One of the beauties about golf, besides the azalea-flanked 13th hole at Augusta National Golf Club, home of this week’s Masters, is that unlike most professional sports, you and I can actually play where the pros play.
Is surf-hugging Pebble Beach Golf Links too beautiful to only watch on TV every February? Then go online and get a tee time for a gorgeous California course that has made U.S. Open champions of such greats as Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods, and has hosted an iconic pro-am annually since 1947. Feel like playing 18 in the Hill Country home of the Texas State Open? The Ram Rock course, considered the most difficult among the four at renowned Horseshoe Bay Golf Resort outside of Austin, welcomes all from hacker to scratcher. Same with Hawaii’s paradisal Plantation Course at Kapalua, which hosts the wintertime Sentry Tournament of Champions, and The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Florida, home of one of the most esteemed stops on the PGA tour.
Unfortunately, for us golf lovers not among the top 1%, water hazards and sand traps aren’t our only obstacles. It takes a lot of green to play the greens. A round at Sawgrass, for example, can set one back a grand at peak tee times, making Pebble Beach sound like a bargain at $675. Another reality is not every prestigious or pro-played golf course puts out the welcome mat for us commoners. Teeing off at Augusta National, for one, pretty much requires being besties with a club member or past Masters champion.
The good news is we club-swinging stalwarts have alternatives when hankering to play legendary links. The U.S. is dotted with them, but if we take our virtual golf cart to the warm-weather golfing meccas of California, Hawaii, Texas and Florida, our GPS system can locate less forbidding championship courses that are also vacation-worthy because they’re linked to topnotch resorts with accommodations, dining and activities to match.
Where are these swinging Shangri-las? This question is well-timed. Aware that golf fever is peaking with this week’s Masters and next month’s U.S. Women’s Open — we’re in the heart of the PGA, LPGA, PGA Champions and LIV tours, as if you didn’t know — we’ve scouted the four aforementioned states for resorts that are well above par even if your score isn’t under par. Quality doesn’t come cheap, but unlike some of the more hoity-toity clubs, this quartet of courses will welcome you with open arms, which, if you listen to Tiger, should be wide on the backswing to allow your muscles to stretch to their full potential.
Traveling west to east ….
Ko Olina Golf Club
Golf in Hawaii is nearly as kingly as Kamehameha, so playing a tropics-kissed course that’s drop-dead gorgeous isn’t hard to do in the Aloha State. What isn’t as easy as Sunday morning is finding a premier property with a cool, unpretentious vibe. That’s Ko Olina Golf Club on Oahu. Perennially ranked among the nation’s top resort courses, Ko Olina (koolinagolf.com) is a judgment-free zone with great taste in its partnerships with the Four Seasons Resort at Ko Olina, the choice property within the master-planned oceanfront community, and an on-site Roy’s Hawaiian fusion restaurant that might be the best in the chain.
The Ted Robinson-designed course is decked with stunning water features, multi-tiered greens and generous landing areas. Here is where retired LPGA phenom Michelle Wie developed her game, and there’s a statue of her out front to prove it. The pro shop is consistently ranked among the best in the U.S., and with the rental clubs being TaylorMade graphite, it’s tempting not to schlep your set. Inclusive of cart rental, a logoed tumbler and a basket of range balls, adult fees are no higher than $255, and go down to $190 after 1 p.m.
A short shuttle ride or stroll away is the 371-unit Four Seasons (fourseasons.com), which offers digs and dining befitting the five-star brand, and serves as a model for luxury Hawaiian resorts striving to appeal to everyone from young families to honeymooners to seniors. An impressive schedule of daily activities is augmented by R&R offerings that include the five-star Naupaka Spa, inviting lagoons and pools, and first-rate horseback riding in the scenic Waianae Mountains.
The Links at Spanish Bay
Having recently walked the storied course and hallowed halls of the 146-year-old Royal Troon Golf Club, which in July will host its 10th Open Championship, this unworthy duffer can now distinguish between a “Scottish-style links” course and the real deal. While the landscape between Pebble Beach and the south Ayrshire coast has little in common besides a shoreline, getting in a round at The Links at Spanish Bay does hint of playing Royal Troon’s Old Course.
