Palm Beach golf ultra rich in more ways than one

If you get away from the swamps and The Mouse, Florida holds plenty of often surprisingly inventive golf.

Take Palm Beach County. There are 170 golf courses in this region where the rich range free and they run the gamut from ultra private high end tracks to a barebones muni where PGA Tour players still stop by for a regular Friday game. I’m in the midst of a two week journey through Palm Beach golf and you’ll soon be seeing stories on everything from the St. Louis Cardinals’ fan friendly spring training home course to the paradise of snob shops on Worth Avenue (it’s much more intimidating than LA’s Rodeo Drive or New York’s Fifth Avenue).

Palm Beach is a place where caddies are still appreciated and the place that has arguably the only golf course in Florida without a single drop of water.

The series will start Monday with a column on life inside Frenchman’s Creek, the ultra exclusive members-only golf community that competes with other rich man fantasylands like Isleworth of Tiger Woods and Shaq fame. The golf’s great at Frenchman’s and you’ll read about that later - TravelGolf.com is the only publication that’s been let inside Frenchman’s to play the Jim Fazio renovated North Course. But first, you’ll experience what it’s like to really live in one of these communities where there are no nos.

With South Beach’s bikini wonder only about an hour away, chances are you’ll also get some nightlife golf experiences.

I always thought Florida golf was boring, as tired as many of its citizens. Sometimes, the best part of a trip is finding out just how wrong you are.