More and more communities are hosting professional golf tournaments. A couple of weeks ago, the massive Cliffs Communities hosted a Nationwide Tour event, the BMW Charities Pro-Am, at three of their courses. We've played courses at Rock Barn Golf Club in Hickory, NC, and Fox Den Country Club, outside of Knoxville, TN, that also play host to Nationwide events.
This weeknd, the RiverTowne Country Club in Mount Pleasant, SC, is getting its turn with an the LPGA event co-sponsored by The Ginn Company and Annika Sorenstam, who is just back from some time off to nurse an injury. We haven't played the Arnold Palmer course at RiverTowne, but we are familiar with Mount Pleasant, a bustling, rapidly growing town just north of Charleston. The immediate area has a nice collection of courses available for a daily fee, including the resort courses at Wild Dunes, the George Cobb designed Snee Farm, Willard Byrd's Patriot's Point and Rees Jones' Carolina National. The closest private club is Bull's Bay in Awendaw, designed by the late Mike Strantz whose firm is located nearby.
RiverTowne is a public access course as well, so anyone can play it, but only a relative few can walk to it from their homes. The Ginn Company, whose customarily high-end communities are spread throughout the southeast, built RiverTowne and offers a wide range of homes around the course and at RiverTowne on the Wando, the name of the local river. Preservation Row, for example, are attached units that start in price in the $220s. Single-family homes in both neighborhoods can run into seven figures for views of the river and/or golf course.
The main road through town and on the way to Charleston is Route 17, and our experience is that at certain times of day, and during the tourist season, things can get pretty clogged. Shopping centers line one side of the route, and a few of the communities line the other. But services and conveniences, restaurants and access to the great city of Charleston are neutralizing factors. The Charleston area is a great place to visit and, who knows, you may want to live there.
BestPlaces.net has some interesting data on Mount Pleasant if you would like more information.