For those of us who live in the northern tier of the nation, or in countries on the doorstep of winter (like Canada and those in northern Europe), this time of the year is filled with many blessings, but weather is not one of them.  The forecast for Connecticut, home to your editor and his family, is for temperatures to top off in the low 40s this week.  A few days ago, I received an email from a local course shouting “Last Chance to Play this Year.”  For true golfers, it may be the saddest time of the year.

        With that in mind this Holiday season, why not consider a gift to your significant other, and of course yourself, of a long weekend this winter at a golf community in the southeast?  Golf courses from the Carolinas on south remain open except during rainy, or the rare snowy, days, when a light sweater is typically enough to get you through a round of golf; get lucky, and you might actually be able to play in shorts and a polo shirt.  And most golf communities still recovering from a shattered economy are offering deep discounts for a package that includes lodging and golf (and some extras, depending on the golf community).  A tour of the community is the only requirement, but the bet here is that you just might want to look at a few houses in your price range.

        The following are discovery packages at a few golf communities we know and like:

River’s Edge, Shallotte, NC

Shallotte is about halfway between Myrtle Beach and Wilmington in one of the Carolinas’ fastest growing counties, Brunswick.  Although I have not yet played the Arnold Palmer designed River’s Edge layout, it ranks highly among the 100+ courses on the Grand Strand.  River’s Edge, which is also affiliated with the nearby Ocean Ridge Plantation and its four golf courses, is offering the following special package for Golf Community Reviews readers, a discount of $50 compared with its typical package.  (Please contact us and we will put you in touch with River’s Edge).

 

2 nights lodging with one round of golf for 2 people….$199

3 nights lodging with one round of golf for 2 people….$269

(Extra rounds of golf at discounted rate)

 

Brunswick Forest's Cape Fear National, designed by Tim Cate, has quickly established itself among the best golf courses on the eastern seaboard.

Brunswick Forest, Leland, NC

Just a few miles from small but urbane Wilmington, NC, Brunswick Forest is among the best selling golf communities since the economy tanked in 2008.  They have done this through an aggressive marketing program, including their well-priced discovery package, and the understanding that the developer behind the community, Lord Baltimore Properties, has deep pockets.  A nice selection of new homes that begin in the $200s doesn’t hurt either.

 

2 nights lodging for two in a luxury Wilmington hotel, round of golf for two on Cape Fear National, access to all amenities, trolley tour of city, certificate for waterfront restaurant….$179 per couple.

River Landing's two golf courses rate highly in North Carolina.

River Landing, Wallace, NC 

Family built and owned, the two 18-hole courses at River Landing rank in the top 50 in North Carolina, not too shabby in a state with Pinehurst and great layouts from the Atlantic to the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Wallace may not offer big-city attractions, but located just off Interstate 40, River Landing is easily accessible to both Raleigh and Wilmington.  Homes are priced around the mid six-figures and up.

 

2 nights lodging, golf for two, access to all member amenities, tour of local winery, dining certificate for clubhouse….$139 per couple.

 

Haig Point's 29-hole Rees Jones layout (no typo, it really is 29) features a number of forced carries over the ubiquitous marsh.

Haig Point, Daufuskie Island, SC 

If you have a bit of the Greta Garbo in you –- “I vant to be alone” –- Haig Point will provide you with privacy and style.  The island, located between Hilton Head and Savannah, is reached only by ferry (or helicopter, if you own one), and the golf is 29 spectacularly marsh and waterfront holes by Rees Jones. (Yes, 29!).  Once you pack up all your cares and woes and head to Haig Point, you may just decide to leave them on the mainland forever.

 

Signature Golf Package includes golf for two, breakfast, fitness center, golf cart to explore community, complimentary ferry and water taxi….$100 per night per couple in the Strachan Mansion, $200 in the historic Lighthouse.

 

Callawassie's ramrod straight pines and gnarled live oaks provide the backdrop for Tom Fazio's 27 holes of Low Country golf.

