Experiencing a top golf resort with a group of friends is about as good as it gets for any level of player. Many of the South’s premier golf destinations set up perfectly for such an excursion, the kind where you can enjoy a series of rounds on the course followed by still more rounds come the evening. And a Ryder Cup year offers the perfect excuse to schedule your Ryder Cup team-format travel tourney. Here are seven prestigious places worthy of raising a cup of your own.
Play with Legends
Kiawah Island Golf Resort, South Carolina
Ryder Cup events have engendered more nicknames than any other tournament, though “War on the Shore” might be the best. The two teams that played that event at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course in 1991 accused each other of misdeeds, and the partisan fans danced on the edge of propriety. (You can read all about the drama here.) The Ocean Course still provides the perfect backdrop for team competition, as the wide-open layout allows roars and groans to carry like a five iron over the par-three seventeenth hazard. And Kiawah’s four other championship courses bring their own challenges and redeeming views, making for a packed weekend of match play.
Lakeside Luxury
Reynolds Lake Oconee, Georgia
At one of the only lakefront Ritz-Carltons in the world, soak up the beauty at any of the seven distinct courses imagined by some of the game’s finest designers, from Fazio to Cupp to Nicklaus. And remember that one of the most memorable elements of a golf getaway is the downtime, those moments to banter about your game, the PGA, past (and future) golf trips, and, as always, your newest (or desired) equipment. Reynolds Lake offers four-bedroom National Club Cottages, ideal domiciles for dinner-table repartee and calling it a night before your early-morning tee times. Take your group competitions beyond the links at the Sporting Grounds, home to sporting clays, archery, angling, and an off-road driving course.
A Family Affair
Reunion Resort and Golf Club, Kissimmee, Florida
Palmer, Nicklaus, and Watson. ’Nuff said. However, there’s much more to celebrate about Reunion Resort & Golf Club, where each golfing titan designed a signature course. The on-site waterpark, lazy river, and waterslide create that rare alchemy: a family vacation with tons of golf. Reunion’s focus on family time, manifested in five tee boxes (making for shorter distances that match a young golfer’s abilities), encourages junior golf. The new mini-golf venue adds still more green to your memories.
Alabama Getaway
Grand National, Opelika, Alabama
Every golfer dreams of swapping a saddle for a golf cart and riding Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. With apologies to Smokey and the Bandit, few convoys compare to a golf group hightailing it between the RTJ Trail’s eleven golf resorts. Grand National is the way to go if you’d rather stay put to putt. The Lakes and Links courses set up perfectly for team competition, on two challenging eighteens where many of the holes shadow Lake Saugahatchee. The lakeside Short Course, considered among the most picturesque par-three layouts in America, adds another score settling component. The Mickelson and Morris Oster Golf Houses overlook the Lake Course, sleep eight comfortably, and feature a private putting green among other sporting amenities.
From Cradle to Glory
Southern Pines, North Carolina
The classic “pines” have it: Pine Valley, Torey Pines, and of course, Pinehurst all conjure up top-shelf fantasies for lovers of the game. But located a mid-iron away (just six miles) from Pinehurst, a.k.a. the Cradle of American Golf, Southern Pines’ trio of golf courses deserves poring over, too: PGA players are known to sneak away from Pinehurst No. 2 to play Donald Ross’s Southern Pines Golf Club. Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club lays down an excellent group stay option located steps away from yet another Ross gem. Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club rounds out the tumbler, an untouched Ross masterpiece crafted to perfection. A three-day Ryder Cup–style tourney on the Southern Pines, Pine Needles, and Mid Pines courses will cast a long shadow of memories for your crew.
Short-Game Star
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
In the seventies, playing a round at one of Myrtle Beach’s half-dozen putt-putt golf courses was the highlight of my family’s semi-annual camping trips to South Carolina. Today, more than fifty (!) miniature golf courses await post-dinner golf groups, perhaps ready to settle some late scores under the lights. And almost one hundred (standard golf) championship courses here invite you to fill your days with more combinations than a poker hand. Grand Strand’s Barefoot Resort covers all four suits with a Fazio, Norman, Love III, and (semi-private) Dye layout. And fans of “the King” are subject to three Arnold Palmer designs at Myrtle Beach National.
A Bit Farther Afield
Scottsdale, Arizona
With more than fifty courses in the greater Scottsdale area, a group outing to the Valley of the Sun is a no-brainer. Taking on TPC Scottsdale, home of the raucous WM Phoenix Open, offers a great tee-off, especially when the amphitheater stands surrounding #16 are in place. A quieter—in truth downright serene—eighteen awaits at the Boulders, a spectacular set of intriguing holes careering through the eponymous granite formations. We-Ko-Pa Saguaro and We-Ko-Pa Cholla are considered the top public courses in the area, fraternal twin tracks—the former traditional, the latter desert-target-style—that orchestrate an encore-worthy Scottsdale quartet.
Crai Bower regularly writes about golf, gardens, nature, human-powered adventures, and other passions for Garden & Gun and many other publications. Follow his sojourns to the South and around the world on Instagram @travelcrais.
