Luxist

There is such an abundance of high-quality desert golf in the greater Phoenix and Tucson areas that it can be hard to decide where to play over the course of a short visit. Here's one option that may help make Arizona snowbirds choose where to alight this winter with their clubs in tow: The soon-to-open Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain is offering an unlimited-golf package beginning December 18. Guests who take advantage of the deal can play the resort's
Jack Nicklaus–designed layout--annual host to the world's finest golfers at the Accenture Match Play Championship--from 2 p.m. the day they arrive until 7 p.m. the day they depart. The offer, which includes deluxe accommodations, starts at $399 for one player and $519 for two.

When completed, the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain will encompass 850 acres within a spectacular saguaro forest outside Tucson. Plans call for the 250-room resort to be accompanied by a community of 400 homes. Beyond golf, activities at Dove Mountain include hiking along 20 miles of trails mapped by National Geographic and touring the rugged desert-scape by mountain bike or Jeep. There's also a state-of-the-art spa that features, among other enticements, a Vichy shower (see photo gallery) that's ideal for scrubbing off the perspiration and grit accumulated on a warm Sonoran day.

Not long ago, golf real estate communities sprouted across the country every month, each project promising a higher level of luxury than the last. These days, they're as a rare as a postseason in baseball that doesn't include the Red Sox or the Yankees. Hence the curiosity of the Victory Ranch Club, an expansive (5,600-acre) development just east of Park City, Utah, that's to be designed around a just-opened--and, of course, camera-friendly--Rees Jones golf course.

The primary selling point of Victory Ranch is its mountain setting. The 7,600-yard golf course gambols across rugged topography that features deep ravines, bulwarks of ancient stone and high plateaus that yield sweeping views of the Deer Valley ski area and the Jordanelle Reservoir. Horseback riding on a network of trails and fly fishing in the Upper Provo River complete the tableau. Whether buyers will come at a time when the nation's high-end real estate market is reeling remains to be seen.

Golf, as everyone knows, is a game of tradition. So when the Acushnet Co. announced last winter that it was closing its FootJoy Classics factory in Brockton, Mass.--which for decades had produced leather-soled, welted golf shoes that set a standard for refinement--purists were despondent. The Classics line had gone the way of persimmon woods and balata balls. Now, amid the endless store racks of unstylish, if functional, shoes, golf's traditionalists again have a place to turn: the company has introduced a new line of finely detailed brogues called the FootJoy Icon.

The Icon comes in five patterns--including wing-tips and plain-toe saddle, both adapted from the old Classics--and a total of 19 styles. In addition, all but one of the patterns are part of FootJoy's MyJoys program, in which customers can choose from thousands of color and other personalized options, such as collegiate, NFL and MLB logos. Sartorialists will appreciate the Icon's traditional touches: full-grain leather uppers, calf-skin detailing, a leather-covered "fit-bed" designed to mimic the natural shape of the foot. These are combined with 21st-century technological innovations including a tri-density outsole for a stable hitting platform and two-part forefoot channels for comfort and flexibility.

FootJoy Icons can be found on the feet of such PGA Tour pros as Hunter Mahan, a fan of the two-tone wing tip (see photo gallery,) and Ian Poulter, whose wildly colorful trousers often require a solid white shoe. For those of us golfers who have to pay for our footwear, the Icon's suggested retail price is $250 for stock styles, $270 for original MyJoys and $290 for MyJoys bearing licensed logos.

Regardless of how well you've played the first seven holes, when you reach the eighth tee at Mirabel Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., your round takes on a different flavor. There, at a comfort station on the edge of the Sonoran desert, a covered ceramic pot contains "the thickest, moistest, tastiest Beef Jerky ever made." So enthuse Scott Savlov and Jon Rizzi in their appealing new coffee table book "The Club Menu: Signature Dishes from America's Premier Golf Clubs." Hyperbole? Having visited Mirabel and sunk my own teeth into those exquisitely marinated, salted and dehydrated strips of flank steak, I can vouch for every superlative the authors use to describe them.

Savlov and Rizzi (the latter of whom I occasionally worked with while I was an editor at Travel + Leisure Golf) engagingly present the culinary specialties of more than a hundred clubs. The movable feast begins at Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton, N.Y., (lobster salad and coffee cake with Kahlua icing) and concludes at Windsong Farm Golf Club in Independence, Minn., (banana bread with maple pecan butter).

The book's conceit is that enjoying a club's signature dish is as integral a part of the experience as playing its golf course. To be able to say you've had the "burger dog"--a grilled hamburger shaped like a hot dog and served in a hot dog bun (see photo gallery)--at the Olympic Club in San Francisco is to make clear that you've entered an inner sanctum. In fairness, not all of the dishes featured in the book seem particularly indigenous or steeped in tradition. If I never have the orange-soy seared salmon at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert, Calif., I won't feel deprived. But those are the exceptions. Anyone who has even a passing interest in the game's bastions of privilege will enjoy perusing these pages, which include recipes for every dish. The 128-page hardcover book ($50) is available at www.pindarpress.com.

Even the most steel-eyed hustler might pause for a moment before breaking a rack on the latest offering from Brunswick Billiards: a replica of the company's Exposition Novelty Table from 1878. The iconic pool-table manufacturer has produced scores of models since its founding (by a Cincinnati carriage maker) in 1845, but it is this one that Brunswick has chosen to reproduce in honor of its 165th anniversary. Beginning in October, the company will offer for sale 25 renditions of the exquisite 9-foot-long table -- at a cost of $39,999, including a matching cue stick and cue rack.