Helping get in the Scottish spirit is a bagpiper who plays for about 45 minutes before sunset from the first tee to the second. Fee-wise, guests staying at The Inn at Spanish Bay pay $350, which includes a cart. It’s a stately and elegant hotel with 269 rooms, and has reciprocity with other Pebble Beach Resorts facilities (pebblebeach.com). Overlooking spectacular sand dunes with an endless view of the Pacific costs just north of $1,000 a night, but that’s less than the rates at the sister properties, The Lodge and Casa Palermo.
Snob factor aside, “better” and “best” don’t get much more than “good” — not when Spanish Bay’s lowest-price room still comes with a romantic fireplace, reading nook, choice of nine different types of pillows and other niceties.
Lost Pines Golf Club
The phrase “everything is bigger in Texas” certainly applies to the list of activities at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort & Spa (lostpinesresortandspa.com), a Hill Country jewel along the banks of the Lower Colorado River. On more than 400 glorious acres just outside Austin, you can fish, ride horses and ponies, pet goats, alpacas, pigs and donkeys, say “howdy” to morbidly named Texas Longhorns (Chuck, Sirloin, Brisket, T-Bone and Ribeye — really?), go on a wagon ride and hay ride, trap shoot, fire off BB guns, slingshots and arrows, throw tomahawks, swim, float on a 1,000-foot, palm tree-lined lazy river, play tennis and pickleball, and, oh yeah, golf.
Deep in the heart of Texas is a 7,200-yard course well-described by the club’s lead golf instructor as “undulating and isolated.” Green fees top at around $200. A recent multimillion-dollar makeover included a redesign of holes 10 through 13, rebuilt bunkers and a name change from Wolfdancer. Designed by golf architect Arthur Hills, Lost Pines is a par-72 beauty graced by rolling prairies, wooded ridgelines and groves of native pecan trees.
Apparently, those homegrown pecans aren’t good enough for the nuttiest dessert served at Maude’s, a bastion of Southern hospitality ironically named for the Texas-sized pecan tree that towers over the outside tables. But like nearly everything guests taste, touch and see at the 490-unit resort, the headline ingredient of the yummy bourbon pecan pie is still locally sourced. Deliciousness continues with the lamb sliders, artisanal charcuterie and flawless libations that include a killer carajillo. Take one sip of their version of this classic Spanish coffee-based cocktail and you may never order an espresso martini again.
Before we leave Lost Pines, hoping to return again, a shout-out to Sushi By Scratch for a new-wave spin on the Japanese dining experience of omakase, where it’s basically chef’s choice through 17 individually paced pieces of nigiri, A5 wagyu beef and other delicacies. Seatings are limited to 10 patrons, each paying a minimum of $165 for this event meal. Sushi By Scratch’s Lost Pines location is one of 10 in the U.S., four of which are in California.
The Boca Raton
It’s hard to imagine a classier, cleaner and more comfortable resort than The Boca Raton (thebocaraton.com) in South Florida. This place is so exquisite after a history-respecting, $200-million reimagination, if it weren’t for the bill at the end it could qualify as heaven on Earth.
Dating back to 1926, The Boca Raton’s rich golf heritage includes Tommy Armour and Sam Sneed serving as its first two golf directors — 10 majors won between them. The resort’s Harborside Golf Course, exclusive to members and guests, is dedicated to these two legends. The par-71, 18-hole championship-level course features 12 acres of water, some put to use for a signature island-green finishing hole. From June to October, green fees are $210. That includes a golf cart and — get this — the food and beverage cart. We’re talking Asian shrimp salad, roasted turkey shawarma, rotisserie chicken salad and more delivered on the course by a pleasant attendant, and just for the asking. As we said, classy.
So is the adjacent high-tech driving range. Included in the resort fee are hitting stations powered by state-of-the-art Toptracer technology designed to perfect your swing. A monitor displays helpful data related to your golf ball’s speed, distance and spin rate. The digital gaming options are a blast.
Taking off the cleats, also on the resort’s 365 acres are five hotels within a hotel that make up 835 total rooms. The adults-only Yacht Club claims 112 of those units, all chic suites with private balconies and views of Lake Boca Raton, the Atlantic and a yacht-lined marina. Amenities include a butler, exclusive dining and an invitation to explore the South Florida coast while behind the wheel of a $200,000 Aston Martin DBX. Which begs the question: Do we dream about buying that or membership into the Augusta National Golf Club?
