Anyone who loves golf and travel has a few bucket list golf courses on their minds, like The Old Course at St. Andrews or Pebble Beach. But when you are truly devoted to traveling the world to play golf, you start to crave new challenges. Here are our top five up-and-coming golf destinations to add to your list for 2020.
Maximize sustainability at Rancho San Lucas
Cabo San Lucas in Mexico is known for its natural beauty, and the architects of Rancho San Lucas vowed to take that into account when building their new beachfront links-style course. The Greg Norman Signature Course works with both the natural layout and the fact that the Mexican weather is not the same as golf’s originating landscape of Scotland. The end result is a challenging course that will surely elevate the level of play in Los Cabos. And the accompanying private resort community is one more reason to add this destination to your list of golf adventures.
Go fully modern with Siam Country Club Pattaya Rolling Hills
The fourth course at the beautiful Siam Country Club Pattaya, Rolling Hills, opened in January 2020 as a distinctly modern offering. Already one of the premier golf destinations in Thailand, the course adds a new level of challenge with fewer distractions, thanks to the lack of real estate surrounding it. They’re already touting hole 15 as “The Wall of Death”, a double zig-zag fairway that slopes uphill with a 19-foot bunker between you and the green, just to keep things interesting.
Experience five-star luxury at West Cliffs
As a rare woman-designed course, West Cliffs outside Lisbon, Portugal boasts expert design by Cynthia Dye McGarey, who grew up coloring golf maps in the office of her father and uncle, Anderson and Pete Dye. Her goal to preserve the natural beauty of the landscape has resulted in a beautiful ocean-side links that keeps local ecology in mind. The accompanying five-star resort extorts you to get out into wild nature, and you may just feel that vibe as you’re teeing off.
Lose your breath at Thracian Cliffs Golf & Beach Resort
“Breathtaking” is certainly one way to describe the seaside cliffs that make up the Gary Player Signature Golf Course at Thracian Cliffs Golf & Beach Resort in Bulgaria. The Black Knight himself has predicted that the course will become one of the top three in the world, and it’s certainly the crown jewel in the three courses on Cape Kaliakra. Already a resort destination unto itself, the new course makes Thracian Cliffs a must-play for luxury travelers and golf enthusiasts.
Enjoy the charms of Rome at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club
Rome is already a prime spot for world travelers, and golf lovers can add the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club to their list of reasons to visit. While we love the Lake Como and Lake Maggiore golf resorts for a full escape from the city, Marco Simone is a delightful way to play some challenging golf while staying within reach of the Coliseum. And as the official host of the 2022 Ryder Cup, we’re sure to see more about the club in the coming years.
As a new year and a new decade, 2020 is a perfect time to upgrade your golfing bucket list with these five new, beautiful courses in exciting locales.
Ravi Coutinho is Founder and Lead Golf Travel Expert at Worldwide Golf Adventures. Worldwide Golf Adventures is a luxury golf tour operator that arranges custom golf vacations for clients around the world.If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
Ravi Coutinho is the founder of Worldwide Golf Adventures, a golf travel tour operator committed to providing personalized golf trips for individuals and groups to bucket-list destinations. His customers enjoy custom golf itineraries that include exciting side-trips to cultural attractions and stays in some of the best locations in the world. Ravi played golf at university and is an avid traveler himself.
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8 Comments
There’s that quote that golf is a good walk ruined and it’s even truer about these great courses. There’s a drama and beauty to the scene in the West Cliffs picture. It’s almost a pity to spoil the picture by putting mere mortal golfers into the scene.
From that picture of West Cliffs, I think that the biggest compliment you can pay to designer Cynthia Dye McCarey is that you wouldn’t know that the course is there, it merges in so seamlessly with the environment. Lovely story of her colouring in maps in her Dad’s office, probably dreaming of the day when she’ll could have her own design projects.
Probably a good idea to play at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club over the next couple of years. Once the Ryder Cup has been played at a course every one wants to play there and it gets so much harder to get a tee time.
This is all too much of a teaser. One picture of all of these great courses isn’t enough. Can’t we have a whole piece on a course? That way you could slot in half a dozen pictures of more. Sometimes A Luxury Travel Blog does hotel reviews with loads of pictures. Maybe you could do that for a course too. I’ve played at many a course where the clubhouse offers both stunning views and fantastic food, would be nice to see that covered too.
That’s a great idea, Tony! We’ll see what we can do for next time. The problem would be picking a single course, but we could probably make a series out of it!
I think there was more beach than green on that West Cliff golf course. I’m not sure I’d be able to concentrate knowing that the beach is just a few steps away. Playing on a golf course designed woman is enticing enough. As this post said it’s very rare to find one.
One of the things I’m missing most this time is golfing with my buddies. But it’s a relatively safe sport in COVID times since it’s non-contact and social distancing is easy to observe. These places are amazing though, clifftop golfing is one of my favorite golfing locations. I’ve tried Kuta Golf in Bali and Wicklow in Ireland. I love the amazing views and fresh air. But that view of ancient ruins in Marco Simone is interesting. I hope business takes me somewhere near that place. Let’s see.
My mates and I are mainly fair weather golfers, here in the UK we usually come out of hibernation around early May and then head back into hibernation at the end of October.
