2015 GottaGoGolf Top 10 Golf Resorts for Women


Regardless of how good a golfer you are, if you are looking for a golf resort and a relaxing break, visit one of the golf resorts listed in the web-based summer issue of "GottaGoGolf." In addition to the Top 10 Golf Resorts, five additional "Wild Card" selections are included for resorts that are have limited seasons or unusual features.

This summer issue with the Top 10 Resorts was just released on www.gottagogolf.com. For a limited time, readers can click on the "Free Sample" tab and see the golf resort pages identifying the top resorts for women. But, the Sample will not include the other features of the magazine including the newest trends in women's golf clothing and unique "advertorials." The golf clothing features are terrific. One advertised outfits that go from golf to dinner - perfect for my late afternoon golf.

The annual subscription fee for the four quarterly issues of GottaGoGolf.com is $20. But if you are one of the 120,000 members of a U.S. state's women's golf associations, the issue is a membership benefit. Check out your association's website. The same complimentary issue is available to women who are members of the Women's Golf Alliance www.womensgolfalliance.org.

In the way of background, a few months ago, Susan Fornoff asked me if I would be a reviewer of golf resorts on her all-women panel. I was honored to be among this experienced group of women golf and travel writers. (There aren't too many of us.) Susan and I had met in the media room of the women's Solheim Cup in Colorado in 2013.

Susan knew her top-golf-resort list for women was unique. It had to be good because there are other such lists out there. But they have been compiled by men! There are also several "top courses" lists, but they do not focus on resort features like spas or other activities women might enjoy après golf. The GottaGoGolf Top 10 Golf Resorts for Women - rated by women - is a "keeper" to use now or file away for your next vacation.

The selection process was managed by Susan with many emails asking each panel member for more details about each submission. How close to airports? How many sets of tees? And at least one had to be less than 5,200 yards. How friendly was the staff to women? What were other nearby attractions- including those for families?

Through frequent emails, the panel continually voted and winnowed down the list. As pointed out in the article, only one resort made the top-10 list of every panel member: The Boulders in Carefree, Ariz. The Boulders heads the list, but the rest of the top courses are listed alphabetically. And then because a few courses were so "special" in some way, but not generally available all year long, Susan came up with a "Wild Card" category of five additional resorts.

What also sets this resort list apart from other top-resort lists is that it includes: Background about the resort; Transportation time from airport; Amenities such as massage and spa, shopping, kids activities; Best Time to Visit; and Cost. (The resorts are all on the pricey side as the focus of the panel was not on finding "affordable" resorts.) And a final and most important section includes yardage of all tees rated for women including Slope and Rating (more about that below).

Bandon Dunes in Oregon made the list. When it was first built years ago, it was marketed as a "guy's course" - with photos of what I call "scary-golf" with lots of carries and lots of water.

But take a look at the Tee Ratings for Bandon in the GottaGoGolf article. Each of the four courses has at least one set of tees for almost all female golfers with a playable Slope and Rating. The cover photo of the article was in fact taken recently at the first USGA Women's Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Bandon Dunes. As just a bogey golfer, I would be playing that hole from a shorter tee!

That's why the two-page "Guidance" section of this issue is so important. It explains how to play from a mixed or "combo" set of tees and compute a rating and slope for posting your score for handicap purposes (or for your own foursome competition.) If you just want to play a recreational round with a mulligan here and there and have no intentions of posting your score, you may not need this Guidance info.

But since the adjustment method is not explained very often, it was great to find it included in this GottaGoGolf Top 10 Golf Resorts issue.

I play a combo set of tees often when I play with my husband. Here's how it works. Most of the time, we can play from the same set of tees if rated for both women and men. But every now and then, there are some holes that require a carry off the tee that I just cannot handle. So I move up to the next set of tees - making the overall yardage of my round shorter.

At the end of the round, I compute my overall yardage (taking into account the holes where I moved up a tee). Then using the USGA adjustment rules that are in this issue (on pages 44-45), I adjust the yardages and compute my adjusted Rating and Slope. Now I can enter my score in the official Handicap System. For serious golfers, print out the Guidance page from this GottaGoGolf issue and just keep it in your golf bag.

And now, to answer what readers are asking: Just what are the Top 10 Golf Resorts for Women in the Summer 2015 issue? Here they are.

Number 1: The Boulders, Carefree Ariz. (unanimous vote of panel); Numbers 2-10 in alphabetical order: Bandon Dunes, Bandon, Ore.; The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, Palm Harbor, Fla.; Kiawah Island Golf Resort, Kiawah Island, S.C.; [Omni]La Costa Resort and Spa, Carlsbad, Calif.; The Resort at Pelican Hill, Newport Coast, Calif.; PGA National Resort and Spa, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; Pinehurst, Village of Pinehurst, N.C.; Pine Needles & Mid Pines Golf Resort, Southern Pines, N.C.

Wild Cards: Beaver Creek Golf Club/RedSky Ranch and Golf Club, Vail Valley, Colo.; Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, Acme, Mich.; The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, W.V.; Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, Ala.; Manele Bay - The Four Season Resort, Lanai in Maui County (the Four Seasons Hotel is closed for renovation but the Jack Nicklaus golf course is open and a short ferry ride from Maui).

Too get all the details on the resorts and the features that put them on this GottaGoGolf Top 10 list, use the sample tab on www.gottagogolf.com or just subscribe to this web-based magazine. And if you need an excuse to take a golf resort vacation, take my advice: Be Happy, Be Happy, Live Longer, Play Golf.

Nancy Berkley, President of Berkley Golf Consulting, is an expert on women's golf and junior-girls golf. She is a frequent contributor to www.cybergolf.com/womensgolf. Her book, "Women Welcome Here! A Guide to Growing Women's Golf," published by the National Golf Foundation, is an industry reference on marketing golf to women and spotting trends within the industry. She offers information and advice about the golf industry on www.berkleygolfconsulting.com and is often quoted in national publications. Nancy is a member of the World Golf Foundation Women's Committee that launched www.golfforher.com a comprehensive new website for all women golfers at the PGA Merchandise Show in January 2015 in Orlando, Fla. She is a featured speaker at PGA Section meetings and at national conferences. She was a contributing editor of "Golf for Women" magazine and a founding advisor of "Golfer Girl Magazine." Her interviews with women in the golf industry now appear on www.golfergirlcareers.com. Nancy lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Harvard University and Rutgers Law School. After a business and legal career, she decided to write about the game she learned and loved as a teenager. She describes herself as a good bogey golfer with permanent potential.