The central focus of the golf course and resort community at Keswick near Charlottesville, VA, is the imposing, 100-year-old mansion.
Money magazine features its new list of "Best Places to Live" in the current (August) issue. This year's best place is Middleton, WI, not exactly a hotbed of golf course communities but it seems like an ideal community in which to live in summer after wintering in southern Florida, for example. A sidebar article caught my attention; in it, the editors recall some of their former selections as "best places," and a couple of them I know fairly well.
Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, N.C., for example, earned the best distinction in 1994. The area is a hotbed for engineers and other techies because of Research Triangle Park and ideal for those who want to be near a cluster of great universities, including Duke and North Carolina. The area also offers a wide variety of golf course communities. At the top of the list is Governor's Club, with 27 holes of Jack Nicklaus Signature golf, an involved membership, and beautifully manicured properties. Homes start in the mid six figures and rise to the millions, with many nice views of the golf course.
Less expensive but still close enough to Chapel Hill to take advantage of all the cultural and sports activities at the major universities are Chapel Ridge and The Preserve at Jordan Lake. Chapel Ridge includes a very playable Fred Couples designed course, featuring a number of challenging doglegs and large, undulating greens. The Preserve, like Chapel Ridge, features a nice balance of families with young children, empty nesters and retirees. House prices in both communities run from the mid- to upper-six figures.
For those interested in a new but classically appointed private club outside a community, Old Chatham Golf Club, which is focused entirely on golf, has received rave reviews. And there is always the sleek Robert Trent Jones course at Duke University, which is open to the public but is always in private-club condition.
Charlottesville, VA, was Money's best community in 1998, and its character also relies very much on a local university, in this case the University of Virginia, the invention of Thomas Jefferson. The town has become immensely popular largely because of a low tax rate and its setting at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains; traffic and housing prices have increased signfiicantly in recent years, but that is pretty much the story in many hot towns in the south.
For those willing to play sweater weather golf two or three months a year, a nice array of communities are available. We liked Keswick for its opulent feel and imposing mansion/clubhouse on the hill overlooking an Arnold Palmer golf course; Glenmore for its Scottish-links-like course and well manicured community; Old Trail, where the recent film Evan Almighty was shot, for its fair pricing and small-town ethos; and Wintergreen, the mountain resort just 40 minutes out of town where, on a few days in January, you just might be able to ski in the morning and play golf in the afternoon.
And for a classic and historic golf club, get to know some local members who can vouch for you at the historic Farmington Golf Club. The course is a charmer and part of the clubhouse an original plantation home designed and built by Thomas Jefferson himself.