The problem is that over the last two UK summers we haven’t had great golf. Last year it was too dangerously hot to play and this year we’ve cancelled our last 3 rounds because of rain.
The thought of extending out season with an autumn overseas trip or in early spring to warm ourselves up is very appealing. You’ve given us some great ideas here.
Go fully modern with Siam Country Club Pattaya Rolling Hills
The fourth course at the beautiful Siam Country Club Pattaya, Rolling Hills, opened in January 2020 as a distinctly modern offering. Already one of the premier golf destinations in Thailand, the course adds a new level of challenge with fewer distractions, thanks to the lack of real estate surrounding it. They’re already touting hole 15 as “The Wall of Death”, a double zig-zag fairway that slopes uphill with a 19-foot bunker between you and the green, just to keep things interesting.
Go fully modern with Siam Country Club Pattaya Rolling Hills
The fourth course at the beautiful Siam Country Club Pattaya, Rolling Hills, opened in January 2020 as a distinctly modern offering. Already one of the premier golf destinations in Thailand, the course adds a new level of challenge with fewer distractions, thanks to the lack of real estate surrounding it. They’re already touting hole 15 as “The Wall of Death”, a double zig-zag fairway that slopes uphill with a 19-foot bunker between you and the green, just to keep things interesting.
Experience five-star luxury at West Cliffs
As a rare woman-designed course, West Cliffs outside Lisbon, Portugal boasts expert design by Cynthia Dye McGarey, who grew up coloring golf maps in the office of her father and uncle, Anderson and Pete Dye. Her goal to preserve the natural beauty of the landscape has resulted in a beautiful ocean-side links that keeps local ecology in mind. The accompanying five-star resort extorts you to get out into wild nature, and you may just feel that vibe as you’re teeing off.
Lose your breath at Thracian Cliffs Golf & Beach Resort
“Breathtaking” is certainly one way to describe the seaside cliffs that make up the Gary Player Signature Golf Course at Thracian Cliffs Golf & Beach Resort in Bulgaria. The Black Knight himself has predicted that the course will become one of the top three in the world, and it’s certainly the crown jewel in the three courses on Cape Kaliakra. Already a resort destination unto itself, the new course makes Thracian Cliffs a must-play for luxury travelers and golf enthusiasts.
Enjoy the charms of Rome at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club
Rome is already a prime spot for world travelers, and golf lovers can add the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club to their list of reasons to visit. While we love the Lake Como and Lake Maggiore golf resorts for a full escape from the city, Marco Simone is a delightful way to play some challenging golf while staying within reach of the Coliseum. And as the official host of the 2022 Ryder Cup, we’re sure to see more about the club in the coming years.
As a new year and a new decade, 2020 is a perfect time to upgrade your golfing bucket list with these five new, beautiful courses in exciting locales.
Ravi Coutinho is Founder and Lead Golf Travel Expert at Worldwide Golf Adventures. Worldwide Golf Adventures is a luxury golf tour operator that arranges custom golf vacations for clients around the world.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
There’s that quote that golf is a good walk ruined and it’s even truer about these great courses. There’s a drama and beauty to the scene in the West Cliffs picture. It’s almost a pity to spoil the picture by putting mere mortal golfers into the scene.
From that picture of West Cliffs, I think that the biggest compliment you can pay to designer Cynthia Dye McCarey is that you wouldn’t know that the course is there, it merges in so seamlessly with the environment. Lovely story of her colouring in maps in her Dad’s office, probably dreaming of the day when she’ll could have her own design projects.
Probably a good idea to play at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club over the next couple of years. Once the Ryder Cup has been played at a course every one wants to play there and it gets so much harder to get a tee time.
This is all too much of a teaser. One picture of all of these great courses isn’t enough. Can’t we have a whole piece on a course? That way you could slot in half a dozen pictures of more. Sometimes A Luxury Travel Blog does hotel reviews with loads of pictures. Maybe you could do that for a course too. I’ve played at many a course where the clubhouse offers both stunning views and fantastic food, would be nice to see that covered too.
That’s a great idea, Tony! We’ll see what we can do for next time. The problem would be picking a single course, but we could probably make a series out of it!
I think there was more beach than green on that West Cliff golf course. I’m not sure I’d be able to concentrate knowing that the beach is just a few steps away. Playing on a golf course designed woman is enticing enough. As this post said it’s very rare to find one.
One of the things I’m missing most this time is golfing with my buddies. But it’s a relatively safe sport in COVID times since it’s non-contact and social distancing is easy to observe. These places are amazing though, clifftop golfing is one of my favorite golfing locations. I’ve tried Kuta Golf in Bali and Wicklow in Ireland. I love the amazing views and fresh air. But that view of ancient ruins in Marco Simone is interesting. I hope business takes me somewhere near that place. Let’s see.
My mates and I are mainly fair weather golfers, here in the UK we usually come out of hibernation around early May and then head back into hibernation at the end of October.
The problem is that over the last two UK summers we haven’t had great golf. Last year it was too dangerously hot to play and this year we’ve cancelled our last 3 rounds because of rain.
The thought of extending out season with an autumn overseas trip or in early spring to warm ourselves up is very appealing. You’ve given us some great ideas here.