Inter Forces Golfers To Be Creative.

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WINTER

GOLF

GETAWAYS

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inter forces golfers to be creative.

But instead of making do with inclement weather, many of us simply escape it. This partly explains the abundance of top-rated golf resorts in temperate locales, a wealth that accumulates with every passing year.  This season, the traveling golfer’s options are more extensive—and, in the case of the $1 million Grand South Africa Golf Safari, more expensive— than ever. From a new resort on the California coast to an upstart trail in V   ietnam, the 10 getaways featured here are sure to brighten any golfer’s winter forecast. ➾

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Winter Golf Getaways

The Grand South Africa Golf Safari includes rounds at the Pezula Resort (far left), a stay at the Getty House villa (left and bottom) in the Phinda Private Nature Reserve, and a visit with Gary Player (below) on his stud farm in Colesberg.

Player’s Club

The ultimate South African golf safari with the ultimate South African golfer.

gary player has designed more than 250 golf courses, some among the most exclusive in the world. But no Player course is more selective than the one he built at his stud farm in Colesberg, South  Africa—located 400 miles northwest of Cape Town in a region known as the Upper Karoo—where the membership requirements are as stringent as the bloodlines of the property’s stallions.  Wildebeests, white and black impalas, and other wild animals routinely roam the 18-hole layout, but few Homo sapiens ever set foot on Player’s private course. “It is only for the use of my family and friends,” says Player, the winner of nine Major golf championships. This winter, however, four people can gain entrance to Play­ er’s Colesberg club by purchasing—for $1 million—Micato

 

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Safaris’ Grand South Africa Golf Safari, a 17-day trip that showcases some of the country’s best golfing, wine tasting, and wildlife safaris. According to Player, who will join the foursome for one round and host a private dinner at his house on the farm, the experience is one the golfers will not forget. “South Africa is the best country in the world for Americans to visit,” he says. “People talk about the 17-Mile Drive [in Pebble Beach, Calif.].  Our Garden Route is a thousand miles long.” Following a night in the presidential suite at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and a flight to Cape Town in Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class, the foursome will refresh at the city’s Ellerman House Villa and Spa, play the Gary Player course at the nearby Erinvale Golf Club, and take a helicopter tour of the region. Subsequent stops include the wine-country town of Franschhoek, where the guests will stay at the Owners Cottage at the Grande Provence Estate, and the Plettenberg Bay Fancourt Golf Club, where Player built a seaside course that has hosted both

the President’s Cup and the South African Open. At Fancourt the golfers will receive custom-designed clubs before heading to the Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa on the Garden Route. After three nights at Pezula—which is home to a Ron Kirby–designed golf course—the trip will conclude with four days of wildlife safaris at the 8,649acre Phinda Private Nature Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, on the Mozambique border. Wildlife sightings at Phinda are sure to be a highlight of the Grand South Africa Golf Safari, but Player believes that the golfing will be equally memorable. “South Africa has golf courses as good as anywhere in the world,” he says. Golfers who do not have two and a half weeks—or $1 million—to spare can still enjoy the country’s courses; Micato Safaris offers custom golf safaris throughout South Africa, with prices beginning at $18,000 per person for a 10-day trip. —mike nolan Micato Safaris, 212.545.7111, www.micato.com

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Taking Flight

Pelican Hill looks to fulfill its promise with the launch of a new resort.

pelican hill—with its hilly coastal setting, temperate year-round climate, and two T   om Fazio–designed courses— has the makings of a world-class golf resort. Only one thing is missing: the resort itself. That will change in late November, when the Resort at Peli­can Hill opens on the 504-acre South­ern California site where Fazio completed two of his finest works in the early 1990s. Fazio recently returned to Pelican Hill, located about an hour’s drive south of Los Angeles in Newport Coast, to update his Ocean South and Ocean North courses. His redesign consisted mostly of returfing the fairways and greens, adding a few bunkers, and replacing overgrown bushes with low-lying shrubs to open up the courses’ ever-present ocean vistas. Set on a hillside just above Ocean South, the new hotel at Pelican Hill will share the courses’ sweeping Pacific views. T   he resort will open with 332 bungalow and villa accommodations, a 22-room spa, and a 136-foot-diameter, hand-tiled pool backed by a Palladian-style colonnade. The property’s Ultimate Golf  Experience—which begins at $1,250 per night and includes a round for two on either

 

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course—should prove worthy of its lofty billing as Pelican Hill finally takes its place among the world’s top golf resorts. —bruce wallin The Resort at Pelican Hill, 949.467.6800, www.pelicanhill.com

Winter Golf Getaways

Classic Rockefeller A Big Island legend is reborn.

when the mauna kea beach hotel opened on Hawaii’s Big Island in 1965, it was, at a cost of $15 million, the most expensive resort ever built.  The property, set on one of the Hawaiian Islands’ best beaches, had a cultlike following for more than three decades, but the hotel closed in 2006 after sustaining considerable damage in an earthquake. This December, the Mauna Kea will reopen its doors after a renovation that will cost close to $150 million—or 10 times the amount former owner Laurance Rockefeller spent on the original resort. Central to both the original property and the renovation is the Mauna Kea Golf Course. Rockefeller enlisted Robert Trent Jones Sr. to build the course, which the designer routed over both land and sea—nowhere more spectacularly than on the resort’s oft-photographed, par-3 third hole, where golfers hit their tee shots over the Pacific. Prince Resorts Hawaii, the Mauna Kea’s current owner, hired Jones’ son Rees to refurbish the course, which is also scheduled to reopen in December. Rees is restoring his father’s

design to its original appearance, while updating the course’s turf and sand. As for the refurbishment of the hotel, Prince Resorts is expanding the guest rooms and updating the interiors, but the company is leaving the Mauna Kea’s facade—and, presumably, its timeless appeal—intact. —oliver slosser Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, 877.880.6524, www.princeresortshawaii.com

Turn for the Better

Raymond Floyd takes Turnberry Isle’s courses in a new direction.

of the dozens of golf destinations in Florida, the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club, located about midway between South Beach and Fort Lauderdale in Aventura, may be the best place to stay and play this winter. The

resort completed a $150 million renovation in late 2006 that updated all of the 392 guest rooms and suites, added two new restaurants—including chef Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak—and rebuilt the property’s 36 holes of golf under the direction of former Masters champion Ray­ mond Floyd.

 

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The first hole on the Fairmont’s Soffer Course—named in honor of developer Don Soffer, who founded Aventura and the resort—immediately suggests the extent of Floyd’s changes.  A formerly flat hole now includes an angled, undulating fairway and new water features. The resort spent more than $100,000 landscaping each hole, lining the fairways with flowers and planting several thousand palm trees. To provide a home for the resort’s resident pink flamingos, the Fairmont also built an island within the Soffer Course’s Lake Julius, where the birds now nest. Longtime fans of  Turnberry Isle will be happy to know that Floyd retained the signature island green on the Soffer Course’s 18th hole. Guests participating in the Fairmont’s Fore the Love of Golf package ($1,009 per night) will enjoy unlimited play on Soffer or the property’s Miller Course, and unlimited access to the new  Willow Stream Spa. —george fuller The Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club, 305.932.6200, ​ www.fairmont.com

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Winter Golf Getaways

Down-Under Par Kalos Golf sets sail for New Zealand.

new zealand is best seen from the sea, whether cruising the crenulated coastline of Fiordland National Park or harboring in the Bay of Islands below the man-made wonder that is the Kauri Cliffs golf course. Kalos Golf will steer passengers to these sights and more on the company’s New Zealand Golf Cruises, which will embark three times beginning in January. Sailing the lengths of North Island and South Island aboard Orion—a “boutique cruise ship” with everything from hot tubs to a hair salon—golfers can play as many as seven rounds, go wine tasting, and tour Kiwi cities including Welling­ton and Christchurch. Based in Chapel Hill, N.C., Kalos leads high-end golf cruises throughout Europe and, during the Northern Jack’s Point is one of several courses that will be in play for passengers of Orion (below). Hemisphere’s winter, New Zealand. This winter’s trips stop at such courses as Millbrook Resort, designed by New Zealand golfer (The third trip begins at Kauri Cliffs.) Rates for the cruises Bob Charles, and Paraparaumu Beach, a classic links lay- range from $9,995 to $17,765 per person. out. (Courses vary depending on cruise dates.) Two of the —james a. frank excursions conclude in dramatic style, finishing with rounds at Kauri Cliffs and its sister property, Cape Kidnappers. Kalos Golf, 919.942.3464, www.kalosgolf.com

Rock Solid

A new villa is just a stone’s throw from the Boulders’ courses.

the new $8,000-per-night V   illa Retreat at the Boulders Resort & Golden Door Spa in Carefree, Ariz., comprises two modern adobe homes connected by a courtyard with an infinity-edge swimming pool. T   hough the estate is 5,000 square feet and sleeps as many as 12 guests, it blends as seamlessly into the Sonora Desert landscape as do the bobcats and coyotes that guests can observe from the compound’s spacious second-floor decks.  The villa can serve as an oasis for two families—or three foursomes—at the 1,300-acre resort, which is located about 15 miles north of  Scottsdale. (Direct helicopter service to the Villa Retreat is available from Scottsdale.) For a group of golfers, the Villa Retreat provides easy access to the Boulders’ two Jay Moorish–designed courses. Set in a rock-strewn landscape—created 12 million years ago by the same geologic event that nearly separated Baja California from the mainland—the courses are among the most scenic in the Scottsdale area. “The North Course is older and more traditional, while the South Course is narrower, and you get more of the boulder-pile experience,” says golf director  Tom McCahan. “On the par-5 fifth, you drive toward the resort and can see people climbing on the rock face.” In addition to the Villa Retreat, the Boulders offers 160 casitas and 55 pueblo villas, all of which are being updated as part of a $30 million resortwide renovation. —m.n. The Boulders Resort & Golden Door Spa, 480.488.9009, www.theboulders.com

 

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The Boulders’  Villa Retreat (top) and South Course (above).

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School of the South Getting into the swing at the Barton Creek Resort & Spa.

the barton creek resort & spa’s recent renovation— which included the addition of an outdoor camp area with tepees and a s’mores fire pit—has made the Austin, Texas, retreat more conducive to family fun. But golfers have never lacked for diversions at this 4,000-acre Hill Country resort, where they can play four 18-hole courses and hone their skills at the Chuck Cook Golf  Academy. Before doing battle with Barton Creek’s courses—which include Tom Fazio’s Foothills layout—many golfers enroll at the academy, where Cook, who is ranked among the country’s top instructors, often leads classes himself. The facility offers programs of all types, from family to individual, low-handicap to women-only. The resort’s Guys Golf Getaways—two- and three-day stays that begin at $299 per person—do not involve sessions at the academy, but they do include a bucket of beer and chips as a welcome amenity for arriving guests. —g.f. Barton Creek Resort & Spa, 866.572.7369, www.bartoncreek.com

Callisto ventures to Valderrama (left) in December.

Charting Courses

Cruising aboard Callisto to golf clubs in Morocco and Spain.

perrygolf is best known for its upscale golfing excursions— by land, sea, and sky—throughout the British Isles. But when the weather fouls on the Firth of Forth, the 24-year-old tour company guides many of its clients to warmer climes. This December, the Wilmington, N.C.–based company is offering a nine-day trip aboard the private yacht Callisto to ports— and five golf courses—in Spain and Morocco.

 

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The 34-passenger Callisto, which embarks from Málaga, Spain, on December 9, can reach coves and beaches that larger cruise ships cannot access. Thanks to PerryGolf’s network of contacts in the golfing industry, the group also facilitates access to several exclusive courses. Highlights of the December itinerary include the V   alderrama Golf Club in Sotogrande, Spain—a Robert T   rent Jones Sr. design that hosted the 1997 Ryder Cup—Los Naranjos Golf Club in Marbella, and the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam in Rabat, Morocco. In addition to golf courses, the trip (which starts at $4,995 per person and will be repeated in late March 2009) will visit the 13th-century Alhambra in Granada, Spain, and the medina of Marrakech, Morocco. Aboard Callisto, guests can stay in one of 17 cabins, dine in the yacht’s restaurant, and lounge in the library and bar. —o.s. PerryGolf, 800.344.5257, www.perrygolf.com

Winter Golf Getaways

Point of Return

Nicklaus’ latest Punta Mita course adds to the Riviera Nayarit’s attractions.

mexico’s riviera nayarit region stretches along the Pacific Ocean from Nuevo Vallarta, near Puerto Vallarta International Airport, to the town of San Blas, about a 100-mile drive to the north. With more than 35 tourism developments in some stage of construction, the area is poised to become one of the country’s top destinations. Among the many projects are two golf courses—one designed by Greg Norman, the other by Jack Nicklaus— that are set to open by the end of 2008. Norman’s course will occupy a coastal site in Litibú, just north of the region’s Punta Mita development. The Nicklaus layout is the designer’s second in the Riviera Nayarit, after Punta Mita’s Pacifico club, the only course in the world with a natural island green. Punta Mita also includes a Four Seasons resort, a new 400-slip marina, and a St. Regis hotel that is slated to open in November in conjunction with the Nicklaus course. Guests of the Four Seasons and the St. Regis will have access to the new course, which will be called Bahia, as well as to Nicklaus’ original layout. —o.s. Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita, +52.329.291.6000, www.four​ seasons.com; St. Regis Punta Mita, 877.787.3447, www.stregis.com

Green Peace

In 2007, seven courses in V   ietnam’s northern and southern regions organized to form the Ho Chi Minh Golf Trail, Vietnam blossoms as a golfing destination. a network that stretches from Hanoi to Saigon. The trail includes the Dalat Palace Golf Club, which dates to the 1930s during the vietnam war, members of the 70th Engineer and was restored in 1994, and the Ocean Dunes Golf Club, a Battalion often hit golf balls into C-ration cans that the soldiers Nick Faldo design in the beach town of Phan Thiet. Several scattered along the beaches near Hoi An in central V   ietnam. In of   Vietnam’s top hotels, such as the Caravelle Hotel in Saigon, can arrange golfing trips that include accommodations, meals, and transportation, and tee times at courses on the Ho Chi Minh trail. The Montgomerie Links, which will be completed in 2009, will join the trail in January. The 7,200-yard course is owned by the proprietor of the nearby Nam Hai, a stylish new resort outside of Hoi An. Across the street from the Montgomerie Links—which weaves around the region’s sand dunes, rice The Montgomerie Links will join Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh Golf Trail next year. paddies, and at least two bunkers left over from the war—developers are laying the groundAugust, with the opening of 13 holes outside of Hoi An, the work for central V   ietnam’s second course, to be designed Montgomerie Links,V   ietnam, became the central region’s first by Greg Norman. —jennifer hall official golf course. But the Colin Montgomerie–designed layout is hardly an anomaly in V   ietnam, which is fast becom- Ho Chi Minh Golf Trail, www.hochiminhgolftrail.com; The Montgomerie Links, Vietnam, www.colinmontgomerie.com ing one of Southeast  Asia’s premier golfing destinations.

 

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