Destination Golfer 2018

2018 EDITION

COEUR D’ ALENE RESORT COEUR D’ ALENE • ID

Win a Leupold Rangefinder!

See page 8 for details.

B EST O F T HE N W S AY A LO H A TO M AUI S W D ESERT D ELIGH TS MID W EST ’ S TO P R ES O RTS GULF CO A ST B EER & B LUES

FALLEN OAK GC SAUCIER • MS

ONE LEGENDARY LOCATION...

TWO UNFORGETTABLE COURSES

20% Off* Tee Times|Promo Code: DG18 | www.desertwillow.com

*Discount valid for “Non-Resident Best Available Rate” online tee times only. Valid for up to 4 players, one time use per person.

Cannot be combined with any other offer, special, discount or coupon. Does not apply to group or tournament play. Valid until 6/30/18.

Desert Willow Golf Resort, located in sunny Palm Desert, California, offers two championship courses, Firecliff and Mountain View, a spectacular Clubhouse, The Palm Desert Golf Academy, Tournaments and Outings, Corporate Events, Weddings, Meetings and Special Events, and Scenic Outdoor Dining at The Terrace, making it the premier Southern California golf experience.

38-995 Desert Willow Drive | Palm Desert, CA | 92260 | 760.346.7060 | www.desertwillow.com

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CONTENTS 4 TEEING OFF

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DESTINATION:HI Maui’s aloha spirit

6 INDUSTRY INSIDER

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DESTINATION:NW Washington wonders

A career in golf awaits

THIS PAGE The Firekeeper Golf Course at Kansas’ Prairie Band Casino Resort draws golfers from throughout the Heartland.

STORY ON PAGE 30

8 IN FOCUS

Leupold’s top new lasers

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DESTINATION:MW Heartland’s top resorts

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SPOTLIGHT Fort Worth goes ”Westropolitan”

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DESTINATION:SE Gulf Coast getaways

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DESTINATION:SW Palm Springs’ best bets

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DESTINATION:NE Heaven on earth

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RESORT REPORT The incredible island green

ON THE COVER A quarter - century ago, Coeur d’ Alene’s island green — which golfers must take a boat to complete — put Northwest golf on the map, and turned a tiny Idaho resort town into a bucket-list golf destination.

STORY ON PAGE 42 PHOTO BY BRIAN OAR

D ES T I N AT I O N GO LFER 3

10 th Anniversary Issue Hits America’s Top Golf Locales VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 1 • 2018 Destination Golfer is published and owned by Varsity Communications, Inc.

VARSITY COMMUNICATIONS 4114 198th St. SW, Suite 5 Lynnwood, WA 98036 P: (425) 412-7070 F: (425) 412-7082 varsitycommunications.com

EDITORIAL STAFF P U B LI S H E R Kirk Tourtillotte P R E S I D E NT Dick Stephens E D I TO R Brian Beaky ART DIRECTION Robert Becker GR APHIC DESIGNERS Robert Becker, Katie Erickson

FOR EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS AND INQUIRIES: Brian Beaky • (425) 412-7070 ext. 103 editor@cascadegolfer.com

ADVERTISING & MARKETING STAFF

V I C E P R E S I D E NT / D I R E C TO R O F S A L E S Kirk Tourtillotte S ALE S R E P R E S E NTAT IV E S Simon Dubiel, Ian Civey, John Tipping FOR ADVERTISING INQUIRIES, CONTACT: Kirk Tourtillotte • (425) 412-7070 ext. 114 kirk@varsitycommunications.com

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PRINTING

Consolidated Press • Seattle, WA COPYRIGHT 2018 Destination Golfer. PRINTED IN THE USA. All rights reserved. Articles, photos, advertising and /or graphics may not be reprinted without the written permission of the publisher. Advertising and editorial contained herein does not constitute endorsement of Destination Golfer or Varsity Communications, Inc. Publisher reserves the right to edit letters, photos and copy submitted and publish only excerpts. The publisher has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all material contained in this issue. However, as unpredictable changes and errors do occur, the publisher can assume no liability for errors, omissions or changes.

All photos are courtesy of the course or individual unless otherwise noted.

PROUD CHARTER MEMBER

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BY KIRK TOURTILLOTTE

can’t wait to golf again!

It’s been nearly two and a half months since I played a sun-drenched round of golf at the beautiful Palmilla Golf Club, along the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Mexico.

And as I write this in mid-January, I am just weeks away from kicking off the 2018 season with my annual Super Bowl golf vacation to Phoenix.

It’s been a typically wet and cold winter here in my hometown of Seattle, and a couple of months off has only served to get my golf juices flowing with anticipation for the 2018 golf season. This is the precise reason we created Destination Golfer magazine in 2009. This is our 10th-anniversary issue, and we hope it gets your golf juices flowing as well.

The 2018 edition packs more features into our pages than any previous issue, including a look at the Golf Academy of America and how it gives everyday golfers like you and I the opportunity to train for careers in the golf industry. We also take a look at Leupold’s latest and greatest laser rangefinder. (I have used one for years and can’t play without it.)

We focus on great areas to play throughout the Midwest, including the stunning Lake of the Ozarks, a true mecca of vacation golf, and examine how casino resorts in Kansas and Oklahoma

are making their mark in the stay-and-play world.

We travel to the birthplace of blues in Mississippi, and sample the exploding craft beer scene in Alabama, while teeing it up at the top Gulf Coast courses.

Moving West, we check out the “Westropolitan” vibe of Fort Worth, Texas, with its unique blend of Old West traditions and modern cultural amenities.

Of course, you can’t leave out Palm Springs and the island of Maui if you are looking to get away before winter ends, and we certainly don’t here. Indeed, I’ve already made plans to be in Palm Springs in March.

Our coverage wraps up in the Pacific Northwest, where we highlight Coeur d’Alene Resort and its famous floating green; our favorite resort in the destination hotbed of Central Oregon, Black Butte Ranch; and explore Washington’s “other” award-winning tracks — you’ve no doubt heard of 2015 U.S. Open host Chambers Bay, but these other courses are doing just as much to turn Washington into a top golf destination, including one named America’s Best New Course in 2015.

As for me, I’m heading to the driving range to get my game ready for Phoenix. See you on the fairway!

INDUSTRY INSIDER

Need a Career Change? Check Out Golf Academy of America

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awaii, Palm Springs, Vegas, the Pacific Northwest, the RTJ Golf Trail ... over the course of these pages, you’ll read about golf’s greatest destinations and, if you’re anything like us, will probably wish you could go there today, and never leave.

Well, what if you could?

From coast to coast and across the globe, golf resorts require a significant number of staff to offer guests a superior experience. The changing golf industry is seeing growth and more people are needed to fill these positions. From general managers and food and beverage managers, to golf professionals, golf instructors, club repair and fitting specialists, fitness professionals, golf course superintendents and more, there are dozens of employees necessary to operate a first-class resort. In fact, golf currently represents a $76 billion industry that supports more than 2 million jobs — only a small fraction of which require expertise with a 2-iron.

Training individuals for those positions is exactly what the Golf Academy of America (GAA)

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has been doing for over 30 years. Founded in 1974 as San Diego Golf Academy, GAA has a history of educating and training its 11,000-plus graduates for positions in the golf industry. And with the golf industry changing just as quickly as the world around it, those positions are now focused on the business and technology aspects more than ever before.

“The golf industry is more than swinging a golf club,” says Ron Bouterie, General Manager of Lost Creek Club. “It’s merchandising, customer service, food and beverage, agronomy, marketing, teaching and much more. GAA gave me tools to get me to where I am today.”

As more companies focus on growth, business and technology training are more important than ever in growing the bottom line. From an associate’s degree program in Golf Complex Operations and Management that can completed in just 16 months, to online learning options for certain parts of the curriculum, GAA has various levels of coursework that can be tailored to your specific needs. And, of course, you’ll want to work on your

game, which you can do with personal instruction from PGA professionals on staff, using on-campus golf technology such as Trackman, BodiTrak pressure mapping system, K-Vest 3-D Motion Analysis, V1 Digital Coaching System, SAM Putt Lab, and the Edufii coaching app. Classroom instruction covers the inner workings of the game, and weekly tournaments will ensure that you enter your exciting new position with the confidence to excel.

“I see the Golf Academy of America as a business school for golf,” says one student. “Besides classes on golf instruction, club fitting and repair, et cetera, there are also classes on marketing and sales, business law, and accounting, all of which help prepare you for the business side of the game.

“You don’t have to be a great golfer to be at the Golf Academy,” he adds, “you just have to love golf.”

To learn more, visit www.golfacademy.edu.

IN FOCUS: LEUPOLD GOLF RANGEFINDERS

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Leupold Sets Sights on Success With New 2017 Lasers

t seems that every couple of years, we come back to rangefinders. That’s partly because, like anyone who has ever tried to buy a television, computer or videogame system will understand, the technology keeps on changing.

The cutting-edge GPS rangefinders of just two years ago are now already 2-3 generations behind their present-day progeny, while laser rangefinders have become even more precise, long-ranging and easy to use.

But, truthfully, that’s only part of the reason that we continue to cover the exploding rangefinder market. The other is … you. We receive more questions about rangefinders than all other golf accessories combined, an indicator of consumer interest reflected by the large number of rangefinders ranked among the leaders in U.S. golf accessory sales figures.

Despite all of the added features and technological advancements, there remain two basic kinds of rangefinders – GPS and laser. GPS rangefinders typically have a slightly lower price point, but are often limited in the number of points that can be targeted on each hole (frequently just hazards and greens), and can only be used on courses that have been pre-mapped by the service provider, which hit most of the big boys but often overlook those tucked-away munis where so many of us make our hay in between destination rounds. Furthermore, many require monthly or annual subscription fees that can nearly wipe out the difference in up-front cost, and suffer from suspect performance in cloudy weather.

For those reasons, we’ve always been willing to pay a little more up front for a high-quality laser rangefinder. Not only is a laser rangefinder guaranteed to work wherever you are, and whatever the weather, it also allows you to target any location on the course with a simple point and click, while many models will factor in slope (a feature that can be turned off for tournament play) to give you a “plays like” yardage for your shot (as opposed to just the real point-to-point

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BY BRIAN BEAKY DG EDITOR yardage), while others will vibrate when locked on to a flag, to give you confidence in the distance before your shot.

There’s a reason that professional caddies all use laser when mapping the course during their practice rounds — quite simply, it’s the most accurate, the most flexible, and the easiest to use.

And when it comes to laser, it’s tough to beat the latest models from Leupold. The GX-5i3, released in February 2017, is the most accurate rangefinder that the award-winning manufacturer has ever released, with accuracy to one-tenth of a yard. It can also be programmed to memorize your typical distances with each club, and give club recommendations based on the distance, slope and — get this — environmental conditions.

That’s right — play on a damp, cold, early-March morning, and the 5i3 will give you a different distance and club recommendation than it would on a warm August afternoon, when your limbs are loose and the fairways are rolling firm and fast.

Try to get your GPS rangefinder to do that.

