Given the brutal winter of 2014, no doubt plenty of Chicago golfers will want out in search of warmer climates within the next few months. Many will likely head for Arizona. After all, in addition to the sunshine there are lots of good courses in that state and – for another diversion – the Cubs and White Sox will both conduct spring training there before the winter weather departs Chicago.

Those who opt for Arizona, however, don’t have to wait to cross the state line to play some interesting golf courses. The likely route to the Arizona line would be Interstate 80 out of the Chicago area through Iowa and Nebraska, then Interstate 76 to Denver and Interstate 25 to Albuquerque, N.M.

From there it’s a straight shot for about four hours on Interstate 40 to Winslow, Ariz. –- the town made (somewhat) famous by the Eagles’ song, “Take It Easy’’ – and it’s not much further to more typical Arizona destinations like Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.

Before reaching Arizona, though, consider these golf options, most all of them within an hour of the main highways on the route:

AMANA

First state out of Illinois is Iowa. The Harvester Golf Club – the best-known public course in Iowa – is a little further down Interstate 80 near Des Moines, but I’d suggest a stop about an hour before that — in the Amana Colonies on the outskirts of Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.

Amana’s hilly course, designed by William Spear and opened in 1989, may have a few too many blind shots, but the elevation changes create some great views and interesting, fun challenges. The restaurants and shops in the Colonies are also worth a visit. The Colonies – there’s seven of them that date back to 1855 – have been designated a National Historic Landmark.

After leaving the Amana Colonies it’s only barely an hour’s drive to Rhodes, which is 25 northeast of DesMoines and the home of The Harvester. It’s a well-received Keith Foster design that opened in 2003.

INFO: amanagolfcourse.com, harvestergolf.co

TIBURON

After leaving Iowa the logical next stop would be in Omaha, the first big city in Nebraska. There’s plenty of courses in the area (16 in the city itself), but two stand out. Tiburon is the best. It has 27 holes, a definite plus, with its Hammerhead,, Great White and Mako nines.

I’m also intrigued by the city-run Johnny Goodman Course. This 18-holer honors arguably Nebraska’s most famous golfer. Johnny Goodman is the last amateur to win the U.S. Open, having captured the 1933 championship at North Shore in Glenview. Greens fees at both courses are most reasonable, but Goodman is generally a busier place.

INFO: tiburongolf.com, cityofomaha.org/parks/golf.

WILD HORSE

It’s always nice to find “hidden gems,’’ and this one might be the best one in Nebraska. It’s located in Gothenburg, 35 miles from the bigger town of North Platte. Wild Horse has an interesting history. Its designers are Dan Proctor and Dave Axland, who have a small architectural firm called Bunker Hill Golf Inc. Within the golf industry, though, they’re better known as the lead construction and shaping specialists for the much better known architectural duo of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore.

Crenshaw and Coore handled the renovation of Pinehurst No. 2 for last summer’s U.S. Open. They also created a well-received Nebraska course, Sand Hills. Proctor and Axland worked for them on that projected.

We’ve strived to keep our golf stops reasonably close to the main highways, but another Nebraska possibility — the upscale Prairie Club in Valentine – should get some consideration. It has three courses, all created by well-known designers – Tom Lehman (Dunes Course), Graham Marsh (Pines) and Gil Hanse (Horse).

Prairie Club, about 300 miles from both Omaha and Denver, is managed by Chicago’s well-respected KemperSports. Visiting the Prairie Club requires a significant departure from our designated route to Arizona, but the stop is well worth it if you have the time.

INFO: playwildhorse.com, theprairieclub.com.

FOSSIL TRACE

This one is owned by the city of Golden, a suburb one mile outside the Denver limits and the home since 1873 of the beer manufacturer Coors. One of my favorite architects, Jim Engh, designed the Fossil Trace course, which opened in 2003.

Fossil Trace is reasonably priced and fun, though some might think it on the gimmicky side. Engh’s signature hole, No. 12, has fossil rock formations in the middle of the fairway. The other holes range from a 100-yard par-3 to a 659-yard par-5.

This course is the closest to a must-play layout on our road to Arizona. It’s adjacent to the foothills of the Rocky Mountain Front Range and 15 minutes from downtown Denver. Golf Digest also rates it among its Top 50 Courses in America for Women.

INFO: fossiltrace.com. (RICH, FYI: PHOTO OF NO. 12 SEEMS IDEAL TO SUPPLEMENT THIS PIECE).

PAA-KO RIDGE

Some say this is the best course in New Mexico, and it’s certainly one of the longest – 7,667 yards from the tips. It’s located 17 miles from Albuquerque in the town of Sandia Park.

Paa-Ko Ridge has 27 holes with extreme elevation changes. It’s very scenic thanks to its mountainous location and probably the most challenging course on our road to Arizona. Golf Digest named it the Best New Course in America for 2000.

