| Fairways or Back Yard? If you live in the Myrtle Beach area you will have noticed the new development going on. If you play golf you will also have noticed the threat that this development poses to the very existence of many of the areas golf courses. Could the golf capital of the world turn into the real estate capital of the world or is it just a case of natural selection, killing off the weak, letting the strong flourish. Personally I think the latter. |
The rapid growth of golf course development that went on throughout the 90's perhaps went too far although it did serve one useful purpose. With the increased competition the vast majority of clubs bent over backwards to present their courses in top condition and welcome clients to their facilities and the improvement continues to this day. We have been visiting the Myrtle Beach area since 1995 and the transformation in many of the areas courses since then has been dramatic to the point where The Grand Strand can boast a high quality product to its flourishing market. continued below... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
With such intense competition there are bound to be casualties and the current trend of golf facilities selling out to developers is a natural outcome given the growing real estate market. I have no doubt that one or two more courses will go the way of Winyah Bay and close for development but it is the ones that are looking to sell part of their land for housing while keeping the golf course open that interests me. As a purist, being from the British Isles, I am not keen on housing on golf courses but realistically I appreciate there may be no alternative for some courses. How it is done though is another thing. There is one course which springs to mind that is being developed with no thought whatsoever for the aesthetics of the golf course. I won't be controversial enough to name names. When the bulldozers move in and level the ground up to the edge of the cart part then greed has taken over from design and of course there is only one winner here. |
Lets face it if you are a golfer playing from the back tees you don't want to have to check to make sure you are not going to put your driver through someones window on your backswing! And if you have just bought your new home do you really want to hear golf carts driving past all day or listen to every word, many unrepeatable, of every golfer that stands on the tee nearby. There are plenty of good examples where a small strip of land providing a line of trees seperates the course from the homes. To the golfers the homes are set back and unobtrusive, the golf course retains its original design and feel while homeowners have a natural barrier from the golfers expletives. Perhaps as more courses take the step of turning land over to development they will take this into account. Selling every last inch of available land to developers is short sighted and the additional capital that it raises may be nothing to the loss of revenue when golfers make the decision of where they are going to play. Given the choice of playing through an avenue of trees or Acacia Avenue I know which I'd choose. |
||||
 |
|||||||
| Myrtle Beach news is a mix of tourist related news from around the Grand Strand area plus golf news and comment including some humorous stuff. |
 |
 |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
 |
If you have something that you think our readers would be interested in please do let us know. |
||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
