PINEHURST, North Carolina – Make no mistake. Pinehurst is at the very top of the world’s golf resorts. That hasn’t changed. The nine courses there — coupled with the other amenities provided at its Carolina Hotel, Holly Inn, Manor Inn and related condos — make Pinehurst a very special destination.

The term Pinehurst, though, doesn’t refer to just one golf resort in the eyes of most golfers. Pinehurst is an area as well that encompasses the neighboring towns of Southern Pines and Aberdeen. With their restaurants and other golf communities, they also enhance the overall Pinehurst experience.

Regular visitors may already be aware of this, but it’s possible to get as good (or maybe even better) a golf experience by visiting the other facilities nearby as it is to stay just at the big resort.

Some of the others have joined forces to offer golf packages as well. For instance, how about a three-round trip in which you play Dormie Club, Mid South and Talamore? They’re all within a few miles of the big resort and – though none have a famous course like Pinehurst No. 2 – their layouts are plenty good.

That’s just one option. Here’s a synopsis of what you’ll get if you try out nearby facilities that don’t include Pinehurst Resort’s nine layouts.

DORMIE CLUB – This layout, four miles north of the village of Pinehurst, has been rated the second-best public course in North Carolina by Golf Digest magazine, behind only Pinehurst’s legendary No. 2. As most of you know, I don’t take all the formal polls as gospel, but Dormie Club does stand out from the other area courses.

The design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designed this one, which opened in 2010. Its most defining feature is the 80 feet of elevation changes. You don’t get that in many places in the Carolinas.

Couple the elevation with the natural lakes, pine forests and sandy waste areas that were incorporated into the design and you have a most memorable golf experience on a course that doesn’t quite reach 7,000 yards from the tips. The course has a rustic, natural look with beds of pinecones defining many of the areas between greens and tees.

The clubhouse is a very modest one, and that’s as much a part of the charm as the understated logo and limited signage around the place. The fairways are generous and the greens huge, but there’s no letup. This is a challenging layout all the way around.

Challenging is also a term for describing of the course’s history. The original plan was for a walking-only private club that had a $140,000 initiation fee. That changed in tougher economic times, and the course has been opened to the public and carts are available. Reverting back to a private club isn’t out of the realm of possibility, however.

MID SOUTH CLUB

This may be the best course in Arnold Palmer’s design portfolio. (It’s definitely the best of the many that I’ve played).

Located in Southern Pines, it’s a beautiful course with a clubhouse to match in a very pleasant gated residential community. Nos. 9 and 18 share the same green, and that makes for a great view from the clubhouse above. The course, which opened in 1993, has hosted qualifiers for the U.S. Open, U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Amateur.

Both the course and practice areas at Mid South were in excellent condition during our early spring visit and the layout, which could play anywhere from 4,773 yards to 7,003, offered something for all level of golfer. Without doubt Mid South is one of my very favorite courses in all of the Pinehurst area.

TALAMORE

This is the sister course for Mid South, a user-friendly Rees Jones design that opened in 1991.

Jones later fine-tuned Pinehurst No. 2 for the U.S. Opens of 1999 and 2005 but Talamore is much different that the area’s premier championship venue. Its most unusual feature are the three llamas fenced in between the No. 13 green and No. 14 tee. About 10 years ago llamas were used as caddies at Talamore and they remain part of the club’s logo. More recently the club added the Llama Pen Bar & Grill as part of a major series of upgrades.

In fact, few courses in all of Pinehurst have made as many upgrades as Talamore, which is one of the host courses for golf and lodging in the U.S. Kids World Championship that is played at a variety of area courses.

One of the most significant upgrades at Talamore is yet to come. Following the lead of nearby courses Mid-Pines, Tobacco Road and The Legacy, Talamore will convert its bentgrass greens to Bermuda in May.

PINE NEEDLES/MID PINES

I mention these together because the two Donald Ross-designed layouts were both ranked in the Top 25 of GolfWeek magazine’s ranking of the Top Resort Course in the USA. The only other places to have two courses in that Top 25 are Pebble Beach, Bandon Dunes, Whistling Straits and Streamsong.

