Travel Notes

Golf Digest, Nov, 2000

Which are the best states for pace of play--and which are the slowest? Here are the top three, using average pace-of-play ratings in Golf Digest's Places to Play guide: Wyoming (average 4.084 rating out of a possible 5), North Dakota (3.893), Mississippi (3.655). And the bottom three: Rhode Island (2.936), New Jersey (2.942), Connecticut (2.991).

The Ritz-Carlton empire expands: December will be the opening of a new 261-room property at the excellent 36-hole Half Moon Bay Golf Links, located 30 minutes west of San Francisco International Airport. A new Ritz-Carlton Hotel opens in 2001 beside the two-year-old Greg Norman-designed Tiburon in Naples on Florida's southwest coast.

Coming soon: Tom Weiskopf's first golf course design in the Bahamas, the waterfront Ocean Club Golf Course on Paradise Island. The course will be the site of the Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational charity event Jan. 11-14.

Louisiana's plan to develop a state-owned Audubon Golf Trail, along the lines of Alabama's wildly successful Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, has received strong opposition from a variety of environmental and local groups. The plan may still go ahead, however, using existing courses rather than the proposed new layouts within state parks.