On a recent business trip to the Carolinas I drove past so many golf courses it made me wish that I had time to play a quick nine. Even the smaller municipal courses looked very inviting. I decided that I needed a quick golf fix even without my clubs. I decided to drive past some courses on the way to and from clients to check out what I was missing. After looking at the courses from my car I decided that when I got back I needed to see if I could carve away some time to get back down here and play.

Hilton Head golf is famous and I am no stranger to the images of the ocean side courses from television and magazines. The Ocean Course at the Sea Pines Resort is every bit as beautiful as any of those images. Open year round and built in 1962 it offers tees that range from 125 to 133 in slope which will offer any foursome a challenge for each level golfer.

Thankfully I was unaware that they even offer rental clubs. I may have been late for some of my meetings.
George Fazio designed the self named course at the Palmetto Dunes Resort in 1974 and it’s 132 slope from the tips has been a challenge to golfers ever since. After the renovation in 1994 it has been consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top 100 courses by Golf Digest and known as one of the biggest challenges in the Hilton Head area. It may be a par 70 but the 6,873 yards on the card will let you know that it is no joke.

If you are as interested as I am in getting Hilton Head tee times you can check out these courses or the many others that are available. Just don’t go down there without your clubs, it’s torture!

The Scottsdale golf scene does offer many course options including the Champions Course at TPC Scottsdale. Any golfer knows that any course with TPC in the name is a rare opportunity to play one of the nicest courses available to a golfer. This TPC course has a player friendly slope rating of 112 that will allow anyone traveling with you, no matter how new to the game, the chance to experience golf at it’s finest.

I have always wanted to play a course designed by the great Arnold Palmer. While searching Tucson golf courses I came across Palmer Course at the Wildfire Golf Club. This course is quote the opposite of TPC Scottsdale. Posting a slope of 135 from the tips with a distance over 7000 yards this looks like a true test for any golfer. From the pictures the scenery doesn’t look like a let down either.

Hopefully I can remember the lesson I learned in Vegas and I schedule early morning rounds to stay out of the heat. The sun here is supposed to be at least as bad if not worse with temperatures reach over 100 in the shade during the Summer. If anyone out there is planning on playing in this region you have been warned, it is really, really, really HOT!!

I’m going to go call my buddy and see if his parents are using the place. If not, next stop Arizona!

One of the interesting things that I have found is the diverse types of courses that are available in Hawaii. Many are in the vain of Scottish links while others are carved into the forest giving it a totally different feel. It appears that even the “lower” end course have scenery that will not disappoint.

I used the Hawaii golf course search to find the Arnold Palmer gem at the Turtle Bay Resort near where my conference is. From the pictures and the description on the site it is a seamless cross of Saint Andrews and Bethpage Black placed right in the middle of the beautiful blue Pacific. This resort is also home to a Fazio course that has hosted the LPGA Tour’s Hawaii Open. This course will give even seasoned pros a challenge if you play it from the tips.

The site even allows you to search for packages, hotels and restaurants so you don’t have to go from site to site trying to find all the parts of your vacation. I have found that package search particularly handy to see if there are any deals to be had by booking everything together. It also allows me to compare the resorts where the courses are located so I can see the details side by side.

With a chance to play both of these courses I’ll be looking into my stay here and booking Hawaii tee times. If I can work out the time off after the conference this might just be a homerun. Besides, time away from the new wife will be made easier if I can occupy my time.

Since our vacation is going to be 10 days and we want to see more than just one city I looked into other possible courses to play in the morning while my fiancé is asleep. Three spots on the trip seem to offer some great opportunities to golf in Portugal. Algarve, Lisbon and Madeira all offer great weather and sights along with top notch golf.

Ocean views with some beautiful but brutal courses are on tap. I think I’ll still see if I can get over to La Manga but some other places like Aroeira Golf Resort in Lisbon look like paradise and seem to offer spas and some other things for the misses. Whether we pick Hawaii, Portugal or another location I have been promised that I can get a round in and I promise the readers that I will tell them all about it.

Wie’s home course, Olomana Golf Links, looks like a really nice place to play and if it can produce a superstar like her maybe it could help my game a little. The par 72 course features a 129 slope rating and a length of 6326 yards which leads me to believe that the hazards must be many because the length certainly doesn’t warrant a slope that high. It also has all the necessary amenities including a restaurant/snack bar, driving range, rental clubs and carts.

I’m not sure which course I’ll end up on but I will make a effort try and pick one of Hawaii’s golf courses as my next destination. Hopefully I can convince the new wife that a honeymoon in Hawaii is in order!