Pine Needles is a popular tournament venue, probably No. 2 behind Pinehurst No. 2 in that regard in the area. Pine Needles hosted the U.S. Women’s Open in 1996, 2001 and 2007 and will be the site of the second U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2019. It is also the only course in all of Pinehurst to offer the new GolfBoards to its players.

LONGLEAF

Big plans are being made for this club since the U.S. Kids Golf Foundation purchased it last year and renamed it the Longleaf Golf & Family Club. For starters it has been named the home of the new U.S. Kids Golf Academy and the Foundation made immediate capital improvements to underscore the change in focus at the facility.

A state of the art practice area was among the upgrades and it included a 10,000 square foot putting green with a nine-hole putting course. This may be the area’s best spot for a family golf getaway.

SUNSET BEACH, North Carolina – I’m frequently being tipped off about “hidden gem’’ golf courses. They’re in all parts of the country and are said to be great courses that are off the beaten path enough so that many golfers don’t know about them.

The last such course brought to my attention was Thistle Golf Club, a 27-hole facility that opened in 1999. Whether it fits the “hidden gem’’ category is a matter of opinion.

Without doubt it is a gem. We will get to that later.

Hidden? I’m not so sure. Granted it is a bit separated from the heart of Myrtle Beach, the American golf mecca. Thistle isn’t even in the same state. You have to cross state lines to get to Thistle, though it’s barely into North Carolina.

From that point it might be considered “hidden,’’ but a lot of golfers seemed to know all about it on our early-March visit. We had an 8:30 a.m. tee time and the parking lot was already buzzing when we arrived a half-hour ahead of that.

Thistle is an interesting place. All 27 holes were designed by Tim Cate, a staunch Myrtle Beach guy. He’s not widely known beyond that area, and Thistle is not his best known creation within it. An architect’s profile, however, isn’t what determines course quality in the end. It’s what the players of all abilities think, and they clearly liked Thistle during our visit.

Cate’s first design was Panther’s Run, at nearby Ocean Ridge Plantation. Since then Cate designed three other courses at that location.

His best known courses are, like Thistle, just across the North Carolina line. Leopard’s Chase was Golf Digest’s Best New Course in America in 2007 and Tiger’s Eye has been included in Golf Digest’s Top 100 twice.

Thistle, though, is something else. It has three nines – the Stewart, the MacKay and the Cameron. They are used interchangeably to set up 18-hole rounds. We played the Stewart and MacKay. The two longest nines – MacKay and Cameron – would not quite create a 7,000-yard course. They’d be three yards short.

Still, we found a well-conditioned, well-run facility that offered an unusual mix of holes. The Stewart nine had three par-3s and two par-5s and there was a stretch of four holes (Nos. 3-6) without a par-4. All the nines have five sets of tees and are basically equal in difficulty. MacKay/Cameron has the highest rating (74.3) but Cameron/Stewart has the top slope (138).

There are other noteworthy items at Thistle, starting with the scorecard. It claims the facility has roots in Leith, Scotland in 1815. That’s a stretch, but the very pleasant clubhouse has some interesting historical relics and it’s obvious that Cate wanted the holes to have a Scottish feel just like the clubhouse.

The atmosphere inside is very friendly, especially in the dining area. A real touch of class, though, came in the men’s lockerroom, where a flat-screen TV carried The Golf Channel above every urinal. I had never seen that before.

If Thistle is really a “hidden gem’’ it shouldn’t be. Thistle has a special feel and is well worth driving a few extra miles if you make a Myrtle Beach visit.

MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina – I love Myrtle Beach. There, I’ve said it again. With 100 courses in a very condensed area, there’s no golf destination quite like it.

After about a half dozen visits spread over several years there’s one thing I don’t quite understand about this golf mecca yet, however. None of the professional tours stop there, and only one prominent player, Dustin Johnson, calls Myrtle Beach home.

