Any parent who's ever taken young children out to a golf course knows the feeling: Far from being able to concentrate on your own game, you're focused on the kids' behavior to the point of distraction. Will they dig trenches in the turf with their wild swings? Will they accidentally wallop one another with a club? In a burst of exuberance or exasperation, will they shriek at such a decibel level as to disturb everyone within earshot?
So imagine how Maureen Yeager of Briarcliff Manor, New York, felt when she and several of her children were hitting balls on the practice range at Wild Dunes Resort in South Carolina and the volume started to rise. "The kids were being really loud, and I was like, 'Be quiet! Be quiet!'" Yeager recalls. But much to her surprise—and relief—instead of drawing angry glares, the family was immediately made to feel welcome. "One of the pros just smiled at me and said, 'It's okay, don't worry about the noise.'"
Making a family of six feel comfortable playing golf is no mean feat. With its time-honored emphasis on etiquette and its utter demand for hand-eye coordination, the game can be intimidating, to say the least. The challenge in introducing children to golf is to balance instruction and fun.
Wild Dunes and a host of other family-oriented resorts across the country are getting this difficult equation right. In doing so, they are leaders in a significant travel-related trend: meeting an increasing demand for resort-golf options that include instructional programs, club fitting and courses that suit shorter hitters—for Dad, Mom and the kids.
A quality family golf resort offers all that and more: a kid-friendly atmosphere; a course that's easy enough for junior golfers but well conditioned and challenging enough for adults; nongolf recreation options for kids; a good restaurant or two; and proximity to a charming city, town or other area—an amusement park, for instance—that offers activities for the whole family.
With all of these elements in mind, we present a list of several of the finest family golf resorts in the country and a look at what makes each one something special.
Grande Lakes Orlando
4000 Central Florida Parkway, Orlando, Florida; 800-682-3665 (Ritz-Carlton) or 800-682-9956 (J.W. Marriott), grandelakes.com
Big Picture: The five-hundred-acre resort features more than 1,500 rooms at Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott hotels. A 40,000-square-foot spa, salon and fitness center has forty treatment rooms and a conservatory for simply unwinding.
The Golf: The resort's Greg Norman-designed course is 7,127 yards from the back tees but has generous fairways and two sets of forward tees—the shortest is 5,226 yards—to suit youngsters.
Family Golf: The Golf Fore Kids Etiquette Class teaches five- to twelve-year-olds the basic rules and etiquette of the game: who hits when, where to stand when someone else is hitting and, perhaps hardest of all for a child to understand, when to be quiet. To keep things fun, the pros hold contests for prizes such as hats and balls. Kids also learn swing fundamentals that they can put to use on the course. Once there, they will find great help—and parents will find great solace—from their "caddie concierges." These attendants go well beyond cleaning clubs and tending pins to offer swing advice, order food and drinks, and even make dinner reservations and spa appointments. Junior clubs are available for rent.
Other Fun Stuff: The many allures of Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Florida are a short shuttle ride away. Children will also love the Marriott's lazy-river pool and the "dive-in" movies at the Ritz and Marriott pools. In addition, the resort offers baby-sitting, which can be arranged by the concierge.
Dining: Eleven restaurants are scattered throughout the compound. Take the kids for burgers and chicken nuggets at Fairways Pub, or go out for a romantic evening at Norman's, where acclaimed chef Norman Van Aken puts a European spin on Latin and Caribbean cuisine.
Hershey Resorts
Hotel Road, Hershey, Pennsylvania; 800-437-7439, hersheypa.com
Big Picture: The company town built by chocolate king, philanthropist and golf enthusiast Milton Hershey features the historic 232-room Hotel Hershey as well as the more modern—and massive, with 665 rooms—Hershey Lodge. Then there is the candy factory, of course, and the always-popular Hersheypark.
The Golf: Guests enjoy privileges at Hershey Country Club, where Ben Hogan served as head pro from 1941 to 1950. The quirky, hilly West course was built in 1930 and still provides a stern test. The East is longer and more modern, while the Parkview course is considerably shorter than the other two, yet exactingly narrow.
Family Golf: A nine-holer called Spring Creek, a short shuttle ride away, is ideal for kids. A gentle course, it features six par fours and three par threes, one of which is 100 yards and another that is 120. The course was built expressly for kids; initially adults could play there only as guests of a child. That rule is no longer enforced, but the child-friendly emphasis remains very much intact: On any given day, kids account for half the play. The resort offers children's clubs for rent.
