You've seen the famous clubhouse at Shinnecock Hills on TV during the US Open - now see it from the course! Photo: Wikipedia

You know the legends of Shinnecock Hills, such as the time Corey Pavin dramatically won the U.S. Open with a miraculous fairway wood to the final green. That is just one highlight of the 122-year old course, which has hosted the nation’s most prestigious golf tournament four times. It was home to the second U.S. Open ever in 1896, and will be the venue for our national championship again in 2018.

Both Golf Magazine and Golf Digest currently rank Long Island’s Shinnecock as the 6th best course, public or private. That puts it ahead of the most famous golf courses names on earth, including Bandon and Pacific Dunes, Pebble Beach, Pinehurst – and every other U.S. Open venue ever. It also bests every British Open venue except St. Andrews Old Course, the world’s oldest, and these rankings also put it ahead of every other course in Scotland or Britain.

But, you say, this greatness is all moot:  Shinnecock Hills is very private, like its closely ranked brethren Pine Valley, Cypress Point and Augusta National, the top four rated courses in the nation. If you do not have a friend who is a member, you cannot play it. That is true – except for one day each year.

Monday, May 20, will be the Fourth Annual Project A.L.S. Golf Classic at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. It is the only charity event held all year at the fabled course, raising money for a horrific disease uniquely associated with golf (and of course with baseball). When Tom Watson’s longtime caddie Bruce Edwards was diagnosed with A.L.S., also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, Watson was instrumental in creating ALS TDI Golf to raise funds for research. PGA Tour player Jeff Julian had his dream cut short on Tour when he fell victim to the disease at in 2004 at age 42, three years after being diagnosed with ALS.

The silver lining here is that golf fans have the unique chance to support a truly worthy charitable cause while having one of the finest golf experiences on earth. I’ve had the pleasure of playing Shinnecock Hills twice, and it is indeed a rare treat, even for someone in my position as a longtime golf travel writer who has played top courses all over the world.

Here’s the deal: There are only 20 foursomes in the field at $10,000 each, or $2,500 per player. I f you don’t have three friends who want in, individual spots are also offered with no markup, for $2,500. All include brunch, golf, caddie fees (not tips), cocktail reception afterwards and awards ceremony.

Because the event is so small, tickets are not sold online. You can contact Project ALS staffer Erin Fleming at erin@projectals.org or 212-420-7382.

Highland Links features three distinctly different 6-hole stretches, but the common theme is excellent par-3s throughout, like this one.

The nation is Canada. The island is Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. And if it is not already on your golf travel radar it should be – and it will be, because it just keeps getting better and better – with more to come.

Cape Breton Island occupies the northernmost part of Nova Scotia, and last year was named the “Top Island Destination in the Continental US & Canada” by Travel + Leisure magazine. Its claim to fame has long been natural beauty, abundant seafood – especially lobster, served every which way – and Scottish heritage. It is home to tall jagged mountains, vast expanses of beautiful interior lakes and stunning coastline. The Cabot Trail, its scenic byway, is consistently rated among the best drives in North America the land teems with moose, bear, and even lynx, especially within Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

But suddenly Cape Breton Island is becoming famous for something else: golf. This newfound hoopla is mainly due to Cabot Links, a course that opened less than two months ago and is already being called one of the best in the world by just about every major golf publication, and is certainly THE biggest new golf course opening of 2012, anywhere. Departures magazine called it the only true links course between Ireland’s Ballybunion and Bandon Dunes in Oregon, a swath that covers about a quarter of the globe. The Wall Street Journal called it “a true seaside links,” making it the first anywhere on the East Coast, while Score Golf, Canada’s biggest golf publication, described it not only as Canada’s best but the best course its editor had ever experienced, anyplace. The list of accolades goes on and on. And there is more to come – the owners are already clearing land on dramatic clifftops next door for a second links course, expected to open in 2015, by the high-powered design duo of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore.

But the best golf in Canada is nothing new here on Cape Breton Island, which has been home to what is typically the top ranked public course in the nation, Highland Links, since it was built in 1939. But you probably have never been, like most U.S. golfers, because the island is a bit tricky to reach. Now, with the addition of Cabot Links, a second must-play, it’s worth getting on the plane. Even high-end tour operator Perry Golf has added Cape Breton to its littany of world class destinations. I finally went, and was wowed by what I saw. I also discovered that it isn’t really that hard to get to Cape Breton Island. My non-stop from Boston to Halifax took just an hour, and there is also non-stop service from New York, Philadelphia, and other cities. It’s about a three hour drive from Halifax to Cabot Links. You can also change planes and fly into the closer regional Sydney airport. At the end of the day it takes about the same time to get to the tee from NY as it would to get to Scottsdale or Vegas.

