Earlier this month the PGA of America announced that it will be moving its headquarters from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to Frisco, Texas. That’s a huge deal, since the projected new headquarters is a half-billion dollar project that will include 45 golf holes, a 500-room Omni resort and a 127,000-square foot conference center among other things.

While that may well be the biggest news splash of 2018 for golfers wanting to travel, there’s more to the announcement than that.

The PGA has deep roots in Florida, and that won’t change. Palm Beach Gardens has been the PGA’s base for more than 50 years. The PGA has operated out of a two-building complex adjacent to the PGA National Resort — annual site of the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic — since 1981.

While the PGA does not own PGA National it does own and operate PGA Golf Club, a three-course resort located about 40 miles to the north in Port St. Lucie. The PGA will continue to operate it regardless of what goes on in Texas, so the Sunshine State won’t be losing much as far as remaining a golf destination is concerned.

The bottom line is that the PGA isn’t completely leaving Florida – not by a long shot. Construction hasn’t even started in Frisco, and the actual move to Texas won’t come until the fall of 2021 at the earliest.

Even after the construction in Texas is finished the PGA plans to keep about 100 of its 220 employees in Florida working in a refurbished facility built where the current headquarters stands. Those who will move to Texas won’t do so until June of 2022.

The Frisco project aside, Florida will retain its prominence in golf with the PGA Tour still based in Ponte Vedra, the LPGA Tour in Daytona Beach and the huge PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. There already has been a major personnel change within the PGA of America hierarchy related to the move to Texas, however.

Jimmy Terry, general manager of the PGA Golf Club the last five years, is taking on an expanded role as Senior Director of PGA Golf Properties. He’ll now oversee three golf facilities instead of just one.

Terry will play a significant role in guiding the development of the Texas facility and also steer the operation at Valhalla, the PGA’s flagship private facility in Kentucky that has hosted six major championships since its opening in 1986 and is slated to host the PGA Championship in 2024.

Jeremy Wiernasz, who has assumed general manager duties at PGA Golf Club, will report to Terry. Wiernasz will also retain the director of golf duties he has handled at PGA Golf Club since 2013.

CHARLIE RYMER: THE VOICE OF MYRTLE BEACH

Charlie Rymer, a fixture on The Golf Channel for the past 11 years, has joined the Golf Tourism Solutions team in a multi-media partnership that will spotlight the Myrtle Beach golf scene. Golf Tourism Solutions is a company that has the assets of a media outlet, including one of the game’s largest email databases, a print magazine and more than 200,000 social media followers.

Myrtle Beach has long been on the cutting edge of destination marketing, and Rymer – a South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame inductee – will play a lead role in that continuing effort.

“I feel like I’m coming home,’’ said Rymer. “At this point in my golf career I want to do things I’m passionate about, and Myrtle Beach is a great fit. Myrtle Beach wants to open the game up to as many people as possible, and that’s what motivates me.’’

MORE TIDBITS FROM FLORIDA

Kissimmee Bay Country Club, a Lloyd Clifton design that opened in the Orlando area 28 years ago, has re-opened after a complete renovation of the greens complexes. The facility had been closed for three months.

PGA Tour Champions will again open its season at Broken Sound, in Boca Raton, with its first full-field event from Feb. 4-10 but the tourney will have a new title sponsor. It’ll be called the Oasis Championship thanks to new sponsorship from Oasis Outsourcing, the nation’s largest privately-held professional employer organization.

A judge has ordered the Ocean Links Course at Omni Amelia Island Resort to be restored. Resort operators had begun bulldozing the course, which has five ocean views, in an effort to convert it into a park.

ClubLife Management, sponsored by ClubCorp, has taken over the management of Boca Lago Country Club in Boca Raton. The 27-hole private facility is undergoing a $3.6 million renovation of its clubhouse and that follows a just-completed renovation of the course by Jan Bel Jan Golf Course Design and superintendent George Redshaw.

