America's best golf destinations: Palm Beach
By Ceri Mobley, PGATOUR.com Associate Site Producer
For the first time in the 2008 season, the PGA TOUR players will tee off on the East coast -- Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., to be precise. The Honda Classic takes place at the PGA National Resort and Spa - Champion Course, which happens to be located in one of America's most popular tourist towns.
Either everyone wants to attend the Honda Classic, or the hotel options are thin in Palm Beach Gardens, but here are some suggestions to keep in mind when booking your accommodations for the week.
SOMEWHERE TO SNOOZE
A room with a view -- and a short walk: If you plan on attending this event, then why not make it easy (as well as enjoyable) on yourself and reserve a room at the tournament's host, the PGA National Spa and Resort. A four-star hotel, the PGA National Resort has all the amenities you'd expect from a high-class resort on the south-Florida coast. And you won't even have to rent a car to get to the tournament. In fact, you don't really even have to leave the resort at all. From great fine dining and spa treatments to poolside fun, and -- of course -- the Honda Classic, the PGA National Resort and Spa will serve and satisfy. Rates start from $339 a night.
Other options
• Windsor Gardens Hotel and Conference Center: Located close to the Intracoastal Waterway, this three-star hotel is only about 15 minutes from the golf tournament. One of the cooler parts about this hotel is its theme rooms. These rooms, furnished in accordance with several different regions of the world, represent period décor and surround guests in a lavish setting. Sleep like royalty from $149 a night!
• Inn of America -- Palm Beach Gardens: The Palm Beach area of Florida could have you reaching for the credit card one too many times, so if you want to lighten the load on your monthly statement, then book a room at this two-star hotel less than 10 minutes from the course from $119 a night.
SOMETHING TO TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT
I have never been to a Polo match before. In fact, all I really know about Polo is that the logo appears on the chests of those shirts with collars people so obnoxiously love to pop. It is not the '70s, and you are not Fonzie. Anyway, I digress. Since I have never been to a match, Polo intrigues me. There just so happens to be a Polo match final the Sunday afternoon of the Honda Classic, so if you'd like to learn more about men riding around on horses with extra-long mallets, then check out the International Polo Club, which has its C.V. Whitney Cup finals March 2 beginning at 3 p.m. Sounds like fun to me.
More things to keep you busy
• On Thursday night, stop by the "Clematis by Night Fountainside Concert" event. Every week on Thursday from 5:30-9:30 p.m., a free concert takes place in the Centennial Square at the end of Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach. Free music in the balmy, Florida-evening climate -- why not?
• Speaking of the Sunshine State's weather, take full advantage of it in March -- when much of the country still wakes up to morning frost -- by renting some jet skis at West Palm Beach. It's as fun as it looks; just make sure you wear a lifejacket.
• Go ahead and have fun frolicking in the Atlantic, but take a break to learn a little about what you're frolicking over. The Loggerhead Marine Life Center, a non-profit rehabilitation center for sea turtles, will make you ooh and ahh over their aquatic exhibits as well as teach you about the desperate need for marine conservation in Florida.
THE MAIN EVENT
The PGA of America calls the PGA National Resort and Spa home, and why wouldn't it with the five world-class courses it has to offer? The Palmer -- designed by the one-and-only Arnold Palmer -- plays links style just like the courses of golf's Scottish home. The Haig brings its own unique sense of style with rose bushes planted at every 150-yard marker: This was a salute to Walter Hagen's suggestion to "stop and smell the roses." The Squire -- designed by Tom Fazio and the shortest of the five courses -- takes its name from Gene Sarazen and offers the most wildlife of the courses, with its 5th hole running adjacent to a nature preserve. The Estate should be top of the list for golfers seeking seclusion and peace as the course lies five miles away from the main resort.
But the main focus this week at the PGA National Resort should be the Champion Course. Designed by Tom Fazio but then redesigned by Jack Nicklaus (in 1990), the course today has been dedicated to the Bear. And speaking of the Bear, he himself dubbed the 15th, 16th and 17th holes as the "Bear Trap," due to their trickiness -- backed up by statistics. Wide greens and spacious fairways wind between blue waters and palm trees, giving the course that south Florida feel. It is a tad more humid here than the West coast though, so make sure you bring a hand towel.
STICKING AROUND?
Since the last two months have led the PGA TOUR (and all its avid followers) around the Pacific coasts of America, take some time to discover the Atlantic coast this week -- different in every way.
• Lion Country Safari: You didn't see that on any of the West coast travel guides, did you? It's not exactly Africa, but -- opened in the '60s -- it was America's first drivable wildlife preserve. Get up close and (not too) personal with one of the world's biggest wild cats while touring this American safari, which is divided into seven sections each representing different natural expanses of the earth.
• Everglade boat tour: You know all those movies where the good guys chase the bad guys through swamps on air boats? Admit it: you've always wanted to do that. Now you can. Take a ride through the Everglades (try not to fall in and become gator bait) and feel what it's like to glide through the grass and over the marshes, powered by quite positively the biggest fan you've ever seen -- ladies, tie your hair back; gentlemen, don't wear hats.
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On par with paradise
Arkansas is home to some of the most scenic courses in the country, and there are plenty of non-golfing activities as well.