An award-winner in its day, Brunswick says, the Exposition Novelty Table artistically blended sophisticated nineteenth-century refinement with the aesthetic of a still largely untamed American West. It sits on beveled legs of solid white oak and is adorned with a variety of richly grained veneers, brass rosettes, and rail sights made from Asian water buffalo bone.

After completing his work each day on the hard, sun-baked courts of the U.S. Open in Flushing, Queens, Roger Federer will rest his head on plush monogrammed pillows (above) at the Carlyle Hotel on Manhattan's Upper East Side, the New York Observer reports. Federer, winner of the most grand slam titles in the history of men's tennis, will be staying for the third consecutive year in a $3,000-a-night suite on the 16th floor.

As the Observer dutifully details, Federer's suite has a long, formal living room furnished in black and white and hung with a large "quasi-Picasso." The bathroom is bedecked in black marble and gold trim. The polite and soft-spoken Swiss, the newspaper reports, prefers the smaller of the two bedrooms, eschewing the master chamber, with its mirrored bedposts and leopard-print rug. His focus during the fortnight will be on capturing his 16th major title, two more than the less artistic, though coldly efficient, Pete Sampras.

With its pink-sand beaches, temperate climate and traditional English touches (cricket, afternoon tea, orderly streets), Bermuda has never lacked for charm. But the recent debut, in April, of Tucker's Point Hotel & Spa has offered an added attraction: the first luxury resort to open in decades in the centuries-old British territory.

The resort is designed to evoke the golden age of Bermuda tourism, roughly the 1930s and '40s, when the well-heeled arrived by steamships, Pan Am Clippers and private yachts. Most of the accommodations are in a manor house perched above Castle Harbour, a 17th-century anchorage. A formal palm court (above) leads visitors from the croquet lawn to a horizon pool. The Tucker's Point Spa is not to be outdone, featuring treatments centered on local flora, ocean minerals and honey harvested on the resort grounds. There's open-air yoga and tai chi, and a "hydrotherapy suite" in which guests submit to the invigoration of a SilverTAG shower, consisting of 18 specially placed shower heads that shoot water of varying temperatures and pressures. For golfers, the resort has its own seaside course and, even better, there's the option of going next door to play the world-renowned Mid Ocean Club, designed by Charles Blair Macdonald in 1921.

Rooms start at $590 per night, double occupancy, through Aug. 31. From Sept. 1 to Oct. 31, they begin at $460.

Much has been written about Spain's tourism woes, particularly in light of the struggling British pound. For high-end travelers still determined to use their passport, here's a bulletin of good news. Finca Cortesin, a boutique hotel and resort on the Costa del Sol that welcomed its first guests last fall and promptly earned a spot on Condé Nast Traveler's Hot List of new hotels, has opened an exquisite 23,000 square-foot-spa. Guests can now indulge in a Turkish hamam (or steam bath) and then cool off in the Snow Cave, inspired by the Finnish tradition of rolling in the snow after a sauna as a way to boost immune defenses. There's also a 114-foot indoor pool that bathed in natural light as well as two outdoor pools, one of which is Olympic-size, that offer sweeping views of the Mediterranean.

The spa is just the latest amenity at the Moorish-style resort, 45 minutes west of the international airport in Málaga. The Finca Cortesin has two restaurants, a fountained courtyard and a scenically rolling golf course that hosts the PGA European Tour's Volvo Match Play Championship.

We all know Tiger Woods is part-Thai. But what's the golf scene like in Thailand, the lush and beguiling land where his mother, Kultida, was born? To promote the country's finest courses, a group of premier golf properties and hotels has partnered with a tour operator and the Tourist Authority of Thailand. The consortium, called Golf in a Kingdom: The Thai Golf Experience, can help you map out an itinerary stretching from Chiang Mai, in the cool, mountainous region of the north, to the seascapes of Phuket and Koh Samui in the south. And by "experience," they mean not just golf but also cultural immersions like visits to Buddhist temples, ethnic villages and the teeming city of Bangkok.

Long a popular destination for Asian golfers, Thailand has more than 250 courses. Some of them, alas, are "American-style" layouts that could be in Florida or humdrum spots in the Caribbean. But others, such as Santiburi Samui Country Club (above), set into coconut groves at the foot of a mountain, offer a distinctly Thai adventure. The many charms of Thai golf will be on full display when Bill Clinton arrives this week--with clubs in tow, it's expected--to accompany Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting on the island of Phuket. For a deeper sense of golf in Thailand, check out this story (which I played a hand in) from Travel + Leisure Golf.

Pebble Beach will always reign supreme among California resorts, and deservedly so, but at $500 for a round of golf its rates aren't exactly recession-friendly. If you're looking for a more affordable golf getaway on the Pacific Coast, consider this: The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, an award-winning clifftop retreat 45 minutes south of San Francisco, is offering an unlimited stay-and-play package through year's end.

For a nightly rate of $399 for one player or $519 for two--a savings of $250–$500 per day--guests can play as many holes as they choose on the resort's two 18-hole courses. The Old Course, co-designed by Arnold Palmer, is an American parkland-style layout that finishes in dramatic fashion, with a par four that skirts the edge of a bluff. The newer Ocean Course, featuring more seaside holes and open expanses, draws its inspiration from the great windswept Scottish links; as testament to its character, it hosted a local qualifier for this year's U.S. Open.

In addition to golf, the special offer also includes complimentary valet parking and access to the hotel's spa, known for its co-ed Roman mineral bath.