This Week at TravelGolf.com: Sept. 19, 2007

Only golf tourists are sappy enough to build up courses they can never play

As most of the top golfers in the world played Westchester Country Club earlier this summer, a particular breed of golf fans paid the millionaire players no heed and concentrated on the looks of the holes instead.

I ran into a good half dozen of these guys on the first practice day, regular guys with regular jobs who would do almost anything to get to play an ultra-private golf course like Westchester just once. Guys who know, with the same certainty that O.J. Simpson knows he's never getting an invite to the White House, that they'll never have a chance to play it.

So they became non-playing golf course tourists. They stroll the edges of every fairway, picture themselves hitting every imaginable shot, sprint out to a green and touch the grass when the marshals aren't looking if they're really bold.

This subset is more pronounced than you might expect. When New Jersey's mythic Pine Valley opens its doors to public spectators once a year for the final round of the Crump Cup - an invitational amateur tournament - it can trigger near hysterics from these course-voyeur devotees. People plan part of their summer around getting to walk a golf course without any clubs.

In some ways, this builds golf's romance. It's also really sort of sad.

For all the energy and obsessiveness spent fawning over the Pine Valleys and Westchesters of the old blue blood golf world takes away from the great courses that are actually open to the public. If second-to-none tracks like Cabo del Sol Ocean Course, Mesquite's Wolf Creek Golf Club, Edgewood Tahoe, Pawleys Plantation and even Pebble Beach shut out the public, there would be much more aura around them.

Too often in golf, it still pays to treat the average man like a two-bit chump. The harder golf courses close their gates, the more regular golfers pant over myths they'll never be in position to confirm nor deny.

It's time to appreciate all we have instead. Why fixate on finding a way to gain entryway into Phil Mickelson's tony Whisper Rock Scottsdale club when you can get on the excellent nearby Saguaro with nothing more than a phone call or a few mouse clicks?

Do you really think you're going to run out of great public golf to play? Drop the envy and have a ball.

As always, TravelGolf.com welcomes your comments.

Red rocks, art, scenic courses: Sedona's a cool Arizona golf spot

About two hours from the Phoenix-Scottsdale resort corridor, Sedona brings a dash of eclectic eccentricity to the Arizona vacation scene. It's not a great golf destination. It does not have enough courses - or any truly great ones (though Seven Canyons is close) - to be a regular golf-only trip. But if you're looking for a spot to play some golf while you enjoy real desert recreation and an offbeat vibe, this could be the city.

Sedona Golf: Course reviews, green fees, more

Northern Michigan's Forest Dunes offers home buyers remote location, Weiskopf

If real estate is all about "location, location, location," then Forest Dunes Golf Club couldn't be further from it, which is why it's perfect. The golf club and real estate development is located in the small, northern Michigan village of Roscommon, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The quaint residential golf community with around 1,000 residents is first rate and boasts a world-class Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course that will wow duffers of all skill levels.

Also: GolfCourseRealty.com's featured golf communities

Barona Creek Golf Club combines great golf, gaming at a high-end resort

It's funny how golf resorts can sort of blend together in one's memory. But then you stumble upon a golf resort with a unique personality, a place you won't soon forget. Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino in Lakeside, Calif. is precisely that singular, enchanting sort of place that might just make you fall in love all over again with golf resorts, especially if you like gambling and gourmet cuisine with your golf.

Podcast: Playing California's low-profile golf resorts