The Sea Pines Resorton Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, is celebrating the 50thanniversary of Harbour Town Golf Links – home to the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage tournament – with an array of attractivestay-and-play packages. Guests can select from a variety of golf, dining, lodging, and length-of-stay options.
Three of the five “Inn & Club” packages, which start at $300 per night for two guests, include a one-night stay at The Inn & Club at Harbour Town with one round of golf for either one or two players.
The Golf Champions package, starting at $400 per night, features golf at Harbour Town Golf Links, the award-winning Pete Dye design. Heron Point, also a Dye design, and Atlantic Dunes, renovated by Davis Love III in 2016, are available for play in The Player’s Choice package. These packages may be customized with combinations of golf, dining credits or both.
As part of the 50thanniversary season, The Sea Pines Resort has introduced two “Villa” packages with three-night stays in a one-bedroom Harbour Town Resort View Villa plus golf on each of the three championship layouts; these packages are $1,000. The Golf Only package is for two players, while the Golf and Culinary package is for one player but adds in a $275 dining credit.
All of the packages are available through Feb. 29, 2020, with blackout dates applicable.
To make travel easier and minimize the possibility of layovers, Hilton Head Island visitors now have sevendirect flight options. American, Delta, and United airlines fly directly into Hilton Head Island Airport (HHH) from New York (LaGuardia), Washington (Reagan and Dulles), Newark, Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
To commemorate the 2014 debut of Quivira Golf Club, the epic Jack Nicklaus-designed course etched across a dazzling site at the tip of the Baja Peninsula, Pueblo Bonito Golf & Spa Resorts has put together a special package for golf enthusiasts.
Opened to acclaim on Dec. 4, 2014, the Jack Nicklaus Signature course at Quivira has been recognized as one of the finest resort venues in the hemisphere. It has been voted to Golf Digest’s elite roster of the “World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses” and is ranked No. 2 on Golfweek’s list of the “Top 50 Courses in the Caribbean and Mexico.”
Created as an exclusive amenity for guests of Pueblo Bonito Golf & Spa Resorts and QuiviraLos Cabos residents, the bold risk-reward design, marked by sheer granite cliffs, massive windswept dunes and rolling desert foothills, features breathtaking views and dizzying drops from tee to fairway. In a sun-splashed destination celebrated for its unique ocean-desert-mountain ecosystem, Quivira boasts more oceanfront exposure than any other course in town. This 7,085-yard, par-72 tour de force presents an unforgettable test from any set of tees and offers players the biggest “wow” factor in Los Cabos.
“Our team worked with the canvas Mother Nature provided to create what we hope is one of the most spectacular courses in the world,” Nicklaus said when the course opened five years ago. “This property afforded us a rare opportunity because of its topographic diversity and natural environment.”
Completing the experience at Quivira Golf Club is a stylish, thatched-roof clubhouse that offers a large rectangular bar, a casual steakhouse and ample outdoor seating overlooking the sea. Adjacent to the clubhouse is a spacious double-ended driving range that parallels the ocean within earshot of the thudding surf. There’s also an elongated practice putting green and a short-game practice area.
In addition to two rounds of golf and deluxe accommodations at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Golf & Spa Resort, an adults-only, all-inclusive beachfront property located within Quivira Los Cabos, a range of enticing perks and amenities boosts the appeal of the 5th Anniversary Package.
Course Primer. Players are treated to a ‘local knowledge’ briefing before the round by director of golf Antonio Reynante and his staff on how to play the course successfully. Topics include proper tee selection for one’s ability level and prudent risk-reward strategy at key holes.
Hole-in-One Sweepstakes. Make an ace at the par-3 ninth hole, and you’ll win a complementary 7-night VIP golf vacation for four players at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica and Quivira Golf Club.
Anniversary Cocktail. At the beachfront Quivira Clubhouse, players can toast the club’s 5th birthday with a special “Cocktel” created by the staff’s expert mixologists: Pitaya soda, vodka and Damiana infusion, mango foam with smoked morita pepper salt.
Anniversary Dish. The culinary team at the Quivira Clubhouse has created a unique Baja dish made with locally sourced ingredients to celebrate the club’s anniversary. This exceptional “Platillo” is composed of braised octopus with shrimp from the Sea of Cortes, chickpea hummus, pickled kabuchi and red onion.