The University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, also has one of the better college layouts in the country. It’s also one of the oldest, having opened in 1966. This course is known for its extremely quick, tricky greens and unusual location. It’s next to an airport, which means incoming and outgoing aircraft might present a distraction.

INFO: Paakoridge.com, unm.edu.

PINEHURST, N.C. – Sometimes even big events can get lost in the shuffle. That’s certainly what happened when the Pinehurst resort added a Jack Nicklaus design to its portfolio.

Adding a Nicklaus course is a big deal anywhere golf is played, but Pinehurst’s acquisition announcement wasn’t greeted with much fanfare — and for good reason. Negotiations were completed just eight days before the start of the men’s U.S. Open last June. Inevitably the focus was on the tournament at that time, and it wasn’t your ordinary U.S. Open, either.

Not only would Pinehurst host the men’s Open, it would also be the site of the U.S. Women’s Open the following week – the first time the biggest men’s and women’s tournaments in American golf were played back-to-back on the same course. Both those competitions were played on Pinehurst’s No. 2 course, a layout that Nicklaus himself had called one of his all-time favorites.

Nicklaus, though, hadn’t been idle in North Carolina’s Sandhills area. He designed Pinehurst’s National Golf Club, which opened in 1989 as a private facility owned by the Robinette family. It had always been considered one of the best courses in North Carolina, and that won’t change now that it has undergone a name change.

National Golf Club is now Pinehurst No. 9.

Resort guests started playing No. 9 in July, and that naturally boosted play on the layout. The acquisition also broadened some membership options offered by the resort. More than anything, though, it added to the variety of golf options available under the Pinehurst umbrella.

A little history is appropriate here. Pinehurst No. 1 was designed by Pinehurst resident Donald Ross in 1901. Ross was, arguably at least, the leading course architect of his era and his reputation hasn’t diminished over the years. He also designed No. 2 in 1907 and No. 3 in 1910.

Ross designed a fourth course in 1919, but it was re-designed as a tribute to him by Tom Fazio in 2000.

Ellis Maples created Pinehurst No. 5 in 1961 and George and Tom Fazio put together Pinehurst No. 6 in 1979. No. 7 was a Rees Jones design. It opened in 1986 on land used for a long-abandoned employees’ course that Ross had built.

Tom Fazio was back to create No. 8 in 1996 as a celebration of Pinehurst’s first 100 years.

And now Nicklaus is in the designer mix as well. His design has generous fairways throughout and also features huge, undulating greens, which is more of a Nicklaus trademark. The fun in playing this one also comes in negotiating the numerous bunkers and fairway contours that protect the putting surfaces. Nicklaus did some re-design and renovation work on the course in 2012, notably softening the greens.

No. 9 has five sets of tees, with the course playing 4,935 yards from the front markers to 7,122 from the tips, where the rating is 75.5 and the slope 138.

Along with the course, Pinehurst acquired a 30,000 square foot clubhouse, five tennis courts, a pool, banquet facilities and a restaurant. The acquisition announcement included plans for “enhanced maintenance practices’’ for the course and plans for a renovation and expansion of the clubhouse.

And there could be a Pinehurst No. 10 in the not too distance future as well. Pinehurst owner Robert Dedman Jr. purchased a course called The Pit in February, 2011. Already closed at the time of purchase, this one was designed by Dan Maples, son of Pinehurst No. 5 architect Ellis Maples. Though The Pit had its loyal followers, it’s remained closed for several years.

Officially Pinehurst has no plans to renovate that course or build a new one on the property, but people in the know tell me that the design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have visited and done some preliminary work on what could be done with it. Stay tuned. Coore and Crenshaw did a well-received renovation of Pinehurst No. 2 in preparation for the two 2014 U.S. Opens.

What’s most obvious about the No. 9 scenario is that the unprecedented staging of those two U.S. Opens won’t be an end-all at the storied resort. Shortly before the acquisition of No. 9 Pinehurst completed a $4 million clubhouse renovation and revealed plans for a multi-million dollar aquatics facility. Who knows what will be coming to this golf-rich area down the road?

ORLANDO, FL. – Roy Schindele, director of sales and marketing for Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club and Lodge, stresses one thing before taking you on a tour of the facilities.

“This is not a resort. It’s a country club,’’ said Schindele, and that’s an important distinction to make from the outset if you’re lucky enough to visit this place.

There’s a different, very nice feeling about Bay Hill – and why wouldn’t there be? After all, it’s been at least a winter home for perhaps the most charismatic athlete of all time for nearly 50 years.

Based on our visit, Bay Hill has become more than just a winter retreat for Palmer, who spends considerable time in the summer months in Latrobe, Pa., the town where he grew up. He’s 85 now, and health issues have basically relegated him to hitting practice balls on the Bay Hill range these days. I’m told he rarely gets on the course.

