Northeast fall
foliage golf doesn't
stop in New England
By Chris Baldwin,
Senior Writer
RED BANK, N.J. (Oct. 31, 2005) - It's Halloween and the leaves have
barely started to turn in this central New
Jersey riverside town. The
colors are still glimpses in the green, flapping in the breeze.
This scene is available throughout New
Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland
and Virginia.
In fact, while most of New England closes up shop on its fall
foliage tours, the color show's only beginning in large parts of the
Northeast.
Even if nobody really knows it.
"People seem to think that the leaves stop at the Massachusetts border,"
said Chris Hanson, the head professional at Greystone
Golf Course, a public track in the Baltimore
area. "But you can find some really nice fall settings much farther south
than that."
If that's what you're looking for, that is.
"Leaves?" golfer Jerry Samuels asked. "I'm glad they haven't changed
yet. I'd be fine if they never did. To me, leaves just mean you're going
to lose a number of your golf balls."
Well, there's that. Golfers love scenery as long as it doesn't interfere
with their games. And beautiful, colorful leaves often end up on the fairways,
hiding that perfectly hit drive. Wayne Conley, the owner of Conley
Resort in the tree haven Western Pennsylvania zone of Butler
County, says that his course traffic slows to a crawl once those leaves
do turn.
"The golfers don't want to be searching for every shot," Conley said.
"(The leaves changing) pretty much signals the end of the season for us
as far as regular traffic."
 It
doesn't have to be that way though. There are plenty of spots in the Northeast
where you can get color-splattered scenic golf without a lot of pain.
For a much longer time period than you'd think. Especially after a long,
hot, dry summer like the one just finished. That delays the changing of
the leaves in regions that are open for golf much later than one might
expect.
"It almost never snows even in North Jersey until after Thanksgiving,"
said regular New
York area golfer Sherri Klein. "If you're out there in the in-between
weeks before it gets really cold, you get some good conditions and a lot
of times you'll almost have the course to yourself.
"I drag my husband out to play. Besides, spring blossoms, it's the prettiest
time of the year."
All the New
Hampshire, Vermont,
Newport
and Boston area courses touting their now-you-see-it, now-you-don't fall
foliage specials do not want to hear this of course. But there are leaves
out there beyond New England.
Hidden Fall Color Zones
Atlantic City: With the old school neon, the new school
Borgata Hotel driven high-end shops and the timeless boardwalk, not a
lot of people think trees when it comes to this hardcore gambler's paradise.
And it's true that a number of the surrounding courses offer largely links
style golf.
But playing the Michael Hurdzan- and Dana Fry-designed Sand
Barrens can be a surreal fall golf experience, with the colorful trees
standing out against the huge sand bunkers, adding an almost alien feel
to the land. Plus, for pure leafy color bursts in natural surroundings,
it's an easy drive to Cape
May National Golf Club. Here you're literally playing in one of the
largest private bird sanctuaries in the state.
"I don't know if people realize how the water helps make the Atlantic
City area's winter weather much more temperate," said Rob Clark, the general
manager of the Seaview Marriott Resort & Spa's two golf courses. "We can
be playing golf while places 30 minutes from us in either direction are
buried in snow."
 Maryland
magic: Nobody thinks of Maryland
when it comes to fall foliage. Its red and orange colored leaves might
as well be in a tree witness protection program. Yet there are numerous
courses, particularly those near the Potomac River, that are awash in
fall scenery.
Try the Swan
Point Golf Yacht and Country Club for its color-splotched river views.
Or head to Pete
Dye's Bulle
Rock and stare up at the towering hardwood trees and gawk as the course
beats you to death. For the more budget conscious there's Greystone,
where you're liable to notice those leaves rustling and your shots going
every which way in the tough fall winds.
You're not going to run into any buses filled with gawking tourists exhaustively
filming fall's changeover on their camcorders in Maryland. It's not that
other "M" leaf-hyped state. You are going to find some picturesque
visions with even more interesting golf.
Williamsburg, Virginia.
: This historic town doesn't just provide a trip back into Colonial
times. It can almost bring a quick trip back into the seasons for Northerner
golfers. The leaves change much later here. Temperatures danced in the
80s in Williamsburg
this week, while they were in the low 60s in New
York. And unlike the 12-hour marathon drives to Myrtle
Beach, Williamsburg is an easily bearable six and a half hours from
New York City.
It isn't Southern hot either. There's still a Northeast change of the
seasons here, one that lasts well into November with Crayola-colored popping
leafs galore.
Playing at a place like Kingsmill
Woods Course or the Golden Horseshoe
Gold Course when the leaves are changing adds another dimension to
some challenging tracks. The Golden Horseshoe Gold is a Robert Trent Jones
Sr. design that meanders along 125 acres of woodlands. It's also an Audubon
Sanctuary.
Sometimes finding those hidden color explosions is a simple matter of
following the birds. It will bring you to places you'd never suspect.
Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management. The information in this story was accurate at the time of publication. All contact information, directions and prices should be confirmed directly with the golf course or resort before making reservations and/or travel plans.
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