Why is that? I have asked around. The big pro tournaments, I’ve been told, cost too much money. The last one here was the Senior PGA Tour Championship, which ended a seven-year run in 2000 after losing its sponsorship.

My guess, though, is that the real reason the pro stops aren’t on the calendar is because Myrtle Beach doesn’t need them for promotional purposes. Besides, this area on the Atlantic seaboard near the North Carolina line is a place to play golf – not watch it.

Not only that, but Myrtle Beach does have a big event – the biggest in fact. The World Amateur has been played here for 32 years and draws over 3,000 players annually. More on that event later.

Perhaps more junior golf programs would stimulate more pro tour players, but Johnson is as big-time a player as there is in the game. He hasn’t won a major title yet, but he’s come close with runner-up finishes in both the 2011 British Open and 2015 U.S. Open. At 31, Johnson has nine wins on the PGA Tour and is currently No. 9 in the World Golf Rankings and he’s demonstrated his devotion to the community where his golf game blossomed.

Though he grew up in Columbia, S.C., Johnson established himself golf-wise as a college student athlete at Costal Carolina in Myrtle Beach. He spent much of his time then at the school’s General James Hackler Course as well as at TPC Myrtle Beach and the TPC connection continues to this day.

Basically Johnson has had a 10-year relationship with Myrtle Beach. He hosted the inaugural Dustin Johnson World Junior tournament in February and the Dustin Johnson Golf School is based at TPC Myrtle Beach, which also has a big display of Johnson memorabilia in its clubhouse. Through his charitable foundation Johnson has contributed $250,000 to junior golf in South Carolina and the World Junior is at his home club.

Even though he lives more in Florida and California now, Johnson still plays out of Myrtle Beach when he enters a tournament. TPC Myrtle Beach is a good fit for him. Designed by Tom Fazio with Lanny Wadkins acting as a consultant, that course opened in 1999 and hosted the last of Myrtle Beach’s PGA Tour stops the following year, Tom Watson winning the Senior PGA Tour Championship there.

TPC Myrtle Beach, located in Murrells Inlet, it a great track but not necessarily the best course that the area has to offer. Ranking them all is a very subjective thing, and my order of preference keeps changing. Right now top five would be: 1, Caledonia; 2, TPC Myrtle Beach; 3, Dunes Club; 4, True Blue; 5, Dye Course at Barefoot Resort. But that could change tomorrow.

What about Grande Dunes, Heritage, King’s North at Myrtle Beach National, the Moorland Course at Legends Resort or Tidewater. They’re all good, and there’s a lot more that I haven’t played. (Just give me time).

One misconception about Myrtle Beach to be noted: there’s plenty of other things to do besides golf. It doesn’t have to be all golf, by any means.

Brookgreen Gardens, for instance, is a beautiful and most interesting place with its stunning sculptures. You could be entertained a whole day there.

Then there’s there beautiful beaches, all varieties of lodging, lots of children’s activities (which include elaborate miniature golf attractions), a minor league baseball team and tons of memorable restaurants. Ours included Sea Captain’s House, Wicked Tuna and Old Vienna Café. The first two offer ocean-front views.

The nearby Hammock Coast area, which includes the communities of Murrell’s Inlet, Pawley’s Island, Litchfield Beach, Garden City, Georgetown and Andrews, offers more diversions in the way of history, shopping, antiques, art galleries, water sports, dining and nature activities.

Though you don’t have to play golf every day to enjoy Myrtle Beach – hitting the links would never be a bad option.

The next big event golf-wise at Myrtle Beach will be the Hootie & the Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am at the Dye Course at Barefoot. A huge annual party, it’ll be played on April 11.

A much bigger deal comes up in August with the 33rd playing of the World Amateur About 35 courses will be used for the week-long event, to be played Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, and tournament coordinator Scott Tomasello expects about 3,500 players to participate. The only state that didn’t have a player in last year’s World Am was Idaho, and the entries included golfers from about 25 foreign countries as well. Early registration for that event starts on March 29.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, South Carolina – It’s inevitable, I suppose.

