Where should I move? Golf course input required.

[Motley01]

The Springs actually has some really nice golf courses. You have The Broadmore, The Ridge at Castle Pines, and Red Hawk Ridge. Those are all beautiful mountain style courses that are rated top in Colorado.

[k-troop]

Originally Posted by Motley01

The Springs actually has some really nice golf courses. You have The Broadmore, The Ridge at Castle Pines, and Red Hawk Ridge. Those are all beautiful mountain style courses that are rated top in Colorado.

Agreed, but not exactly places I would play every weekend on an Army officer's salary!  I've played the AFA courses once or twice, and as I recall one of them was very nice--but impossible to get a tee time.  Of course, back when I was a Lieutenant I wouldn't wake up before 0900 on a weekend.  Now I'm more of a 0430 riser, so the early morning walk-on could be an option.

[Motley01]

Originally Posted by k-troop

Agreed, but not exactly places I would play every weekend on an Army officer's salary!  I've played the AFA courses once or twice, and as I recall one of them was very nice--but impossible to get a tee time.  Of course, back when I was a Lieutenant I wouldn't wake up before 0900 on a weekend.  Now I'm more of a 0430 riser, so the early morning walk-on could be an option.

Ya those ones are really nice, and expensive. You don't have to play them every weekend. There are a ton of other cheaper courses that have some decent tracks.

This year I joined the GolfWeek Amateur Tour, and we played in the Springs like 5 times. Two nice ones that were reasonable fees were Pine Creek and King's Deer. Both were great layouts and challenging for good players.

[Beachcomber]

Personally, if I had to pick... I'd pick Colorado Springs.  Florida is a great vacation, and that is about the extent of it for me.  The biggest things I don't like about Florida:

1.) Bugs are terrible

2.) Humidity is brutal

3.) Hurricanes are nasty

4.) There is a lot of trash / rejects running around

On the bright side... You'd have the Gulf/Ocean - and the beaches are nice.  Golf is pretty good too.  But 1 through 4 would be the reason I'd pick Co Springs over the places in Florida.

[cooke119]

Originally Posted by Motley01

Don't come to Colorado. All the New Yorkers move here, so it's now a "mini-New York", complete with yelling, horn blasting, and bad traffic.

We also have fires, school/theater shootings, and lots of fat girls.

Boy, isn't there anyplace us New Yorkers move that we don't scew up. I thought Florida was the new New York.

[caniac6]

I used to live in Fayetteville,and I loved it. The local golf is good; fun courses& reasonable prices. Not far from Pinehurst area. Easy drive to Wilmington and Myrtle Beach. Just like any town, there are areas to avoid, but overall, it was a nice place to live. Great people. The only negative was the summers. Very hot.

[mdl]

Originally Posted by Beachcomber

Personally, if I had to pick... I'd pick Colorado Springs.  Florida is a great vacation, and that is about the extent of it for me.  The biggest things I don't like about Florida:

1.) Bugs are terrible

2.) Humidity is brutal

3.) Hurricanes are nasty

4.) There is a lot of trash / rejects running around

On the bright side... You'd have the Gulf/Ocean - and the beaches are nice.  Golf is pretty good too.  But 1 through 4 would be the reason I'd pick Co Springs over the places in Florida.

Ha. This is exactly what I was thinking.

Of course, Colorado Springs isn't exactly supposed to be the coolest city in CO.  But, I guess it's still at least in the mountains instead of the swamp (I know, most of Florida is not a swamp... Just feels like it when there's 1000% humidity!).

[act0fgod]

Honestly you can't go wrong with any of your choices.

My wife is stationed in Ft. Walton. For base courses you have the course on Hurlburt (fun place and in pretty good shape), two courses on Eglin (one of the courses is in the discussion for best DOD courses), and then Tyndall isn't too far away. For off base golf you don't have anything that is top 100 quality but it's affordable and pretty good (lots of places offer military discounts).