HERE AND THERE

The Nebraska-based Dormie Network has added a fifth club to its portfolio. Victoria National, the Indiana course that has hosted the Web.com Tour, joined a group that includes Dormie Club, in Pinehurst, N.C.; Briggs Ranch, in San Antonio, TX; Arbor Links, in Nebraska City, Neb.; and Ballyhawk, in Roanoke, Va.

Smart Golf & Fitness has broken ground on a new indoor facility in Chicago’s Lincoln Park area. The two-level 11,000 square foot facility is expected to open in early 2019.

Architect Todd Eckenrode has announced the opening of Twin Dolphin in Los Cabos, Mexico. The layout is the first Fred Couples Signature Course in that area.

Sanctuary Cap Cana has re-opened in the Dominican Republic following a renovation. It’s located near the Corales Puntacana Resort, which hosts a PGA Tour stop from March 28-31.

CourseCo, a golf course management company with properties in California, Oregon, Washington and Texas, has been selected to receive the President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America board of directors.

PALM HARBOR, Florida – The golf resort business is highly competitive in Florida, and the managing director of one of the best thinks there may soon be a changing of the guard.

Mike Williams, managing director of Innisbrook Resort, presided over the re-opening of his South Course last week and took an aggressive stance after outlining all the work that has or is being done there.

“This is a great day for Innisbrook,’’ Williams said. “Innisbrook will be – is – the premier golf resort in the Southeast. Our competitive set is PGA National, Streamsong, Doral, TPC Sawgrass. We now have the guest accommodations that not only rival what they have but far surpass their offerings.’’

Those are strong words, but Williams may have a case with the snowbirds starting to return to the Sunshine State.

Innisbrook has four courses – Copperhead, Island, North and South – all designed by Larry Packard who lived on the property until his passing at age 101 in 2014. Copperhead has hosted a PGA Tour event for 29 straight years and the Valspar Championship returns there in March.

The Island course hosted NCAA championships that were won by Phil Mickelson and Lee Janzen and the LPGA, Symetra and Legends tours have all had events on Innisbrook courses at one time or another. The U.S. Golf Association has also held U.S. Open qualifiers there.

Now, though, the resort’s focus is on the recreational visitors. After a six-month long renovation of the South layout, Innisbrook has all four courses with the same TifEagle Bermuda grass on its greens. That’s a big deal as far as the resort is concerned.

“We had a perfect summer for growing grass, and it’s so important to have all four courses with the same putting surface for the people who come down from all over,’’ said Williams. “They don’t want to go from course to course and have a different putting experience. Every year the pros rave about the greens that we have here and how consistent they are.’’

The North Course, dubbed Little Copperhead, got those new greens in 2017. The South was the last to get them.

“We’ve expanded the greens to the original Larry Packard size and we also replaced the grass on three practice greens,’’ said Bobby Barnes, Innisbrook’s director of golf. “That’s extremely beneficial to us because it allows for more foot traffic and helps the greens stay healthier longer. We couldn’t be more excited about that. What we did this summer will pay dividends for years to come.’’

In addition to the greens’ renovation the Innisbrook crew also improved the condition of the bunkers, cleared all storm canals, trimmed trees in the fairways and re-sodded in some areas.

“The South is our newest, and most user-friendly course, and probably my favorite golf course to play,’’ said Barnes. It’s now up to the standards of the other three.

More work is being done, too. The remodeling of all 400 rooms at the resort started in September and is expected to be completed in early 2019. When that work is done it’ll mark the first time in 20 years that Innisbrook could do all the upgrading at one time. In previous upgrades the work was done in phases. The work done is all leading up to the course’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2020.

Innisbrook isn’t the only golf resort in the Salamander portfolio to make a major upgrade. The Jack Nicklaus course at Reunion Resort in Orlando now has a new 12,000 square foot clubhouse. It features an upscale sports bar, named Traditions, and features lots of Nicklaus memorabilia.

OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi – Not all the golf destinations that we visit are just about golf. Gulf Hills Resort is a prime example.

Knowing our interest in history as well as golf, one of our tour guides suggested we hit this 91-year old resort on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that was founded as a golfing hot spot in the late 1920s. We found it much more than that.

