As I exited I-75 and drove through the North Georgia hills, past the old stone walls toward Adairsville, I got the sense that Barnsley Resort is becoming something new while never losing what made it special in the first place. Nowhere is this more evident than in the resort’s new logo, which weaves together flowers, fountains, and fire, three elements that, once you spend a few days on property, you realize aren’t just design flourishes. They’re the whole story of Barnsley in miniature. The flowers nod to the resort’s famous gardens and the horticultural legacy of the Barnsley family. The…
Author: David Theoret
David Theoret
The Golfin’ Guy aka David (or Dave, but never Davey) Theoret grew up in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, where it was naturally assumed he would play hockey. Beginning at the age of 3 and continuing into his late 30's, he did just that. However, after one too many pucks to the head, he realized that golf was a lot easier on the body and took the game up. Whoever said hockey players were slow? Since that time, golf has become his passion – just ask Belinda. From 2003 until 2009, David ran the sales and marketing department of TravelGolf Media and took his team to over $1M in annual advertising revenue. While at TravelGolf, an editor told him he had a flair for writing and the lightbulb came on. He started writing articles about anything golf related: courses, destinations, resorts, shoes, apparel, equipment and training aids and sending them to websites and magazines. At first, his articles were picked up by a few golf websites and magazines, but the number steadily grew – enough that he could call it a career. Most days he’s on a course somewhere, either working or playing. Actually, to him playing IS work. Occasionally you’ll find him on the practice range reinforcing bad habits. David plays to a 12 handicap - unless there is money involved in which case it goes considerably higher. He currently resides in Fairfield Glade, TN with his wife Belinda and their two "kids," Duncan and Paisley.
Some golf courses announce themselves with grand entrances, valet parking, and a pro shop that smells like new leather. And then there are places like Binder Park Golf Course in Battle Creek, Michigan, where the announcement comes quietly, in the form of towering oaks closing in around you, a deer stepping out of the tree line to size you up, and the gradual realization that it’s just you, Mother Nature, and that little white ball! No houses. No fences. No subdivisions creeping up to the edge of the rough. Just 600 acres of some of the most pristine old-growth forest,…
Some golf trips are built around one great course. This one was built around variety, and Gaston County, North Carolina delivered it in a way I didn’t fully expect. Over a few days, I played a laid-back nine-hole track where tee times aren’t required, a historic Donald Ross design quietly grinding out good golf since the 1930s, and a private mountain club with a restoration story dramatic enough to make you forget you’re just there to play golf. Three completely different personalities, all a short drive apart in the shadow of Charlotte. We set up base camp at the Hampton…
There’s a moment, somewhere along the rolling bluegrass corridor of I-71 north of Louisville, when you realize Oldham County, Kentucky, has been quietly holding out on you. Horse farms scroll past the windows, the terrain rises and folds like a golf course architect’s rough draft, and by the time you pull off the interstate, you’ve already begun to understand why this compact county, just 20 minutes from downtown Louisville, packs four legitimate golf experiences into a stretch of land better known for thoroughbreds and bourbon. I came in for two nights with four rounds on the books and left with…
I’ve played a lot of mountain golf courses over the years, and most of them blur together after a while: pretty scenery, tight fairways, elevation changes in both directions. Olde Beau is not one of those courses. I could sketch you the routing from memory a year after playing it, hole by hole, and that’s about the highest compliment I can pay a golf course. Memorability is a rare and underrated quality in course design, and Billy Satterfield built it into every corner of this property when Olde Beau opened in 1992. Perched atop the Blue Ridge Mountains in Roaring…
There’s a moment on the drive into Pickwick Landing State Park when the trees open up, and Pickwick Lake spreads out in front of you. Tucked into the southwest corner of Tennessee, where the state meets Mississippi and Alabama, Pickwick Landing has built a reputation as a water sportsman’s paradise, but for my money, the golf course is the real headliner, and the lodging and dining that surround it make it an easy place to spend a few days. Pickwick Landing State Park Golf Course is a genuine 18-hole championship layout, and it plays every bit the part. From the…
Wekiva Golf Club – Delighting Seminole County Golfers For Over Fifty Years Wekiva Golf Club in Longwood, Florida, has a very interesting history. Before there was even a thought about turning this rugged, natural piece of land into a golf club/community, the property functioned as a hunting club and was often referred to as “Wekiva Hunt Club” or “Fox Hunt.” In 1972, this 138-acre piece of land was purchased for $4 million. At the time, it was the largest all-cash land deal in the history of Seminole County. Visionary planner Harlan Hanson helped shape the master-planned community that would follow, blending…
I’ll admit it, when someone first mentioned a golf weekend in Coshocton, Ohio, I had to pull up a map. But after two nights based out of the Roscoe Boutique Motel, two very different rounds of golf, and a wine flight with a river view, I left wondering why this corner of east-central Ohio isn’t on more golfers’ radar. Coshocton sits where the Walhonding and Tuscarawas Rivers meet, “union of waters,” as the name translates from the original Lenape. That geography shapes everything about the trip, from the rolling terrain the courses are routed through to the riverside patio where…
There’s something different about a golf course that’s been in the same family for generations, and you feel it the moment you pull into Bunker Hill Golf Course in Medina, Ohio. It doesn’t have the manicured, corporate polish of a country club chasing a brand image. What it has instead is the kind of lived-in character that only comes from decades of the same people caring for the same ground. Next year marks the course’s 100th anniversary, and after spending a day playing the property and hearing its story from co-owners Stephen Ross and Arnold Ingraham, and General Manager Chad…
I came in with two courses on the itinerary, two casino resorts for lodging and dining, and modest expectations for the non-golf parts of the trip. The golf exceeded every expectation. The food surprised me. And the value, frankly, was hard to argue with. Any serious golf trip to Tunica starts at Tunica National Golf & Tennis, and for good reason. Designed by 10-time PGA Tour winner Mark McCumber and opened in 2004, this par-72 championship layout stretches to 7,204 yards from the tips and sits comfortably on the Mississippi Golf Trail. Five sets of tee boxes make it welcoming…