Golfer’s Massage. The 5th Anniversary Package package also includes a one-hour Golfer’s Massage at Pacifica’s award-winning Armonia Spa. The treatment, designed to relieve tension and fatigue, also heals and stimulates sore muscles. The spa’s exclusive line of organic products is used in all body treatments.
Sunset Golf Cart Tour. Traveling with non-golfers who want to see for themselves what all the fuss is about? The package features a nightly Sunset Golf Cart Tour that transports guests from sea level to the Cliffs comfort station, an exalted perch 275 feet above the thrashing surf. The cart tour also swings by the old lighthouse (circa 1905) and stops at the Oasis for complimentary refreshments.
Pricing for the 5th Anniversary Package starts at $2,367 per person for a deluxe room at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica or at $3,605 for a Private Pool Suite at The Towers at Pacifica, double occupancy, depending on dates and choice of accommodations. The package offer runs from now through April 30, 2020, subject to availability.
In the towering condo jungle of North Miami, there is a 300-acre oasis. The JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa, which has previously operated under other management flags, remains the centerpiece of North Miami’s trendy Aventura enclave, but now has new energy and amenities normally seen at properties twice its size.
Those include two golf courses, Soffer and Miller; the renovated âme Spa & Wellness Collective Spa; a five-acre waterpark called Tidal Cove; the nation’s largest FlowRider Triple surf simulator; more than 120,000 square feet of meeting space, and a new 16-story Orchid Tower comprised of 325 guest rooms that more-than doubled the resort’s occupancy to 685 guest rooms.
There also are new membership options; a new lobby bar called Soff’s; and two new dining options – Surf House Bar & Grill and Freestyle – in addition to Corsair restaurant (home of off-the-charts brunches every Saturday and Sunday and some innovative beer pairings dinners) and celebrity Chef Michael Mina’s outstanding Bourbon Steak, which is one of the top steak houses in Florida.
Located only 12 miles from Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport and 18 miles from Miami International Airport, the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa makes a great headquarters for everything South Florida.
A bit of history: Over the years, the 53-year-old resort – developed by a group led by real estate magnate Donald Soffer, who developed the City of Aventura – has been flagged as a Mandarin and a Fairmont property.
In 2012, then-Turnberry Isle Miami joined Marriott’s Autograph Collection. In December 2018 the resort officially became the JW Marriott it is today.
“The ‘JW’ brand has very loyal leisure and transient following, along with a meetings following,’’ said resort Director of Sales and Marketing Shane Allor. “So, we’ve seen a bit of a [rooms night] increase,’’ in the past year.
Under the luxury JW Marriott flag, Turnberry Miami has spent much of the past year-plus on marketing campaigns showcasing the new brand identity and amenities, which include its Miller and Soffer golf courses.
“Golf is big part of who we are here,’’ Allor said.
And JW Marriott Miami Turnberry certainly does golf as well as any resort in South Florida. The staging area for each course, for example, is a beehive of activity, but it’s always well-coordinated so as to avoid the “factory’’ feel of some of its competitors.
The Miller Course (6,192 yards from the tips) is a solid resort course, protected by bunkers and recently renovated with wall-to-wall Paspalum grass, including on its greens. The greens on the Soffer Course (7,021 yards) were re-done on 2019 with TifEagle Bermuda, which make them a bit faster than the greens on the Miller Course.
For the best golf experience at the resort, the idea is to play each course. But if you only can play one, make it the Soffer, particularly if you are a better player, as it requires some long carries from the back sets of tees and carries over water on some of the par 3s. The Soffer is as complete a golf course as there is in South Florida, from Miami-Dade County to Palm Beach County.
The multimillion-dollar renovations have given the resort a brighter look throughout, and Tidal Cove, which features seven slides that even adults find thrilling, makes JW Marriott Miami Turnberry one of South Florida’s more family-friendly destinations. Tidal Cove is accessible only to resort guests and club members.
Regardless of the flag, the resort has for the past several years been regarded as one of South Florida’s top spa destination. The two-story âme Spa & Wellness Collective Spa fits that bill with a 3,600 square-foot fitness center and a plethora of massage treatments that include a Deep Tissue Sports Massage and a terrific CBD massage. Both are great for golfers.
This destination has helped enlarge the JW Marriott brand’s footprint in Florida. The brand’s portfolio also includes the two other Miami properties, JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes (sister to The Ritz-Carlton, Grande Lakes), JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort and new JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek Resort & Spa.
