The Internet is the most efficient way to gather information about golf community homes. Done properly, online research provides a lot of basic information about golf communities before you visit. Pricing information, of course, is most helpful; if you can't afford to live in a place, then why waste your time with further investigation, no matter how great the golf community looks or how good the golf course seems?
I
scan golf community related websites often and subscribe to some newsletters
that provide information about golf communities. One I particularly like is the Golf Course Home Network, but
I take what I read there with a lump of salt. Like virtually all media devoted
to golf communities, Golf
Course Home Network promotes its clients' developments. Every reference to them is great, and
they all sound like paradise and great investments. Of course, in reality, none are perfect. (Note: We have chosen a different model here, never charging fees
to anyone -- developer or homebuyer -- in order to maintain our
objectivity. We go so far as to
pay our green fees when we play a community's golf course.)
Golf Course Home Network, which provides specific information about communities and wraps it all in a positive package, is typically accurate and timely. I was surprised, therefore, to note last week an unusual faux pas. The Network's newsletter and website announced that an upscale condo development in Charleston, SC, called Reverie on the Ashley River, was offering, with the purchase of some of its condos, free golf memberships at the exclusive and expensive Briar's Creek on nearby John's Island. I visited Briar's Creek earlier this year and was impressed with the course, the clubhouse and the elegant but understated nature of the place. Briar's Creek had just dropped its initiation fees to a still robust $100,000, so my curiosity was piqued by the Reverie offer.
But when I went to the Reverie website, I saw no mention of the offer. I love a good investigation, and I decided to conduct a Google search for further information. I found an August press release announcing the free membership deal -- that expired nine days before the Golf Course Home Network newsletter arrived in my inbox. Alas, too good to be true.
As Emily Latella of Saturday Night Live fame used to say after being advised of a malaprop, "Never mind."
Rees Jones' sleek design for Briar's Creek takes advantage of the Low Country's landscape, marshes and live oaks.