The presence of Arnold Palmer made Bay Hill a thrill to visit.

Offseason? Not for This Golf-Loving Scribe

WHAT HAVE YOU done golf-wise since dropping your last putt in the Chicago area in 2014? Not as much as me, I’ll wager.

This has been an extraordinary “offseason.” It began in November when we made a series of golf/travel-writing stops—a few days here, a few days there—at some very choice locations. How about French Lick, Greenbrier, Homestead, Hilton Head, Bay Hill and Pinehurst?

It’d be hard to beat those, but we also tossed in a couple of Pete Dye-related stops that aren’t as well known: Mystic Hills in Culver, Ind., and Keswick Hall, the legendary architect’s newest creation in Virginia.

And after that 27-day golfing marathon was over, we settled in Florida, where we made two stops in the Orlando area as spectators—to watch Bernhard Langer and his 14-year-old son win the Father-Son Challenge and Jordan Spieth post a runaway victory in Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge at Isleworth. When the calendar changed to 2015, we visited the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando and the LPGA’s new season-opening tournament, the Coates Championship in Ocala.

That was a ton of golf—but don’t think it was too much. I’m as anxious for the Chicago season to tee off as those of you who haven’t been able to play over the winter.

It’d be hard to beat our November odyssey for sheer enjoyment, though. While there might be a call to rank the famous courses, we won’t do that. It’d be like comparing apples and oranges. Each has its own special charm. We just enjoyed them all.

Most interesting, though, was Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club in Orlando. The 18-hole championship course will be a PGA Tour site in March, when it welcomes the Arnold Palmer Invitational. I’ve played perhaps 20 courses that have hosted PGA Tour events, and Bay Hill, while very much a challenge, is the most accessible for the recreational duffer (like me).

But what makes Bay Hill truly special is Palmer himself. Bay Hill is his winter home, and he was frequently around when we were there, playing cards and dining with friends. He wasn’t hounded by well wishers—he was just enjoying himself. Where else could he be caught in such a relaxed setting? We were told that Palmer, now 85, rarely plays the 27 holes available at Bay Hill these days but that he does frequently hit balls on the range. Simply put, he helps Bay Hill guests feel welcome.

Being big on golf history, we were fascinated by Homestead’s Old Course in Virginia, where we teed off on the longest No. 1 tee in continuous use in America. It was first played in 1892, and the resort, dating to 1766, is even older than the United States. The late, great Sam Snead grew up in the area and was the first head professional at Homestead’s Cascades course, and his son Sam Jr. owns the Sam Snead Restaurant there. Not only was Sam Jr. on hand when we dined there, but he even sent over a signed memento from our visit.

We witnessed lots of progress at both Hilton Head, the longtime golf mecca in South Carolina, and Pinehurst, where we played that famous North Carolina resort’s newly acquired Jack Nicklaus design. It previously had been called National Golf Club; now it’s Pinehurst No. 9.

The work recently completed or underway at Hilton Head was most impressive. Over $200 million has been spent on upgrades in recent years at all the resorts there, with Sea Pines being the trendsetter. Pete Dye’s Heron Point course was renovated last year, and Davis Love III will redesign the Ocean course beginning this October.

More noticeable is the work at Harbour Town Links, which has hosted the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage Classic since 1969. A new $25 million clubhouse will be unveiled when the tournament returns a week after the Masters in April. In May the Harbour Town course will close for a summer-long renovation.

In all Riverstone Group, of Richmond, Va., will spend $55 million on improvements at Sea Pines in addition to its projects that are either underway or completed at Kiawah, another South Carolina hotbed, and Keswick Hall, site of Dye’s recently opened Full Cry layout. The aggressive spending, particularly at Hilton Head, is another clear indication that the golf industry has weathered the economic downturn that hit the industry hard a few years back.

Finally, the Dye designs continue to be well received. Mystic Hills, one of his early works, marked the completion of our seven-stop Pete Dye Golf Trail. Riverstone Group has made Full Cry the centerpiece of its spiffy Keswick Hall facility in the history-rich area near Charlottesville, Va.

French Lick’s Pete Dye Course will get its greatest exposure in May when the Indiana resort hosts the Senior PGA Championship, an event Chicago-area golfers should consider visiting.

As for the golf around here, there’s plenty to discuss. Two Chicago-area players, Kevin Streelman and Carlos Sainz Jr., got off to good starts when the PGA Tour began its first split-season schedule last fall. Sainz claimed a $100,000 payday with a tie for ninth place at the Sanderson Farms Championship, only his second PGA Tour event. Streelman has wins in the last two years, and he could make an even bigger impact in 2015.

Northwestern University product Luke Donald, working again with swing instructor Pat Goss, showed signs of recapturing his former magic late in 2014 and will benefit when the BMW Championship returns to Conway Farms, his home course in Lake Forest, in September.

The local scene will also include the Champions Tour’s Encompass Championship at North Shore Country Club and the PGA’s John Deere Classic in Silvis, unfortunately held over the same July dates. Furthermore, Rich Harvest Farms will have a one-two punch of big amateur events when it welcomes the Palmer Cup and Western Amateur.

It’ll be another year for lots of good playing and viewing, just as soon as the temperatures start to rise. I say, bring it on!