Highland Links is owned by the Canadian government and sits within Cape Breton Highlands National Park, right on the Cabot Trail. Like the grand lodges of Yellowstone and other big national parks, the government operates an upscale resort hotel here, the Keltic Lodge, and the front desk is a short walk from the first tee, making it a perfect and easy place to base yourself for both golf and the exploration of the beautiful park and surrounding region.

The course is the seminal work of Stanley Thompson, aka “The Toronto Terror,” easily the greatest Canadian golf course architect in history and part of a cadre of famous names like Raynor, MacDonald, Mackenzie, and Tillinghast who dominate the design discussion. Thompson rules the public (and private) course rankings in Canada long after his death, and early on got access to the nation’s most beautiful sights in and out of National parks, including legendary courses like Banff Springs and Jasper Park, both of which I have played, and both of which are undeniably impressive. But Highlands Links is the best of the bunch, and not surprisingly, has typically been rated Canada’s top public throughout the decades.

The best word to describe the course is tumultuous. There is nary a flat lie out there, and the fairways resemble a sheet of newspaper that has been crumpled into a ball and try as you might, you can never again get it smooth. This promotes an interesting and non-stop sequence of challenging lies, above and below your feet, even in the center of the fairway. Thanks to this, its prodigious length, tough greens, and often steeply uphill or steeply downhill approaches, the course is a formidable challenge. It is also beautiful and neatly divided into three 6-hole sections. It begins close to the ocean, hugging the coast and incorporating some salt water marshes. After the sixth it cross a bridge over a river and takes a decidedly mountainous turn, playing through a series of stunning valleys, so while the fairways are not canted, the major deficiency in most mountain courses, they are flanked by steep slopes and every approach is framed by impossibly majestic towering mountains. In fall, these slopes, which contain a mix of trees very similar to Vermont, explode in a natural fireworks display of colorful changing foliage. After twelve, Thomson purposefully installed a hefty quarter mile walking path along a river before the next tee, so that the player could “collect his thoughts” before tackling the final third of the course, which returns to the coast. You can take carts at Highland Links and if you do, be prepared – I have walked hundreds of rounds and this is the longest and most physical walk I have ever experienced in golf. It stretches over seven miles, which is two to three more than average.

There are lots of great holes on this course, and several were named to Golf Magazine’s compendium of the 500 Greatest Holes on Earth. The par-3s are especially strong, all stunners, including two in the first five holes. But what makes it truly special is how different every hole is from every other. It is almost cliché for courses to disclaim a signature hole by saying “they are all so good and so unique,” and that is rarely true, but it is at Highland Links, a very special eighteen.

Because it is part of the park the course suffers from the double edged sword of amazing value and affordability, the downside of which is a rough around the edges approach to maintenance and facilities, The clubhouse is essentially a snack bar and the grass is not exactly manicured, but then again, with rates that are always below $90, afternoon fees of $65, and  a Sunday-special for two with cart at $65 a head, it may well be the best dollar for dollar golf in North America. In fact, golf is ludicrously cheap throughout Cape Breton Island, including Cabot Links, which commands about a third of what it could elsewhere, and there are several other golf courses on the island, many offering packages combing rounds and lodging through the official tourism entity, Golf Cape Breton.

Next I will take an in-depth look at the Cabot Links, the hottest new golf course on earth.

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Harbor Shores is a new Jack Nicklaus design on the shore of Lake Michigan between Chicago and Grand Rapids.

The Players Championship is often dubbed “The Fifth Major,” but a better slogan for this past weekend might have been, “The One Nobody Except Matt Kuchar Wanted to Win.” I spent much of the weekend in the sports books of Las Vegas casinos, where even among a fanatical television sports crowd, few could remain interested. A lot more attention was focused on every NBA early round playoff game – even Andy Pettitte’s losing return from retirement in an otherwise meaningless regular season Yankees game raised more interest than the Players.

