The Home On The Course (HOTC)
Awards for 2014

Tis the season for awards.  In the spirit of the new year, here are the first annual HOTC awards, aka The Hotsies.

Most Confusing Strategy by an Uber-Wealthy
Golf Community Developer
Awarded to Jim Justice, Wintergreen Resort

   The very rich are different than the rest of us; some seem confused about how to spend their money.  With great fanfare just two years ago, West Virginia’s Jim Justice, who had previously purchased the famed Greenbrier Resort, bought the Wintergreen Resort, located about 45 minutes west of Charlottesville.  The hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains were alive with the sound of rescue, since Wintergreen, suffering from financial problems and a coup de grace from a near snowless winter, was about to go under.  Pairing the Greenbrier with Wintergreen and its 45 holes of excellent golf and a fully functioning ski area, must have seemed a natural to the promotional Justice.  Immediately, he added to his reported $12 million purchase of the resort community by kicking in millions to upgrade the snowmaking capabilities and refresh the clubhouse on the mountaintop golf course.  And then, midyear, he announced that Wintergreen was for sale.  So far there are no takers primarily, we suppose, because few are as wealthy or as precipitous as Wintergreen’s soon to be former owner.

Most Construction Sounds Heard on a Golf Course
Awarded to Ballyhack Golf Club, Roanoke, VA

   As if Ballyhack is not a demanding golf course to play, in recent weeks the random sounds of chainsaws and hammered nails have filled the woods beside the swooping layout.  A couple of homes under construction may not seem like a big deal, but compared to the no homes of previous years, it’s progress.  Ballyhack was designed by Lester George who earlier attained fame in golf design circles with a similarly tough layout outside of Richmond at the Kinloch Golf Club.  Ballyhack had big plans for selling lots and constructing homes around the periphery of the muscular layout, but the recession threw everything into a stall.  Until recently, the only “homes” built were a string of golf villas that houses visiting members beside the finishing hole.  (Most of Ballyhack’s membership is “national.”) Their exteriors are everything the golf course isn’t, which is to say plain, unassuming and nothing special to look at.  But no serious golfer who gets the chance to take on Ballyhacks swooping fairways and yawning bunkers will care.

Wildest Hole of the Year
Awarded to #15 at Mountain Park, Traveler’s Rest, SC

   Gary Player's one-year old design for The Cliffs at Mountain Park is pretty tame, some might say "relaxed," with many of the modern touches, such as rough hewn bunkering and a few manmade grass dunes, that are unsurprising in golf designs of the last decade or two.  But nothing -- not Player's other holes or any other course you might have played -- prepares you for the 15th hole, a par 5 that begins innocently enough from an elevated tee.   (I played the hole at 518 yards.)  A good drive that finds the fairway makes for a thorny decision for the layup shot because you face a tall, V-shaped tree at dead center of the fairway, just beyond the landing zone and about 120 yards from the green.  Large mounds at front right and left of the green make for an awkward approach shot if you are left or right of the tree.  Trees in fairways are signatures of Player rival Jack Nicklaus whose obstructions are best circumvented.  This Player flora seems meant to be taken on directly, but the attempt to play through the slingshot-shaped limbs of the Sweet Gum tree could certainly turn a round sour.

Most Consistent Strategy by a Multiple Golf Course Owner
Awarded to John McConnell, McConnell Golf Group

   John McConnell’s strategy seems simple:  Buy every excellent private golf course in the Carolinas that is available at discounted or even distressed prices.  The former medical software company owner started with his hometown Raleigh Country Club, a Donald Ross designed classic surrounded by an aged neighborhood, and followed it up with a luscious stew of golf community courses – among them Treyburn in Durham, The Cardinal in Greensboro, Old North State Club at Uwharrie Point, The Reserve in Pawleys Island – and iconic layouts that bring a tear to the eyes of golf raters and serious players, like Sedgefield in Greensboro and Musgrove Mill in rural Clinton, SC.  McConnell can’t pass up a classy bargain, and this year’s acquisitions were Brook Valley, an Ellis Maples design in eastern North Carolina, and the circa 1894 Asheville Country Club in western North Carolina, the owner’s third Ross course and his 10th in total.  Members of one McConnell course have privileges at the others, making a home in one of the adjacent golf communities a potential lure for serious relocating golfers.  If we had an award for Golf Membership Plan of the Year, McConnell would get that too.  Wait ‘til next year…

Favorite Couple of the Year
Awarded to a Couple from Ohio

   I met a baby boomer couple at the wedding of a friend's son last March.  The conversation turned to golf communities, and they indicated they were ready to move south from their home in Ohio.  I ran through all the questions I typically ask a couple in order to qualify their interests, and it became clear that a home in Florida was in their wheelhouse.  I thought Naples or Sarasota seemed to fit their interests, and by June they scheduled a visit to Naples.  My agent there, Jeff Feldman, showed them around in May and then on a return visit in October.  At the end of the trip, they bought a home, not in a golf community but near plenty of golf.  When Jeff called to tell me about the sale, he indicated the couple also liked another home in the area and was thinking of putting in an offer.  A week later they did, it was accepted, and within one week, they had purchased a home to live in and another one to rent out as an "investment."  In Naples real estate, it has been a very good year for everyone.

