New England is known as “The Land of Steady Habits,” and one of those habits for natives is to live from cradle to grave in the region of their upbringing, venturing forth for visits to friends who live in warmer climes and for the occasional Myrtle Beach buddy or Florida family golf vacation. The prospect of local golf from March to November and skiing during the winter months is more than enough recreation year in and year out for a New Englander.
If I fell into the New England skier/golfer category –- I don’t ski – my ideal living arrangement might be a home near the ocean and one in the mountains just a couple of hours apart. With one place at sea level and another a few thousand feet up, I would not think twice during the summer months about bouncing between the two places as temperatures and the flood of tourists at the shore dictate. And to be able to shuttle between links style and mountain golf would be pretty cool as well.
Vermont and New Hampshire are rife with combination ski and golf communities that lack only one key element to make them perfect year-round venues for the skier/golfer/beachgoer –- no nearby ocean. One of those communities I previously visited was Owl’s Nest, where Mark Mungeam has fashioned a combination mountain and farmland layout that rivets your attention from first tee to last green. Homes at Owl’s Nest, which is just 15 minutes from challenging ski slopes, are available starting in the $200s. After a recent visit to the reasonably priced community of Old Marsh in Wells, ME, I got to thinking that a New Englander can own homes near the beach and in the mountains for $600,000 in total, or less.
Despite the implication of water in a name like Old Marsh, the layout features wet hazards at only a few, but strategically challenging, points, such as the par 3 15th.
Dennis Page, a veteran real estate agent and builder from Massachusetts, and his partners bought at auction the fledgling development beside the Old Marsh Golf Club. A bank had taken the property back from another developer who had purchased it in 2006 but, familiar story, had run out of money and time. More about online pokies site on onlinecasinokiwi.com! Page and his team plan 131 homes for the small community, including 85 single-family homes of between 1,535 and 2,100 square feet. Nearly a dozen homes are built or in various stages of construction, with six current full-time residents in place.
“We expect to appeal to couples splitting their time between Maine and Florida,” Page told me.
The cost of living at Old Marsh will certainly appeal to those who are looking for a vacation home near the beach and on a golf course, and those as well who are looking to downsize their primary home. The basic 1,535 square foot model at Old Marsh is priced at $299,000, with homes strung out beside the 10th, 11th and 16th holes available at a slight premium. The largest model sells for $369,000. Property taxes run below $3,000 annually. A social membership in the adjacent club, which includes access to pool, tennis and the fitness center at the attractive shingled clubhouse, is mandatory for residents but only $600 per year (green fees at the public course are reduced for social members). Full-golf memberships are $2,300 for a couple and include everything, including green fees. The community is just three miles from Wells Beach and five miles from Kennebunkport. Bostonians can drive to Old Marsh within 90 minutes.
The long-term viability of the Old Marsh Golf Club does not seem to be an issue. The course is managed by the Harris Golf Group, the region’s premier multi-course operator. Architect Silva is also very popular in these parts, having cut his teeth, as did the above-mentioned Mark Mungeam, with the legendary Geoffrey Cornish, the dean of New England architects. More than 100 golf courses in the northeast carry the 96-year old Cornish’s stamp.
Old Marsh was not a cheap course to build given that the “marsh” is actually swampland that needed to be raised before it could function for golf. That gave the architect something of a blank canvas, plenty of land to push around to suit his eye. You might think that with the watery base to the property, Old Marsh would be studded with many ponds and lakes, yet they come into play only rarely. But when they do, they are imaginatively used and a real challenge to negotiate. On the 485-yard par 5 3rd hole, named “Double Turn,” the second shot is the critical one, whether you play the safe lay-up or go for the green. At 230 yards out, you face water left and right, and a narrow isthmus of fairway (maybe 15 yards wide at about 150 yards from the green) that opens up a bit and turns right the closer it gets to the end. You can wimp out on your second shot and hit a short iron to just short of the pond at right, but then your third shot (another short iron) must carry entirely over water and avoid the bunkers that surround the angled green. The 3rd at Old Marsh is a textbook example of a risk-reward par 5.
The C.B. McDonald inspired "Alps" hole at Old Marsh provides a bit of aiming help from behind the hidden green.
My favorite hole was the C.B. McDonald inspired “Alps,” the short par 4 2nd hole (I played it at 347 yards). The drive is no big deal as long as you stay short of the bunkers that cross the fairway 100 yards from the green. The green is totally obscured from the fairway; a large striped pole behind the green guides you, but since the green is two-levels and wide, you need to drive up and take a look before making your second stroke.
Silva clearly makes some nods to the classic designers, especially Seth Raynor and McDonald, but his most obvious nod is to Donald Ross, at the 7th hole, a par 4 of 381 yards that is named simply “Pinehurst.” The fun starts on the tee box where, if you choose driver, you had better draw the ball or you can run off the fairway into the marsh. The safer play is a fairway metal, leaving about a 160-yard approach to a crowned and severely sloped green that is surrounded by a huge collection area. From beneath the green, and depending on pin position, the angle of attack can run from a lob wedge to a putter and virtually every stick in between. The design of the hole may not be harmonious with the rest of the layout, but it is a lot of fun to play…just like the entire Old Marsh Golf Club.
If you would like more information about The Homes at Old Marsh, please contact me and I will put you in touch with the community’s developer, Dennis Page. Ditto if you would like more information about Owl's Nest in New Hampshire.