In 2018, Leupold is adding updated versions of it’s 3i and 4i families to the fold as well, with the GX-3i3 and GX-4i3 offering similar features

to the top-of-the-line 5i3, at a slightly lower price point. The 4i3 packs Leupold’s patented highperformance DNA (Digitally eNhanced Accuracy) and advanced infrared laser into a sleek package that matches the 5i3’s one-tenth of a yard accuracy, and ability to factor hitting strength, slope and environmental factors when making its recommendations (again, features which can be turned off for tournament play). The main difference? The 4i3 can “only” range targets up to 700 yards away, as opposed to the 800-yard range of the 5i3. If you’re planning to hit your half-mile club, those extra 100 yards will come in handy; otherwise, the 4i3 should suit you just fine.

The 3i3, meanwhile, matches the two superior models in range and accuracy, while also incorporating the Prism Lock and PinHunter 3 technologies that ensure you’re locked onto the flagstick every time you range the green. It doesn’t have TGR and Club Selector, so it won’t tell you what club to hit or factor slope into its readings, but if you’re looking for the best of the basic features at a reasonable price point, you won’t find a better option on the market.

Lastly, there’s the GX-1i3 and GX-2i3, each offering similar features to those above, with slightly shorter ranges, and available at rates that are great for someone looking to dip their toe into the wonderful world of laser.

We’re so happy with our Leupold rangefinders, in fact, that we’ve teamed up with the manufacturer to give one away at every one of our golf shows this year — and to a lucky Destination Golfer reader as well. To enter, simply visit CascadeGolfer.com and click the “Enter to Win” banner at the top of the page. One lucky winner will be notified this spring!

Whether you win one from us, or buy one yourself, you can’t go wrong with laser. And if you’re shopping for laser, there’s no name to know besides Leupold. Visit their website at www.leupold.com to learn more.

SPOTLIGHT: FORT WORTH, TEXAS

Old West Traditions Meet Modern Golf & Cultural Amenities in Fort Worth

Rockwood Golf Course • Fort Worth, Texas

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s Dallas has grown over the last halfcentury into one of the world’s largest cities, sister city Fort Worth has evolved at a slower pace, retaining its Old West roots while at the same time embracing modern culture in the form of art galleries, nightlife, craft breweries and more. It’s a vibe the locals call “Westropolitan” — and it’s one you can’t find just about anyplace else.

“I moved here from Nashville, and it reminds me a lot of what Nashville was like before it exploded these past few years,” says Nancy Bunton, the city’s assistant director of golf & athletics. “It has the food, the culture and the entertainment of a major city, yet there’s still a cattle drive two times a day in the Stockyard district, and it’s not uncommon to see someone riding a horse.

“It’s a growing city, with a small-town feel.”

Part of that growth has come from the city’s commitment to golf, and the travelers — from Dallas, sure, but also from Kansas City, St. Louis and other major Midwest markets — who have begun to see the city as an affordable, amenity-rich alternative to a pricier golf getaway in a more traditional locale.

Chief among the city’s courses in Rockwood Park Golf Course. Completely rebuilt in 2016 nearly 80 years after it first opened, at a cost of more than $5 million, the new course is receiving

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raves from golfers who praise its new bunkers and water hazards, reconditioned fairways and greens, rebuilt cart paths and other shiny, new features. At over 7,000 yards from the tips, and with a deep second cut of rough, it’s proven tough enough to challenge scratch golfers, but boasts three shorter sets of tees that make the course playable for all. Perhaps Rockwood’s most notable feature — besides beautiful views of the city skyline from several holes — is the all-new fourth hole, a 611-yard monster (527 from the whites) with a large pond protecting the hole’s final third, one of eight holes that bring water into play. True to the blend of history and modernity that defines Fort Worth, however, at least one element of the old course has been preserved — a stone bridge on the 13th hole that was built by the Works Progress Administration as part of FDR’s New Deal nearly a century ago.

Players have been unanimous in their praise, calling the new Rockwood Park “a new gem in Fort Worth” and “one of my favorite public courses.”

It’s not the only one, though. In fact, the city operates four courses within a short distance of each other, including Rockwood Park, Pecan Valley, Meadowbrook and Sycamore Valley, each with their own unique designs and charms. Greens fees range from just $35-$50 depending on the time, day and month — a bargain as compared to nearly any

other golf destination — with pricing updated constantly at www.FortWorthGolf.org.

Of course, the golf may be what brings you there, but it’s not going to be the only memory you take with you. The aforementioned Stockyard District is a time machine to the Old West, with a twice-daily cattle drive and championship rodeo on Friday and Saturday nights, plus the world’s largest honky-tonk, Billy Bob’s Texas, and other fun, Western-themed shops and adventures. Aficionados of American culture will appreciate the Downtown and Cultural Districts, where visitors can browse the cafes and shops of Sundance Square, visit the Fort Worth Water Gardens, or browse Western art and culture in the Sid Richardson Museum, National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, Amon Center Museum of American Art and more. And, when it’s time to kick off your boots and relax, the Panther Island Pavilion (where visitors can rent innertubes and float down the river), Sundance Square Splash Pad, Six Flags, and Fort Worth Zoo are fun for all ages, while the breweries and endless dining options ensure a fun nightcap to a busy day.

One visitor describes Fort Worth as “unpretentious, laid-back, and charismatic in all the right ways.” We’d add “affordable, walkable and just down-right friendly.” To plan your Fort Worth getaway, visit www.FortWorth.com.

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FULL OF THE

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Desert golf in a place like the Coachella Valley is a weird and wonderful experience

sed to soggy fairways and greens made soft by 200 acres of a 525-acre parcel long the focus of City development

BY TONY DEAR near-incessant rain or snow, despite the best efplans – plans that finally got the go-ahead earlier this year. forts of skilled superintendents, the winter golfer Breaking ground in May was a 140-bedroom, five-star Montage in most parts of the country yearns for the southwest at this time of year, when the hotel which is going up on the site of the old 18th hole, and which forced the closure sun is invariably shining, temperatures are conducive to relaxed golf, and the playing of the back nine. Brandon Johnson, a Vice President and Senior Architect at the Arnold surfaces remain agreeably firm.

Palmer Design Company, has overseen the renovation, which includes a rerouting of Though visually striking, standard desert golf can oftentimes be something of an the inward nine, and construction of three entirely new holes. acquired taste, with its forced caries and well-defined targets, which might explain An architect with PGA Tour Design Services and lead architect for The First Tee why so few genuine desert layouts appear in best-course lists. But, we’ll take all the prior to joining Palmer’s firm in 2006, Johnson has worked on SilverRock since 2012, forced carries and well-defined targets you can throw at us if we get to play them in when the City needed to relocate the canal that flows through the course. Removing it 75-degree sunshine, while everyone back home is shielding him-or-herself from yet entirely proved to be too costly, says Johnson, so it was ultimately realigned. another cold downpour.

“We oversaw the changes to the golf course that resulted from rerouting the canal,” There are a number of well-established destinations in the bottom-left corner of Johnson adds. “At the same time, we were working with the City and the development the country that golfers from colder climates flock to each winter. The oldest of them company on a golf course masterplan that would help realize the second phase of the is Palm Springs, where nine-hole courses began springing up in the 1920s as people development project which is currently underway.” recognized the benefits of dry heat to certain medical conditions, and Hollywood ac- Though SilverRock lost its existing 18th hole, there was precious little extra land for tors sought refuge from the limelight. the golf course, so Johnson had to get creative. His new plan took advantage of previ The first 18-hole course in the Coachella Valley, whose main centers of population ously unused views of the surrounding mountains, incorporated an all-but-forgotten — Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, In- water feature built years before, and remedied a former pinch point while introducing dian Wells, Thousand Palms, Indio, Bermuda Dunes, and Coachella — possess over 120 more fairway space and ground-game options. courses between them, was Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Designed The all-new 11th hole is a strong par-3 over water with the mountains in the backby Johnny Dawson and Lawrence Hughes, it opened in 1951 and became a sanctuary ground. The 12th has a new tee, making it a par-5 – one of three on the new back for sports and movie stars who bought lots bordering the fairways. Four years after nine — and the new driveable par-4 18th is a tribute to Johnson’s old boss, who passed opening, it hosted the 11th Ryder Cup matches, with 43-year-old Sam Snead the star in September 2016 and is still greatly missed by a game, and a world, that loved him. of the USA’s 8-4 victory.

“The hole plays directly back into the adjacent mountain range backdrop,” says At the time Thunderbird opened, Palm Springs was beginning to enjoy a mid- Johnson. “Remembering Mr. Palmer’s charge at Cherry Hills in the 1960 U.S. Open, and century boom period when it truly became established as the resort town in which to because of our desire as architects to make the game fun, we wanted to give the player be seen, and specifically, to be seen playing golf. Though its star dimmed significantly one last heroic temptation and chance to go for it.” (On holing your putt for birdie, you in the early part of the 21st century, it has come back to life in recent years with the do, of course, need to throw your hat into the air and give the great man a thumbs-up.) culinary, art, architecture, and lodging scenes all getting a much-needed kick in the The back-nine renovation also reduced the amount of irrigated turf, and converted pants. maintained areas back into native desert landscape. All 18 holes reopened in November.

Perhaps the most elaborate project is happening at the SilverRock Resort (760- Work will continue on the $420 million SilverRock development next year, with the 777-8884, www.silverrock.org) which was built by the City of La Quinta in 2005, and Montage set to open in October 2019. A boutique hotel named the Pendry – Montage’s hosted the Bob Hope Classic (now the CareerBuilder Challenge) between 2008 and boutique brand – is also planned, though the Montage will come first. Also on the 2011. It was designed by Arnold Palmer, who built a typically attractive array of holes on docket are 255 homes, and a resort village.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:

Desert Willow Golf Resort • Palm Desert, Calif.

SilverRock Resort • La Quinta, Calif.

The Classic Club • Palm Desert, Calif.

TPC Stadium Course • La Quinta, Calif.

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f you didn’t play the Firecliff Course at the very highlyrated Desert Willow Resort (desertwillow.com, 760346-0015) in Rancho Mirage last winter, then you won’t have seen the magnificent bunker renovation completed in the summer by the course’s original architect, Dr. Michael Hurdzan — designer of this year’s U.S. Open venue, Erin Hills.

“Bunkers are incredibly expensive to build and maintain,” says Hurdzan. “So the trend today is to have fewer and smaller bunkers, placed at the right location to challenge good players, but not confound the game for everyday golfers.”

When Hurdzan designed Desert Willow, alongside former partner Dana Fry, there was little in the way of established vegetation to help define the holes, so he added a lot of bunkers.

“Now that the landscape plants surrounding the holes have grown, there is less need for them,” he says.

“Pace of play has become a very important issue, and high-handicappers struggle in bunkers, which adds to the length of a round. Plus, the bunkers needed refreshing, with improved drainage and better-playing sand.”

Hurdzan removed about 45 percent of the previous sand area, and thinks the experience at Desert Willow — another way-above-average municipal — is greatly improved.

“It was good before,” he says. “Now, it’s great.”

Bruce Nation, the resort’s Director of Sales & Marketing for the resort (celebrating its 20th anniversary this

year), enjoys hearing golfers from cold, wet climates talk about how good it is to get out of the damp.

