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Published in Wild Blue Yonder (Frontier Airlines), Nov/Dec 2007.

Professional-golfer-turned-golf-course-designer Tom Weiskopf knows the value of living on a golf course. “As far as retaining and gaining value, it’s second only to waterfront property.” He’s more than convincing. Even so, water was never a consideration for Sue and Bob Haynie when they traded up their lifestyle 20 years ago, splitting their time between two homes on two prestigious golf courses.

“The biggest body of water this west Texas girl ever saw was a stock tank,” laughs Sue. “Bob wanted to golf and I wanted a sense of belonging in a beautiful place. A golf course community was the only place we considered.”
The Haynies are members of both Eldorado Country Club in Indian Wells, Calif., with a course recently redesigned by Tom Fazio, and The Golf Club at Castle Pines, Colo., with its centerpiece: a Jack Nicklaus–designed course. Bob Haynie hits the links an average of four days a week, while his wife enjoys their chosen addresses mainly for the social life they afford. “It’s like being back on a college campus,” says Sue. “When we go back to California every November, it’s just like homecoming.”

Plenty of homebuyers are choosing life on the fairways when it comes time to make an upwardly mobile move. And because of the economic profile of most golf courses, developers have come to realize that golf is not a stand-alone business just because the course is lined with rich square footage. “Today, it’s about golfing and living,” says Henry B. DeLozier, vice president of golf for Pulte Homes and president of the National Golf Course Owners Association.

Statistics confirm that real estate is emerging as a much bigger contributor to the new golf course construction scene than in previous years. According to the National Golf Association, a market watchdog for the industry, golf communities currently comprise about 70 to 80 percent of new golf course development, up from 35 to 40 percent in the 1990s.

Golf course lifestyle communities got their jumpstart more than 50 years ago when Charles Fraser conceived of the idea of resort-style living as being more than just a vacation stay and, in 1956, convinced the South Carolina legislature to build a bridge connecting Hilton Head Island to the mainland. The result was the famed Sea Pines Resort, still regarded as a model luxury resort-oriented community.

Separation between the haves and have-nots is probably no more evident than when it comes to golf course living. Few can afford the lifestyle along 17-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach, Calif., where homeowners pay HOA dues versus city taxes and a residential listing for $22 million is a find, with a rare second listing for only $28.5 million on the same stretch of road. Technically, these homes aren’t even in a golf course community, but near enough to matter. In Bridgehampton, N.Y., you can own your own Rees Jones–designed 18-hole course plus a manse with eight bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and its own pro shop for a mere $75 million. Another on the Biltmore course in the heart of Phoenix, Ariz., is available for $20 million.

Today, the most desirous golf course communities tout comprehensive amenities—tennis courts, spas, fitness centers, retail and dining venues, equestrian facilities and clubhouses—all appropriately par for the course. The Tesoro Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., with 54 holes of golf designed by Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Nick Price, features a private wine cellar and tasting room. Del Webb’s Sun City Texas, located in Texas hill country, includes two championship golf courses, plus bocce courts, an art studio and woodshop, a computer lab and community garden plots. A handful of golf communities, such as RoseWood Village at Wintergreen, Va., feature assisted-living facilities for seniors who may not even play regularly, but are resistant to giving up the club ties to which a healthy reserve of funds entitles them.

Restricted access is one of the little luxuries in life on a golf course, particularly a private course, often guarantees. Keeping the riffraff at bay is an exclusionary practice often enforced by starched, uniformed guards posted at the entrance of newer golf course communities like Glenmoor Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colo., where residents have over time included the likes of families with surnames such as Bush (as in related to the President).

It’s safe to say that the majority of golf course community homes and club memberships (even when the two don’t go hand-in-hand) carry a high price tag. Custom home sites at Winchester Country Club in Meadow Vista, Calif., start at $310,000 and the Estate Collection homes on site start at $1.55 million. But not all golf communities are designed only for the fashionably well-cleated. Cypress Lakes in Lakeland, Fla., with two golf courses and a multimillion-dollar clubhouse, offers an easygoing lifestyle and affordable cost of living, with prefab housing set on its 800 acres. Here, pre-owned homes built in the late ’80s go for $40,000 on average.