We came from having never heard of the place to learning that it was initially a hideout for gangster Al Capone and later a retreat for prominent entertainers like Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Fats Domino, Judy Garland and Gypsy Rose Lee.

Presley, especially, has left an impact here. There’s a classy tribute to him in the Gulf Hills Hotel’s “Love Me Tender, Love Me Suites’’ that are almost always rented out even when the golf course and rest of the resort is quiet. We’ll be getting into that later and, rest assured, Elvis hasn’t completely left this building

For us, though, there had to be a golf component to Gulf Hills Resort, and there is. It also helped that there were some prominent Chicago people involved over the course of its colorful history.

Branigar Brothers, Chicago-based developers, began work on the resort in 1925. As initial owners they envisioned “an upscale winter resort with one of the most beautiful golf courses in the Southeast, a yacht basin, riding stables, clubhouse and a handful of homes built close to the water.’’

The Branigars delivered on that, and their offspring would later carry on, as Branigar Organization, in the creation of Illinois golf resorts Eagle Ridge, in Galena, and Indian Lakes, in Bloomingdale.

Just the Branigars weren’t enough to fulfill the creation of Gulf Hills, however. According to local historians the resort’s hotel was financed by laundered money from Capone and Chicago mob figures.

The golf course was designed by Jack Daray, who was then in the midst of a six-year stint as head professional at Olympia Fields Country Club – the tournament-tested multi-course private club in Chicago’s south suburbs. Daray, like several other club professionals in that era, spent winters teaching in Mississippi. Daray’s winter base was at nearby Biloxi Country Club.

Daray’s design at Gulf Hills was immediately well received, and the No. 17 hole – an uphill par-3 – was quickly cited by Golf Digest as “one of the five most beautiful and challenging holes in the entire Southeast Region.’’

One of the first American golf professionals to get involved in course architecture, Daray also designed three Chicago area courses – two 18-holers at White Pines in Bensenville and another at Coyote Run in Flossmoor.

Root & Hollister, also a Chicago connection, did the building of the 1,300-acres course at Gulf Hills using 170 men, 20 mule teams, road graders, tractors and a 30-ton dredge. It was completed in less than two years. Even with that course just completed there was already plans for a second 18-holer to be built at the resort. Those plans never materialized, however.

The first event played on the Daray course was on Christmas Day, 1926, when Walter Hagen – then in the midst of his five-year run as winner of the PGA Championship – joined three club pros in an exhibition match. Tragically, it was also on a Christmas Day, in 1971, that a fire destroyed most of the place. Basically all that was left was the swimming pool, golf course and structural frame of what had been the hotel. The rebuilding process has been slow and ongoing.

Golf was at the forefront of activities at Gulf Hills in its early years and visitors from the Chicago were commonplace while the resort underwent numerous ownership changes. In 1949 it was transformed into a Dude Ranch, and that’s when the celebrities started pouring in.

Presley made Gulf Hills his summer home from 1951-57 when he was building his career with appearances on the Louisiana Hayride radio show. During that time he was a regular on the piano at the resort’s Pink Pony Lounge. Mary Ann Mobley, Miss America of 1959, and her actor-husband Gary Collins had their honeymoon at Gulf Hills. Jayne Mansfield was on her way to the resort when she was killed in a horrid traffic accident in 1967. The apparent heir to Monroe as America’s sex symbol, Mansfield was only 34 years old.

Even during the Dude Ranch days golf was more than a basic amenity at Gulf Hills. The resort’s professional staff included Johnny Pott, a mainstay on the PGA Tour, and Mary Mills, an LPGA regular. John Revolta, a PGA champion in his days as Evanston Golf Club’s head professional, also did some winter teaching at Gulf Hills.

Fast forward to today, Gulf Hills isn’t nearly as busy a place as it was in its heyday but we found it a pleasant place to hang out. Other than the re-routing of several holes and the installation of cart paths, the golf course is much the way Daray designed it.

What Gulf Hills is best known for now, however, is the Love Me Tender, Love Me Suites. Though Presley’s connection with Gulf Hills was well known, Donna Brown wasn’t enthusiastic about reviving those memories when she was named general manager in 2000. A local family, which wishes to remain anonymous, had purchased the fading hotel and golf course and begun efforts to revive it.

