Best Golf Resorts of the World

Troon Golf offers 2010 discount golf card

Troon North Golf Club in Scottsdale, AZ, a Troon-managed course

The best golf course management company on the planet, Troon Golf has announced their 2010 Troon Card Program, which offers green fee discounts of up to 50% at some of most highly rated courses in the world--more than 40 golf clubs are participating.

Card holders and their guests also get replay rounds for just $10 per player, and the card ensuresbest rate by extending $5 off promotional rates at participating clubs. Card choices include the Arizona TwoSome and FourSome, accepted at 11 courses across Scottsdale, Phoenix and Tucson, as well as the California/Nevada Troon Cards accepted at eight courses in Las Vegas and Southern California. The National card option extends rate privileges at more than 40 courses located in 15 states and in Mexico.

To see a list of participating courses and to purchase a Troon Card online, visit www.troongolf.com (select the “e-store” link). Here are some the notable golf clubs where cardholders get the Troon Card discounts.

• Troon North Golf Club, Scottsdale, AZ
• The Phoenician, Phoenix, AZ
• Westin Kierland Resort & Spa, Scottsdale, CA
• Indian Wells Resort, Indian Wells, CA
• Westin Mission Hills, Rancho Mirage, CA
• The Golf Club at Equinox, Manchester Village, VT
• Classic Club, Palm Desert, CA
• One&Only Ocean Club, Paradise Island, Bahamas
• The Grove, London, England
• Makai Club, Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii

Troon Golf is the world’s largest golf management company, overseeing properties in 31 states and 26 countries.

Founder/Editor of BestGolfResortsofTheWorld.com,  Karen Misuraca is a travel and golf writer from the California Wine Country. She follows the little white ball around the world and blogs about International Golf Travel at www.examiner.com. And, she mainains a blog on Sustainable Travel.

51st Bob Hope Classic in La Quinta brings out the TV and movie stars

Actor Kurt Russell hits from the 11th tee during the first round of the Bob Hope Classic PGA golf tournament at Silver Rock Resort in La Quinta, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Matt York)

The stars are out for the 51st Bob Hope Classic in La Quinta, CA. Celebrity players in the 2010 event, playing this week through Sunday, include such luminaries as Chris O’Donnell, Kurt Russell, William Devane, Oliver Hudson of “Rules of Engagement,” Kevin Nealon of “Weeds”, Bo Jackson and musicians Kenny G and Alice Cooper.

The PGA TOUR competition is being played on four courses in the Palm Springs area city of La Quinta: the Palmer Course at PGA West, the Nicklaus Private Course at PGA West, SilverRock Resort and La Quinta Country Club.

Although Shane Bertsch is leading the pack by 2, on-and-off rain and wind should complicate the final rounds.

Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra is the first-ever "Classic Ambassador". Also new this year is Hope Square just inside the tournament entrance at the Palmer Private Course, featuring daily live entertainment, a massive video wall broadcasting tournament play, a food court (includilng Bar B Q prepared by 10-time National Bar B Q Cook Off Champion Big Bob Gibson's Bar B Q from Alabama) and two bars, plus a preview of vintage autos that will participate in the Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance tnext month at La Quinta Resort & Spa.

During the past 50 years, the Bob Hope Classic has donated more than $47 million to nonprofits throughout the Palm Springs-Coachella Valley.

TV schedule for the Bob Hope Classic

Read more about golf in the Palm Springs-Coachella Valley area.

Founder/Editor of BestGolfResortsofTheWorld.com,  Karen Misuraca is a travel and golf writer from the California Wine Country. She follows the little white ball around the world and blogs about International Golf Travel at www.examiner.com.

Cape Kidnappers will blow you away

Cape Kidnappers Golf Course in New Zealand

Young guns battled gale winds at the Cape Kidnappers Kiwi Challenge this last November. Four of golf's most charismatic, young PGA TOUR contenders––Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Hunter Mahan and Sean O'Hair––scrambled to stay on the greens in the 50-mile-an-hour winds off the ocean on one of the world's greatest golf courses, Cape Kidnappers on New Zealand's North Island. The opening round of the two-day event was suspended due to high winds, which repeatedly moved the balls around, even after they landed on the fairways (on the practice range, hitting into the wind, "spiderman" Villegas watched his 5-wood shots actually fly back over his head). Anthony Kim only needed a bogey on the first playoff hole to defeat Sean O'Hair and collect $1 million.