Since the average temperature in New York this time of year is just above freezing I’ve had to put the golf bag away in favor of the remote control. After some research on places that have some sights to see on and off the golf courses we decided on Spain as our destination and I found La Manga Village. With three courses (North, South and West) I can play a couple of times at the same resort we are staying at and not get bored. Also, with its proximity to local beaches as well as Jacuzzi, indoor swimming pool, beauty salon and spa there is no shortage of things my wife could do while I am hacking it up one of the three championship courses.

I’ll let you all know how it goes after we get back, I’m sure we’ll have a great time especially since it will be my wife’s first trip out of the country and my first time playing golf on another continent. Can’t wait until this winter ends and I can golf more regularly.

The similarities of St. Andrews and my local group of courses at Bethpage are intriguing.  Each has a premier course, the Old Course and the Black respectively, as well as other courses that you can play while staying there. St. Andrews other courses include Balgove, Eden, Jubilee, Castle, and the New. This makes the trip for me since I prefer to play a variety of courses and not just a couple of rounds on the same one. Another interesting fact is that both the Black course and the Old Course set aside a number of early tee times for walk ups in the morning. This gives everyone a shot at getting on the course even if you weren’t able to make a scheduled tee time.

I’m not sure exactly when I will be getting time to go so I have been checking out some of the other course options in case St. Andrews is booked for the dates I am available. The good news is that Scottish golf offers many other worthy courses. Aberdeenshire, Dundee & Angus and Highlands have come up in my research and all appear to be top notch choices that are affordable as well.

I can’t wait to watch this year’s British Open and day dream about taking 17 shots to get out of one of those pot bunkers or 5 putting on one of the gigantic greens. Truth is when you are on a course that beautiful I don’t think it will really matter how I play.

Things started off shaky on the first hole with a triple bogey. I was very nervous for some reason but I settled in and started hitting fairways. In fact I noticed that not only was I hitting the ball pretty straight but man was it flying! I hit my drive on the third hole 285 yards.  I had about 120 yards to the green on one of the early holes and ended up flying the green by a pretty decent amount with my nine iron. The course was in amazing shape with lush fairways and well groomed greens.

The front nine was a dream, fairways and greens the whole way. I wish I could have putted better but I still shot 45. The back nine was just as fun but not as low scoring. The heat started to affect me a little and while I still hit some really good shots I blew up on the 12th hole. A long par 5 with a dogleg around a water hazard to the green. I hit it to the right of the green on my third shot in between the bunkers in some deep grass. I took a hack at it and bladed it into the hazard. I ended up taking a 9 on the hole with the penalty. I carded a 51 as the sun was really getting up into the sky. My 96 total is a new personal best and really made me happy since I was playing on a course with a 128 slope rating.  I only wish I had started the round a little earlier so that I could have concentrated better in the final holes.

I highly recommend this course to anyone travel to Sin City. For any out of towner they offer a rental car reimbursement for up to $30 off your round. I played the entire 18 for $55 including the cart. Just stay hydrated and tee off nice and early! You can see more photos in the photo gallery.

It was a links course surrounded by houses that made acurate tee shots very important. I could not stay in form from my previous round and hit the fairways. I only had 3 acceptable shots with my driver with 1 hitting the fairway. Overall since I was playing by myself I rushed as usual and couldn’t take my time and play multiple balls or take pictures due to the oppressive sun.

I am playing Silverstone Golf Club at 7:30am tomorrow so I should be able to play without a problem. I am going to get there early to take advantage of the unlimited range balls that come with the green fees. I’ll update you again tomorrow.

That got me to thinking about taking a little trip to play golf in a different area of the country. I have an upcoming non-golf related trip to Las Vegas but why not bring my clubs and see if I can get one or two rounds in. The Las Vegas golf scene offers some amazing courses and from the research I have done most courses offer two levels of twilight rates with the first one beginning around 11 a.m. This is probably because no one wants to be caught dead playing in the middle of the afternoon during a Las Vegas summer. I think that I will be playing early in the morning even if it costs a ton.

The first course that I’ve been looking at is the Royal Links Golf Club. It is modeled after the courses in Ireland complete with deep pot bunkers and large greens. It looks like a challenging course with the middle tees being rated 71.2/131. A morning tee time is about $100 dollars which I think is pretty reasonable given the how the course looks on the site.

Las Vegas National, due to it’s proximity to the strip, looks to be my second choice. It looks pretty challenging at 69.7/126 but won’t be impossible. I think that I might make a 3 p.m. tee time and take advantage of the $30 twilight rate. Not sure, I’ll have to check the average temperatures before I make my final bookings.

I’ll keep you all posted on my final plans and do my best to take some photos of whatever courses I end up choosing.