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North Carolina

No other state in the east offers more in the way of golf community choices than does North Carolina, whose 500-mile length spans ocean to mountains with a fertile Piedmont region in between. Choose from among dozens of coastal golf communities, like Landfall, just a few miles from the exciting town of Wilmington and even closer to Wrightsville Beach; or Mountain Air (photo left), whose 4,000+ foot elevation will add a few yards to your golf shots; or any of the great choices near sophisticated cities, like Asheville, Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham. And there are plenty of out-of-the-way choices where bargain real estate abounds and the golf is excellent, such as the area between Hertford (Albemarle Plantation, Scotch Hall Preserve) and Greenville (Cypress Landing, Brook Valley); and the many top notch golf communities sprinkled throughout the western North Carolina mountains.
The Best of 2010 (first in a series)
Thousands of baby boomers and others who had previously envisioned a warmer, less expensive life continued to put off going south in 2010 as the economy and prices they could fetch for their primary...
Wilmington, N.C. food for thought
The New York Sunday Times travel section this past weekend lauded some hot new food and drinking establishments in Wilmington, N.C. The town, which has been known substantially as Hollywood on the...
Social network comes to North Carolina; golf community hopes for new "friends"
Successful beyond its wildest dreams, the social network Facebook needed more capacity to handle all those old high school friends re-connecting, figuratively and literally, as well as the...
New Bern’s Carolina Colours opens lakefront lots; homes start under $300,000
The community with the unique name Carolina Colours, just outside New Bern, NC, has announced the opening of a new neighborhood, Waterleaf, which comprises 13 home sites on 25-acre Carolina Lake. Lot...
An expert's take on Cape Fear National
Bradley Klein is the respected golf course reviewer for Golfweek magazine, and he recently made a tour of Cape Fear National, the one year old course in the Leland, NC, community of Brunswick...
Ginn gone, mountain prices “normalize”
Abit of altitude sickness may have affected the judgment of those who paid seven-figures for mountain properties at Laurelmor, the ill-fated golf community in the Blue Ridge Mountains that...
Golf community newsletter gets it right
You can imagine that I receive my fair share of marketing brochures from golf communities I visit and review. Far fewer have shown up in my mailbox since the economy went south and most baby boomers...
True Colours: New Bern developer meets new market pricing realities head on
Most golf communities that had the bad luck to open for business just before the housing market collapsed are working hard to find ever-creative ways to market themselves -– perhaps too hard. Some...
Keeping up with the Joneses: A revisit to the Duke Golf Club
It is fitting that one of the best (and best endowed) universities should have a fine golf course. I had played the Duke University Golf Club a few years ago, but when I had the opportunity to give it...
Mr. Strantz’s Wild Ride at Tot Hill Farm
by Tim Gavrich Tot Hill Farm Golf Club in Asheboro, NC, was the brainchild of Mike Strantz, whose life and career as a renowned golf architect were cut short by cancer in 2005 at age 50. Tot Hill...
Review: Albemarle’s Scotch Hall Preserve hoping buyers make Sound investment
You have to wonder what has taken developers so long to discover and use the Albemarle Sound of eastern North Carolina as a location for their golf communities. It is not that far from significant...
Consciousness of Stream: A review of Treyburn Country Club
by Tim Gavrich One of my favorite hazards in all of golf sadly comes into play just once on its golf course. It is the Swilcan Burn, which crosses in front of the first green at The Old Course at...