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TO begin with, many of them offer rental accommodation, chiefly in de luxe villas or condominiums, with catering at the clubhouse as required. Often there's a surfeit of amenities for non-golfers: tennis, swimming pools, bicycles, the beach, sight-seeing in Wilmington or other historical towns, with Myrtle Beach less than an hour away...
An example is Sea Trail Plantation at Sunset Beach. It has all of this, plus two clubhouses, a village activities centre, a wide selection of accommodations and three golf courses by renowned architects Rees Jones, Willard Byrd and Dan Maples.
Set in 2,000 acres and opened in 1985, Sea Trail is heavily wooded in parts (see picture above), with a creek that forms water hazards on the courses. It's close to Sunset Beach and the village of Calabash, which boasts the grandiose title of Seafood Capital of the World, a fishing port with more restaurants than houses!
Ten minutes away is Ocean Isle, where an associate hotel, The Winds Clarion Inn, also offers golf packages. It has a clutch of villas and 72 self-catering serviced apartments on the beach.
These are typical of US sea-side resorts: they're designed for easy living: clean, well-furnished and comfortable without being plush. Relaxation is guaranteed and the days are never long enough....Kids love the place.
There are many similar establishments along the coastline: Brunswick Plantation, Carolina Shores, Brick Landing, Ocean Ridge, Bald Head Island. All have courses of stature with facilities to match.
Bald Head is particularly attractive: it is reached via a ferry and has one of the finest courses in the Carolinas. Part of it winds through a forest and around a chain of lagoons; part is duneland overlooking 14 miles of unspoiled beach. It is delightful.
Ocean Ridge Plantation has 1,300 acres with two award-winning courses, Lion's Paw and Panther's Run, and a third is under construction. Put this on your list.
Nearby is Angels Trace, a memorable complex with a pair of courses by Clyde Johnson, a name to remember. Next door is The Pearl, another with 36 holes of Dan Maples' design and part of the cluster that's such a feature of the local golf community.
A little further afield you'll find Porter's Neck, a gem by Tom Fazio that was good enough to stage the 1997 PGA Tour Qualifying School when the winner finished a scant two under par after 54 holes.
The 1998 PQ School tourney was held at another new course, Magnolia Greens, a lovely design by Tom Jackson, and even bigger things are expected of what is quickly becoming a major golfing magnet. Make a note of the name. It's the Winding River course and you'll find it at the Carolina National GC, not far from Southport on Route 211.
Designed by Fred Couples, this is an old-fashioned course laid over marshland with lots of swales, gentle hummocks and foreshortening cross bunkers. Perhaps predictably, it is a big driving course with fairways 50 yards wide but Fred has built five sets of tees, some on totally disparate lines to cater for degrees of ability. A couple of tee shots are knee-knockers, particularly the par three 14th that from the back demands a long carry over marshland.
I could rave, too, about River Landing and Marsh Harbour and Oyster Bay, in fact such is the general standard it was difficult to discover a course that didn't have its admirers.
So, free of guilt, you'll have a ball while the family relax on the beach. It's the best of all worlds, which nicely sums up North Carolina...
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Page [1], [2], [3], [4] - [Go to N. Carolina (Pinehurst)]
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