“They love it here,” he says. “They always comment on the weather, of course, but also the scenery and beauty of both courses.”

As well as the Firecliff — still a tough test — Desert Willow offers the friendlier and equally enjoyable Mountain View course, which measures a healthy 6,913 yards from the back tees, but does possess fewer forced carries and wider fairways. Also designed by Hurdzan and Fry, the Mountain View is another terribly popular Coachella stop for visiting snowbirds, so we recommend you book your round as soon as you know your schedule.

Nation says the area endured another fiercely hot summer, with temperatures frequently hitting the 110-degree mark, but the courses survived and, after the annual rye overseed, are looking good going into the season.

“We won’t have any summer-related issues affecting the golf courses during peak season,” he says.

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f the Coachella Valley is your usual winter hangout, you’ve probably tried all the best courses, but those coming for the first time, or here for just a week or two, need to know where their winter golf budget should go.

Besides SilverRock and Desert Willow, we would also recommend Nicklaus Design’s Escena Golf Club, just the other side of Highway 111 from the Palm Springs

International Airport. Opened in 2005, the course all but closed a few years ago as it battled the recession, but it rebounded in a big way and is now back to something like its best.

The Classic Club (classicclubgolf.com, 760-6013600) — one of the few Coachella Valley courses north of I-10, one of even fewer without any houses bordering its fairways, one of just a small handful with Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary status, and the only one with a 63,000 square-foot clubhouse — opened in 2006, and is an underrated Arnold Palmer design, though it was actually Vicki Martz that completed much of the design work. An all-too-rare female course designer who sadly passed away earlier this year, Martz worked at Arnold Palmer Design for 25 years before establishing her own firm in 2010.

In 2005, Palmer told Golf Digest, “She designs really good golf holes.” Some of her best are found here at The Classic Club.

The course was built by the Berger Foundation (husband and wife H.N. and Frances C. Berger built a real-estate development and banking empire in Southern California, and established a philanthropic foundation in 1961), and donates thousands of rounds a year to charitable causes. It hosted its first Bob Hope Classic in 2006.

Operated by Troon Golf and consistently in superb condition, The Classic was meant to be the Bob Hope’s D ES T I N AT I O N GO LFER 13

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High Rollin’ permanent home, but the pros didn’t much like it after strong winds turned the 2007 final round into a six-hour wrestle. It lasted only three years. Winds that strong aren’t common, though, so you’re more likely to have to battle warm sunshine and a gentle breeze than chilly, powerful gusts.

The two courses at the Indian Wells Golf Resort (indianwellsgolfresort.com, 760346-4653) – Celebrity and Players – should also appear high on your to-play list. The Celebrity was the resort’s first layout and was designed by Englishman Clive Clark. You might think a Brit would build a modest, understated course emphasizing the ground game, and you would be exactly wrong. The Celebrity, which opened in November 2006, is anything but low-key, with an assortment of colorful flower beds, streams, ponds, elaborate bunkers, waterfalls and carefully positioned boulders.

The architecture snob relishing the current trend for more natural, Golden Agestyle designs (guilty) would surely look down his nose at anyone who likes this sort of thing. But, the Celebrity is an incredibly enjoyable course that mixes sound strategy and shot-making demands with all that brass and glitz. Many are the golfers who begin the round feeling cynical and suspicious, and walk off 18 very pleasantly surprised.

On paper, John Fought’s Players Course — which opened almost exactly a year after the Celebrity — looks much more agreeable to the old-dog skeptic and, sure enough, it delivers magnificently. Owned by the City of Indian Wells, this is another exceptional municipal facility. And, like The Classic Club, the 53,000 square-foot clubhouse is a little over the top, too. There are also four high-end hotels on-site, making it a very popular stay-and-play destination.

Then, there’s the extraordinary La Quinta Resort & Club and PGA WEST (760-5644111, laquintaresort.com) which, between them, offer five exceptional public-access courses — The Stadium, Greg Norman Resort Course, and Jack Nicklaus Resort Course at PGA West, and the Mountain and Dunes Courses at La Quinta.

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olf isn’t Las Vegas’ main draw, but the city isn’t without some fine golfscapes. Rees Jones’ Cascata and Tom Fazio’s Shadow Creek are the ultimate Vegas rounds — both used to be the domain of the rich, famous, and high-rolling (Caesars guests at Cascata, MGM guests at Shadow Creek), but medium and low-rolling guests can make a tee time nowadays, although neither round comes cheap, of course.

Other Vegas courses you should consider include Rio Secco, TPC Summerlin, TPC Las Vegas, Bali Hai, Las Vegas Paiute, Bear’s Best, and the excellent Gary Panks-designed Aliante Golf Course (702-3994888, aliantegolf.com), pictured above, which opened in 2003 and is a 25-minute drive north of the Strip.

It's a good golf course, run by friendly people, at a good price — barely $75 at peak winter times. They'll even you drive you from The Strip, rent you a bag of shiny new sticks, or kick in a meal, all for no more than $109 (dynamic pricing varies by time, day and courseload).

A Troon Golf facility (meaning even bigger savings for Troon Card holders), the course prides itself on a fast pace of play (the recommended "Troon Par" is just four hours), welcoming staff and a design that winds through and around a desert arroyo. It's fun, playable and sufficiently flexible to please groups with mixed abilities, with scenic mountain views and an "out of the way" vibe. Any time we see a course that has been named "Best New," "Top-10," "Most Underrated," "Best Value" and "Most Player Friendly" in its region, we know we're at the right place.

— Tony Dear & Brian Beaky

DON’T GAMBLE ON YOUR NEXT GOLF TRIP!

Play a guaranteed winner Aliante Golf Club Located 25 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, Aliante Golf Club is a memorable, Troon Managed, 18-hole championship course that was designed by Scottsdale-based Gary Panks Associates. Aliante is an exciting and challenging course that will challenge the expert to utilize every club in the bag while providing an enjoyable experience for the novice golfer. The presence of the meandering arroyo that comes into play on 14 holes causes the golfer to feel slightly elevated, providing interesting contours and unique playing lies and angles. The course is highlighted by two water features, generous landing areas, and strategic use of trees that are not commonly found in most desert courses, such as Pear and Purple Locust trees. The practice facility features an expansive driving range, putting green, chipping green and practice bunker. Aliante offers a variety of packages that include transportation, rentals and meals. Please visit aliantegolf.com for more information.

(702) 399-4888 14 D ESTI N ATI ON G OL FE R

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3100 West Elkhorn, Las Vegas NV 89084

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www.aliantegolf.com

LA QUINTA RESORT DUNES COURSE

JACK NICKLAUS TOURNAMENT COURSE AT PGA WEST

LA QUINTA RESORT MOUNTAIN COURSE

THE STADIUM COURSE AT PGA WEST

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CHAM PION S H I P CO U R S E S.

GREG NORMAN COURSE AT PGA WEST

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ICO N IC RE S O R T.

Set at the base of the majestic Santa Rosa Mountains, PGA WEST at La Quinta Resort plays host to a truly one-of-a-kind golf experience. Masters of the game Pete Dye, Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus have designed an iconic destination featuring five 18-hole, par 72 championship courses.

Enjoy exclusive golf benefits as a guest of La Quinta Resort, including complimentary replay round*, driving range access with complimentary range balls, bag storage and more.

To book, call 760.564.7610 or visit laquintaresort.com

*Based on same day availability after completion of first round.

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Together, the quintet recorded 93,000 rounds last year. A round on any of them is a treat, but the ultimate boast is a trip round the Stadium, now officially called The Stadium Course at PGA WEST, having dropped its TPC affiliation at the start of the year.

When Pete Dye’s hazard-strewn minefield opened in 1986, it was deemed too malicious by the pros (a slightly earlier version of the ones that didn’t like the wind at The Classic Club). Dye has been back to temper and soften some of the more extravagant features, but it remains an anxiety-inducing ordeal, albeit one where competent golfers up for a challenge will have the time of their lives.

Every hole has a memorable obstacle you must navigate, and trouble lurks everywhere. There are numerous water carries and, to be honest, after the fourth or fifth, you may start thinking, “Really? Again?” But, if you know what to expect (don't say we didn’t tell you), pick a judicious set of tees from which to play, choose a sensible line — and hit the ball solidly, of course — then it will certainly be one of the best golf experiences of your life. If you’re having an off day, however, the Stadium Course will shame you.

It's hard to know where to put the Stadium Course in your schedule. But, as with all the other courses mentioned above, you’ve got to put it somewhere.

A Bellingham, Wash., native by way of England, Tony Dear is a regular contributor to Destination Golfer. In 2017, he was honored with the Northwest Golf Media Association's Distinguished Service Award.

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ur last desert stop is St. George, Utah, which has grown into a genuine golf destination in recent years on the back of excellent courses like the Matt Dyedesigned The Ledges, Keith Foster’s Coral Canyon, Johnny Miller’s Entrada at Snow Canyon, Gene Bates’ debut solo design at Green Spring, the City of Hurricane-owned Sky Mountain, and the remarkable Sand Hollow, designed by Oregon native John Green Spring G.C. • Washington, Utah Fought and Andy Staples.

Photo by Joe Newman Surrounded by amazing red-rock country, St. George doesn’t get up into the mid-60s and low-70s until the middle of March, so you may want to hold off before venturing to this destination that you probably hadn’t considered before.

But, you really should make a point to go at some point. Just visit the website of the Red Rock Golf Trail (redrockgolftrail.com), stare at the drone footage on the home page for a while, and tell me you don’t want to go and play golf there right now! The Trail is a collection of 10 courses dotted around the towns of Santa Clara, St. George, Washington and Hurricane. As with other golf trails around the country, Red Rock partners with lodging options nearby to offer stay-and-play packages, with a trip planner online and golf concierges available by phone to make planning your trip easy.

Really, choosing which courses to play will be the only problem you have, and gives validity to the phrase "a good problem to have," because you could play any one of them and see things you just don’t see back home.

That said, do make sure Sand Hollow is part of your itinerary. All these courses will make you go, "Wow!" Sand Hollow will do it again and again.

— Tony Dear

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King Kamehameha Golf Club • Waikapu, Hawaii

By Brian Beaky • DG Editor

o drive across the island of Maui is to drive through the history of Hawaii itself.

Walking out of the Kahului Airport into the warm afternoon sunshine, your eyes are immediately drawn upward to the peak of 10,023-foot Haleakala, the volcano whose very existence defines all that we know of Maui. Centuries ago, Haleakala gave life to Hawaii’s second-largest island, pouring its molten contents into the clear blue sea for millions of years until its flow merged with that of nearby Pu’u Kukui to form the island we know today.

Early Hawaiians named the volcano Haleakala, “House of the Sun,” because they believed it empowered the demigod Mau’i to slow the sun’s journey across the sky. Today, tourists celebrate this legend by renting bicycles at the volcano’s summit before sunrise, then slowly descending its slopes as the sun rises from its nightly prison and begins its slow march across the heavens. You’ve never seen a sunrise until you’ve seen it from Haleakala.