When three dozen or so PGA Tour players make their way to Maui every January for the Sentry Tournament of Champions, they not only savor, in the Kapalua Plantation Course, a competitive environment truly unlike any other. With recent nips and tucks, the mountainside masterpiece from Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw proves an even keener challenge.
Beyond the Plantation, Maui delivers a diverse array of other golf courses and outdoor activities, food and drink venues and relaxation opportunities.
OK, it does produce its share of rainbows, right after a tropical downpour, framed like a full-color island fever dream by the churning Pacific.
And among world-class destination layouts, it is quite singular in setting, style and sheer size of its footprint upon the land, at least among its Hawaiian brethren.
Not a unicorn, however. It actually exists. Thank God.
And after nearly 30 years, the first major design from Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore returns from a nine-month renovation just in time for the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions, Jan. 2-5.
Overseen by Coore and Crenshaw and carried out by Troon Golf’s Design, Development and Agronomy team — with a huge assist from former Tour player, Golf Channel on-course commentator and 40-year Kapalua resident Mark Rolfing, who knows the site better than anyone — the overhaul brought changes to every hole, from “calmed” green undulations to repositioned, removed and brand-new bunkers.
Rolfing says the project was powered by “somewhat conflicting” goals: “to make it more playable for the recreational golfers and more challenging and difficult for the best players in the world.”
Mission accomplished on both fronts, to a point.
Traversing the broad shoulders of a former pineapple farm, the Plantation remains a beautiful and beguiling beast. It’s a journey rife with wide-open paradise views that enhance every round, but can quickly derail it if one doesn’t keep focused on the many shotmaking options at hand, then choose wisely depending on which way the wind is blowing and what’s between you and the pin, which now enjoy more potential placements from green to green.
“The entrances to those greens are an integral part of the experience – for the golfers who play 15,000 rounds there a year, and for the best in the world,” Crenshaw said about a week after the Plantation reopened in November. “If you know where the breeze is coming from, and you can plan the shot, that’s the key to playing there, under adverse conditions. It’s the most interesting way to play.”
In other words, it’s a delicious challenge to any golfer who steps up on that elevated first tee and stares down, down, down at the first fairway, with a new carpet of TifEagle Bermuda in the foreground and the ocean and islands of Lanai and Molokai beyond.
“Bill and I are proud of the fact that Kapalua offers a different test of golf for the tournamant player,” Crenshaw continued. “They have to play imaginative golf. It’s not, hit it A to B and expect it to stop next to the cup. They don’t find anything else like it during the year.”
After years of watching its previous year’s champs bludgeon many of the par-73 Plantation’s wide, fast-running downhill fairways with freewheeling tee shots and even reach some of the flatter or uphill par 4s in two shots – last year’s winner, Xander Schauffele, finished 23 under par, including a final round 62 to tie the course record and beat Gary Woodland by one stroke – the PGA Tour asked Coore and Crenshaw to find ways to combat the bomb-and-gouge onslaught.
“We didn’t know going in what they wanted, what they wanted us to do,” Coore said. “We were trying to restore it, and they were amazingly supportive. All the officials who consulted with us, their big goal was to get more pin placements on the greens. We were able to do that with their influence, but they didn’t say, ‘You have to do this or that.’ Some of the greens had shrunk dramatically. But we wanted to recontour the greens not only for the tournament, but on a day-to-day basis.”
The result is definitely a more pleasing putting experience for the daily player, with fewer buried elephants to negotiate. Still, the surfaces remain, on average, links-large to accommodate the strong trade winds that develop most afternoons – hence their adaptability to a wide swath of approach options, including the well-placed run-up that gives the average player a fighting chance from longer range.
Back when the Plantation debuted in the early 1990s, the ground game was in play for everyone, including the pros. Then they all started blowing it out there 300-plus yards.
“The ball goes so far, they could use the ground to their advantage,” Coore said. “You could see the joy and amazement in [average] players watching the ball land short of the green and rolling up. But then it got harder for the resort player and easier for the top player.”
The par 5 5th hole at Kapalua Plantation. Photo by Joe West
Crenshaw agreed.
“It’s almost preposterous how deep people can hit the ball now. But the top five or six people will [still have to] putt well, but their approaches need to be well thought-out and well-played to set themselves up to be aggressive with the putter. I’m really interested in watching guys putt on [similar uphill holes] 10 and 13. Playing to them is relatively the same, but they will have to putt with more imagination. There are new contours where you’re rewarded for a good shot.