National Golf Course Owners Association president DeLozier insists that wherever the community is located, living on the links is living green. “Living on a golf course is like living next to an oxygen machine,” he says, explaining that oxygen is a byproduct of the photosynthesis process, and several hundred acres of grass and growing material naturally equals more fresh air. That green quality seems to infuse homebuilders with an increased awareness of the economic impact that women bring to the residential purchase decision. “Men are attracted to things—the location of the lot, the status of the country club, the lake,” says DeLozier. “Women are attracted to values like safety, stability and security. As developers, we need to pay attention to those things.”

The interest in golf course living crosses every generation. Seniors, like those who have elected to live at Heritage Todd Creek, north of Denver, Colo., find their lives revolve around the course and clubhouse. This leading-edge master-planned and gated community is geared to homeowners 55 years and older and features accessible single-story residences, paired and four-boy town home styles, within touching distance of an 18-hold Arthur Hills championship golf course. The Golf Course at Heritage Todd Creek is anchored by a 20,000 square-foot country club-style clubhouse and features every imaginable service: pro shop, tennis courts, workout facility, spa services, dining, organized activities and classes for the hobbyist.

The baby boom generation is credited with bringing real change to golf course community development. “Here we have a large audience with country club and travel experiences, with an awareness of personal care services and with a strong commitment to fitness,” DeLozier says. “These are very sophisticated buyers with very specific demands.”

Even Generation X has had its impact. The younger set with a wallet to stand on has been known to locate in a golf course community so as to afford their offspring the opportunity to become the next generation’s Tiger. As parents, they may not claim that walloping future paydays are the real reason behind their choice of vie en famille, but clearly proximity to a well-groomed course ensures their child(ren) have a leg up on the game, if not a future as a pro. The only downside to raising a family on the links rather than in a traditional suburban community with privacy fencing separating one yard from the other is, in fact, the lack of fencing, usually disallowed along the stretches of greens. Electric dog collars keep the pets inside the property line, but parents and babysitters of course-residing toddlers have to keep a particularly watchful eye on their young so that they don’t stray.

Craig Bryant, principal of the Winchester Group, LLC, which started building high-end golf communities in 1988, says the lure of a top-name course designer is key in marketing luxury golf community homes. “We only hire the top six course designers in the world,” he says. “If we’re willing to spend that much money, people know we’re serious about producing a good product and they know the designer is very qualified to deliver one.” Bryant adds that buyers should always look at a developer’s history. “We’ve built 26 such communities. This is not our first rodeo.”

Bryant says many buyers choose to live on the links for reasons other than a love of the sport of golf. Owners build equity, not only in their homes but in the affiliated golf club in which they share ownership. “Besides the country club atmosphere, a golf course community is generally safe, dependable and well-organized. Buyers can feel safe that 10 years from now, there won’t be a dog kennel or a pig farm next door.”

Bryant’s Winchester Group developed The Bridges in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., where club memberships are currently tagged at $350,000. Set on 540 rolling acres in the coastal foothills of San Diego, The Bridges sustains its own vineyard, bee farm and herb garden.

Gypsy and Wally Wolf claim to live an “enchanted” life at The Bridges. “I don’t know anyone living here who doesn’t think they’ve died and gone to heaven,” exclaims Gypsy. When they first visited their future community, the site that would ultimately become their residence was still partially under construction. The Wolfs toured a golf cart around the course and noticed what looked like a Tuscan village across the Robert Trent Jones II–designed fairway. It was the future Bridges clubhouse, a dazzling 36,000-square-foot social center of the community. “We looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s do something wild and crazy,’” says Gypsy. They joined the golf club and moved to Bridges two years later. “It’s peaceful, safe and people look out for each other. We wouldn’t want to be anyplace else.”

BY ELLE BARRETT

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