Once you get below the customary top choices in Golf Digest’s annual rankings of the Greatest 100 overall and 100 public golf courses in the U.S., the choices are curious and demonstrate that there is way more art to assessing the best golf courses than there is science.

        Consider, for example, the state-by-state rankings.  In South Carolina, Caledonia Golf and Fish Club in Pawleys Island is considered by most raters and vacationing golfers as one of the two or three best courses on the Grand Strand of Myrtle Beach.

Zagat’s annual ranking of top courses gives Caledonia one of the highest marks in the nation, a 28 of 30 possible points.  The South Carolina Golf Ratings Panel, of which I am a member, rates Caledonia the 12^th best course in the state (2010 ranking) and the best public course in the state’s coastal region.  Golfweek magazine’s own annual rating puts Caledonia at the #3 spot among “courses you can play” (i.e. public or resort courses).  And where does Caledonia rank on the Golf Digest list?  Nowhere among the 30 courses listed for the state of South Carolina; seven other courses in the Myrtle Beach area, including two neighboring courses, Heritage and True Blue, make the Golf Digest list, but not Caledonia.  Heritage is absent in the SC Panel and Golfweek lists.

Mike Strantz's Caledonia Golf & Fish Club layout in Pawleys Island, SC, is considered to be one of the top three on the Grand Strand of Myrtle Beach, but you wouldn't know it by reading Golf Digest's state rankings.

 

        Across the border in North Carolina, that state’s golf ratings panel differs widely with Golf Digest’s assessments.  Whereas the magazine rates Old North State Club and Pine Needles #13 and #16, respectively, the NC Rating Panel anoints Old North State the 3^rd best in the state and Pine Needles #5.  And whereas Golf Digest gives Wade Hampton its #1 ranking in the state, the state’s own rating panel drops it to #17.  Golfweek, which always rates Wade Hampton highly, puts it at #19 among all golf courses built after 1960.

        Some of the golf communities we have reviewed here fare well in the Golf Digest rankings, although the magazine’s raters appear to discount golf courses built with adjacent real estate.  Near Charleston, the fine Golf Club at Briar’s Creek on Johns Island, designed by Rees Jones, ranks 13th in South Carolina; once the developer sells more land and builds a few more homes on the periphery of the golf course, count on that rating to drop.  Haig Point, another Rees Jones layout on the troubled Daufuskie

The development called Briar's Creek on Johns Island, near Charleston, may have been a little slow to take off, but it is not for want of an excellent Rees Jones layout, which features a great Low Country combination of sand, marsh and live oaks (and a few dead ones).

 

Island, holds down the 17^th position in the state; the nearby Daufuskie Island Resort went bankrupt, and no one stepped forward at auction early this year to make an offer.  The Ralston Creek course at Daniel Island, yet another Rees Jones layout, sits at #19, two spots ahead of the challenging, smartly conditioned Jack Nicklaus layout at The Reserve at Lake Keowee.  The Reserve recently introduced a trailblazing membership program that gives full-member status to the parents and children of members, no matter their ages.  The Cliffs Communities’ two Tom Fazio courses are also represented on the South Carolina top 30 list -- Keowee Vineyards (#22) and Keowee Springs (#28).  My own course, Pawleys Plantation (Nicklaus), is ranked 26^th, a much more generous assessment than that given it by the SC Golf Rating Panel, where it barely makes the top 50 list at #49.

        Golf Digest indicates that it must receive a total of 45 evaluations for a golf course over the past eight years for it to be eligible for ranking on America’s 100 Greatest, but only 10 evaluations for Best in State.  Old Tabby Links, the stunning Ed Seay/Arnold Palmer course on private Spring Island, does not make either the Golf Digest or Golfweek lists.  (The SC Panel ranks it 16^th, which does not do it justice in my opinion).  Note to Spring Island developers:  Invite more raters to play the course.  Old Tabby is much too good to be ignored.

Old Tabby Links on Spring Island, SC, does not show up in either the Golf Digest or Golfweek rankings.  That's a shame, because the Ed Seay/Arnold Palmer layout is one of the best in the south.

        It’s a buyer’s market for property, right?  Well, not exactly, according to an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal today [click here for access

or, if that doesn’t work, contact me and I will send you a copy].  Sellers are mad as hell and they are not taking it anymore (i.e. lowering their listing prices).  But for those who have equity in their homes and a plan to move south, the advice here is to put aside your hot emotion and start thinking like a cold CFO.  Here’s why:

1. Your house is worth what it is worth to a buyer, not what you think it is worth.  Okay, so you’ve lost 25% of the value of your home (on paper) in the last four years.  But that property in the southern U.S. that you’ve had your eye on is a lot cheaper too.  So why wait?
2. The kids are gone from the nest, and you have either retired or are getting close.  Your space requirements have changed; your next house will be smaller than your current one, which means it will cost less than what your primary home will fetch.  Why wait?
3. The costs to build homes in the south are much less than in the north (and land costs are generally lower as well).  Even if you decide you want to replicate the size of your primary home, you will spend less when you move south, in some cases much less.  I’ve seen nice homes on the market in the southern U.S. for less than $130 per square foot –- land included.  You won't find prices like that in most nice neighborhoods in the north, including your own.  So why wait?
4. The average cost of living in most areas of the southern U.S. is less than most areas of the north.  Move from Philadelphia to Columbia, SC, and you save 20% annually. (Source:  BankRate.com).  Go from Long Island, NY, to Myrtle Beach, and the savings are on the order of 35%.  In other words, just dealing in round numbers, if you spend $100,000 annually on all expenses in New York today, you will spend just $65,000 a year in Myrtle Beach.  Knowing that should help get over any angst at an offer for your home that is, say, $20,000 less than you think it is worth.  Why wait?
5. You worked hard for the last 40 years and have done a great job of raising your kids.  It’s your turn to reap the rewards.  Indeed, why wait?

The following is a representative sample of cost of living savings and real estate prices based on moves from selected metro areas in the north to specific golf communities in the south.  We have visited all the referenced golf communities and can recommend them.  For more information, contact the editor.

 

Cape Fear National Golf Club at Brunswick Forest

Napierville, IL, to Brunswick Forest, Leland, NC.  Cost of living decrease = 15.5%

Single-family homes begin around $130 per square foot, land included. 

Cape Fear National Golf Club (semi-private), designed by Tim Cate.

 

Wachesaw Plantation

Wantagh, NY, to Wachesaw Plantation, Murrells Inlet, SC.  Cost of living decrease = 35%. 

3 BR, 2 ½ BA single-family home at $118 per square foot.  Tom Fazio golf course (private).

 

Charleston National Golf Club

Bergen County, NJ, to Charleston National Golf Club, Mt. Pleasant, SC. 

Cost of living decrease = 25%. 

3 BR, 2 BA single-family home listed at $135 per square foot, with 3-car garage. 

Rees Jones designed golf course (semi-private).

 

Reems Creek Golf Club

Philadelphia, PA, to Reems Creek Golf Club, Weaverville, NC (Asheville). 

Cost of living decrease = 20%. 

Single-family home, 1-acre lot, 3,859 square feet, mountain views, $165 per square foot.  Semi-private golf course designed by Hawtree & Son.