Allowing non-residents to join the area’s golf communities is now “more the rule than the exception” and a reason why rounds played in the South Carolina region inched upward last year for the first time in six years, local industry officials report.
Though no plans for the 310-acre parcel have been created, owner Scratch Golf LLC is looking to allow housing, hotels and commercial development on the land that is now an 18-hole golf course at the Bluffton, S.C., property. A representative of KRA architecture + design described the potential development as “a total pedestrian city, where the pedestrian overtakes the vehicle itself.”
After serving for seven years as GM/COO of Hamilton Farm Golf Club, where his leadership helped the Gladstone, N.J., property earn Platinum Club status and be recognized as the 2012 New Jersey PGA Club of the Year, he will begin his new responsibilities at Colleton River, located in Bluffton, S.C., in May.
The Club Managers Association of America has announced 32 new Certified Club Managers. The CCM designation has been a hallmark of professionalism in the club industry since 1965; candidates receive the title by being a Professional CMAA member for six years, investing time in specified education requirements, attending at least one World Conference, maintaining activity within their local chapter, and then passing the CCM exam.
A blaze quickly spread through the Bluffton, S.C., club’s cart shed and burned the building to the ground, taking with it the club’s entire supply of golf cars. No suspicious activity has been reported and the club, which is owned by Textron Financial Corp., has since reopened with two-dozen loaner cars.
After a spike in golf course construction since 1988, a surplus of luxury real estate and a down housing market created the “perfect storm,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
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