Tee off before spring ends: Best late-spring golf vacations from Palm Springs to Hilton Head Island

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It's spring time already and the flowers are blooming, and hope is springing eternal.

Who cares. Where do I golf?

If you're a procrastinator and haven't booked a spring golf trip yet, we're here to help. Here are some of our favorite spring golf road trips, and most of them are offering last-minute spring specials in some way, shape or form. We are paying particular attention to avoiding the rowdy, college, spring-break crowd.

Northern California golf

Spring in Northern California means the poppies and dogwood are blooming, not to mention the wild mushrooms. It's one of the best times of the year for one of the most beautiful regions in the country, with dramatic, rocky coastlines, great scenic drives and the Monterrey Peninsula.

Drink wine in Napa Valley and play golf at legendary courses like Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill Golf Course, as well as Harding Park Golf Course, and Poppy Hills Golf Course.

Click here for California golf package options.

Hilton Head golf

Hilton Head Island, S.C., is too boring for college kids. It's a laid-back, well-mannered, well-ordered enclave of well-off people looking to play quality golf courses. It's the home of Harbour Town Golf Links and a number of lesser - though always well-conditioned and interesting - courses.

Spring tends to linger here, with colors bursting everywhere. Say what you will about the sameness of much of Hilton Head, its meticulous planners were adamant that there be green everywhere.

Hilton Head tee times: (866) 870-4653

Click here for Hilton Head golf package options.

Florida's First Coast

That stretch of northeast Florida that includes Jacksonville, known as the First Coast, extends from just south of the Georgia border through Daytona Beach. It has already begun to warm up here, and spring is the time to go before the weather turns deadly hot and humid.

The First Coast is home to a number of good and great courses, like the TPC at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, the Slammer & Squire at the World Golf Village and the Hammock Dunes Club in Palm Coast.

You can drive down A1A, the legendary beach road that parallels the Atlantic Ocean, and stop at any number of great bars and seafood restaurants.

Florida tee times: (866) 521-2331

Click here for Florida golf package options.

Palm Springs golf

Palm Springs, Calif. has some of the nation's finest, full-scale resorts, like La Quinta Resort & Club and its Mountain Course, and a number of fine desert courses, like PGA West TPC Stadium Course.

You won't melt in the spring like you do the summer, with springtime highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s and 60s. You'll get to see all those rare, desert flowers blooming.

There are more than 100 golf courses in the area and nice resorts like the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort and Spa.

Palm Springs tee times: (866) 351-1688.

Click here for Palm Springs-area golf package options.

Gulf Shores, Alabama golf

There are some terrific golf courses in Gulf Shores, Ala., including Kiva Dunes Golf Course and Cypress Bend.

Fall and winter are busy here, but spring is a relatively sedate time of year, all the better to enjoy the golf and the weather.

Gulf Shores tee times: (866) 395-4607

Click here for Gulf Shores-area golf package options.

Augusta, Georgia

Augusta is hallowed ground when the Masters rolls around and the azaleas are blooming. If you're lucky enough to score a ticket, good for you. If not - or even if you do - there are more golf courses around other than Augusta National Golf Club, like Goshen Plantation Golf Club, Mount Vintage Plantation & Golf Club and the River Golf Club.

Click here for Augusta golf package options.

Augusta tee times: (800) 284-8884

Las Vegas golf

Las Vegas is too grown up for spring breakers, and spring is arguably the best time of the year in Vegas, baby. Las Vegas' golf courses are usually in their best condition, and the area courses will have a little more space than at other times of the year. You don't want to play here when desert temperatures are soaring into the 100s.

There are "fun" courses like Siena Golf Club, great layouts like Rio Secco Golf Club in Henderson and brutal challenges like the TPC Las Vegas.

Las Vegas tee times: (866) 456-9912

Click here for Las Vegas golf package options.

Orlando golf

Orlando, Fla. is a mega-golf destination, and spring is best. Believe me. I've been to Disney World in the summer when all I could do was seek out the next air-conditioned shop, no matter how kitschy, and in the winter, when I nearly froze my mouse ears off.

It has some of the best golf courses in Florida, like Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge, a mega-golf-plex like Orange County National Golf Center and Grand Cypress Resort with 45 holes of Jack Nicklaus golf.

Orlando tee times: (866) 521-2331

Click here for Orlando golf package options.

Pinehurst golf

Pinehurst, N.C. is known as the home of American golf, and spring in the Carolinas is sublime, with the dogwoods blooming. With 15 miles of Pinehurst, there are 43 courses, including, of course, the six golf courses at Pinehurst resort.

Pinehurst tee times: (888) 380-GOLF

Click here for Pinehurst golf package options.

Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management.