Thanks to the hyperactive optimism of speculators who bought properties just before the 2008 recession, beautifully sited home sites beside a terrific year-round golf course within an easy walk of the beach are available for less than the cost of a candy bar.
        Six lots inside the boundary of Haig Point, the lush and isolated golf community amidst a forest of live oak trees and coastal marshland on Daufuskie Island, are listed for sale at just $1 –- and have been for years. The costs to build a dream home on Daufuskie Island are higher than on the mainland because only boats and a ferry can bring the materials and labor to the isolated island. But when a nice plot of land costs a buck, even $250 per square foot can yield a very nice 2,000 square foot cottage in paradise.
HaigFerryThe Haig Point ferry to and from Hilton Head Island is the lifeblood of the community, and the most expensive component of homeowner dues.  Photos courtesy of Hilton Head Island Multiple Listing Service.
        And Haig Point pretty much meets the definition of paradise...if that definition includes clean air (because there are no polluting vehicles on the island except for a few service vehicles), peace and quiet, a Rees Jones 29-hole layout that maximizes the marsh and forest of live oaks, and a frequently running ferry that makes connections with the mainland easy when necessary.
        A few of the $1 lots include club membership in the deal, which saves about $20,000 against the current tariff. Carrying costs in Haig Point are not the cheapest in golf community living, but that ferry is expensive to run and it isn’t as if the island is teeming with industry to offset property taxes and other costs. Actually, Haig Point did begin as a business location; International Paper saw the island as a great logging opportunity and, later, when the price of paper no longer justified island operations, as a great opportunity to get into the residential community business (as other big land-owning paper companies like Weyerhauser did). But IP found that running a golf community was more complicated than they thought, and they disposed of unsold lots at very cheap prices and left the island in the 1980s.
HaigGreenonSoundThe 29 holes at Haig Point -- the 29 is not a typo -- are by Rees Jones and compare favorably with Harbour Town Links at Sea Pines Plantation, just across the Calibogue Sound on Hilton Head.
        Since then, Haig Point has struggled to translate for the market the wonderfulness of life in a golf community on an isolated island. It doesn’t help that the nearby Daufuskie Island Resort, with homes for sale and its own excellent Jack Nicklaus layout and another 18 holes at Bloody Point, went out of business in 2009, leaving homeowners there a bit in the lurch and drying up the number of visitors (and potential Haig Point owners) to the island. Bought by a Denver businessman in 2011, the Resort still has not re-established its footing, denying Haig Point of an important source of potential property owners.
        Those not interested in building a new home will find house prices beginning just under $300,000 and ranging up above $1 million.  We note a cute yellow golf cottage of 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and almost 2,600 square feet with a lake view currently listed at just $285,000. 
        For the curious, and those who dream of true island living with an adjacent golf course that professionals have used as practice for the annual event at Sea Pines Plantation across the Calibogue Sound and raved about it, a visit should be in order.  Contact me for an introduction to our real estate professional in the area who knows Haig Point and Daufuskie well.  Or check out the Haig Point page in our Golf Homes for Sale section.

HaigHouseMost homes in Haig Point are set on lots nestled among the live oaks and scrub pines. A few lots are available for just $1.

        LINKS magazine is out with an email today about the best golf courses to play when autumn leaves start to take on some color. As always for LINKS, the accompanying photographs are lush and beautiful. Click here for the article.
        I especially appreciated the LINKS article because, just yesterday, I played a Robert Trent Jones course that could be a contender for LINKS’ top 10 Fall Golf Course list. Lyman Orchards is located in central Connecticut, in the town of Middlefield, and as the name implies, is set beside an apple orchard. However, the Jones course (circa 1969), which shares the complex with a more recently opened Gary Player course, wends its way through former farm land with clusters of pine and maple trees for background and extra challenge; the apples are left for the slightly longer and more challenging Player layout. After my round, I drove up to the rows and rows of apple-laden trees and had a lot of fun maneuvering my golf cart up and down the rows, stopping to pluck a Macintosh here, a Macoun there and a few sour green apples.
LymanOrchards10teeThe landing area on #10 at Lyman Orchards' Jones course seems very narrow, but those trees on the right force a drive that must challenge the water.
        It reminded me of another impressive orchard course, Orchard Creek, just west of Albany, NY, where I followed my son during a junior golf tournament 12 years ago. Each fairway was lined with apple trees bearing different breeds of apples; by the 4th hole, I was starting to suffer a stomach ache after having picked and eaten one per hole.
        I was hell bent on some revenge on the Jones course yesterday. The only other time I played the course was 25 years ago, shortly after I moved to Connecticut from Manhattan. On the first hole, I snap hooked my drive into the lake on the left; it set the tone for a horrible round. Over the years, Lyman Orchard switched the nines, and I had to wait until #10 this time around. This time I made sure to aim down the far right side and, once again, pull hooked my shot, dribbling it into the water. I won’t wait another 25 years to have another go at it.
LymanOrchards14approachThe 14th at Lyman Orchards' Jones course isn't long but requires a deft approach shot over a nasty looking stream.
        The course was in wonderful condition, the greens smooth, large and undulating. Jones the elder guards them well with bunkers, but there always seems an option to enter directly from the front, although with many false fronts that make full carries pretty much the only way to get close. The starter explained to me that the green superintendent uses a new type of aeration that sends just a few tines into the turf and then distributes a burst of air underground. That means the few aeration holes make putting almost normal a day or two after the aeration process. Thankfully, the greens were quite receptive, even though that part of Connecticut hasn’t seen much rain lately; perhaps it is all that air they blow under the greens.
LymanOrchardsPlayerpar3The Gary Player layout at Lyman Orchards, which features rows of apples just off a few of the fairways, is considered the tougher of the two layouts.  Judging by one of its par 3s, we understand.
        Although there are really no blind holes on the course -– I understand there are some on the Player layout next door -– I found some golf balls tough to find even after well struck and straight shots. My drive on the par 5 4th hole pretty much ruined my day. Per the instructions of my playing partners, who know the course well, I flew my tee shot over the fairway bunker that cut into the left side of the fairway about 200 yards out. We watched it bounce once beyond the right center of the bunker, but when we got to the fairway, it was nowhere to be found. Five minutes later, after scouring the rough on both sides, I threw down another ball, angry and frustrated. I don’t mind losing one in the woods, but this ball should have been center cut.
        How’d I like them apples? Not very much.
LymanOrchardapplesWhen you play the Gary Player 18 in late September or October at Lyman Orchards, you can divert for a little refreshment just off a few of the fairways.