The Politics of Relocation
in the Southeast

This election season does not need me to weigh in on how wacky and divisive it is.  But the current U.S. Presidential race is hard to avoid, given the rabid press coverage and, for some of us, a tendency toward the kind of rubbernecking schadenfreude associated typically with other types of wrecks.  Therefore, I feel it my responsibility to answer in this space a question I am receiving more often lately from couples searching for a golf home in the Southeast:  "Where will we feel most comfortable given our political persuasion?"

If you have been watching the incessant television coverage of the primary elections, you know that numbers are being crunched and analyzed every which way.  Of course, results are not available on a per golf community basis, but the county that surrounds a golf community gives a strong hint at what the politics of that particular community might be.    

Political Safe Havens

For progressives, those counties carried most emphatically by Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-described Democratic Socialist, would seem to provide some safe haven.  You are most likely to find such havens in counties where major universities dominate the employment in the area and young people dominate the population.

For example, the county seat of Richland County, SC, is Columbia, which is also the state capital and home to the University of South Carolina.  In the recent Republican primary, the state went strongly for Donald Trump, who garnered 32.5% of the statewide vote. (Source:  Politico.)  Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz finished in a virtual tie for second with a little more than 22% of the vote.  And, yet, in Richland County, Rubio beat Trump by a few percentage points.  Those results probably won’t convince a progressive couple looking for a golf community that Columbia might be politically friendly.  For that, they might look to the Democrat party primary results, which showed Hillary Clinton with a whopping 76% to 24% pummeling of Senator Sanders.  But more to the point, Secretary Clinton’s total vote count was 39,243 and, combined with the Sanders vote, total Democrat primary voting reached nearly 52,000 in Richland County.  The Republican primary vote total for all six candidates was 39,259.  By those numbers, a progressive couple might look more favorably on a Columbia golf community, knowing there are a fair number of like-minded individuals in the area.  (See below for some Columbia golf community suggestions.)

Conservatively Speaking

Conservative couples, of course, search for golf communities too, and in most counties in the Southeast, they will have an easier time finding a comfortable political environment, especially if they search in the most rural locations.  We took a look at primary results along the popular marshlands from Charleston County north to Georgetown and Horry Counties, home to some of the best-rated golf communities and courses on the eastern seaboard.  For the so-called “mainstream” Republican which, the media tells us, has been represented by Marco Rubio, Charleston County should be a target as the Florida Senator eked out a victory over Trump and Senator Ted Cruz.  But up the coast, in Georgetown and Horry Counties (the latter is home to Myrtle Beach), the Donald won commanding victories.  Whereas the Rubio win in the Charleston area might say something about the politics and social proclivities of that old city’s residents, we leave to other pundits the assessment of the nearly 50% of the vote Trump received in Horry County.  (Secretary Clinton, for the record, earned more than two-thirds of the vote in all three counties in her primary contest.)

Independent-Minded Communities

I admire the politically Independent voter and golf community enthusiast, and I take it as a challenge, in these divided times, to find areas that seem balanced in their political sensibilities.  For that, it is best to look backward to a time that seems long ago –- 2012 –- when Presidential discourse was spirited but not loony, when it was progressive Democrat Obama against conservative Republican Mitt Romney.  One of the more balanced counties in the South was New Hanover in North Carolina, a small county in size that is almost entirely populated by the metro Wilmington area.  Wilmington, though home to a large branch of the University of North Carolina, went for Romney by the slight margin of 51.7% to 47.1%.  (See a few recommendations of Wilmington area golf communities below.)  Back in South Carolina, in McCormick County, which hugs Lake Thurmond and is home to the large golf community of Savannah Lakes Village (see below), voters gave the nod to Obama by a similarly slim margin.  (An anomaly in that you do not get much more rural than McCormick County.)

Many of the online voting maps (click here for one example) characterize the way a county votes by a shade of blue or red -- light color for slightly more conservative or progressive than the other side of the aisle, a darker shade for a more dominant political strain.  If you like to tilt at windmills, politically speaking, target your search for a home in a dark blue or dark red county that is the opposite of your own point of view.  If you want more of a fair fight, though, go for a lighter shade of blue or red.  If you want help finding the community that is right for you, contact me.

