Over the next couple months, Golf Vacation Insider will be merging with Golf Advisor.

You may already be familiar with this great site, but if you’re not, here’s a brief primer:

– Golf Advisor is one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive sources of golf travel news, features and insights.

– Golf Advisor is also the leading source of golfer-generated reviews of golf courses. They’ve collected more than 650,000 reviews of more than 13,000 golf courses from avid golfers like you and me.

– It’s part of the Golf Channel family, and as a result, Golf Advisor has access to a stunning amount of resources and individuals who help inform their team’s work.

That’s the super-quick version. There’s a lot going on at Golf Advisor and I’m really excited to be part of a team that includes Matt Ginella, Brandon Tucker, Jason Deegan and Mike Bailey (so you’ll be seeing their bylines in addition to mine and Craig Better’s going forward).

What This Means For You

In short, we’ll be taking the golf travel news and advice you’ve come to expect from us to a whole new level.

As I mentioned, Golf Advisor is part of Golf Channel, which means we now have access to incredible resources and expertise that we will put straight to work for you.

Now, this new chapter will bring about a couple changes, but again, I truly believe you’ll find them to be good ones.

What Future Emails Will Look Like…

The most immediate thing you’ll notice is that in the next few weeks, our emails will start to look a little different.

First of all, in the “From” line in your inbox, you’ll see “Golf Advisor” instead of “Golf Vacation Insider,” so you’ll start seeing senders like “Golf Advisor – Weekly Tips,” “Golf Advisor – Special Offers,” “Golf Advisor – Travel Deals,” and “Golf Advisor – Events.”

As for what happens after you open our emails, that layout is still being finalized, but overall, the frequency and presentation style of our emails will continue to be what you’re used to.

You will notice that the logo atop the emails you receive will eventually give way to the Golf Advisor logo.

Where Future Emails Will Take You…

Frankly, the “biggest” change will be what happens when you click a link from one of our Weekly Tips emails.

I put “biggest” in quotes because all that will happen is that you’ll be sent to GolfAdvisor.com, rather than GolfVacationInsider.com.

For example, here’s what one of my recent articles on the site looks like:

(We’ve been including a couple Golf Advisor articles in the #2, #3 and #4 spots in the last few weeks’ newsletters, so you may have had the chance to check those out already.)

As part of this new chapter, we’ll be consolidating our site into Golf Advisor’s.

But again, no worries there – before anything happens to the GVI site, all the great Golf Vacation Insider articles you love will be brought over to GolfAdvisor.com and will be easy to find when you want to refer back to them.

Just A Little More On Golf Advisor…

You’ll find the Golf Advisor site fun and easy to navigate. Commenting will be a breeze, too, thanks to a brand-new, custom-made commenting system.

Plus, with easy access to GolfAdvisor’s massive database of golf courses, you’ll be able to post your own reviews of the golf courses you play, both at home and on the road.

(In addition to longer articles, I’ll also be using the review tool to throw in my quick thoughts on each new course I play.)

What’s more, we’ve been working with the folks at Golf Advisor to make some significant website and content enhancements specifically with you in mind.

And to make this transition even easier, we’ll also be providing periodic tips in the coming weeks that will help you get the most out of GolfAdvisor.com, so stay tuned!

Golf Vacation Insider readers are the most discerning, savviest traveling golfers in the world, and your candor and willingness to share your own thoughts and reactions to what we write is an essential part of what has made this publication so highly-respected.

I hope you’ll continue to join in the discussion as we move into our new Golf Advisor digs.

(If you’d like to check out the site right now, click here and have a look around.)

Any questions or comments? Please feel free to click here and email us.

Congratulations, criticisms, suggestions – we want to hear from you so that we can make this an easy transition and keep producing the most helpful and insightful golf travel content in the world for the most knowledgeable traveling golfers in the world.

The post Breaking News: Golf Vacation Insider To Merge With Golf Advisor appeared first on Golf Vacation Insider.

Not only is it an extra thrill to see a course I know on TV, but when I get to play a course that has hosted televised golf before, I always find myself thinking about shots I’ve seen over the years from that course’s particular tournament.

Two of my golf highlights for 2017 were my rounds at Erin Hills and Chambers Bay, two recent U.S. Open hosts, in the space of about a month this summer. At Erin Hills, my caddie showed me the very spot where Justin Thomas hit an incredible 3-wood up the par-5 18th, setting up an eagle en route to his third-round 63. The shot was impressive on TV, but seeing exactly what he faced when executing the shot under major championship pressure was mind-blowing.

And at Chambers Bay, I marveled at the amount of slope on the 16th green where Jordan Spieth holed a crucial birdie putt on Sunday of the 2015 U.S. Open. Even with nothing on the line, that was a ridiculously hard putt. But on U.S. Open Sunday, it was a colossal effort to pull off.

Both experiences were special to me because they made me feel like I was part of the greater history of the game.

So in light of that feeling, I wanted to give you a one-stop guide to all the public-accessible and resort courses you’ve seen and are going to see on TV over the upcoming golf seasons for the three major U.S.-based tours: the PGA Tour, the Champions Tour and the LPGA Tour.

If you’re a fan of professional golf courses like we are here at Golf Vacation Insider, you’re going to love this list:

PGA Tour (2017-18 season)

COURSE: Silverado Resort (North Course) – Napa, Calif.
EVENT: Safeway Open
DATES: Oct. 5-8, 2017
NOTES: A relative newcomer to the Tour schedule, the North Course represents the sterner test of the recently renovated Silverado’s two 18s, both of which managed to escape the horrific wildfires that ravaged the Wine Country shortly after the Tour pulled up stakes for the year.

El Camaleon Golf Club – Playa del Carmen, Mexico
OHL Classic at Mayakoba
Nov. 9-12, 2017
This Greg Norman design, hewn out of coastal jungle, has been the site of some intense finishes in its short tenure on the PGA Tour schedule.

Sea Island Resort (Seaside Course, Plantation Course)
The RSM Classic
Nov. 16-19, 2017
Originally designed by Harry Colt and Charles Alison, the Seaside Course has been updated by Tom Fazio in recent years to give both resort guests and professional golfers a pleasant ride (Austin Cook broke through for his first Tour victory here a couple weeks ago). The Rees Jones-designed Plantation Course plays second fiddle but is due for a complete renovation by Davis Love III’s group after next year’s tournament.

Sea Island’s Seaside Course is acclaimed by pros and recreational golfers alike.

Albany Golf Club – New Providence, Bahamas
HERO World Challenge
Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 2017
Tiger Woods’ much-anticipated latest comeback begins this week at this exclusive club, which is open to some stay-and-play traffic, albeit at a steep price.

Tiburon Golf Club (Gold Course) – Naples, Fla.
QBE Shootout
Dec. 8-10, 2017
Tiburon boasts two Greg Norman designs on site, both known for stacked-sod bunkers and little to no grass rough of any kind – sand and water are the principal hazards.

Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Grande Lakes – Orlando, Fla.
PNC Father-Son Challenge
Dec. 16-17, 2017
Another Norman design, this flat, walkable 18 winds along Shingle Creek at the “headwaters of the Everglades.”

Kapalua (Plantation Course) – Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii
Sentry Tournament of Champions
Jan. 4-7, 2018
The previous year’s Tour event winners gather to take on this exciting early Coore & Crenshaw design on the island of Maui, where many of the year’s longest tee shots will be hit down the ski-slope-like 6th, 7th, 17th and 18th fairways.

PGA WEST (TPC Stadium Course, Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course) – La Quinta, Calif.
CareerBuilder Challenge
Jan. 18-21, 2018
Two of this event’s three host courses are public. The Stadium Course replaced the Palmer Private Course as the final-round site a couple years ago, which should mean more drama at its famous island-green 17th hole.

Torrey Pines Golf Course (South Course, North Course) – La Jolla, Calif.
Farmers Insurance Open
Jan. 25-28, 2018
Torrey Pines is one of America’s iconic munis, and now that the recently redesigned North Course is maturing, it is no longer a one-course wonder of a facility.

TPC Scottsdale (Stadium Course) – Scottsdale, Ariz.
Waste Management Phoenix Open
Feb. 1-4, 2018
TPC Scottsdale’s status as a testing Tour venue has been restored by recent renovations, not that many of the 20,000 rabid fans, who pack into the stadium seating around the short par-3 16th hole over the weekend, will notice or care.

Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course – Pebble Beach, Calif.
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Feb. 8-11, 2018
What praises can be sung of Pebble Beach that haven’t already been sung? Not many. For its part, Spyglass stuns with its seaside first five holes before heading into the forest to exact a lot of punishment over the remainder of the round.

PGA National Resort & Spa (Champion Course) – Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
The Honda Classic
Feb. 22-25, 2018
Long, narrow and with water seemingly at every turn, a round at the Champion is a true indication of what kind of game it takes to play the PGA Tour. Beware the Bear Trap, especially the nerve-fraying par-3 15th and 17th holes.

