Golfing Meccas

words by > Karen Misuraca

*Springtime on the fairways: 10 amazing places to play golf

Chasing that little white ball is a sweet pleasure in April and May, when golf courses burst into bloom. Wildflowers wash over the Southwest deserts, century-old magnolias erupt in heady fragrance across the southern states and flowering orchards distract California’s golfers as they warm up their games for the summer season.

A Spiny Situation
PHOENIX

Beneath the long arms of the saguaros in the Sonoran Desert, prickly pear, hedgehog and cholla cacti are flowering in the arroyos and canyons of the new Saguaro Course at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club, located on Yavapai tribal land just east of Phoenix. Following the award-winning Cholla Course that opened to rave reviews, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have unveiled their rippling, bump-and-run style dazzler designed for the walking golfer with a ground game. Unusual for Arizona courses, We-Ko-Pa lets you walk, all the better to enjoy the dramatic desert landscape and views of the Superstition and McDowell mountains, unencumbered—forever, they say—with residential and commercial development. www.wekopa.com

Island Greens
GRAND BAHAMA ISLAND

The sand is pearly white, the water electric blue-green and the waving palms so romantic that Our Lucaya Resort is the perfect postcard of a Caribbean beach resort. Guests at the Westin Grand Bahama Island and the adjacent Sheraton Grand Bahama Resort, both at Our Lucaya, can enjoy the Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed Reef course, a contemporary links-style layout providing a sleek contrast to the long-established, jungly Lucayan Country Club, where fairways are bordered with pine, eucalyptus and canopies of flame-red Poinciana trees. Unpredictable sea winds will aff ect your game on the Reef, along with water hazards on 13 holes and high, grassy rough. Couples bound for romance favor the exclusivity of the Westin, while families oft en go to the Sheraton for the buzz of activity. www.ourlucaya.com

Marshland Beauty
SAVANNAH

A water-taxi ride across the river from Savannah, the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort and Spa on Hutchinson Island is ideal for golfers who want to explore nearby historic downtown and Hilton Head beaches. Troon Golf superbly manages the course, which will host the 30th Champions Tour Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf April 16-22. Robert Cupp and Slammin’ Sammy Snead arranged their track on breezy tidal wetlands between the Savannah and Back rivers, in a lush patch of Georgia Low Country where redbud, azalea and magnolia blast into spring color. Th e marsh, the crowned greens and a battalion of deep bunkers are factors on the course’s 7,300 long yards. Keep your eyes peeled on the 14th hole for the resident alligators. Sharing the clubhouse is an annex of the renowned Greenbrier Spa of White Sulphur Springs. Hotel guests also have private access to a pristine beach on Hilton Head Island. www.westinsavannah.com

Sky and Shadow
LOS ANGELES

Pete Dye and Fred Couples co-created the 36 holes at Lost Canyons Golf Club, located in the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains, a 45-mile drive from LAX. On the Sky and Shadow courses, you’ll imagine you are in the Rockies, where craggy mountains frame startling blue skies. Following high ridgelines, Sky runs rampant in wild Tapo Canyon, with a compelling number of forced carries and tight targets, while the Shadow rolls on the canyon floor below White Face Mountain, complete with blind approaches and ball-grabbing barrancas. Its proximity to Hollywood makes Lost Canyons prime real estate for celebrity tournaments. www.lostcanyons.com

Breezes By the Bay
SAN FRANCISCO

Over the hills from the City by the Bay— with views of the Pacific Ocean from every hole—the Ocean Course at Half Moon Bay Golf Links is a traditional, nearly treeless, Scottish links layout. Constant sea breezes call for the irons, and spring and fall are the calmest seasons. A true test of target golf, the 7th hole includes a 155-yard carry over a pond, a 30-foot-high grassy bank and a domed, lightning-fast green.

On the 17th, get over that yawning crevasse and a plunging waterfall to a putting surface with sound eff ects—barking sea lions.