Yet, Palmer has an apartment behind the tennis courts and is a frequent visitor to all the club’s facilities. Guests see him playing cards, dining with a group of friends or riding around in his golf cart. While he remains one of the most accommodating of all public figures, Palmer doesn’t spend much of his time posing for pictures or signing autographs for guests. Bay Hill is just where he enjoys life.

He operates his golf course design business from an office at Bay Hill. The two hospitals that bear his family name – the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies – are within 15 minutes. So are The Golf Channel studios. And, of course, the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by Mastercard, an annual PGA Tour stop in March, has been played at Bay Hill since 1979.

Palmer’s history with Bay Hill goes back to 1965 – three years after the course opened. The original 18 holes were designed by Dick Wilson, known in Chicago circles as the co-designer (with Joe Lee) of the Dubsdread course at Cog Hill.

Bay Hill was a modest resort then, owned by a group of Tennessee investors. Many of the roads around it were dirt and the land that now shows an area of tasteful homes was then dominated by orange trees. The course opened in 1962 and Palmer saw it for the first time on Feb. 28, 1965, when he was invited to play in an exhibition with Jack Nicklaus, a local PGA Tour player named Dave Ragan and Don Cherry, the singer who was a good enough golfer to make frequent appearances on the PGA Tour.

Palmer shot 6-under-par 66 that day, and none of the other members of the foursome could break par. For Palmer the course was love at first site, and when he called wife Winnie that evening he declared Bay Hill “the best course in Florida, and I want to own it.’’

It took awhile, but he eventually did. Since 1976 it’s been officially Arnold Palmer’s club and it has blossomed because of it. His family members have taken an active interest in the private, non-equity club’s operation. The staff is friendly, the 70 rooms in the lodge are tastefully decorated and the food in the three restaurants is good. In short, it’s a comfortable place.

Bay Hill also has six tennis courts, a junior Olympic-size swimming pool, a fitness center, a marina, a salon and a spa. All are top notch without being glitzy. The Palmer touch is everywhere – from the trademark umbrella logs on the napkins and coffee cups and some of the wine bottles to the captivating movie of Palmer’s life that’s available on the television sets in the lodge rooms. The memorabilia and pictures throughout the club also stir all kinds of good memories.

And then, of course, there’s the golf. Bay Hill was an 18-hole facility when Palmer came on the scene. It now has an additional nine-holer, called The Charger, which is pretty much on par with the championship 18 (officially the Championship and Challenger nines) that is used for the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The main layout was a Wilson design, but Palmer has tweaked it many times over the years and it’s now labeled as an Arnold Palmer Signature Course. I’ve played at least 20 courses that have hosted PGA Tour events, and Bay Hill is easily the most fun for the serious recreational player who tees it up from the proper tees.

That’s not to say Bay Hill is easy pickings for the PGA Tour crowd. It’s not. From the tips it’s a 7,381-yard layout, but there are six sets of tees. The 17th hole, a par-3 blocked by a pond front right of the green, is considered Bay Hill’s signature hole but I didn’t see it as an overwhelming choice.

No. 18 has a special, historical touch – a plaque in the fairway commemorating one of the most memorable shots in golf’s recent era of tournaments. Robert Gamez holed out from there for eagle with a 7-iron from 176 yards out to beat Greg Normal in the 1990 Nestle Invitational. That was one of the PGA Tour stop’s title over the years (it was also called the Bay Hill Citrus Classic, Bay Hill Classic, Hertz Bay Hill Classic and Bay Hill Invitational before Palmer’s name was most appropriately included in the title).

The course is spread over 270 acres along the shores of the Butler Chain of Lakes and all the other club facilities are just a very short walk from it, creating a warm, cozy feeling.

Getting to play Bay Hill isn’t easy. You have to either be a member (there are about 800 of them, half living within a 50-mile radius of the club), be a guest of a member or stay at the lodge. The latter option, coupled with its 9,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, has made Bay Hill a popular place for corporate retreats and weddings.

You’re not a resort guest when you stay at the Bay Hill lodge. You’re in effect a member during your stay and you can take part in all that Ball Hill has to offer. The atmosphere’s the thing here. In nearly 50 years covering all aspects of golf I haven’t experienced anything quite like it.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Now I know why so many golfers call Hilton Head their favorite get-away destination. It could easily become mine, as well.

Prior to the early 1960s Hilton Head was basically a stop for hunters and fishermen. Then, in 1962, the Ocean Course was built at the Sea Pines Resort. That opened the gates for a series of rapid-fire developments on the island that now has 38,000 residents and attracts 2.5 million visitors annually.

They don’t come just for the golf. Hilton Head also has 13 miles of Atlantic Ocean beaches and eight beach parks, 51 miles of paths for hiking and biking, an extraordinary array of tennis facilities and over 300 restaurants and entertainment venues. The dining isn’t just a load of chain restaurants, either. There are a wide variety of dining options.