“Australian players used to do well here – Stuart Appleby three straight times, Geoff Ogilvy twice – the way the course used to play,” he continued. “Australians, South Africans, European guys could adapt to using the ground, hitting different types of shots. The Plantation Course was controversial. It was different. It will be interesting to see this year; if the wind cooperates it will play differently.”
In terms of individual hole tweaks, several will, no doubt, stir plenty of talk among the big boys.
The biggest and boldest is a new bunker smack-dab in the middle of the par-5 fifth fairway, some 300 yards from the back tees, which will force Tour studs to either lay up, try to muscle over it or, more likely, pick a lane – with a big ol’ ravine up the hole’s entire right side.
The 18th hole, one of the best finishers on the PGA Tour. Photo by Joe West
“That tee shot wasn’t totally mindless for players of that caliber, but there was no way they had to challenge that ravine on the right,” Coore said. “There needed to be a point of interest out there, to make them think about it a little.”
Added Crenshaw, “That bunker’s there to make them scratch their head. There’s a great line that Dr. [Alister] Mackenzie wrote about a central hazard: ‘You’ve got to make a special effort to avoid it.’ They’ll say, ‘That bunker is right where I hit it.’ Well, that’s why it’s there!”
Of the Plantation’s three other par 5s, the famed, downhill 18th underwent the fewest changes, including a 1,200-square-foot green expansion to allow more pin placements. No. 9 gained new back and forward tees and the left fairway bunkers were pinched in to tighten the second-shot angle a bit. No. 15 is probably still the best three-shotter out there, benefitting from some new “landforms” in landing areas, one extra fairway bunker, one less greenside bunker and a slightly smaller putting surface. The big swale about 100 yards below the green will still swallow plenty of lay-ups, so if anything, the hole is a tad tougher for amateurs.
The best overall hole, by far, remains No. 17, the sweeping, downhill par 4 with top-of-the-world views, wide ravine guarding the second shot and easily the most “fun” green to find with one of those come-up-short-and-roll-on approaches that have made the Plantation such a joy to play back when it opened, and again today.
“The goal was to recapture the main playing characteristics of the course,” said a “sentimental” Crenshaw, who married his wife at Kapalua and relished the opportunity to return to the scene of his first design with Coore. “Using the slope and ground to feed balls to the green can be used to the resort player’s advantage, and yet for the best players it creates an element of doubt, that perhaps makes it a little more difficult for them.”
Coore also loved getting another shot at the one-of-a-kind site that, perhaps second only to Sandhills in Nebraska, launched them to the top of the design heap.
“We look back and say, ‘How did we pull that off?’” he said. “Thirty years later, for us to be there, working on it, and see people come back to play it again and again – and to see the same guys who worked on it back then, in their 20s, who are now in their 50s, working on the same things, is very rewarding.”
Tempus fugit, as the Romans uttered – and, as proof, it’s already that fabled time of year when Arizona transforms itself from the world’s largest outdoor sauna into a golfer’s Valhalla, especially in and around Phoenix, and more specifically, Scottsdale. There are likely more good golf holes around these here parts than anywhere in the Western Hemisphere – hell, make that the entire giddy globe!
Not that we’re revealing a well-kept secret or anything – Canadian snowbirds have been flocking to the desert annually come November and staying until spring for decades now. And the smart (make that “big”) money has been buying fairway-adjacent second and third homes in the area for quite a while as well.
Come here during the summer and those homes might as well be occupied by the ghosts of golf past. But there are surefire signs of life in the fall that will keep on burning until the snow melts in Calgary, Cleveland, and points beyond.
Speaking of the ancients, it was Heraclitus who said that when you step into a river twice, you’ve stepped into two different rivers. Same can be said for Scottsdale, which keeps morphing into a more desirable recreational and cultural escape with every season.
Golf resort properties keep sprouting anew or getting the old renovation once-over. The culinary scene has evolved from green-chile-or-red into a diverse and modern smorgasbord; and the sense of vibrant, urban excitement in the midst of natural beauty is unmatched almost anywhere.
We recently had a chance to visit the area and sample some of the new and revised wares and came away hungry for more.
From chords to courses, a fine Swing & Song golf travel tune emerges from the Hill Country of Central Texas. Before scoring some tranquil time at the renovated Horseshoe Bay Resort, just 50 miles northwest of the city proper, the sharp spur will saddle up for a few days in diverse Austin, where you’ll find a rep beyond just the state’s capital city.
