Tis the season for "Best of" lists, and even though we are weeks away from a new year, that doesn't prevent some media outlets from jumping the gun with their 2015 rankings. Most notable for those of us who follow golf communities is Golfweek magazine's "Best Residential Courses, 2015" list, which ranks the top 100 and then adds a supplemental list state by state.
Thirty-seven golf community courses from the Southeast made Golfweek's list of top 100 residential courses. (We include two courses in West Virginia and eastern Tennessee in that count.) Topping the list at #1 is Wade Hampton, the venerable and exclusive club and community in Cashiers, NC, named for the Confederate General who made the area his home. Its location tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains and the 25-year old Tom Fazio gem of a layout have made Wade Hampton something of a Shangri-La among golf communities. Golfweek writer and golf architecture expert Bradley Klein wrote in 1995 that Wade Hampton "exudes the appeal of a modern classic." Twenty years later, it still does.
Old Tabby Golf Links, #28 on Golfweek's ranking of best residential golf courses.
Fazio must be pretty good at shaping the land around and atop the Blue Ridge Mountains as his effort at Mountaintop, also in Cashiers, ranks 9th on the Golfweek list, up from 12th a year ago. We haven't seen any studies recently of how much real estate weight the top designers can throw around, but our bet is that Fazio and Nicklaus would vie for the top spot. Prices top the million-dollar mark for most homes in the Mountaintop community.
Some of the usual suspects rate high on the Golfweek list, including the Seth Raynor classic Mountain Lake in Lake Wales, FL (#10) and Long Cove (Pete Dye's upscale companion to Harbour Town) on Hilton Head Island (#17). We love that Cuscowilla, one of the early efforts by Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw, held its spot at #20 and that its real estate is in reach of us mortals. The golf course at Cuscowilla is unfussy and walkable, with greens and tees close to each other. We noted that a two-bedroom, two-bath furnished cottage on the golf course is listed currently at just $250,000, with a $20,000 club membership included.
Old Tabby Links on Spring Island, about midway between Beaufort, SC and Hilton Head, jumped 15 spots to #28 after its already entertaining and challenging layout was spruced up two years ago under the supervision of Brandon Johnson. Ed Seay, working for Arnold Palmer, did the original design which takes full advantage of the surrounding marshland on a piece of property so natural that the developer's included a small nature museum next to the sales office. It's an exclusive golf community with some exclusive properties; count on $1 million and up for homes there, but the golf course is special, one of our favorites in the state. It was excellent before the renovations and state-of-the-art irrigation system, and it could be just about the best in the state since.
Golfweek ranked Toccoa, GA's Currahee Club as the 40th best golf community course.
We played the Currahee Club golf course outside of Toccoa, GA, a week after it hosted an outing for Golfweek's raters. The George Fazio course is a looker, both within its envelope and beyond, with some special views of Lake Hartwell. But it may appeal primarily to golfers whose handicap ratings and distances off the tee boxes are up to the challenge of some severely elevated and well-protected greens and some substantial carries. "They get used to it," one Currahee official told me when I asked how short hitters and women react to the layout. Currahee, after a sputtering start before the recession, is now owned by the same money behind The Cliffs Communities and is beginning to hit its stride. Cottages begin around $500,000; I stayed overnight in one and they are smartly designed and comfortable.
Perhaps most impressive of all is that the new Cliffs at Mountain Park golf course in Travelers Rest, SC, enters the Golfweek list at #43. The Gary Player layout effects a links-like feel in stark contrast to the surrounding mountains, and elevation changes are at a minimum. The sweep of the fairways and rough-hewn bunkering make you forget and forgive a couple of odd holes, namely a too short downhill par 3 and a par 5 with a V-shaped tree at dead center 100 yards from the green and two candy kiss shaped mountains in front (a bit too clever). The nascent Cliffs' Mountain Park was hurt by the recession, but pricing seems to be stabilizing now that the golf course has opened and new owners appear to have reorganized their marketing efforts. We noted recently a townhome available for less than $260,000 and private homes starting in the neighborhood of $750,000.
