Golf course operators are in a box, trapped by a series of cataclysmic events that came at them so fast that they had little time to react rationally.  Most were unprepared to deal with a deep recession that shone the light on a staggering over supply of golf courses.  As disposable income and rounds played shrank, and members began leaving their private golf clubs, golf course operators did the easiest but most self-defeating thing they could do:  Public golf courses cut their green fee prices to the bone and the private ones dropped their initiation fees, or eliminated them altogether.  The most savvy ones set about distinguishing their services and solidifying their identities, but these clubs are far and few between.

        During a day of workshops at the National Golf Industry Show in Orlando on Tuesday, I heard many golf course operators share their frustration and even some anger at the bind they find themselves in.  Online tee time providers like GolfNow.com were singled out for having forced green fee prices way down.  But these tee time consolidators are invited by the golf club to help fill in their tee sheets, and they can be uninvited at any time.  The golf course operators mistakenly thought they could control third-party pricing, and they are upset now to find out they can’t unless they turn their backs on the incremental revenue stream.

        Private clubs are putting themselves in a similar bind.  In an effort to backfill for lost members, some of these clubs have eliminated initiation fees altogether in order to generate much needed cash flow from dues.  But a new member with no “skin in the game” is not tied to the long-term viability of the club.  If they are not getting their moneys worth from rounds played, nothing keeps them from fleeing the club after a few months.  In many cases, members-only clubs are also shifting the definition of “private” by permitting outside play through providers like GolfNow.com and BoxGroove.com.  That may solve some short-term revenue problems but will likely erode the notion of exclusivity, the reason why many joined their club in the first place.

        For the most part, the series of 90-minute “education sessions” on Tuesday at the Golf Industry Show provided a bit of tough love for the many

golf club operators in attendance.  If there was one overall message, it was that golf club operators will need to innovate their ways through adversity, not price their way through.  Golf clubs both private and public need to work much harder to distinguish themselves from their competitors; to establish their own separate identities (beyond low price); to spend as much energy on current member retention as on member acquisition; and to focus much more on developing family friendly environments, even if that means investing to develop or enhance non-golf activities.

        Many clubs will see innovation as an expensive proposition.  But those that don’t innovate to meet the new market will pay the ultimate price.

     From the Peninsula Club on Lake Norman north of Charlotte to The Cliffs Communities and The Reserve on Lake Keowee to the communities of Timberlake on Lake Murray and Savannah Lakes on Lake Thurmond, waterfront golf communities in the Carolinas owe their very existence to the damming of some of the state’s rivers in the early- and mid-20^th Century.

        The list is actually longer than that and includes Badin Lake and its golf community of Uwharrie Point about 45 minutes from Pinehurst; Lake Lure about 45 minutes from Asheville and home to a few resorts and golf communities; and the Lake Marion Golf Resort in South Carolina.

        The period that resulted in all these manmade lakes may be the greatest example of eminent domain in our nation’s history.  In the name of progress and hydroelectric power, dammed

rivers inundated entire towns and thousands of acres of farmland, creating tens of thousands of miles of new shorelines.  The formation of Lake Murray, about 30 minutes from the university town and state capital, Columbia, SC, sent the homes of 5,000 people, three churches, six schools and 193 cemeteries to a watery grave.  Historical landmarks were inundated in the name of hydroelectric power; even the 18^th Century homes of Scottish Highlander immigrants became the necessary sacrifice to create Jordan Lake, current location of The Preserve, an enclave of modern homes surrounding a Davis Love III designed golf course.   The home of Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion was not spared either, although the lake that covers the Marion estate is named for its former owner.

Everything along the shores of Lake Murray and the Timberlake golf community is manmade -- including the shores themselves.

 

        Many of those whose homes were taken in the name of progress held out long enough to receive shoreline property in trade rather than a cash payment from the government.  That turned out to be a smart move in many cases since those families sold their land to consolidators who eventually sold to developers who eventually built some of the more interesting and highest quality golf communities in the southeast.

        We wrote recently about a visit to Savannah Lakes, in the rural stretches along Lake Thurmond, about 45 minutes from Augusta, GA.  The fairways were covered with snow due to unusually low temperatures, even though in a normal winter, golf is played most days.  On our way to Savannah Lakes, we stopped at the unheralded but nicely configured golf community called Timberlake, on Lake Murray.  The 24-year old Timberlake’s identity suffers somewhat from a lack of an organized marketing effort, the result of a history that includes bankruptcies and a development parceled out to a different local builders each competing with the other for sales.

        Johnny Oswald, a resident of Timberlake and, along with his wife Kit, one of the most successful real estate agents handling property in the community, was kind to meet with me on short notice.  We met in the newly completed clubhouse (opened last June).

        “Our clubhouse,” Oswald noted, “was two trailers after the developer’s bankruptcy in 1990,” when the savings and loan debacle sent the economy and real estate developments like the 561-acre Timberlake into a temporary tailspin.  Only 300 lots of a total 2,000 had been sold before the S&L crisis.

        It took almost two decades for Timberlake to hit its stride again and for local builders to become confident enough to build 40 spec homes in the community.  That, unfortunately, was just before the 2008 crash in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse.  Thankfully, for the builders and the community, just three of those homes remain unsold.  The crash did have a silver lining as it gave some residents and club members the opportunity to purchase the golf club in 2008 and put the club’s destiny in their own hands.

        For a golf community centered around a lake and within a short drive of a major U.S. university, the University of South Carolina, Timberlake’s properties seem quite reasonably priced.  There are currently about 50 unimproved properties on the market in Timberlake.  Wooded lots, including those with views of the Willard Byrd golf course, range from $20,000 to $60,000, although Oswald says those lots are moving more slowly than the waterfront lots, which range from $125,000 to $450,000. Oswald cites construction costs of between $110 and $150 per square foot, a little less than we have seen in other parts of the southeast.  Resale homes range from the $200s to $1.5 million for a McMansion on the lake.

        Residents are an almost equal mix of retirees and families with children, the latter working in state government or university jobs, as well as professional positions.  We were especially impressed that the clubhouse is open virtually every night for dinner, unusual for golf clubhouses these days (Thursday through Saturday is more typical).  Monthly dues are on the lowest end at $140 per month, and $40 of that is dedicated to meals (use it or lose it).

        Because of the snow, I did not get to play the golf course, but

Willard Byrd is a respected designer of classic-type layouts.  His courses display few “gimmicks” and, for that reason, they tend to be more pleasurable than challenging.  In my drive through the neighborhood, it appeared that Byrd had integrated some water into his design, as well as tilted a few of the fairways.  The course’s character changed slightly last year after the new clubhouse gobbled up a bit of the 9^th hole, turning it from a par 5 to a par 4 and dropping overall par on the course to 71.  I noted and photographed one hole with a pond that nestled up against the front of a green, made more challenging by a downhill slope in the fairway’s approach area.  This still is the hill country of South Carolina, and no talented golf architect is going to pass up the opportunity to give his golf course a little extra bounce.

         If life in a golf community on a scenic lake not far from the culture and entertainment opportunities associated with a major university appeals to you, contact me for more information about Timberlake and to arrange a visit.

Willard Byrd borrowed a little water from Lake Murray to place a pond in front of one of the greens at Timberlake.  The fairway snow typically lasts just a day in winter, but not this winter.  Play was halted in upstate SC for almost a week in January.