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.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL. – The Fazio is the newest course at PGA National Resort & Spa. Playing it was to be the highlight of a four-day stay there, and it was, but for more personal reasons.

This site is designed primarily to be informative about the golf destinations we visit, and this report on PGA National will be, as well – eventually. This time I come first.

In one round on that layout I hit my best iron shot in years and years, holing out a 6-iron from 140 yards on the third hole (Witness celebration photo below). It didn’t spur me on to a good round, though. In fact, the end result was my worst score of the nearly 20 rounds played on this trip, which is now into its eighth week.

And no, for those ready to ask, did the hole out produce an eagle. (My drive, though hit solidly, wound up behind a tree and required a chip-out before the magic arrived – if for just that one big swing).

Not only that, but all I could do was shake my head when the round was over after being outdriven by 30-50 yards on every hole by Gene, my most affable 81-year old playing partner from Connecticut who is 12 years my senior. The golf gods were working overtime on this strange day.

What wasn’t at all strange was The Fazio, a layout designed by the well-respected Tom Fazio II. It opened on Nov. 1, 2012, so not that many golfers have played it yet. Technically, the course isn’t all that new, though.

Originally it was called The Haig, a tribute to the legendary Walter Hagen. The Haig was opened in 1980 as the first course at PGA National, which now has five 18-holers. The Haig was designed by George and Tom Fazio. They are uncles to Tom Fazio II. He modernized the course with new grass, greens and tee boxes, and his finished product marks the first time those three Fazios have worked on the same layout. That makes it something special.

Within Chicago’s golf world George and Tom were the architects for Butler National, the all-male Oak Brook club that hosted the Western Open from 1974-90, and Tom II for Conway Farms, site of September’s BMW Championship.

George and Tom had long been busy at PGA National. They were also the original designers of The Champion Course, which was the site of the 1983 Ryder Cup and the 1987 PGA Championship, won by Larry Nelson. My only previous visit to the resort was to report on that ’87 PGA, one which I remember most for the sultry August heat that somewhat overshadowed the golf played that week. This time the golf was more peaceful, with even some curious cranes (below) roaming the fairways with the golfers.

PGA National underwent some major changes prior to my return, most in the form of a $100 million renovation that included the creation of The Fazio.

The Champion Course underwent a $4 million redesign by Jack Nicklaus’ his design team in 1990 followed by a renovation in 2002. That’s when the Bear Trap – billed as one of the toughest three-hole stretches in golf – was born.

I didn’t get to play The Champion Course, as it was being readied for the return of the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic. Nor did I play The Estates Course, a Karl Litten design and the only one of the PGA National layouts located off the main resort. It’s about five miles away.

My other golf was played at The Palmer Course, which also has some interesting history. It was an Arnold Palmer signature course when it opened in 1984 as The General. Palmer supervised a total renovation in 2006, which led to the renaming of the layout. It produced the most enjoyable of my three rounds during the stay. The other round was on the Squire, a 1981 Tom Fazio creation that honored Gene Sarazen – the first golfer to win the professional Grand Slam. You have to cope with some blind shots to fully appreciate this course.

The big-money renovation has significantly changed PGA National, for those who might remember it just from its earlier years. For golfers, it now includes Dave Pelz and David Ledbetter teaching academies. All 379 guest rooms received total makeovers in the renovation as did the popular breakfast buffet, then named Citrus Tree Café and now called Palm Terrace.

We stayed on the resort throughout our stay, played fun social golf were three very nice couples (among them Ed and Linda Alberts of Williamsport, Pa., above) and visited most of the dining spots, including the high-end Ironwood Steak & Seafood. Easily our favorite was the iBAR, which put on one of the best Happy Hours we’ve ever experienced.
The resort also has a expansive pool area (right), croquet, tennis and a variety of other attractions. But, appropriately, the best is the golf.

NAPLES, FL. – Yes, Naples is one of the most beautiful cities in the United States. And, yes, it has one of the best year-around climates. Temperatures were ideal for the entire month we stayed there.

This winter hotspot in southwest Florida has plenty to entice you. Good restaurants are in ample supply (though on the pricy side). The Dock, Turtle Club and newly-opened Masa – a very different type of Mexican place – were our favorites. Campiello’s wasn’t bad, either.

