Earlier this week, I wrote about battening down the hatches at our condo in Pawleys Island, SC, in expectation of Hurricane Irene.  Mother Nature, of course, marches to her own beat, and yesterday Pawleys endured a lot of rain and some tropical winds but no hurricane force winds.

        Some customers who ask me for help in finding a golf community home in the southeastern U.S. put only one major limitation on the search –- no coastal location because they do not want any threat

of a hurricane.  They have lived up north all their lives, and their notion of hurricanes is what they have seen on the Weather Channel or the ghastly news reports about Katrina.  But as my wife and I walk past the patio furniture we hauled from the deck to the sitting room of our Connecticut home yesterday, Irene is a reminder that no one region has a monopoly on dangerous weather.  This monster hurricane is headed toward New England, an unwelcome houseguest that will arrive in the middle of the night.  We expect some local flooding and widespread power outages for the coming days.

        Are there any places along the east coast where the threat of hurricanes is slight, if not nil?  One coastal location does come close to hurricane proof, and that’s Savannah, GA.  Take a look at a map of the eastern seaboard, and you will notice the coastline angles in sharply in northern Georgia.  Atlantic hurricanes, and Irene is no exception, come across the ocean and hook up with the strong pull of the Gulfstream and make a turn north before they get to Savannah.  In fact, the only hurricane of Irene’s proportions that has hit Savannah in the last 100 years came across the Gulf of Mexico and the panhandle of Florida and whacked Savannah in the backside.

        For those northern baby boomers who, all things being equal, would prefer a coastal location if it weren’t for a fear of hurricanes, Savannah is worth consideration.  At the high end, with homes beginning around $1 million, Ford Plantation in Richmond Hill, just south of the city, combines sophistication, history (it was the summer home of car magnate Henry Ford) and a wonderful and playable Pete Dye golf course.  Closer to the city –- just 15 minutes from downtown -- The Landings is one of the largest and best managed golf communities in the east.  At 4,800 acres and with about 8,000 residents, The Landings may seem too large to some, but its six excellent golf courses (Fazio, Hills, Palmer), always in top condition, handle the traffic well, and the golf community’s sheer size means there are activities for every taste inside the gates -– and a wide range of homes whose prices start in the $300s.

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        Hurricane Irene will turn out to be a major inconvenience for those of us who live in north central Connecticut, what with expected power outages likely to last a few days.  But for those who have scheduled important personal events this weekend, it will be disheartening.  Our good friends' son is getting married tonight in Garrison, NY, about two hours from our Connecticut home, and much of his family and most of his friends -- and virtually all of the bride’s side -- are from the New York City and Long Island areas, where Irene should make landfall during the early morning hours Sunday.  If the hourly weather predictions hold up, it will be raining steadily in Garrison by the time the reception starts at 6 p.m. and coming down hard when it ends.  The guests will have their eyes on the door and their iPhone weather apps.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that the hurricane cuts these young kids a break.  A good night, please, Irene.

        If professional golf were a Greek tragedy, Greg Norman would be its chief protagonist, and by a wide margin.  During the height of his playing career, someone always seemed to snatch victory from the jaws of the Shark (see L. Mize in the 1986 Masters or B. Tway in 1989).  Or, alternately, Norman’s strong sense of confidence in his skills –- students of Greek tragedy might call it hubris –- would do him in (see 75s and 76s in final rounds at majors, or aggressive play that led to bogeys on 72^nd holes when all he needed was par to win).  Norman’s golf game was downright Sisyphean; the boulder he kept pushing uphill inevitably came crashing down on him, often spectacularly.

The 12th at Tennessee National still has the potential to be one of the most photographed holes in the east.

 

        Yet the Shark did win the British Open Championship twice, which leads one to speculate if he has a problem with U.S. soil.  The U.S. has not been all that kind to Norman’s residential development business either.  His company, Medallist, which has built and managed a handful of golf communities in the U.S., has just put its five-year old Tennessee National development up for sale, announced with an ad in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week.  The web site for Norman’s multi-business empire, Great White Shark Enterprises, has dropped Medallist from its list of activities, although the individual web sites for Tennessee National, south of Knoxville, and Savannah Quarters in Georgia still acknowledge Medallist’s ownership.

        The Journal ad indicates that the offer of Tennessee National includes “950 acres of developable land,” with home sites for 1,900 additional homes, a 17-acre golf practice facility, a clubhouse and swimming pool, and the 18-hole Greg Norman Signature golf course.  In early 2007, when I first visited the 1,400-acre Tennessee National, the golf course, just a few weeks from opening, was quite impressive looking, especially the downhill par 3 12^th hole.  With its sod-lined pot bunkers and river just off the right side, the hole was destined to be one of the most photographed east of the Mississippi.

Intimidating sod-faced bunkers reminiscent of those on some British Open courses protect many of the greens at Tennessee National.  Designer Greg Norman's only victories in major tournaments were on British Open layouts.

 

        It is tough to pinpoint the reasons behind Norman and Medallist coming up short at Tennessee National.  Of course, timing was an issue, with the nation’s economy tanking within two years of opening.  But two years should have been enough to crank up the sales machine; and not every golf community that opened before the recession fared badly (e.g. Brunswick Forest near Wilmington, NC).  We can’t help thinking that perhaps a lack of preparation symbolic of the Shark’s final rounds in majors may also have played into Tennessee National’s problems.  For example,

early residents of the community complained of a stench that occasionally wafted over the area, some speculating it emanated from a nearby mushroom farm, others believing it was from a local landfill.  (We should also note that one of Medallist’s senior executives on site was a boor who rudely deflected any inquiries that might have implied the community was less than paradise.  That kind of attitude does not play well in the relatively small world of golf community development, and we can only guess at how potential customers and local real estate agents may have reacted.)

        Norman seems as unlucky (or, perhaps, as unprepared) in relationships as he was in major tournaments.  He married wife #3 late last year after a brief marriage to former tennis great Chris Evert.   (Wife #1 wound up with a divorce settlement reportedly in the tens of millions before Norman married Evert.)  In Tennessee, Norman formed a business relationship with John “Thunder” Thornton, a local developer and major political fundraiser, to build the $500 million Tennessee National.  That marriage ended last year with Thornton receiving a couple dozen lots in the settlement, which the developer swiftly dumped on the market at less than half their previous asking prices.  That, of course, devalues the unsold lots owned by Medallist and may have been the ultimate death knell there for Norman and his company.

        Greg Norman had a splendid professional golf career, despite the spectacular failures.  But it is tragic that the Shark’s teeth are often not quite as sharp as his competitors’, or his partners’.

As Yogi Berra might say, the future is still ahead for Tennessee National's marina village as its developer prepares for a sale of the entire community.