Callawassie Island, Okatie, SC

Callawassie might be tough to spell correctly, but there is nothing wrong with the way it has grown to full maturity, or with the 27 classic holes of Tom Fazio golf that threads through dramatic –- and often challenging -- marshland.  By making club membership mandatory for all residents beginning in 2002, Callawassie has maintained a stable footing that many other clubs covet.  A couple of years ago, the club spent a few million dollars on renovating its golf courses.  Off a round played earlier this year, we think it was money well spent.

 

2 nights in villa or cottage, complimentary lunch and dinner in clubhouse, golf and tennis, access to clubhouse….$299 per couple.

 

The Landings, near Savannah, showed great form for four couples during our first Home On The Course Discovery Weekend.  Everyone enjoyed a great weekend of golf, fine dining and the attractions of an intriguing southern city.

The Landings at Skidaway Island, Savannah, GA 

We recently held our first Home On The Course Discovery Weekend and chose The Landings as the site because of its record of stability –- residents own the community, its six golf courses, and the on-site real estate office –- and its proximity to a beguiling American city, Savannah.  The community is large enough to offer a wide variety of diversions and yet its neighborhood orientation gives it a small community feel.  The couples that participated in our Discovery Weekend looked at homes priced from the $300s to over $1 million.  There is plenty to appeal to everyone at The Landings.

 

3 nights in a private, multi-bedroom home, 2 rounds of golf per person or 1 round plus a boat ride for 2, and a $50 dining certificate (for readers of this web site only)….$450

 

2 nights lodging, 1 round of golf for 2 or boat ride for 2, and a $50 dining certificate (for readers of this web site only)….$325

 

        If you are interested in any of these discovery packages, please contact us and we will be happy to provide more information and initiate arrangements for you to visit.

        Age has taken away my ability to play golf courses from the tips –- until last Monday, when my friend Bob and I teed it up at the classic Donald Ross layout at Camden Country Club in South Carolina.  I was at Camden under the sponsorship of the South Carolina Golf Rating Panel, of which I am a member.  Bob, who had driven the four hours from his home in Chapel Hill, was my guest for the day.

        Camden may not be well known to most of us, or even to many Carolinians, but the town and its club are rich in history.  A luxury hotel once sat beside today’s 12^th hole, adjacent to what the golf club’s web site describes as a “rather primitive” golf course.  In 1922, the hotel’s owners hired the U.S. amateur multiple champion Walter Travis to design a layout that could attract serious golfers to the hotel.   But the sand greens that Travis built on the original layout, which were lauded in the early years, fell out of favor as grass science improved. In 1939, the club hired the famed Donald Ross, who decades earlier had designed Pinehurst #2.  He rebuilt and grassed the Camden greens and also made significant changes to the entire layout.

        At just 6,350 yards at its longest, good drives leave approachable shots to the grass greens at Camden -- ”approachable” being the operative word.  The putting surfaces and surrounds are Donald Ross at his best and most diabolical -- nasty, multi-leveled, hard to read and with few flat sections to accommodate pin placements.  I counted perhaps two putts all day that did not break at least two or three ball widths.  On most golf courses with nasty pin positions, you wonder if the greens superintendent woke up on the wrong side of the bed; at Camden, you look at the greens and wonder where even a generous superintendent could find an easy pin position.

With a sloping fairway (top), strategic bunkers in fairway and at greenside, the 320-yard par 4 5th hole is a classic short hole that does not need any tricks to make it a challenge. 

 

        Bob and I thought Camden played sneaky long, and there were times when a well-placed fairway metal off the tee would have yielded an easier approach than a well-struck but only slightly offline driver.  Strategic bunkering at greenside and the tilts of the greens put a premium on angles into the greens.  In retrospect, I might have given up 20 yards off the tee for clearer sailing on the approach shots.  With long irons to well-protected greens, I found myself choosing sometimes to lay the ball up just short of the green rather than risk a shot bounding over the firm greens to impossible positions (most of them from below the green to a slope down toward the front of the green).  I know that if I played Camden every day, more of my pars would be of the one-putt variety than from hitting the greens in regulation.

