Super Bowl coach may have eye on SC real estate auction

    By all accounts, Arizona Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt has done a masterful job of guiding a mediocre team through the National Football League playoffs and into the Super Bowl on February 1.  However, as he prepares his team for the big game, he might be a little distracted by an investment he made a couple of years ago in a golf community.
    Coach Whisenhunt has an unspecified, but likely financial, interest in the North Augusta Golf and Country Club in South Carolina, which goes on the auction block at 11 a.m. Eastern on January 29 (as previously reported here).  A native of Augusta, GA, just across the border from the golf course, Whisenhunt is in partnership with the club's owner.  Talk about bad luck -- a few days after the new owner took over the club in 2007, a fire destroyed the clubhouse.  (No, state investigators did not find anything suspicious.)  Although the course reopened with temporary facilities just a few days after the fire, the new owner has not been able to stem the tide of members fleeing to other clubs.  He also never delivered on the promise of a rebuilt clubhouse, despite a groundbreaking ceremony (detailed plans for the clubhouse will be included in the property's sale).
    By all accounts, the North Augusta course, which was designed by Les Hills, is a pleasant track; first opened in 1962 and was renovated just three years ago.  Its proximity to Augusta National probably guarantees that, at least for a week each year, its facilities are fully used.  Of course, the economies of golf course operation demand more consistent annual traffic or a robust membership.  North Augusta apparently has not had enough of either.
    The firm of Myrtle Beach based J P. King is handling the auction on-site at the club.  Also up for auction is an adjacent parcel of 35.5 acres located across a lake from the golf course, called The Pinery.  The Pinery has been pre-approved for 102 residential town homes.
    This will be a "confirmation" sale, which a J P. King official told me means that the owner does not necessarily have to accept the final bid.  She also told me that the club has 350 members, down from a high of 800.  She would not comment on any expected sale price.