The Honda Classic brings the best golfers in the world to one of America’s sternest resort golf tests. (PGA National Resort & Spa)

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead Course) – Palm Harbor, Fla.
Valspar Championship
Mar. 8-11, 2018
The Copperhead was regrassed and its bunkers reworked a couple years ago, and as it matures, this ball-striker’s paradise of a Tour venue designed by Larry Packard should become even more popular with the players.

Bay Hill Club & Lodge – Orlando, Fla.
Arnold Palmer Invitational
Mar. 15-18, 2018
The King passed away in September 2016, and the golf world still feels the loss of one of its legends, whose spirit is felt throughout his winter home. Stay and play here to pay your respects to Mr. Palmer.

Corales Golf Club – Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship
Mar. 22-25, 2018
After a couple years of hosting the Web.com Tour, this big, meticulously maintained Tom Fazio design has earned something a promotion to the big-time. It serves as an “opposite-field” Tour venue this year, while the biggest names duke it out for the WGC – Dell Match Play in Austin, Texas.

Golf Club of Houston (Tournament Course) – Humble, Texas
Shell Houston Open
Mar 29-Apr. 1, 2018
The annual Masters tune-up returns to this long, water-laden Rees Jones layout, where the Tour seeks to replicate the sort of turf conditions some of the field will face the following week.

Harbour Town Golf Links
RBC Heritage
Apr. 12-15, 2018
The Pete Dye/Jack Nicklaus collaboration where the Golden Bear first cut his golf course design teeth has been associated with PGA Tour golf since it first opened in 1969. The tight, tree-lined layout is a great test of tact, rather than brute power, which explains many of the golfers who have donned the Tartan Jacket.

TPC San Antonio (AT&T Oaks Course) – San Antonio, Texas
Valero Texas Open
Apr. 19-22, 2018
This Greg Norman/Sergio Garcia design is usually one of the tougher non-major championship courses on tour, especially when the wind blows. The par-3 16th hole, with a bunker in the middle of the putting surface, is one of the Tour’s more unusual-looking holes.

TPC Louisiana – Avondale, La.
Zurich Classic of New Orleans
Apr. 26-29, 2018
Last year’s edition introduced an interesting change to the format of this event, as players now team up to play best-ball and alternate shot rounds. Jonas Blixt and Cameron Smith won last year after Kevin Kisner drained a miracle pitch shot on the final regulation hole to force a playoff. Visiting foursomes no doubt play their own team matches at this Pete Dye layout nowadays.

TPC Sawgrass (Stadium Course)
The Players Championship
May 10-13, 2018
The preeminent built-for-tournament-golf-viewing venue stands the test of time, providing a big challenge to the best golfers in the world and plenty of bucket-list experiences to the rest of us. How can you call yourself a golf connoisseur without taking on the island-green 17th at least once? Note: this event is set to move back to March for the 2018-2019 Tour season.

The Greenbrier (Old White TPC) – White Sulphur Springs, W.V.
The Greenbrier Classic
July 5-8, 2018
This C.B. Macdonald original, recently renovated by Lester George and then Keith Foster, seems to become more and more popular with PGA Tour players with each passing year. It’s also a ton of fun for the rest of us hackers.

Everybody – pros and ams alike – tees off beside the iconic clock on the first tee at The Greenbrier’s Old White TPC course. (Courtesy of The Greenbrier)

TPC Deere Run – Silvis, Ill.
John Deere Classic
July 12-15, 2018
TPC Deere Run provides the pros one last birdie binge before heading for the Open Championship, and it’s a fun and relatively (for Tour courses) inexpensive play for golfers passing through the Quad Cities area.

Carnoustie Golf Club (Championship Course) – Angus, Scotland, U.K.
The Open Championship
July 19-22, 2018
Known as the most demanding golf course in the Open rota, Carnoustie should once again give the pros all they can handle. Will there be another Jean Van de Veldean collapse this year?

Glen Abbey Golf Club – Oakville, Ont., Canada
RBC Canadian Open
July 26-29, 2018
Host to more Canadian Opens than any other venue, this Toronto-area Jack Nicklaus design has been under threat of closure for years, but will host Canada’s national championship yet again in 2018.

PGA Tour Champions (2018 season)

Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons Orlando – Orlando, Fla.
Diamond Resorts Invitational
Jan. 12-14, 2018
Tranquilo is a fun, user-friendly Tom Fazio design with a number of punchbowl-shaped greens that can yield birdie opportunities for all. The Four Seasons hotel on property is one of Orlando’s best, too.

Hualalai Golf Club – Ka’upulehu-Kona, Hawaii
Mitsubishi Electric Championship
Jan. 18-20, 2018
Hualalai is one of Hawaii’s most peaceful retreats, with a splendid seaside Jack Nicklaus design. What better early-season stop for the over-50 set?

Omni Tucson National Golf Club (Catalina Course) – Tucson, Ariz
Cologuard Classic
Mar. 2-4, 2018
The Bruce Devlin/Robert Von Hagge-designed Catalina Course hosted a number of PGA Tour events, including Phil Mickelson’s first win as an amateur in 1991. Tom Lehman captured the 2017 edition of this popular event.

Fallen Oak Golf Club at Beau Rivage – Biloxi, Miss.
Rapiscan Systems Classic
Mar. 23-25, 2018
This chic Tom Fazio design is a few miles north of its parent Beau Rivage casino resort. When it’s not hosting the PGA Tour Champions, it serves as an upscale amenity for high-rolling resort guests, with green fees reaching $400 at times during the year.

Fallen Oak is one of the top Tom Fazio courses you can play. (Beau Rivage Casino)

Big Cedar Lodge (Top of the Rock Course, Buffalo Ridge Springs Course) – Ridgedale, Mo.
Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf at Big Cedar Lodge
Apr. 21-23, 2018
This two-man event has received some added attention in recent years as the Nicklaus-designed par-3 Top of the Rock Course has joined the rotation. The Buffalo Ridge course is a lovely Tom Fazio design. Both courses showcase resort owner Johnny Morris’ flair for outdoorsy scenery, with rock formations and waterfalls aplenty.

Harbor Shores Golf Club – Benton Harbor, Mich.
KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship
May 24-27, 2018
Harbor Shores played host to one of golf’s great viral videos, in which designer Jack Nicklaus holed an insanely long putt on the wild tenth green at a course opening event in 20TK, much to the crowd’s delight. The Senior PGA returns this year to the upscale daily-fee facility.

University Ridge Golf Course – Madison, Wisc.
American Family Insurance Championship
June 22-24, 2018
This Steve Stricker-hosted event is relatively new, but it’s popular, thanks in no small part to the quality of the course, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and regarded as one of the best campus courses.

The Broadmoor Resort (East Course) – Colorado Springs, Colo.
U.S. Senior Open
June 28-July 1
The Broadmoor is one of America’s great old-line resorts, and it hosts the Senior Open for the first time since Argentina’s Eduardo Romero won the 2008 edition. It marks the sixth USGA Championship contested on the East Course, which sits at 6,400 feet above sea level.

St. Andrews (The Old Course) – Fife, Scotland, U.K.
Senior Open Championship Presented by Rolex
July 26-29, 2018
The Home of Golf is always a fun setting for big-time golf, and this year’s Senior Open Championship should be a great summer morning watch for those of us in the U.S. Plus, Miguel Angel Jimenez might have more fun at the Road Hole…

En-Joie Golf Course – Endicott, N.Y.
Dick’s Sporting Goods Open
August 17-19, 2018
Like Tucson National (and Warwick Hills in Michigan), this is another former PGA Tour host site given new life by the over-50 set, En-Joie is also one of the most wallet-friendly professional golf courses anywhere, with green fees topping out at just $64 on summer weekend mornings.

Pebble Beach Golf Links, Poppy Hills Golf Course – Pebble Beach, Calif.
Pure Insurance Championship
Sept 14-16, 2018
One of professional golf’s unique events, this tournament’s format brings together PGA Tour Champions players with accomplished junior golfers from around the country in a pro-am format. We always enjoy watching this event because of the confluence of the past and future of the game.

LPGA Tour (2017 schedule; 2018 not yet announced)

Ocean Club Golf Course – Paradise Island, Bahamas
Bahamas Classic
Jan. 26-29, 2017
Tom Weiskopf designed this scenic layout that we believe to be one of the best places to play in the Caribbean.

Royal Adelaide Golf Club – Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Feb. 16-19, 2017
Royal Adelaide is one of Australia’s best, and while it’s technically “private,” it has a generous visitors policy. The Alister Mackenzie gem is well worth the effort to experience.

(Royal Adelaide Golf Club)

Wildfire Golf Club – Phoenix, Ariz.
Bank of Hope Founders Cup
Mar. 16-19, 2017
With courses by Faldo and Palmer, this JW Marriott-adjacent facility will provide a stern test of late-winter golf for women’s golf’s best this year. Later-winter visitors should expect particularly good course conditions.

Aviara Golf Club – Carlsbad, Calif.
Kia Classic
Mar. 23-26, 2017
For the sixth straight year, the Arnold Palmer-designed Aviara will host the Kia Classic, which is becoming known as one of the top non-majors on the LPGA schedule.