Major improvement projects that impact a PGA Tour event will get more attention than ones that don’t. That’s why you can’t downplay all that’s been done at Harbour Town Golf Links. This home base for the RBC Heritage Classic, coming up on April 14-17 – the week after the Masters – has been in a state of flux for a while.

The original clubhouse for that course, built in 1969 – the same year the Heritage was played for the first time — was demolished after the 2014 Heritage Classic and its replacement was somehow ready in time for last year’s tournament.

How a $25 million facility can be constructed in less than a calendar year amazes me. The new version is spectacular. It has 4,000 square feet of lockerroom space, a 1,900-square foot pro shop and a 2,200 square foot banquet and events space on the top floor. Inside, on two floors, are paintings covering the Wall of Champions.

The entire project, measured at 55,000 square feet, isn’t just big. It’s awesome, and no other PGA Tour event is blessed with a home clubhouse this good.

When the PGA Tour stars return for the 2016 Heritage they’ll find a new golf course. The Harbour Town Golf Links was closed after Jim Furyk’s victory in 2015. The course was re-grassed and a new irrigation system installed. The course was re-opened for play last fall and now the PGA Tour players will weigh in on the course updating. Chances are good they’ll love it, as Harbour Town has long been one of their favorite stops.

Falling right after the pressure-packed Masters, the Heritage offers a more relaxed atmosphere – one that is ideal for family time while still providing a title well worth winning.

Over the long haul Hilton Head isn’t just about one big week of tournament golf. It’s a vacation spot so good that the International Association of Golf Tourism Operators named Hilton Head Island as its North American Golf Destination of the Year for 2016 and Golf Digest has listed Hilton Head as one of America’s Top 10 for Buddy Trips, for Best Courses, Value, Lodging, Weather, Couples Trips and Food and Drink Locations.

What might get lost in the over-the-top work done at the tournament venue is that significant improvements have also been taking place at Hilton Head’s other golf facilities. In fact, no other golf destination has spent so much in a very short period of time.

To be clear, there’s much more than golf going on at Hilton Head. Our latest visit showed there were lots of happy, healthy people. They were enjoying hiking, cycling and strolling along a beautiful beach. But golf is the big thing.

During the last three years over $250 million has been invested in new construction and renovations by the area’s course owners. That’s why there’s so many good golf options in the Hilton Head area.

Counting the nearby towns of Bluffton and Beaufort, there are 28 courses available – and they’re all good.

Pete Dye, who designed Harbour Town, also was the architect for nearby Heron’s Point. It was South Carolina’s Golf Course of the Year in 2015. The Plantation Golf Club Clubhouse, which serves the Heron’s Point and Ocean Course players, was the Golf Inc.’s 2015 Clubhouse of the Year.

Other designers whose creations adorn the Hilton Head community include Arthur Hills and George Fazio, who have courses in their names at the Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort; Bob Cupp, the architect for Palmetto Hall; Rees Jones (Oyster Reef and Country Club of Hilton Head), Jack Nicklaus (Golden Bear and Indigo Run), Gary Player and Bobby Weed (Hilton Head National), Davis Love III (Eagle’s Point) and Arnold Palmer (Crescent Point). Those places are making things happen, too.

Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort, for instance, designated its delightful Arthur Hills Course as the first on the island to offer Golf Bikes. They’re among the newest things for on-course transportation and three are available for rental at the Hills layout. Our tester used one for nine holes and got a great workout. While ride the bike didn’t help her golf game on that day, it was still a fun experience.

Another of the three Palmetto courses, the Robert Trent Jones Ocean Course, has added Golf Etc. – an elaborate club-fitting, building and repair facility. Club fittings are done in an outdoor setting that permits full ball flight. And more than 20,000 total club and shaft combinations are possible with the products of Titleist, Cobra, Callaway, TaylorMade, Nike, Ping, Mizuno, Edel, Fujikura, Matrex, Aerotec Steelfiber, Nippon, KBS, TrueTemper, Accra, Paderson and others available.

