Fortune magazine’s June 12 issue features “5 Best Places to Retire.”  Greenville, SC, is one of them.  The magazine cites the city’s 30-year downtown revitalization program, as well as the stability of its real estate market and change of seasons (although the changes are not dramatic, and you can play golf in Greenville virtually year round).  The Palm Coast of Florida, San Antonio, Ann Arbor, MI and Napa, CA also made Fortune’s list.

        Except for the deluxe Cliffs Communities, the Greenville area is not abundant with private, gated golf communities.  The closest Cliffs Communities to Greenville are The Cliffs Valley in Travelers Rest and Cliffs at Glassy in Landrum.  The Cliffs Valley course is the only design by former golf commentator Ben Wright, who put together a playable, if not dramatic, routing.  Glassy, by Tom Jackson, provides all the drama and 50-mile views any player can hope to encounter in the course of a round.  Farther afield are the Cliffs communities surrounding Lake Keowee, about 45 minutes from the city, with courses by the likes of Fazio and Nicklaus.  Keowee Vineyard (Fazio) is one of the best in the golf-rich state of South Carolina, in this reporter’s opinion.  Prices at The Cliffs begin in the high six figures, but $1 million plus is more the standard.

Members and the golf professionals who play it annually at the BMW Charity event on the Nationwide Tour rave about the Thornblade Club.

        You can spend less in the neighborhoods surrounding the Greenville Country Club but still feel like a million bucks when it comes to golf.  Greenville CC is the oldest club in town, one of those classic layouts of which its new and long-term members never seem to tire.  For a more modern but still classy experience, they can turn to their “newer” golf course, The Chanticleer, a 1970s Robert Trent Jones Sr. gem.  Home prices run the gamut, from under $500,000 for a nice older home to well over a million for big and fancy.

        We are unabashed fans of The Thornblade Club and its surrounding community, not least because the course is a classic Tom Fazio layout that is unfussy without being simple.  The course is good enough to host the pros for the final round of the Nationwide Tour’s annual BMW Charity event, and the neighborhood is good enough to be home to successful pro golfers Jay Haas and Dottie Pepper.  U.S. Open champ Lucas Glover learned to play at Thornblade; lucky for him his grandparents owned a home on the course.

        A bronze statue of Greenville native Shoeless Joe Jackson, who many believe got a raw deal in the famous 1919 Black Sox baseball scandal, stands sentinel in downtown Greenville.  In recent years, Jackson’s reputation has enjoyed a significant renaissance.  Ditto for his hometown.

        I work with an experienced real estate agent who knows well all the Greenville golf communities.  Contact me, and I will be happy to put you in touch with him or answer whatever questions you have about one of the hottest towns in the southeast.

On all their 18s, The Cliffs dresses everything to the nines.  Tom Jackson's layout at Glassy is high on drama and scenery.

        I am making a swing through the Carolinas this week and next, with stops tentatively scheduled for Fawn Lake in Fredericksburg, VA; Carolina Colours in New Bern, NC; Woodside Plantation in Aiken, SC; The Windemere Club in Blythewood, SC (outside of Columbia); White Oak in Tryon, NC; and Treyburn in Durham, NC.

        Fawn Lake is surrounded by American history.  George Washington was raised in the area and the river across which he reportedly tossed a coin is the nearby Rappahannock.  Civil War buffs know the Rappahannock also played a major role in the Battle of Fredericksburg in late 1862, a decisive victory for the Robert E. Lee led Confederate forces, a win which emboldened them for later battles.  Old Town Fredericksburg, which is located between Washington, D.C., and Richmond, features as many restored 18^th Century homes as you will find anywhere.

        Carolina Colours has struggled to hit its stride since it started selling property five years ago.  Finally, the long-awaited Bill Love golf course is approaching a grand opening date this summer.  I will be taking some pictures of the layout which the online course map indicates is loaded with water hazards.  The nearby golf community of Taberna offers lower priced housing alternatives but a golf course that will be hard for Carolina Colours to beat in terms of playability.  The nearby city of New Bern is an interesting and growing town, and the birthplace of Pepsi Cola.

Treyburn Country Club in Durham, NC, is one of six McConnell Group golf courses and the centerpoint of a golf community.

        Woodside Plantation has been among the most favorably reviewed stops for my recent customers.  With four golf courses by different designers -– Rees Jones, Bob Cupp, Fuzzy Zoeller and Nicklaus Design – golf-involved residents have plenty to occupy themselves.  The homes and home sites are also reasonably priced, with a roster of “best buys” starting in the low $300s, and equestrians will never run out of things to do in the horse crazy town.

        I don’t know much about Windemere except for a brief drive through the parking lot of the golf course I made a couple of years ago.  From the elevation around the club house, the Pete & P.B. Dye designed golf course looked interesting, with significant elevation changes and no shortage of water hazards.  The immediate area also boasts the excellent Columbia Country Club and its 27 holes, as well as the modern and dramatic Cobblestone Park, whose community is still trying to muddle through a Bobby Ginn debacle.  Cobblestone features homes at some ridiculously low prices for their size and quality.

        White Oak, which has opened just nine holes so far, is using royalty to lure the horse and golfing set.  The King, Arnold Palmer, and his design group have contributed the golf course layout, and Captain Mark Phillips -– ex-husband of Princess Anne of England -– is providing input for the equestrian center.  As if that were not royalty enough, Padraig Harrington will be one of White Oak’s earliest residents.  With a couple of Claret Jugs and a PGA Championship to his credit, he certainly qualifies as golfing royalty.

        If you stop by this space occasionally, you know that I am fascinated with the business model of The McConnell Group, a Raleigh, NC, based organization that has bought a half dozen nice private golf clubs in the last few years, most recently The Reserve Club in Litchfield Beach, SC.  Recently I played another McConnell course, Musgrove Mill in rural South Carolina, which was in nice shape but provided some dastardly challenges.  Treyburn, which was developed as a golf community, is one of the six clubs, and its members, like members at the other clubs, have full privileges at all the McConnell courses.  Initiation fees of $26,000 seem like a reasonable deal, and I look forward to testing that assumption when I visit.

        If you have any special questions you would like me to ask at these communities, or if you are interested in other communities along my route, contact me and I will be happy to make inquiries in your behalf.