ChicagoGolf.com:
A Little Bit of Everything Outside Chicago

Need a place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city? ChicagoGolf.com staff writer Brendan O’Brien has just the place in the Heritage Bluffs Golf Club. Located on hour southwest of Chicago proper, the Dick Nugent designed layout is in Channahon, Illinois. O’Brien says the designer made Heritage Bluffs from a conglomeration of a couple types of courses: “The course is a traditional layout with tree-lined fairways and big greens in some stretches, while other parts of the course features wide-open links style holes. This give the player’s eye a lot to look at and experience even during a sub-par round. The course does not have any housing near it and roads are not seen anywhere.” In short, O’Brien says a visit to Heritage Bluffs is highlighted by great service, facilities and a well-designed, challenging course, making it a must play for any player.

GolfCalifornia.com:
America's Finest City's Crown Jewel

The City of San Diego bills itself as a golfer’s paradise, and with 40-plus courses, majestic ocean settings, huge mountains and canyons, along with 300-plus days of sunshine, it's easy to see why. As staff writer Art Stricklin points out, the city owned and operated Torrey Pines Golf Course is likely the crown jewel for San Diego golfers. Stricklin says the course, which has hosted the PGA Tour's Buick Invitational since 1968 and produced professional golfers like Billy Casper and Phil Mickelson, will shatter all your misconceptions about poor municipal layouts. The 36-hole complex, opened in the early 1950s, offers both the North and South Course and both are always in excellent shape. There is plenty of rough, lush fairways, trees everywhere, lots of bunkers and sand, and plenty of golf history everywhere. Writes Stricklin: “First-timers to Torrey Pines should forget every negative thought they may have about city golf courses. Forget the old and crumbling clubhouse, forget the non-existent maintenance, the over-baked greens, the fairway browns, and the bunkers with little sand and water fountains which haven't worked in years.”

TravelGolf.com:
Kentucky's Diamond in the Rough

Related Links • This Week at TravelGolf.com (May 21-27) • Archives: This Week at TravelGolf.com

Just a few weeks after the Run for the Roses, we sent senior writer Kiel Christianson to Kentucky for a review of the Lafayette Golf Course, located just a few minutes away from The Rough River Dam State Resort Park and its 5,000-acre lake. Ranked as the eleventh-best course in the state, and within the top ten among public courses, Christianson says Lafayette is the quintessential diamond in the rough. The par-72 layout itself is excellent, characterized by mostly isolated holes, strategically located water hazards, dense woods, and enough hills and swales to ensure plenty of challenging lies and club choices. In fact, there’s so much promise here that course officials have plans to make Lafayette a true tourist destination. In Christianson’s sidebar story, he says the folks at Lafayette have some grand plans to change the local image a bit, and thereby make the town (and course) more appealing to tourists.

GolfFlorida.com:
Much More than a Hotel Chain

	Mountain Shadows Resort

When most people hear the word “Marriott,” they think hotel. Yet Marriott International Inc. is also the parent company of Marriott Golf, one of the largest resort golf management companies in existence, with 25 Marriott Golf facilities throughout the world. In this week’s spotlight feature story, senior writer Joe Bruno offers an overview of the Marriott Golf operation, which is working to increase overall golfer participation. “Marriott Golf in especially concentrating its efforts in making the golfing experience especially pleasant for the fairer sex,” Bruno writes. “There are currently six million woman golfers in the United States and that number is expected to increase to as many as 10 million in the next few years.” In addition to Marriott Golf's quest to attract women to its courses, the company has also created “Family Golf Festivals,” designed to attract families to the sport of golf.

From the Rough

In case you missed last week's report, be sure to catch senior writer Jeffrey A. Rendall's four-part series on the spellbinding Virginia Beach golf scene. He begins with a review of Heron Ridge Golf Club, which was actually a corn and soybean farm before co-designers Gene Bates and Fred Couples became involved. Bates says it's his goal to make every course he designs a real challenge from the tips, and he's done it here. "All in all, a nice, varied round of golf, with nary a corn stalk in site," quipped Rendall, who continues his series with a look at the TPC of Virginia Beach, a Pete Dye design. In addition to his complete course review, Rendall also provides some insights on the facility's beginnings. Rendall then concludes his series with a visit back to the '80s and the Hell’s Point Golf Club.

As always, if you disagree with our reviewers on a certain course or just want to sound off about the latest from the PGA Tour, be sure to visit the TravelGolf.com forum, a series of message boards where visitors can write about everything from the Myrtle Beach golf scene to new equipment. There's also a free classifieds section where golfers can advertise that old set of clubs they've been meaning to sell for years. And if you haven't checked it out already, be sure to visit the new TravelGolf.com Pro Shop, a joint venture with The Golf Warehouse. With all of this at TravelGolf.com, there's no need to go anywhere else on the Web.