Ko Olina Golf Club – Kapolei, Hawaii
LOTTE Championship presented by Hershey
Apr. 12-15, 2017
Ko Olina, designed by Ted Robinson, is regarded as the best course on the island of Oahu. This event has an unusual Saturday finish, which helps get it some extra final-round exposure.

Kingsmill Resort (River Course) – Williamsburg, Va.
Kingsmill Championship presented by JTBC
May 18-21, 2017
You may know Kingsmill’s River Course primarily as a former PGA Tour stop. But it has been an LPGA stop in recent years, having seen a number of dramatic finishes recently, including a nine-hole playoff where Jiyai Shin outlasted Paula Creamer in 2012.

Once a regular PGA Tour Stop, Kingsmill Resort’s River Course has become one of the LPGA Tour’s most popular host venues. (Kingsmill Resort)

Travis Pointe Country Club – Ann Arbor, Mich.
LPGA Volvik Championship
May 25-28, 2017
Travis Point Country Club is a rarity in American private golf in that the course is open to non-members, up to a maximum of six rounds per year. Guest fees to play the Bill Newcomb design range from $35 to $65, depending on day of the week and the season.

Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club (Bay Course) – Galloway, N.J.
ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer
June 2-4, 2017
The LPGA is particularly fun to watch because it visits a number of venues that are a little on the short side, by modern standards. Seaview’s classic Donald Ross-designed Bay Course is one of these; at around 6,300 yards, it gives the ladies all they can handle with a combination of wind and firm turf.

Thornberry Creek at Oneida – Oneida, Wisc.
Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic
July 6-9, 2017
Thornberry Creek is the “official golf course of the Green Bay Packers,” as well as an upscale public layout designed by Rick Jacobson and Bob Lohmann.

Gullane Golf Club (Composite) – Gullane, Scotland, U.K.
Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open
July 26-29, 2018*
Just two weeks after the European Tour rolls through, the LPGA Tour will take a crack at this Edinburgh-area club with three courses.

Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s Golf Club – Lytham St. Annes, England, U.K.
Ricoh Women’s British Open
Aug. 2-5, 2018*
Lytham will host the Women’s British Open for the fifth time in 2018, with Catriona Mathew and Annika Sorenstam among past winners at the bunker-filled links.

Brickyard Crossing Golf Club – Indianapolis, Ind.
Indy Women in Tech Championship presented by Guggenheim
Sept. 7-9, 2017
Brickyard Crossing is one of the Midwest’s more memorable public facilities, not just for its Pete Dye-designed golf course, but for the fact that four holes sit within the racetrack that hosts the Indianapolis 500 race. This is another Saturday finish for the LPGA Tour.

Tiburon Golf Club – Gold Course
CME Tour Championship
Nov. 16-19, 2017
The only course to appear twice on our list, this Greg Norman course will be hard-pressed to supply as much late-Sunday drama as it did this year, when Lexi Thompson missed a two-foot putt that would have won the tournament, only to lose to Ariya Jutanugarn in a playoff.

What are your memories of playing at professional golf courses? Let us know below in the comments!

The post 48 Professional Golf Courses You Can Play appeared first on Golf Vacation Insider.

There are certain fairly universal things everyone is thankful for this time of year. So we went a little outside-the-box to come up with reasons why you, the traveling golfer, should be particularly thankful. Let us know how we did in the comments section below.

So, without further ado, here are four big reasons for golf travelers to be thankful:

Sand

Sand Valley is one of the newest examples of how sublime golf can be on a naturally sandy site.

Have you ever had a golf trip ruined by heavy rains either just before your arrival or during your stay? To us, there’s practically nothing worse than seeing perfect, bouncy fairways and slick greens turning to mush right before our eyes. Is there a more deflating phrase to an excited golfer than “cart path only today”?

That’s why you should be thankful for sand, which forms the base for many of the best destination courses – especially those built this century. Bandon Dunes’ courses, Streamsong, Chambers Bay, Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs, as well as Sand Valley and its new companion Mammoth Dunes course – all of them sit on fast-draining, sandy sites, guaranteeing firm, fun turf in all but the most extreme cases. If you’ve ever been to the British Isles to play links or heathland golf, you know exactly what we’re talking about.

Security Line-Shortening Strategies

This is one of our favorite sites in any airport. (tsa.gov)

Safe air travel is obviously of paramount importance, but there’s no denying that waiting in seemingly endless airport security lines – especially during the holidays – is a special kind of miserable. That’s why TSA Pre-Check, which allows travelers to use a shortcut to practically waltz through security like in the olden days, is such a key component of that rare, blissfully painless travel experience. Costing just $85 for five years, if you fly a couple times or more per year, it’s worth every single penny.

Programs like Clear and Global Entry have their fans as well, and there’s a new app called Mobile Passport, available in 24 airports and one cruise port, where you can enter your passport details into your smartphone in order to breeze through customs. Sound too good to be true? It’s not – the app is officially authorized by U.S. Customs & Border Protection.

Free In-Flight Entertainment

Increasingly, the only innovation in air travel seems to be the creativity the major airlines seem to pour into coming up with new ways to nickel-and-dime travelers. That’s why you should join us in applauding JetBlue.

As of late 2016, JetBlue fulfilled a promise that not only will every single one of their aircraft be equipped with wi-fi, the service would be free on all flights. And they’ve stayed true to their word.

Imagine you’re flying JetBlue from, say, New York to Orlando for a golf trip; leaving on Friday, returning on Sunday. Free wi-fi will net you about six house of connectivity – nearly an extra workday’s worth of time! Voilà – now you can devote an extra vacation day to emphatically not working.

If you’re more intent on catching up on a couple movies or TV shows you’ve missed, you’ll want to fly Delta Air Lines. Their Delta Studio selection of movies and TV and other media, is free and available on the majority of Delta’s fleet.

Upgrades

One of my favorite words is the Louisiana Creole term “lagniappe (pronounced LAN-yap),” which is a little something extra given to a customer. In travel terms, that’s an upgrade, and it seems car rental companies and hotels are getting more aggressive about offering them. We’re seeing all kinds of “free room upgrade” package offers and category upgrades for rental cars. In our experience, the best way to finagle an upgrade when one isn’t necessarily expected is to be the nicest person the almost definitely stressed-out car counter worker or hotel check-in clerk has encountered all day, and perhaps all week. Kill ’em with kindness, make a gracious and polite request and you might be surprised at the upgrades you can secure.

What are you most thankful for as a traveling golfer? Let us know in the comments, and have a great holiday week!

The post 4 Huge Reasons For Golf Travelers To Be Thankful appeared first on Golf Vacation Insider.

And over the years of seeing blurbs in magazines and ads about all sorts of facilities, I’ve noticed that there’s one word that tons of courses – all courses whose fairways aren’t tree-lined, more or less – use to describe themselves.

“Links.”

Perhaps I’m over-sensitive, but it’s become a pet peeve of mine, because in 99% of these cases, it’s misapplied.

A lot of courses and marketing companies have used the concept to signify a premium, “authentic” golf experience, even when the reality is quite different from actual links golf.

In the end, “links” is another type of golf course – no more, no less. It’s descriptive, yes, but it’s not necessarily an indicator of higher quality in and of itself (though many golfers do favor the virtues and characteristics of links golf).

However the term has been used in decades of golf course marketing, “links” describes a very specific sort of terrain and soil for golf, and even though thousands of American courses fancy themselves “links golf courses,” they are not links golf courses.

So…what is a “links golf course”?

Official definitions vary to some extent, but golf course architecture experts and golf historians seem to agree that for a golf course to be truly considered a links golf course, it needs to satisfy these main criteria:

1. The golf course sits on coastal land.
2. The coastal land on which the course sits has naturally sandy soil, which makes the turf play fast and firm in all but the wettest stretches of weather.
3. The turf of the course consists primarily of fescue and bent grass

Other defining characteristics of links golf courses include the following:

• Age. Lots of links are old – a century or more, in many cases. But there certainly are modern examples of links golf.
• Looks. Low-lying fairways and greens are commonplace, with manmade features – with the exception of wee pot bunkers – kept to a minimum.
• Tradition. This is often a function of age, but you don’t often find big tennis complexes, swimming pools or fitness centers on the grounds of links golf courses. Sometimes there isn’t even a practice range to speak of. Carts are almost unheard of. But there are a lot of people who love playing golf knocking the ball about.

According to authors Malcolm Campbell and George Peper in their book True Links, there are only 246 courses in the entire world that qualify as links golf courses.

Given that golf sprang up in the British Isles on linksland (i.e. areas that “link” the coast with the mainland) considered unfit for farming, the vast majority of the world’s links golf courses are located there, and particularly in Scotland.

But not all of them. There are a handful of courses elsewhere around the world that Campbell and Peper consider links golf courses.

There’s Kennemer Golf & Country Club, one of a handful of courses in the Netherlands that are widely considered links…

Kennemer is one of a few links courses found in an unexpected place: the Netherlands. (Kennemer Golf & Country Club)

And Denmark has a links: Fanø Golf Links.