“Six months after I took the job I had to call them and tell them I made a mistake,’’ recalled Brown. She had received too many inquiries from hotel guests of the past who had fond memories of the Dude Ranch days.

A decision was made to create “a tribute, something we thought he (Presley) would like,’’ said Brown. This four-bedroom suite was not to be anything like Graceland, Presley’s home in Memphis. It’s become an ongoing project with authentic antique pieces and furniture brought in to capture the life and times in Presley’s heyday.

Presley’s attachment to Gulf Hills wasn’t taken lightly. Though he didn’t make use of the golf course, Presley learned horseback-riding and water-skiing while staying at Gulf Hills and also met his first girlfriend, Biloxi resident June Juanico, there. They were engaged for four years before she broke off the relationship, and they remained friends and until his death in 1977.

The tribute suite project was briefly derailed when Hurricane Katrina decimated the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005 but the suite is in constant demand now. It goes for $1,000 a night, though Brown has accepted less if something else is booked in connection with its use. That’s taken the form of wedding receptions, corporate board retreats, golf groups and business-after-hours events.

HORSESHOE BAY, Texas – This is good news for all of golf. Major new construction, renovations and upgrades aren’t just being done in the Missouri Ozarks. Not by a long shot. Other golf destinations – especially in Texas – are taking on expensive projects as well.

Granted all the projects undertaken by the visionary Johnnie Morris in Missouri – latest are just-opened Ozarks National and the under-construction Tiger Woods design, Payne’s Valley — are the most eye-catching, but Horseshoe Bay Resort in the Texas Lake & Hill Country is making some noise, too. So is Barton Creek, a Texas resort less than an hour’s drive from Horseshoe Bay.

The big spending at Barton Creek is mainly on its lodging options. Horseshoe Bay is upgrading most everything and the results figure to be rewarding. They’ve already elevated the resort’s profile.

Did you know that the last two Masters champions – Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed — are members at Horseshoe Bay Resort, which is located near the bigger town of Marble Falls. Anthony Holder, the resort’s director of golf, mentioned that only in passing – and after being asked a basic fact-finding question about membership.

Most any place else a connection with two such prominent players would be put out front and center by a club blessed to having them as members, but in this Texas Lake & Hill Country golf is different.

Horseshoe Bay has operated since 1971 with three courses designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. He’s the late father of today’s prominent architects Robert Trent Jones Jr. — the name attached to Alabama’s popular golf trail – and Rees Jones, who gained the moniker of “the Open Doctor’’ for his frequent callups to get courses ready to host major championships.

Jack Nicklaus designed the fourth course at Horseshoe Bay. It opened in 2012 as a private club that is rarely made available to resort guests. Nicklaus’ course is called Summit Rock. The three Jones designs are Slick Rock, Ram Rock and Apple Rock and Ram and Apple are operated together under the title of Cap Rock.

There’s a lot of Rocks, to be sure, and nobody could quite explain why. What was explained in detail by Holder and director of agronomy Ken Gorzycki was the ambitious plans the resort ownership has for the future. That future isn’t far away, either. Holder said the golf aspects of an overall $70 million renovation should be completed by July of 2019.

“Our goal is to be the No. 1 golf resort in the state of Texas, and eventually expanding that to the nation,’’ said Holder. “With that comes the updating of your facilities, making sure we can deliver. Our ownership has put a wad of money into all the touching points.’’

Holder grew up in Dallas before spending 14 years at prominent California destinations Mission Hills, Indian Wells and PGA West. He’s been at Horseshoe Bay just a year but is already caught up in the enthusiasm for what’s been happening there.

Horseshoe Bay has basically had just two owners. Norman Hurd and his cousin, Wayne, got the resort started in 1971. Morris D. Jaffe has been the owner since the mid-1990s and he more recently has gotten an investment partner, IBC Bank. That enabled all the upgrades to be tackled in relatively short order.

