DEL.ICIO.USATLANTA TRAVEL NEWS
Golf trips give families chance to bond, enjoy nature
Resorts offer incentives to tee up with the kids
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Scott Campbell’s yearly golf trip started a decade ago as a getaway, a few rounds with an old buddy. Both of them had preteen sons, and Campbell left 10-year-old Joe back home in Lawrenceville with the rest of the family.
But as his boy grew up and got interested in golf, Campbell realized how little time he had left with Joe. The same thing was dawning on his old golf buddy regarding his son.
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A little girl putts on the No. 8 hole of Pinehurst’s No. 3 course. At Pinehurst, a resort in the North Carolina Sandhills with several family golf packages, children play free.
The St. Joe Company Co.
At the Origins Course on the Florida Panhandle, designed by Geoorgia PGA Tour star Davis Love III, greens fees are $25; kids 15 and under are free.
Special
Joe Campbell (far right) and father Scott Campbell (second from right) of Lawrenceville pose with father-son pair Doug and Paul Broman during a recent golf trip to Giants Ridge Golf and Ski Resort in Minnesota.
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But would Joe get bored on the golf trip? Would having two boys along ruin the guy experience? Would it be an expensive bust?
Golf is a game of risk and reward, and these dads decided the risk was worth it. They invited their sons, and after four trips together, their rewards are memories and bonding beyond the typical family vacation.
This sport offers hours in nature, where different skill levels can play side by side with little distraction. Both generations of Campbells have been humbled.
“The highlight of the trip was probably the fact that I out-drove him on every tee shot:),” Joe Campbell, 20, wrote in an e-mail about their July trip to Minnesota.
“He even drove the green on a 296-yard par-4,” his dad pointed out. “Then he four-putted:)”
“His short game [putting and chipping] is much better than mine,” Joe admitted. The non-golf highlight? “Being able to play blackjack with him at the casino.”
Hold the casino story for a minute. First let the golf story play through.
Parents like these can thank Tiger Woods, in part, for more golf resorts offering incentives to tee up with the kids, such as free rounds with a paying adult.
The superstar’s popularity, and his support of junior golf, have made this generation more aware of the sport. Overall interest in the sport isn’t growing, so the young represent a big marketing target.
“There’s a real push to get more juniors into golf because the number of golfers in America have been flat for a number of years,” said Lei Gainer, a Myrtle Beach, S.C., publicist for several golf resorts.
“When you look at Tiger and how he’s energized children’s interest, that’s been a boost for the golf business. Just about everywhere you go play, the pro shops have drivers that fit kids who are 4 feet tall. Everyone is really focused on bringing kids into the game.”
Like baseball, golf has long been a game passed from parent to child, and Will Hopkins is one golf professional who is happy to help today’s families build the kind of memories he treasures.
He grew up in Greenville, Ala., the only son in a family that always vacationed on the Florida Panhandle.
There, his dad took him to the course, “and that’s how I spent time with him, time in a [golf] cart together,” said Hopkins, now the general manager of two courses for the WaterColor Inn and Resort.
“It was a great place to talk and scream and cuss at a bad shot and pat each other on the back for a good one,” said Hopkins, 49. “We were playing in the days without cellphones, when no one disturbed you.”
Hopkins now manages the Origins Course, a unique layout for junior golfers and families rooted in the Scottish vision of this sport.
Through a choice of tee markers, Origins can be played as a 10-hole par-3 course, a nine-hole executive course or as a six-hole regulation course. It’s an ideal setting for a child or grown-up new to golf.
Players younger than 15 are free, “and as long as a kid can sit in a cart, they can go with an adult,” Hopkins said. “I remember my introduction to the game.”
Fittingly, Origins was designed by the firm of Georgia star Davis Love III, who followed his namesake father onto the PGA Tour. “The very origin of the game of golf revolved around a community recreational activity that could be enjoyed by everyone,” Love said in a statement when the resort opened.
Families such as the Loves, and Tiger and Earl Woods, became known by their performances on the renowned courses in the world. Those same courses can become stages for everyday families, too.
