Tuesday, August 30, 2011

New Greens for a New Season

Who’s played on the new greens at Glenlakes Golf Club? Not I—but I plan to this fall. The club reopened on August 16th after resurfacing its greens. My next golf vacation is coming up this fall, and Glenlakes will definitely be on my list of courses to play.

I’m envisioning a refreshing experience when I get down there: cooler weather, fresh, smooth greens, and hiking along some of the Gulf nature trails (a little off-topic, but still an excellent Gulf Shores & Orange Beach fall activity). Playing on new greens can feel like playing on a new course, and I’m looking forward to undertaking this in a whole new season.

Other things going on this fall: the Gulf Coast Golf Expo Tee Off Tournament is taking place on Friday, October 21st at the Gulf Shores Golf Club. The $99 tournament fee includes a cart, lunch, a surprise grab bag, and a two-day VIP ticket to the Gulf Coast Golf Expo.

Fall golf isn’t too far off. Time to start planning the getaway!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

What to Do When Golf Isn’t an Option

I learned recently that no matter how well and how far in advance you plan, there’s one factor that can throw a wrench in a golf vacation: the weather. As easy as it was for my buddies and me to plan our golf trip (and the Gulf Shores Golf Association website really does make it easy to put together a golf package), it was just as easy for two days of rain to keep us from two days of golf.

Hey, it happens. The good thing was we were in Gulf Shores & Orange Beach—there were plenty of things to keep us busy during those two rainy days. One of my friends is into art, so we decided to do the museum thing one day. We checked out a few area art museums and galleries, of course, but my favorites were the historic ones—the area has such a rich and fascinating history.

Eating and shopping are good ways to spend rainy days, too, and there are plenty of good choices for either activity. And your condo or hotel will most likely have amenities. Ours had both an indoor pool and an indoor tennis court—we ended up having quite the competitive tennis match one afternoon.

I felt good knowing that our time was nowhere near wasted during those couple days of rain. But we were all glad to finally play golf—the rest of the week was perfect golf weather. I love the Gulf!