The financial position of Sea Island is starting to emerge and the resort may have to be sold. A major investment house predicts it's probable that the place will be sold in pieces for no more than 50 cents on the dollar.

    Two of the company's golf courses - Frederica and Ocean Forest - have been taken over and the debt load remains large as a result of massive spending to renovate lodging and golf facilities in recent years. The company has announced that it will hire an investment bank to review its "strategic options," a term that likely indicates a sale.

    Caught up in this is the Synovus Financial Corporation, which has banks in this area. Bank execs and Sea Island Chairman and CEO Bill Jones III had a close relationship including serving on each other's board, and the bank reportedly is in the tank for over $250 million in loans.

    Angered members in the Atlanta area held a tense meeting with Jones recently, wanting to know how-in-heck a bank owns the Ocean Forest course that they live on.

    They got few reasons but you can guess: business is lousy in this economic climate and it hasn't been helped by too-high room and golf rates. Sea Island always has been expensive, but rates used to be low enough for a splurge. When the "new" Cloisters hotel opened, rooms were in the $800 range.

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