Immediately to the west of Kahului, just minutes from the airport, is Wailuku, home to the oldest existing structures on the island – temples the Hawaiian oral tradition credits to the legendary Menehune, magical dwarfs and skilled craftsmen who were overpowered by early Tahitian settlers. According to the stories, the Menehune were driven from the lowlands and forced to live out their existence in the lush rainforests of the Iao Valley, where in 1794 King Kamehameha I – with the assistance of American cannons and military expertise – slaughtered the Tahitians to complete his conquest of Maui and unite the Hawaiian islands. One can only assume the Menehune, if they indeed did exist, smiled down from their mountainside villages.

After leaving Kahului, the modern Maui traveler passes between the ghostly Iao Valley to the northwest and Haleakala to the southwest through seemingly endless fields of sugarcane, planted in the 1800s to make the rum so desired by sailors aboard the hundreds of whaling ships that berthed on Maui’s southwestern coast each year. The midpoint of the Pacific between the whaling centers of Japan and South America, Hawaii – and specifically, Maui – soon became a key port for oceangoing travelers, who brought with them Western culture, religion, and other influences that would set in motion the chain of events that finally led to statehood, in the still-quite-recent year of 1959.

Of course, few vacationers think of these things as they point their rental cars along the 20-minute drive from Kahului to Ma’alaea Bay, where travelers can choose to turn southeast towards Wailea, one of America’s premier recreational communities, or northwest towards the more touristy locales of Lahaina, Ka’anapali and Maui’s most famous golf course, Kapalua.

Separated by just 39 miles, a golf vacationer can truthfully stay anywhere on Maui’s southwestern coast and be within easy driving distance of each of the island’s major golf destinations. And, with golf, lodging and dining options to meet just about any budget, from luxury resorts to more modest oceanside hotels, vacation rentals, even beachfront villas, it’s easy to plan a trip to meet your specific needs.

Best of all, getting to Maui is a lot easier these days than it was for 18th-century Tahitians. Direct flights to Kahului, Maui’s main airport, start lower than $500 round trip from most West Coast cities; add another $100-$200 from the Midwest.

We’ve saved you time – and money – by checking out the area’s top resorts and courses, and put our recommendations in this issue. No need to thank us – that cold beverage at the clubhouse bar, with the pikake smell in the air and the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean before us, was thank you enough.

ocated in a protected rain shadow at the southwestern corner of Maui’s larger half, at the base of the majestic Haleakala, Wailea has established itself as a leading resort community, with thriving golf, shopping and restaurant industries that exist to satisfy the thousands of part-time residents who spend at least a portion of the year on the island.

Much of the area’s best golf is centered at the Wailea Resort, whose 54-hole complex, Wailea Golf Club (888328-MAUI, waileagolf.com), makes it not only one of Hawaii’s top golf resorts, but also one of its top values. In addition to the largest collection of championship courses in the islands, Wailea includes five superb hotels and eight excellent condominium/townhome options, plus spas, shopping, numerous restaurants, live entertainment, an award-winning tennis club and – most importantly for those travelers looking to relax – the No. 1-ranked beaches in the United States.

Of course, what matters to us is the golf. With three varied layouts, ocean views from almost every hole and a 200-foot elevation change from top to bottom, it was a no-brainer for Golf Digest to rate Wailea one of its “Best Places to Play” in a recent story.

The Wailea Gold, formerly the site of the Champions Skins Game, is a ruggedly beautiful layout marked by native wili wili trees, stark lava outcroppings, and a solid design that demands careful club selection to be played well.

Low lava rock walls, built centuries ago by early Hawaiians and preserved for their historical interest, dot the course, a constant reminder of Maui’s ancient history.

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forgiveness, but even avid players will find strong shot placement is key to success. Most memorable about the Emerald is the double green – Hawaii’s first – at holes No. 10 and 17, bordered by a 1.4 million gallon brackish water lake and a stunning ocean view.

The Old Blue is Wailea’s original layout, a more typical “Hawaiian” course with wide fairways, challenging greens, numerous fountains, tropical plants, coral sand bunkers and several lakes. The course meanders through much of the resort, with views of the ocean from almost every point.

In addition to the three courses, Wailea is home to the only David Leadbetter Golf Academy in the islands, part of a 12-acre training facility where resort guests can work on their game between rounds.

Combining golf with a stay at one of the resort’s hotels or condominiums can save nearly 25 percent on the full-price greens fee, while a popular Seahorse Swing golf pass can be purchased for just $465, giving a golfer unlimited access to the Gold and Emerald courses for a three-day period (add top-of-the-line rental clubs for all three days for an additional $90, just $30 a day). In addition, kids play free after 3 p.m. with a paid adult, while unadvertised seasonal specials and packages are periodically posted to the resort’s website.

n the island’s slender center (I’ve always thought of it as Maui’s “neck,” since West Maui takes the shape of a head looking south towards the island of Kaho’olawe), in the foothills of West Maui Mountain, sit two of Maui’s most celebrated courses. And, if you’re lucky, you can play them both on your next visit.

King Kamehameha Golf Club is Maui’s most celebrated private club, with a Ted Robinson-designed course nestled 700 feet above the beaches below, and a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed clubhouse. (Wright based the clubhouse on a design for a home for actress Marilyn Monroe and playwright Arthur Miller, which was commissioned in 1949 but never built.) Each boast views Kahili Golf Course • Waikapu, Hawaii

stretching all the way across the island — from Kahului in the north to Ma’alaea Bay in the south, with mighty Haleakala rising in between. If it’s views you’ve come for, you can’t make a better choice.

Of course, it’s not — you’re here for golf, and you’re in luck there, too. King Kamehameha offers limited public play at certain times of the year through its “Guest For a Day” program, allowing golfers of all classes and abilities to venture across Robinson’s tiered greens, numerous elevation changes and risk-reward delights. You’ll experience a course designed to challenge and thrill, with generally broad fairways, but plenty of bunkers and water features for those who wander astray. Fairways and greens are in impeccable condition, and the club’s private status means the course is never crowded, with a typical round played in under four hours. What’s not to like?

That said, you don’t have to experience King Kamehameha to get a taste of the King Kamehameha experience. Just down the road is Maui’s Kahili Golf Club (808242-4653, kahiligolf.com), a public track which shares ownership and management with the acclaimed private course. That means that Kahili receives the same quality of care, and shares many of the same design features and views, as its more famous — and more expensive — sibling, at less than half the cost. Routinely rated among Maui’s top values by locals and visitors alike (GOLF Magazine once named it the No. 1 public course in the entire state), Kahili is a golfer’s delight, with memorable par-3s and numerous doglegs and elevation changes that wreak havoc with its supposed 6,500-yard length.

Especially given the wind, it’s wise to move up a tee box and give yourself a chance to score well. If you do, you’ll want to come back — and unlike at King Kamehameha, a true, once-in-a-lifetime experience for non-members — you can, over and over again.

urning west at Ma’alaea Bay takes you to West Maui, a picturesque coastline from Olawalu to Kapalua that has as its bustling center the history-rich town of Lahaina.

Chosen by Kamehameha two centuries ago to be the capitol of his newly unified Hawaiian kingdom and home to his royal palace, Lahaina was once one of the busiest ports on the entire Pacific Ocean. Today, its streets are packed not with sailors, but tourists enjoying an evening walk along the seaside Front Street, home to dozens of restaurants (many featuring second-story deck seating with unbeatable ocean views), trendy shops and galleries featuring work by local artists.

There are also a number of businesses catering specifically to out-of-towners, including whale-watching tours (in the wintertime, the straits around West Maui offer some of the best humpback whale-watching opportunities in the world), professionally led snorkeling and scuba expeditions, helicopter tours into the Haleakala crater, and more.

Wailea Emerald Golf Course • Wailea, Hawaii

Most visitors to West Maui choose to stay in Ka’anapali, centrally located between Lahaina and Kapalua, just a 12-minute drive from both. Though officially just five square miles in size, Ka’anapali is home to seven resort-level hotels and numerous rental condominiums and vacation villas, all located on one of the most famous beaches in the world. With its relatively calm waters and abundant sea life, the Black Rock, a large, lava-rock outcropping located roughly at the midpoint of the resort complexes, is considered one of the premier snorkeling locations on the island, with eels, sea turtles and Hawaii’s famous colorful fish — including the funto-say humuhumunukunukuapua’a — all common sights for even the most amateur snorkeler.

It’s also home to the area’s two premier courses, Royal Ka’anapali and Ka’anapali Kai, at Ka’anapali Golf Resort (kaanapaligolfcourses.com, 866-454-4653). The current home of the Wendy’s Champions Tour Skins Game, the Robert Trent Jones, Sr.-designed Royal Ka’anapali is a challenging test of a golfer’s shot-making skills, combining classic oceanfront holes with others that wind up into the foothills to create a varied golf experience that showcases all that is beautiful on the West Maui coast. At a comparatively reasonable 6,700 yards, and with multiple sets of tees, the par-71 course allows golfers to play the course to whatever difficulty they desire, ensuring a fun and memorable round for everyone in your group.

The shorter Ka’anapali Kai is the more forgiving course, with generous fairways and more subtle greens surrounded by brilliant native flowers, coconut trees and lava rock formations, all backdropped by stunning ocean and mountain views at every turn.

The courses are also ahead of the game when it comes to making golf more affordable and less timeconsuming, a key part of the USGA’s new, forwardthinking initiatives. The “Golf My Way” program allows golfers to play 18 holes over a seven-day stretch — three holes here, four holes there, whatever you have time for on any given day. It’s been a boon with golfers who can’t resist the lure of the courses, but also want to maximize time spent with the family. There are also FitClub programs (an afternoon golf fitness program, perfect for snowbirds in town for a while), FootGolf (unlimited play for just $15 after 3 p.m.), GolfBoard rentals, and multiround packages that drive prices ever lower.

And, if you combine your stay with lodging at Ka’anapali’s premier hotels, the Westin Maui and Sheraton Maui, you can receive even further savings on both the golf and lodging than if you had booked separately.

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Royal Ka’anapali Golf Course • Lahaina, Hawaii

n addition to granting you access to the terrific local courses, a stay in Ka’anapali also puts you within 15 minutes of the crown jewel of Maui’s golf enterprise, the Kapalua Golf Resort (golfatkapalua.com, 808-669-8044).

The 36-hole resort is Hawaii’s most famous, hosting the world’s best golfers year after year, plus thousands of other pleasure-seekers looking to trod the fairways annually ranked among Golf Digest’s “Top 100 You Can Play.”

The Crenshaw/Coore-designed par-73 Plantation Course, home to the PGA Tour’s Tournament of Champions and, in 2016, ranked Hawaii’s No. 1 course, winds 7,411 yards up and down the West Maui Mountain foothills and through Maui’s most active pineapple planta-

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tion, a remnant of the 18th-century Spanish explorers who brought the tropical fruit with them from their explorations in South America. It all leads up to one of the most famous holes in golf, the par-5 18th, a 665-yard monster played downwind to a fairway sloping away from the tee, a perfect storm of conditions for drives that carry 300 – even 400 – yards.

