Weekend Getaways
Go for the Greens

We’ve asked our golf writer to share his insights into four world-class courses in St. Andrews, Scotland; Palm Springs, California; and Melbourne, Australia. This year, while the pros compete elsewhere, grab your clubs and head to one of the world’s best courses to play an unforgettable round of your own.

St. Andrews, Scotland

The birthplace of golf is a favorite of pros and amateurs alike, and in a pilgrimage from every corner of the globe, golfers flock to the north of Edinburgh to play the Old Course, the world’s first layout. Dating to the 15th century, it is always ranked among the planet’s top five layouts, alongside the snazziest private clubs. Yet nowhere will you find a more public or egalitarian place to play. An act of the British Parliament ensures that the course, along with five others, is run as a public park in perpetuity by the Links Trust. In fact, if you think golf is staid, you might be shocked to see people walking their dogs, even picnicking on the vaunted layout, which is very much part of a park in the center of town. This humility is one of the great charms of the Old Course and of St. Andrews itself. While it is the epicenter of the golf universe, home to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the governing body of the sport for almost the entire world, it is also a town whose locals take it all in stride. Residents view golf as just one of its many attractions, along with its historic St. Andrews Castle, shops and beach.

St. Andrews is as down-to-earth a golf mecca as one could imagine, yet the majority of the visitors who arrive here have but one goal, to play the Old Course. Host to more British Opens than any other venue, it is instantly familiar to anyone who watches golf on television for its famous sights: the Swilcan Burn, the Road Hole, the Principal’s Nose. There is not a single golf great, from Tom Morris to Tiger Woods, who has not played this course. Your knees may even shake as you hit your first tee shot, standing in front of the dramatic Royal and Ancient clubhouse with spectators watching you. But you need not worry, as this hole has the widest fairway you may ever see on a course, a warm welcome to one of golf’s greatest experiences. It gets tougher, and by 17, the Road Hole, the player having a good round is challenged by a rare hazard: a building. The shortest line from tee to green brushes its balconies, bringing the structure very much into play. The closing hole forces golfers to navigate the Valley of Sin on their approach. This scary, deep grass depression guards the front edge of the green. The putting surfaces at St. Andrews, while among the largest anywhere, often claim victims of three and even four putts. Fortunately for those who struggle, the famous Road Hole Bar has one of the most extensive selections of Scotch whisky on Earth, and is a prerequisite for your post-round celebration.

Despite its many challenges, the most difficult thing about the Old Course is getting a tee time. Due to overwhelming popularity, the course is sold out far in advance. With at least a year’s planning, you can write the Links Trust and request a tee time. Failing that, the normal route is the daily lottery: Visitors enter their names in a drawing, with the results posted each afternoon except Sunday. (The posting for Monday tee times occurs on Saturdays.) Half of all tee times are reserved for the ballot, yet during peak season the odds get as low as one in five, so many golfers plan a weeklong trip, enter the lottery each day and hope for the best, spending their waiting days on one of the town’s dozen or so other great courses. If budget is not a concern, there are several high-end tour operators such as PerryGolf (800-344-5257, www.perrygolf.com) that buy tee times in advance and resell them to their customers. This is the easiest and most expensive way to get on. For more information on tee times, visit www.standrews.org.uk.

Palm Springs, California

“Take Bob Hope to Gerald Ford, then turn onto Dinah Shore”—only in Palm Springs can you get directions like these. Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, along with U.S. presidents, comedians and movie stars, have helped make Palm Springs the golf choice of the celebrity jet set. They come for the same reasons you should: great weather, endless dining options and a ton of good golf courses. Of these, the highlight is the Greg Norman course at PGA West, the newest at the famous complex, and one of the few public courses in the cart-crazed region that offer the opportunity to walk and take caddies. Visitors might be surprised to find most area courses here quite lush, with ample water turning everything bright green, but the Norman course reflects Palm Springs’ desert climate, with just 65 acres of turf, a third of what most courses boast. In between you will find vast waste areas flanking the fairways and 120 bunkers filled with decomposed granite, a gleaming white sand so bright, powdery and expensive it is also called desert gold. Artfully planted desert flora—65,000—plants in all, completes the beautiful picture.

While the scant fairways and large expanses of sand can be fear-inducing, it is Norman’s style to make his courses playable for all abilities, and he does this by making it tough to lose a ball, using the desert to contain errant shots that might find the woods on other courses. Minimal rough, especially around the greens, makes this a great choice for players with a deft putting and chipping touch. But you still need some power, especially on the par-5 eighth, which for most players will stretch 600 yards (it’s even longer from the tips) and is flanked with a lake down the right side, in play on every shot. By comparison, the par-4 11th is quite short, just 308 yards, taunting big hitters to go for it over a minefield of pot bunkers.

As a golf destination, the greater Palm Springs region actually includes several towns, such as Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells and La Quinta, each with a distinct personality and many choices for golf, shopping and dining. Palm Springs itself is the most urban, with an old downtown pedestrian zone overflowing with dining and nightlife options, such as Las Casuelas Terrazas, a 25-year-old, family-owned Mexican restaurant featuring excellent food, a menu of gourmet tequilas and live music (760-325-2794). The area’s pricey tee times can be booked for much less at the last minute (760-321-2665, www.standbygolf.com).

Melbourne, Australia

The best golf courses in the world, from St. Andrews to Pinehurst to Pine Valley, are built on sandy terrain. It is the best topography for golf, and the secret that makes the great links courses so great, yet it is the kind of land rarely found in or near urban settings. The exception is Melbourne, which has the greatest collection of superb courses of any city on Earth. Royal Melbourne was already Australia’s premier golf club when locals discovered the city’s unique “sandbelt region,” a 25-square-mile geological blessing. So what did the members do? They packed up and moved the club here in 1926, hiring Alister MacKenzie, widely considered the greatest designer in history, to build them a masterpiece. He succeeded, and today Royal Melbourne’s West Course is ranked among the world’s 10 best layouts and has hosted the prestigious President’s Cup. It was followed by a second layout, the East, and by six more neighboring golf clubs, all built in this urban stretch of golf heaven, earning them the collective nickname “the Seven Sisters of the Sandbelt.”

Royal Melbourne West is a study in classic golf, and the hugely wide first fairway is an homage to the first hole at St. Andrews’ Old Course. From here on, MacKenzie makes his own mark, with his trademark jagged edged bunkers and fast, undulating greens that have been compared favorably to his famous work at Augusta National. Natural waste areas and bunkers guard against cutting corners and force the golfer to think at every turn. For instance, the eighth is the ultimate short par-4, a 305-yard hole that doglegs slightly left, with a very long and deep bunker beginning at the elbow and running almost to the green, all of which must be carried to earn an eagle putt. Even the conservative player must use judgment on this hole, as a drive to the “safe” lay-up area cannot be hit too far (03-9598-6755, www.royalmelbourne.com.au).

Having so many world-class courses within a short cab ride from downtown is an unusual situation for the traveling golfer, so you can play by day and enjoy the city’s cosmopolitan charms by night. Melbourne is often compared to San Francisco for its blending of a professional work ethic with a gusto for food, wine and outdoor pursuits. As a gateway to one of Australia’s premier winemaking regions, the Barossa Valley, Melbourne is a city that takes its food and drink very seriously, along with the idea of having fun. It is also home to the wonderful Flemington racetrack, which hosts the Melbourne Cup in early November. More celebrated than the America’s Kentucky Derby, the horse race called “the race that stops a nation” has become a national holiday; the cup itself ends a four-day series of races, parties and dressy balls known as the Melbourne Cup Carnival, in which more than A$12 million is handed over in race purses. Last year a crowd of nearly 400,000 people flaunted their hats, gloves and gowns while attending race after race.