Tampa is the area I know the least about but a resort that may become Bandon Dunes of FL ( http://www.streamsongresort.com/ ) is going to be opening pretty close by at the end of the year and I wouldn't be surprised if both of the courses there become the top public courses in FL.

We have a place in Pinehurst. There are people that live in Pinehurst and drive to Bragg (about 45 min to the main gate from Pinehurst). As far as the military courses the two courses at Bragg are probably the worst military course options of the four places you listed, but certainly not the worst military courses there are. That being said there is a lot of other public golf options in the area that are really good. I'd recommend the bit about living in Pinehurst. Most of the residents are a bit older but it has a good community feel. If you have kids it's safe, there are pools, there is the lake and the golf is great. Pinehurst often gets billed as being expensive golf but if you buy a house and join the Pinehurst CC you can play #1-#6 and your membership fees are reasonable for the quality of the golf you get (the fee per month is less than the walk up rate on #2).

I started my career in Co Springs and can't wait to get back. I've played 100's of rounds on the two courses at the AF academy. The Blue course is my favorite DOD course. The course on Fort Carson is pretty good and Peterson is alright. People have knocked the fact that there is a golf season. I can tell you I played in every month of the year (occasionally the turf was frozen but I was still playing) while we lived there.  The mountain states are definitely under rated golf states.

[1player]

I'm retired with huge assets

You know where I CHOSE TO LIVE

FL

Hands down #1 state for golfers

And I've had homes over the years in AZ, CA, NY, NJ, PA, NV as well as outside the USA

Let's see

Jack

Arnie

Tiger

Where are all the greats primary homes?

FL

As long as you're not in a trailer or a single story right on the beach

Hurricanes aren't gonna effect you too much

Sure once in a lifetime an andrew comes along, but anything built in the last 10 years in FL can stand up to pretty much a Cat 5 now

It's the surge of a hurricane that gets you in trouble, flooding, normally the wind can be handled, but if you're in a zone hit, have a generator since you will have no power for 3 to 7 days

Me I just leave FL usually during hurricane season

LOL

FL for sure and yeah no state income tax

Homesteading of homes if you're in trouble like OJ

Cheap everything, housing, golf, food, strippers

All the essentials

LOL

Bugs aren't a problem in SFL

You got trash people every where in the world

And some are even members at top clubs (LOL)

But they sure do have nice 'gated communities' all over FL

Great road system

Humid in Summer but then is when you vacation to the mountains right

LOL

[ejimsmith]

i'd skip them all and pick palm springs, cali.

[act0fgod]

Originally Posted by ejimsmith

i'd skip them all and pick palm springs, cali.

I think you missed the part about moving to the listed places because of a job (military).

[ejimsmith]

Originally Posted by act0fgod

I think you missed the part about moving to the listed places because of a job (military).

nope, i didn't miss that.  i stand by my suggestion... florida sssssssuuuucccckkksssss....

[Bullitt5339]

I was stationed at Ft. Walton Beach and Ft. Bragg before I retired, so I can comment on those two places at least.

Ft. Walton Beach was awesome.  I wasn't much of a golfer when I was there, but I absolutely loved it there.  Whenever you leave the gates of the base and there's the Gulf right across the street, it's a great place.  Unfortunately, the Army doesn't have too many places like that, so my time at Hurlburt Field was a joy, but I was single then, and it is a party town.  So if you like clubs and partying, it's a great place to be, at least it was 15 years ago.  I'm sure it's only gotten bigger since then.

When I retired from the Army, I decided to move back to the Ft. Bragg area willingly, believe it or not.  Mainly because I knew there would be job opportunities here and the cost of living is reasonable.  As long as you don't live in Fayetteville or Spring Lake, it's pretty good.  There's a lot of nice housing opportunities in Hoke County, which is a 20-30 minute drive from base, depending on where you're at.  The pluses for here are just the location.  While Fayetteville itself has earned the name "Fayettenam", the surrounding area is pretty nice.  Golf out the ass........  I've been trying to play a different course once a month, and haven't made a dent in the courses around here yet.  There's 84 courses in the immediate area (within 40 miles) in Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen, Fayetteville, and that doesn't count the Myrtle Beach area.  I live just south of Fayetteville and it's a 2 hour drive to the center of Myrtle Beach.  I will drive down there just to play golf for the day and then drive home.  Asheville is a couple hours away, and there's a few nice mountain courses up there also.

