A view of the Fairmont Banff Springs Golf Course in Alberta.
JACOB SJÖMAN
Let’s play a sport of phrase affiliation. When we are saying “golf trip,” you inform us the locations that first spring to thoughts. Monterey? Myrtle Beach? Scottsdale? Scotland? All good solutions, as are Bandon, Cabot, Kohler, Streamsong and Sand Valley, amongst others you’ve examine in numerous journey roundups.
Now, let’s attempt a special immediate: Golf destinations that you just’ve been overlooking. Here are 5 that spring to our minds.
Albuquerque, N.M.
Idea for one more prequel set on this capital metropolis: “Breaking Good”. It would open with a shot of a younger Walter White, rolling putts on the fantastically contoured greens of the University of New Mexico Championship Course, one of many nation’s nice collegiate programs and, in contrast to most of the finest campus layouts, open to the general public (with weekend strolling charges of $72, it’s a terrific worth, too). It’s a part of a broader Albuquerque golf scene that features Sandia Golf Club, a pristinely conditioned monitor on tribal land, and Paako Ridge, which gives 27 dramatic holes etched into the shoulder of the Sandia Mountains. Paako Ridge is roughly 25 minutes from downtown. And when you’re up for a barely longer street journey, buzz 90 minutes north to Black Mesa, a burly Baxter Spann design on heaving desert terrain. It’s a stalwart on GOLF’s roster of Top 100 Courses You Can Play.
California’s Central Coastal
Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach. Surely, you realize them. Maybe you’ve performed them. They’re the 2 most well-known public-access seaside programs in California, however there’s greater than 400 miles between them, with numerous nice golf alongside the way in which, a lot of it clustered on the Central Coast. Sandpiper, in Santa Barbara, is among the many standouts. Same architect as Torrey Pines (William F. Bell) on equally moody Pacific bluffs, with an enthralling routing that ends, quirkily, with a par-3. With Santa Barbara as your base, you’ve bought different nice choices north and south. Forty minutes up the coast takes you to La Purisima, in Lompoc, a 2023 U.S. Open native qualifying web site that’s as pleasant as it’s demanding. Buzz the wrong way, roughly the identical distance, and also you’re on the Ojai Valley Inn, the place the upscale facilities embrace an clever 18-holer by George C. Thomas (of Riviera and Bel-Air and Los Angeles Country Club fame). If muni golf is extra your factor, one of many nation’s finest is lower than two miles from the inn. Like Sandpiper, Soule Park was designed by William F. Bell, although it sits farther inland, in a shocking, oak-studded valley, and likewise bears the imprint of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner. The duo’s renovation of Soule Park was certainly one of their early initiatives and helped announce them as main skills of their discipline.
Courtesy
Daufuskie Island
Daufuskie means “sharp feather” within the language of the Muscogee folks, who inhabited the island for millennia earlier than European explorers confirmed up within the 1500s. Some 5 centuries after that, John Mellencamp purchased a house right here. And no marvel. A barrier island with miles of unspoiled seashores and no bridges linking it to the mainland, Daufuskie is reachable solely by ferry, and it has the tranquil atmosphere of a spot trapped fantastically in time. Also: there’s golf! At Haig Point, a personal membership that units apart a tranche of public tee instances on 29 holes that work beside the ocean and alongside tidal marshes. Designed by Rees Jones, they’re price looping greater than as soon as earlier than you hop again on the ferry to the mainland, the place, it simply so occurs, you’ll be lower than 10 miles from golf-rich Hilton Head.
Northern Minnesota
Sure, possibly you’ve heard about northern Michigan as an amazing golf getaway — and also you wouldn’t be fallacious — however how about northern Minnesota? The Brainerd space particularly, two hours north of the Twin Cities, is loaded with nice golf, enjoyable resorts and all of the summer time lakefront enjoyable any group or household getaway can deal with. The better part? It’s solely getting higher. Grand View Lodge (45 holes) and Cragun’s (45 holes) each not too long ago upgraded their programs — the latter courtesy of Minnesotan Tom Lehman — and simply down the street is The Classic at Maddens, which some imagine is the most effective within the space. Others would possibly argue that the honour belongs to Deacon’s Lodge, which sits simply 25 miles north. In the final couple of years the realm bought a brand new 13-hole par-3 course, too, The Gravel Pit. And if the Brainerd space isn’t sufficient, maintain heading north and also you’ll discover Giants Ridge in Biwabik, Minn., which has two 18-hole programs and one, The Quarry, which is arguably the most effective public course within the state.
Courtesy Cragun’s
The Canadian Rockies
As the Alister MacKenzie of the Great White North, Stanley Thompson labored on an array of arresting websites in his house nation, none extra eye-popping than in Banff. Thompson’s undertaking right here — recognized at this time because the Fairmont Banff Springs Golf Course — sits in an ample wildlife hall of a nationwide park, and is one thing of a nationwide monument itself, with brawny fairways and grand paw-print bunkers on holes laid out between the mountains and Bow River. It’s roughly half-hour from Banff to a different worthy cease — Canmore Golf & Curling Club — after which one other quarter-hour from there to Kananaskis, the place Robert Trent Jones Sr. stitched 36 superb holes by means of a piney canvas spliced by the Kananaskis River, with grand mountain peaks looming throughout. Depending in your schedule — and your urge for food for journey — you would bookend your getaway with one other Thompson traditional — Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course — which nudges up towards Lake Beauvert and nods to its surrounds with contouring that mimics the outlines of the mountains within the backdrop. It’s a three-plus hour drive from Banff to Jasper, by means of surroundings that might go as a postcard.
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