Heart of Texas:  Robert Trent Jones Jr. presented Mill Creek Golf Club with a valentine when he designed the course in the 1980s.  The heart-shaped green is at top center in the photo.  Photo by Travis Fell.

 

Golf review:  Mill Creek Golf Club, Salado, TX

    With thousands of golf courses across the U.S., it is impossible for all of us to have an appreciation for more than a small percentage of them.  We rely on the reviews and comments of others to advise that, if we are ever passing through Simsbury, CT, Cedar Rapids, IA, or Salado, TX, for example, we might just want to stop for at least four hours (half if we only have time for nine holes).  I was gratified, therefore, when Letta Meinen, a resident and club member at Mill Creek in Salado, offered to provide an overview of her golf club and community.  I've never been to Salado, but based on Letta's comments, I hope to in the near future.  Her proud reviews of her town, community and golf course follow.  I invite others to share here their own odes to their clubs and communities.

by Letta Meinen

    The Mill Creek Golf Course has been around since the 1960s, originally as a nine-hole layout.  Within the confines of the village of Salado, about halfway between Austin and Dallas/Ft. Worth, the former ranchland was originally untamed country rife with brush, mesquite, live oaks and a range of other flora and wild life.  The course and community are named for the meandering limestone-bottom creek that runs through the property.
    Salado is a small, historic village whose famous and popular Stagecoach Inn restaurant was an official stop on the Chisholm Trail.  (For more history and dozens of photos of the town, visit SmallTownGems.com).  Original investors in Mill Creek saw a different trail, Interstate 35, as bringing enough traffic to the area to justify a golf course.  In the late 1980s, a local investor, Don Mackie, led a group that bought the course and expanded it to 18 holes with a vision of expanding the adjacent residential community.  He organized the Mill Creek Community Association and made plans to build additional homes on the land his group had purchased.  He also built condominiums and town houses that were used mostly as rental properties.  (Mr. Mackie passed away in 2001, before he could realize his vision of a 36-hole golf club.  Morris Foster, a lifelong resident of Salado and a local businessman, purchased the club.)
Mr. Mackie was a friend of golf architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. and hired him to design Mill Creek's first 18 holes. (Jones added another nine holes in the 1990s to accommodate the growing community.)  When friends of Mr. Jones asked him where he was working, he kept answering "in the heart of Texas."  He brought his response to life, designing the green complex on his signature hole at Mill Creek in the shape of a heart, and the tee box in the shape of an arrow.  [Editor's note:  It must be a popular place on Valentine's Day.]  Jones also designed three holes with trees in the middle of fairways.
     The three nines are named the Mill, the Creek, and the Springs, the Mill and Creek being the original 18.  They feature water on eight of the holes, as well as plenty of trees and sand.  The Mill carries a par of 36 and the Creek a 35.  The Spring course is more open, although three holes are ringed by trees; #9 has two of those Jones trees in the fairway.  Par is only 34.  The most challenging combination of nines carries a rating of 72.1, slope of 128 and yardage of just under 6,500.  The Mill Creek pro shop makes sure we play alternate combinations of holes each day, which keeps things challenging and never boring.
     The Mill Creek community, which is not gated, is home to 650 residents.  Condominiums start around $90,000 and patio and single-family homes are in the $150,000 to $1 million category.   Golf membership, which is just $3,000 and $275 per month for dues, is not mandatory for residents, but it does provide advantages.  Active Men's and Ladies Associations sponsor a number of tournaments and other activities throughout the year.  The two swimming pools and tennis court are well used.  Residents are permitted to own and use a golf cart in the community and on the course, with the payment of an annual "trail fee."  A driving range and putting green are available for practice sessions and golf lessons.   As a semi-private club, we encourage large groups to use Mill Creek for their events, but with 27 holes, we always have the extra nine for members to continue playing on the days of the outside events.
     All kinds of artists will feel at home in the Salado area.  Our residents get involved in painting, writing, music, humanities, and drama; throughout the year, the community is host to stage plays, community chorus and art festivals.   Salado also has a great library, several active churches, a number of bed and breakfast inns, as well as shopping that includes boutiques and art galleries.  We have several great gourmet restaurants and excellent coffee shops and tearooms.
     Smack in between the flat metro area of Dallas/Ft. Worth and the Texas Hill Country of Austin, our town is a little bit hills and a little bit farmland.  Salado, which was incorporated just a few years ago, is a few miles from the town of Temple, whose Scott and White Hospital is well regarded; we are also near Killeen, which is home to one of the largest military bases in the nation, Fort Hood.   With Austin and the Dallas/Ft. Worth areas just an hour away, and Houston just three hours, Salado is truly at the heart of Texas.

    The Mill Creek web site is at MillCreek-Golf.com.

Jones' gotcha:  The finishing hole on the short, but tricky Spring nine at Mill Creek features not one but two trees dead smack in the middle of the fairway.  Photo by Letta Meinen

The Arthur Hills course at the age-retricted Colonial Heritage community in Williamsburg, VA, is one of the toughest layouts I've played in recent years, with many forced carries, as this one on the 13th hole.  Perhaps that is why the community is targeting a "younger" demographic, 45 year olds.

