an established reputation as a fine early 20th Century architect – we will review his Farmington Golf Club in the next day or two -- and we can’t imagine his original layout needing such a dramatic makeover.  Arnie’s golf game was always aggressive, and sometimes his golf course designs reflect that, as it does at Keswick. 
    That said, the course was in fine condition, and the less overly expressed holes provided challenging shot-making opportunities.  The practice range includes a small, canopied shelter for those who like to practice in the rain.  The range isn’t large or fancy, but it doesn’t have to be since the course doesn’t generate much traffic.
    Every city area seems to have one upscale golf community, and in Charlottesville, that distinction goes to Keswick.  Although its golf course is not the most celebrated in the area, Keswick’s sophisticated air is undeniable.  Its homes are big and better spaced than in most communities.  From its perch on the hill, Keswick Hall defines the character of the community –- refined, solid and self-assured.  For more info, contact Cary Brent at 434-923-4320 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Web site:  www.keswick.com