Channeling his inner Nicklaus, Gary Player routed a par 5 at Cliffs at Mountain Park through a fairway tree. Golfweek raters loved the course, debuting it at #43 overall.
Bright's Creek ought to get a bit of a bump from its placement at #54 on the Golfweek list. It could use a little marketing mojo after being whipsawed by the recession. Much like Gary Player's Mountain Park course, the Tom Fazio designed Bright's Creek layout is surrounded by mountains, dotted with a few of the estate homes of the community's early buyers. No golf community suffered more from the recession than did Bright's, and after a partnership gone bad threw everything awry just before the recession and a feeble attempt to reorganize by owners who had no experience with such real estate ventures, the ship of state seems to have righted itself under the ownership of a group out of Miami who seem confident and dedicated. Although the real estate seems a little pricey for its remote location, an investment in Bright's Creek could very well pay off handsomely once a new back gate opens and makes the trip to Hendersonville shorter by half.
As a member of the South Carolina Golf Rating Panel, I am asked each year to rate the state's golf courses -– at least the ones I have played. Few have been better than another Fazio beauty, the Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards course in Sunset, SC, ranked #56 by Golfweek. The architect's use of the adjacent lake as both hazard and background, plus the framing of the mountains all adds up to a round of golf that is hard to forget. Most memorable is the best par 3 you are likely to ever play, the 17th; I insisted on playing it from the tips at 240 yards downhill to a green about two-thirds surrounded by the lake and a "saving" bunker between. The bailout is a 230-yard shot to the fairway in front of the green and the hope that the pin is in a gentle position for the "up and down."
Few par 3s over 50 years of golf have stuck in the editor's mind like #17 at Cliffs at Keowee Vineyard, #56 on the Golfweek rankings.
There are a number of other southeast golf courses on the list that I have not played, but #76, Colleton River's Jack Nicklaus course, bears mention (no pun intended with the "bears" mention). When the SC Golf Panel played the course a couple of years ago, the greens were about the best I have ever putted on, perfectly true and lightning fast. (We lunched with the superintendent and he confessed that he had them at 13 on the stimpmeter.)
I know it's popular to complain about fast greens, but as someone whose putter gets a bit wavy the farther back I take it, I love fast greens. Colleton River also features a Pete Dye course, 27 holes and #83 on the Golfweek list after finishing outside the top 100 in 2014. All the Dye touches (e.g. moguls and bulkheads on the lakes) are in strong evidence, but those Nicklaus greens are the most memorable aspect of the 45 holes at Colleton River, where some post-recession lots are selling for less than $10,000 and homes begin around $560,000.
Other of our favorite Southeast golf courses that made the list included Rees Jones' Ralston Creek course on Daniel Island (#87) and Tom Fazio's Champion Hills (#92) and Belfair West (#97).
Golfweek also lists, in alphabetical order, the "next 100" list of top residential golf courses including courses we have played: The Lester George masterpiece Ballyhack in Roanoke, VA; Jack Nicklaus' Bayside Resort on Fenwick Island, DE; Belfair East and the two courses at Berkeley Hall, all in Bluffton and all by Tom Fazio; Cape Fear National, the course by Tim Cate for Brunswick Forest in Leland, NC; Jim Engh's bizarrely wonderful Creek Club at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, GA; Nicklaus' Creighton Farms in Aldie, VA; The Federal Club outside Richmond, VA, designed by Arnold Palmer's shop; Rees Jones' Haig Point on Daufuskie Island; the Moorish/Weiskopf layout at Harbor Club in Greensboro, GA; the Nicklaus and Pete Dye courses at Landfall in Wilmington, NC; Fazio's Old North State Club at Uwharrie Point, NC; Nicklaus' Reserve at Lake Keowee; the National Course at Reynolds Plantation, another by Fazio; Scotch Hall Preserve, the Palmer layout hard near the charming Edenton, NC; Nicklaus Peninsula Golf Club in Millsboro, DE; and Treyburn, Fazio's layout in Durham, NC.
For information on any of these courses and their surrounding golf communities, please contact the editor.
Roanoke is not exactly top of mind for golf, but nearby Ballyhack should put it on the map for its stunning looks and challenging golf.