The coming of baseball and spring flowers bring the blooming of the country's best golf courses as they enter prime conditions. May flowers look great next to perfectly cut fairways and white sandy traps. Heck, early in the season they even look good from the rough and the weeds next to your poorly hit three woods. They look best, however, when you're on a golf vacation.
Golf Vacations (tel. 800/320-1991; www.golfvacations.com) has plenty of discounted stay and play packages to some of the country's best golf regions or areas. A three-night, four-round package to Orlando not including airfare starts at $299. For that price, your package includes accommodations at the Parc Corniche Condominiums, four rounds at golf at the Ridgewood Golf Club, Orange Lake-Legends Course, Southern Dunes Country Club and the North Shore Country Club, pre-set tee times, and daily breakfast. The courses are all championship caliber with top-notch facilities. A similar trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with three nights accommodations and four rounds of golf starts at $389 for quad room occupancy from May 23 to September 7, 2005. Courses included in the trip include Myrtlewood, Meadowlands and Pine Lakes. Tee times are pre-set and you get a mini-van with unlimited mileage and a shared golf cart. The mini-van comes with most Golf Vacations trips. Airfare is on you.
Resort Golf (tel. 888/373-7555; www.resortgolf.com) has some excellent stay and play vacations to Arizona and the enchanting Scottsdale area well known for its many professional courses. A three-night four-round Scottsdale Value Package starts at $315 per person and increases depending on where you want to stay. The site offers a host of luxury hotels to choose from including the Four Seasons and the deluxe Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa. Some great deals can be had from June 15 to August 31, 2005. Sure it's hot but if you can get a package deal to the Four Season costing approximately $420 with golf, that's a bargain. This is for midweek stays with double occupancy. This trip includes three nights' accommodations, and rounds of golf at the McCormick Ranch Golf Club, Silverado, and the professional Camelback Golf Club. Beginners take note, Resort Golf started as a golf school and they make sure you feel comfortable with your swing before you hit the major golf links. Other Resort Golf destinations include Naples, Florida and Pinehurst, North Carolina. You can stay at luxury resorts or mid-level hotels and choose a golf school vacation or stay and play deal from the site's "Build Your Own From Scratch" package engine.
Travel Golf (tel. 800/470-4622; www.travelgolf.com) has some excellent online resources for the golf nut looking for course information and travel information to select destinations. The site lists areas and courses and gives reviews of courses as well as weather conditions. More helpful than that, Travel Golf contains a database of golf packagers to most destinations worldwide including Ireland, Scotland, Spain, South Africa and Australia. The site also does some packaging. From April 22 to October 29, 2005, the Las Vegas special starts from $329 and goes up to $1,199 depending on when you want to go and where you want to stay. The three-nights and three-rounds special puts you up at your choice of many of the Sin City's top casinos. Courses include the Legacy Golf Club and the Angel Park Palm, voted the best public golf course in Las Vegas and one of the top ten courses in Nevada. See the site for other locations and specific prices regarding certain travel dates. Midweek hotel dates include Sunday through Thursday. Weekend rates for almost all the above packages mean an increase in price.
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