Like him or not, without Tiger Woods in the hunt it is hard to get people excited about golf, and the other big crowd draw, Phil Mickelson, also remained out of contention, a 1-2 punch that doomed viewer interest in the Players Championship, which will be better remembered for its exceptionally sluggish pace of play and unusual live spectator booing of one of the leaders, Kevin Na, for his exhausting pre-shot routine.

Fortunately, golf fans can look forward to a much more star-filled slate of players next week, when the Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid takes to the fairways of Harbor Shores, Michigan. This is an actual Major, not a “fifth Major.”

The Senior Tour has not especially wowed audiences historically, but I’d like to think that has a good opportunity to change this week. After all, golf ratings are clearly driven by the performances of the big stars, which means the big winners, like Tiger and Phil, with too many tournament wins and Majors to count between them. In this regards, there is no deeper pool of proven winners than on the Champions Tour, especially at one of its Majors. In fact, while the name change from Senior PGA Tour hasn’t exactly gained traction, the Champions Tour label accurately reflects who is actually playing. Look at the stats: in the Players Championship, the biggest purse in golf, the eleven finishers in the Top 10 spots (tie) had a whopping career total of three Major championships between them – all one time winners. In contrast, the Senior PGA Tour is packed full of Hall of Famers like Tom Kite, Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman, Mark O’Meara, Curtis Strange and Tom Watson. Watson alone has nearly three times as many Major titles as the Top 11 performers at the Players combined.

If the PGA Tour’s slogan is “These guys are good,” the Champions Tour should be “These guys are good at winning.”

Giving the public a chance to watch many of the best golfers in history battle it out over an acclaimed new design on the shores of Lake Michigan by the best living golfer of all, Jack Nicklaus, could be just the shot in the arm the game needs. I certainly hope so.

But densely developed Cancun with plenty of hotels has been hurting golf, with only the recent

Riviera Cancun

to wow visitors. That makes the opening of this nine especially appealing – with plenty more to come.

The final hole at the Robert Trent Jones, Jr. designed Kaluhyat is just one of 54 superb holes at New York's largest golf resort.

The Turning Stone Resort Casino gets far too little press considering its golf stature – it is the largest golf resort in New York State, and also the best. All of its three courses are very good, the resort has an impressive spectrum of lodging, including the very luxurious boutique Lodge at Turning Stone, and the food is excellent. For gamblers, there is a large casino with an extensive poker room. It’s centrally located, and golfers can’t ask for much more than that.

Except maybe a great deal.

The all-suite luxury Lodge at Turning Stone has the best golf accommodations you may never have heard of.

The resort just added two new stay-and-play golf packages, the Lodge Golfer’s Getaway and the Resort Golfer’s Getaway, each available starting May 1 and until October 31 – basically all of golf season here – featuring great golf, more great golf, lunch at the turn and a free drink on the 19th hole. The difference is merely where you sleep.

Both packages  include unlimited range balls, unlimited golf on either the Rick Smith designed Shenendoah Golf Club or the 7,100-yard Robert Trent Jones, Jr. designed Kaluhyat Golf Club after 3 p.m. of your arrival day, with cart, overnight accommodations, and then 18 holes on either course the next morning, with cart, lunch at the turn, and a drink at the 19th hole.

The Lodge package includes accommodations at The Lodge at Turning Stone, a AAA 4-Diamond all-suite hotel with just 95-rooms. I’ve stayed there and it is superb. Rates start at $303 per person per night based on double occupancy. With luxury digs and two rounds of high quality golf, that is hard to beat.

The Resort package includes accommodations at casino’s Hotel or Tower, starting at $240 per person per night based on double occupancy.

To book either golf package, call 800-771-7711 or visit the resort’s web site.

Scotland's magnificent Gleneagles, a Ryder Cup venue, is just one of the premier golf resorts that belongs to Leading Hotels of the World.

The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) is an association of mostly independent luxury hotels and resorts that have joined together for marketing and cooperation purposes to enjoy an economy of scale and offer one stop shopping for affluent travelers through a website and annual printed guide that details all the properties. The group also has strict admission and retention standards, and all member hotels must qualify to join and re-qualify annually to prove they are worthy of the name “Leading Hotels of the World.” This gives the traveler a certain confidence and comfort level when booking a stay at pre-screened property. It is the largest such luxury hospitality organization in the world, representing over 430 hotels, resorts and spas in more than 80 countries.

