FRANKLIN, Ky. – Squeezing in a fast nine holes is a good way to break up a long driving trip. It doesn’t cut severely into the mileage covered and certainly is refreshing.

On our last winter trip we indulged in that practice twice – and with goals in mind. We’d never played golf in Tennessee or Kentucky. Now we have. In both cases we checked out courses in the southern-most part of those states.

Hillcrest Country Club is a private nine-holer in Pulaski, Tenn., just over the Alabama border but about 15 miles off Interstate 65. While it’s a private facility, with a nice dining room and tennis courts, its members told me that golfers from out of the area are welcome. That’s apparently how we got on the course on a nice Sunday afternoon in February with temperatures in the high-50s – and for fees of $15 and with a cart, no less.

Winter tees were in use and much of the grass was dormant. Still, it was golf and Hillcrest’s members were proud of what they have. They enjoyed not only the course but the big driving range as well. While Hillcrest was a long way from the courses we enjoy in season in Illinois or in the winter in Florida, it was still fun, challenging and well worth the stop.

Even more so – on all counts – was Kenny Perry’s Country Creek, the site for our Kentucky golf debut. It’s a few miles over the Tennessee line and about 35 miles from Nashville, Tenn.

Perry, a solid PGA Tour player now competing mainly on the Champions Tour, grew up in Franklin, went to college at Western Kentucky in nearby Bowling Green and feels so strongly about his home state that he took extraordinary steps to qualify for the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2008, when the matches against the Europeans were played at Valhalla in Louisville.

That year Perry caught flak for skipping the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open because he thought he could pile up more Ryder Cup points playing a different schedule. As it turned out, he was right. He earned a spot on the U.S. team and helped the Americans win for the first time since 1999.

It was long before that, though, when Perry decided to create an 18-hole course for his fellow residents of Franklin. The course, which can been seen off Interstate 65, opened in 1995. Its mailing address is 1075 Kenny Perry Drive and the compact pro shop/ clubhouse is filled with his memorabilia.

Perry’s daughter Lesslye came up with the Country Creek name, and Perry has called the course “a dream come true.’’ The layout includes some barns (shown below) left from the days before the land was a golf course.

Though Perry isn’t one of the many tour players who have dabbled regularly in course architecture, he did design Country Creek. I became interested in visiting the place after being one of Perry’s partners in the first pro-am of the 2007 BMW Championship, the FedEx Cup playoff event then played at Cog Hill.

That was one of my most memorable days covering golf. It started with a one-on-one interview with PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem in the morning, then the afternoon round with Perry that included me sinking a 50-foot birdie putt. The pro-am round was rained out after 10 holes but Perry, pleasant on the course, was even nicer during the rain delay – a true class act.

Anyway, I had covered Perry’s bid for the 1996 PGA Championship at Valhalla, when he lost the title to Mark Brooks in a playoff and, of course, followed his unusual game plan to play in the Ryder Cup. Part of it included winning John Deere Classic, another event that I covered up close and personal.

Business obligations took me to Nashville several times a year for awhile, and I stopped by Country Creek for a few minutes on one occasion just to see what Country Creek looked like. It was too cold for anybody to play that day, but not on this most recent trip. Players were lined up to tee off on this chilly but sunny Monday in February, and the $13 greens fee (for seniors with cart for nine holes) might have been part of the enticement.

Maybe Perry should take another stab at course design. His first venture in his hometown has been well received, especially by the locals. They find it especially beautiful in the spring when the flowering is in bloom, but even in the winter the greens were in good shape.

Country Creek, which measures 6,633 yards from the tips, is on the short side for championship play but each hole was a fun challenge – especially the par-3 eighth over water. A steep hill fronts the green, and you’d better hit it all the way to the putting surface (a carry of 119, 137 or 199 yards, depending on the tee you choose) or your ball will roll back down the hill and into the drink. Mine came close to doing that.