While less challenging (and less pricey) than its more famous sibling, many players find Kapalua’s Bay Course equally enjoyable. While the Plantation winds its way through the mountain foothills, the Bay stretches past the Ritz-Carlton to the coast below, offering players the chance to battle Maui’s famous trade winds during a short-but-challenging two-hole stretch along the coastline — including the signature 5th, the only hole on the entire island to actually play over the water — before returning inland.

Visitors to Kapalua can also take advantage of lessons from some of the country’s top teaching pros, including half-day, two-day and three-day intensive golf schools designed to tune up your swing just in time to come home and dominate your local tournaments next summer. tanding at the peak of Haleakala in the pre-dawn hours of a late-summer morning, bundled up in layers against temperatures hovering just above freezing, it’s easy to think, “What on earth am I doing here?”

Then, the first orange rays of the sun peek over the horizon to the east, bathing the mountain and the island below in a glorious golden light, and you stand, breathless, unable to recall a single thought besides one simple truth – this is why 1,500 years worth of civilizations have been drawn to Maui … an island unlike any other and, for golfers, an experience you’ll never forget.

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You’ve heard about 2015 U.S. Open host Chambers Bay — but it’s far from the only game in Washington, one of golf’s most scenic, and affordable, destinations

BY BRIAN BEAKY

Washington

DG EDITOR

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estled in the upper-left corner of the continental U.S., with a reputation for rainy weather, Washington wasn’t exactly the first destination most golf vacationers had in mind for most of its 140 years of existence.

That is, at least, until the USGA in 2008 awarded the 2015 U.S. Open to Chambers Bay, a Washington golf course that hadn’t even yet officially hosted its first full year of public play — suddenly, golfers around the world were asking, What’s the deal with Chambers Bay? In the decade since, while Chambers Bay has been drawing visitors from around the world to the Evergreen State, its prominence has had a similar effect on golf course designers, who have turned their attention to the formerly overlooked part of the country and crafted award-winning golf courses on the shores of Puget Sound, high amid Cascade Mountain peaks, and on the high-desert plains and rolling green hills of the Central and Eastern Washington wine-growing regions.

Robert Trent Jones, Jr., opened Chambers Bay in 2007. John Harbottle built Palouse Ridge on the Washington State University campus in 2008. Dan Hixson built Wine Valley in 2009. The 2011 season brought two new courses, Gene Bates’ Salish Cliffs and Peter Jacobsen’s Rope Rider, while 2014 saw David McLay Kidd — the acclaimed designer of the Pacific Northwest’s most famous public course, Bandon Dunes — open Gamble Sands along the Columbia River in Brewster.

Long a well-kept local secret, suddenly, the quality and affordability of Washington golf courses was splashed across the biggest media outlets in the game, and the golfers came in droves. In the decade since, they’ve discovered two things: one, that Washington gets significantly less rain than its reputation would suggest (in fact, the entire Gulf Coast, all of Florida, most of the East Coast and just about all of Hawaii receives more on an annual basis); and two, that the courses in the Evergreen State are every bit as good as advertised.

And that’s not even mentioning the incredible

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Gamble Sands • Brewster, Wash.

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culinary scene (the James Beard Foundation has recognized Seattle as one of America’s top-10 culinary cities in three of the last four years, and Washington state ranks sixth in the world in premium wine production, while its craft distillers guild was the first of its kind in the U.S.) or family and recreational activities. Within two hours of Seattle’s city limits, you can be on a Pacific Ocean beach, tracking a pod of orcas in Puget Sound, hiking or skiing down mountain slopes, wine-tasting in the state’s agricultural heartland, or crossing the border into British Columbia. And every single one of those locations has multiple outstanding golf courses to enjoy, crafted by the game’s top designers.

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f course, it’s quite possible none of these Northwest public golf courses would exist without the ones that started it all.

Central Oregon put Northwest golf on the map in the 1960s, with first Sunriver Resort and shortly thereafter, Black Butte Ranch, proving that world-class golf and the Pacific Northwest could go hand-in-hand.

“People said our chances were zero-to-none to be a success,” recalls legendary designer Bunny Mason, who consulted on the first, nine-hole course at Black Butte Ranch, Big Meadow, in 1970, and built the a second championship 18, Glaze Meadow, 10 years later. “There wasn’t supposed to be any more (than the original nine holes), but the course was so successful, we ended up with 36 holes.”

A 19th-century cattle and horse ranch reinvented a century later as a five-star golf resort, with hiking and biking trails, public parks, a fullservice health spa, a sprawling pool complex, waterslides, horseback riding, river rafting, and two of the top 18-hole golf courses in the region, Black Butte Ranch (www.blackbutteranch.com) has proven to be not only a success, but a model for mountain golf resorts nationwide.

The original Big Meadow course continues to earn awards today, with its open layout and breathtaking mountain views, while Glaze Meadow — which underwent a $3.75 million redesign in 2012 at the hands of Oregon native John Fought — is a tighter, tree-lined course, and a perfect complement to its older sibling.

The redesign added five sets of tees — essential for a resort that is a favorite of vacationing families, with $60 twilight rates for family foursomes, plus other amenities like horseback riding, bike trails, waterslides, indoor and outdoor pools and more.

Unlimited golf packages start as low as $99 a night, including overnight accommodations and as many holes as you can play between sunrise and sunset. And with Central Oregon’s best new course in its fold, in a quieter, more secluded setting than many other area resorts, we’re betting that’s going to be a lot.

Visit www.blackbutteranch.com or call (866) 901-2961 to plan your trip.

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hambers Bay may be Washington’s most celebrated public course, but according to the locals, it may not be its best.

In 2017, readers of Cascade Golfer magazine, Washington’s largest golf publication, bumped Chambers Bay out of the top spot for the first time in the course’s history, instead crowning Gamble Sands — David McLay Kidd’s new course in Central Washington — as the state’s No. 1 public track.

Now, it’s not like Gamble Sands came out of nowhere — the two-yearold course was named “America’s Best New Course” by Golf Digest in 2014, and debuted 37th on the same Golf Digest “Top-100” list that ranked Chambers Bay 24th this year. Yet, it was still a surprise to see the course — which certainly hasn’t had the publicity or fanfare of Chambers Bay, and is located in a relatively remote part of the state, three hours from Seattle or Spokane — win a popularity contest against the course that literally put Washington on the world golf map.

The fact is, though, it’s just that good.

With the David McLay Kidd signature (whose Bandon Dunes has never been ranked outside America’s top-10 public courses) and “Best New Course” moniker, it was all but assured that just about every serious golfer in Washington would check out Gamble Sands — once. But, would golfers from outside the state venture all the way to Central Washington? And, would the golfers willing to make that drive be willing come back time and time again?

The answer, quite clearly, is yes. Golfers have been entranced by Gamble Sands’ scenic setting on a ridge above the Columbia River, its sprawling routing across the low hills of the Gebbers family farmland, and its ingenious design that rewards creative shotmaking, while not overly punishing a golfer who struggles to keep the ball in play. The shifting wind conditions and creative contours on the fairways, greens and collars mean a hole almost never plays exactly the same way twice, making repeat play not just possible, but essential to appreciating Kidd’s unique design.

Putts from well short of the green run up over firm slopes; bump-and-run approaches roll to pin-high; wedges drop over front bunkers to well-tucked pins; approaches struck intentionally off-target funnel towards the hole; tee shots fly forever from elevated tees. From the 6,200-yard green tees ― the middle of the course’s five tee boxes ― no fewer than five holes, and potentially as many as seven, represent fantastic risk-reward opportunities.

In other words, it’s just pure fun. Whether a 2 handicap or a 22, you’re all but guaranteed to walk off with a good score — and, most importantly, the feeling that you earned it.

It’s proven so popular, in fact, that Gamble Sands expanded its footprint in 2017 to include a new, 37-room lodge — The Inn at Gamble Sands — and a new golf shop, both located within a sand wedge of the first tee.

The Inn gives golfers the chance to kick up their heels in the shadow of the course itself, while a bar, hot tub and massive putting green reminiscent of Tom Doak’s famed “Punchbowl” at Bandon Dunes — all overlooking the Columbia River below — helps players unwind after a full day on the course.

Check it out for yourself at www.gamblesands.com. — BB

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Salish Cliffs Golf Club • Shelton, Wash.

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f course, when most golfers visualize Northwest courses, they don’t imagine links-style tracks like Chambers Bay and Gamble Sands; instead, they picture tree-lined fairways, elevation changes and incredible greenery.

They picture Salish Cliffs.

It requires a little adjustment, a tiny twist of the brain, when you play Salish Cliffs G.C. at the Little Creek Casino Resort (www.little-creek.com) in Kamilche, Wash., a little over an hour outside Seattle on the scenic Kitsap Peninsula.

Don’t worry — it doesn’t hurt.

It’s subtle, but powerful. It’s the difference between customer service — what a provider does for you (or not), and whether you like it or not — and providing a high-end guest experience that fits you and your needs and preferences.

Little Creek properties operate by the latter principle, and it runs deep.

“If it hadn’t been this way, I probably wouldn’t have come out,” says David Kass, who left North Palm Beach, Fla., to become Salish Cliffs’ first head pro when the course opened in 2011.

When he talked to Squaxin Island Tribe officials about the job in late 2010, Kass says, it felt less like owners talking up their properties and more like proud parents bragging on their kids. He interviewed them: What did they want out of the golf course?

If they’d said they wanted a $40-$50 greens fee and 40,000-to-50,000 rounds a year, Kass might still be in Florida. In fact, he says, the owners’ pride in the Gene Bates-designed golf course translated into clear direction for staff, from Kass on down: Salish Cliffs will be a premium golf experience for every player at a fee befitting its status as one of the best courses in the Northwest.

Kass is now director of golf, spa and retail operations, and the vibe of customer care threads throughout the resort community.

At the golf course, Kass, head professional Chris Koch and every staffer are paying attention, from the time you park your vehicle. They take their cues from you: Do you want every little amenity? They are aware of your tee time … “1:10?

Let’s start getting you ready. Can I put your bag on the cart? Got your range balls?” A smoker? There’s an ashtray in the cupholder.

Some players, Kass says, want to show up, play their round and go, with little interaction with Sal-

Photo by Brian Oar

ish Cliffs staff. That’s OK, too.

“It’s creating the experience they want,” says Kass. “The little things. Everybody’s different.”

Note: A golf cart is built into your greens fee at Salish Cliffs, and you’ll need it, with its championship length (7,269 yards from the tips) and dramatic elevation changes as it unwinds through the foothills of the Kamilche Valley.

Five sets of tees offer an appropriate challenge for all golfers but, as Kass points out, Salish Cliffs could be a painful trek for a beginner. When he sees the signs, Kass might pull a guest aside and suggest that a little range time, with a few fundamental tips from the pro, might be time better spent.

A recent promotional visit to Salish Cliffs and Little Creek included a round of golf and – thank you very much – a Swedish massage at the Seven Inlets Spa. Here, that little three-letter word – S-P-A – unfolds multiple layers of relaxation. Seven Inlets offers a variety of massage therapies, organic facials and body treatments, and the ambiance, from the moment I checked in at the spa’s front desk, was all about pampering.