So, you really can't go wrong with either, but I would pay close attention to where I would be living in Fayetteville.....  I've been around this area for a total of 10 years, and lived in Fayetteville for 1 year until my lease was up, and have lived outside of Cumberland County every since.  Nicer housing at better cost.  You can get a nice, new 2000ish square ft. house for $150k-175k in a decent neighborhood here.  That's pretty much what brought me back after I retired.

[dpgator33]

I've lived in FL my whole life, and it bothers me to the core that I can only golf so much in the summer (late April - October really) because of the heat.  Went on a "golfcation" in late April this year and had planned 18-36-36 hols over three days.  By the third day we were so sick of being outside we didn't even finish our last round.  And we LOVE golf.

Granted, winter golf in Florida (November-Early April), outside of the occasional times when it's in the 40s-50s during the day, is pretty amazing.  I just would rather live somewhere where I can golf comfortably 8-9 months of the year, even if it means winter golf is a hit and miss proposition.  That's why I'm moving to either Denver or Colorado in the next 3-5 years.

From what I understand, Denver courses don't close seasonally, just when there's snow on the ground.  Personally, I would prefer 1000 times over playing golf when it's 30 degrees than when it's 90+ and 90%+ humidity, which is every day aorund here for 7 months.

[Valleygolfer]

Originally Posted by cooke119

Quote:

Originally Posted by Motley01

Don't come to Colorado. All the New Yorkers move here, so it's now a "mini-New York", complete with yelling, horn blasting, and bad traffic.

We also have fires, school/theater shootings, and lots of fat girls.

Boy, isn't there anyplace us New Yorkers move that we don't scew up. I thought Florida was the new New York.

Ha! We have "m*******s" here. I actually like having them move here since I am not originally from here. It is harder than hell to make friends with local yokels. The worst is the Mass tourists are pain in the ass drivers and they talk all weird...lol

[k-troop]

Originally Posted by dpgator33

Granted, winter golf in Florida (November-Early April), outside of the occasional times when it's in the 40s-50s during the day, is pretty amazing.  I just would rather live somewhere where I can golf comfortably 8-9 months of the year, even if it means winter golf is a hit and miss proposition.  That's why I'm moving to either Denver or Colorado in the next 3-5 years.

From what I understand, Denver courses don't close seasonally, just when there's snow on the ground.  Personally, I would prefer 1000 times over playing golf when it's 30 degrees than when it's 90+ and 90%+ humidity, which is every day aorund here for 7 months.

So if you move to Denver, then you won't be moving to Colorado?

I lived in CO for 3 years, though I didn't play much golf then.  Weather is great--sunny, dry, and comfortable most of the time.  But it does get pretty darn cold, and quite windy, between October and April.  I'm not sure 8-9 months of golf is totally reasonable, unless you're one who'll play in a bear suit.  I'd imagine that Dec-Feb the first tee times aren't until mid to late morning due to frozen ground, and I'd imagine there are times when the ground doesn't thaw for weeks.  Would be interested in hearing thoughts from CO golfers about this.

We can now throw Leavenworth, KS into the mix.  Golfer's paradise!!  Will know in about 8 weeks.

[newtogolf]

I'd pick NC of those options, Florida is to hot and humid in the summer and Co winters are too long.

NC summers aren't too hot, you get a pretty short winter and longer spring and fall.  Plus you're closer to Myrtle Beach.

[Johnny1putt]

Originally Posted by ejimsmith

nope, i didn't miss that.  i stand by my suggestion... florida sssssssuuuucccckkksssss....

I have nothing to add to this thread other than.... I lived in Florida for 13 years and yes..... florida sssssssuuuucccckkssssss is DEAD ON.  Way too freakin hot, crime sucks, people suck, traffic sucks.....