A friend informed me this week that he has about $400,000 to spend for a golf-oriented home and is looking at the area north of Myrtle Beach over the state line in North Carolina. He has asked me for ideas, and I told him I would do some research. I have been surprised at what I’ve found.

Over the last two decades, Brunswick County, NC, located immediately north of North Myrtle beach, SC, has been one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. The area is home to sprawling golf course communities, some of them featuring as many as three golf courses inside their boundaries. Most of them have been traditionally among the most reasonably priced communities along the Grand Strand, which straddles Highway 17 from Georgetown, SC, to almost Wilmington, NC, a stretch of more than 100 miles. At its peak, the Strand was home to more than 125 golf courses, most of them attached to communities with a mix of single-family homes, townhouses and condos. Today, about a third of those golf courses are gone, most redeveloped for housing.

In the area my friend is looking, the lowest priced real estate is found in Brunswick Plantation, Crow Creek and Sea Trail, the oldest golf community in the area, founded in 1977. Crow Creek (opened in 2000) features a single 18-hole layout; Brunswick (opened in 1991) and Sea Trail offer 27 holes and 54 holes, respectively. All three are less than a 50-minute drive to the quite functional Myrtle Beach International Airport and less than 15 minutes to an Atlantic Ocean beach. Good local shopping has followed the increase in population density.

River's Edge is one of the attractive golf communities north of the SC/NC border just off US Highway 17 that has seen shrinking inventories and higher prices. Currently, there is just one single-family home and one condo for sale in the community, at $565,000 and $259,000, respectively.

In short, these three golf communities and others nearby have what most retirees and vacationers are looking for – convenience, proximity to services and fine golf options. But they lack one important criterion – single-family homes priced below $400,000. Those have become as rare on the Grand Strand as the proverbial hens’ teeth. Brunswick Plantation offers the most, seven listings between $361,000 and $388,000. Crow Creek is showing just one such home, at $340,000 and on a lot barely larger than 1/10 acre. And at Sea Trail, only two single-family homes are currently for sale, starting at $612,000. The only 3-bedroom residences at Sea Trail are a couple of condos, with prices starting above $400,000.

The story is the same up and down the Grand Strand. That $400K mark is the new $300K from just before the pandemic, when folks fleeing the cities moved to the beach and the continuing flow of Baby Boomers gobbled up all available homes. Supply and demand drives prices, along with a dollop of location, location, location – and that is how we have gotten here from there.

That’s the bad news. But for those who don’t mind living next to their neighbor – as in one wall separating you from them -- there are plenty of condos for sale in these and other well organized golf communities in the Myrtle Beach area, starting in the $200s and $300s. And excellent golf is as convenient as it is for those in single-family homes down the street.

For most of 2023, I harangued any golfer in my presence about which tee boxes to play for maximum competitiveness – and fun. My point was that course ratings and slope ratings are meaningless as signposts for what tees many aging golfer whose days of 200+ yards are behind them. The overriding consideration about what tee boxes to play should be how far a golfer hits his (or her) best tee shots on par 4 holes. My best drives on 350-yard holes leave me typically with a 7-wood approach shot – a 5-wood if the wind is blowing in. If I strike it perfectly, I have a long-odds chance of making it to the green. Meanwhile, the younger, stronger and more flexible “kids” in my group are playing from tees 50 yards behind me and hitting their drives at least a few yards beyond mine. Even if we have the same distance to the green, I will be hitting, say, a 6 iron; they will be hitting an 8- or 9-iron. Advice: Don’t ever get snookered into a match in which the difference between your distance and theirs off the tee is the only handicap accommodation. Argue for some strokes as well.

My cause celebre about tee boxes was put to the test on a recent Saturday in Vero Beach, FL when my son Tim, who lives there, invited me to participate in the Saturday “Blitz” at the 36-hole Sandridge Golf Club, the county course 20 minutes from his home. For the Blitz, you throw $35 into the pot – that includes green fees and cart, a great bargain – and the winners are those who put up the best scores against their handicaps, using a Stableford-like point system. For extra measure, there is also a skins game. If few (or no) birdies or eagles are made and skins are carried over, the payoff for the one or two players who win them can be considerable.

There is just enough sand and water on the Dunes course at Sandridge Golf Club in Vero Beach to make things difficult if you play the wrong tees.  This is the par 4 5th hole, which played to just 230 yards.

The organizers of the event permit double-digit handicap players who are older than 70 – I am a 75-year-old carrying a 12 handicap – to play the “Green” tees at a total distance of 5,064 yards. My younger foursome partners played the Blue tees at 6,200 yards. Only one par 4 on the Dunes Course extended beyond 350 yards from my tees, at 362. (That hole played 39 yards longer for the rest of the foursome.)

My other par 4 holes ranged between 230 yards and 310 yards. On only one hole, that 230-yard hole for me, were the Blue tees more than 100 yards behind mine. On that hole, as I recall, my son’s drive and mine were pretty much side by side, with wedge approaches for both of us. I had a good day driving the golf ball between 180 and 195 yards thanks to some firm fairways and straight drives. Off the tee, I was in range in the fairways of the other members of the foursome. Even though they were hitting two or three clubs less on most of their approach shots, I felt competitive.

And I was. Tee to green I played one of my best rounds of the year, shot a 79 and beat my nearest competitor in the field of 14 by two strokes. I even picked up a skin (with a birdie on a par 3) and was the big winner of the day. Having reasonable distances from fairway to green gave me confidence that I could play with my younger and stronger competitors. So, my strong advice is this: Try moving up a tee box or two if your playing partners are busting their tee balls well past yours. I can almost guarantee you will enjoy the 19th hole better than usual.