Travel Insider: News and notes on great golf venues

text size

Nov. 16, 2011
By LINKS Magazine staff

Each week, LINKS Magazine will provide travel news and notes. For more information from LINKS Magazine, please visit the official website.

For a special LINKS Magazine subscription offer for PGATOUR.COM readers, please click here.

With mild winter temperatures, calm winds and dozens of first-rate courses, the Algarve in southern Portugal is one of Europe's leading golf destinations. Through Feb. 29, 2012, the Algarve Promotion Bureau is offering groups of eight golfers the opportunity to pay for only seven players, with free accommodations and green fees for one golfer, minimum three nights. The program is offered in conjunction with 44 hotels and 25 golf courses, several of them ranked among the finest courses in continental Europe.

A parkland-style course in the Arizona desert? Raven Golf Club -- Phoenix (formerly Raven at South Mountain), reopened in October after a complete renovation of the 15-year-old facility, is the antithesis of a target-style course. Designed by David Graham and Gary Panks, the 7,078-yard daily-fee layout, located minutes from Sky Harbor Airport and downtown Phoenix, has rolling fairways and undulating greens lined by more than 6,000 mature Georgia pines. It's possible to duff a few shots and not lose every ball in the bag at this well-groomed track. Through Jan. 2, rates range from $89 - $99 Monday to Thursday; $99 - $109 Friday to Sunday and holidays.

Autumn is an ideal time to explore the Waccamaw Golf Trail on the South Carolina coast. The Trail offers 12 excellent layouts (including Caledonia, Pawleys Plantation and TPC of Myrtle Beach), a diverse array of accommodations, plus the 60-mile-long Grand Strand. Put together your own package, or take advantage of a special promotion at the top-rated Heritage Club on Pawleys Island, its fairways framed by massive oaks and its challenging back nine built around a large lake. Through Nov. 27, rate of $94 includes golf, breakfast, lunch and two complimentary beers.

Through Dec. 31, Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort, located 20 miles northwest of the Strip and featuring three superb Pete Dye courses backdropped by the Sheep Range, is offering a range of discounted rates. Primetime (tee times before 11 a.m.), Happy Hour (11 a.m. - 1 p.m.), Twilight (1 p.m. -- 2 p.m.) and Super Twilight (after 2 p.m.) rates range from $49 to $89 on the Snow Mountain and Sun Mountain courses; and from $69 to $109 on the top-rated Wolf course. For the resort's GOLFaPalooza promotion (1 replay + lunch + 50% off rentals), call 800-711-2833.

Already looking ahead to next April and the 2012 golf season's first major? Masters Travel Packages by Sports Events includes Masters tickets to all or select rounds, hotel accommodations at Sheraton Augusta or Jameson Suites, hospitality services at the Lodge on Magnolia, and transfers to and from the Augusta National Golf Club. Rates start at $1,999.

48 Hours In...

Frederick, Maryland

How about loading your musket for two days of golf at the crossroads of American history?

Located an hour's drive west of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., Frederick, birthplace of Francis Scott Key and Maryland's second largest city, has been a witness to many important events. It was here that Meriwether Lewis stopped before joining William Clark on their trek westward, here also that Confederate and Union troops clashed on the streets during the Civil War. In the wake of an urban renewal program in the 1970s, visitors today will find well-preserved 18th- and 19th-century buildings within the city's 33-block historic district, often described as a "little Georgetown."

West of town, golfers can enter a rural region marked by rolling hills and craggy mountains, with a handful of excellent daily-fee courses tucked into verdant valleys not far from famous battlefields.

GOLF

Whiskey Creek. Rugged mountain layout in Ijamsville has sharp elevation changes, prominent rock outcrops and 30-mile views of the Catoctin Mountains. Downhill risk-reward par-5 18th plays around the stone ruins of an old manor house. Creek in play on the back nine was used by smugglers in Prohibition era to float barrels of moonshine downstream. Maryland National. Located 15 minutes west of Frederick in Middletown, this solid Arthur Hills-designed course, stretched across 194 acres of former farmland dotted with lakes and wetlands, has a good assortment of holes carved into hillsides and ridges. The greens are among the fastest and smoothest in the region. A shotmaker's course with fine mountain views. http://marylandnational.com/

ATTRACTIONS

National Museum of Civil War Medicine. Features more than 1,500 artifacts, including a Civil War ambulance. (The museum is a good starting point for a walking tour of the city's Civil War history).

New Market. This delightful town just east of Frederick down I-70 bills itself as the "Antiques Capital of Maryland."

Catoctin Wildlife Preserve & Zoo. Hundreds of exotic animals are on display at this zoo north of Frederick.

DINING

The Tasting Room. Lively spot on North Market Street in historic district has floor-to-ceiling windows, superb "Maryland Style" crab cakes, pan-roasted rockfish and center-cut filet mignon. Good wine list.

Schmankerl Stube. Nearby Hagerstown, a frontier town founded by German settlers in the 1700s, has several good restaurants, none better than this popular, friendly place serving hearty Bavarian fare and German beers on draft.

WHERE TO STAY

The Inn at Stone Manor. Historic manor house circa 1760 set on 114 acres of formal gardens and working farmland in Middletown offers six luxury suites. Rates (starting at $200 per night) include full breakfast.

Fairfield Inn & Suites Frederick. Recently renovated, conveniently located 105-room hotel, located two miles from historic district has free high-speed internet access, nightly rates from $129.