For a gentler round, try the Half Moon Bay Old Course, an Arnold Palmer and Frank Duane-designed beauty. Awaiting the intrepid golfer are roaring blazes in the stone fireplaces of Th e Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay, a rambling edifice reminiscent of the grand seaside hotels of the 19th century. www.halfmoonbaygolf.com

Virginia Countryside
WILLIAMSBURG

A page from a history book, the pre-Revolutionary village of Colonial Williamsburg is also a grand golf destination in the spring, when dogwood, wild azalea and plum trees are in bloom on the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club’s 45 fairways. On rolling Tidewater land along the shoreline of a lake, the 1960s-era Gold Course has been updated by Rees Jones, son of the original architect, Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Marking the Green Course are steep elevation changes, from ridgetops to gullies, and narrow chutes menaced by towering pine, cedar and oak trees. Save your energy and an accurate tee shot for the finishing hole, where the woods impinge and a pond nearly surrounds the green. Beginners are happy campers on the cunning, executive-length Spotswood Course, a miniature mirror-image of the Gold. www.goldenhorseshoegolf.com

Bali Hai Golf ClubGrowl of the Bear
ATLANTA

Eighteen signature holes from Jack Nicklaus-designed courses in the US, Great Britain and Ireland are replicated on Bear’s Best course, located on the hilly, wooded land near the Chattahoochee River, less than an hour from downtown Atlanta. Despite the variety of green sizes and bunker styles, a smooth continuity prevails, making it fun to play such legendary holes as Muirfield Village’s notorious 12th (which is, in fact, a semi-replica of the 12th at Augusta National). Among the dogwood and azalea blossoms in April and May, sample Nicklaus’ masterpiece holes from Castle Pines in Colorado, Mt. Juliet in Ireland, the TPC of Michigan and more. Fortunately for low handicappers, a complimentary forecaddie comes with the green fee. www.bearsbest.com

All About the Pros
ORLANDO

Magnolias and pine boughs scent the air on the Nicklaus-created Tradition Course at Ginn Reunion Resort and Club, located in the Disney corridor near Orlando. Between the Tradition, the Tom Watson-designed Independence Course and the Legacy Course designed by Arnold Palmer, the resort boasts a total of 54 holes of championship golf. If you manage to emerge from Tradition’s nine holes of deep bunkers, huge waste areas and water, you’ll be rewarded with firm, generous greens. Recently opened at Reunion is Th e ANNIKA Academy. Take lessons from LPGA star Annika Sorenstam’s one-and-only swing coach, Henri Reis, and her personal fitness trainer, Kai Fusser. Après golf, stow your stuff in the golf lockers at the new Reunion Grande condo hotel and head to the rooft op tapas bar, Eleven, for city skyline views. Featuring opulent suites, the 11-story architectural icon at the sprawling resort opened in February. www.reunionresort.com

Oasis on the Strip
LAS VEGAS

Th e only championship course on the strip, Bali Hai Golf Club is a verdant, South Seas-themed paradise complete with piña coladas, a couple thousand palm trees and about 100,000 tropical plants. Tired of losing your money in the glitzy casinos? Trade in your chips, order an umbrella-topped cocktail from one of the cart girls and try your luck at some golf—although you may have a hard time avoiding the pure white, crushed marble bunkers, the vast, beachy waste areas and the jagged black volcanic rocks. A full caddie or forecaddie will ease the challenge of seven acres of water hazards. When you’ve had enough fresh air, settle into Cili Restaurant & Bar to people-watch the moguls and bask in the palmy, Balinese-style setting. www.balihaigolfclub.com

Birds and Birdies
SAN DIEGO

Th e Four Seasons Resort Aviara floats above Batiquitos Lagoon, a habitat for more than 100 species of waterfowl and shorebirds. Waterfalls and wildflowers careen down to a 7,007-yard Palmer design that tilts and rolls like the ocean surf. Bird of paradise flowers are bright on the 11th hole, where cascading pools and a lake are decorated in the springtime with the purple spikes of the “Port of Madeira” plant. Kip Puterbaugh’s Aviara Golf Academy attracts players for nine-camera video analysis and the unique TaylorMade Performance Lab; even LPGA star Natalie Gulbis and funnyman Bill Murray have stopped by to tune up their game. Aft er your round, hit the waves (aft er getting up-to-date wave conditions from the Surf Concierge, of course), sink into the private, indoor/outdoor spa suite for a sports massage by the fireplace, or take a dip in your huge whirlpool. www.fourseasons.com/aviara