Slick Rock, which opened in 1971, is the most user-friendly and most heavily played of the courses. It also has the resort’s most famous hole – the par-4 14th which plays anywhere from 236 to 361 yards. This eye-catcher is called “the Million Dollar Hole’’ because of the elaborate 35-yard waterfall that greets players at the tee. They have to clear the waterfall with their drives, then get to see the attraction up close when they drive past it to their approach shots.

The renovation of Slick Rock was completed in the spring of 2016. The renovation of Ram Rock, the second course to open at the resort in 1981, was a $3 million project and required the most work. It was completed in May of 2018.

“It was our least-desired golf course because it was so hard, the greens were small and it was heavily bunkered,’’ said Gorzycki. “It was considered as the hardest golf course in the state, and we made changes to make it more playable for higher handicap players. Those changes have been extremely well received.’’

The Bermuda grass on the greens was replaced by 007 bentgrass and diamond zoysia collars were installed around the greens to keep Bermuda from creeping into the bentgrass. The practice was part of all three renovations. So was the extension of cart paths.

Because of the invasion of the Bermuda on the greens at both Ram Rock and Apple Rock had been shrinking dramatically.

“A lot of greens had no hole locations left,’’ said Gorzycki.

While the greens were being expanded the bunkers were restored to the size and appearance that Jones had originally created. To make sure of that Robert Trent Jones Jr. – son of the original architect – was involved in the renovation.

“He helped us with the process to maintain the integrity of his Dad’s designs,’’ said Gorzycki. Austin design consultant Mark Voss was also involved in that process.

Jones Sr. was an architect well ahead of his time. His work at Horseshoe Bay is a testament to that.

Apple Rock, the prettiest of the Jones courses, opened in 1986 and has the best water views. Lake LBJ will impact the layout at the 11th and 12th holes. The in-process renovation, a $2.5 million project, is to be completed by May 1.

Like Ram Rock, the putting surfaces were extended. When the renovation began the course had less than 65,000 square feet of greens. When it re-opens it’ll have up to 87,000 – which is slightly more than Ram Rock’s 84,000.

When Apple Rock opened it was selected the No. 1 new resort course in the nation by Golf Digest. That came in the heart of the golf boom, so the accomplishment was particularly noteworthy because many courses were under consideration. (Summit was similarly honored, but the boom had subsided by then and only two or three other courses were considered for the honor).

As part of the renovation work the bunkers included new drainage and the overall sand area became 40 percent less than what it had been.

Horseshoe Bay also has the most impressive 18-hole Whitewater Putting Course, which surrounds the 360 Sports Bar. Whitewater is all grass and is set apart from other such courses around the country in that the scorecards givs measurements to each hole in yards, not feet. The whole course is 1,712 yards so obviously some putts are really long ones.

“The ownership sees the potential of this area and wanted to sink its teeth into it, to see how far it can go,’’ said Holder. “Not a lot of properties can offer the array of amenities that we can. This opportunity has a lot of upside, and they have seen a return on their investment so far.’’

The recent financial support has also led to the building of two clubhouses. It’s not all done yet, but the end is near. The clubhouses need just a few more months and Apple Rock is the last course to get renovated. The work there is scheduled to be done by May 1, 2019.

When all is said and done Apple Rock and Ram Rock will share a new clubhouse, pool, cabana, pro shop, pavilion and indoor-outdoor addition to their practice range. A new clubhouse will also be built at Summit Rock. Hotel room upgrades have already been completed.

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana – Casino courses Contraband Bayou and The Country Club at Golden Nugget tend to get the most attention when visiting golfers come to this popular golf spot near the Texas line. That’s not always the case, however.

A couple other courses well known to the casino crowd are making major upgrades. Gray Plantation has opened its new indoor academy – one of the very few in Louisiana – and another with a fancy name is about to take on a major new look.

The National Golf Club of Louisiana, the municipal course for Lake Charles neighbor Westlake, expects to break ground on a new clubhouse. The significance of that addition to the premises is already had an impact. Housing construction around the course is booming and 600 new homes are expected to be built in that area.

There’s no denying the importance of what golf courses mean to the operators of the L’Auberge and Golden Nugget casinos, however. The courses at both could be welcoming the PGA Tour Champions in 2020. If negotiations on that materialize that’ll be a really big deal for the economy in Lake Charles.

