Bridges GC
Madison, WI
Yahoo Review: This beautiful golf course offers guests a relaxing 18 holes of golf on a par 72, 6,030 yard course.
Yahoo Player Review: 4/5 stars on 1 review. "Great course with plenty of challenges and many different styles of holes. Great price too. Can't go wrong."
Ranked by Playboy as the 2006 Best Party School in the country, from criteria as varied as the price of beer to the local music scene to the outdoor lifestyle to the quality of the student body (wink wink), the University of Wisconsin rocks the house.
Where To Booze & Grub: State Street Brats (603 State St, 608-255-5544) was recently named one of the best sportsbars in America by both Sports Illustrated and the ESPN college football crew. They serve up brats in both Badger flavors: red and white. OR hit the Madison outpost of Western PA's best buffalo wing chain, Quaker Steak N' Lube (www.quakersteakandlube.com), featuring a racing theme and hottie waitstaff. Good steaks, finger food, and 14 award-winning flavors of wings, with the "Hot" also making Joby's Top 5. Take a bottle of the sauce home for grillin'. A website review I stumbled across also highly recommended the Toranado Steakhouse (http://www.tornadosteakhouse.com/), described as having a supper club atmophere.
Best 2 AM Eatery: La Bamba, where the burritos are "as big as your head".
When To Go: Playboy says Madison's two Can't Miss parties of the year are the annual Halloween Party on State Street, and the Mifflin Street Block Party in April.
Further Distractions: Madison has a thriving music scene, as well as full-contact female roller derby.
Per T&L Golf July/Aug 08:
Other Courses to Play
University Ridge Golf Course
(4 stars)
Home of the University of Wisconsin golf teams, this Robert Trent Jones Jr. design unfurls across a windswept plateau on the edge of the Driftless Area, a region of the Midwest marked by deep river valleys and a lack of glacial drift (a geological term for the silt, gravel and boulders left by retreating glaciers). The Ridge, as the course is known, has a scenic front nine routed through mostly open prairie and a back nine cut through dense forest. Jones built generous fairways and bail-out areas around the greens—but poorly struck shots are by and large punished. The second hole is a memorable risk-reward par five where drives off the elevated tee must carry a rock-strewn gully and a pair of fairway bunkers in order to give long hitters the option of going for the green. Perhaps the sternest test comes at eighteen, a par four that turns left and climbs a hill to a large bi-level green. It’s a potent finishing hole.
9002 County Road PD, Verona. Architect: Robert Trent Jones Jr., 1991. Yardage: 7,259. Par: 72. Slope: 142. Green Fees: $48–$89. Contact: 608-845-7700, www.universityridge.com.
Where To Stay:
The Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club The top three floors of this large downtown hotel are set aside for the Governor’s Club, a collection of opulent rooms and suites. The hotel has a full-service restaurant and a bar that offers live jazz three nights a week. There’s also a fitness center, sauna and indoor pool.
One West Dayton Street, Madison. Rooms: $125–$175. Contact: 800-356-8293, www.concoursehotel.com.
Where To Eat:
L’Etoile (French) The owners of this celebrated Madison restaurant, whose exposed-brick second-floor dining room overlooks Capital Square, are champions of the farm-to-table movement. They tailor the ever-changing menu around weekly bounty from the city’s bustling farmers’ market. Where the Beautiful People eat.
25 North Pinckney Street, Madison; 608- 251-0500, www.letoile-restaurant.com. $$$$