A two-hour bus tour of the area introduced to some beautiful homes and a wide range of tourist attractions.

And then there was, of course, the golf. The Naples area lists 91 courses, and we played 10. Sarasota, the winter retreat of a year ago, is only two hours away but the golf was preferable there. It’s not that Naples golf was bad, but it was different.

Our goal – as is always the case on our travels – is to play a wide variety of places and that means looking for the best values. No matter where you go, it’s nice to learn about a new area at least in part by playing its golf courses. In Naples that wasn’t so easy. In-season prices were discouraging, for one thing. And it seemed like most of the courses wanted to be considered private – but most weren’t. You could call and frequently get on.

There was a striking similarity to their entrances, be it Heritage Bay, The Quarry, Naples Heritage, TwinEagles (see photo above), Bonita Bay. And the holes generally had fairways with lodging on one side and water or more lodging on the other. One local that I played with said – without malice – that they looked like bowling alleys. Truthfully, that wasn’t so much a negative as it was a general description of how things are.

Thank goodness for the availability of golfnow.com. Not sure we could have played golf the way we like to play it without that website.

We enjoyed our condo in one golf community (Heritage Bay), but never could wangle a tee time there — though the 27 holes available were at least nominally open for public play (it was a new golfnow.com offering) and clearly not in full use.

The most notable round of our stay was the last one – at TwinEagles, a 36-hole private club with an enviable history. In 2012 it hosted events on two of the major world tours – the Ace Group Classic on the Champions Tour and the CME Titleholders Championship on the Ladies PGA Tour.

Jack Nicklaus designed TwinEagles’ Talon course, which was being prepared for the Champions Tour return in February. The Champions circuit played an event on the Talon from 2002-06 and returned in 2012. It produced some great winners – Hale Irwin, Loren Roberts and Kenny Perry among them — and Tom Watson was a runner-up there three times.

We played the Eagle, originally known as the Aerie course designed by Gary Player. Steve Smyers, who did a great job in renovating the South Course at Olympia Fields in recent years, completed a remake of the Eagle in January of 2012 and it hosted the LPGA event 11 months later.

The Eagle was much different – in a most positive way – from all the other courses we played in Naples. For one thing, virtually every green was significantly elevated (see photo above). I don’t know if I’ve ever played greens so large and so undulating. Using the putter from far off the putting surfaces was a good option on many holes (see photo below). The style took some getting used to, but it was refreshing.

Of the other courses we tested only three billed themselves as “public.’’ ArrowHead, designed by the respected Gordon Lewis, was the best value (and the only course we played more than once). Valencia was fine, too, and those two layouts were also the most welcoming. Though they declared themselves public, they, too, were built within housing areas.

Hibiscus was the other self-declared public layout, and it was the only free-standing (not connected with a specific residential area) one. Hibiscus had a cheerful new clubhouse, well-done yardage book (not a given at the Naples courses we visited) and the most memorable hole – the challenging par-5 14th which featured a shot to the green over a pond lined with beautiful bougainvillea. The flowering hibiscus was a feature throughout the layout, which was built in 1969.

Other than TwinEagles, the course that stood out the most was Panther Run. Its name seemed a secret, as its signage more clearly identified the layout more as part of the Del Webb community in the most interesting little town of Ave Maria rather than by its designated name. A preseason training base for soccer’s Chicago Fire, Ave Maria is a small, upscale community with a big church as the centerpiece. Not only does it include the Del Webb community for retirees, it also includes a small college campus.

The golf course – another Lewis design — was a cut above the others on our menu of those reasonably priced. It had wide fairways and could be stretched to 7,532 yards – very much a fun track to play.

The first course we played was also one of the better ones. Herons Glen was part of a bustling country club setting in the nearby town of North Ft. Myers.

Perhaps the prettiest layout was Spanish Wells, in Bonita Springs. It had three nines, which is always a big plus. The South, the first nine we played, had extremely tight fairways and our cart went dead on the seventh hole. It took an unusually long time for staff personnel to rescue us, so that bad experience detracted from our appraisal of the facility.

