A few years ago, I made visits during the same two-week period to the ever-popular city of Asheville, NC, and the less regaled Greenville, SC. I liked both but I preferred Greenville for what I perceived as a bit more sophistication, as if it were allergic to trying hard to advertise its charms whereas Asheville seemed to exude a “Hey look me over” attitude (and does a good job of it). Greenville is also larger, although not a large city by any means (a municipal population of 58,400 in 2010), with some extra conveniences that size provides.

        I’ve been looking a little more closely at Greenville in recent weeks and am planning a follow-up visit soon. We will be adding golf homes for sale in three Greenville golf communities

to our GolfHomesListed web site; they will join the venerated Thornblade Club (Tom Fazio designed) and the Cliffs Communities near the city (Cliffs Valley, Glassy and Mountain Park). The three communities we will add are Green Valley, Pebble Creek and Greenville Country Club, and their presence points to another key difference between Greenville and Asheville: Greenville has a few more options for private golf club membership, consistent with its larger metropolitan area population -– eight 18-hole private club layouts in the immediate Greenville area and six in the Asheville area.

Pebble Creek Country Club

        Two of the three golf communities in Greenville offer 36 holes of golf. Pebble Creek residents have four golfing options at their disposal. They can join the two 18-hole clubs with one membership, and play the private Linkside layout and the semi-private Creekside course, both designed by Tom Jackson in 1976, with no payment of green fees. Or they can join one or the other course. Or they can join neither, and pay green fees each time they play the Creekside course. There are some additional viable golfing options nearby, including the renovated Furman University golf club. When we begin listing Pebble Creek golf homes for sale at GolfHomesListed in the next couple of weeks, you will see extremely reasonable prices for single-family homes, some as low as the high $100s. (If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact me and we will get them answered quickly.)

Greenville Country Club

        The Greenville Country Club includes two of the best 18-hole layouts in the golf-rich state of South Carolina, including the Chanticleer course, which has graced Golf Digest’s Top 100 list, as well as the Riverside course, which was redesigned by Brian Silva in 2007. Chanticleer was originally designed by Robert Trent Jones in 1970 and then renovated by his nephew, Rees Jones in 2001. The South Carolina Golf Rating Panel, of which your editor is a member, earlier this year ranked Chanticleer at #5 in the state, ahead of such venerated layouts as The Dunes Club in Myrtle Beach, Yeamans Hall (Hanahan, SC), Long Cove on Hilton Head, Secession in Beaufort and Caledonia in Pawleys Island. The country club dates to the early 20^th Century, and the surrounding community is both mature and stately. Some older homes in need of refurbishment can be found in the $200s, but mid to high six figures is more the rule, with some estate homes commanding over $1 million.

Green Valley Country Club

        Green Valley Country Club can boast its own slice of local history, having been designed originally by one of the most respected southern golf architects, George Cobb, in 1958, and renovated to retain its classic character by Tom Jackson. (Jackson, whose name is on many designs in the southeast, laid out The Cliffs at Glassy course 35 minutes away.) For a few years, Green Valley had accepted outside play but now, under new ownership, the master plan has reverted the club’s status to members only. Those interested in living adjacent to the revitalized golf club will find a wide range of real estate options starting in the $300s; the most expensive golf home currently on the market in Green Valley is $800,000.

        If you want more information on any of these Greenville golf communities, please contact me. For current golf homes for sale in the Thornblade and Cliffs communities, click here.

     The former Daufuskie Island Resort, and one of its two well-regarded golf courses, The Melrose Golf Club, has been sold to a Utah-based investment group and will operate as the Melrose at the Beach resort.  The Bloody Point Golf Club, a pool and the Breathe Spa were split off from the former resort and are now family-owned and operated.

        The report that Pelorus Group of Salt Lake City had purchased the resort and its Melrose Golf Club comes as good news to homeowners on the former resort's grounds, as well as to those residents of Haig Point, the private golf community on the other side of the island that features 29 holes of Rees Jones golf. (No typo; Jones designed two extra holes.)  For much of three years, the Daufuskie resort’s only sign of life was the fine Jack Nicklaus designed Melrose course, which had remained open through the persistence and passion of its golf pro and superintendent. Sadly, erosion of the seawall has collapsed the dramatically sited 18th green; we will keep an eye on how the new owners handle renovations.

        The nearby Tom Weiskopf Bloody Point layout had become overgrown, but a new owner, Brian McCarthy, stepped in last year, hired Davis Love's design firm to renovate the golf course, and is expected to re-open Bloody Point before the end of the year.  A restaurant in Bloody Point's clubhouse has been open for the last year, and the McCarthy family is converting the former Breathe Spa into a seven bedroom cottage.

Plenty of marshland and live oak trees encroach on the Rees Jones layout at Haig Point, but the impressive homes are well back from the field of play.

 

        Haig Point operates its own private ferry service from Hilton Head Island.  (The Haig Point service is owned and managed by the community’s homeowner’s association.)  A Bloody Point spokersperson told us they hope to establish their own separate ferry service from Savannah by the end of the year.

        The resort’s tentative status over the last few years had depressed real estate prices across the island. Prices at Haig Point are considerably lower than comparable real estate on the mainland, and golf membership in the private club typically transfers with sale of property in the community (a $65,000 value, according to club officials). Total carrying costs for club dues and homeowner fees, which includes the cost of the private ferry service, are slightly higher than at comparably upscale golf communities on the mainland.  Yet Daufuskie -- Haig Point, Melrose at the Beach, and Bloody Point -- is an undeniably beautiful place, and you cannot put too high a price tag on an island with no cars, no noise (other than that of Mother Nature), no pollution and a walk-up-and-play aspect to its three excellent nine hole layouts (plus those two extra holes out on the marsh).

        For a sample of current golf homes for sale at Haig Point, please click here.

*

        This article has been revised with additional and clarifying information.  We thank Julianna McCarthy, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Bloody Point Golf Club and Resort, for her assistance.