        And those greens are so much fun, not in a clown’s mouth kind of way but in a Pinehurst #2 kind of way.  Every type of green is on display, except huge ones, the edges of many putting surfaces having pulled away from adjacent bunkers, turning small greens to very small.   (Camden’s course was redone in 1999 and is scheduled for another renovation in June, much of the work to be of the restorative variety and to be done by Donald Ross architecture expert Kris Spence.)   Although the putting surfaces in December are certainly slower than in June, it is the condition of the turf just off the green that makes par just as elusive in winter.  Earlier in the season, the putter would be the club of choice on many shots from 15 yards off the green, but in December, little tufts of grass that resist the lawn mower blades require a little more thought -– and a deftly played wedge to swirling green surfaces.

The par 3 8th hole at Camden is just 140 yards long, but it offers every challenging aspect of a classic one-shotter.

 

        It is too hard to choose the most “memorable” hole at Camden because each one presents different views and different challenges.  The par 3s, as a group, are certainly memorable, ranging from short and tricky to long and, well, tricky.  The par 3 2^nd hole is a mere 167 yards, but no matter the pin position, the double tier may leave a steep uphill putt or, horrors, a slick downhill one.  The 6^th, the longest of the one-shotters at 225 yards, looks mild enough from the tee box, but a bunker short and right of the green is ready to snare a dying quail and another one just left of the green will trap an overcooked draw.  Jamey Bryan, a club member who joined us for the back nine, told me that the 6^th plays like a “reverse Redan” in which a shot to the left front of the green –- just inside the bunker -– will bound toward the rear right of the green.  The 8^th may be the shortest of them all at 140 yards, but bunkers right and left and a green that seems to tilt in numerous directions will make par a long shot.  The pin position on the 176-yard 12^th was on the crest of a hill at right rear, making a play short of the pin about the only fairly certain two-putt par.  And, finally, the 186-yard 16^th demands a play toward the left half of the green if the pin is on the right to keep a slightly offline shot from sliding toward the bunker at the right edge.  Of course, a bunker at left front makes a high shot mandatory.  The 16^th is one of the many holes at Camden that cause you to consider the front fringe as, perhaps, the most judicious target.

A railroad once brought guests to a hotel located where condos now stand (background) beyond the 11th green at Camden Country Club.  The hotel closed just after World War II.

 

        Camden is a golf course any serious golfer would be happy to play a few times a week, 52 weeks a year, and it can hold its own with any layout in golf rich South Carolina.  It is hard to conjure a golf course that is more challenging inside 6,400 yards.  If Camden was sited just outside a major urban area, you might expect a waiting list years long, high hurdles to qualify for membership and an initiation fee high into the five figures (at least).  But Camden is in rural South Carolina, 45 minutes from the smallish capital of South Carolina, Columbia, and it is priced to match:  An initiation fee of just $1,500 and annual dues around $200 per month.  (Note: Those who would like a vote in golf club matters must purchase a “stock certificate” for $5,850, a fair share of a great golf course.)

        Those who live outside the area and worship at the altar of Donald Ross will find Camden the ultimate bargain, with a non-resident membership at just $500, with dues of $1,835.  Play 50 times during the year and the per-round cost works out to well under $40.  I daresay serious golfers would pay four or five times that for a go at Ross’ greens.  In case that is tempting to you, homes in Camden are priced as you might expect for a rural area.  You won’t find too many along the perimeter of the course, although a large and beautiful colonial that does overlook the course is currently on the market for just $200,000; a local realtor told me it needs about $150,000 worth of renovations.  A few condos behind the 12^th hole, when available, are priced well under $200,000.

        Interested?  I have made the acquaintance of a local realtor who would be pleased to share information about the local market.  Contact me and I will put you in touch.