Sally Perkins, manager of Seven Inlets, said all the esthetic professionals are licensed, but there’s more to being hired here – they are hands-on ambassadors for the resort, with a genuineness and integrity, Perkins says, that goes beyond a certificate.

“It’s being passionate about what we do,” she says, “guiding our guests through their journey.”

Advice: Don’t skimp on your pre-treatment time in the Meditation Room, lounging in the robe and sandals (supplied) to the soothing sound of trickling waters.

My skilled massage professional in the spa made it all about me … never painful or uncomfortable, not even once. After she worked on my feet and hands, she asked if I wanted my face done.

Uh, yes, please.

Stay-and-play packages include resort accomodations (including access to the full-service casino downstairs), golf, range balls and more.

Forgive yourself, here at Little Creek, for feeling indulged. That’s the whole point, starting with your golf round in the morning right through your spa treatment later in the day. This devotion to a satisfying experience for guests at Little Creek – for you – might not be what you’ve known. You’ll get used to it. — Bart Potter

Spokane’s Kalispel Tribe Combines Golf & Gaming

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or over 100 years, Spokane Country Club has been among Eastern Washington’s most exclusive. Arnold Palmer played there when he was in town. So did Jack Nicklaus. Tom Watson holds the course record.

Now, you’ll finally have your chance to break it.

Renamed Kalispel Golf & Country Club after its 2016 purchase by the Kalispel Tribe of Indians — who also own the nearby Northern Quest Resort & Casino — a limited number of public tee times are now available each day, primarily to guests at the Northern Quest.

“We wanted to preserve the rich history of the club,” said Phil Haugen, general manager of the Northern Quest, “and also open this extraordinary place to Spokane.”

And not just Spokane. While daily-fee golfers not staying at the resort pay $115 for the privilege of teeing it up at Kalispel, resort guests can score a twosome, carts, transportation to and from the resort, and a night’s stay for as little as $409, a significant savings over booking golf and lodging separately.

The increasing marriage of golf and gaming has been a shot in the arm for the golf industry and a boon to golfers, who have benefitted from new course construction, renovations and increased amenities. And, indeed, the Kalispel Tribe has already poured millions into club infrastructure, building a new “gastropub” — the 1898 Public House, celebrating the year of the club’s construction — and enhancing clubhouse facilities to include a fitness center and two fullsize simulators.

“We want everybody to come see this.

To enjoy the Kalispel Golf and Country Club,” Haugen says. “The Kalispel Tribe wants to be a great community partner here in Spokane, [and] create the best golf destination in all of Eastern Washington.”

To learn more, visit www.northernquest.com or call 877-871-6772.

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Patricia Island Golf Course • Grove,Okla.

Photo by R.C. Livesay

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While the masses flock to the coasts, we’re touching down in “flyover country” to hit some of America’s most under-appreciated — and uncrowded — golf resorts

BY BRIAN BEAKY DG EDITOR

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or the past half-century, golfers across America have flocked to the country’s most famous destinations.

They’ve followed Hollywood stars to Palm Springs; joined the Rat Pack in Las Vegas; walked in the footsteps of PGA TOUR stars in Hawaii, Florida and on the California coast; soaked up the sun in Scottsdale and Phoenix, and dallied with the country club set on Hilton Head. Close your eyes and picture yourself on a domestic golf vacation, and you’re almost certainly going to see yourself in one of those locales.

But when you close your eyes and see yourself on the first tee, with the warm sun beating down on your skin, there are things you don’t see. You don’t see a greens fee that can often top $200 at the most desirable tracks. You don’t see the hotels and airlines that charge premium rates at peak times of the year, knowing full well that there are thousands of golfers willing to pay up. And you don’t see the thousands of golfers who had the same idea that you did, and are now competing with you for tee times, restaurant reservations and lounge chairs at the pool.

There’s a whole swath of the country, though, with golf courses that, we’d argue, are just as good as those in the “premier” destinations — but where tee times are plentiful and, most importantly, rates are often less than half of those in the nation’s more buzzed-about locales. Best of all, these courses are within driving distance of most major Midwest cities — Kansas City, St. Louis, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Omaha, etc. — and are on affordable direct routes from Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other major cities throughout the west.

From the rolling plains of Kansas, to the recreational Meccas of Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks or Oklahoma’s Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees, the region many Americans call “flyover country” is in fact packed with award-winning golf courses, exciting casino resorts and other activities designed to entertain the whole family, without draining your entire vacation budget for the year Here are a few of our favorites.

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Patricia Island Country Club Grove, Okla.

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t’s a rite of spring in the upper parts of the Midwest — when the ground has finally thawed enough such that the blades of grass don’t crunch beneath your feet, and the ice particles that have gripped the trees start to give way to the first green buds of the year — to pull the clubs out of the garage, head out to the range and find out how much of that swing that you finally had humming last September has made it through the long winter.

The problem is, predicting when that “spring” will arrive isn’t exactly a science. Some years, golfers are taking the clubs out on a 65-degree February afternoon; others, it can be May before the temperatures warm up enough to make five hours outdoors seem like a pleasant way to spend the day.

It’s that reason, speculates Andy Stewart, why so many upper Midwest golfers annually make the drive down to Grove, Oklahoma’s Patricia Island Country Club and the nearby Indigo Sky Casino & Hotel in April and May, eager to kick off their season under clear skies, with the warm sun on their arms — and a bevy of recreational activities to enjoy.

Situated on a peninsula jutting out into Oklahoma’s famed Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees (see photo on previous page), Patricia Island is the region’s most acclaimed course, ranked eighth in the state in 2016 by Golf Advisor. With more trees than many Midwest tracks, Patricia Island puts a premium on shot placement — particularly on the back, where the fairways narrow and water hazards threaten to collect any mis-hit balls.

What truly sets the course apart, however, is its conditioning — with fairways and greens in fantastic shape 12 months of the year, whether it’s 36 degrees or 96 degrees — and its staff, which go out of their way to give every guest a five-star experience.

Best of all, that five-star experience doesn’t extend to the rates, which top out at just $65 on peak summer weekends, and drop significantly lower at off-peak times, or when combined with lodging or casino packages.

Most visitors do choose to take advantage of those packages, and why not? The Indigo Sky Casino & Hotel offers overnight packages start-

Shangri-La Golf Club, Resort & Marina • Afton, Okla.

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ing at just $139 per person, including golf, cart, free shuttle service to the course, a $30 dining credit and a night’s stay at the luxurious casino resort, where players can enjoy slots, blackjack, poker, roulette and other table games well into the night. What’s more, every Patricia Island package also includes $50-$100 in gaming credits to get you started at the tables, making it quite possible that this is one golf vacation that will actually put money into your wallet.

“The combination of golf and gaming is really what sets us apart from any other course or resort in the region,” Stewart says. “I mean, if someone gambles, it’s a no-brainer.”

Other packages combine golf at Patricia Island with golf at nearby tracks like Peoria Ridge, Eagle Creek or Shangri-La, all with free shuttle service as well. Drive down, drop your clubs, and let Patricia Island take care of the rest.

Group coordinators at Patricia Island will help find the exact package to meet your needs — call 1-800-495-5253 or visit www.patriciaisland.com to learn more.

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TEE IT UP In Central Missouri’s Recreational Paradise

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ith over 1,000 miles of coastline, the 175-square-mile Lake of the Ozarks (actually, a reservoir created by construction of the Bagnell Dam in 1931) in central Missouri is one of the Heartland’s largest outdoor recreation attractions, drawing water sports enthusiasts, boaters, hikers, bikers, kayakers, Netflix television producers — and, of course, golfers.

Thirteen different courses — including some of Missouri’s highest-rated tracks — sit within 30 miles of each other around the lake’s perimeter along the Lake of the Ozarks Golf Trail, making it easy to bed down in one spot and play a different course every day for a week or more.

While the bulk of vacationers arrive in the summer to take full advantage of the lake amenities, the “Goldilocks” season for golfers is the spring, when rates are lower, resorts (and tee boxes) are less crowded, and the flowers that line many of the lake’s prettiest tracks are in full bloom.

For full-service resorts, it’s tough to beat Tan-Tar-A Resort (www.tan-tar-a.com), which boasts not only 27 fantastic holes with treelined fairways, elevation changes and more bunkers and water hazards than are typical of a Midwest track, but also a luxurious hotel, fullservice marina, bowling alley and the region’s largest waterpark. Featuring more than 600 feet of water slides, plus a lazy river, whirlpool and three-story treehouse with a 600-gallon tipping bucket, it’s the perfect place to stash the kids while you’re out knocking ‘em stiff on the 18hole Oaks Course, ranked among the region’s top-five every year by users at TripAdvisor.com.

Old Kinderhook Golf Club • Camdenton, Mo.

The Lodge of Four Seasons (found online at www.4seasonsresort.com) is unique among area resorts in that many of its 54 holes — designed by no less than Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and Ken Kavanaugh — extend out into the lake, on tiny peninsulas of land that immerse golfers in their surroundings. The Robert Trent Jones, Sr., designed Cove Course is the most popular with resort guests, a par-71 course with RTJ’s large, rolling greens and numerous bunkers, and a signature fourth hole that extends out into the lake.

The Ridge Course, meanwhile — ranked fifth in the state by Golf Digest in 2016 — is a little more “player-friendly,” with large fairways, elevated tees and a tipped-out length of just 6,447 yards.

(Nicklaus’ Club at Porto Cima, the third course at the Lodge, is open only to club members.)

Just a half hour to the south, practically on the lake’s southern shore, is Old Kinderhook Golf Club (www.oldkinderhook.com), an equally outstanding course which draws its own share of stay-and-play visitors. The state’s second-ranked public track according to Golf Digest, Old Kin-

Tan-Tar-A Resort • Osage Beach, Mo. 34 D ESTI N ATI ON G OL FE R

derhook features a Tom Weiskopf design that plays to 6,855 yards from the tips, with water on almost every hole, well-bunkered greens and a creative layout. In-season rates peak at $110, but are just $59-$89 in springtime, when the flowers are at their peak and the traffic that will come in summer has yet to arrive. The recently rebuilt Lodge at Old Kinderhook provides guests with a home-away-from-home featuring modern rooms overlooking the golf course, a conference center, ice skating rink, indoor and outdoor pools, and more.

Golfers coming down to Lake of the Ozarks from I-70, meanwhile, often choose to stop in at Lake Ozark’s Osage National Golf Resort (www.osagenational.com), a 27-hole facility located just a few miles downstream from Bagnell Dam on the lake’s northeastern shore. What sets Osage National apart aren’t just its 27 holes — 18 designed by Arnold Palmer himself, the only Palmer-designed course in the state — but its large pool complex, where the non-golfers in your family can enjoy the afternoon at no additional cost while you tee it up on the course four times named “best at the lake” by local golfers.

Condo rentals are available for golfers who wish to stay on-site, with group rates and custom-designed golf packages to meet your group’s specific needs.

“For the amount of courses of such good quality, in such a concise area, it really is hard to beat for the price point,” says Kyle Stewart, whose GolfingMissouri.com website helps golfers browse courses and hotels throughout the Lake of the Ozarks Golf Trail, with special package rates that are often better than those you could find booking on your own.