Politically correct 
golf community choices

Columbia, SC (Richland County)

Woodcreek Farms and Wildewood, two mature sister golf communities, offer their members access to both clubs for one reasonable price.  Tom Fazio designed the Woodcreek course, which has played host to both top amateur and professional golf events.  The Wildewood course is the product of architect Russell Breeden, who laid out many courses in The Carolinas during the 1970s and ‘80s…Cobblestone Park in nearby Blythewood was the brainchild of infamous developer Bobby Ginn, whose Trumpian personality and expensive marketing junkets convinced many customers that lots at Cobblestone were worth the $300,000 and more he was asking.  Today, some of the homes on those lots are selling for barely more than $300,000.  The good news is that national builder D.R. Horton bought up a majority of land in the community and built reasonably priced homes on lots beside the well-regarded Lee Janzen 27-hole golf course.  A new, long-promised clubhouse is finally open, leaving the last unfulfilled Ginn promise to fade into memory.

Charleston/Mt. Pleasant, SC
(Charleston County)

Daniel Island could be the best-organized golf community on the east coast, given that it is a self-contained oasis of living, with homes, offices, shopping, restaurants and sports activities in close proximity.  And the golf –- courses by Tom Fazio and Rees Jones –- are special too, although membership fees are a bit pricey.  Still, you won’t find a more buttoned-up and service-oriented club than Daniel Island Club, a perfect venue for splendid coexistence among retirees and families.  The location just 10 minutes from plenty of shopping in Mt. Pleasant and 15 minutes from the best restaurants on the east coast in historic Charleston puts Daniel Island at the top of many couples’ lists…Mt. Pleasant has exploded in population and shopping areas in the last decade.  With Highway 17 finally widened to accommodate all the traffic in and through the town on the way to Charleston, golf communities like Rivertowne, Charleston National, Snee Farm and Dunes West should be getting even more looks.  Nothing is missing in Mt. Pleasant; a modern hospital, the beautiful recently built Ravenel Bridge to Charleston, the nearby Isle of Palms beaches and the many seafood and other restaurants along the Shem Creek should continue driving traffic toward Mt. Pleasant…We played the Links Course at Wild Dunes Resort recently, and both the golf course and the clubhouse area had been spiffed up considerably since our last visit five years ago (when large white bags of sand were barely holding up the 18th green).  Tom Fazio and his group recently completed a beautiful renovation of the Links Course, including relocation of the 18th green (and changing the par 5 to a par 3).  The occasionally maligned Harbor Course, also by Fazio, was just fine, a bit narrow for spray hitters and with some long cart rides between holes; it gave us the sense that the layout was shoehorned into the community.  But we’re not quibbling about 36 holes of fine golf near and on the ocean. 

Wilmington, NC (New Hanover County)

It isn’t easy to find top quality golf communities within 10 minutes of a good-sized city, but in Wilmington, we know of at least three.  Landfall lies between the city and the sea and offers 45 holes of golf by Jack Nicklaus and Pete Dye.  Mostly single-family homes run the gamut of prices from $300,000 into the millions.  Best of all for sun worshippers, Wrightsville Beach is less than 10 minutes out the back gate.  Porters Neck is as close to Wilmington as is Landfall and only a few minutes farther to the beach.  It offers just 18 holes of golf, but they are prime Tom Fazio holes, renovated at the behest of an involved membership group just a few years ago.  The most striking effect of a first look at Porters Neck is the landscaping, a combination of gardeners’ handiwork with sprawling live oak trees.  Brunswick Forest lies just outside New Hanover County, in rapidly growing and very conservative Brunswick County, but this rapidly growing community is as close to the city as is Landfall and Porters Neck.  Thanks to its well-financed owners and an organized approach to development, Brunswick Forest skated through the recession with nary an issue.  It has been one of the fastest selling golf communities on the east coast over the last decade.  And its Tom Cate golf course is one of the best-reviewed courses on the coast in recent years.

Savannah Lakes Village, SC
(McCormick County)

Savannah Lakes Village, beside Lake Thurmond in the upstate western part of the state, certainly won’t fool any visitors into thinking it is centrally located near any of the services many of us take for granted.  This is golf community living at its most remote but residents are more than happy to do their supermarket shopping once a week and entertain themselves on site with friends in their homes, at the community’s bowling alley or on one of the two excellently conditioned golf courses.  Those who play a lot of golf will find that the membership fees make the cost per round a pittance, and the many other on-campus activities will appeal to virtually everyone else. What will appeal most, however, are the ridiculously low-priced, high-value homes, some on offer for less than $100 per square foot, land included.