Cheapest Golf Community Real Estate -- in a Good Way
Awarded to Keowee Key, Salem, SC

   Keowee Key on Lake Keowee in South Carolina could be forgiven if it had self-esteem problems.  Just down the lake from the upscale Reserve at Lake Keowee and a few of the toney Cliffs Communities, Keowee Key is not top of mind for most folks looking for property on or near one of the cleanest manmade lakes in the east (created by planned flooding in the 1960s for hydroelectricity purposes).  But eventually couples looking for a golf community that offers homes for sale facing the lake and priced, in some cases, at less than $400,000, will give Keowee Key a first and second look. The George Cobb designed golf course, updated a few years ago, doesn't have the modern touches of the Fazio and Nicklaus layouts up the lake, but like everything else in this community, it is understated and a bargain.  (Note:  A Duke Power plant three miles away undoubtedly tamps down prices.)

Biggest Jump in Golf Course Ratings
Awarded to Mountain Park and Currahee Club, Toccoa, GA

   The Golfweek representatives who rate courses for the magazine thought enough of the Gary Player layout for The Cliffs at Mountain Park (see above) that a year after its debut, it entered the Golfweek Top 100 list at a robust #43.  Mountain Park “stands in bold contrast to the prevailing aesthetic of lush, heavily manicured parkland that otherwise prevails at this residential chain of seven Cliffs properties straddling the North Carolina/South Carolina border,” wrote Golfweek architecture critic Brad Klein.
    Golfweek’s raters went similarly gaga over the George Fazio design for Currahee Club in northern Georgia. I visited a week after the Golfweek raters made their second visit, and Currahee management was still agog at the anecdotal comments they received from the raters.  They must have really flipped when they saw the 2014 Top 100 rating come in at #42, a jump of 20 spots on the list.  I understand:  The muscular golf course sweeps and swirls, with long carries across ravines and testy approach shots to tilted and elevated greens, just the kind of in-your-face layout some Golfweek raters seem to love.  The golf course is not for the faint of heart, and I wondered how female and senior members might adapt to the requirements of the long carries.  For me, the only disappointment is that you see nearby Lake Hartwell just a couple of times from the elevated fairways.

Too Big to Fail
Awarded to The Landings, Savannah, GA

   For some golf communities, size isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.  Consider the 42-year old Landings just outside Savannah, a 4,800 acre, 8,000 resident behemoth with six golf communities, virtually every other amenity and more than 100 social clubs for just about every hobby and activity you could think of.  Many of those clubs are affinity groups, a chance for all residents from, say, Ohio, to get together and discuss the finer points of being a Buckeye or the deliciousness of beating Michigan in football most years recently.  The Landings even maintains its own on-site real estate agency whose revenues add to the community chest and keep homeowner fees at a reasonable rate.  The Landings ranks at the top of the financial stability scale.

Most Undiscovered Area for Golf Communities
Awarded to eastern North Carolina

   With the purchase of Brook Valley, a country club in underappreciated Greenville, NC, which is home to Eastern Carolina University and its well-regarded Division I athletics program, the McConnell Group of iconic golf courses in the Carolinas may have just put the area on the map for those seeking a golfing lifestyle in the Albemarle Sound area.  One of our first circuits of 2015 will include a swing through the area, with stops at Albemarle Plantation in Hertford, NC, Scotch Hall Preserve in Merry Hill, Cypress Landing in Chocowinity and then Brook Valley in Greenville. (Although the golf course is under renovation and will not be finished before March.)  We may also make a stop at Ironwood Country Club in Greenville if only to play a Lee Trevino designed course for the first time. (We will make sure to bring our left to right game.)  It is about time this historic section of the South got some attention for its golf communities.

Comeback Golf Market of the Year
Awarded to Naples, FL

   Few markets took a recession hit to real estate much deeper than Naples did (think Miami, Las Vegas and, maybe, Phoenix, and you’ve got most of them).  But as fast as the Naples market fell, that is nearly how fast it has recovered.  As of the end of October, the number of closed sales increased 13% over the same period in 2013 and were the highest ever recorded in the market; and the inventory of listed homes was 10% lower than in October 2013 with just a 4 ½ month supply remaining (6 months is considered “in balance”).  With some pride, I can report that our company added to the totals of homes sold when we assisted a couple from Ohio in the purchase of two homes, one for their use and one for investment purposes (see above).  The average selling price of a home in Naples during the first 10 months of 2014 was a little over $500,000, the highest level since 2008 but still 30% below the highest mark ever in 2007. Therefore, substantial room for price growth remains despite the potential for a record year in 2014; and with developers rushing in to build new communities – including a golf community or two – and barring any economic cataclysm, we think a return to Naples’ high-priced glory days may be on the horizon.

    If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.  I value your opinions, and your input will help us communicate the most useful information for you and our thousands of other readers.
    To you and yours, have a happy, healthy and altogether wonderful new year.  Thank you for your loyalty.

   Larry Gavrich, Founder & Editor

   GolfCommunityReviews.com

   GolfHomesListed.com