The last two weeks have put Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC, on the map for big time sports. Conway is the last town you pass from the west as you enter the much better known Myrtle Beach. In just one week in mid June, the school’s most famous graduate, Dustin Johnson, won the U.S. Open championship and then, a week later, the school’s baseball team earned the College World Series title in Omaha, beating the favored and more highly resourced University of Arizona Wildcats. Then, yesterday, Johnson, who has notoriously finished tournaments the way hares finish road races, closed with a flourish at Firestone Country Club near Akron, OH, to run down the favored and generally steadier Aussie Jason Day.
        Include this reporter among those who have never been big fans of Johnson. Having an enigmatic personality like Tiger Woods would be an improvement for the dry and diffident Johnson whose tragic pratfalls late in major tournaments would be legendary in the world of golf if not for a man named van de Velde.
        There has always been a sense, as well, that the 30-year old had not grown beyond his college days. Hard partying and competitive golf are undeniably incompatible, and Johnson, unlike a lost soul like Johnny Manziel, chose his sport after a stint in rehab earlier this year.  The sober reality of being a new dad seems to have shaken the boy out of both Johnson's personality and his golf game. He has sealed the deal in the last two tournaments he has played as emphatically as Tiger at his best. And his post-game comments have been more assertive and confident, without a trace of smugness. Good for him, his family and for golf.

*

        If you can stand the heat, this is a great time of year to play golf in Myrtle Beach. Summer is actually the off-peak season for golf on the Grand Strand, and prices are at their lowest of the year. Almost next door to Coastal Carolina University are three excellent layouts of varying degrees of difficulty and eye appeal at the Legends Golf complex on Highway 501, the major east/west route into Myrtle Beach and home to the huge Tanger Outlet Mall. The Heathland course, designed by the celebrated “classic” architect Tom Doak in the manner of British Isles course, features deep greenside bunkers and sweeping, unobstructed views across the entire course. P.B. Dye’s Moorland course is a bit more like its sister courses throughout the Myrtle Beach area, which is to say composed of wide expanses of sand and enough bodies of water to get your attention (and, if you are not on your game, your golf balls.) The Parkland was designed by local architect and golf course developer Larry Young and features aggressive bunkering and tricky green complexes that inspire creative shot-making.
With any luck, you will catch the late-afternoon bagpiping between the clubhouse and practice range at The Legends.
        Those who come to The Legends hungry for more than good golf and thirsty for more than a Gatorade will be impressed that the Legends offers breakfast, lunch and two beers (or fountain drinks) to go along with the golf. Although by the time your round is done, you may feel transported to the British Isles, try to extend lunch to 4 pm when a bagpiper strolls out near the practice range and does his number.
        For more information on The Legends or for ideas about which of the many Myrtle Beach area golf communities might suit you best, please contact us and we will respond within 24 hours.

        London bridges aren’t exactly falling down, at least not yet, but London real estate prices are. Previously buoyed by an influx of wealthy foreigners, especially Russian and Arab, London has for some years been the most over-priced city in the world. The Brexit vote changed that overnight, as those wealthy foreigners are already starting to put their properties up for sale. Florida real estate agencies could be the beneficiaries.
        “Anything in the United States will fare very well with the Euro-centric audience,” Leonard Steinberg, an executive with a major U.S. brokerage, told Yahoo, adding that Miami was among American cities that “will always do well with the foreign buyer.”
        I think other Florida cities like Naples, Sarasota, Fort Myers and the Gold Coast on the eastern side of the state could do very well also as well-to-do British citizens look to escape the plummeting real estate market in London and other higher priced areas of the UK. The British have long had an affinity for vacations in Florida, and many have purchased second homes there. Non-stop flights from London to Miami, Orlando and Tampa are a few hours longer than flights to Portugal, Spain and other sun-drenched havens in Europe, but receptions for British citizens in some Euro countries in the wake of the vote could be tepid at best and vacation-ruining at worst. Florida and, potentially, other parts of the U.S. Sun Belt, could look like safe havens in more ways than one.
British citizens looking for a safe haven in Florida won't do much better than Laurel Oak Country Club, located near Sarasota.
        Europeans watching their stock portfolios and real estate values drop, and fearing worse over the coming months, don’t believe America needs to be made great again, certainly not as a place to invest. The U.S. is the world’s only true safe haven for real estate and other investments, according to global experts. If I were the chambers of commerce and major real estate agencies in Florida cities, as well as other cities in the Southeast that can be undeniably attractive to foreign real estate investment, I’d be running ads in British media read by those with real estate holdings. Yes, the drop in the value of the pound sterling has made investments in U.S. properties that much more expensive for the Brits, but the exchange rate difference is nothing compared to the impact of, say, a 50% drop in properties valued in the millions.  Smart money in London may be ready to take some losses now rather than much bigger ones later.
        Of course, having been through a vote whose results many did not see coming, British citizens may be reluctant to jump from the fat into the fire of another chaotic and contentious campaign in the U.S. Uncertainty certainly does not inspire investor confidence. In that regard, here is an open invitation to any British citizen looking for information on the top golf communities in Florida or elsewhere in the Southeast U.S. to contact us now to lay the groundwork for a purchase decision, say, on November 9, the day after the election. That provides plenty of time to visit some Florida communities in the meantime, while lodging prices are very cheap in Florida (hot summers drive the snowbirds away) and golf communities are eager to see you.
        For a sample of golf communities in Florida that we can recommend, click here.