Harbour Town may be the celebrated course in Hilton Head but it doesn’t get all the attention. In fact, this year it’s a clearcut No. 2 behind Ocean Course. That layout, the first 18-holer built at Hilton Head in 1962, is closed to allow for a major renovation supervised by the Davis Love III design group. Love, again the U.S. Ryder Cup champion, won the Heritage five times and is just the man to take another course in the area to a new, higher level.

When he’s done with the Ocean Course the Hilton Head golfers will have still another good option – as if they really needed one!

AMELIA ISLAND, Florida – Located in the northeastern most corner of Florida, Amelia Island isn’t the easiest place to find and it isn’t all that big, either – just 18 square miles.

When it comes to golf, however, Amelia Island is clearly in the big time. It has 117 holes, seven of which play along the Atlantic Ocean, but the heart of the golf community here is at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort. It contains 54 of those holes.

If you’re a golfer who craves ocean views, this is a good place to visit. We’ve visited several courses with ocean in their names on both the east and west coasts of the United States, and with most it’s only a token reference. Not so with Ocean Links, one of the three 18-holers at Omni Amelia Island Plantation. It has five holes on the water. Four run parallel to the Atlantic shoreline and No. 15, a par-3, has a spectacular backdrop of the ocean from behind the green.

Omni took over ownership of the Amelia Island Plantation Resort in 2011 and made some costly improvements. They included sprucing up of some of the best-established courses in the area. All the greens were redone and new irrigation systems were installed on 27 of the holes

The resort opened in 1974 with 27 holes, all designed by legendary architect Pete Dye. One of his protégés, Bobby Weed, got involved two decades later when 18 of the original holes were designated for the Oak Marsh course.

Weed tweaked the other nine and designed a fourth nine, and those 18 holes became the Ocean Links course with Weed the architect of record. The third course, designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1987, is Long Point. It’s the members course but resort guests can also gain access to it. All three courses were used when The Golf Channel staged Big Break Florida with 12 female contestants in the fall of 2013. (The show aired the following spring).

Dye returned to give Oak Marsh an updating after it passed the 30-year mark and it’s been included in Golf Digest’s Top 75 Resort Courses in the U.S. and Travel & Leisure Golf’s listing of Florida’s 50 Finest Courses.

Not one to dwell on the magazine rankings, I was most intrigued by Ocean Links. In addition to the array of ocean holes, it has an unusual composition – six par-3s, eight par-4s and four par-5s. Its length – only 6,108 yards from the tips – is deceiving. Ocean Links has its tight spots and elevated greens and doesn’t play like your typical short course.

The holes meander along the ocean, through lagoons and wetlands and into some of the residential neighborhoods. While walking is no problem at Oak Marsh, it wouldn’t work at Ocean Links because there’s too much distance between the greens and tees in many places.

Still, the course has a couple of interesting tidbits in its history. Golf for Women magazine has named it one of the 50 Best Courses for Women and one of the holes-in-one produced there came from a helpful contact – Golf Channel personality Matt Ginella. He made his first career ace on the 15th.

Weed’s role with the course extends beyond being a Dye protégé. He also spent time as its superintendent in addition to his design work. That also includes the creation of Slammer & Squire at World Golf Village in nearby St. Augustine. Weed has also been involved in the creation of four of the Tournament Players Club layouts.

Golf at Amelia isn’t all at the Omni resort. The Fernandina Beach Golf Club has 27 holes and is one of the country’s most popular municipal courses and at least two others on the island – Amelia River and Golf Club of Amelia Island – also merit mention.

Amelia Island isn’t all about golf, either. In fact, it’s a most interesting place from an historical perspective – though of not quite the magnitude of St. Augustine, long billed as America’s Oldest City. Amelia is almost as old, dating back to 1562 when Frenchman Jean Ribault raised the first flag there. Amelia Island is the only place in America where eight different flags have flown – those of France, Spain, Great Britain, the Patriots of Amelia Island, the Green Cross Flag, Mexico, the National Flag of the Confederacy and, of course, the banner of the U.S.