An increasing number of Midwest resorts, like Kansas’ Prairie Band Casino Resort (whose Fireekeeper Golf Course is pictured at left) and Oklahoma’s Shangri-La Resort & Golf Club and Patricia Island Golf Club, are pairing golf and gaming to create a full-service destination golf venue.

Firekeeper Golf Course • Mayetta, Kans.

Firekeeper Golf Course

Shangri-La Resort

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Mayetta, Kans.

s recently as the 1950s, the Prairie Band of the Potawatomi Tribe were on the brink of elimination. Fragmented by centuries of government intervention and internal dissension that had seen the tribe relocated from Michigan, to Missouri, to Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma, the tribe was slated to lose its federal recognition, before a determined group of Potawatomi negotiated successfully to preserve the tribe’s status.

Flash forward sixty years, and the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation are flourishing, with a casino resort that draws visitors from across Kansas and the surrounding states, and one of the top new golf courses in America.

The Firekeeper Golf Course at Prairie Band Casino & Resort, which opened officially in 2011, has been named Kansas’ top public track by Golfweek, and for good reason — 18 holes sprawl across 7,500 yards of beautiful, rolling plains, with fescue rough and firm, fast greens.

There’s little doubt that course designers appreciate the land they were given, as they pay homage to it at every turn, with one of the most scenic layouts on the Great Plains.

The signature architect on the venture was Notah Begay III, himself a Native American. But it was his co-designer, industry veteran Jeff Brauer, who did much of the preliminary work and day-to-day observation and execution. Brauer and Begay allowed the site to speak for itself.

“I found a little notch of tree clearing, which they told me had been done in 1947 and which, actually, they still regretted,” he says. “I proposed a short par-4 using that notch as a hazard, in an effort to show them I would use every natural feature available. We moved very little earth and used the surrounding land forms as guides in our shaping, trying to match the rolling hills of Kansas.”

The Director of Golf at Firekeeper is Randy Towner, who moved to Firekeeper after 23 years at Alvamar Golf Club in Lawrence, about 50 miles southeast of Mayetta. Towner says the course records about 17,000 rounds a year, and that, though most visitors come from Topeka (20 miles south), and Kansas City (85 miles east), the course draws golfers from St. Louis, Omaha and even more distant locales.

“Golfweek named us the best public course in the state, so the course has nationwide appeal,” says Towner. “I’m always surprised at the great lengths some people will travel to play great golf. It’s nice to be one of those places. It’s been a great addition to the hotel and casino.”

Most out-of-town visitors take advantage of stay-and-play packages through the Casino & Resort, which include golf for two and a room in the comfortable, lodge-style hotel for as little as $199 a night — a fantastic value for a round at Kansas’s No. 1 course and a night in a spectacular resort room ... which you won’t see much of, of course, while enjoying the 1,100 slots and more than 30 table games in the Prairie Band Casino, and dining in your choice of three award-winning restaurants.

Before you drive away, look back across the hills at the grass waving gently in the breeze and spare a thought for the Prairie Band of Potawatomi ancestors who first settled this land. It may have taken more than 500 years of hard work and perseverance, but they’ve finally find found a home. Learn more at www.pbpgaming.com or by calling (785) 966-7777.

Monkey Island, Okla. n 1933, author James Hilton imagined a fictional paradise called Shangri-La, a peaceful, harmonious land isolated from the outside world, where residents remained in a permanent state of bliss. Hilton’s Shangri-La was said to be deep in a Himalayan valley – fortunately, ours isn’t nearly so remote.

The Shangri-La Golf Club, Resort & Marina located on the tip of the confoundingly named Monkey Island (not only are there are no monkeys, it is also not an island, but a peninsula) on the shore of Oklahoma’s famed Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees, has become one of the Midwest’s premier recreational destinations.

In fact, so many golfers have made the trip, that Shangri-La (pictured on page 32) expanded in 2017, opening an all-new, 119-room resort hotel featuring a health spa, ballroom, indoor and outdoor pools, a “splash pad” for younger children, indoor and outdoor dining, a gym, beach volleyball courts and more. Combined with hunting, fishing, horseback riding, boat and jet ski rentals, parasailing and other activities, the resort attracts thousands of golfers, boaters and outdoor enthusiasts throughout Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and northwest Texas each year.

Of course, we care most about the golf. Tom Clark’s redesign of Don Sechrest’s classic Old Blue Course, completed in 2013, created a fun and playable layout that challenges players to hit almost every shot in their bag. Five sets of tees give every golfer the chance to score well, while the large, undulating greens, whitesand bunkers (the same crushed quartz used at Augusta National) and many creeks, ponds and lake views make for a thrilling and memorable round.

Hilton was right about there being a Shangri-La … he just didn’t realize it was so close to home. Reservations for the summer season will fill up quickly, so call 918-257-4204 or visit www.shangrilaok.com to book your spot today.

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Whether it’s for the blues, or the beer, thousands are drawn to America’s “Golf” Coast each year for a unique golf experience.

Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa • Birmingham, Ala.

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Photo by Michael Clemmer

BY BRIAN BEAKY DG EDITOR

n the pitch-black dark of a moonless night sometime in the early 1930s, blues musician Robert Johnson stood at the intersection of state Highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, Miss., strummed his guitar, and waited.

What exactly transpired at that fateful intersection is the stuff of blues legend. As the story has been told and retold many times over, the Devil himself emerged from the mist and offered to tune Johnson’s guitar, in exchange for his immortal soul. At the time an itinerant musician playing for pennies on street corners throughout the Mississippi Delta region, who had recently lost his young bride in childbirth, Johnson agreed, handing his guitar over to the Devil. The Devil tuned the instrument, then handed it back to Johnson — and, along with it, the extraordinary talent that would make Johnson a legend, called by Eric Clapton “the most important blues singer that ever lived.”

Is the legend true? Supporters point to the fact that seemingly overnight, Johnson became a Delta blues superstar, recording four songs that would find their way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — none more iconic than “Cross Road Blues,” which tells the story of that fateful night — before dying just as suddenly in 1938, at the age of just 27. The Devil, they say, claimed his due.

These days, millions of visitors flock to the Gulf Coast states of Mississippi and Alabama on annual basis. They come to trace the history of Delta blues across the Mississippi Blues Trail, to sample the award-winning craft beers of Alabama, to lay out on white-sand Gulf of Mexico beaches and — of course — to play some of America’s most celebrated golf courses. Both states boast numerous courses ranked annually among America’s finest, many affiliated with casino resorts, and nearly all boasting rates below $100.

This may all sound like the stuff of legend. But, as Robert Johnson himself would tell you — the Gulf Coast is where legends come true.

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Modern blues acts channel the spirits of Mississippi Delta Blues legends at Clarksdale’s Ground Zero Blues Club (above), owned by actor Morgan Freeman. Meanwhile, beer connisseurs are flocking to sample Alabama’s award-winning craft breweries, including many — like Back Forty Brewing Co. — that cater specifically to RTJ Trail golfers.

Mississippi

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he Magnolia State attracts millions of visitors annually, each in pursuit of their own Mississippi legend. In the summertime, they flock to the southern shores of Biloxi Bay and the Gulf Islands National Seashore, dipping their toes into the crystal-blue Gulf of Mexico.

Others follow in the footsteps of General William Tecumseh Sherman, while still others follow the historic Mississippi Blues Trail, whose road markers guide blues aficionados to the most famous sites in blues history — including, of course, that legendary highway intersection where Robert Johnson maybe, just maybe, sold his soul.

More and more, though, visitors are flocking to Mississippi for an abundance of high-quality, reasonably priced golf courses. Three of the state’s most acclaimed tracks — Dancing Rabbit, in Choctaw; Old Waverly, in West Point; and Fallen Oak, in Saucier — were ranked among “America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses”in 2016-17, while its newest gem, West Point’s

Mossy Oak, was named one of the top-10 new courses in the world in 2016 by Golf.com.

In addition, Fallen Oak ranked second in Golfweek’s list of America’s Top-15 Casino Courses for 2015, as did The Preserve (No. 19), Grand Bear (No. 34) and both 18-hole courses at Dancing Rabbit (Nos. 40 and 44).

And here’s the kicker — all but one of those courses are open to the public and, depending on the time of day and year, only two are sure to cost you upwards of $100.

Most visitors choose to stay in one of two locations, either to the south, on the Gulf Coast, or to the north, in the heart of blues country around Clarksdale and the “Vegas of the South,” Tunica.

The Gulf Coast puts golfers close to many of the state’s most lauded tracks, including the aforementioned Fallen Oak, The Preserve and Grand Bear, as well as other highly-regarded courses like Davis Love III’s Shell Landing, in Gautier, and Arnold Palmer’s The Bridges, in Bay St. Louis.

While Fallen Oak, Tom Fazio’s PGA TOURquality gem in Saucier (an amenity of the Beau Rivage Casino), has deservedly earned a reputation as the Mississippi course every golfer should play before they die, it’s Mossy Oak that

the industry is buzzing about these days. The brand-new Gil Hanse design opened in September of 2016, just a month after Hanse’s other major 2016 project, the Olympic Course in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The course was constructed through a unique partnership between Hanse, the George and Marcia Bryan family, and Mossy Oak, an outdoor lifestyle company dedicated to the preservation of natural habitats. Working with Mossy Oak, Hanse designed the course to blend seamlessly with the land around it, and accentuate the natural features of the surrounding area, while also incorporating the latest sustainable practices. It was a process the team called “Nature’s Golf.”

“The expansive landscape highlights the local habitat of the Mississippi Black Prairie,” explains George Bryan, golf club co-founder. “Once off the first tee, nature is a highlight of the playing experience, with native grasses, wildlife and creeks interacting with fairways and bunker complexes to blend a sense of place on every hole.”

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Dancing Rabbit Golf Club • Philadelphia, Miss.

with lodging in the cottages, condos and villas at Old Waverly. More information is available at www.mossyoakgolf.com.

Nearly early every great golf course in the state is affiliated with a major casino, which ensures a visitor’s nights will be just as full as their days. Mississippi’s Gulf Coast alone boasts 12 casinos, while the area around Tunica, to the northwest, features an additional eight, plus its own highly regarded courses in Tunica National, River Bend and the Links at Cottonwoods. It’s also just a short drive from Clarksdale, widely considered the birthplace of the blues, and home now to Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero blues club, where music’s greats and greats-to-be can be heard slingin’ their stuff on a nightly basis.

And, it’s just an hour from Dockery Farms, where Robert Johnson walked in a broken man, and walked out a legend. To learn more, or start planning your trip, go to www.visitmississippi.org.

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ust as millions flock to Mississippi each year, so, too, do they gather at the beaches, casino resorts and historic sites of neighboring Alabama.

But while it’s the blues that sets Mississippi apart, in Alabama, it’s the beers — specifically, the craft breweries that have cropped up all over the state over the past five years.