Known as “The Live Music Capital of the World,” Austin proves an audial and outdoor nexus, with all manner of stimuli to sate and serve visitors, from waterfront activities to tunes playing, well, seemingly everywhere.
Home and host to the annual South by Southwest (March 13-22, 2020) and Austin City Limits (October 2-4 and 9-11, 2020) festivals, the city is one of the country’s most unique cultural canvasses. A blue stamp in a red state, Austin matches a boom of headquarted tech companies, paired with one of the nation’s annual top-10 college campus enrollments at UT-Austin.
And the town is proudly weird.
To borrow from the Bard, a night out in downtown Austin’s drink and dine-laden Sixth Street is a Moveable Beast. People are everywhere: from boozy co-eds to strolling music lovers to football fanatics to hipsters, hippies, vagrants, vacationers, cowboys and Moms and Pops just out for a good time. Known to some as “Dirty Sixth,” as the clock turns toward the a.m. hours, there’s no shortage of mayhem to be found there.
Slick Rock at Horseshoe Bay Resort
But, amid the din, newcomers need know it’s among the most unique, head-turning mayhems the country has to offer, and Austin’s sounds, strums and song around every turn need be experienced.
For those seeking a slightly more chill amble, the up-and-coming Rainey Street is within walking distance of Sixth or—as the visitor will fast note—easily-accessible by electric rental scooter, a fun, easy, and slightly maniacal mode of transport.
Sporting a pair of thorough food truck courts (with a third soon on the way), Rainey is also amply bar-lined, though with a fresher flair and character, as several of the establishments have been converted from former residential properties.
Now for the swing after the sing: A 45-minute drive through Texas hill country, gently winding through comely mesquite, rock outcroppings, bramble and tucked-away wine vineyards, the winding path to Horseshoe Bay aptly sets the senses for wind-down resort time.
Ram Rock at Horseshoe Bay
Recognized as a provenance for the region’s golf growth of the 1980s, Horseshoe’s 7,000-acre spread is home to four courses, with its most magnetic amenity being of the natural variety, as the property sits beside 21 miles of constant-level Lake LBJ.
Back in 2012, the debut of Horseshoe’s stellar, members-only Jack Nicklaus-designed Summit Rock Course raised the bar for property-wide enhancements. In late ’15, the resort set in motion a thorough renovation plan for upgrades to its trio of Robert Trent Jones, Sr. public plays.
Today, $95 million later, a full resort renovation has the property on the upswing, with all-new guest rooms, suites and superb lakeside Yacht Club serving a savory Texas Two-Step for the golfing Austin visitor.
Apple Rock at Horseshoe Bay
“We see it a lot, with folks carving-out three or four days at Horseshoe; either capping the getaway off with a few nights in Austin, or hitting downtown on the front end of a trip,” says Anthony Holder, director of golf at Horseshoe Bay Resort. “And, up here, it’s a feeling of a slower, relaxed lifestyle; a place to enjoy time, but with all the modern comforts and amenities. With the renovation, just about every outlet, every area of the property has gotten some love and attention.”
From a play perspective, Horseshoe’s three publics received about $7.5 million of the renovation dollars, with improvements both aesthetic and tangible; most notably, segueing from the creation of Summit, all of the resort’s courses now roll with 007 bentgrass grass, a true rarity for the region.
“We certainly feel that it’s a nice marketing aspect for the property, in that you won’t find bentgrass with our main competition,” said Ken Gorzycki, director of agronomy at Horseshoe Bay. “Yeah, it’s a little more difficult and labor-intensive to maintain, but we think it’s all worth the effort for our guests and members.”
In concert with the greens, Horseshoe’s agronomy team—working with Robert Trent Jones, Jr.’s Austin-based senior project architect Mark Voss—conducted a host of enhancements, including new rock retaining walls, fresh fountains in ponds, leveled tees and upgraded irrigation systems.
The four-year project aimed to bring the plays close to the new Summit standard, while still keeping Jones, Sr.’s original design intents in-mind.
“When they had Robert Trent Jones, Sr. come out to design the courses, they chose him, as I understand it, because his style was less disruptive to the landscape and more about encompassing natural features,” said Holder.
The property’s original course, Slick Rock, debuted in 1972, and proves the most benign—and popular—of the plays.
“It’s the oldest of the courses, and the most traditional of the styles,” Holder says. “It’s a bit flatter, with large, protected greens. Still a challenge, with some fun holes. Slick gets the most play of any of our courses.”
Opened in 1981, Horseshoe’s Ram Rock Course proves headstrong, with elevated approach and continual, creek-lined holes.
“It’s what we call, ‘The Beast,’” laughs Holder. “Ram is considered one of the most difficult courses in the entire state; that’s the rep, even for pros. There’s some need to shape shots, and you need to be a long player to be able to take shortcuts. For the average-distance hitter, it will force you to position tee shots.”
More forgiveness is found on Apple Rock, which rounded-out the public tee sheet back in 1985.
“It’s a good combination of Slick and Ram,” Holder says of Apple. “It’s not as difficult as Ram, but it is our longest course, so if you tip-out at 7,000, it will give you a test. And, for the mid-handicapper, there are some great views to match with big greens and lots of bunkering.”
Travel tip: For the particularly driven player (say, the kind who may consider flying into Horseshoe’s own airport), it’s surely worth a word to try and get on Summit. Free of housing, sporting a gorgeous, natural flow and deserved of its lofty rankings by national and regions publications alike, the track is truly superior to its sister courses.
For those sated by the run of non-Summit plays (and, rest assured, they are quality), a Horseshoe visit in-full should pair golf days with some time on the water. Whether the trip style is of the Dudes, Couples or Family venture (the latter may be most recommended), the resort’s marina and Yacht Club scene match primo dining with a singular setting.
“With the sun going down over the lake, it’s as good as it gets,” says Holder. “It’s where I enjoy hanging out with my own family. It encapsulates that great view of the lake, with what we call ‘beach front’ properly, even though I guess it’s more lake front. We’ve got the pool with swim-up bar, and the huge hot tub.”
The on-site, 350-slip marina provides unique opportunity for golfers to couple the day’s turf time with water respite.
“We’re one of the only resorts that will let you bring your boat in when you’re staying with us,” says Zac Taylor, marina director. “It’s pretty common for a guest to come in, drop the truck and trailer with us, go check into the room, and we’ll load everything to the water for them.”
For family-style trips, Horseshoe makes it easy for Pop to go swing for a day while the youngsters enjoy some swim.
“We’ll have a lot of boat guest who go play golf,” adds Taylor, “and a lot of times, we’ll see golfers go head out and leave the kids here with us for tube rides.”
A full menu of lake experiences runs from pontoon rides to ski boats, wave runner rentals, sunset cruises, party yachts and fishing tours.
White bass and crappie prove the primary catch.
“Our fishing guide, his dad was our guide for a long time, so when you go out with our team, you’re pretty much guaranteed to come back with a whole sack of fish meat,” Taylor smiles.
From “weird” to wedge to water, this Texas tune is played in full with a two-step trip: going city mouse to country mouse flavors Austin in full, starting with the din of downtown singers and bookending the travel with Horseshoe’s ringer.
Four decades ago, Davis Love, Jr., built a small shed with two hitting bays that became the first Golf Performance Center at Georgia’s Sea Island Golf Resort.
Three years after Love’s death in a place crash — under the supervision of his longtime friend Jack Lumpkin — a 4,000 square-foot Golf Performance Center made its debut overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
True to his Southern Gentleman personality, Lumpkin scoffs at the notion that he is a pioneer in the world of golf performance centers, but the truth is, the man known around Sea Island Golf Resort as “Mr. Jack,’’ is exactly that — a visionary who, like Love, Jr., was always looking for better ways to teach the game of golf.
In that regard, the new Sea Island Golf Performance Center opened this past May as a fitting tribute to the two men who helped shape Sea Island as a world class golf destination.
“I had a little input,’’ on the new 17,000 square-foot Golf Performance Center, said Lumpkin, a legendary teacher of such noted PGA Tour stars a Davis Love III and Loren Roberts who serves as Sea Island’s Senior Director of Instruction. “All of the instructors shared their ideas. Craig Allen (Golf Performance Center Manager) was the one who really sold it to the [Sea Island] Company.
“I did have a lot to do with the original building because I built it. At the time there was nothing comparable. We needed to do something for our students during rainy days to help, entertain and educate them at the same time. We needed meeting rooms and ball-striking rooms, too, so it was all kind of put together out of need and necessity.’’
The new Golf Performance Center is part of Sea Island Company’s $30 million renovations and additions project, which includes an 18-hole Driftwood putting course; six new cottages with 14 new sleeping rooms; a new oceanfront pool; pool house; and extended practice facility and short game area, each overlooking the Atlantic.
In addition, the Plantation Course, currently being renovated by Love III’s design group, reopened in fall 2019 as an outstanding complement to the fabled Seaside Course, built in 1929 by Harry S. Colt and Charles Alison.
The new Golf Performance Center, located behind and just a few yards away from the original center (that will be reshaped into an-other cottage complete with a hitting bay) is the centerpiece of the new amenities — and solidifies Sea Island Golf Resort’s reputation as one of the country’s great places to learn and play the game.
That reputation, of course, is thanks in large part to Lumpkin and other instructors, including putting guru Phil Kenyon and Director of Fitness Randy Myers. Each has his own space at the new Center. For example, two indoor putting studios for Kenyon and an extensive exercise room with outdoor patio for Myers.
The new Center also features six instruction and club fitting bays, a golf simulator, retail area, and indoor and outdoor meeting and event spaces.
“We think the new Center is going to be as good as anybody’s,’’ Lumpkin said. “Hopefully people will want to come.’’
No doubt they will come, but with all of the Center’s technologies and toys, it begs the question, when does a student (or teacher) reach techno overload?
There is no better person to answer than Lumpkin, an avowed “old school’’ instructor who has embraced 21st century teaching technology.
“I use video and Trackman (launch monitor), but for specific purposes,’’ he said. “Some teachers won’t teach without a Trackman. They use it for everything from face angle to ball spin.
“A lot of times when I’m working with Tour players, we are working on distance control. We will work on Trackman simply for that alone. We might then work on trajectory or spin. But I don’t think I have to have it to deliver a good lesson.’’
Indeed. The mark of a good teacher — or in Lumpkin’s case, a great teacher — is figuring out how his or her student learns best.
“Some (students) are very analytical and want all those numbers,’’ Lumpkin said. “Then there is the student who plays totally by feel. So, as a teacher, you need to put the person in a place he or she can learn the most. After all, that’s what it’s all about.’’
And that’s what the Sea Island Golf Performance delivers.
If you wanna spice up that golf with some debaucherous revelry, you could make it a casino course destination. You could. Why not, instead, do the Real Deal? Why not Las Vegas?
So here in nutshell is your down and dirty guide to a Sin City golf getaway.
The 8th hole on the Wolf at Las Vegas Paiute Resort.
Howl me a riot act, go ahead, for I do love Shadow Creek. Shadow Creek also isn’t exactly open to most, and you can drop a few Benz payments, all in, for that afternoon at what is an American top-10 course.
Nope. We’re mortals here, sane, and golf nuts, and three beats one every time, anyway, as in Wolf, Snow Mountain and Sun Mountain. Save a bulkhead here, an island green, these are about the least “Pete Dye” Pete Dye courses in existence.
Situated on tribal land a half hour northwest of Glitter Gulch, a key takeaway from Paiute is no urban encroachments, no McMansions choking fairways and view sheds. There’s also not a lamb in the flock. Wolf it the most boisterous and visually contrasting. Sun Mountain is the designer clearly showing you his hand, and your skill determining the outcome. Snow Mountain is the trickster, the beguiling one, with a high R&R Rating – risk and reward. Simply Vegas’ best complete golf experience – courses, service, cost, value, scenery.
But, hey, it’s Vegas, so let’s do some over-the-top, and that comes courtesy of Cascata Golf Club.
The 7th green at Cascata
What began life as Caesars Palace’s answer to you-know-where has, in my estimation, matured from a showy peacock trying too hard into a place that just easily oozes perfection.
From the personal greeting at the front door to the forecaddies to a grill room staff that treats you better than your home club could ever muster, the word is service. Sure, it’s expensive, but so is your cable bill, and how much do you bitch about what your provider passes for content?
On the golf side, Rees Jones flung Cascata over the side of the craggy mountains out toward Boulder City. You will share your round with bighorn sheep because, absent golf carts, they not humans are the only things without wings acclimated to this type of terrain. And, yes, a river cascades down the mountain and through the clubhouse.
Steak, it’s what’s for golf trip. (And if you’re beef-averse, you probably play badminton, so you won’t be reading this.) Vegas does steak like the Church does guilt.
Pretty much every single casino-resort has at least one steakery, and freestanding chophouses dot the valley. By my reckoning, if it’s USDA Prime from a top domestic rancher, I can get a ribsteak or a strip loin of some caliber of volume and it meets an exceedingly sun-searing heat source for a very brief period of time, I’m good.
But choose we must and for this go around I choose the Palm at Caesars Forum Shops.
Yes, it is not indigenous to Vegas. Yes, the Palm has outposts across the map. It’s not like Puck or Lagasse or Flay are toque-clad and in that kitchen. The Palm is an institution in the really, really good meaning of the concept. Service is sharp and seamless. The servers are witty and collected, with enough vibe to remind you that this place started up eons ago in the Big Apple and the knowledge to get you to that just-right main. The bar is active and the entire atmosphere is charged. It’s a meal, a celebration, not a wake. Enjoy. Robustly.
There are three Vegases, and fans of each don’t necessarily get along.
There’s down(andout)town, the historic heart of all this mania and, truth be told, a helluva fun place to be.
There’s the Strip, which is either the world’s greatest assemblage of over-the-top excess matched step-by-step with luxury or a total farcical waste; that latter sentiment is blasphemy.
And then there is the valley, where the so-called gambler-friendly locals casinos reside, as do some of Vegas’ finest resorts.
We’ve been attracted to one, the JW Marriott Las Vegas, for some two decades now. Proximity to all that golf in Summerlin and being that much closer to Paiute is a plus; it is a GOLF trip. Every room in the joint exceeds the size of a typical urban flat and with far better fit and finish. The pool is subtle, big, relaxing. The spa is one of the best in town. And Spiedini serves up rustic Italian with regional breadth – Dear America, there is no singularity to “Italian” – in a subtly arty setting.
Travel and golf writer Ken Van Vechten is the author of three Las Vegas guidebooks, including Golf Las Vegas: The Ultimate Guide, and has written enough magazine and newspaper articles to fell a good-sized forest.
You may have heard of the All Blacks, New Zealand’s legendary national rugby team. Or you may know the country currently holds the America’s Cup trophy for its 2017 win in the world’s premier sailing competition. Perhaps you have indulged in one of the outstanding wines created in New Zealand. Cheers to that. But New Zealand golf is something special.
Golf is the number one participation sport in that country. Rugby, sailing, cricket and fishing are all quite popular, but more Kiwis head out to the golf course.
“What we find is that golf is a favorite second sport for the younger generation,” said Ryan Brandenburg, a transplanted American who now works as Chief Executive for Golf Tourism New Zealand. “Then when the body can’t handle rugby and cricket anymore, they transition into golf as their primary sport.”
With 400 courses throughout the country, they have lots of places to play, too. And the roster of very good ones is deep enough that it’s more than worth the long plane ride(s) to get there.
Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club. Photo: Graeme Murray
Need more motivation? The U.S. winter is New Zealand’s summer, the exchange rate is in our favor, tons of non-golf activities easily fill up hours between tee times, and a warm welcome is universal.
Just be sure to get any existing dirt and grass off your golf shoes and clubs, or you will be delayed in customs upon arrival. Such is life on an island, or two in the case of New Zealand
The North and South Islands take up a combined landmass approximately the size of Colorado and offer distinct geographic settings.
Golf varies from the white sand beaches at Kauri Cliffs toward the top of the North Island, to the rumpled fairways of Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club north of the country’s capital city of Wellington, to the alpine setting of Jack’s Point in Queenstown on the South Island.
Brandenburg, who moved to New Zealand in early 2010 to become Director of Golf at Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers (two outstanding, high-end resorts created by American Julian Robertson), says the country’s golf offerings have gone from average to exceptional in the past decade.
“Obviously Tara Iti [a superb but private Tom Doak design 90 minutes northeast of Auckland; it opened in 2015 and debuted at No. 6 on Golf Digest’s World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses] was huge for the country in getting involved in the best courses of the world conversation,” he said. “But we’ve got other projects underway, including two more at Tara Iti (public courses to be designed by Doak and Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw) and a fourth nine at Millbrook Resort near Queenstown.
“I think the country has really decided that destination golf is really something it wants an identity for and we’re putting the product on the ground to back that up.”
GETTING THERE
While the bulk of visiting golfers come from Australia (a mere three-hour flight away), more North Americans are making the trek.
That’s thanks in part to increased access, with direct flights to Auckland now available from Chicago, Houston and Vancouver, in addition to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The average length of stay is 15 days. You could do less, but this isn’t Scotland and Ireland, where playing 36 holes a day is a popular (if a bit insane) itinerary. Plus, New Zealand’s marquee courses are simply too spread out and there just far too many other things to do.
