Lake Mary's position just 30 minutes from Orlando and 45 from Daytona Beach puts it close enough to the hustle, bustle and advantages of big city conveniences and the beach, but far enough away so as not to suffer many of the consequences (traffic, pollution, crime). The area is chock a block with golf courses, and the article in Money is embellished by a photo of a hole at Timacuan Golf Club, which was built in the center of the town. The green in the photo is surrounded by sand. Membership in the semi-private club seems reasonable at $5,500 for full family golf, and $275 a month for dues. Timacuan was designed by Ron Garl and Bobby Weed, two respected, if not first-rank, architects. Money writes that the best things about Lake Mary are its small town nature, a robust economy and zero state income tax. The worst, as you might guess, are the hot summers and threats of hurricanes coming across the Gulf of Mexico.
Suwanee, which is located along the Chattahoochee River about 40 minutes northeast of Atlanta, also boasts a range of fine private and public golf courses, including some inside the gates of communities. Home prices in River Club, for example, with its private Greg Norman course, begin above $1 million. The Arthur Hills' Olde Atlanta Club is also located in Suwanee and is one of 18 clubs in the greater Atlanta area managed by the Canongate organization. Membership in one club makes the 17 others accessible for a modest payment of greens fees (although as a full golf member, you will not pay fees at your "home" club). Bear's Best, a compilation of 18 of Jack Nicklaus' holes from other courses he has designed, is also inside Suwanee's city limits. We are not sure about the flow of a course that borrows the individual holes from elsewhere, but Nicklaus himself designed Bear's Best, and he is fussy about the quality of his work. The course is open to the public.
Only two other towns in the southeast made Money's top 25 best places to live: Apex, NC, and Holly Springs, NC. Both are just at the fringe of the popular city of Raleigh. Best of all for the golf obsessed, the two towns are a straight 45 minute shot down U.S. Highway 1 to some of the best golf in America, at Pinehurst.
Money's web site has data on all its top 100 places.