Talk about a golf memory: how about walking the Old Course at St. Andrews, with caddies in tow? Pricey, yes, but for those seeking the grail of golf, priceless.
“Going to Scotland or Ireland is kind of a guy trip — golf, pubs,” said Graham Spears of Atlanta, whose Sterling Golf Tours arranges trips to host courses for the British Open and links gems in the United Kingdom. “I have a dad and son, both adults, who are on their fourth or fifth trip to Ireland.”
Younger children, though, will require different planning to make a golf vacation satisfying. That’s what Scott Campbell and his pal of 25 years, Doug Broman of Maple Plain, Minn., learned when they opened their golf trip to their sons.
They offered these tips, and yes, this is where the casino story comes in.
• Start small. Their first father-son trip was to Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. They included short courses that wouldn’t frustrate the boys.
• Adjust habits and expectations. Campbell is a skilled player who often breaks 80, but teaching his son course etiquette distracted Campbell from his own game.
• Off the course, arrange child-friendly activities and lodging. For these teenagers, a hotel with a pool and going to the movies were a great way to decompress after golf. Most recently, the boys went to a Ziggy Marley concert and still made their tee times.
Last month’s golf trip to the Campbells’ home state of Minnesota included an overnight at the Fortune Bay Casino and Resort, where the gambling age is 18.
“We thought it would be fun to teach the boys to play blackjack, and it was,” Scott Campbell said.
They scored a $99 two-room suite at the casino and stayed there one night between four rounds of golf at Giants Ridge, one of the country’s top-rated new resort courses. They played golf all day plus lunch for $125 — a bargain that left them reaching for the ibuprofen.
“Even our strapping, very in-shape sons both said that 36 holes a day was a little too much to do, even with a riding cart, for two days in a row,” said Campbell, a health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Next year, they plan to return with a twist: a little less golf, a little more cards — and at least as much fun.
IF YOU GO
Parent-child golf travel resources
Many golf resorts offer discounts for children accompanied by adults.
• If competition is part of your vacation, consider Myrtle Beach, S.C. The Martin’s PGA Superstore National Father & Son Team Classic is a three-day annual event that began in 1998. Recently, 700 fathers and sons from 45 states and nine countries participated. Each player received a $200 store gift certificate.
• Pinehurst, the storied resort in North Carolina, offers children free lodging, food and golf when staying with a parent. The deal is good year-round for kids up to age 12; in the summer, for kids up to 17. The Family Fairways packages include rental clubs and an instruction option. All but one of the eight courses have kid-friendly tees, and plenty of off-course activities. www.pinehurst.com.
• Sterling Golf Tours of Atlanta specializes in international land-only packages. A six-night trip to St. Andrews, Carnoustie and other courses that includes lodging, greens fees, starting times, some meals and a minivan start at $2,995 based on a foursome of travelers. 404-477-2361, www.sterlinggolftours.com.
• The Origins Course and Camp Creek Golf Club are both family-friendly courses that are part of the WaterColor Inn and Resort. They regularly offer junior golf camps, tournaments, family golf outings and discounts. www.watercolorinn.com, www.watercolorvacations.com.
• The Myrtle Beach area has more than 100 golf courses, and at the four Glens Group courses (Heather Glen, Glen Dornoch, Possum Trot and Shaftesbury Glen), juniors play free when accompanied by a paying adult. Some tee-time restrictions. www.glensgolfgroup.com.
• As far south as Pawleys Island, families can enjoy competitive rates. At Pawleys Plantation through Labor Day, players 16 and under need only pay the cart fee when a paying adult plays. Junior golf clinics are available for $15 on Saturday mornings; clubs are provided. www.pawleys plantation.com.
• Ginn Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast, Fla., offers the Family Fairways program for parents with children under 18. It includes discounted afternoon golf with club rentals. www.ginnresorts.com.
• Landsdowne Resort, a Greg Norman-designed course near Washington Dulles Airport, features the kid-friendly Sharkbite Course, a par-32 with five sets of tees. www.lansdowneresort.com.
• Look for specials from the PGA of America’s Play Golf America initiative. It sponsors Family Golf Month, usually in July. www.playgolfamerica.com.
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