Unless you crave the honky tonk and neon lights of an active beach resort, the place to be on South Carolina’s Grand Strand is in the area south of Myrtle Beach, between Surfside Beach and Georgetown, which comprises the towns of Murrells Inlet, Litchfield and Pawleys Island. Most of the best of the 100 golf courses on the Strand are down there, minutes from each other, including the famed Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, as well as True Blue and Pawleys Plantation. So too are some of the most highly rated of the gated golf communities near the coast, including The Reserve at Litchfield, DeBordieu Colony, Pawleys Plantation and Wachesaw Plantation.

HeritageClubhouseThe clubhouse at Heritage Plantation

         One gated community, though, doesn’t get much love -– until you actually play its golf course and take a closer look at its real estate. Heritage Plantation, about two miles south of Caledonia and west of Pawleys Plantation, was developed in 1986. It is time it got noticed.

         I play the Heritage golf course every year or two, and last Sunday, as in the past, I was impressed with the efficient way they process members and public players from bag drop to parking lot -– via golf cart shuttle since it is 300 yards down the road -– to first tee. Because of the brutal competition for green fees in Myrtle Beach, Legends Group, owners of Heritage, Oyster Bay and the three Legends golf courses, has seen fit to throw in breakfast, lunch and two beers with the price of a greens fee; the lunch included the run of the menu, not just a hot dog. For the $50 I spent, it was a great deal.

         In the wake of the recession, some private golf clubs are hanging on by a thread, quietly desperate for new members but unwilling –- or unable –- to initiate programs to attract them. Generally, private clubs don’t go out of business; they go public. The National Golf Foundation reports that since the recession began in 2008, 78 private clubs closed their doors but 400 opened those doors slightly or fully to outside play. For many members who joined a club for its exclusivity, though, going public is a fate worse than death of the club, literally.                

         Since the recession began, many private clubs have dropped or eliminated altogether their initiation fees, an act of desperation that is typically confined either to clubs already in a death spiral or those in highly competitive areas in which the other clubs are dropping or eliminating joining fees. Those clubs that have a bit more flexibility employ more creative approaches, the most popular among them the “trial” membership.

         The Virginia golf community known as Viniterra, located in New Kent, midway between Richmond and Williamsburg, has run a successful trial membership campaign since 2008. It offers a one-year membership for just $1,800, with no additional payment of dues or any other fees except for golf cart rental when you play.

Viniterra converted to full membership 80% of those who signed up for a one-year trial membership.

By the month, that amounts to just $150, which are the dues Viniterra members have paid since 2008. At the end of the trial year, according to Viniterra Director of Marketing & Sales Holly Stephens, the potential member can “pay the initiation fee ($5,000) or walk away.” To date, says Stephens, 80% of trial participants have converted to full memberships. That seems to vindicate the trial membership as a low-risk marketing effort for both the trial member and the club itself.

         Viniterra was slated to be a private golf club but the recession and its effect on lot sales there forced the club into semi-privacy. The Rees Jones designed course, which passes by some of the on-site vineyards that give the community its name and supply some of the grapes for the on-site working winery, is an interesting, rolling layout and was in fine shape when I played it a couple of years ago. You can read my original review of the golf community and golf course by clicking here. Homes in Viniterra begin in the $500s; check out a few of their listings at GolfHomesListed.com.

Viniterra9approachThe approach to the par 5 9th at Viniterra