Today I head back north to Connecticut from South Carolina, a solid 16-hour car drive. It has been a great summer so far, with lots of new golf courses played and the hint that maybe I am starting to get my swing back (the ball is not going dead right off the tee anymore). Still, standing on the first tee each day, I don't know which golfer will show up, the guy who keeps the ball in play and gives himself a shot at breaking 80, or the spray hitter who is forever chipping from the muck and mire just to get back to the fairway and have a chance for a one-putt par. I can hear some of you muttering "Been there, done that."
A few observations about some of my summer visits. First, you can't tell the real estate market is in recession by playing golf courses on the Carolinas coast. More than once, hammering coming for nearby homes under construction interrupted a backswing this summer. Local real estate agents say that home inventories are way up but that prices have not softened too much. It is reasonable to assume, though, that as people have problems selling their primary homes up north, the relocation traffic will slow down a little in the southeast.
Summer is a great time to play in the south...if you can stand the heat. Prices are way down even at some of the elite public accessible courses. At Caledonia in Pawleys Island, which is highly rated in Zagat's and the popular golf magazines, we played for $67 per person with the Myrtle Beach Passport card I purchased in July. The regular fee of $97 is still a bargain for the best conditioned course in Myrtle Beach; in the high season of spring and fall, the fees near $200. During the summer, we played a course in Georgetown, SC, the Wedgefield Golf Club, for less than $30, and it wasn't bad (certainly worth the money). The better courses in the Charleston area rarely topped $60, cart included.
Some courses are sensitive to the heat and provide iced towels and frequent beverage cart service. Others appear to be doing you a favor by providing water every half dozen holes or so. Our best advice is to bring a bottle or two of your own water or, better yet, Gator Ade or the like.
On the drive home, I'll be contemplating all the visits I've made during the last year and half since I started HomeOnTheCourse, our newsletter which reviews golf course communities. We are still the only objective, unbiased service of its kind. In this space in the coming weeks, I'll reflect on some of the 80 or so communities I've visited and try to share some lessons learned and rules of the road when looking for golf community property.
In the meantime, it's on to my longest drive of the summer...