It’s no secret that golf courses and casinos fit together quite well. Casinos need more gambling patrons and offering the option of quality golf is a way to get them there. A quality course, meanwhile, is also an enticement for golfers willing to travel, and casinos across the United States offer plenty of those. Las Vegas, with its abundance of casinos with courses, is the best example that the golf/casino collaboration works.

All the good casino golf isn’t in Las Vega, though. Lake Charles is certainly no Las Vegas but the casino with courses formula works there, too.

The Golden Nugget and L’Auberge casinos are within walking distance of each other. Both have 18-hole courses on their premises.

“As everybody knows, the golf business now is tough to make money at,’’ said John Hurt, director of golf at The Country Club at the Golden Nugget. “But, with the casino, our owners don’t necessarily look at our numbers. They give us credit for the people we bring in to the casino that come because of the golf course. They make money across the street at the casino because of this amenity. Amenities are what sets casinos apart. Golf is an amenity which brings people in.’’

Tillman Fertitta owns the Golden Nuggets casinos and hotels as well as the Landry’s restaurant chain. In 2017 he purchased the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets for a reported $2.2 billion.

Fertitta was quick to make his presence felt at The Country Club at the Golden Nugget when it opened five years ago. Hurt had expected the clubhouse music to be kept at a level so it wouldn’t impact golfers. Fertitta disagreed.

“We’re not as stuffy as a private club. We have music,’’ said Hurt. “Our owner tells us to kick up the music. He wants a party atmosphere.’’

So, the sounds of music are part of the golfing ambiance at this Golden Nugget. And even bigger things could be coming.

Hurt said there’s “better than a 50-50 chance’’ that the Golden Nugget and Contraband Bayou will co-host a PGA Tour Champions event in the near future.

“We’ve met with some PGA people a couple times and they really want to do it,’’ said Hurt. “It all boils down to sponsor money. They definitely want to play here and they have an open week that year in either March or April.’’

Scott Davey, golf operations manager at Contraband Bayou, isn’t as optimistic as Hurt but admits that meetings have been held.

“Nugget said they’d donate their golf course and I’m sure we would, too,’’ said Davey. “They don’t have a driving range, and we do. I don’t know how that dynamic would work out but they want to get a tournament here.’’

Landing a PGA Tour Champions event would be big breakthrough for the courses – and casinos – impacted.

Contraband Bayou, a Tom Fazio design, opened 12 years ago and has served its casino well.

“There’s not a drive for revenue here,’’ said Davey. “It’s for the high rollers to come and play. It’s a well-maintained course, and the service level is high. Ours isn’t your typical Fazio. Our course has to be playable for all levels of players. The greens are flat and the fairways are wide open. It’s built for 4-hour 15-minute rounds – so the players can get back to the casino. What do golfers like to do? They like to gamble, so our course is a great tool to get people here.’’

Like Contraband Bayou, Golden Nugget draws heavily from the Houston area. Todd Eckinrode designed that course with gamblers in mind as well. It has wide fairways, rough that’s not very thick and a course that’s of moderate length overall.

“The main thing is the playability,’’ said Hurt. “The majority of our play is from groups of 12 to 20 players. They’re having fun at night gambling and drinking and staying up late. They don’t want to be beat up by a hard golf course.’’

HOLLISTER, Missouri – Given the history of golf in the Missouri Ozarks, it’s shocking what’s been happening in that area these days.

This area 20 miles south of Springfield didn’t have a golf course until 1938 when Don Gardner, a club pro at two of the Chicago area’s premier private clubs – Olympia Fields and Flossmoor, and his wife Jill built a nine-hole short course they called Gardner Golf Ranch. They sold it in 1961 and the course was eventually expanded to 18 holes in what is now Holiday Hills Resort.

That was the Branson area’s only course until Pointe Royale opened as the area’s “original championship course’’ in 1986. While the Branson area was blossoming into a tourist destination, its golf offerings weren’t keeping pace.