    As I reported here yesterday, I attended this past weekend's Live South Show in Greenwich, CT.  Live South brings a few dozen communities to a hotel exhibition space where local people can take a one-stop shopping spin through the hall, ask questions of each community's agents, sign-up to receive marketing materials and, if inspired, arrange for a visit and tour.  The next show stop is in Parsippany, NJ (click here for the Live South web site and show schedule).
    Although the agents I spoke with were still smarting from the worst sales year in their experience, they were ever hopeful that things will pick up this year.  Already, as a few told me, they had sold more properties in January alone than they had in the previous three months.  In one case, that was just six properties.  I have also noticed at real estate discussion boards on the internet that agents in some areas of the northern U.S. saw a similar uptick in activity in January.  The Cliffs is backing up its own optimism with a spend of more than $14 million for promotion in 2009.  In this economy, that is quite a statement, at least for The Cliffs.
    Here are some notes on my discussions at Live South.  

Forty-five is the new 55
 
    Colonial Heritage, an age-restricted community in Williamsburg, VA, has

lowered its minimum age for residency to 45; it previously advertised that it was only for those 55 and over.  The agent at the Colonial Heritage booth, sponsored by the developer Lennar, said that the new push is appealing mostly to out of state residents who have visited the popular Williamsburg area previously.  Colonial Heritage has to be careful, though, about being too successful with this new demographic.  Age-restricted communities lose their "exclusive" status, by law, when the number of those 55 and over dips below 80% of all residents, a reality the Lennar agent acknowledged.

Grape expectations?

    River Landing, a community adjacent to I-40 in North Carolina, will open its new 59,000 square foot clubhouse in April.  The community, which was developed by a local family, features 36 holes by Clyde Johnston, a respected southern golf course architect.  Golf membership is $28,000, with dues of around $400 per month, reasonable for 36 holes of quality golf (and a big clubhouse).  Although River Landing is a little remote, at 30 minutes to Wilmington and 75 minutes to Raleigh, services are developing nearby, including a Super Walmart opening next summer.  More than 1,100 of the community's 1,500 lots have been sold, and 300 homes are in.  Lots in River Landing start around $80,000 and reach $500,000 for those on the river.  Most homes are in the $300,000 to $1 million range.  Next month, construction begins on a new neighborhood called The Vineyards; the developers have planted 18 acres of grapes within the neighborhood. 

High-end competition on Lake Keowee

    I visited The Reserve at Lake Keowee four years ago and I was eager to find out how things were progressing.  Slowly, is my impression after a discussion with the community's representatives.  The Reserve is just down the road from a few of the Cliffs Communities properties on Lake Keowee, and the two developers appeal to a similar demographic -- the well to do who are able to purchase $1 million and up homes.  That is a lot of competition at the high end in what is still a remote area of South Carolina, although The Reserve will appeal more to families than the ultra-sophisticated Cliffs.  The Reserve has sold just 700 lots to date of its total 1,400; 100 homes are built with another 75 under construction.  I recall from my visit four years ago a string of townhouses that run along the edge of a "great lawn" that sweeps down from the beautiful clubhouse to the edge of the lake.  Everything is within an easy walk of the huge townhouses, which are each well over 3,000 square feet -- the clubhouse and first tee of the Jack Nicklaus golf course, large outdoor pool, clay tennis courts, and the marina.  Prices for the four remaining homes begin at $1.4 million.  Golf club membership is $60,000, with dues of $420 per month.

Cliffs notes

    Speaking of The Cliffs Communities, representatives at their booth said sales were off about 20% last year, but that plans keep chugging along to add to their impressive golf course portfolio.  A new course designed by Gary Player, who has moved his company's offices to The Cliffs, should be ready for play next spring, and earth is being moved for the new Tiger Woods course, his first in the U.S., at High Mountain, near Asheville.  Full-family golf membership The Cliffs has reached the $150,000 mark, but that entitles the member access to any of the six courses in place now and the Player and Woods courses later.  Driving distance between the farthest Cliffs courses is a little over an hour, but some are within just 20 minutes or so of each other.  And they are all beautifully conditioned, as one should expect for those kinds of prices.  Any new property owner has the choice to purchase the refundable membership at the time they purchase their property.  If they decline, they will not be able to buy the full golf membership later (unless, of course, they buy an additional developer property).  If they sell their home and the purchaser opts for membership, The Cliffs will refund the initiation fee almost right away.  If the buyer does not opt for membership, the seller might have to wait six months for the refund, according to the agent at the Cliffs booth.

Impressive track record for developer at Wild Wing

    For those looking for a significantly more modestly priced golf community experience, Myrtle Beach's Wild Wing could fill the bill.  Wild Wing includes 27 holes of excellent golf on a property that once was home to 72 holes.  Plantation Sales LLC, which has been in business since 1964, purchased the entire property a few years ago.  They retained the old Avocet course, the best of the four layouts, as well as nine holes of the old Hummingbird course.  The developers are offering free membership with the purchase of a home (the courses are open to the public).  At $175 per month in dues, three or four rounds a month are the breakeven point (membership also brings discounts on food and pro shop merchandise).  Lots at Wild Wing start in the $90,000 range and run to $230,000 for a view of both water and golf.  Plantation Sales has been affiliated with a number of top-notch and successful properties over the years, including the Governor's Club, a private community with 27 holes of Jack Nicklaus golf in Chapel Hill, NC, as well as the lauded Pawleys Island golf courses of Caledonia and True Blue.

 The Reserve at Lake Keowee course is vintage Jack Nicklaus.