Gadsden’s Back Forty Beer Company was the first. Founder Jason Wilson and brewmaster Jamie Ray brewed their first beer together — Naked Pig Pale Ale — in 2009, and won their first award (a Silver Medal at the Great American Beer Festival) the following year. But, it wasn’t until 2012 that Back Forty opened its own production center in Gadsden, and it wasn’t until 2016 that a change in Alabama state laws allowed breweries to sell beer for off-site consumption.

That and other recent changes to the laws have led to an explosion of craft breweries across the state — from one, Back Forty, in 2009, there are now dozens of craft breweries statewide.

Many are co-located with the state’s most popular golf courses, those along the world-famous Robert Trent Jones Trail, a sprawling collection of 26 courses that takes golfers to nearly every corner of the Yellowhammer State.

Many golfers start down south in Mobile, home to Haint Blue Brewing and Serda Brewing Company — both of which opened their doors in 2017 — as well as the historic Bragg-Mitchell Mansion, the U.S.S. Alabama, and Magnolia Grove, whose Crossings course was named one of the Top-50 Courses You Can Play by readers of Golf World magazine. The second of the 26 RTJ Trail courses to be built, the Crossings was updated in recent years to trim back encroaching trees, preserve natural marshlands and otherwise restore the course to RTJ’s original design, with the exception

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of a few holes that were entirely rebuilt. Magnolia Grove also features the par-71 Falls course, and the par-3 Short Course, the latter named America’s best par-3 by Golf Digest and an excellent choice for kids, or a light-hearted evening knock-around with your traveling companions.

Head northeast on I-65 and you’ll find yourself in Greenville, a quiet town of just 8,000 residents known primarily for its starring role in Reese Witherspoon’s 2002 movie, “Sweet Home Alabama,” and home to 36 holes at Cambrian Ridge. With the highest elevations in the region, few courses in southern Alabama offer elevation changes like those on Cambrian Ridge’s Sherling Nine, which starts at its highest point before dropping down to the shores of Sherling Lake.

The combination of Cambrian Ridge’s Sherling and Canyon Nines (there’s also the Loblolly Nine, and the nine-hole Short Course) ranked third in Golf Digest’s “Best New Courses” list in 1993, and with greens fees as low as $65, annually ranks among its most affordable as well.

Truthfully, nearly all of the RTJ Trail sites merit the “affordable” moniker, with most falling into a range between $50-$85 for 18 holes.

Just 40 minutes away is the historic state capital of Montgomery, home to a handful of craft breweries and Capitol Hill, another 54-hole complex whose Judge course (the most popular of the bunch if you’re just passing through) features one of the longest stretches of water holes in the state — 14 holes in all — and has been called by GOLF magazine as worthy of a U.S. Open (like Magnolia Grove’s Crossings course,

The Shoals Golf Club (Schoolmaster Course) • Muscle Shoals, Ala.

it does host an annual LPGA event).

You also have to play Grand National, the gem of the RTJ Trail, tucked between the college town of Auburn and Opelika and home to the PGA TOUR’s Barbasol Championship. Jones said of the site when he saw it that it was the “single greatest” site for a golf course that he had ever seen. So, naturally, he built three of them — the Lake course, the Short Course and the crown jewel of the RTJ Trail, the Links Course.

After that, you’re free to travel in whatever direction you see fit. The beer lovers can visit Birmingham’s six craft breweries (with Good People, Cahaba and Avondale leading the way)

or the dozen breweries in Huntsville, including the well-known Yellowhammer, which broke ground on a $1.2 million expansion project in 2017. There’s plenty of incredible golf to be enjoyed in the state’s northern reaches as well, including the fantastic Ross Bridge, in Hoover, or one of the Trail’s newest designs, The Shoals, near the Tennessee border — recently ranked Alabama’s best public course by Golf.com.

The website alabama.travel is a good resource to start planning your trip, while rtjgolf.com/trail showcases golf-and-lodging packages that will let you put together your own trail experience, whether you prefer to stay close to the coast, or explore the many outstanding rewards to be found in Alabama’s interior.

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ruthfully, the savvy golf traveler will do both Mississippi and Alabama in one trip, staying either in Biloxi’s casino resorts or the many beautiful accommodations on Mobile Bay, and hopping across the border to take in the coastal wonders of each state, before turning the car north towards Tunica, Birmingham or Huntsville.

There’s something a traveler learns quickly in the South. Whether it’s Mississippi’s Delta Blues or Alabama’s craft beers; a po’ boy or the shrimp gumbo; RTJ or Tom Fazio; there are no bad choices. Just close your eyes, take a deep breath, and let your heart carry you where it will. You may well end up being carried away, but you’ll always find your way home.

Mossy Oak Golf Club • West Point, Miss.

Photo by Michael Clemmer

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Nestled atop the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts, Cranwell Spa & Golf Resort transports visitors back in time.

hrow a stone anywhere in New England, and you’re bound to find a spot rich in American history. Not all of those spots, however, boast awardwinning golf courses, four-star resorts and one of the largest spas in the region.

Of course, that was all still well off in the future when the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher first stood atop Blossom Hill in 1853, just outside Lenox, Mass., and marveled at the epic views of the setting sun behind the Berkshire Mountains. “From here I can see the very hills of Heaven,” he wrote, purchasing the land and building the property’s first estate. A noted supporter of women’s suffrage, Darwin’s Theory

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BY BRIAN BEAKY DG EDITOR

of Evolution and the abolition of slavery (views shared with his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, who published Uncle Tom’s Cabin just months before Beecher purchased Blossom Hill), Beecher was at one time called “The Most Famous Man In America,” and even considered a presidential run before scandal ended his political aspirations.

Over the following century, the property would be home to Vanderbilts, Civil War military leaders and, for nearly 40 years, one of New

England’s premier Jesuit boys academies. When upgrades to the grounds were necessary in the late 19th century, then-owner John Sloane, cofounder of New York City furniture store W&J Sloane (which counted among its clients the White House and the Rockefeller family) didn’t just bring in the local gardener — he hired Frederick Law Olmsted, architect of New York City’s Central Park, to design a landscape that would rival any of the premier New England estates.

And it’s that landscape — and that paralyzingly beautiful view that so entranced Henry Ward Beecher more than 150 years ago — which continues to draw thousands of vacationers each year to Blossom Hill, now home to

“From here I can see the very hills of Heaven” Reverend Henry Ward Beecher

Cranwell Spa & Golf Resort (413-637-1364, www.cranwell.com). While many come to explore the grounds — including Sloane’s epic, castle-like mansion, Wyndhurst, which remains the property’s centerpiece — or frolic in a 35,000 square-foot luxury spa, we are most interested in the golf, particularly, the 18-hole, Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek design that has been captivating and challenging golfers for nearly a century.

Built in 1926, the course retains many of the classic design elements of the era — small greens, often narrow fairways (especially on the back nine), and a routing that reflects a time when 300-yard drives were as unimaginable as space travel, putting an emphasis on shot selection over big distance.

“The course isn’t particularly long, just over 6,300 yards, but you really get a chance to hit almost every club in your bag,” notes Luke Salvatore, Cranwell’s Director of Golf. “And with the classic design, it really puts an emphasis on your short game. Most of the greens are pitched back to front, so it’s important to position your ball correctly if you want to score well.”

A relatively open front nine features the

course’s two signature holes, the par-4 seventh and eighth, which play directly to and away from the Sloane mansion. After spending much of the front nine down in the valley below Blossom Hill, the seventh plays back to the summit, with the mansion providing a stunning backdrop to the hilltop green. It’s here where many players stop to take photos, either selfies with the mansion in the background, or panoramas of what seems like it must be the entire Berkshires landscape. The eighth, then, is the yang to the seventh’s yin, a 347-yard par-4 played straight back down the hill, giving golfers the chance to let fly from an elevated tee and offering one of the course’s best chances at birdie.

It’s also one of the last good chances for a while. Those open fairways on the front tighten up on the very next tee box, with tall oak and maple trees challenging golfers to find the ideal locations on each fairway to have a good shot at par. The course’s relatively short length, however, keeps the greens in reach of just about any player, so if you can keep your driver in play — and your ball below the hole — a good score is well within reach.

Salvatore says that the shoulder season —

which typically begins in early April, though may be a bit later this year given the never-ending train of snowstorms that have buried New England this winter — is popular with day-trippers from Albany, N.Y. (an hour’s drive away) and Hartford, Conn. (less than 90 minutes away), while the peak summer season sees a flood of visitors from Boston and New York City, each about a three-hour drive depending on traffic, as well as second-homeowners who return to New England each summer from their winter homes in Florida or other Southeast locales. That’s also the season when vacationers travel to Lenox from all over the world to visit the famed Tanglewood music venue, summer home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and host of some of the world’s most famous musicians, including area residents James Taylor and legendary composer John Williams.

Barely a mile from Cranwell, Tanglewood is one of the region’s biggest draws, as is the Norman Rockwell Museum in nearby Stockbridge and numerous other theaters and museums celebrating the culture of the historic region.

“Whether you’re just here for the day or coming for the weekend or longer, there really is no shortage of things to do,” says Salvatore.

Daily fee rates start at just $29 for twilight rates in the shoulder season, and peak at just $79 on one of those perfect Berkshires summer weekends that poets have been writing about for centuries. Memberships are also available, as are stay-and-play packages that combine golf with a stay in one of Cranwell’s 105 guest rooms, each located in one of the historic buildings on-site, plus access to a full-service spa including massage, facial treatments and other amenities.

“I think a lot of the time, people see the big mansion on the hill and assume that it’s a private estate or a country club,” Salvatore says.

But, of course, it’s not. Despite the famous, “old money” names that have been attached to Cranwell over the years — Beecher, Vanderbilt, Sloane, Olmsted — and the stunning mansion overlooking the grounds, the resort today is open to anyone with a desire to experience some of the best golf and lodging the Berkshires have to offer.

“You just have to come see it,” Salvatore says, “and you’ll appreciate how amazing it is.”

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RESORT REPORT

Let your worries float away ...

W

e’re sure Coeur d’Alene Resort staff tire of hearing only of the floating green – it’s a truly world-class resort after all, with five-star lodging, an award-winning day spa, incredible restaurants and much more.

But, we can’t help ourselves — it’s just that cool. Resting atop a massive float of polystyrene and concrete, the 15,000 square-foot green — which celebrated its 25th year in 2016 — can be moved, via an underwater cable system, anywhere from 95 to 230 yards from the tee. After hitting their knock-kneed tee shots, golfers are ferried to the green by boat to putt out before having their photos taken. Regardless of whether you make a two or a six on the scorecard, it’s one of America’s most iconic golf holes, and one of just a handful in the world that can truly make the claim to be one-of-a-kind. The crown jewel of a course once called “America’s Most Beautiful Resort Course” by Golf Digest, it’s just one of many outstanding holes on a course where guests are treated to forecaddies, wood-paneled carts, engraved bag tags and a whole host of additional luxurious amenities. Current stay-and-play packages include overnight accommodations and rounds for two for as little as $149 per person … more than 60 percent off the rate you’d pay booking each separately. So tee it high and let it fly ... because this is one experience you won’t soon forget. Call 855-703-4648 or visit www.cdaresort.com to book today.

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