Tom Doak-designed Cape Kidnappers lies on a series of rugged bluffs above the sea. Doak said, "If it were any bigger or any more dramatic, it would probably be cordoned off as a national park. It's an overwhelming experience to stand up on the cliffs, 140 meters above sea level, and look out across the waves far below in Hawke's Bay. Not true links terrain, with the wrinkles of sand dunes, instead the land tilts toward the sea as a series of ridges jutting out toward the edge of the cliffs. Yet, the play is seaside golf at its finest. The surface is firm and fast, the conditions can be windy, and the player who can control his trajectory will be master of the course. You'll hit shots over the tops of the tea trees, and play along the edges of deep ravines. If you stray on your approaches, you'll actually hope to get caught up in bunkers hanging off the green's edge, some of them deeper than you've ever seen before.  Three times, you'll have to make the perilous leap from the end of one ridge to the end of the next. And at the 6th and 15th holes it's possible to pull your approach off the very end of the earth, though it will take nearly ten seconds of hang time for your ball to reach the ocean below.

A luxury-level Relais & Chateau property, 20 cottages at The Farm at Cape Kidnappers are adjacent to the golf course on a 5,000-acre sheep and cattle ranch. The Farm ranked among Travel + Leisure's "World's Top 100 Hotels".

Founder/editor of BestGolfResortsofTheWorld.com,  Karen Misuraca is a travel and golf writer from the California Wine Country. She follows the little white ball around the world and blogs about International Golf Travel at www.examiner.com.

Dominican Republic golf resorts and tourism undamaged in Haiti quake

Dominican Republic (DR) golf resorts and tourism attractions are all up and running following the Haiti earthquake. Sharing the the eastern third of the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, the DR experienced no damage from the earthquake. All transportation and communication systems, airports, tourism businesses and medical facilities are operating smoothly, making the country available to support the relief effort. The DR has offered its international airports and seaports as staging areas, among other endeavors.

400 miles east of Haiti’s capital, with mountain ranges separating the two countries, the world-famous golf and vacation resorts, hotels, beaches and natural environment at Punta Cana, Capcana and Casa de Campo are open and functioning as usual.

More here on golf resorts in the Dominican Republic

Read more about on DR

Casa de Campo

DR Tourism Update:

• All of the DR's eight international airports are open and receiving flights.    
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• All of the DR's cruise terminals and seaports are open and receiving ships.
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• All of the DR's beaches, hotels, resorts and tourism businesses are conducting normal business operations.
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• At this time, no flights or group tours to the DR have been cancelled.

To learn how you can help Haiti, visit: http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

Founder/Editor of BestGolfResortsofTheWorld.com,  Karen Misuraca is a travel and golf writer from the California Wine Country. She follows the little white ball around the world and blogs about International Golf Travel at www.examiner.com.

Makai Course reopens on Kauai

 

Makai Golf Course on the island of Kauai

18 of the 27 holes on the stunning, seaside Makai Golf Course at new St. Regis Princeville Resort on the island of Kauai have been under complete renovation for months, with reopening set for next week. The changes and upgrades were designed by the original architect, Robert Trent Jones Jr., who has a vacation home nearby.

Highlights of the course renovation include the installation of Seashore Paspalum turf on tees, fairways and greens--an eco-friendly, salt- and drought-tolerant turf variety. The course was lengthened, new bunkers were added and existing traps were reshaped and refilled, and the practice area was expanded.  

The Makai's "big brother" is the Prince Golf Course, a spectacular layout 300 feet above the ocean, ranked among "America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses", with a 75.3/145 rating and slope.

More about the Makai Course and the St. Regis Princeville

More about golf on Kauai

More on golf in Hawaii

BestGolfResortsofTheWorld.com,  Karen Misuraca is a travel and golf writer from the California Wine Country. She follows the little white ball around the world and blogs about International Golf Travel at www.examiner.com.

New Nicklaus course at Punta Mita

The long-awaited second Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course––Bahia Golf Course––has opened at the Four Seasons Punta Mita near Puerto Vallarta. On a lush peninsula jutting out into Bahia de Banderas, among lakes and numerous water features, the 7,035-yard beauty has skinnier fairways, more bunkers and trickier greens than its celebrated sister course at the resort, the Pacifico Golf Course.

Pacifico is famous for the world’s only natural island green, known to golf fans from around the world as "The Tail of the Whale". Eight of the holes border the Pacific or Bahia de Banderas, with whales often visible offshore from December to April.

A whopping $1,234 resort credit, based on a 5-night stay, is good through January, 2010.

Read more about golf at Punta Mita and in Puerto Vallarta.

BestGolfResortsofTheWorld.com,  Karen Misuraca is a travel and golf writer from the California Wine Country. She follows the little white ball around the world and blogs about International Golf Travel at www.examiner.com.