Originally Published in Ontario Golf Magazine
Golf isn't the primary draw on the Outer Banks, or OBX as in the know folks call the 200-mile span of dune strewn barrier islands in Northeastern North Carolina that buffer a trio of Sounds (Currituck, Albermarle, and Pamlico) from the crashing waves of the Atlantic.  

A solo golf trip provides a unique opportunity to ponder whether an eagle is still an eagle if only other wildlife share in the experience. While that may sound like dollar-store metaphysics with no bragging rights up for grabs, lone wolf golf affords an opportunity to bury your ego in the deep rough and find out what kind of golfer you really are. The legendary fairways of Hilton Head Island promise a verdant setting for such a golfing spirit quest. 
 
The cross-trainer shaped 12-mile wide island’s developers might have been wise to carve out a giant swoosh shaped roadway just for kicks. Even Hilton Head’s Intracoastal waterways and inland marinas appear to be blue shoelaces and socks from an aerial vantage point. Locals often use the toe and heel as navigational totems. If this were Dubai, man-made, spike-shaped islands would be sculpted to the immediate south of the well-heeled shoe leaving little doubt that this place was made for golfers. But artificial islets would fly in the face of au naturel Hilton Head whose sneaker silhouette is just the way God made it.

Golf getaway prissies of the “I played Ballybunion AND Carnoustie last summer, and have the signed scorecards to prove it” variety often dismiss Myrtle Beach as a tourist sand trap crawling with Suburban driving dudes who go by two first names and amble into the tee box along with their 40+ BMI.  While the Grand Strand’s sheer breadth of course offerings does emphasize quantity — the golf capital of the world is home to more holes than a Tim Hortons franchise — there are plenty of widely lauded masterpieces among the 102 spreads, sure to spoil even the most accomplished weekend warrior’s good walk.

Every grass type you've ever heard name checked on Golf Channel is on this course. 29 varieties of blades, multiple Zoysia, Bermudas and Bentgrasses.

Beef is on the Plate in Alberta