During my visit to Cape Cod last week, after two glorious rounds at the private Oyster Harbors Golf Club, I noticed this ad in a local newspaper.  It provides one way to play a great golf course and support a local library.  If you play below your handicap level at this outing, you will be doing well, and also doing good:

 

October 19 - Want to Play at the Exclusive Oyster Harbors Club, well here is your chance!!  15th annual Autumn Classic, Oyster Harbors Club, to benefit the Osterville Village Library, 11 a.m. registration, 12:30 p.m. shotgun start, best ball of foursome, $225 entry fee per player, registration forms at www.ostervillevillagelibrary.org or by calling the Osterville Village Library at 508-420-5757.

 

        Please note that Oyster Harbors is slated for some modest reshaping by Tom Doak in the coming weeks.  It would be best, if you plan to play in this outing, to contact the course for an update on exactly when they intend to start the work.  I understand that play will continue as the workmen go about their business.

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         The folks who developed the standard in southern golf communities, Reynolds Plantation in upstate Georgia, are putting their mark -- literally -- on Laurelmor, the high-end community near Blowing Rock, NC, that the firm took over in the wake of Ginn Resorts' major loan default.  Laurelmor is now Reynolds Blue Ridge.  The company announced the change, along with other information about plans for the community, in a posting in the last few days at the community's web site, according to Toby Tobin, who has followed the Ginn saga closely at his web site GoToby.com.

         The announcement comes as a mixed blessing for those unfortunate souls who plunked down an average of $625,000 per home site during the ill-fated Ginn era.  Reynolds is a sharp outfit by

Laurelmor owners dropped an average of $625,000 for their home sites.  New pricing puts the average at around $355,000 (assuming an equal number of houses in each price range).

reputation, and they would not be taking on the Laurelmor project without a solid plan for success.  Unfortunately for current property owners, that means cutting lot prices to a range of $139,900 to $569,900, or an average price of $354,900 (if an equal number of properties across the range).  It could take the better part of a couple of decades for those early properties to regain all that lost value, but with Reynolds involved, at least some value remains.

         In order to encourage property sales, Ginn had waived initiation fees for the golf course for the first 179 property owners.  Reynolds announced it will honor that agreement, and that memberships current and future will have a "generational" option, which includes grandparents, children and grandchildren in the membership.  Reynolds is offering other incentives, including a home site exchange program, to assuage the pain of those first owners, which is more than owners in other bankrupted communities are getting.  The cautionary note here, as always, is to proceed very carefully when buying the promise of future amenities in a new golf community.  And to know the difference between hype and solid, sustainable performance.

        You can read Toby Tobin's article at GoToby.com.