Many of these are golf resorts, including some of the most famous on earth.

Because of a recent boom in golf interest at its member properties, LHW just launched a new program called “The Golf Society.” LHW Chief Marketing Officer Claudia Kozma Kaplan noted that “In 2011, our Leading Golf resorts had an increase in revenue of over 40%. This tremendous success reflects the appeal of our iconic golf courses at St. Andrews, Casa de Campo, Gleneagles, and Sandy Lane, to name only a few. Membership in the Golf Society will make for truly extraordinary experiences.”

Joining the Golf Society costs $400 per year, and besides the golf benefits, it includes full membership in LHW’s  Leaders Club program, which in turn grants customers guaranteed room upgrades, free breakfast daily, a membership in the excellent Priority Pass program that lets them use airport lounges worldwide when travelling, early check-in and late check-out, and accrual of points towards free LHW travel.

The golf benefits include free club rental at all LHW properties, free “replay” greens fees, free driving range usage, a subscription to LINKS Magazine, the services of Golf Society Butler for tee times and hotel stays, and the option of participating the ‘Leaders Club Cup’, an annual 5-day event with a tournament on premier courses including Old Course at St. Andrews, Kingsbarns, and the Castle Course.

If you visit LHW properties like Gleneagles or Casa de Campo, this program can pay for itself in just one visit if you rent clubs and play 36 in a day. The Priority Pass membership alone is worth over $200, and I was a longtime member and used it frequently to make my travel much more palatable by utilizing excellent airport lounges around the country and abroad. Of course, the program is not for everyone, but if you travel in these luxurious circles, it may very well be for you.

For more information visit the LHW site or its Golf Society site.

One of the most prolific designers in the history of golf course architecture, Robert Trent Jones II has in recent years championed the environment and affordable public golf.

Few golf course architecture firms have as much global presence and notoriety as that of Robert Trent Jones II, whose most famous works include Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach, Washington’s upcoming US Open venue Chambers Bay, and several hundred others in more than 40 countries.

Jones, Jr. has never been anything less than brutally outspoken, and three years ago he issued his company’s Green Proclamation, a commitment to design golf courses in an environmentally responsible manner. At the same time he called on his peers to likewise dedicate themselves to these environmental tenets.

For 2012, Jones is back at the podium, and just has released a “Public Golf Proclamation,” comprised of ten tenets to support accessible and affordable public golf and bring our beloved game to more people in more places worldwide.

This proclamation follows on the heels of a recent letter to the New York Times, in which Jones, Jr. wrote, “Golf architects are often called upon to design courses that support upscale real estate developments.  But the game’s roots reach down into the Earth, not up into trophy homes.  Golf first developed 500 years ago as an accessible and affordable sport that brought people together outdoors, rather than separating them.  Many great golf courses serve the public and the environment. The future of our sport lies in embracing the Scottish tradition in which all people are equal as they stand over a white ball.”

Without further ado, here is the test of the company’s proclamation and 10 tenets:

PUBLIC GOLF PROCLAMATION
Our Exclusive Commitment to Inclusiveness

From its earliest origins along the coasts of Scotland golf has fostered community, bringing together disparate peoples to enjoy both competition and camaraderie.  In the modern era, golf courses throughout the world have been very successful when created in conjunction with resort and real estate developments and private clubs.  At Robert Trent Jones II we will continue to design the best possible courses to meet the needs of our many and varied clients.  But we believe that golf should also be easily affordable and accessible to everyone who wishes to play it.

As our founder, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., stated in a letter to the New York Times, “The future of our sport lies in embracing the Scottish tradition in which all people are equal as they stand over the ball.”

We applaud the global efforts of golf organizations, associations, and governing bodies, as well as our golf architecture colleagues worldwide, who have worked to promote public access to affordable, high-quality, environmentally responsible golf. In an effort to foster the communal spirit of the game we offer the following declaration to golfers and prospective golfers of every nation:

We aspire to:
1. Work with municipalities and other government entities to create great golf courses for their citizens through insightful, integrated master plans specific to each community.
2. Assist communities in creating programs and initiatives that make great public courses accessible and affordable to everyone.
3. Advocate for the creation of golf facilities on degraded sites to return unproductive land to productive and sustainable public uses.
4. Always protect and enhance the environment for the good of all.
5. Design courses that require less earth moving, water, fertilizer, and other resources in an effort to keep investment and operating costs—and therefore green fees—reasonable.
6. Create wider strategic routings and sets of shorter “family tees” to encourage children to take up golf and have fun playing it.
7. Advocate for innovative practice facilities where young people and newcomers can learn to love golf, and support programs and organizations that introduce new players to the sport.
8. Design facilities that encourage speed of play, including inventive layouts such as “Learning Courses,” par-three routings, 6-, 9-, and 12-hole loops, and others.
9. Create public courses that are flexible, fun, and challenging to golfers of a wide range of abilities.
10. Encourage golf course owners to support local businesses and take an active role in their communities.

