The Cliffs Part II: The Comeback

By: Dave Droschak

The vision in 1993 was as expansive as its 50-mile views off the back of the 13th hole at The Cliffs at Glassy. Real estate developer Jim Anthony, a former telephone company lineman, certainly aimed high during the infancy of what would become his private golf course empire.

No one dared ask what The Cliffs' marketing or ad budget was (rumored to be more than $10 million annually). It was voluminous . . . to say the least. "When you opened up the Wall Street Journal or USA Today, The Cliffs at Glassy was falling right into your lap," said Cliffs' director of golf, Brian Peeples.

Full-page ads parlayed into soaring property sales, with some impressive numbers to rival the surrounding 3,500-foot-high mountains. New courses by the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio were seemingly announced on a yearly basis. Anthony then dropped a bombshell in 2007- he had secured Tiger Woods to design his first course in the United States atop Black Mountain in North Carolina. It was to be called High Carolina. High hopes indeed.

But in a turn of fate or ill-timing, Tiger fell from grace, and Anthony fell into bankruptcy. As quickly as the impressive portfolio mushroomed it was on the verge of collapse.

High Carolina and some 2,500 acres now sit idle, occupied by black bears, hawks and deer, not golfers. There is no existing contract with Woods now, and Cliffs managing partner David Sawyer says it's too early to tell what the shelved project will eventually look like down the road.

However, The Cliffs has defied the odds with its current properties, making a remarkable recovery in a soft (perceived or real) golf market. New owners, Florida-based Arendale Holdings, has charged forward, opening The Cliffs at Mountain Park in 2013, and it recently poured $450,000 into new greens and an expanded practice facility at the Nicklaus-designed Keowee Falls.

The marketing focus has also changed dramatically in two decades. "We were in front of everybody and we're one of the best-kept secrets there is right now," Peeples said. "But the nation is going to see us again. We're more focused now on you the person, you the golfer with a family, with that view of the 13th hole at Glassy in the background. We're trying to make more of a connection."

In addition, The Cliffs at Walnut Cove outside of Asheville has once again reemerged as an ultra-hot second-home or retirement destination. "We've already had more than 50 property and home transactions at Walnut Cove in 2014 and there are 38 homes under construction, and we're just now at the front end of our busiest season," Sawyer said. "We've seen home values here increase about 10 percent; we're seeing property prices increase from 8 percent to 12 percent in the last six months."

The Cliffs' courses are all located within an hour and 15 minutes of each other, with Walnut Cove in North Carolina; the other six in upstate South Carolina. The new Gary Player-designed Mountain Park layout is the halfway point between Walnut Cove and the three courses buffering Keowee Lake.

There is no denying the utter beauty of all seven, and really there are only a handful of national competitors - private developments such as Reynolds Plantation or Desert Mountain - that can even pull a chair up to the same sales pitch table as The Cliffs' stable of courses.

"Out of the gate we get such a great reception from just the designers' names, and then all of the properties look so different even though we are so close together," said Keowee Falls head pro Julian Bland. "The Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards has eight holes right on the lake, we kind of have a lot of elevation changes here at Falls and Glassy is 1,000 feet higher than we are - and it all falls under one membership. What happens so often is you get tired of playing the same golf course. Not here. You can go 20 minutes across the road or three minutes to the lake and be at another property and play something completely different."

Keowee Falls members typically boat to the Vineyards or Springs courses, and vice versa.

"We'll unload their clubs right off the dock," Peeples noted.

Property sales are not the only item surging at The Cliffs. Rounds are up 9 percent over 2013, with an estimated 90,000 rounds to be played at the seven courses this year. Golf-retail revenues are also up 20 percent.

"Not too many people can say that across the country, so we're kind of bucking the trend in that regard," Peeples said. "Yes, we did open a new golf course, but at the end of the day we've seen a collective uptick and we're very proud of that. And we're trying to develop some less intimidating programming to bring new players to the game."

"Opening the Mountain Park course has stimulated our golf growth and golf activity," Sawyer added. "But we also have to recognize that golf has to be fun and we have to work at removing intimidation. I've challenged every one of our golf professionals to do so . . . and we've had some great success stories."

Most of those inroads have come on the female side, with programs like the Sassy Sixers (six-hole rounds), and using larger 6-inch cups for some tournaments.

"The Sassy Sixers happens weekly now and some of the guys found out about it and would like to do that without joining the Sassy Sixers group. We call them the Mac Daddys," Peeples said. "Hey, six holes is a round of golf for us - they are buying clubs, buying food and beverages. They are plugging in and saying, 'Hey, I enjoy my membership.' "

After the Great Recession, and a relatively flat private golf market, anything is on the table now for The Cliffs, which seems to be embracing its new world order.

"Unfortunately, we did experience bankruptcy, but I think the largest statement is from a membership standpoint because they stayed true and they believed," Peeples said. "Not only did they believe but they had a pretty large investment, they had a major stake in it. They wanted to believe. Our new ownership group is more focused on the experience than anything. We feel like if we get the experience right we're going to sell dirt. It's not about putting a nice bow on it and selling dirt. It's about the experience.

"There is no better representation for the Cliffs or salesmen than our membership," he added. "We went through a cycle where they were recommending and then they weren't recommending because of the economic downturn, and now there is a positive energy."

Sawyer noted that the marketing budget now focuses on the Internet instead of full-page flashy print ads in golf publications. The Cliffs is also actively partnering with surrounding universities such as Clemson, Furman and the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

"We're investing more dollars into digital marketing then in the past," he said. "We had a very aggressive and well-funded print advertising campaign for many, many, many years at The Cliffs. This way seems to be more fruitful.

"And we've also found that our target buyer values health and wellness as the No. 1 decision point when making that family-home or second-home decision," he said. "Golf is now third. That's a major shift we've seen over the last few years and we're adjusting."

For more information about The Cliffs, visit http://cliffsliving.com.

David Droschak has covered golf in the Carolinas for three decades, mostly with The Associated Press, where he worked for 20 years as AP sports editor in North Carolina prior to launching Droschak Communications, a full-service marketing and PR firm based in Apex, N.C.

Dave, 53, has covered numerous major golf tournaments, including the 1999 and 2005 U.S. Opens at Pinehurst Resort, and is a longtime member of the Golf Writers Association of America. Dave will represent Cybergolf to provide coverage of the historic back-to-back 2014 U.S. Men's and Women's Opens at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina's Sandhills.

Dave was honored with the Sports Writer of the Year award in North Carolina in 2005, and is currently editor of Triangle Golf Today (www.trianglegolf.com), a print and online publication regarded as the "No. 1 Source for Golf News in North Carolina." He is also golf editor for Pinehurst Magazine, an award-winning glossy publication.

Dave grew up in Penn Hills, Pa., about five minutes from famed Oakmont Country Club and was introduced to the game of golf as a caddie at Green Oaks Country Club in nearby Verona, Pa. Dave was the co-captain of the 1978 Penn Hills state championship baseball team, was a pitcher for the 1982 Atlantic Coast Conference champion University of North Carolina Tar Heels, and pitched professionally for two years in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He is a member of the Penn Hills High School Sports Hall of Fame, which also includes NBA coach George Karl and former four-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman Bill Fralic.

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