Golf, though, is what Hilton Head is really all about. The island’s golf guide lists 31 courses, and there are packages to accommodate about any kind of get-away you could imagine.

During our stay we experienced a good cross section of Hilton Head golf. The premier layout, of course, is Harbour Town Golf Links at Sea Pines – the site of the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage Classic since 1969. It had an interesting beginning, with then-fledgling course architect Jack Nicklaus learning on the job from the veteran Pete Dye in what turned out a joint creation by the two of them.

That course has its landmark lighthouse behind the 18th green, a popular visual for golf viewers annually when the Heritage Classic is in the golf spotlight worldwide. We found that there’s a lot more golf in Hilton Head than what’s played at Harbour Town, however, and there’s even a lighthouse that has a much more interesting history than Harbour Town’s — which isn’t a functioning lighthouse anyway.

Palmetto Dunes’ Arthur Hills Course has its Leamington Lighthouse, known officially as the Hilton Head Rear-Range Lighthouse. Built in 1879, it doesn’t come into play but is worth more than a glance. It’s haunted, or so the story goes.

An 1893 hurricane made a direct hit on Hilton Head and water around that lighthouse was reported to be three feet deep. Adam Fripp, the lighthouse keeper, and his daughter Caroline worked through the night trying to keep the lanterns burning during the storm. Fripp collapsed and died the next day and Caroline succumbed a few weeks later from exhaustion and the loss off her father.

Caroline became known as the Blue Lady, and local lore believes she still haunts that lighthouse wearing her blue dress from that stormy night. Anyway, few golf courses can claim such an unusual feature.

Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort, which has three courses, has been a Hilton Head fixture almost from the beginning and it’s still going strong — though its name, along with that of its first course, is a bit misleading. The Robert Trent Jones Oceanfront Course, opened in 1969 and rebuilt in 1993, has but one hole with an ocean view.

That’s the only ocean view on any of Palmetto’s three courses, and – like the Leamington Lighthouse – the water doesn’t come into play there, either. (The ocean, however, does come very much into play at the resort’s popular beach club).

The three Palmetto courses (the others are the Arthur Hills and Fazio) are all a bit different. The Fazio, designed by George Fazio (uncle of Tom) in 1974, is a demanding par-70. The Hills layout – my choice as the best of the three – is also the newest, having made its debut in 1986.

Palmetto has a broad following. Its visitors include many who return year after year, and such longevity is reflected by director of golf Clark Sinclair. He’s been on the Palmetto staff since 1983 and is a huge supporter of the Hilton Head lifestyle.

While Palmetto has its charms, it’s at Sea Pines — on the southernmost portion of the island — where the action really is. While all the Hilton Head resorts and golf facilities have been regularly updated – over $200 million has been invested in new construction and renovations in the last few years – Sea Pines has been the clear-cut leader in that regard. That’s in keeping with the style of owner Riverstone Group of Richmond, Va.

Riverstone also owns another premier South Carolina resort, The Sanctuary at Kiawah island. One of that resort’s courses, Osprey Point, just opened after a renovation and Riverstone’s other golf facility unveiled its own spectacular new course in September. Full Cry, at Keswick Hall in Virginia, is the legendary Dye’s latest creation.

The upgrades At Sea Pines are more far-reaching, and the cost of three recent major ones hit $55 million. The Plantation Golf Club received a spiffy new 23,000 square-foot clubhouse that opened in April and its Live Oaks restaurant is considered one of the best on the island. That was a $17 million project, and the new Sea Pines Beach Club priced out at $13 million.

Plantation’s Heron Point course, designed by Dye over what had been the Sea Marsh layout, opened but seven years. Still, it was closed for eight months in 2014 for renovation work before being re-opened in September. Davis Love III will re-design Plantation’s other 18-holer, the Ocean course. That layout will be closed next October and is scheduled to re-open in September of 2016.

Harbour Town, though, is getting the most expensive upgrade – a $25 million clubhouse that was built where the old one had stood. The new clubhouse, which opened well in time for the 2015 Heritage Classic (to be played April 16-19), is a 26,000 square foot structure that has 4,000 square feet for lockerroom space.

Shortly after the new clubhouse is up and running the Harbour Town course will close. It’ll be shut down in May, shortly after the next Heritage Classic, to allow for a summer-long renovation in which the fairways will be re-grassed, the greens re-seeded and the irrigation system replaced.

These costly projects have kept Hilton Head at the forefront of American golf facilities, but that’s not to say it has everything. There are too many round-abouts for my taste and a few more streetlights would be nice, too. But learning to handle all the turns and cope with the extreme darkness in the nighttime hours is just part of the Hilton Head experience. They’re no big deal, and you get used to it.

That doesn’t take long, and then the place really has you hooked.