Closing in on its second decade, Country Creek is a worthy contribution by Perry to his home town, and its worth a look by occasional visitors as well.

GREENVILLE, Ala. – Some things are just meant to be. That seemed to be the case when a chance to play on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail finally materialized at the end of a 10-week road trip.

This travel-writing journey was to finish up with rounds at Sandestin, on the Florida Panhandle, and Preserve, a Jerry Pate creation in Biloxi, Miss. Alabama had been on the route back to Chicago two previous times on similar trips, but not on this one.

Then Mother Nature intervened. Two days of rain in Destin, FL., and similar conditions — with more severe weather in the forecast at both Destin and Biloxi required a change in travel plans. Rather than go home via Mississippi we journeyed through Alabama. No more golf was planned — at least not initially.

A casual lunch conversation with a local at a Cracker Barrel in this small town revealed a Robert Trent Jones Trail course just a few miles away. The rain had stopped, so we thought a visit was in order. The course was relatively empty, and the price was right. So, why not play?

This was the 21st and last 18-hole round of the trip. It came on, by far, the best course we played on our journey and it also had the lowest greens fee. Go figure. There has to be a message there some place.

The Jones Trail has been in existence for 20 years (the first course opened in 1992). It’s created a boon to Alabama’s economy with its 26 course spread over 11 sites. In fact, The Trail Guide points out, golf is a $1.5 billion industry in Alabama. That’s more than Auburn and Alabama football and basketball revenues combined, and most of it’s due to the Jones Trail. On Oct. 23, 2013, the Trail welcomed its 10 millionth visitor.

All 11 sites are universally regarded as good, but we apparently lucked out in showing up at Cambrian Ridge – a 27-hole facility with an additional nine-hole short course about 40 miles south from the state capitol of Montgomery. It was filled with great, expansive views, one of which is shown here.

According to The Trail Guide Cambrian’s Sherling nine “may be the best on the entire Trail.’’ The Canyon, carved out of former hunting grounds, was the other nine we played. It was our first nine and we weren’t ready for its first hole – a long par-4 that drops 200 feet from the tee to the fairway.

The Wow! Factor was similarly prevalent throughout round but never more than at the finishing holes for both nines. No. 9 on the Sherling and No. 9 on the Canyon share the same wide three-level green. The tee shots of both are impacted by a huge, deep ravine between the fairways (see photo, below). The challenge is especially pronounced on the Sherling. Try to bite off too much yardage and you either lose a ball or take a precarious downhill walk in an effort to find it.

Unfortunately this one spur-of-the-moment round represents my only first-hand knowledge of the Jones Trail courses – at least for now. Believe me, hitting a few of the others on subsequent trips is a must. Golf Magazine has called the Jones Trail the best buy in golf, and I’m not in a position to dispute that.

The pictures shown here are from a February round, when the weather is obviously not ideal. Still, the beauty of shots over water (show here) is evident.

The Jones Trail was conceived by David G. Bronner, chief executive office of Retirement Systems of Alabama. The first Trail course designed by Jones and his design associate, Roger Rulewich, was Oxmoor Valley near Birmingham. The plan was to build eight courses at the roughly the same time. It seemed a dubious possibility then, but obviously the plan worked and the Trail outgrew its original plan.

A few other states have attempted to build trails around the works of famous course architects, the most recent being Indiana with its Pete Dye Golf Trail. None have taken off yet like Alabama’s Jones Trail.

Alabama has 252 courses, but the Jones layouts are special. The Trail consists of 468 holes. Every one of the 27-, 36- or 54-hole facilities have back-to-nature settings and are challenging. Though we’ve steered away from mentioning greens fees in these reports because they’re constantly changing, The Trail Guide declared that “most tee times (are) priced between $46 and $81 year-around.’’

Ross Bridge, in Hoover, is the newest course on the Trail and – according to Tour veterans – the best of the offerings. It hosts the Regions Charity Classic on the Champions Tour.

