Homestead GR (Cascades Course)
Hot Springs, WV
T&L Golf Review: The Homestead, Cascades *****
Standing on the first tee at the Cascades, you might wonder what all the fuss is about. Sure, there's the famous sign quoting Hot Springs native Sam Snead: "if you can play the Cascades, you can play anywhere." But all you see ahead is an unassuming tree-lined fairway rising gently to a green less than four hundred yards away. By the turn, however, you've begun to see why this course—whose bunkers were restored over the winter to their original shapes—has hosted seven USGA championships. The holes wind through clefts in the Allegheny Mountains and along gurgling Cascades Creek. The fairways fit the terrain. Consider the tenth, called Slippery Hollow: It follows the contours of a small ridge down into a dell, tumbling like a pooling stream from one landing area to another. The greens, subtly affected by the surrounding hillsides, can be as difficult to read as Sanskrit.
1766 Homestead Drive, Hot Springs, Virginia; 540-839-1766, thehomestead.com. Yardage: 6,679. Par: 70. Slope: 137. Architect: William S. Flynn, 1923. Greens Fee: $235.
Best Bar Nearby: Sam Snead's Tavern (Hot Springs). This cozy pub near the Homestead features plenty of Slammin' Sam memorabilia and down-home dishes. Remember his legend by ordering his favorite meal: steak with apple pie ala mode for dessert. Named as one of Golf Magazine's 2003 "50 Coolest Places In Golf".
Further Diversions: The Homestead features America's first spa for children. Guests from infancy to 16 can enjoy treatments such as the Fancy Feet pedicure: chocolate milk bath, whipped-chocolate lotion, and a cookies-n-cream scrub to calm their golf-tired dogs.