Lely Resort also had more than 18 holes. It had two 18-holers, and we played the Flamingo Island Club – a fairly challenging layout that had the same rating (75.1) and slightly higher slope (138 to 137) than its companion, the Mustang course.

Quail Village was also a tight one, and its space was limited. The course played 4,873 yards from the back tees.

One striking thing about our overall golfing experience in the Naples area was our playing partners. Of the three couples we were randomly paired with, all were from outside the United States. Two were from Montreal and one from Munich, Germany. All were very nice people and added some special memories to this golf getaway.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – It’s almost mind-boggling when you think about it. A three-month visitor to this long-time golf hotbed could play a different course every day and would still not have played all the layouts offered.

Myrtle Beach, which aptly bills itself as the “Golf Capital of the World,’’ has over 100 courses packed into the 60-mile stretch of coastline known as the Grand Strand. They’re not a bunch of cookie-cutters, either. That became quite clear on my second visit to the area, which unfortunately fell a full eight years after the first.

The home base on Murrells Inlet wasn’t far from the one a Pawley’s Island years ago, and one of the courses – the Caledonia Golf & Fish Club – was a must replay. It seems that all my golfing friends who have visited Myrtle Beach at one time or another love Caledonia. The shrimp bisque soup, offered between nines as well as in the clubhouse, and the bright flowering on most of the tee boxes (shown above) are just some of the reasons.

Good friend Reid Hanley, the late golf writer for the Chicago Tribune who played widely around the country, always called Caledonia “a very special place,’’ and I have to agree. Rarely do I play any course a second time and like it as much as I did the first, but Caledonia fit that bill – even with the second time around coming on a windy December day with temperatures in the 40s.

Mike Strantz was the designer for this relatively short (6,526 yards if you play from the tips) layout, which was built on a one-time rice plantation in 1994. Unfortunately Strantz did his work largely in the South. He’s quite good. Caledonia’s companion course, True Blue, was also one of his designs. That one opened four years after Caledonia.

Lot of people already know about Caledonia, of course. They might not know about the Founder Club at Pawley’s Island. It’s only been in operation since 2008, after a massive renovation directed by Thomas Walker, former lead designer for Gary Player’s architectural efforts.

Walker started with a much more basic course that had been called Sea Gull Golf Club. The extensive renovation included the clubhouse, and the finished product is commendable.

I’ve never played a course quite like the Founders Club. There’s no cart paths on this layout. Instead you drive through waste hazards when a fairway isn’t available and the bunkering (an example is shown below at the No. 18 green) is striking. You also cross roads that can have car traffic 14 times. All of that makes for a most refreshing way to play golf, and the greens are unusual, too. They’re grassed with Emerald Bermuda, which almost has the feel of an artificial surface.

Capturing what’s new in golf is a high priority, and our final round of this Myrtle Beach visit was at Willbrook Plantation, still another course that was much different than the other two.

Willbrook, a Dan Maples design that has been named on Golf For Women’s Top 100 list, is part of a gated community with a most upscale atmosphere. Unfortunately, our visit was hampered by rainy weather and limited to a cart tour of the premises, but it was revealing. Especially noteworthy was No. 6, a strikingly beautiful par-3 over water (shown below).

Like Caledonia, Willbrook was built on what had been a rice plantation. Unlike Caledonia, the land’s history is underscored with commemorative plaques all around the course.

As for lodging, we wanted something new and different – and the two-year old Inlet Sports Lodge fit the bill perfectly. The local investment group that owns Caledonia and True Blue also owns Inlet Sports Lodge, which is a base for outdoor sports enthusiasts as well as golfers.

Rooms included custom-etched mahogany doors with key fobs, heart of pine wood floors, salad bowl-like sinks sitting on granite counter tops, bathrobes and pressured shower jets with five different heads. Adjoining the Lodge was Bliss, an excellent upscale chef-driven restaurant that provided a nice alternative to the more traditional dining spots in the area.

The traditional ones – we liked 20-year old Russell’s Seafood Grill and Drunken Jacks, clearly a favorite of the locals – were plenty good, too. They offered the cuisine that has helped bring tons of visitors back to this golf mecca.

PINEHURST, N.C. – It may seem silly for a golf addict from Chicago to visit the famous Pinehurst Resort – if only for a few days around Christmas – and not hit a shot. That’s what I did at the start of a long winter trip that will include plenty of golf, I guarantee that.