Over two decades passed with little in the way of golf development, the notable exceptions being a course honoring Payne Stewart – a Springfield resident who won three major championships before dying in a plane crash in 1999 – and John Daly’s Murder Rock. Daly had roots in both Missouri and Arkansas, but his course didn’t last long.

Enter Johnny Morris, owner of Bass Pro Shops. This visionary billionaire bought two local courses and the golfing boom here was on. What Morris has already accomplished is impressive.

He hired noted architect Tom Fazio to create Buffalo Ridge, which has been declared the No. 1 course in Missouri. Morris also coaxed Jack Nicklaus into designing a striking par-3 layout called Top of the Rock and Gary Player to create Mountain Top, a 13-hole, walking-only par-3 course with some wild elevation changes.

Other big names got involved, as well. Arnold Palmer designed a world-class practice facility and Tom Watson a putting course but now, with the opening of Ozarks National, things are getting serious.

Despite all the other unique attractions to entice golfers, the fact is that if you have one 18-holer you have just a golf course. If you have two (or more) you have a golf destination. Now Morris has two fine 18-holers around his Big Cedar Lodge – and he’ll soon have three.

By the time the third, the Tiger Woods-designed Payne’s Valley, opens in the fall of 2019 the Missouri Ozarks will be – at least arguably – America’s best golf destination. It’s more centrally located than Oregon’s Bandon Dunes – my choice as the best for now – and many more golf addicts will weigh in on that topic once Payne’s Valley opens.

There’s no reason to ponder what the Woods course – under construction in clear sight of both Buffalo Ridge and Mountain Top — will eventually offer, however. Ozarks National is plenty good and deserves to be in the spotlight for at least the next year.

Designed by the well-respected architectural team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, Ozarks National will start offering preview play to the public on Nov. 1. November fees will be $150 for a preview round and $100 for a replay. The fees will drop to $125 and $85 in December and be in effect until the course is closed for the season on Dec. 16.

Ozarks National is within a short cart ride of Mountain Top and can be seen during a round at Buffalo Ridge. The fact that all these courses are close together will inevitably stir debate about which is best. A little controversy will stir up excitement, and that’ll be a good thing for the entire area. Golfing tourists will flock to the place and those who don’t play will find plenty of other things to do.

Now, about Ozarks National.

The views are spectacular. That’s what you’ll notice first.

As you move from hole to hole you’ll encounter a great mix of challenges. The variety offered through the rotation is extraordinary. The first two holes aren’t difficult, but they get you in the mood to move on to better things.

I love the fifth hole – a true drive-able par-4 if you play the right set of tees. They range from 161 yards up to 352. No. 9 is the toughest – and longest – hole. The No 1 handicap hole, it’s a winding three-shot par five that measures 597 yards from the tips.

No. 12 will probably go down as one of the best long par-3s in American golf. It’s 254 yards from the tips but more recreational types can go after it from 133, 175 or 213 yards. Still, a par-3 is rarely accorded status as a course’s No. 2 handicap hole but this one deserves it.

And, as soon as you putt out on that hole you come to a stunning landmark — a 400-foot wooden beam and plank bridge that connects the tee box an fairway on No. 13. It stands 60 feet above a flowing creek.

For those into more numbers, Ozarks Naional is 7,036 yards from the tips with 73.9 rating and a slop of 131.

Though our party was all riders, Ozarks National figures to be a good walking course when the opportunity arises. The buffalo grass in the roughs is troublesome but the Zoysia fairways and bentgrass greens were more than ready for play even before the official start of preview play.

There’s also an on-course attraction worth visiting. A refurbished stone house, said to be over 100 years old, overlooks a lake that is stocked with bass between the Nos. 5 and 16 greens. It has an indoor fireplace, an outdoor fire pit and a dog house, and it’ll be a lodging option for visitors once the operation is in full swing.

One other thing to remember about the early Ozarks National experience. There’s still plenty of work to be done. Most notably, a big, upscale clubhouse is targeted to open next spring. Until then dining and pro shop facilities at the Mountain Top course will also serve Ozarks National players.