Danish golf is underrated thanks to lesser-known gems like Fanø. (Wikimedia Commons)

There are a few true links courses in Australia, too – especially in Tasmania, where both Barnbougle Dunes and Barnbougle Lost Farm attract golfing pilgrims from thousands of miles away…

Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania is one of Australia’s true links courses.

In New Zealand, the venerable Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club is a beloved links…

Paraparaumu Beach brings links lovers to New Zealand. (NewZealand.com)

And there’s even a links course in Africa: South Africa’s Humewood Golf Club…

Humewood has the distinction of being the only true links in Africa. (All Square Golf)

For all the mystique that surrounds the idea of “links golf,” it’s important to note that not all great golf courses are links courses, and not all links courses are necessarily great (though the vast majority of them are enjoyable at the very least). The fame of the links courses of the British Isles tends to overshadow an extremely strong cadre of heathland golf courses, and even some acclaimed inland/parkland golf courses, too.

Links golf in the U.S.

In America, where the game is centuries younger, golf course developers have long traded on the romantic notion of “links golf” to market their own courses, even when those courses had key differences with their true-links forbears.

Perhaps the most notable example is Pebble Beach Golf Links, whose stretches of cliffhanging holes above the Pacific Ocean have won it acclaim as one of the world’s most famous courses.

But Pebble Beach is, strictly speaking, not a links, because its soil isn’t particularly sandy and many of its holes – the first three and the 12th through the 16th – occupy coastal forest land.

But should Pebble Beach’s not-quite-links identity take anything away from its prestige? Absolutely not – Pebble Beach is one of the world’s great golf courses, period.

Nevertheless, calling Pebble Beach a “links golf course” does not quite encapsulate its unique identity.

A few hundred miles up the coast, there is little doubt that most of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort’s courses do merit classification as “links golf courses.” The original Bandon Dunes course, as well as Pacific Dunes, Old Macdonald and Bandon Preserve, all hit the marks for qualification as links golf courses.

Bandon Dunes supplies some of the most authentic links golf in the U.S. (Jason Scott Deegan/Golf Advisor)

Bandon Trails, though…not as much, because much of the routing heads through coastal forest.

But does that matter? Links or not, Bandon Trails is also a great course. In fact, some people consider it their favorite course on property.

Bandon Trails isn’t a links, but it is a universally-acclaimed course. (Oleg Volovik/Golf Advisor)

There are numerous other courses that might be mistaken for links golf courses, but are really something else, and something awesome.

One prime example I’ve played is Lawsonia Links in central Wisconsin.

Yes…I know it even has “Links” in its name. But despite its open, mostly treeless property and awesome ground features courtesy of architects William Langford and Theodore Moreau, it’s not an actual links golf course, because the sea is hundreds of miles away.

Lawsonia Links is a Langford & Moreau masterpiece in central Wisconsin…but it’s not quite a links, because it’s far from the sea.

The same goes for the great courses of the rolling hills through America’s Great Plains. Sand Hills, Dismal River, Prairie Club, Wild Horse, Bayside…all these courses are inspired by the great links of the world, and they play firm and fast, but they’re not, strictly speaking, links, because like Lawsonia, they’re far from the coasts.

But that shouldn’t stop you from seeking to play them.

Of course, the presence of an ocean does not a links golf course make, either.

For example Kiawah Island Resort’s Ocean Course has as much ocean frontage as any course in the world. But it’s not a links, because its turf is Paspalum grass, rather than the hardy fescues and bent grasses that prevail at other links.

Strictly speaking, Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course is not a links. But it’s still a spectacular bucket-list golf course. (Kiawah Island Resort)

And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is no big deal. The Ocean Course is a definite bucket-list course, and whether or not it qualifies as a links has no bearing on that fact.

So what?

I know…this may seem like much ado about nothing. But if you went to a restaurant that bills itself as Italian, only to find the menu was all sushi, you’d feel deceived, wouldn’t you?

So it is with links golf. If you book a round on a mislabeled “links golf course,” especially in a warm-weather golf destination (where these not-quite-accurate descriptions are most prevalent) and find shots your tee shots and approaches plugging in mushy fairways and greens, you’re probably going to feel a bit misled.

Bottom line: with all sorts of misinformation causing confusion and frustration everywhere these days, we should strive to describe our great golf courses as accurately as possible.

Greater accuracy in describing courses will facilitate one of the greatest things about the golf community: its camaraderie, especially in the sharing and comparing of golf courses and experiences over a drink in the 19th hole.

What do you think of the concept of links golf, and the way it’s marketed? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Debunking The Links Golf Myth appeared first on Golf Vacation Insider.

He’s baaaaaaaack…again.

After undergoing back surgery this past April – his fourth in the span of about four years – Tiger Woods will be making his return to competitive golf in a few weeks’ time, at his own HERO World Challenge, held at Albany, an Ernie Els designed in Nassau, Bahamas, November 30 – December 3.

Albany bills itself as an exclusive, high-end community, but it is possible to access the course as a non-member by staying at the club. That said, it’s one of the most expensive places in the world to stay and play, with overnight accommodations starting at a hefty $2,500 per night.

Albany’s sky-high price point fits in with Tiger’s status and lifestyle – he’s the world’s first billionaire athlete, after all – but is it the type of course where he’ll play well?

Maybe not. Judging by his track record, Tiger loves courses that are for all of us, not just the privileged few.

I’ll explain…

The Tiger Woods Golf Trail

Of the 106 professional victories (including 14 majors and 79 PGA Tour wins) Tiger Woods has amassed in his incredible career, 61 have happened on municipal, daily-fee and resort courses. Given that so many top-level professional golf tournaments are played on private courses, Woods’ dominance at public and resort courses is particularly staggering.

Of the public-access courses where he has won, a handful stick out as places where he has won multiple times, and where particularly notable moments in his career have transpired.

This “Tiger Woods Golf Trail” spans the world. Here are the main stops:

Torrey Pines Golf Course – La Jolla, Calif.

If there’s one public golf facility most closely associated with Woods’ storied career, it’s Torrey Pines – specifically, the South Course. Woods has won an insane eight professional events there, including in 2008, when he won both the Farmers Insurance Open early in the year and the U.S. Open in June, on one leg, in a playoff over Rocco Mediate. The South Course has hosted the most dramatic moments, but Woods would not have won so many Farmers Insurance Opens without taking care of business in his rounds on the shorter, sportier North Course, as well.

Bay Hill Club & Lodge – Orlando, Fla.

Bay Hill plays a close second-fiddle to Torrey Pines in Woods’ illustrious career, as he’s racked up seven Arnold Palmer Invitationals at the home of The King.

Poipu Bay Golf Course – Kauai, Hawaii

(Golf Kauai)

Torrey Pines and Bay Hill – as well as Muirfield Village and Firestone on the private side – receive most of the recognition as key places in Woods career, but Poipu Bay has been very good to him as well, as he’s won seven times there, all in past editions of the now-defunct Grand Slam of Golf, a four-man “silly-season” event that used to bring together the year’s four major champions. So yes, these were small-field wins in his prime, but a win’s a win, isn’t it?

Poipu Bay is situated on the southern coast of Kauai, known as Hawaii’s “Garden Isle.” The course is associated with the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa.

Cog Hill Golf & Country Club (No. 4 Course) – Lemont, Ill.

Cog Hill has faded somewhat from golf fans’ consciousness in recent years, as the Western Open, now known as the BMW Championship, has shifted away from the venerable Chicagoland public complex. But in his prime, Tiger Woods won here five times. You can play this bruiser of a course for $155.

Trump National Doral – Miami, Fla.

Woods tamed the Blue Monster four times from 2005 to 2013, before Donald Trump bought the resort and hired Gil Hanse to toughen the course back to its former fearsome glory. The bones of the course remain broadly similar, and who can forget the epic duel between Woods and Phil Mickelson there in 2005?

Omni La Costa Resort & Spa

Woods initially became a household name on the strength of his match play prowess, as he won three consecutive U.S. Junior Amateurs, followed by three consecutive U.S. Amateurs, from 1991 to 1996. His individual match play record as a pro is excellent as well, as he won three match-play World Golf Championships at La Costa, in 1997, 2003 and 2004. Oddly enough, his most famous La Costa moment came in a non-winning year: the first round of the 2006 event, when opponent Stephen Ames proclaimed that anything can happen” against Woods, who was having ball-striking issues at that time. “Anything” did happen – Woods absolutely annihilated Ames, 9&8 (3:29 mark of the video above).

La Costa’s routing has changed somewhat in recent years, but Tiger fan or not, you would do well to spend time at this resort, now part of the Omni family.

TPC Harding Park – San Francisco, Calif.

Tiger Woods has only teed it up twice in his professional career at Harding Park, but both times have resulted in victories: in thrilling fashion over John Daly in the 2005 American Express Championship, and as a member of the victorious American Presidents Cup squad in 2009, when he went a perfect 5-0 in his matches. If Woods can get his groove back (and get his back healthy) over the next couple years, circle the 2020 PGA Championship there as a potential Tiger-in-winter triumph.

TPC Sawgrass (Stadium) – Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Sawgrass is something of an anomaly on this list, because despite having won three huge events there in his life – the 1995 U.S. Amateur and the 2001 and 2013 PLAYERS – his track record at the course is somewhat mixed. If anything, this makes the Pete Dye classic all the more intriguing as a course to experience and study for its associations with Woods.

The Grove – Hertfordshire, U.K.

The Grove is one of many courses on which Tiger Woods has won just once, but it belongs on this list because, like Harding Park, it is a place where Woods is batting 1.000. That win wasn’t so much a victory as a clinic – Woods shot 23-under par for four days and won by eight strokes over Ian Poulter and Adam Scott.

You probably won’t go quite that low, but The Grove’s Kyle Phillips-designed course is one of England’s best-regarded inland layouts, and the attendant resort is lovely.

TPC Scottsdale – Scottsdale, Ariz.

Tiger never did win here, but you can probably tell from the video above why it deserves to be a stop on the Tiger Woods Golf Trail…

Have you played any of these courses? What did you think? Please read what others are saying or share your comments below!

The post The “Tiger Woods Golf Trail”: Have You Played His Favorite Courses? appeared first on Golf Vacation Insider.

I was thinking about the book recently and realized that a lot of these habits apply to golf courses and resorts.

It turns out that five of Covey’s seven “habits of highly effective people” can also be seen as “habits of highly effective golf courses and resorts.”

Take a look at these and let me know what others you’d like to add…

“Be Proactive”

As far as I’m concerned, the first rule of customer service – not just in travel but in any business – is: “Keep the customer informed.” The resorts who put themselves in their guests’ shoes tend to communicate best and clearest. Here are a few examples of great proactive behavior:

• Informing guests — during the reservation process — of any maintenance issues
• Sending upcoming guests an email with events and activities for the days of their stay
• Offering to pair a twosome with another twosome in order to smooth out pace of play
• Pre-marking players’ scorecards with cart-path-only holes on a morning after overnight rain
• In case of a mix-up or mistake, not just apologizing but giving some info as to what’s being done to rectify the error

“Put First Things First”

Mike Keiser’s properties’ main mission is simple: provide a world-class golf experience. Everything else follows from there.

Some resorts seem to be hell-bent on trying to please every possible type of visitor – buddy groups, families, business travelers. These different groups have different expectations and needs, and can sometimes mix like oil and water. What inevitably happens is that property concerned with attracting everyone ends up delighting no one.

What makes Mike Keiser’s developments – Bandon Dunes, Cabot, Sand Valley – so unequivocally successful is that they all seem to spring from one guiding principle: “Build the best possible golf courses and people will come.” If you want to attract golfers, and you build world-class golf courses, chances are you’re going to succeed.

“Think ‘Win-Win'”

Yes, the leisure business is just that: a business. But I can’t help but think that the nickel-and-dime tactics some resorts seem to deploy actually hurt their balance sheets in the long run by annoying some guests into seeking R&R elsewhere.

Let’s be honest: is charging $15 for a yardage book really so necessary that you want to give up the chance to create warm-fuzzy feeling that golfers get when extras like a yardage book and a bag tag show up in the golf cart, included in the guest fee? Those facilities make golfers feel special and enrich themselves by creating strong repeat business.

“Synergize”

This is especially crucial when it comes to booking both the golf and lodging for a trip at the same time, or with the same person. Highly effective golf resorts have well trained reservations staff who are as well-versed in golf operations and tee time bookings as they are in lodging concerns. Likewise, a golf staffer who can help make you a dinner reservation is a great ally.

“Sharpen the Saw”

Trends are constantly cropping up and dissipating. Golfers’ behaviors are changing. Yet some courses and resorts seem to be stuck in 1995. “Highly effective” courses and resorts aren’t afraid to implement new ideas and seek feedback from their clientele. Six-hole rates. FootGolf options. Relaxed dress codes. Not every new initiative becomes permanent, but the inclination to experiment is a sign of attentive leadership, which makes for a better guest experience.

What are the most important “habits of highly effective golf resorts,” in your experience? Please do us the honor of sharing your thoughts in the comments below!

The post 5 Habits of “Highly Effective” Golf Resorts appeared first on Golf Vacation Insider.

This week, we’re turning back the clock a bit, to focus on some classic architects of a similar stripe. These aren’t the Donald Rosses, C.B. Macdonalds and A.W. Tillinghasts of the world, who managed to get around by ship, boat and early airplane. But these architects left behind a numerous consequential courses a little closer to home.

William Langford & Theodore Moreau

Lawsonia Links is a Langford & Moreau masterpiece in central Wisconsin.

Region: Midwest

Notable Courses:
– The Golf Courses at Lawsonia (Links) – Green Lake, Wisc.
– Culver Academies – Culver, Ind. (9 holes)
– Harrison Hills Golf & Country Club – Attica, Ind.
– Marquette Golf Club (Heritage) – Marquette, Mich (9 of 18 holes)
– Wakonda Club – Des Moines, Iowa (private)

Geographical Exceptions: 
– The Country Club – Morristown, Tenn. (private)
– Texarkana Country Club – Texarkana, Ark. (private)

C.B. Macdonald, along with protégés Seth Raynor and Charles Banks, is well known for distinctively deep, flat-bottomed bunkering and greens that seem to drop off on all sides, but by no means did he have a monopoly on that exciting brand of design. Langford and Moreau’s work is mostly confined to the Midwest, but their standout courses, including Lawsonia Links and Culver Academies, make for some of America’s best inland golf.

William Flynn

Flynn’s low-profile style brings a quiet beauty to the Cascades. (Omni Hotels)

Region: Pennsylvania, Mid-Atlantic, Ohio

Notable Courses:
– Cascades at Omni Homestead Resort – Hot Springs, Va.
– Atlantic City Country Club – Northfield, N.J.
– Seaview Resort (Pines) – Absecon, N.J.
– Lancaster Country Club – Lancaster, Penn. (private)
– Huntingdon Valley Country Club – Huntingdon Valley, Penn. (private)
– Philadelphia Country Club – Gladwyne, Penn. (private)

Geographical Exceptions: 
– Cherry Hills Golf Club – Cherry Hills Village, Colo. (private)
– Indian Creek Golf Club – Miami, Fla. (private)

The vast majority of Flynn’s body of work is private, but key opportunities to enjoy his austere brilliance remain at Atlantic City, the Homestead and select other courses. We would love to see his courses at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland and Cleveland Heights in Lakeland, Florida restored as well.

Wayne Stiles & John Van Kleek

Taconic stands out as the best of the Stiles/Van Kleek portfolio. What’s more, it’s playable by non-members. (Taconic Golf Club)

Region: Northeast, esp. New England

Notable Courses:
– Taconic Golf Club – Williamstown, Mass.
– Franconia Golf Course – Springfield, Mass.
– Country Club of New Hampshire – Sutton, N.H.
– Hooper Golf Club – Walpole, N.H. (9 holes)
– Rutland Country Club – Rutland, Vt.
– Prouts Neck Country Club – Scarborough, Me. (private, open to Black Point Inn guests)
– Split Rock Golf Course – Bronx, N.Y.

Geographical Exceptions: 
– Glen Arven Golf Club – Thomasville, Ga.
– Albuquerque Country Club – Albuquerque, N.M.
– Tarpon Springs Golf Course – Tarpon Springs, Fla.

Despite relative obscurity in modern times, Stiles and Van Kleek had a long and prosperous career in golf course design, with more than 100 courses bearing their names. Shying away from high-profile projects, they made inexpensive, solid golf their priority, and as a result, their courses tend to be beloved by locals first and foremost. But they have their prestige: Taconic is one of the best college golf courses in the country and the great Bobby Jones played the last round of his life at the Stiles/Van Kleek-designed Wahconah.

George Thomas

Ojai Valley Inn & Spa is one of just a few public-accessible George Thomas courses (Golf Advisor)

Region: California

Notable Courses:
– Riviera Country Club – Pacific Palisades, Calif. (private)
– Los Angeles Country Club – Los Angeles, Calif (private)
– Ojai Valley Inn & Spa – Ojai, Calif.
– Stanford University Golf Course – Palo Alto, Calif.
– Saticoy Regional Golf Course – Ventura, Calif. (9 holes)

Geographical Exceptions: 
– Whitemarsh Valley Country Club – Lafayette Hill, Penn. (private)
– Marion Golf Course – Marion, Mass. (9 holes)

Thomas’ body of work was quite small relative to the influence of his best designs, namely Riviera and Los Angeles Country Clubs. If you don’t have private club connections, focus your efforts on Stanford and Ojai to get an idea of the dramatic bunkering style Thomas deployed on his courses.

Harry Colt

St. George’s Hill Golf Club is an absolute must-play Harry Colt design south of London.

Region: United Kingdom, especially England

Notable Courses:
– Swinley Forest Golf Club – Berkshire, England
– St. Georges Hill Golf Club – Surrey, England
– Stoke Park Country Club & Resort – Buckinghamshire, England
– Formby Golf Club – Merseyside, England
– Royal Portrush Golf Club – County Antrim, Northern Ireland
– Muirfield – East Lothian, Scotland
– Aberdovey Golf Club – Gwynedd, Wales

Geographical Exceptions: 
– Century Country Club – Purchase, N.Y. (private)
– Old Elm Club – Highland Park, Ill.
– Toronto Golf Club – Mississauga, Ont.
– Koninklijke Haagsche Golf & Country Club – The Hague, The Netherlands

The United Kingdom only really counts as a “region” by virtue of its size relative to corresponding “regions” in the United States. After all, for hundreds of years, it constituted the entire world of golf and golf courses. Nevertheless, Colt is noteworthy for the incredibly high standard of courses he left behind in the U.K. – including legendary links, heathland and parkland courses – as well as some notable designs in Continental Europe and the U.S.

James Braid

(Murcar Links)

Region: United Kingdom, especially Scotland

Notable Courses:
– Brora Golf Club – Sutherland, Scotland
– Championship Course at Carnoustie Golf Links – Angus, Scotland
– Dunbar Golf Club – East Lothian, Scotland
– Lundin Golf Club – Fife, Scotland
– Murcar Links Golf Club – Aberdeen, Scotland
– Royal Troon Golf Club – Troon, Scotland
– St. Enodoc Golf Club – Cornwall, England
– Hunstanton Golf Club – Norfolk, England
– Pennard Golf Club – Swansea, Wales

Geographical Exceptions: 
– Grange Golf Club – Dublin, Ireland
– Newlands Golf Club – Dublin, Ireland

James Braid was first and foremost a professional golfer, known as part of the “Great Triumvirate” of the game around the turn of the 20th century (along with Harry Vardon and J.H. Taylor). His prolific design career comprised more than 200 courses, all of them in the United Kingdom with the exception of a small handful in the Republic of Ireland. His well-routed, strategically sound courses are solid tests, from the more modest small-town clubs to the mighty Carnoustie, which hosts the 2018 Open Championship.

Stanley Thompson (EDITOR’S LATE ADDITION)

Cape Breton Highlands Golf Course is a spectacular Stanley Thompson design (Golf Nova Scotia)

Region: Canada

Notable Courses:
– Cape Breton Highlands Golf Course – Sydney, Nova Scotia
– Green Gables Golf Course – Cavendish, Prince Edward Island
– Banff Springs Golf Club – Banff, Alberta
– Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course – Jasper, Alberta
– Whirlpool Golf Course – Niagara Falls, Ontario
– St. George’s Golf & Country Club – Etobicoke, Ontario (private)

Geographical Exceptions:
– Chagrin Valley Country Club – Chagrin Falls, Ohio (private)
– Constant Springs Golf Club – Kingston Jamaica
– San Andres Golf Club – Bogota, Colombia

Stanley Thompson, the “Toronto Terror,” had a prolific career that included more than 150 courses, the vast majority in Canada. His flair for bunkering and strategically fascinating holes translates well in any setting, from the Maritimes to the mountains of Alberta.

Have you played any of these classic regional golf course architects’ courses? Share your reminiscences and recommendations in the comments below!

The post 7 Great Classic Regional Golf Course Architects appeared first on Golf Vacation Insider.

But not all golf course architects have had worldwide opportunities to ply their trade. Not by a long shot.

For those five household names mentioned above – not to mention Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, whose exploits in competitive golf launched them into worldwide architecture careers of their own – there are multiples more golf architects whose work is and was much more confined, geographically.

In fact, there are enough notable regional architects that we’re inclined to break this into Modern and Classic sections.

You may not have heard of these modern regional golf course architects, but you should seek to discover their work.

To me, it’s the traveling golfer’s version of going to a new place and seeking out the best local cuisine, rather than the chain restaurants.

Here are some modern (active since World War II, or thereabouts) regional architects you should know:

Jim Engh

(Fossil Trace Golf Club)

Region: Rocky Mountains (esp. Colorado)

Notable Courses:
– Fossil Trace Golf Course – Golden, Colo.
– Golf Club at Redlands Mesa – Grand Junction, Colo.
– Lakota Canyon Ranch – Newcastle, Colo.
– The Club at Black Rock – Coeur d’Alene, Id. (private)

Geographical Exceptions:
– Tullymore Golf Club – Stanmore, Mich.
– Awarii Dunes Golf Course – Axtell, Neb.

With a strong hand for earthworks, Jim Engh has created some of the most distinctive looking courses. It’s appropriate that so many of his courses are in mountain settings. Per his website, Engh prides himself and his firm on being “the industry leader for creating spectacular golf on tremendously rugged and difficult land.” Whereas mountain courses tend toward the tough end of the difficulty spectrum, Engh’s work often features ample places for the wayward shot to find some relief, especially on his many greens with punchbowl-type shaping.

Davis Love III/Love Golf Design

Davis Love III has courses all over the south, including at Barefoot Resort in Myrtle Beach. (Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday)

Region: Southeast (esp. the Carolinas)

Notable Courses:
– Love Course at Barefoot Resort – North Myrtle Beach, S.C.
– Kinderlou Forest Golf Club – Valdosta, Ga.
– River Hall Country Club – Alva, Fla.
– Retreat Course at Sea Island – St. Simons Island, Ga. (renovation)
– Atlantic Dunes Course at Sea Pines Resort  – Hilton Head Island, S.C. (renovation)
– Brunswick Country Club – Brunswick, Ga. (private; restoration)

Geographical Exceptions:
– Dunes Course at Diamante Cabo San Lucas – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

The 1997 PGA Champion and World Golf Hall of Famer has made a strong regional mark in his home state of Georgia and elsewhere in the South. His firm’s classical design sensibilities make them equally talented ad new course work and restoration and renovation of existing designs.

Geoffrey Cornish

(Stratton Mountain Resort)

Region: Northeast (esp. New England)

Notable Courses:
– Bethel Inn & Country Club – Bethel, Maine
– Farm Neck Golf Club – Martha’s Vineyard., Mass.
– Atlantic Country Club – Plymouth, Mass.
– Stratton Mountain Resort – Stratton, Vt.
– Sugarloaf Golf Club – Sugarloaf, Penn.
– Stow Acres Country Club – Stow, Mass.
– Pines Course at The International – Bolton, Mass. (private but playable by overnight visitors)

Geographical Exceptions:
– Zoar Golf Club – Dover, Ohio
– Pipestem Resort – Pipestem, W.Va.
– Marchesa Course at Golf Club Villa Carolina – Castelletto d’Orba, Italy

Canadian by birth, Cornish lived to the ripe old age of 97 and spent much of the 20th century designing solid, playable golf courses for the masses. In fact, no one designed more courses in New England than Cornish. You can expect straightforward golf, some long par fours, and pitched greens on a Cornish course. His Hop Meadow Country Club in Simsbury, Connecticut, where I learned the game, is no exception. Modern architects Brian Silva and Mark Mungeam, each with their own successful design careers, got their starts working for Cornish.

Joe Lee

(Walt Disney World Golf)

Region: Florida and Georgia

Notable Courses:
– Abacoa Golf Club – Jupiter, Fla.
– Bonaventure Golf Club – Weston, Fla.
– Disney’s Magnolia Golf Course – Orlando, Fla. (former PGA Tour site)
– Pine Lakes and Indian Mound Courses at Jekyll Island Golf Club – Jekyll Island, Ga.
– Okefenokee Country Club – Blackshear, Ga. (private)
– Palm Beach National Golf Course – Lake Worth, Fla.
– Bent Pine Golf Club – Vero Beach, Fla. (private)

Geographical Exceptions:
– Musket Ridge Golf Club – Myersville, Mary.
– Laguna Course at Oceanico Golf Club – Vilamoura, Portugal
– Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club – Grand Blanc, Mich. (private; former PGA Tour site)

What Geoffrey Cornish was to New England, Joe Lee was to the Sunshine State. His no-nonsense, solid courses typified mid-20th-century golf course architecture of the sort popularized by Robert Trent Jones,. Sr., though Lee is more closely associated with Dick Wilson, whom he assisted in building the likes of the original Blue Monster at Doral, the original Bay Hill course and Cog Hill’s No. 4 “Dubsdread” course, all long-time PGA Tour venues. No less a figure than Jack Nicklaus once said, “Joe Lee has never built a bad golf course.”

John Fought

(Sand Hollow Resorts)

Region: Pacific Northwest, Southwest

Notable Courses:
– The Gallery Golf Club at Dove Mountain – Marana, Ariz.
– Founders Course at Verrado – Buckeye, Ariz. (w/Tom Lehman)
– Players Course at Indian Wells Resort – Indian Wells, Calif.
– Sand Hollow Golf Resort – Hurricane, Utah
– South Course at The Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club – Aloha, Ore.
– Trophy Lake Golf & Casting Club – Port Orchard, Wash.

Geographical Exceptions:
– Wilmington Municipal Golf Course – Wilmington, N.C. (restoration)
– Somerby Golf Club – Byron, Minn. (private; w/Tom Lehman)

John Fought’s (last name rhymes with “boat”) career in golf started as a player; he played the PGA Tour full-time from 1979 to 1985. Back and neck injuries prompted him to trade his staff bag for a drafting table, and he jumped into design in the late 80s, working for Bob Cupp before striking out on his own. Though Fought was an accomplished competitive player, his courses remain playable for the full spectrum of golfers.

Thomas McBroom

(Links at Crowbush Cove/Rodd Resorts)

Region: Canada (esp. Eastern Canada)

Notable Courses:
– Le Géant at Tremblant Resort – Mont Tremblant, Que.
– Chippewa and Ussher’s Creek Courses at Legends on the Niagara Golf Club – Niagara Falls, Ont.
– Bell Bay Golf Club – Baddeck, N.S.
– The Links at Crowbush Cove – Morell, P.E.I.
– Tobiano Golf Course – Kamloops, B.C.
– Rocky Crest Golf Club – King City, Ont. (private)

Geographical Exceptions:
– Royal St. Kitts Golf Club – Basseterre, St. Kitts & Nevis
– Kytäjä Golf – Hyvinkää, Finland

The Toronto-based McBroom has an impressive list of courses to his credit, spanning his golf-mad home country. In addition to the public and resort layouts he’s crafted, he’s also responsible for two of Canada’s most exclusively private courses: Memprémagog and Domaine Laforest, both located in Quebec and owned by the influential Desmarais family.

Jeff Brauer

(Cowboys Golf Club)

Region: Texas, Great Plains

Notable Courses:
– Cowboys Golf Club – Grapevine, Texas
– Painted Dunes Desert Golf Course – El Paso, Texas
– Firekeeper Golf Course – Mayetta, Kan.
– Sand Creek Station Golf Club – Newton, Kan.
– Colbert Hills Golf Course at Kansas State University – Manhattan, Kan.

Geographical Exceptions:
– Wildhorse Golf Course – Davis, Calif.
– Avocet Course at Wild Wing Plantation – Myrtle Beach, S.C.
– Giants Ridge Golf & Ske Resort – Biwabik, Minn.
– Wilderness at Fortune Bay – Tower, Minn.

A past Presdent of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, Brauer has excelled at bringing thoughtful, playable courses to some of America’s wider-open spaces. Low on superfluous flash but high on strategic content, Brauer’s courses are everyday gems.

Ault, Clark & Associates

(Worthington Manor Golf Club)

Region: Mid-Atlantic

Notable Courses:
– Baywood Greens Golf Club – Long Neck, Del.
– Cahoon Plantation Golf Club – Chesapeake, Va.
– Nutters Crossing Golf Course – Salisbury, Mary.
– Piney Branch Golf Club – Upperco, Mary. (private)
– Stonehaven and Woodhaven Courses at Glade Springs Resort – Daniels, W. Va.
– Worthington Manor Golf Club – Urbana, Mary.

Geographical Exceptions:
– Isabella Golf Course – Hot Springs Village, Ark.
– The Landings Golf Club – Warner Robins, Ga.

This firm, like so many, is an example of how golf course design can be a family business. Edmund Ault started designing courses in the 1950s, passed the family business along to his son Brian in the 1980s, and Thomas Clark became a partner in 1989, having worked for the firm since 1971. Their work is well-known and well-regarded by public and private golfers from Pennsylvania down through the Virginias and beyond.

Mike DeVries

Greywalls, on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, hints at what Mike DeVries’ capabilities.

Region: Michigan

Notable Courses:
– Marquette Golf Club (Greywalls) – Marquette, Mich.
– Mines Golf Course – Grand Rapids, Mich.
– Pilgrim’s Run Golf Course – Pierson, Mich.
– Diamond Springs Golf Course – Hamilton, Mich.
– The Kingsley Club (private) – Kingsley, Mich.

Geographical Exceptions:
– Cape Wickham Golf Links – King Island, Tasmania, Australia
– Meadow Club (private; renovation) – Fairfax., Calif.

DeVries is an example of an architect in the process of transcending the “regional” designation and becoming a household name. In its first year, Cape Wickham has vaulted onto world-top-100 lists and seems sure to open lots of doors for this incredibly talented architect.

Donald Steel

(The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle)

Region: United Kingdom
Notable Courses:
– Bracken Course at Woodhall Spa Golf Club – Lincolnshire, England, U.K.
– Palmerston Course at Brocket Hall Golf Club – Hertfordshire, England, U.K.
– Stapleford Park Country House Hotel – Leicestershire, England, U.K.
– Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle – Dornoch, Scotland, U.K. (private; accessible by overnight guests)
– The Gower Golf Club – Swansea, Wales, U.K.
Geographical Exceptions:
– Primland – Meadows of Dan, Va.
– Abaco Club on Winding Bay – Abaco, Bahamas

Steel’s name does have some cachet in the U.S., mostly due to the exclusivity of courses like Carnegie Abbey in Rhode Island and Cherokee Plantation in South Carolina, but the 84-year old Brit’s influence on U.K. golf has been much greater. Not only has he designed a number of new courses, he has served as a consultant for many of the Open Championship rota courses as well. His courses tend toward minimalistic bunkering, but each of those hazards is well-placed and challenging to escape.

What golf course architects have left their mark on your home state or region? Let us know in the comments section below, and be sure to stay tuned for our “classic” list to come!

The post 10 Great Modern Regional Golf Course Architects appeared first on Golf Vacation Insider.

Ask 10 different people and you’re likely to get 10 different answers…and none of them will necessarily be wrong.

The fact is that golfers value different characteristics in a pre-round warmup spot or post-round self-diagnosis lab.

In my own travels, I’ve found myself enamored of a wide range of practice facilities.

I polled my fellow avid traveling golfers, too, and their responses were surprising as well.

So without further ado, here’s an eclectic selection of effective, unique and otherwise memorable practice facilities from the world of golf:

Most Over-The-Top Off-Site Facility

If you can’t practice a particular shot at the PGA Learning Center, chances are you’re not going to encounter it on the golf course. (PGA Village)

PGA Learning Center – Port St. Lucie, Fla.
It’s only fitting that one of golf’s most comprehensive practice facilities would be in the purview of the PGA of America. Indeed, the Learning Center, just a couple minutes from PGA Golf Club’s three main course, is massive, with 35 acres encompassing a 360-degree full-swing range, numerous putting and short-game greens and a three-hole practice course. There are even different consistencies of bunker sand so that visitors and PGA professionals alike can learn bunker shots encountered all over the world.

Best Practice Facility Without A Full Driving Range

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club – Pawleys Island, S.C.
Caledonia stands out as perhaps the finest golf experience on the Myrtle Beach Grand Strand on the strength not just of its Mike Strantz-designed golf course, but its intimate setting. At barely over 100 acres, there simply wasn’t enough room to include a full-length range, so visitors are invited to warm up their long clubs across the street at sister course True Blue Golf Club. But it’s worth taking a few wedge swings at the target greens set up in the space between the eighth and ninth holes by the clubhouse, complete with live oaks and deep bunkers as obstacles. It’s also ideal for post-round, bet-settling closest-to-the-pin contests.

Most Thoughtfully Massive Practice Facility

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort – Bandon, Ore.
All parts of the golf experience at Bandon are awesome, so it’s no surprise that that extends to the practice facilities, which serve as a great introduction to the somewhat different grass and ground conditions found at Mike Keiser’s phenomenal resort. What makes Bandon’s Practice Center thoughtful is that its two ranges point in opposite directions, out of deference to the seasonally shifting winds along the Beaver State’s southern coast. When you’re not working on you full swing, you can dial in your distance control with the putter on Bandon’s acre-large putting green, too. And there’s Shorty’s a free-play short course adjacent to the South Range and available Thursday through Sunday.

Most Stunning Seaside Practice Setting – U.S.

Sea Island Golf Club – St. Simons Island, Ga.
Practice facilities are often squirreled away in odd or featureless parts of an otherwise attractive property. Sea Island’s which serves the resort’s Seaside and Plantation Courses, is the rare exception, whetting the golfer’s appetite with the long-range water views that can be expected during the round. A big, undulating putting green and solid short-game facilities ice this particular cake.

Most Stunning Seaside Practice Setting – International

It’s hard to beat a sunrise practice session at Quivira.

Quivira Los Cabos – Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Quivira’s Jack Nicklaus-designed course wanders up, down and all around a craggy hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The clubhouse is situated on the beach, so the range gets its own spectacular south-facing Pacific frontage.

Most Brightly Lit Ball-Beating Venue

Trump National Doral Resort & Spa – Miami, Fla.
If daylight hours are not sufficient for your golf practice needs, you may find what you’re looking for at Trump National Doral, which touts its status as “the only LED-lighted driving range in the world,” courtesy of a comprehensive array of floodlights around the perimeter of the range.

Best “Convertible” Driving Range

Ak-Chin Southern Dunes’ #miniDunes layout is integrated with its driving range. (Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club)

Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club – Maricopa, Ariz.
Ak-Chin Southern Dunes’ Lee Schmidt/Brian Curley-designed course is well known both for its intriguing layout and penchant for hosting high-level tournament golf. Its practice facility matches up, and features an interesting twist: a built-in par-3 course called #miniDunes, which opens to guests every afternoon when the range closes.

Driving Range With The Coolest Targets

Sunset at Top of the Rock is one of the best practice settings we’ve ever seen.

Top of the Rock at Big Cedar Lodge – Branson, Mo.
Top of the Rock’s nine-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed par-3 course is part golf course, part rock garden, and its practice facility is a marvel as well. The range itself was designed by Arnold Palmer and features 16 target greens, protected by waterfalls, rock ledges and “bunkers” (the whole landing area is synthetic turf), as well as views of Table Rock Lake. As if that’s not enough, next door sits a massive, Himalayas-style putting green designed by Tom Watson. Resort developer Johnny Morris has a flair for the dramatic, and the whole Top of the Rock complex delivers.

Best-Sounding (and Best-Tasting) Range

Diamante’s range, complete with sliders and cocktails, is an experience more than an amenity (Diamante Cabo San Lucas)

Diamante Cabo San Lucas – Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Diamante is nominally private, but it is possible (and recommended) to arrange a visit on a stay-and-play basis. Make sure to arrive earlier than usual for your tee time in order to indulge in one of the most fun pre-round rituals we’ve seen: a range with private “grotto” hitting areas, and a chef and mixologist on hand to serve up sliders, tacos and cocktails.

Practice Facility With The Best Short-Game Area – East

World Woods’ doughnut-shaped practice putting green is one of the biggest anywhere. (YouTube / Visit Florida)

World Woods Golf Club – Brooksville, Fla.
World Woods’ entire practice facility has been lauded for years, but its offerings for golfers wanting to work on shots inside of 100 yards is tremendous. Its three practice holes’ green complexes vary nicely, beckoning players to hit a few extra shots after holing out. And the adjacent 36-hole, two-acre putting course simulates the undulations golfers experience on the Tom Fazio-designed Rolling Oaks and Pine Barrens courses.

Practice Facility With The Best Short-Game Area – West

Pebble Beach Golf Links – Pebble Beach, Calif.
In addition to one of the most beautiful and historic places for golf in the world, visitors to Pebble Beach get the pleasure of one of the most-improved practice facilities anywhere, renovated in 2014 and earning rave reviews ever since. It’s especially handy for those wanting ample opportunity to prepare themselves for the course’s famously pitched, tiny greens, as there are two well-bunkered putting surfaces with a healthy swath of fairway in between. For further short game tests, there’s the charming Peter Hay Golf Course adjacent to the practice area.

Honorable Mention

Here’s a rapid-fire list of other practice facilities we think highly of:

Pinehurst Resort – Pinehurst, N.C.
Thistle Dhu, Pinehurst’s Himalayas-inspired putting course, adds to an already expansive practice facility meant to accommodate golfers playing the resort’s five main-campus courses.

(SentryWorld)

SentryWorld – Stevens Point, Wisc.
SentryWorld’s range has multiple directions’ worth of full-swing tee areas, a solid short-game area and a big, centrally-located putting green just steps from one of the better golf course restaurants we’ve encountered. You could do worse than a brat, a beer and a bucket of balls here.

TPC San Antonio – San Antonio, Texas
It’s a safe bet that any resort that also hosts the PGA Tour is going to have some great practice facilities, and TPC San Antonio is no exception. In addition to a spacious range, there distinctly different short game areas, shaped and bunkered to mimic the resort’s two distinct courses.

(Tetherow)

Tetherow – Bend, Ore.
The distinctive bunkering and contouring style that David McLay Kidd deployed at Tetherow can be quite different from what a visitor is used to seeing, so the fact that the practice range has its own bunkering and mounding helps give players an idea of what to expect for their next 18 holes.

Bay Creek Resort – Cape Charles, Va.
With challenging courses designed by Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, it’s important to make sure one’s game is firing on all cylinders. And with a broad, double-ended range and large practice green that works for both putting and chipping and bunker play, it offers all a visitor needs to warm up or put in some productive practice time.

The short game practice facility at Sea Pines’ Heron Point and Atlantic Dunes courses is both functional and scenic. (Brandon Tucker/Golf Advisor)

Sea Pines Resort – Hilton Head Island, S.C.
Our preferred practice facility of the two on offer here is actually the one that serves the Heron Point and Atlantic Dunes courses: a large, curved practice tee and plenty of spots for putting, chipping and bunker practice. The plantation-style clubhouse adds an air of stateliness to the scene.

TPC Sawgrass – Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Along similar lines as TPC San Antonio, it’s no surprise that the home of the PLAYERS Championship is an incredible place to sharpen one’s game. When you’re there, you shouldn’t be surprised to see well-known pros digging it out of the dirt. They do have their own dedicated practice areas, but what’s available to us mortals is more than sufficient.

St. Andrews’ sheltered hitting bays provide protection from the elements. (St. Andrews Links)

St. Andrews Links – St. Andrews, Scotland, U.K.
The Home of Golf gets its due for the on-site golf courses – not just The Old Course, but the new, Eden and Jubilee – but it’s an excellent place to tune up one’s game, too. The range has both open tee area and sheltered hitting bays, the latter of which can come in handy on days of rough weather. Also, the short-game practice green is flanked by pot bunkers of the sort you’re likely to encounter on the courses. What’s more, the famed Himalayas putting course is nearby, though we consider it more of a course unto itself than grounds for practice.

What are some of your favorite practice facilities in golf? Be sure to share your nominations with us and your fellow Golf Vacation Insider readers below!

The post Perfect Preparation: 19 Golf Resorts with Great Practice Facilities appeared first on Golf Vacation Insider.

Diverting weight to the outside edges of the back of the head of an iron has done wonders for the golf games of millions over the last few decades.

Mishits, especially toward the toe of the club, don’t fly crookedly and pathetically short like they used to when every single golfer used blades.

That increased forgiveness has meant longer and more reliable distance on all iron shots, which in turn makes for a happy golfing public.

But for the most part, those major distance and accuracy leaps haven’t been applied to wedges.

Until now.

That’s because Cleveland, long known as the equipment company of choice for golfers who want classically handsome and practically versatile scoring clubs, has built a wedge for the 84% of golfers who use cavity-back irons.

They’re calling it the CBX, and it’s just been made available online and in retail locations.

Here’s a quick intro to these clubs courtesy of our friends at Revolution Golf:

To be fair, the Cleveland CBX wedge is not the first cavity-back wedge ever made.

But Cleveland’s engineers are confident that it is the absolute best cavity-back wedge on the market. Here’s why:

Cleveland CBX Wedges: The Best Of Both Worlds?

Ever since cavity-back irons started to be adopted by golfers everywhere, middle- and higher-handicap players have had to make significant compromises when shopping for wedges. Here were their options:

1. Use a crude cavity-back wedge that served as a continuation of their iron set. These wedges have traditionally been mediocre-to-serviceable on full shots but severely limited in their capabilities around the green. Because club manufacturers were just making a slightly higher-lofted extra iron, spin rates would be particularly low.
2. Use a traditionally-shaped wedge that felt and performed very differently from their iron set. These clubs have always been engineered to be useful around the greens, but on longer shots, their significantly heavier weights and small sweet spots cause all kinds of distance problems, especially for players who don’t compress the ball as well as elite amateurs and pros do.

With the CBX, Cleveland set out to end this cycle of compromise-based frustration.

The CBX’s perimeter weighting allows the club to dovetail in perfectly with a player’s iron set on full shots, while the head and sole of the club have been shaped and engineered to deliver all the versatility of the more traditional style of wedge.

At address, you would never guess that the CBX is a cavity-back wedge. It looks practically identical to the traditional wedges out there.

But if you catch a full shot a little out toward the toe with the CBX, you’ll notice the ball staying much closer to the hole than it would with a similar mishit with your old wedges.

You know that golf is a game of inches. So you know all too well that a couple inches is all it takes to separate a shot that rolls down a slope into a bunker or pond from one that stays up on the plateau on the green where the pin is perched. Those inches can mean two or more strokes on a single hole, and four to six, easily, over the course of 18 holes.

It sounds a little hyperbolic, but I don’t think it’s at all far-fetched to suggest the CBX might help knock three to five shots off your scores almost immediately.

Closer to the green, the Cleveland CBX is also performs comparably to its less forgiving forebears.

First of all, Cleveland’s engineers gave it the same high-spin Rotex face that makes the company’s other wedges so popular.

Next, they used the perimeter weighting of the CBX wedges to move the sweet spot more into the center of the face, because the “sweet spot” on traditional wedges actually sits a little toward the heel (I had no idea about this until recently).

Finally, Cleveland gave the CBX its popular Dual V Sole Grind, which enables the club to interact with the turf (or sand) just as easily on open-faced shots as it does on more standard chips and pitches.

The result: a wedge that (1) blends seamlessly with your irons on full shots, and (2) does what you need it to on all manner of greenside shots.

It’s a wedge for the masses, and if you’re at all in the market for some new scoring clubs, you owe it to yourself to give the Cleveland CBX a try.

The new Cleveland CBX wedge is available in even-numbered lofts from 46 to 60 degrees, with an MSRP of $129.99-$139.99.

The post Cleveland CBX Wedges: Finally, Scoring Clubs For The Masses appeared first on Golf Vacation Insider.