Other Fun Stuff: Hersheypark is synonymous with "kid heaven." The resort also runs a camplike program for children, featuring sports and arts and crafts, called the Cocoa Kids Club. For further amusement, there's ZooAmerica (zooamerica.com), an eleven-acre walk-through zoo featuring seventy-five species that started as Milton Hershey's private animal collection. The spa and indoor swimming pool at Hotel Hershey are adjacent to each other and serve as a perfect rainy-day (or any day, for that matter) family haven.
Dining: There are eleven restaurants to choose from at Hershey. The Bear's Den, a sports bar and arcade in the Lodge, is the best bet for family dining on the run.
Sunriver Resort
1 Center Drive, Sunriver, Oregon; 800-547-3922, sunriver-resort.com
Big Picture: This is golf in the great outdoors, and the resort's many offerings, including a full-service golf academy, are extensive enough to make a week's vacation fly by. Accommodations range from luxurious (the River Lodges) to modest (the condos in Lodge Village).
The Golf: Three eighteen-hole courses. Crosswater, a notoriously difficult par-seventy-two design by Bob Cupp and John Fought, is the best known, having hosted the 2002 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship and numerous U.S. Open qualifiers. The other two courses are better for kids: the Meadows, which measures 5,287 yards from the forward tees, and the Woodlands (5,446 yards).
Family Golf: A nine-hole putting course takes the focus off grip-it-and-rip-it golf, which kids tend to overdose on. With holes from 45-feet to 120-feet long, the course plays to a par twenty-two or twenty-three, depending on which set of tees you use (yes, there are two sets). Junior golf instruction costs just $20 a lesson. Family lessons, for up to five players, cost an equally reasonable $100 a session. When teaching children, the pros keep moving from drill to drill every ten to fifteen minutes to keep the kids' attention. They also hold frequent contests in putting and chipping—two skills that often come easiest to youngsters. The resort offers free use of junior clubs for lessons or when kids play in the evenings with a paying adult.
Other Fun Stuff: Cascade Lakes Highway is designated as a National Scenic Byway, and no wonder: The eighty-seven-mile loop goes deep into the wilderness and offers gorgeous views of pristine lakes and reservoirs. Whether you take it all in through the windshield of your car or stop to hike, bike, fish or go boating, it's a memorable experience. To give parents a chance to play or relax on their own, the resort offers extensive day care and recreation for kids three to eighteen, including mountain biking, hiking and horseback riding as well as golf. Sunriver also runs Fort Funnigan, a camp for three- to ten-year-olds.
Dining: Seafood from the Pacific and game from the Northwest woods make up much of the menu at Meadows at the Lodge, Sunriver's nighttime fine-dining option; the award-winning wine list includes a vast selection of Oregon's famous pinot noirs. The more casual Grille at Crosswater features a less fancy menu.
Treetops Resort
3962 Wilkinson Road, Treetops Village, Michigan; 888-873-3867, treetops.com
Big Picture: Located in rustic northern Michigan, Treetops has become a high-profile Midwest golf destination since renowned instructor Rick Smith bought the resort in 2002. Accommodations range from family-style two- and three-bedroom condos with full kitchens to luxury suites equipped with hot tubs in the Lodge. A major spa, salon and workout facility is less than two years old.
The Golf: Five well-maintained layouts, including a par-three course, offer a range of challenges. The two best courses for children are the Tom Fazio Premier, which features mounding that helps keep balls in play, and the Tradition, a straightforward Rick Smith design.
Family Golf: Instruction programs address the needs of golfers of every age and ability level. "When we talk about serving families, we mean every member of the family—beginners, juniors, high-school kids on accelerated paths. We offer women-specific instruction and, for hard-core golfers, the Rick Smith Academy," says Scott Head, director of golf operations. Junior lessons include putting and straightest-drive contests, while the women's school creates a nonintimidating atmosphere through large doses of humor. Note: You'll need to bring clubs for all your children, as the resort has no rental sets for kids.
Other Fun Stuff: Guided horseback-riding and trout-fishing trips provide great family excursions into the pristine forests surrounding the resort. There's also river tubing, kayaking, fly-fishing and dirtbike riding nearby. The resort provides day care for children from six months to six years old, as well as a camp for those six to twelve years old.
Dining: Hearty, simple fare. The Broken Club Pub is essentially a sports bar, with a beer menu (sixty brands from around the world) that dwarfs the food choices. Legends is the choice for a more formal meal.
Westin Kierland Resort & Spa
6902 East Greenway Parkway, Scottsdale, Arizona; 480-624-1000, kierlandresort.com
Big Picture: Opened in 2002, Kierland is friendly but sophisticated. Villas with full kitchens, dining and living rooms and laundry facilities are ideal for families—as are the huge pools and a 110-foot water slide.