The U.S. flag went up in 1821 and that prompted a building boom that included two elegant hotels. They in turn led to such prominent families as the Vanderbilts, DuPonts and Carnegies being among the visitors. In later years the modern shrimping industry was founded on Amelia Island.

For now, though, Amelia Island draws visitors because of its 50-block area of downtown Fernandina Beach, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places; its delightful weather and beautiful beaches. And, of course, it doesn’t hurt that the golf is so good here as well.

Our road trip ventures resume next week, with five weeks worth of stops at golf destinations in Florida, the Carolinas and Virginia. Before our on-site reports resume, however, here’s an array of things going on at golf facilities around the country.

THE KINGSMILL Resort, in Williamsburg, Va., unveiled its own “Best Golf Package Ever,’’ and it seems a good one. For $139 you get a round of golf, AAA Four Diamond accommodations and a breakfast overlooking the James River.

In making that announcement, though, the resort had some tongue-in-cheek fun, admitting that today’s politicians might have other ideas on what golf packages should be. With Primary Season in full swing, here’s what they think some of the Presidential contenders might be thinking.

The Bernie Sanders Package might allow for everyone to play for free. “But,’’ surmised the Kingsmill staffers, “there would be a tax of $139 per person so that others can play for free.’’

The Donald Trump Package “could be so amazing that you’ll want to pay an extra $139 to make your game great again.’’ But, said the staffers, ““just don’t ask for any details on the package.’’

Hillary Clinton’s “package’’ has the resort keeping the golfers’ scores on a computer service in the pro shop bathroom. Then, “if you don’t like your final score it can just be wiped clean.’’

And finally there’s the Marco Rubio “package.’’ In that one you can play with anyone under 46 years old for free. “Ideal for people travelling with kids,’’ is the lure behind that one.

Location-wise, Kingsmill has a long history with political conflict. The land on which it resides was also where skirmishes in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars were fought.

KOCH JOINS LEGENDS: Carin Koch, twice a winner of the LPGA Tour and once a champion on the Ladies European Tour, will make her debut on the LPGA’s Legends Tour in that circuit’s 2016 opener, the March 4-6 Walgreens Charity Classic at the Grandview course in Sun City, Ariz.

The 36-hole tourney will have a $250,000 purse for the 50 players in the 45-and-over division and a separate purse will be available in the Honours Division, for players 63 and over.

The Legends also have a big event the week after the Masters. Thirty of the Legends players will hook up with 139 from the LPGA’s Symetra Tour and another 12 from the women’s circuit in Taiwan in the second Chico’s Patty Berg Memorial at Cypress Lake in Ft. Myers, FL., from April 11-17. The Symetra players will compete for $200,000 and the Legends for $150,000.

ANOTHER BIGGIE AT MYRTLE BEACH: Myrtle Beach will conduct its March Championship on March 6-8. The 54-hole individual low net competition has drawn players from 24 states, Italy, the United Kingdom and Canada. Six courses will be used for the competition — Farmstead, Hackler, Long Bay, Panther’s Run, Shaftesbury and Wing Wing Avocet.

Two of the most popular courses at South Carolina destination – Caledonia Golf & Fish Club and True Blue – are featured in a Spring Break Getaway offering. Lodging is at True Blue, and that course will also become the first Myrtle Beach course to offer Goalboards. Operating like snowboards or skateboards, they’re the newest thing in course transportation.

Two packages are being offered – a three-night four-round version for $729 per person and a five-night, six-round version for $949.

Caledonia and True Blue are also part of an Honors package which offers a five-night stay and seven rounds for $1,195. The other courses in this package are Grande Dunes, Tidewater, Dunes Club and two of the three rated courses at Barefoot Resort (ones designed by Pete Dye, Tom Fazio and Davis Love III). Lodging is at the Marina Inn.

MASTERS – IN CHICAGO? The First Tee of Greater Chicago will use the first day of the Masters tournament, on April 7, to stage a Golf Fashion Show at Old Crow Smokehouse, 149 W. Kinzie River North.