A Pinehurst stop, though, was appropriate because in 2014 that resort, its entrance pictured above in the heart of the Christmas season, will take on something no golf facility has ever done. It’ll host – on successive weeks in June – the men’s U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open on the same 18-hole layout.

The buildup to the big golf doubleheader should be followed closely in coming months. In my book, it’s a far more cutting edge, risky endeavor than the U.S. Golf Association’s more recent, highly publicized decision to eventually ban anchored putters. Playing the two national Opens back-to-back on the same course should give a particularly big boost to the women’s game, but will also impact the elite players, the amateurs who will be watching on TV and the resort itself, which has never been reluctant to take on big projects.

The USGA made the tournament schedule announcement amidst limited fanfare in 2009. The following year architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw were hired to supervise a restoration project on Pinehurst’s No. 2 course. They completed the project in March, 2011, with the return of wire-grass in the rough areas the most striking feature. It had been part of the original course, designed by Donald Ross in 1907.

Ross was head professional at Pinehurst and lived off the third hole on the No. 2 course, which has come to be called “The Deuce.’’ His architectural efforts world-wide are legendary and the wire-grass will become a household name for golfers once they see how it impacts the two Opens. I’ve played it, and I like it, but – like the USGA’s decision to schedule the major championships back-to-back on the same course – opinions in the golf world are not unanimous on either.

The Christmas visit was my fourth to Pinehurst since 1999. I was there for two successful U.S. Opens and again when wire-grass was re-introduced in the spring of 2011. Given the long preparatory saga that Medinah went through leading into this year’s Ryder Cup, I suspected I’d see some evidence of preparatory work at Pinehurst.

I didn’t see much, the most notable being Lee Pace’s latest book — “The Golden Age of Pinehurst,’’ which was on sale in the Newstand at the resort’s hotel. Pace, a freelance writer who lives an hour away in Chapel Hill, previously authored two versions of “Pinehurst Stories’’ (1991 and 1999) and “The Spirit of Pinehurst’’ (2004).

Pace’s latest book updated the 2004 version, including in it the details of the architectural work done by Coore and Crenshaw. I had a talk with Pace after ending my latest visit, and he pointed out that the restoration project and the unusual scheduling of the two big tournaments weren’t related.

“The restoration had absolutely nothing to do with the U.S. Open,’’ he said. “That work was done because the course had gotten away from what it had been years ago.’’

The men’s U.S. Open is returning to Pinehurst in large part because of the success of the previous tournaments there, and the U.S. Women’s Open had three successful stagings at nearby Pine Needles since 1996.

There was some doubt that Pinehurst could handle a U.S. Open prior to 1999. They were unfounded.

“But it was such a success inside and outside of the ropes,’’ said Pace. “That’s why it got another Open so quickly (in 2005).’’

Hotel space was limited in 1999 but improved in 2005 and four more hotels have since been built in the neighboring towns of Aberdeen and Southern Pines. Population of Moore County has also increased, from about 50,000 seven years ago to nearly 90,000 now.

Reg Jones, who had worked for Pinehurst while directing the two previous U.S. Opens there, now has an administrative office at Pinehurst in preparation for 2014. Otherwise, there aren’t many outward signs of the big things coming.

“You won’t see much change until a couple months out,’’ said Pace. “(Pinehurst leaders) don’t want to disrupt the ebb and flow of the club experience. They have (big tournament preparations) down to a science. There’s not another club the USGA would have tried to do this with, and everything will be fine.’’

As for our stay, everything was very much fine – even though the atmosphere was much different than it will be in June, 2014. Christmas at Pinehurst didn’t have the hustle-and-bustle of other places, visitors weren’t as numerous as they are in the golf season and some of the quaint little shops in the village operated on limited hours.

Instead Pinehurst offered its trademark great breakfast buffets in the Carolina Room and more casual dining in its Ryder Cup restaurant. The courses were open, with the exception of No. 8. It was closed to facilitate work projects. Rather than play golf, a hike in the nearby arboretum area was a worthy substitute.

All in all, not a bad way to celebrate Christmas. I certainly can recommend it.