Rees Jones' Charleston National is one of the best looking courses in the Charleston, SC, area. The surrounding community offers plenty of choices of homes.    

    The primarily Republican residents along the Atlantic coast may be feeling a little blue after Tuesday's election, but they can assuage their disappointment on one of the many excellent golf courses at their disposal.
    John McCain carried substantially more counties than Barrack Obama did up and down the coast from Virginia to Florida.  For example, Perquimans County, North Carolina, home to Albemarle Plantation, a nice if somewhat remote golf community an hour south of Norfolk, VA, went 57% for McCain.  An hour down the coast, in the up and coming New Bern, voters in Craven County gave Senator McCain the same 57% nod.  The community called Taberna, home to many retired military personnel, is located just outside of New Bern, a town on many lists of "best places" to live.  The Taberna golf course was well groomed and underrated when I played it a few years ago.
    Further down the coast in Wilmington's New Hanover County, McCain inched out a 50% to 49% victory, essentially a dead heat.  Wilmington's Porters Neck, with a classic design by Tom Fazio, and Landfall, with 27 holes by Nicklaus and Dye, offer a contrast of community designs and price points (and judging by the local voting, diverse political points of view).  The most reasonably priced community in the area, Castle Bay, features a golf course designed by its developer who studied Scottish links and crafted a layout that is a joy to play (if you ignore the ubiquitous high-tension wires that thread through the course).  Prices for the tidy homes adjacent to the course start below $300,000.
    Golf's supermarket, Myrtle Beach, comprises both Horry and Georgetown counties, which went for McCain, 62% and 52% respectively.  Out of the more than 100 courses on the Grand Strand, a relatively few are private, community-oriented clubs, among them Grande Dunes (Nick Price), The Reserve at Litchfield Plantation (Greg Norman), Wachesaw Plantation (Tom Fazio) and DeBordieu Colony (Pete Dye).  The private Surf Club, a former public fee course located north of Myrtle Beach, is a reasonable alternative to private community clubs, as is the vaunted Dunes Club, which permits limited play for those staying in some of the area's hotels.  The remaining semi-private and public clubs offer a wide range of playing options; with a $39 annual Myrtle Beach Golf Pass, local residents receive discounts up to 60% off green fees for themselves and friends, even at the most popular course in the area, Caledonia Golf and Fish Club.  
    An hour down the coast in Charleston County, all but a relatively few votes have been counted, and Obama holds a commanding 54% to 45% lead.  High-roller golfers will know the area as home to the famed Ocean Course (Dye) at Kiawah Island, as well as the private and highly regarded Cassique Golf Club (Tom Watson).  But Kiawah and its neighboring barrier island, Seabrook, offer other splendid semi-private club and golf resort options.  For less pricey options, Mt. Pleasant, just north of one of America's classiest cities, Charleston, offers both daily fee courses and one private club, Snee Farm, a classic George Cobb layout that is in way better condition than the club's dated and dismal clubhouse.  My favorite daily fee course in town was Rees Jones' Charleston National, which threads its way through the marsh.  My day of golf there a year ago was marred only by incomprehensibly indifferent service.
    Just a sliver of Bryan County, Georgia separates two Democratic counties, Chatham (Savannah) to the north and Liberty County to the south.  Bryan is home to the wonderful and expensive Ford Plantation and its Pete Dye golf course, one of the best I have played.  Bryan County went strongly for McCain, with 71% of the vote, although Ford Plantation, with homes beginning in seven figures, is closer to Chatham County than it is to the heart of Bryan County.

    The six counties extending south from Liberty County along the coast -- three in Georgia and three in Florida -- all went for McCain.  These comprise the many excellent golf communities near St. Simons Island, Sea Island, St. Marys, Amelia Island and the Jacksonville area.

    McIntosh County, Georgia, which went 53% for McCain, is home to one of the most interesting golf communities of my travels, Cooper's Point at Shellman Bluff.  A good eight miles from I-95, the community is remote but close to a sleepy little fishing village where you can still haggle with a ship's captain over the price for part of the day's catch.  The daily fee golf course is surprisingly challenging, lightly trafficked and priced to delight the most conservative spender in Congress.

