Myrtle Beach area golf courses, whose total once stood at over 120, continue to be under pressure in a still-oversaturated market. Local news outlets are reporting that River Oaks, a golf community just north of Highway 501, the main east/west thoroughfare entering Myrtle Beach, will close nine of its 27 holes and build more than 250 homes on 60 acres of former fairways and greens.
        This is only the latest in a continuing spate of closures over the last decade in a market that was once called a “supermarket of golf.” Just last week we learned that the owners of Indian Wells Golf Club, part of the Founders Group International of 22 golf courses in the Myrtle Beach area, had asked the county zoning board to rezone the golf course to include condo unit development. (The golf course was previously zoned for single-family home construction. Needless to say, homeowners in the surrounding neighborhoods are not.
The River Club in Litchfield Beach, SC, is one of 22 courses owned by Founders Group International. One of their layouts, Indian Wells, could be converted to single-family homes and condo units if the county zoning board agrees.
        The Indian Wells plans may be more problematical than those at River Oaks, where owners will still have 18 holes of golf remaining -– at least for the time being. Founders Group has petitioned Horry County for a change in zoning on the 150-acre Indian Wells golf course to permit construction of 255 single-family homes and 257 townhomes. Because the golf course was already zoned for single-family houses, residents are choosing not to take the typical stand that their home values will be eroded by the loss of the golf course. They say they fear environmental issues.
        Maryann Dube, president of the adjacent Woodlake Village’s homeowners’ association, told Myrtle Beach Sun’s online publication, “We’re going to be in big trouble if they build…The whole golf course floods tremendously, [and] they’re not going to be able to do anything to fix that.”
        Nearby residents and members of the other Founders Group courses, almost all of them located inside residential developments, are bound to be nervous about the Indian Wells events. That club was among the first that the Chinese company owners purchased in the area nearly a decade ago; the organization has been in the news over recent years because of squabbles among its owners and charges of embezzlement against a few of its executives. 
        As a vacation home owner at Pawleys Plantation in Pawleys Island, SC, home to a Jack Nicklaus golf course owned by Founders International, I will be watching for related news in the coming weeks and months. Watch this space.

        At this stage it is just rumor, but the noise coming from some residents of The Cliffs as well as from local developers is loud enough to invoke the old “where there’s smoke there’s fire” adage. Residents at a high-end luxurious collection of communities like The Cliffs are a savvy bunch, many former captains of industry who were paid during their careers for what they knew. And what residents seem to know at The Cliffs, which is owned by Arendale Holdings, is that the development group in charge of the private club amenities and land development at Kiawah Island is negotiating to purchase the Cliffs’ vaunted amenities and unsold real estate.
        In the last week, I reached out to both South Street Partners, the Charlotte-based real estate equity investment firm that purchased the Kiawah Island holdings in 2013, and The Cliffs own marketing department, to confirm the persistent rumors. I have not heard back from either.
        But a pending sale makes sense from a number of standpoints. According to Cliffs residents, land sales in the community have not met Arendale’s expectations, and that may explain why they are seeking to sell their interest rather than commit to millions of dollars to fund new clubhouses they promised at Keowee Springs and Mountain Park.
The Cliffs at Mountain Park, a Gary Player design, and located in Travelers Rest, SC.
        Arendale has company in its desire to move on. Worthington Hyde, an equity investment firm out of Atlanta which had loaned money to original Cliffs developer Jim Anthony, gained in foreclosure in 2008 more than 2,000 acres and 250 lots at Cliffs at Keowee Falls. Worthington Hyde decided that developing the land might yield more than flipping it to a bottom-fishing buyer during a recession. But lot sales have been slow even in recent years, especially because the lots they “inherited” from Anthony are mostly located in interior wooded areas, far from the lake where lots were already mostly in the hands of private owners. Those who can afford to buy into and live at The Cliffs prefer lots with a view of water or mountains.
        Worthington Hyde recently announced at a meeting with Keowee Falls owners that they have sold their interest in The Cliffs to the Colorado-based Resource Land Holdings. Private development companies are not known for their public communications, and there is nothing in a Google search and the Worthington Hyde and Cliffs’ websites about the deal. However, at that meeting with Keowee Falls owners, Resource Land Holdings executives indicated they plan to package some homes and lots together rather than just sell the land alone.
The Tom Fazio designed Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards course is one of the most highly rated in South Carolina.
        Worthington may have committed an unforced error when it opted to use an outside broker for the sale of lots at Keowee Falls, rather than co-broker with Arendale and The Cliffs’ sales office, which had established marketing power from the high-spending Jim Anthony days. With the arrangement, Worthington effectively threw itself into competition with Arendale for the sale of lots. At long last, Worthington decided to use Cliffs Realty to help sell its lots but the recent sale to the Colorado group implies that move was too little too late.
        Current residents of The Cliffs give Arendale credit for stabilizing operations and keeping the golf courses in tip-top shape. They appreciate as well that Arendale has run things conservatively, even though they expected more in the way of clubhouse development. But Arendale is in the business of selling land, and more of their emphasis has been on that aspect of the operation, according to residents, than in enhancing the experience of club membership, whose all-in initiation fee was dropped to $50,000 in the post Anthony era. The golf courses remain in terrific condition, but most residents do not wander far from their home courses, even though they have unfettered access to all seven layouts, from Lake Keowee to Asheville, NC, and down to the Greenville, SC, area. The drive times can amount to as much as 1 hour or more, and the notion of being able to play seven excellent golf courses has lost some of its luster for both residents and potential buyers.
        We will keep our eyes on The Cliffs in coming weeks and, if the sale goes through, will make it the lynchpin of our January edition of Home On The Course, our free to subscriber newsletter. Subscribe here.