The golf business is hurting. For much of the 1990s, golf course construction set records. In 2000, when activity peaked, more than one course was opening every day. About 90 percent of those were public, and there are now about 16,000 courses in the United States.
While supply has gone way up, demand has been, at best, flat. The same amount of people are playing golf on far more courses, and this can only mean one thing-lower prices. Bad news for the industry is very good news for the golf traveler.
Nowhere can this be seen as clearly as in longtime golf bargain destination Myrtle Beach, where a spate of course openings coincided with a decrease in visits, and the destination now remains on perpetual sale.
A current tip for finding high-quality bargain golf courses is something of a new wrinkle: Seek out those subsidized by state and local governments, where packages combining play with lodging almost always make for better deals. Municipal golf was thrust into the sports-fan's spotlight with last year's "People's Open," as the U.S. Open in New York's Bethpage State Park was nicknamed. Bethpage's Black course is widely regarded as the nation's premier example of very high-quality bargain golf. Currently rated America's third-best public course by Golf Magazine, it costs $31 (for New York State residents; nonresidents pay double) versus $350 for top-ranked Pebble Beach in California.
Because of the success of the first U.S. Open ever held on an affordable course, Torrey Pines (outside San Diego), another high-quality municipal course, was just selected as a future Open venue. This is a great trend, but in both these cases, the difficulty of getting a tee time offsets the bargain-at Bethpage, for example, golfers have been known to sleep in their cars to get tee times for the next day. Fortunately, there are plenty of accessible municipal courses, and back in 2000, Budget Travel took a look at Alabama's Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, the new paradigm for affordable-and accessible-public golf. Since then, several other states and regions, from Mississippi to Ontario, Canada, have launched golf "trails," but the best of the bunch can be found in Tennessee, which has not one but two noteworthy groupings of courses.
Bear Trace/Tennessee Golf Trail, Tennessee
To compete with Alabama's Robert Trent Jones Sr. designs, Tennessee went to Jack Nicklaus, the most famous golfer in history, now a world-class course designer. Nicklaus offers several "brands" of courses, and the more a developer spends, the more of Nicklaus's hands-on input he gets. The most prestigious level is the Jack Nicklaus Signature course, which adds $1 million to the tab. These are typically found at private, high-end country clubs and at a handful of luxury resorts such as the Four Seasons chain, and playing them will usually set you back over $200 a round.
But in Tennessee, Nicklaus reduced his million-dollar fee and built five excellent courses across the state. Each Bear Trace (866/770-2327, ) destination is unique, built to fit its surroundings, allowing the traveling golfer to experience variety along the way. There are two major booking agencies that offer custom packages along the trail, combining rounds at one or more courses with a choice of nearby lodging: Tucker Golf (888/826-1714, ) and Fairways Golf Travel (800/709-1684, ). Sample prices from each were obtained for mid-June: For a five-night/five-day package with two golfers in a double room and lodging at a combination of Courtyard by Marriott and Best Western, plus rounds on each course and daily breakfasts, the per person price (with carts) starts at $455, or $90 per day. Prices go even lower in the off-season.
But the Bear Trace is not the only golf to be found in Tennessee's state parks. Five of its parks, also located across the state, contain 18-hole courses and resort hotels. In order to keep up with the "trail" phenomenon (in which golfers travel from course to course in a particular region), these five have been rebranded the Tennessee Golf Trail (866/836-6757, ), and since the parks department owns both the courses and the hotels, packages are simple and cheap. Flat rates are $45 per person, per day off-season, and $56 (weekday) or $65 (weekend) high season, including double-occupancy lodging and unlimited golf (including cart for the first 18 holes, after which the cart is additional). Especially on weekdays, when smaller crowds allow you to play 36 holes, it's an unbeatable deal.
A Tale of Two Floridas
Florida is one of the most golf-crazed states in the Union, and off-season it offers great bargains. But unlike Arizona, Nevada, or other hot-weather locales, off-season varies greatly throughout the state. For instance, southern and eastern Florida turn into golf ghost towns when summer's high temperatures and humidity arrive. But Orlando, which revolves around school holidays, is jammed all summer long, as is the Panhandle. There, winter is off-season, although to golfers from the rest of the country, even then it's a fine getaway from the cold.
The premier golf resort in the Panhandle is Sandestin (800/622-1038, ) in Destin, famed for some of the world's best beaches. A few years ago, Sandestin was purchased by Intrawest, the Canadian ski-resort operator that pioneered the pedestrian resort village concept at Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia, and Mont Tremblant, Quebec. Things have only improved at Sandestin with the addition of a new hotel, a new high-end course, and a village full of shops, restaurants, and nightlife. In the winter off-season (November to February), when it's fine golf weather here, packages are $124 per person, per night, double occupancy, with lodging and golf on either the Links or Baytowne courses, both of which are very good.
On the Atlantic Coast, near Jacksonville, the largest golf resort is Palm Coast Golf Resort (800/654-6538, ), with four courses by big-name designers Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. Palm Coast also changed hands, and the new owners built a marquee fifth layout, Ocean Hammock, a Jack Nicklaus Signature course with a luxury hotel to go with it. It's priced out of reach of bargain hunters, but stay in the original Palm Coast lodging for a steal. Unlimited-play packages, which easily allow for two rounds per day with late-summer daylight, plus a room at the on-site resort hotel and discounts on meals, cost just $69 per person, per night weekdays, and $89 weekends, from June 1 to September 30.
Primm, Nevada
Anyone who tells you great golf courses are expensive is dead wrong. Primm is proof.
Drive just 40 miles south from the Vegas Strip on I-15 to Primm. You won't find Primm on most maps. It's not really a town, just an exit near the California border with three casino resort hotels, a huge factory-outlet mall, a gas station, and the two-course Primm Valley Golf Club (800/386-7867, ). The whole shebang is owned by MGM Mirage, which also owns Las Vegas's Shadow Creek, the nation's most expensive golf course, with greens fees of $500. (Yes, $500.) Locals call Primm Valley "the poor man's Shadow Creek," and they aren't far off. Like its cousin, Primm's courses were designed by Tom Fazio, widely considered the greatest living designer. Primm's 36 holes feature the same ornate landscaping as Shadow Creek: flower beds, elaborate water features, boulder-lined creeks, and waterfalls. In fact, all three courses have been ranked in Golf Magazine's "Top 100 You Can Play."
Rack rates for Primm packages are $89 per person, per night in the off-season (May to October) and $109 in peak season, but specials are often available. Second-round replays are also discounted to as low as $50 in summer. You can often add room and a round on both excellent courses for about $100 a day.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
It may be old hat, but Golf City, USA, remains the nation's perennial bargain destination, and things are even better these days. At last count, some 120 public layouts were competing for visitors, as were a formidable array of budget accommodations. Myrtle Beach, an established destination, is all about packages that offer a smorgasbord of golf and lodging choices for unbelievably low prices. The big player is Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday (800/845-4653, ), which offers a free and comprehensive handbook detailing every course, hotel, motel, and resort, along with package pricing.