Author Archives: Jay Bastian

North Carolina Golf Trails

North Carolina is known as The Home of American golf at Pinehurst. Our North Carolina golf trails features the best golf course and resorts open to public play in each major city and golf destination

Raleigh Charlotte Wilmington Asheville

Southport Greensboro Winston-Salem Pinehurst

Durham

The North Carolina golf trails listed about feature the best public golf courses and resorts curated from the national golf periodicals and user reviews. If you’re searching for those hidden gems in some more remote areas such as Balsam Mountain Preserve, the Old Edwards Club, or Old Beau among others, please check out our North Carolina map and guide here. As always, should we be missing a golf course that belongs in the guide, or one that no longer qualifies as the best golf course in a given area, please let us know here.

Arizona Golf Trails

Arizona’s best public golf courses and resorts on the @bestgolfcourses Arizona Golf Trails

Phoenix/Scottsdale Tucson Green Valley

Mohave Valley. Prescott Valley Sedona

We’ve curated the best public golf courses and resorts in Arizona from the major golf periodicals and user’s reviews to feature in our Arizona Golf Trails. The major cities in Arizona are listed above, but should you find yourself in some of the more remote areas of Arizona like Yuma, Thatcher, Show Low, use our state guide to find those hidden gems. And, as always, should we be missing one of the better public golf courses or if we’ve included one that’s no longer considered the best in the area, please let us know here. Cheers!

Texas Golf Trails

You might think with the size of Texas at 260,000 square miles and over 900 golf courses there would be a Texas Golf Trail. We attempt here to list the major cities in Texas and their best golf course you can play.

Houston San Antonio Austin Marble Falls

Dallas Fort Worth El Paso Lubbock

Our guide lists 175 of the best golf courses and resorts in Texas open to public play. If you’re traveling outside the major cities and the Texas Golf Trails noted above, then check out our Texas map and guide here to find those hidden gems like the Farewell Country Club, The Max, Palmilla Beach, or Crown Colony, the list is long! As always, if we’ve missed a golf course worthy of being included, or one should be removed, please let us know here.

The Gravel Pit Golf Course

Complimenting the heavy concentration of high end golf courses in central Minnesota, this new offering, arising from a former stone mining operation, The Gravel Pit Golf Course promises to add a new, entertaining element to golf in the Brainerd area.

The course features a 13 hole, par 3 layout with yardages measuring from 60 to 200 yards. There’s also a 13 hole, lighted, Himalayas type putting challenge, bocce ball court, and a patio/bar overlooking the entire facility. It joins the nearby Cragun’s and 63 holes of golf at Madden’s to round out an extensive golf trip to the area.

Mississippi Golf Trails

Mississippi is home to only 140 golf courses. Our guide lists only 41 of the best golf courses in our Mississippi Golf Trails.

Here’s the Mississippi Golf Trails for the major markets in the state:

Gulf Coast Jackson West Point

Tupelo. Memphis Tunica

Alternatively, you can search our Google Maps guide to find those courses outside the major cities here. As always, if we’ve missed a golf course that should be in the guide or if there’s one that should be removed, please let us know here.

The Florida Golf Trail

With over 1,000 golf courses, public, private, municipal, military, and resort, here’s a handy guide to the best golf courses and resorts you can play by city. Use our golf trails to find the best public golf courses and resorts you can play.

Miami Fort Lauderdale Palm Beach Port St. Lucie

Naples Fort Myers Sarasota Tampa

Destin Jacksonville Disney area North Orlando

Panama City Pensacola

If you’re looking for areas outside of the major cities, use our general Florida map page and the Google Maps function to zoom in and around the areas you’re targeting to play. Also, check out the Florida Historic Golf Trail featuring golf courses designed by many of. the golden age of golf course architects and included in our guide as well.

Golf Trails, first off the South Carolina Golf Trail

Retirement Systems of Alabama initiated the concept of golf trails with the development of the Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Golf Trail, currently a collection of 26 golf courses and 468 holes spread across Alabama. As a result of their success, other states have followed, the Tennessee Golf Trail is composed of Jack Nicklaus designs in Tennessee state parks. The Florida Historic Golf Trail features golf courses across the state designed by golden age golf course architects. The Audubon Golf Trail profiles courses in Louisiana which seemingly fit into their unique, environmentally sensitive settings.

  • The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, one of South Carolina’s best golf courses you can play!

Our website features the best golf courses and resorts that you can play across the United States. By zooming in and out of our Google Maps feature, you can find the best golf courses to play in any given area. We thought we’d simplify this exercise for you and provide our unique golf trails across every state.

We’ve chosen South Carolina first since it has a variety of golf destinations as well as major cities. Here are the major markets with the best golf course and golf resorts that you can play. If your destination is outside one of the following area, please use our general South Carolina guide. As always, it you find we’ve missed one of your favorites or we have a course which is no longer considered the best in the area, please let us know here.

Columbia Greenville

Hilton Head Charleston and the Islands

Myrtle Beach Pawleys Island

It’s officially Spring if you’re planning your Masters Golf Tournament trip, here’s an option for traveling to the tournament from southern Georgia and Florida while avoiding the high costs of Augusta.

Georgia Southern University Golf Course
  • Statesboro is a city of 35,000 with a lively downtown area featuring  shops, restaurants, and lodging. It’s home to Georgia Southern University enrolling 26,000 students in the University System of Georgia. The University capitalized on an opportunity to acquire the shuttered Southern Links Golf Club in town in 2010. Southern Links was designed by Arthur Davis in the mid-1980s.

His influences and work history in golf course architecture include Robert Trent Jones, Sr, George Cobb, and WIlard Byrd, and ultimately created a partnership with Ron Kirby. Once the University acquired the course, they hired Robert Walker, a longtime Arnold Palmer Course Design architect for a course remake in 2013. So, all in all, a rather substantial pedigree of architectural influences on the Georgia Southern University Golf Course.

The layout meanders through a residential development with most of the holes bordered by homes. It’s a parkland style layout with pine trees lining the broad fairways with water in play on the majority of the holes. Maybe the most interesting stretch comes from 7-9 as it winds counterclockwise around a large lake. The course is also well bunkered with 35 contoured sand traps and pot bunkers along the fairways and greens of varying shapes and sizes. It can play as long as 6,850 yards, 73.2/134, course/slope ratings with four shorter tees down to 5,304 yards.

It’s Spring and time for #TheMasters-where to play golf on your road trip to Augusta just off I-95

The Pinecrest Country Club

Coming up on Spring now and #TheMasters is just a month away. Over the next month we’ll be profiling golf courses convenient to the major Interstates approaching Augusta from all directions for #TheMasters.

The first course in our series is the Pine Crest Country Club and Golf Course located midway between Richmond and Augusta just north of South of the Border in North Carolina on I-95. ultimate tourist trap.

There are rumors of a Donald Ross and Dick Wilson collaboration here, but it’s difficult to confirm their involvement. It does possess many of the characteristics of both architects as it follows along narrow, pine tree lined fairways over generally level terrain with a sparing use of sand bunkers mostly defending the modest, turtleback greens. The course plays to 6,578 yards, 71.3/128, course/slope ratings with two shorter tees, with rates under $40 for a round. Of course, you can always check out our guide here to the best public golf courses for other options to play in every state.