Large, remotely located golf communities have had an especially tough time during the recession. Too big to pay for the front-loaded amenities they used to lure buyers during the good times, and too far from embedded populations to draw customers with relatively inexpensive locally targeted marketing, not even the lustre of a Tiger Woods was enough to skate through the last five years unscathed.

        The Cliffs Communities in the mountains of the Carolinas and Reynolds Plantation in northern Georgia are two of the more spectacular examples of communities that were too big and too remote to succeed during the recession. Both are now recovering from bankruptcies with an infusion of capital and new developers, and their residents and club

members are optimistic of significant comebacks. But it remains to be seen how much retooling The Cliffs will undergo to sustain it lush roster of amenities that include six beautiful golf courses each -– and a seventh on the way next year, the Gary Player layout at the Mountain Park community.  (The Cliffs has already cut its vaunted multi-club membership initiation fees by two-thirds from its historic highs.)

        These big golf communities are also managing against social trends that could affect their marketing and pricing. We see a shift in attitudes in our customers about their choices of geography for their first and second homes, and a lot of it has to do with children and grandchildren. We are half a decade removed from the beginning of the recession, and in that time, baby boomers have reevaluated their lifestyles, perhaps as a consequence of having stared into the financial abyss. We sense a desire to be closer to family, friends and community –- call it a “huddled masses” thing –- and that may be why, as the remote communities suffered a significant falloff in sales from 2007, near-urban communities like The Landings (20 minutes to downtown Savannah) and Brunswick Forest (10 minutes from Wilmington, NC), did just fine (in Brunswick Forest’s case, much better than “fine,” selling and building 900 homes since 2007). Even a few remote golf communities –- The Reserve at Lake Keowee comes to mind -– have succeeded during the tough times by enhancing their appeal to families, especially those in the Atlanta area three hours away, by opening full membership privileges for all family members for no additional membership fees (a “Legacy” membership, they call it).

The Cliffs at Glassy Mountain, less than an hour from Greenville, SC, can feel as if it is even farther away.  The nearby small town of Landrum -- population 2,400 -- provides enough in the way of services to satisfy the current residents of Glassy.  But large, remote communities like The Cliffs may have to retool their marketing efforts to persuade baby boomers that the closest city really isn't that far away.

 

        A few years ago, a developer told me that buyers in his remote North Carolina lake community were running away from their former lifestyles (i.e. hectic and stressed) and running toward the lifestyle his development embodied (laid back) without the worries of traffic, crime or, ostensibly, modern conveniences outside the gates. I was skeptical then –- baby boomers tend to want what they want, not what they didn’t want –- but even if he was partially right then, he is certainly wrong today. What a difference five years makes.

        In the next edition of our free monthly newsletter, Home On The Course,, we contemplate the future for these behemoth golf communities in a way that may help those considering remote versus exurban. The October issue is due early next week, so subscribe today [click here] to receive your copy this month and into the future. 

        I had no life apart from the Ryder Cup from Friday through Sunday. I was fully invested and barely missed a single shot on the Golf Channel and NBC, running to the fridge and bathroom on the short commercial breaks. (I apologize, Mercedes.) I wanted the U.S. to win, but I wanted as much an exciting, sporting match -- which I got, to a fault. Mindful that second-guessing is a lot easier than two putting from 40 feet in the waning moments of a Ryder Cup, I can’t resist a few observations.

 

Addicted to Love

        Davis Love’s playing style has always been steady as she goes; consistency without any of the drama or, frankly, creativity of some of his contemporaries. He showed that same no-flash style in his captaincy of the Ryder team. Although his pairing of Keegan Bradley and Phil Mickelson was inspired, it emanated from a clichéd approach –- put

the experienced guy with the new guy to calm down the latter and energize the older.  But both are "excitable" personalities, not a term you would use in reference to Steve Stricker.  Although not as far apart in age as Mickelson and Bradley, the Tiger Woods and Stricker pairing made the same kind of sense to Love; the animated player with the steady personality (there’s a lot of Love in Stricker). But as Tiger has receded to “excellent player” from “otherworldly,” he’s begun to show mortality under weekend pressure; and Stricker has had a mediocre year and has never really distinguished himself under the pressure of major championships.  The pairing obviously did not work.

        Hindsight is easy, but it might have made more sense to pair Tiger with a younger, less sensitive player like Jason Dufner or Dustin Johnson than with the sometimes weepy Stricker. (Note: The young/old pairings didn’t exactly rock for the European side, as Lee Westwood did nothing for Francesco Molinari, and vice versa, in the Friday foursomes.)

 

U.S. captain’s picks get old

        In the age-old argument of whether experience or youth can handle pressure better, experience came out the loser for the American side. In the home stretch, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker wilted, especially on the greens, in the harsh glare of late-afternoon Medinah. For the most part, the kids and rookies on both sides –- Dufner, McIlroy, Molinari –- seemed anxiety proof. The usually deliberate Stricker engaged in self-atrophy, leaving his putter head behind the ball way longer than is customary for him; and after NBC made a big deal of how Stricker had analyzed the breaks on every green and shared the resulting maps with his team members, he totally misaligned the putt on the 18th hole by eight feet! (although it turned out not to matter after Martin Kaymer made his six-foot Cup-clinching putt.) It was Stricker’s miss of a six-footer on the 17^th that denied us all of the almost unbearable excitement of seeing Tiger Woods play the 18^th hole for The Cup.

        Captain Love’s picks for the team turned out to be a mixed bag. Dustin Johnson played wonderfully, Brandt Snedeker not so wonderfully after the opening day. Add Furyk’s and Stricker’s combined 1-6 record for the weekend, and the overall 5-8 performance of the U.S. captain’s picks was disappointing. Euro captain Olazabal’s picks were Nicolas Colsaerts (1-3) and Ian Poulter (4-0). Colsaerts single-handedly beat Woods and Stricker on Friday afternoon, going nine under on his own ball and dragging the inert Lee Westwood around like a papier-mache ball and chain.  And Poulter, of course, deserves the credit he is getting for reanimating the Euro squad with his hyperkinetic five-birdie finish on Saturday afternoon.

 

Guilty conscience

        The matches were totally absorbing this weekend. As an American, I was rooting for the home team, but as the U.S. side got out to a quick lead, I found myself wishing for a close match lest Sunday’s outcome be reached after less time than it takes for a 6-0, 6-0 tennis match. But as the noose tightened, I started to take it personally, thinking, “What have I done?”  I won’t make that mistake next time…if there is a next time. This was the best weekend of golf play I’ve ever watched, and it will be tough to duplicate.

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        My son, Tim, who has posted reviews of golf courses in this space, has a more "mystical" notion of how the Americans came to lose The Cup in such dramatic fashion.  For his article, click here.