Who hasn’t dreamed of being on permanent vacation, with a couple of golf courses (or more) just a short cart ride away from your well-outfitted condo or town house? Well, the dream is quite possible within a day’s drive of New England, and at prices that might surprise.
Here are a few of my favorite resorts cum golf communities:
Bay Creek Resort & Club, Cape Charles, VA
Leave Providence, RI, at 6 a.m., catch the ferry from Cape May to Delaware, and you should be on the first tee by mid-afternoon. The resort’s 36 holes include a tricky layout by Arnold Palmer and a tougher routing by Jack Nicklaus, adorned by tall-grass-edged bunkers, small greens, and a mighty wind blowing off the Chesapeake Bay. Condo prices begin in the mid $200s.
Kingsmill Resort, Williamsburg, VA
The Pete Dye River Course is the main attraction in the resort that beer built (Annheuser Busch), but Arnold Palmer and Curtis Strange contribute two other sleek layouts. Nine holes by Tom Clark may have the best river views of any of the resort’s courses, maybe the best of any par 3 course in the nation. Town homes and condos begin in the $200s.
Wild Dunes, Isle of Palms, SC
The green on the dramatic 18th hole of the Links Course (Tom Fazio) has fallen into the Atlantic twice in the last two decades, but resort operators and vacationing golfers are undaunted. Fazio’s Bay Course is a nice fallback, even if it lacks the churning seas backdrop of the Links’ finishing holes. An extra benefit: The great city of Charleston is just 15 minutes away. 1 BR, 1 BA condos start in the low $200s.
Kiawah Island, SC
What golfer of a certain age can forget Bernhard Langer’s missed six-foot par putt in 1991 at Pete Dye’s Ocean Course; the bogey kept the Ryder Cup from returning to Europe. Green fees at the Ocean Course may be beyond the means of most mortals, but solid nearby alternatives abound (with nameplates like Nicklaus, Player, Watson, and Fazio attached). 1 BR, 1 BA villas begin in the mid $200s.
Grande Dunes, North Myrtle Beach, SC
Don’t even think about changing your shoes in the parking lot of the Members Club (Nick Price), one of the few private clubs on the golf-loaded Grand Strand. Next door, the Grande Dunes Resort course (Roger Rulewich) uses the Intra-coastal Waterway as backdrop and hazard. Real estate is pricey for Myrtle Beach, with a 3 BR, 3 BA condo listed at just under $500,000. But, oh, what a buffet of golf nearby, 110 courses within an hour!
