I am not playing golf today. I am at our non-golf community home in Connecticut, and I’d have to drive 25 minutes to play, wait a bit to tee off, play a round that would take about 4 ½ hours, be sociable and stop for a post-round libation (and lunch) with my foursome before the 25-minute drive back home for a quick shower and then a sink into the easy chair in front of the TV for U.S. Open coverage.  I don’t want to risk missing a minute of play; watching every second of the toughest, most competitive

        But if I were at our golf vacation home in Pawleys Plantation in South Carolina, I could walk the 200 yards to the first tee, play my round, stop for a beer and lunch and still make it back well before Johnny Miller starts criticizing somebody’s practice swings.  It may seem like a small thing –- being able to get to the first tee in under five minutes –- but on days when you have a personal deadline, whether it is the U.S. Open, an overseas call from a son or daughter, or a blog article about golf communities that you absolutely must post by a certain time, proximity is a big deal.

        And, therefore, for all you fathers out there who dream of the convenience of a home beside a golf course, this is as good a day as any for me to say, one father to another, “It can’t hurt to start looking.”  Contact me and I will send you a no-obligation questionnaire that will help you –- and me -– assess your particular requirements in a golf home.  Fill it out (with your wife’s input, please), send it back to me and I will be pleased to offer you some initial suggestions about what areas and what particular golf communities best match your requirements.  After that, we can arrange for a phone conversation to refine the search and find you a golf home in which you can watch the U.S. Open for the next 20 years or more.

        Private and semi-private golf clubs have drastically cut their membership fees and property prices to their lowest in a decade, but they are starting to show signs of a rebound.  Even if you are not ready to buy a home now, it cannot hurt to start looking and prepare for later. Golf communities are offering attractively priced “discovery packages” that provide lodging, golf and other goodies.

        There is absolutely no charge for this assistance in finding your dream home on a golf course.  Call it a Father’s Day gift from one father to another.  Contact me today.

-- Larry Gavrich, Editor

Note:  Reasonably priced homes currently listed for sale in Pawleys Plantation and other fine southern golf communities are featured at our companion web site, GolfHomesListed.  By the way, the home that Jack Nicklaus lived in when he built the Pawleys Plantation golf course in 1988 is currently listed for sale at GolfHomesListed.

        Forbes magazine released its annual “Best Places to Retire” list yesterday, and a few of our own favorite places made the grade in the top 25. They include Asheville, Austin, Columbia (SC) and Savannah.

        No such list would be complete without including Asheville, the western North Carolina mountain town favored by northerners looking for a laid-back –- some might say “progressive” –- southern mountain retreat, and Floridians tired of traffic, an increasing cost of living (despite no state income tax) and summer heat. Asheville summer temperatures average about 10 degrees lower than the flatter parts of the Carolinas during the summer.

Ball Flight:  An airstrip bisects the golf course along the top of the 4,500 foot mountain at Mountain Air.

        At GolfHomesListed, our companion web site, we have Asheville surrounded, with golf homes for sale currently listed to the northwest of the city, at Mountain Air in Burnsville, and at Champion Hills in Hendersonville, southeast of Asheville. Given its rarified height, Mountain Air is aptly named and features 50-mile views from its golf course and homes. The golf course, which was designed by Scott Pool, features an element you are unlikely to see anywhere else –- an airplane runway that cuts through the golf course along the very top of the mountain. As you travel from the second green on one side of the runway to the third tee on the other, an alarm and flashing red light may signal a wait for the group in front of you -– traveling by aircraft, not golf cart. Non-pilots too will love the care which owners of the community, the local Banks family, have lavished on the natural surroundings. The substantially wood and stone homes and the rustic clubhouse do nothing to detract from views that can literally take your breath away (at nearly 4,500 feet). At GolfHomesListed, you will find Mountain Air home sites listed from $209,000, villas from under $350,000 and single-family homes from $490,000.

Balls struck just off the funneled fairways at Champion Hills can leave some awkward stances.

        A little more down to earth but still up there is Champion Hills, whose core Tom Fazio golf course has always earned plaudits from North Carolina golf raters, but especially so since the course was renovated a few years ago. Fazio, who grew up in Hendersonville, clearly lavished extra attention on the design of his “home course” which features his customary signature cloverleaf bunkers and funneled fairways that can be both forgiving and occasionally frustrating with side-hill lies few of us take the time to practice. The community’s homeowners association is one of the most organized anywhere and, as we have written before, its approach to strategic planning should be the envy of many corporations. Champion Hills is a stable, financially sound and debt-free golf community worthy of a serious look. And you can start looking by browsing current Champion Hills properties for sale at GolfHomesLIsted, where homes start at $339,000 and range above $1 million.

        Please note: When you access more information about any listing at GolfHomesListed.com, we ask for your name and email address. We do this to follow up to ensure that we are providing top-notch service and to be able to update you on any new listings in the communities you look at. The real estate professionals who list properties at GolfHomesListed and we will never share your personal information with anyone. If you have any questions, please contact Publisher Larry Gavrich.

Coming Next: Savannah: Ford Plantation & The Landings