The fund-raising event, to run from 6-9 p.m., will feature “Masters-inspired food and drink.’’ Tickets, available through the First Tee’s website, are $85 and VIP Super Tickets are $150.

NEW AT SWEETGRASS: Island Resort & Casino, in Harris, Mich., plans to unveil its new Drift Spa this spring. The resort’s Sweetgrass course is a host site on the LPGA’s Symetra Tour.

Creation of the spa is part of an $8 million resort and casino expansion project. Ground has also been broken on a second course that will be much different than Sweetgrass, even though Paul Albanese is the designer of both.

RYDER CUP FEVER? The Ryder Cup matches, last played on American soil at Medinah in 2014, will return at Hazeline, in Chaska, Minn., this fall. They’re scheduled from Sept. 27 to Oct. 2 and Premier Golf is already offering travel packages. They start at $2,895 and include four nights lodging, a season ticket to the matches, daily breakfasts and round-trip transportation to and from the course as well as a VIP chalet option off the No. 16 hole.

SEQUEL AT CONCESSION: Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin will be honorary captains of the U.S. and Great Britain-Ireland teams in the second playing of the Concession Cup from April 19-23 in Bradenton, FL. Concession, the host club, is a Nicklaus design and the honorary chairman of the event is a Concession member – former U.S. Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger.

The Ryder Cup-style event features 18-player teams. Eight on each squad are Mid-Amateurs (ages 25-54), eight are seniors 55 and over and two are seniors 65 and over. The U.S. won the first playing of the event 21 1/2-14 ½ in 2014.

WINTER PARK, FLORIDA – A big reason for scheduling a round at Winter Pines Golf Club is that it is – at least arguably – the busiest course in Florida. Given the reported 1,500-plus courses in the Sunshine State – and particularly the array of good ones in the Orlando area – that’s saying something.

Determining the busiest course anywhere is difficult, since the number of rounds played is self reported. It’s hard to imagine any U.S. course, for instance, getting more rounds than Rancho Park – the city-owned Los Angeles hotbed that is blessed with consistently better weather year-around than any course in Florida.

Winter Pines is right up there in popularity, though. In 1992 it had a reported a high of 90,000 rounds. That’s about 300 players a day. That number dropped off to about 75,000 rounds in 2002 but general manager Steve Singh says the course still averages about 65,000 per year despite the economic struggles that have affected the golf industry nation-wide.

I’ve played Rancho Park, once the site of the PGA Tour’s Los Angeles Open and the U.S. Golf Association’s U.S. Senior Open among other big events. It’s still a championship-style course and still busy. Winter Pines is much different.

The course is short, but not a par-3 or executive-length layout. It plays at 5,401 yards from the tips and is a par-67. When building began in 1964 the architect, C.A. McCalister, plotted a par-62 course for the five original owners of a course then temporarily called Golfside Country Club.

The course opened in 1968 and was expanded in 1977. Five holes were lengthened by Bud Timbrook, a golf professional who was part of the original ownership group, and Gardner Dickinson, the veteran PGA Tour player.

Ed McMillin, whose family owns a pie factory in Erie, Pa., bought the course in 1980. About to turn 90, McMillin had the right idea from the start, offering players a good product at a fair price. That policy continued when McMillin’s son Jon served as the club’s general manager. Jon is now the club president. Singh started working at Winter Pines 13 years ago when he washed carts as an 18-year old and worked his way up to the GM position.

“Winter Pines is my family, and I’m very lucky to be part of the company,’’ Singh says. He’s not alone in feeling that way. Joe Ondo, the superintendent, arrived in 1979 and hasn’t left. He plans to retire in August after 37 years on the job.

The Winter Pines leadership has the right idea. It draws big numbers of players year-around — not just during the heart of the tourist season –for a variety of reasons.

You can’t beat the price (currently a high of $25 on the weekends, cart included), but the popularity of Winter Pines isn’t just based on cost. The course conditioning is good throughout. The practice area is more than ample. For those who prefer walking, the course is great for that. There are programs offered for juniors and an event calendar for all types of older players as well. The clubhouse had a cheerful atmosphere and the staff was friendly when we visited.