The Golf: Twenty-seven holes designed by Scott Miller, a former senior designer with Jack Nicklaus. Each of the nines—the Acacia, Mesquite and Ironwood—emphasizes playability, with wide fairways and accessible greens, and each eighteen-hole combination has a roughly 5,000-yard set of forward tees.
Family Golf: In teaching children, the pros incorporate equipment from other sports, such as baseball bats (for demonstrating swing speed) and Frisbees (for working on the proper release). They also hold trick-shot contests. A new program prepares promising young players to compete at the high-school level, while the summer junior programs aren't quite so serious—run essentially as half-day sports camps, they focus on golf instruction but also include tennis and a supervised swim down the resort's "Lazy River." Unique to Kierland is a junior club-fitting program, which builds three-club sets for kids as young as five; rental clubs are also available. The Fore-Max fitness program includes rigorous exercise and strength training for adults and children. (Yes, that is LPGA star Grace Park working out in the gym, and Cheyenne Woods, Tiger's niece, hitting balls on the range.)
Other Fun Stuff: Two nearby attractions are CrackerJax Family Fun & Sports Park (crackerjax.com), with miniature golf, go-karts, batting cages and bumper boats; and Rawhide Western Town & Steakhouse (rawhide.com), which offers a host of Western-themed amusements, including stagecoach rides, a shooting gallery, a mechanical bull and a staged gunfight by stunt men. Additionally, at the resort is the Tumbleweed Kids Club, which runs half- and full-day programs of sports and arts and crafts for kids ages four to twelve.
Dining: Brittlebush Bar & Grill, in the golf clubhouse, features casual dining and a Southwestern-style menu—including fish tacos to die for. The sleek Deseo, in the main hotel, showcases fiery Nuevo Latino fare.
Wild Dunes Resort
5757 Palm Boulevard, Isle of Palms, South Carolina; 800-845-8880, wilddunes.com
Big Picture: A sprawling beachfront community twelve miles east of Charleston. The epitome of an "active" resort, it offers tennis, golf, beach and nature-oriented activities. Accommodations range from suburban-style villas to beachfront homes to a small, luxurious inn.
The Golf: Two well-regarded Tom Fazio courses, The Links and The Harbor, plus a driving range where you hit into the water (which kids love). The front tees at the Harbor are a manageable 4,774 yards.
Family Golf: "All in the Family" lessons bring parents and children together for an hour of instruction at the bargain price of $95. To keep things interesting, the pros pit Mom and Dad against the kids in putting and closest-to-the-pin competitions, as well as contests to see who can hit the ball closest to the center of the clubface. There are also kids' contests for the best Tiger Woods pose. Twice a week, the resort lays out a mini-golf course on the beach, with seashells serving as tee markers and holes routed around tiny pools and dunes. The "First Swing" program, for kids nine and under, focuses on fundamentals. "Family Evening Golf" gets everyone out on the course at twilight, when kids fifteen and under play for free. Junior clubs are available for rent.
Other Fun Stuff: The resort's "Island Adventures" for kids feature kayaking, fishing, crabbing, treasure hunts and much more. What's more, Charleston's many attractions are just a thirty-minute drive away. Kids will especially enjoy the Patriot's Point Naval and Maritime Museum (patriotspoint.org), which offers aircraft-carrier tours; the South Carolina Aquarium (scaquarium.org); and the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry (explorecml.org). Supervised child care and recreation programs for kids three and older are available.
Dining: While children are welcome at all five of the resort's eateries, kids might not be ready for the wasabi-encrusted black grouper at the Sea Island Grill. Better for families is Edgar's Italian Restaurant, where the menu features a simple lasagne as well as more sophisticated fare.
Other Great Choices
Palmetto Dunes Resort, Hilton Head Island, SC: Choose from three courses (one of which has junior tees) or head for the two-acre short-game area at nearby sister property Palmetto Hall, where kids can practice shots of seventy-five yards and less. (800-827-3006; palmettodunes.com). Resort at Squaw Creek, Olympic Valley, CA: This pristine Lake Tahoe resort runs camp-style programs for kids ages four to twelve, featuring sports, scavenger hunts and movies (800-327-3535; squawcreek.com). Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa, Maui, HI: Paradise for children and adults alike, Grand Wailea offers kids' activities galore at Camp Grande, a miniresort for five- to twelve-year-olds (808-875-1234; grandwailea.com). Basin Harbor Club, Vergennes, VT: Kids stay active all day long in this Lake Champlain resort's wooded compound—swimming, boating, biking, hiking, and playing tennis and golf (800-622-4000; basinharbor.com).