Barnbougle Dunes is a bit of Scotland transported to Tasmania - and one of two adjacent courses here ranked in the World's Top 100.

As loyal readers know, I have been preaching the awesomeness of Australian golf for years, and way back in 2004 when I broke the Guinness World Record for golf travel, I started my epic trip at New South Wales Golf Club in Sydney. Now with the Presidents Cup having just put to focus back on Australian Golf, I wanted to follow up the event with another reminder of just how good golf Down Under is – especially as we head out of Australia’s spring and into summer.

Melbourne is simply THE best golf city in the world for the traveling golfer, period, with seven fabled private clubs and eight courses all in one single stretch convenient to downtown – and allowing foreign visitors. Imagine a golf trip to New York if you could suddenly play otherwise off-limits Shinnecock, National, Maidstone, Winged Foot, Westchester Country Club and many more – and they were all in Brooklyn.

Yes, there really are kangaroos and wallabees on the golf courses here.

But golf in Australia is more than Melbourne, and to celebrate this, the Tourist Board just created something called Great Golf Courses of Australia, showcasing the fact that among the nation’s nearly 1,700 golf courses there are six that have been ranked in the World’s Top 100, which is pretty impressive considering that Australia has less than one half of one percent of the earth’s population. Or think of it this way: they have about 15 times the number of great golf courses per capita as the rest of the planet.

The half dozen stars are Barnbougle Dunes and Barnbougle Lost Farm in Tasmania; Kingston Heath and Royal Melbourne in Melbourne; New South Wales Golf Club in Sydney; and Royal Adelaide in South Australia.

The stately setting at Royal Melbourne, whose 36-holes just hosted the Presidents Cup.

Without bragging, I have to say that I have played each and every one of these courses and they are all standouts. My favourite is probably New South Wales and the hidden gem of the bunch is Royal Adelaide. Barnbougle is very much Australia’s version of Bandon Dunes, right down to similar topography, investors and designers. Royal Melbourne was the host of the last two President’s Cups played Down Under and its 36-holes are probably Australia’s most famous. Like I said, this is a notable bunch.

For more info check out the official tourism site.

Scottsdale is overflowing with great golf courses. My favorite is the 36-holes at We-Ko-Pa

Here in the northeast we have already been belted with Old Man Winter, and it is just the middle of fall. New York City broke its all-time snowfall record for October, and overnight temperatures where I live have been consistently below freezing. That means it the time of year when my friends and long lost acquaintances starter emailing me and asking where they should plan their winter golf vacation.

In a word, Scottsdale.

I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. There are any warm weather destinations I love for golf, mainly the Dominican Republic, both coasts of Mexico, Hawaii, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Vegas.

But I keep coming back to Scottsdale. No place, and I mean no place, has such a concentration of outstanding courses. There is plenty of golf in Myrtle Beach and Virginia Beach, but there is not world class golf, like in Scottsdale, which has more great courses than the entire State of Hawaii.

Consider:

It is super easy to get to, with non-stop flights form every major city in the country, and an airport that rarely experiences significant weather or delays, period.

It has plenty of great food, shopping, alternative activities, entertainment, and nightlife of every type.

It has alternatives in every price range, and while it has some of the most luxurious golf resorts in the world, and winter is high season, there are plenty of more modest hotels, along with lots of condo and suite hotel deals and brokers available.

Likewise it has golf courses for every style and budget, from totally private to very high end resort to great daily fee and even outstanding munis. Several of the best are operated by Native American tribes, and courses run the gamut from traditional parkland to pure desert target golf to everything in between.

