PROS AND CONS OF GOLF COURSE LIVING

Joel Zuckerman
Utahfairways.com Contributing Writer
www.vagabondgolfer.com
Freelance Journalist

  I spend an inordinate amount of time on or around golf courses. Generally speaking, the most desirable of these have little if any housing presence. Classic links courses in Scotland and Ireland lead this contingent. There are also the parkland gems of a bygone era and contemporary, megabuck courses that are constructed with a certain rusticity, usually mountain masterpieces tucked deep in the forest. But the reality of the situation is that in the modern era, golf drives real estate, and real estate drives golf. In many geographic areas, the two entities are practically joined at the hip.

  Personally, I live very near, but not actually on, golf courses in Georgia and Utah. Over the years I’ve seen firsthand the advantages and disadvantages my nearby neighbors have by living adjacent to the playing fields themselves. Here’s a brief index of the good and the bad in golf course living.

• GOOD: Having an unbroken view of acres of finely manicured lawn that requires no maintenance on your part.

• BAD: Having a formerly unbroken window shattered by an errant tee shot.

• GOOD: Watching the peacefulness of the wildlife and the animals that scamper about the property.

• BAD: Enduring the animals that barrel around in their golf carts past your property, littering and cursing.

• GOOD: Being able to saunter out the back door and play a hole or two at twilight.

• BAD: Not being able to go out the back door without a flak jacket and catcher’s mask during daylight hours.

• GOOD: Finding errant golf balls that come to rest in your backyard.

• BAD: Twisting an ankle in divots taken by recalcitrant golfers who conveniently ignore the out-of-bounds-stakes on your property, trespass, and dig trenches with their recovery shots.

• GOOD: The quietude and privacy of a backyard with no fence or nosy neighbors.

• BAD: Having to watch what you wear at all times while in your own home, and enduring the moronic comments of a parade of passers-by, many of them repeating a variation on the same tired line, “something smells good over there. Mind if we join you for dinner?” It’s funny the first fifty times you hear it, but loses its luster after awhile.

• GOOD: The tranquility of an address with minimal car volume and traffic noise.

• BAD: The cacophony of mowers, tractors, leaf blowers, beeping golf carts, and the occasional misdirected golf ball that reverberates off of the stucco or roof tile like gunshot.

GOLF DEALS

GUEST COMMENTS

Gentlemen,

Wanted to let you know that the golf package you put together for us was outstanding!!! The golf courses were fantastic, and the views from the courses will be remembered forever! Will keep your info on file, and when we return, will have you schedule our trip.

A BIG Thank You!
Jerry W.

Guys,

Thank you so much for the GREAT trip to Mesquite and St George!!! Everything from top to bottom went perfectly. Looking forward to booking our next trip through you guys.

Thanks again for a perfect and easy golf vacation package!

Larry C. and buddies.