Sea Pines, SC: First golf community & first Jack Nicklaus course.
Whether you play golf or not, when you consider buying
real estate in a golf course community, the designer of the
golf course can affect the price you pay. Today, no other
golf course architect impacts real estate values like Jack
Nicklaus. (Some of Nicklaus' courses are featured here.)
Once the king of the golf course, the Golden Bear is now the
king of golf course design and sits atop the leader board in
regard to the value his signature imparts to his creations
and the surrounding real estate.
Colin Hegarty, president of Golf Research Group, studies
how a course architect’s name and reputation affects
property values in golf communities. Hegarty recently
equated the homes in communities built around Nicklaus
courses with “blue chip stocks” whose “value grows
dependably.”
In the past six, Nicklaus has designed more than 80
residential golf courses. Golf Research Group puts their
average net value—course and real estate combined
—at a cool $246 million per community. Run the same
calculation for other leading U.S. course designers and
none of them matches up with Jack.
NORTH CAROLINA: Governors Club, Chapel Hill
Nicklaus got his start in golf course design in 1968 as co-
author (with Pete Dye) of the famed Harbour Town Golf
Links at Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island—perfect
symmetry considering it’s the same place where golf-course
real estate was first invented.
Nicklaus has since designed some 250 additional courses,
of which 35 have been listed on national and international
Top-100 rankings. His achievement as a designer is such
that the Nicklaus name will be forever revered in golf
circles, even if he had never picked up a club.
FLORIDA: Grand Haven, Palm Coast
A fine example of the Nicklaus approach to residential
course design is his new layout at Bay Creek Golf & Marina
Resort in Cape Charles, VA. Measuring 7,417 yards with
Tifsport Bermuda fairways and smooth A-4 bentgrass greens,
this Nicklaus course is characterized by large waste areas
and more than 100 boldly shaped bunkers.
SOUTH CAROLINA: The Reserve at Lake Keowee, Lake Keowee
Of all golf communities with Nicklaus-designed courses,
Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, AZ, has the deepest
Bear tracks. It is home to no fewer than six 18-hole
layouts bearing the Nicklaus signature with their
openings stretched over a 15-year period. Some call
it a Nicklaus Design Museum, showing the evolution
of his style and beliefs.
GEORGIA: Reynolds Plantation, Greensboro, Lake Oconee
Despite his lack of formal training in course design,
Nicklaus had several advantages when he started. He
knew the game well and he was given bigger construction
budgets than the average architect. His courses have a
fine, finished look to them—no corners are cut and it
shows. In fact, the quality-control standards Nicklaus
applied to his own early courses quickly became adopted
industry-wide.
Early on, Nicklaus courses were discouragingly difficult,
especially on shots into the greens, which were wide, but
shallow—often just a few paces from front to back—which
frustrated all but the most accomplished golfer.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Woodside Plantation, Aiken
With experience, designer Jack learned to accommodate the
average player by building in more options and bailouts.
His courses took on softer lines and avoided the sharp edges
that sent impure shots careening sideways upon landing.
DELAWARE: Bayside, Selbyville
Today, Nicklaus retains a fondness for the split fairway, using
that feature to add character and a sense of fun to the tee shot
on par-5s. As more and more architects have squared off their
tee boxes in a nod to the formal-landscape look of the early
20th century, Nicklaus has bucked the trend, preferring to keep
his teeing grounds "free-form."
To see a complete list of the 23 Jack Nicklaus-designed golf
courses on GolfCourseHome.net, click here. To see the
complete list of the 75 golf course architects (and their
courses) featured on the GolfCourseHome Network with links
to the golf communities for which they were built, click here.
The ability of the Nicklaus name to add value is a great example of branding at work. And you are right--it's just like adding Gucci to a T-shirt. However, that's the value of a top brand--it creates value and represents what the brand name brings, in this case, to a golf course design--quality and a memorable golf experience.
Posted by: David Lott | October 29, 2007 at 01:39 PM
wow that's crazy...it's like paying 100 bucks for a t-shirt because it says gucci on it
Posted by: 1st time home buyers | October 29, 2007 at 01:15 PM