There’s good news and bad news for Southeast golf communities in the latest rankings of residential golf courses from Golfweek magazine. Wade Hampton, the Tom Fazio layout opened in 1988 in Cashiers, NC, once again earned the top spot nationwide. But there isn’t another Southeast golf course in the top 10. Indeed, it isn’t until the #12 position that another regional entry, the classic Seth Raynor layout for Mountain Lake in central Florida, makes the Top 100 list. After that, though, courses from Delaware south to Florida are well represented; 36 layouts from Virginia south to Florida made the Top 100 list.
In the 13th position is Mountaintop, the Fazio layout not far from Wade Hampton in Cashiers (pronounced “cashers”). Rounding out the top 20 are John’s Island West in Vero Beach, FL (#18) and the Pete Dye layout for Long Cove on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina (#19). A common theme in all these top 20 communities is the lofty prices for real estate, averaging seven figures for a home in most of the communities.
Things become a little more down to earth with the choice at the #21 position, the Ben Crenshaw/Bill Coore modern classic at Cuscowilla in Eatonton, GA, just down Lake Oconee from Reynolds Plantation whose own Great Waters layout by Jack Nicklaus squeaked inside the top 100 at position #89. At Cuscowilla, condos are priced from around $250,000, and we noted a cute-looking single-family home currently offered for $289,000. A 2 bedroom, 2 bath cottage overlooking the practice range of the Great Waters course is listed for less than $200,000 (might need some work), but single-family homes around priced in the $500,000 range are more the norm at Reynolds, which is now owned by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
Other courses in communities we have visited and can recommend include Old Tabby Links at Spring Island in Okatie, SC, whose recent renovations helped it bump up a couple of spaces from last year’s ranking to #26 this year. Spring Island is another one of those upscale communities that emphasizes low density. Surrounded by Lowcountry forestation and the wildlife that inhabits it, Spring Island’s natural setting is its calling card, although its Arnold Palmer/Ed Seay original design takes a back seat to none. There was nothing unnatural about Jack Nicklaus conceding a Ryder Cup ending putt to Tony Jacklin in 1969, but it did spawn a community called Concession (#27) in Bradenton, FL, that memorializes the extreme gesture of sportsmanship. Concession hosted the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Championships this past year.
The $7 million renovation at Ford Plantation solved myriad drainage issues on the golf course but also made substantial changes to the layout. For example, Pete Dye removed his signature railroad ties from all but this par 3, perhaps a signal that he is getting softer as he approaches his 10th decade.
I had the pleasure a month ago of playing the totally redone Ford Plantation course in Richmond Hill, GA, south of Savannah, the 28th rated course on the Golfweek list, a strong endorsement of the work Pete Dye did there on his own original invention. I had played the course some years before the nearly $7 million rework and, although I loved it then, some of the rough edges have been sanded off and all of the drainage issues solved by the erstwhile Mr. Dye. Gary Player’s effort for the Cliffs at Mountain Park in Travelers Rest, SC, just keeps getting better in the eyes of those who rate it. The course opened for play in late 2013, and some may have been shocked to see it enter the list last year at #43; but those of us who have played it, including members of the South Carolina Golf Rating Panel, of which I am a proud member, were not surprised at all. It is fun, challenging and its few oddities –- much too short par 3 from raised tee box, V-shaped tree dead center in a par 5 fairway –- add to its charm. Mountain Park improved to #36 this year.
The Jim Fazio layout at Toccoa, GA’s Currahee Club improved its position last year by 23 spots to #40 before falling back a bit this year to #50. Perhaps some of Golfweek’s less accomplished ball strikers who played it this last year were frustrated by forced carries over canyons and approach shots to raised greens that are totally hit or miss. Although we wished for more views of Lake Hartwell, the fewer distractions the better when taking on the Currahee challenge.
At times Gary Player's Mountain Park course for The Cliffs Communities effects a Scottish links-style attitude, and at others a parkland valley course. But it is never mundane.
Before Mountain Park, the best Cliffs Communities course -– there are seven -– was widely acknowledged to be Tom Fazio’s layout at Keowee Vineyards, which plays alongside Lake Keowee. It held steady at #56 on the list. Vineyards’ 17th hole may be the most photographed par 3 in all of South Carolina, and with good reason. One big thrill of my golfing life was to go to the elevated back tee 235 yards from the hole and attempt to rip a tee shot with driver over a greenside bunker and onto the putting surface and stop it before it could roll off the back into the surrounding lake. Alas, I pulled my tee shot safely a bit left and short of the green. (Any par, which I made, is a proud score on that hole.)
The community of Briar’s Creek on Johns Island, just outside of Charleston, SC, was bedeviled by startup challenges and the recession, and only recently have its high-priced home sites started to move. But there has never been any question about the Rees Jones golf course that awaits members at the marsh-surrounded layout. The Club at Briar’s Creek weighs in at #64 on the Golfweek list. Bright’s Creek in Mill Spring, NC, has struggled with similar financial and marketing issues since it opened in 2006. Its Tom Fazio layout feels as if it is located in the western part of the country, sitting in a bowl of a valley surrounded by mountains. Bright’s Creek is ranked #70 this year.
The fastest greens I’ve putted on in the last five years were at Colleton River’s Jack Nicklaus golf course; paired with a Pete Dye course (ranked #88), the two offer a somewhat schizophrenic tandem of golfing experiences. The superintendent of the course told us after the round the stimpmeter readings for the greens were at 13 and if, like me, Golfweek raters like ‘em fast, maybe that explains the comfortable #75 ranking.
Along with Ford Plantation's Pete Dye course, Wexford Plantation on Hilton Head was the best course we played in 2015. Like Ford, the layout at Wexford was totally redone, by Brandon Johnson, a senior designer in Arnold Palmer's shop.
I’m a bit disappointed in the #83 position that Hilton Head’s Wexford Plantation was assigned. I played it a few months ago for the first time, after what looked to be a brilliant total rehab job by Brandon Johnson of Arnold Palmer’s shop. (Wexford’s prior layout had come in for almost universal bashing.) Smart and challenging and everything you want a Lowcountry course to be (the marsh provides a backdrop but also comes into play frequently), Wexford surpassed in quality and playability virtually all courses I have played in the last 10 years and was the equal of the higher rated Ford Plantation, which I played the day before.
Big name designers and some great layouts populate the last 10 positions in the Top 100 list. Jack Nicklaus’ Cliffs at Walnut Cove layout (#92) may be the best in the Asheville, NC, area. Tom Fazio’s Belfair Plantation West layout, at #93, is one of two the architect produced for Belfair and one of four of his designs within just a couple of miles of each other in Bluffton, SC. (The others for Berkeley Hall Plantation made the second 100 list.) Fazio did not score on the list for his 18 holes at Daniel Island, just outside Charleston, but Rees Jones did for his Ralston Creek layout there (#98), the site for a few years of the season-ending Web.com tour event. And rounding out the Top 100, and new to the list, is Creighton Farms in Aldie, VA, one of our favorites of the last 10 years for its impeccable service and clever Nicklaus layout that puts a premium on precise approach shots. It’s a good thing that on the practice range, yardages to flags are posted with the utmost precision. You absolutely need to know how far you are hitting the ball to the yard or two before you take on Creighton’s layout.
To see other Southeast layouts that made the list, as well as all the courses rated in the Top 200, check out Golfweek.com.