Magnolia Grove, the southern-most facility on the Trail in Mobile, has 54 holes with two of the 18-holers renovated extensively in the past three years. The northern-most facility on the Trail, Hampton Grove in Huntsville, has 54 holes. So does Brand National, near the Auburn campus; Capitol Hill, in Prattville and Oxmoor Valley.

The Shoals, in Florence, opened in 2004 as the first Trail course to measure more the 8,000 yards. (It’s 8,092 from the black tees).

Silver Lakes, in Anniston, was devastated by a tornado in April 2011. It re-opened five months later with a new look. It has spectacular views of the Appalachian Foothills and its ultra dwarf putting surfaces are – again according to The Trail Guide — “arguably the best on the Trail.’’ No. 7, 8 and 9 on its Heartbreaker nine also may be the Trail’s best finishing stretch.

Anyway, each facility – many of them tied into Marriott or Renaissance resorts – has been positively recognized by various industry publications at one time or another and has its own story to tell. All, I’m sure, are worth telling.

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL. – It can be confusing.

The PGA of America has its headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, FL., where PGA National and its five courses are located. The PGA doesn’t own that complex, but it does own PGA Village, an hour or so north of PGA National.

PGA Village is much different than National, which underwent a massive renovation of its courses and property in recent years.

At PGA Village there are three public courses – the Wanamaker, Dye and Ryder – plus PGA Country Club, about two miles from the main complex. The Fazio family, so prominent in golf architecture for three generations, has designs at both the National – a swank five-course facility that hosts the PGA Tour’s annual Honda Classic — and the Village.

The Village has at least one thing the National doesn’t – a golf museum – and its Center for Golf Learning and Performance (pictured above) sets it apart from any golf destination in the country, if not the world. This is a 35-acre complex with 100 hitting stations and state-of-the-art training accessories.

Most interesting was the bunker practice area, where players can test themselves in a wide variety of sand compositions (see photo below).

Nothing against PGA National or any of the other upscale destinations we’ve visited, but PGA Village has a comfortable feel to it. It’s for the pure golf diehard, of whatever age group or gender. Its Ryder course, which opened in 1996 and was renovated in 2006, was twice voted among the nation’s top 50 courses for women by Golf For Women magazine.

The Wanamaker layout, which also opened in 1996 and was renovated in 2006, was GolfWeek’s choice as America’s Best Residential Course in 2004. The Fazio name is on both. While the Wanamaker is generally considered the best of the three PGA Village layouts, we preferred the Ryder.

During our stay the Dye layout, a Pete Dye design that opened in 2000 and was renovated in 2007, had encountered some issues with the greens and PGA of America staffers were on hand to correct the problem. Still, that layout’s elaborate bunkering was eye-catching and the course was clearly playable.

Though the Village has been around for roughly two decades (PGA Country Club dates to 1988 – 10 years before the other layouts), it seems a well-kept secret. Even staffers there offered that appraisal. This is a great golf value, even in the heart of Florida’s tourist season.

The clubhouse, not large but warm and friendly, is undergoing an expansion. The pictures on its walls include some classics and – from a Chicago perspective – it was nice to see Illinois Golf Hall of Famers Bill Erfurth and Steve Benson cited prominently on the restaurant walls for their playing accomplishments. Another Chicago club pro legend, the late Bill Ogden, will be inducted into the PGA Golf Hall of Fame at the learning center in March. (This isn’t to be confused with the World Golf Hall of Fame, near Jacksonville. It honors largely touring professionals).

The golf is fun at PGA Village, and the learning facility, museum and six-hole short course set it apart from other golf destinations. Lodging is available on the property, but quality chain hotels are also nearby and one – the Hilton Garden Inn (check) – includes Sam Snead’s Oak Grill & Tavern (below). In addition to good food it has plenty of Snead memorabilia on display.

Also within a couple miles is the Vine & Barley, a unique wine and beer-tasting place that is well worth a visit when golf for the day is done.