Irwin Course at The Members Club at St. James Plantation

If you're considering multiple golf courses for a gated retirement community where the average golfer is cashing social security checks, you want to make sure at least one course is easy on the eyes, legs and scorecard. At the St. James Plantation, it's The Members Club. The marketers like to say Hale Irwin designed the original 18 holes with "fun" in mind.

In golf, "fun" usually means "easy." Not to knock it. After playing The Founders and The Players at St. James, The Members is a welcome reprieve.

"All in all, it's a lot more user-friendly than the other two," said John Falls, a resident of St. James. No argument there. The greens are softer, slower and easier to read. The fairways are open and inviting. The Members added a Tim Cates-designed nine holes in the spring of 2001, but the architecture is nothing like what he did at The Founders. Whereas The Founders confounds and infuriates around the greens, the Cates design at The Members is open and fairly straightforward. The Cates course is also short, and much more women-friendly that the plantation's other two courses. Still, Cates gives enough obstacles and options to keep you from getting too bored. There is water on every hole except No. 5 and No. 8, for example.