Located across the street from the Orlando city limits, Winter Pines felt like just what it is – a nice neighborhood golf course. Winter Park Pines is the subdivision in which the course is located, and it’s only about 15 minutes from the downtown area.

As for the course, its most striking architectural feature is the stream that meanders through most all the holes. It serves as a hazard in spots and a visual enhancement in others. Players, though, will probably find the four consecutive par-3 holes on the back nine the most memorable aspect. The layouts has two par-5s, the longer of which is 480 yards. The seven par-3s range from 85 yards (front tee at No. 8) to 224 (back tee at No. 12).

There are no par-5s on the back side, and that may be a big plus in attracting new players. Shorter holes do facilitate lower scores and lower scores are encouraging for any player. Winter Pines won’t beat you up, that’s for sure, and showing a greatly improve score on the back nine is incentive to come back for more.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA – It probably wasn’t a good idea for the operators of St. Lucie Trail and Rio Pinar to have those courses open in the immediate aftermath of the 63rd PGA Merchandise Show. Both had been pelted with two-plus days of rain while the show was in progress at the Orange County Convention Center.

Even in marginal playing conditions there was still plenty of interest in playing these courses, which have joined the fast-growing list of one-time private facilities that are now open to the public.

That was especially the case at Rio Pinar, which was in its heyday one of the most famous courses in the United States. It was one of the first courses to host tournaments on both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour.

Rio Pinar, in Orlando, opened in 1957 with a course designed by Mark Mahannah. It hosted the PGA tour’s Florida Citrus Open from 1966 to 1978. When the men left the women came in immediately. The LPGA’s Women’s Citrus Open was played there from 1979 to 1982.

Both tournaments had an impressive list of champions, the men’s featuring Arnold Palmer (1971), Lee Trevino (1975) and Hale Irwin (1976) and the women’s including Jane Blalock (1979) and Beth Daniel (1981) before Patty Sheehan closed out the course’s rich pro tournament history with her victory in 1982. Champions were awarded coveted orange jackets in addition to the prize money and trophies.

Palmer bought another Orlando facility, Bay Hill Club & Lodge, three years after winning at Rio Pinar and eight years after his Citrus Open victory he became the tourney’s host. The Citrus event was moved to Bay Hill in 1979 and is now known as the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Though the club is over 50 years old Rio Pinar isn’t on the Florida Historic Golf Trail because it was closed to the public most of the time. That requirement aside, Rio Pinar is very much a part of Florida’s rich golf history.

Rio Pinar remained a private club until 2013 when it was acquired by Integrity Golf, which opened it to non-member play. Prices are eminently affordable, currently ranging in the $28-$60 range. The course was a busy place during our weekend visit and the players included members of the Rollins College men’s team.

While the Rio Pinar course certainly isn’t what it used to be, the facility still offers touches of the big event feel as you work your way around it. It’s somewhat of a throwback in time, with its clubhouse including memorabilia from those glory years.

The course was re-designed by Lloyd Clifton – like Mahannah an architect with numerous Florida designs — in 1995 and it now stretches over 7,000 yards (albeit by one yard) from the back tees. Its most unusual aspect comes at No. 16. That’s one of the very few par-3 holes designated as any course’s No. 1 handicap hole.

St. Lucie Trail, meanwhile, was private when we spent a very pleasant winter in Port St. Lucie – about 90 miles from Orlando — two years ago. Owned and operated by the PGA of America, it was called the PGA Country Club then.

On Nov. 2, 2014, the course was renamed and opened to the public. It’s now part of a four-course rotation that includes the three courses at nearby PGA Golf Club – the Wanamaker, Ryder and Dye layouts. Tom Fazio designed the Wanamaker and Ryder and Pete Dye created the other course.

Designed by Jim Fazio, St. Lucie Trail is greatly enhances the PGA Golf Club offerings and is much more of a challenge than Rio Pinar largely because of its speedy, tricky greens. They were tough to deal with, even in soggy conditions.