But what really excites me about the greater Scottsdale region is how many great multiple course facilities there are. Elsewhere it is more the expectation than the rule that if you have more than one course they will all be good. More common is to have a great course anchoring a facility with a not so great overflow course. But in Scottsdale, excellent 36-hole facilities abound, and that means less moving around and more epic 36-hoel days. Specifically, I mean the following:

We-Ko-Pa: My favorite in Arizona, two absolutely brilliant strategic designs, operated by the Fort McDowell Indian nation and its adjacent casino, with deals and reasonably priced lodging onsite. Golf simply does not get much better than these two.

The Boulders: Two great classic examples of pure desert golf with the utmost attention to service and manicuring.

Troon North: The public facility that helped launch the whole “member for a day” high-end public craze and put public desert golf on the map.

Grayhawk: I am not as enamored of this 36 as some of my colleagues, but everyone I send loves it, and these are two very solid desert courses.

The Phoenician: Okay it is just 27-holes, but given the over the top opulence of the resort and the crowd they get, these three very distinct and interesting nines come as a hugely pleasant surprise.

The Arizona Biltmore: For those who want a break from desert golf, two of the oldest classics (1920s) in Phoenix predate water restrictions and are pure lush parkland layouts. Both were restored extensivly a few years ago.

TPC Scottsdale: Home to the most attended golf tournament on earth, the Phoenix Open (now Waste Management, formerly FBR), with two fun and scintillating stadium courses in an ultra-convenient setting with multiple hotels, including the wonderful Fairmont, onsite.

Talking Stick: Like We-Ko-Pa, another 36-hole Native American owned facility designed by Coore & Crenshaw.

See what I mean? Just this list gives enough to play 36 holes a day for over a week without a single weak link, and there are many more. There is just no equivalent to all these tremendous facilities in one setting this side of the British Isles and it is not exactly balmy there right now.

On its 40th birthday, Teeth of the Dog remains the highest ranked course ever built in the Caribbean.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years, but that is exactly how long Teeth of the Dog, the most famous golf course in the Caribbean has been open.

When Pete Dye first designed the course, there was nothing but jungle on this 7,000-acre swath of the Dominica Republic’s southern  coastline, and much of the work to build the course was done by hand, with picks and axes and wheelbarrows. The tiny water filled ditch that bisects what is now the Links course at the resort was built by Dye as a canal to bring water to the site, which had no infrastructure whatsoever. It’s hard to imagine any golf course being built in this manner today, and impossible to imagine one by a name brand architect, but then Dye was not a name brand architect until after he built Teeth of the Dog and garnered international acclaim for it. It has never wavered as the highest ranked course in the Caribbean in every major magazine, and while he is loathe to admit it, he has inferred that it remains his all-time favorite, and he has a house alongside its fairways.

After Teeth of the Dog got built, with its famous series of holes not just on the coast but on the beach and very nearly in the ocean, the Casa de Campo resort came to be the biggest golf complex in the Caribbean, and among the biggest resorts period, and today it remains the gold standard that many newer competitors have tried and failed to match. Dye returned to build a second course, the Links, which frankly is not very good, and quite poorly named, then a third, the private La Romana Country Club, just for residents. Then there was a considerable gap before he returned to build another masterpiece, Dye Fore, set on stunning headlands overlooking the wild Chavon River, where scenes from Apocalypse Now were filmed. There are no other golf courses quite like this one, perched on the edge of oblivion, and honestly, I have thought since opening that Dye For is even better than Teeth of the Dog, which is really saying something.

Well it just got even better; 2-weeks ago Dye unveiled a third nine at Dye Fore, expanding the facility to 27 holes, and the resort to 63-holes, the first step towards splitting Dye Fore into two full blown courses. The new nine is called Dye Fore Lakes, and comes on the heels of a $40 million renovation of the rest of the resort last year.

Casa de Campo is simply a fantastic place to go and play golf. For the most part, it is run as an al-inclusive resort, with lodging in a variety of hotel rooms, villas, and lavish private homes, with numerous bars and restaurants dispensing free flowing food and booze throughout. The place is huge and self-contained and includes a vast state of the art shooting facility, equestrian center, world-class marina with its own retail and dining village, and most shockingly of all, an entire hilltop village built by stone artisans to resemble a Tuscan medieval town. It even has its own airport. At Casa de Campo, when you go to play golf it is hard to decide where to tee it up, and when you are not playing golf it is nearly impossible to choose from all the options of what to do next. The easiest choice is just to go, period, especially with the new nine.