My wife and I are off to Pawleys Island this week for a four-week stay at our second home and a few rounds of hot golf (literally).  Admittedly, this is a bit of a contrarian play, given that temperatures in the Low Country have been consistently close to 100 degrees the last couple of weeks.  But a scan of the forecast in Connecticut shows a week ahead that will be warmer on some days than on the southern coast. Mark Twain once had something to say about the peculiarities of New England weather (“…wait and minute, and it will change.”)  So off we go.

        During our summer vacation, I plan to play a lot of golf, including the well-regarded layouts at Haig Point on Daufuskie Island and

Callawassie Island, near Beaufort, both during the first weekend in August as part of an outing arranged by the South Carolina Golf Rating Panel, of which I am a member.  The group’s members are invited to play, on their own, a number of the state’s semi-private and private golf courses; but a few times a year, our executive director Mike Whitaker arranges for members to get together for some collegial golf.  Although I played both the Rees Jones Haig Point and Callawassie Tom Fazio-designed courses a few years ago, both have since undergone extensive renovations at costs of over $5 million and $4 million respectively.  (I remember when entire golf course’s cost that much to build from scratch, land included, and it wasn’t that long ago.)  Each layout is 27 holes; actually the Haig Point layout boasts 29 holes, including alternative tees on two of its marshland holes.

Part of the Haig Point layout runs along the Calibogue Sound, with views of Hilton Head Island across the water.

 

        Haig Point is an idyllic place, about as remote as you can get on the east coast since it is reached only by a ferry from Hilton Head Island.  (Community residents have access to one 24 hours a day, but the cost to maintain and run it is reflected in the property owners’ comparatively lofty dues.)  Haig Point’s residential neighbor, the Daufuskie Island Resort, which features two excellent golf courses, fell on hard times a few years ago, and the resort and its Jack Nicklaus Melrose Golf Club were sold earlier this year at a bargain basement price of $13 million.  The nearby Bloody Point Golf Club, designed by Tom Weiskopf, was sold separately for less than $2 million and is currently closed.  An eventual reinvigoration of the resort should help drive up interest in Haig Point, where prices have reached a low ebb during the housing recession.

        You can read my original review of Callawassie by clicking here.  I have referred to Haig Point, which is across the water from Savannah, numerous times in this space; enter the term “Haig Point” into the search box on this page for a link to all of those.  I also produced an edition of the original Home On The Course newsletter (I once printed and mailed it to subscribers) after my Haig Point visit, and I would be happy to email a copy to anyone who is interested (that same issue of the publication also featured reviews of other Savannah golf communities, as well as the golf course at Bald Head Island Island, like Daufuskie reachable only by boat or helicopter).  Just contact me with your email address and I will send the publication; though a bit dated, the information is still relevant (except for prices, which have dropped).

Callawassie features some typical Tom Fazio bunkering throughout its 27 holes.

 

        Also, if you have been thinking about a move to a golf community in the Myrtle Beach or Charleston areas, let me know and I will be happy to do some on site research while I am in the south.  Realtors in the Low Country have been reporting more visits by baby boomers in recent months, and it just might be that prices have reached their lowest point and are poised for a tick upward -– assuming our legislators in Washington don’t do significant damage to the nation’s credit worthiness and interest rates.

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We hope it goes without saying that the publisher of Golf Community Reviews and Home On The Course, our monthly newsletter, has never hacked anyone's telephone, bribed any high-ranking police officials or politicians, threatened any golf community with bad coverage because its officials didn't bow to us, or showered them with favorable coverage because they cowered before us.  But given the latest news of the world, we thought we should say it, for the record.

        According to sources, the acquisitive multiple-golf-course owner John McConnell is at it again:  As soon as a week from now, his organization

will announce that it has purchased The TPC Wakefield golf course in Raleigh, NC.  That will bring to eight the number of courses the McConnell Golf Group owns in North and South Carolina, most of them concentrated in the Triangle formed by Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro.  When I met with McConnell officials last year, they indicated they planned to stop the buying binge at nine courses, but I am going to go out on a limb and say they will exceed their plans; golf course valuations in the current economy are just too attractive to pass up, and the McConnell folks seem to have golf course operation down to a science.  The software millionaire’s deep pockets don’t hurt either; the clubhouses and golf courses he has purchased all have received touchups shortly after closing.

        TPC Wakefield is located about a half hour from Treyburn (in Durham) and Raleigh Country Clubs, two other McConnell facilities.  The Hale Irwin designed course, like most TPC layouts, plays host to an annual professional golf event, in Wakefield’s case the Nationwide Tour’s REX Hospital Open.  McConnell’s most recent purchase before Wakefield, Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, hosts the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship.  John McConnell himself speculated recently that the PGA Tour put TPC Wakefield up for sale because its focus had shifted to ownership of courses in resort areas and away from “community” clubs.  The McConnell organization’s own strategy targets upscale golfers willing to pay up to $25,000 in initiation fees and mid-range monthly dues for the privilege of access to multiple well-conditioned golf courses designed by some of golf’s foremost architects.

McConnell Golf's Treyburn Country Club is at the heart of a neat-as-a-pin golf community in Durham, NC.  It is one of two Tom Fazio courses in the McConnell portfolio.

 

       However, local homeowners are quite happy with McConnell on the scene.  He has a reputation for taking marginal golf courses and improving them substantially, and taking good courses and making them even better, as he did at The Reserve in Litchfield, SC, where he closed the Greg Norman course the day after he bought it and redid all the greens and many of the bunkers.  Homeowners inside The Reserve were especially grateful that their golf club, on the verge of bankruptcy when McConnell became interested, was restored to health.  Some estimated it meant a bump up of 10% in home values.

        McConnell’s portfolio of courses has been well designed, spanning the range of classic to ultra-modern layouts, reflecting the subtleties of Donald Ross (Sedgefield) and the drama of Tom Fazio, whose Old North State Club layout in remote New London, NC, consistently ranks among the top three courses in the state.  Other McConnell clubs include the brutally challenging Musgrove Mill (Arnold Palmer) in Clinton, SC, and the quirky but exciting Cardinal (Pete Dye) in Greensboro.  Given that they are a decent car ride from the Raleigh area, Old North State and Musgrove Mill feature golf cottages that visiting members can use for overnight stays before and after a round of golf.  The Reserve, the course that is farthest from McConnell’s core base in Raleigh and a couple of tee shots from the ocean, is within a mile or two of many town homes and condos that can be rented by the day.  McConnell also offers pricey golf packages for non-members; a seven-day package can run as high as $2,600.  When it reopened after its renovation last year, The Reserve at Litchfield offered full-golf memberships for just $5,000, which included access to all other McConnell courses.  Today, membership is $10,000, still a bargain for the roster of courses available to McConnell members.

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Editor’s Note: Although most of the courses the McConnell Golf Group have purchased are at the heart of golf communities, McConnell has chosen not to purchase any available lots.  However, after visits to Treyburn, The Cardinal, Uwharrie Point (the community surrounding the Old North State Club) and The Reserve, I can recommend all as worthy of consideration for those considering a home in a golf-oriented venue.  If you would like more information about any of these communities or more information about McConnell Golf’s membership plans, please contact me.

Of its eight golf clubs, McConnell can boast two designed by the legendary Donald Ross -- Raleigh Country Club and, above, Sedgefield, host of the annual PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship.