This Week at TravelGolf.com: Jan. 22, 2009

The Hope and the La Quinta Resort: Where duffers are treated like PGA Tour players

If you're like me, when you watch events like this week's 50th Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in the La Quinta, Calif. area, it's fun to tune in to watch celebrities like Kurt Russell or Bo Jackson. They're amateurs who are out of their element just like we are when we play golf. These are guys we can relate to. Those tour players? They might as well be robots.

Okay, that's stretching it a bit. But seldom do golfers like us get airtime.

The other unusual aspect of the Hope is that it's played on four golf courses: the Palmer Private and Nicklaus Private golf courses at PGA West, Bermuda Dunes Country Club, and the newest to the rotation, SilverRock Resort.

The only one you and I can play without being or knowing a member is SilverRock, but there are plenty of other great options right there in La Quinta.

For example, you can play five of the nine courses at the La Quinta Resort & Spa, all of them comparable to the courses you're seeing on TV this week (if not better). There's Pete Dye's infamous Stadium Course at PGA West, where the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament Finals were this year. You can also play the Nicklaus Tournament Course, which starts from the same clubhouse as the Stadium Course. There's the underrated PGA West Greg Norman Course a couple of miles away and the Dye-designed La Quinta Resort Dunes Club. Next to the Dunes is one of my favorites, the La Quinta Resort Mountain Course, also designed by Dye. It features one of the most dramatic and breathtaking back nines I've every played.

The Hope also signals the start of the peak golf season in the Palm Springs area, so if you're planning to visit, it will be pricey right now. But perhaps you can wait until summer or the best time of year to go: right before the New Year, when the big money guys are celebrating the season elsewhere. You might even be able to get a deal at the La Quinta Resort, where you really are treated like a celebrity.

As always, TravelGolf.com welcomes your comments.

Best of the West: Get help planning your Palm Springs-area golf vacation

With 2009 finally here, now is the time to plan your Palm Springs golf outing. Don't miss some of Palm Springs' best golf courses, including PGA West Stadium, PGA West Norman, SilverRock, The Classic Club and Cimarron. These top-rated golf vacation deals are your ticket to some of the best golf in the West.

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Super Bowl XLIII: The Big Game meets great golf in the Tampa area

Going to Tampa for the Super Bowl? Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, which hosts the 23rd Super Bowl NFL Charities event, and TPC Tampa Bay, host of the Par & Poker Celebrity Challenge for Charity, are just two of the great golf options you shouldn't miss. Other stellar Tampa-area plays include Pine Barrens and Rolling Oaks, two of Tom Fazio's best designs in Florida, Tom Spousta writes.

Also: Save on Tampa golf vacations

To the Grand Strand by air: Golfers have more options than Myrtle Beach Airport

Depending on which city you are flying from, sometimes Myrtle Beach's airport can be expensive. It took me about a year of living here to realize that my airport options extended beyond just Myrtle Beach Airport. So, plug in these nearby airport codes, and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Check out the Waccamaw Golf Trail