Spend several days playing golf as a single in Lake Placid and you’re liable to become convinced you recently caught SARS (remember when people worried about SARS?) During my time here, it’s been myself and my clubs … and well, myself and my clubs.

This isn’t because I’ve run into a slew of soccer fans (this is still the U.S. after all, they don’t exist), NASCAR rednecks or Wie Warriors who refuse to share a cart with me either.

The courses are just that wide open. In the middle of August when the temperature’s dancing right around a perfect 75 degrees almost every day. Oh, occasionally you’ll run into another single and you’ll play a few holes together just to have someone to lose money to. But no one’s forcing you to pair up.

People just haven’t realized in numbers yet that the Miracle On Ice land is actually a good golf spot. Which is sort of ironic considering that the average golf course here is about 104 years old. That’s no joke either. You can play five straight courses in the Lake Placid area and not hit off any fairway that’s under 99 years old.

This is an unexpected mecca of golf history, a great place to get an appreciation for legit old school design.

Of course, you’re probably going to be even more taken aback by the pace of play. We’re talking near three hour rounds. Not rushing it either. You could play two different 18 hole courses in about seven hours flat. And you thought Michael Jordan was the only kind of guy who could work 54 holes into a day?

Try it in Lake Placid and you still might have time for a leisurely lunch.