Amelia Island's Ocean Links is open to resort guests and residents who populate the adjoining single family homes, villas and condos.  The par 3 6th hole is shown.

The traditionally and wonderfully groomed private Athens Golf Club is a few miles from the University of Georgia and offers an alternative to planned community development courses.

    People choose their places to live based on many factors, among them social considerations.  I have met scores of retired folks, and those planning to retire, who have chosen their new and future communities because friends were already living there.  People want to live amidst people like them, whether in a 55+ community where they want to be kid free most of the year, or in a college town where they believe they will have plenty of opportunities to work on their intellect, as well as their golf swings, by attending adult ed courses with like-minded souls.
    I suppose there are a few among us who find great sport in debate and argument and may, consciously, look for a combative atmosphere.  But the vast majority of us choose to live cheek by jowl with neighbors whose core beliefs are like our own.  For those who factor such a calculation into their equations, I thought it would be interesting to look at yesterday's voting patterns in counties where some of the best communities are located.  I'll start today with college towns and follow in the coming days with other southern counties and communities.

Joe the Professor goes for Obama, with some exceptions

    For many baby boomers and others, the idea of living in a golf community near a large college campus is a stimulating notion.  Not surprisingly, college towns in the south went blue, but what was surprising was the substantial size of the margins in all but a few cases.  In Albemarle County in Virginia, for example, where Charlottesville and the University of Virginia is located, 59% of students, university professors, and their neighbors went for Obama.  The area's golf communities include the expensive but well-organized Keswick, the reasonable and communal Old Trail (town center concept and publicly accessible golf course), and the mid-range Glenmore, which has an attractive Scottish feel to its community, as well as its golf course.  If you opt for a private club unaffiliated with a community, you won't do better than the historic Farmington Golf Club, where a remnant of Thomas Jefferson's architecture is still used as one of the clubhouse's entrances.
    In Orange County, North Carolina, home of the main campus of the state's university in Chapel Hill, voters went for Obama with a whopping 72%; a few miles away in Duke University's Durham County, an even bigger 76% of voters gave the President-elect the nod.  (As of this writing, the entire state of North Carolina is too close to call, only 12,000 votes separating the two candidates, with Obama leading).  The high-end golf community in Chapel Hill is Governor's Club, with 27 challenging holes by Jack Nicklaus.  Other excellent courses include The Preserve at Jordan Lake (Davis Love III) and Chapel Ridge (Fred Couples).  The private three-year old Old Chatham Club has received rave reviews among the state's golf raters and could work well for those who may choose not to live in an amenity-laden community.  For those who opt to pay for golf as they go, the Duke and UNC school courses are publicly accessible and terrific layouts.
    In South Carolina, where McCain won the state with 54% of the vote, Columbia County, home to the state university, gave the nod to Obama 64% to 35%.  Cobblestone, a Ginn community, took over and improved the University of South Carolina golf course.  But tread carefully because the Ginn organization is in default of a major loan and is in organizational turmoil.  Of course, that means reduced prices, but also increased risk.  In Knoxville, TN, home of the University of Tennessee, voters went stronger for McCain than voters statewide, 61% and 57% respectively.  I liked the semi-private Landmark Golf Club in the community of Avalon and the striking Tennessee National (Greg Norman layout).  Fox Den Golf Club hosts an annual Nationwide Tour event and would be an outstanding private club choice; it is not in a developed community, but the surrounding neighborhood offers some excellent house bargains. 

    In Clarke County, GA, and the town of Athens, where I played the historic and beautifully conditioned Athens Golf Club, Obama earned 65% of the vote.  In Austin, TX, 64% of the voters went for the Democrat, swimming strongly against the statewide tide.  In the Austin area, I loved the University of Texas Golf Club in the expansive Steiner Ranch community, but there are many other excellent choices within a few miles.

Tomorrow:  McCain mostly coasts along eastern seaboard.

Davis Love III's design at the Preserve at Lake Jordan, near Chapel Hill, is not for the faint of heart.  It is one of the toughest layouts in a golf rich area.