USA

Located next door to the TPC Sawgrass golf club, the Sawgrass resort near Jacksonville goes all out to make you feel like a professional golfer. No sooner do the pros at the Stadium course at Sawgrass (home to the PGA Players Championship) pack their clubs away in March, than the resort organises access for its guests to the superb post-tournament greens. Particularly thrilling is the signature 17th – or ‘Island Green’ – one of golf’s most recognisable and toughest holes. The pro experience continues at TPC Sawgrass, where you can book a ‘Tour Player Experience’ which includes your own professional caddie and access to tour player locker rooms. Back at the resort you can sink into four sparkling pools or go for a rejuvenating spa treatment to get ready for the next round.

https://www.marriott.com/

A total of 27 holes of challenging tour championship golf await you at the Arnold Palmer Bay Hill and Lodge set across 270 acres on the shores of the Butler Chain of Lakes in Florida. Famed course architect Dick Wilson designed the first 18 holes (divided into the Champion and Challenger nines) in 1961, before Bob Simmons created an additional 9 ‘Charger’ holes four years later. As the name suggests, Bay Hill was once owned by legendary player Arnold Palmer and his influence still remains to this day. The Arnold Palmer Golf Academy passes on the master’s knowledge – from the ideal grip and address to course strategy and the best practice techniques.

https://www.bayhill.com/

Playing golf at the 5000-acre Sea Pines Resort in South Carolina is truly a singular experience. Sitting snugly on Hilton Head Island between the Atlantic Ocean and Calibogue Sound, Sea Pines has three world-class courses that come with unique layouts and stunning sea views. Watched over by Hilton Head’s distinctive red and white lighthouse, Harbour Town Golf Links is a favourite on the PGA and was designed by Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus. Heron Point is another Dye masterpiece known for its risk-reward long and short holes, while the revamped Atlantic Dunes is an idyllic seaside course where the ocean feel extends to the bridges with its rope railings.

https://www.seapines.com/golf

For anyone who’s ever held a golf club, Pebble Beach is a bucket list destination. Home to the number 1 public course in America (Pebble Beach Golf Links), the seaside community is stacked with resorts tailor-made for the ultimate golf trip. The Links at Spanish Bay, for instance, meanders past rolling sand dunes, temporarily taking golfers between Monterey pines before ending back on the coast for an unforgettable finish. If you are out on the course at twilight the famed Spanish Bay bagpiper, who marks the end of the day, will welcome you home. Add into the mix Del Monte (the oldest continuous course west of the Mississippi) and the Tiger Woods redesigned 9-hole short course, The Hay, and you’ll never run out of memorable experiences in Pebble Beach. www.pebblebeach.com

Spy Glass Hill has a storied history in more ways than one. Designer Samuel F.B. Morse was so captivated by the legend that Robert Louis Stevenson roamed the area to get inspiration for Treasure Island that the names of the holes (Billy Bones, Blind Pew, Long John Silver) have been torn from the pages of the classic adventure novel. The nautical labels also hint at what you can expect as you tee off – initially the course in Pebble Beach is all about incredible seascapes and greens sunken between the sand dunes, before the course leads you into the Del Monte Forest at the 6th. From here, the fiendishly difficult conditions continue, as players contend with sloping greens, double doglegs and cross winds. www.pebblebeach.com

Dramatically perched on coastal cliffs above the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, Torrey Pines is regarded as America’s best municipal golf course. It’s the access to its two, world renowned 18-hole courses, North and South, that makes Torrey Pines so special, with your average golfer getting the opportunity to follow in the footprints of legends. Torrey Pines was after all the site for perhaps the most memorable U.S. Open Championship of all time, when, in 2008, a hobbling Tiger Woods defeated Rocco Mediate after 90 holes of gruelling golf. Torrey Pines has an interesting history beyond golf as well, having been built in 1957 on the site of Camp Callan, an US Army installation during WWII. www.torreypinesgolfcourse.com