Apparently there’s no serious concerns about applying the finishing touches. Though it’s not official yet, Ozarks National is expected to be the 18-holer used for the Legends of Golf, the popular PGA Tour Champions event that returns to the area from April 22-28 in 2019. Grand Opening festivities for the course will be held during that big event and Buffalo Ridge – a previous tournament site – will be used for public play during the tournament.

PINEHURST, North Carolina – Pinehurst Resort dates back to 1895, but its leadership has never been reluctant to change with the times. The estimable contributions of course architect Gil Hanse are just the latest examples of that.

Hanse’s portfolio had already featured the Brazil course used for golf’s return to the Olympic Games as well as restorations of such notables as The Country Club in Boston, Merion in Philadelphia and Oakland Hills in Michigan when Pinehurst announced his hiring for a more expansive project in November of 2016.

Not only was Hanse to create a short course on 10 acres of the property that had been part of two of its 18-holers, he was also entrusted with a complete redesign of one of the resort’s most popular layouts. Now that job is done.

The Cradle, its nine holes spread over only 789 yards, opened in April and has already played to more than 10,000 rounds. The latest version of Pinehurst No. 4 made its debut a week ago. It’s hard to image Hanse’s No. 4 topping the popularity of The Cradle, but time will tell.

Part of The Cradle’s charm is its marketing approach. For $50 you can play all day, and that’s a temptation. Playing this course, with its array of elevation changes and walkability, is addictive. Unless play happens to be too slow or the weather not to your liking, it’s hard to stop playing.

Pinehurst has been described as “The Cradle of American Golf’’ and that’s how the new short course got its name. The Nos. 3 and 5 courses lost their first holes in the Hanse design. There’s also a strategically placed bar – it’s portable and not in any way resembling a halfway house – that entices players not once but twice on their tour of The Cradle and background music also rocks the atmosphere at The Cradle.

The scorecard lists holes measured from 56 to 127 yards but that’s misleading. Yardages changes each day according to the whims of the maintenance staff, and up-to-date yardages are provided on the hole markers. We played one that measured only 30 yards on our visit.

More and more resorts are adding short courses to their amenities, and that’s a good thing. They’ll get more players involved with the game, and that fact is underscored once you get a look at The Cradle.

The course was created in a busy time frame for the resort. Not only were the Nos. 3 and 5 courses and the Maniac (America’s first driving range) being altered to make room for The Cradle, but the Thistle Dhu putting course was also moved to a more attractive location in front of the clubhouse and also expanded in a short time period.

Hanse turned his attention to Pinehurst No. 4 in the fall of 2017. The legendary Donald Ross designed the original course in 1919 and some others in the sport’s architectural elite had put their stamp on those 18 holes before Hanse got a crack at it. Robert Trent Jones did a re-design in 1973, Rees Jones in 1982 and Tom Fazio in 1999. Hanse’s was a look back as much as it was a look ahead.

Positive feedback from the re-design of Pinehurst No. 2 by the architectural team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw in 2011 convinced Pinehurst leadership to give No. 4 a similar look. Hanse’s version of No.4 meant the return of exposed sand and wire-grass.

The strength of Fazio’s design was its striking bunkering. Many of those bunkers disappeared as Hanse went to a more natural look. The greens are less severe now, too.

Hanse’s version may not be as pretty as its predecessor, in large part because the azaleas behind the par-3 fourth hole are gone. That hole was moved, though the rest of the rotation remained pretty much intact. The end result is that Pinehurst now has more of the more natural, rugged look that was so well-received in the Coore-Crenshaw remake of the famed No. 2.

That’ll come into play most prominently in 2019 when Nos. 2 and 4 are used for the next playing of the U.S. Amateur. No. 4 can play as long a 7,227 yards from the tips, and it measures 5,260 from the front markers. Championship rating is 74.9 and the slope is 138.

In setting the tone for the big events that are sure to be coming the new No. 4 has different policy directives than its predecessor. As is the case with No. 2, golf carts are allowed only on designated paths. And – unlike No. 2 and all the other Pinehurst courses – push carts are being allowed on No. 4 on an experimental basis. Caddies are available to both courses.

More scenes from Pinehurst: