Long Golf Weekend: Virginia Beach

Crew cuts outnumber cornrows in this military town on Chesapeake Bay, but it's still a great place for golfers to let their hair down. Virginia Beach is a destination where you might actually want to hit the sand: it has one of the world's longest pleasure beaches-more than 35 miles long-while the 3-mile boardwalk stitches together the lively collection of hotels, taverns and seafood shacks that give the town the feel of your old family-vacation film reels.

Bay Creek Golf Club
Jack Nicklaus course: 7,417 yards, par 72
Arnold Palmer Course: 7204, par 72;
Greens fee: $95
757-331-9000, baycreekgolfclub.com
The latest addition to Virginia Beach golf is the Nicklaus course at Bay Creek, which curls along the pristine dunes. Most memorable are the par 3s, the 158-yard fourth and No. 12, a 238-yarder. The back nine is decked out like a prom queen, with thousands of azaleas and indigenous trees lining the lush fairways. The same holds true of the club's older Palmer Course, which is notable for a brutal stretch from Nos. 11 through 13. Pray that your scorecard emerges relatively unscathed from this Amen Corner.

TPC at Virginia Beach
7,432 yards, par 72;
Greens fee: $128
757-563-9440, tpc.com

The rap against TPC courses is they're too similar and too expensive. But this one does what all TPC tracks should do but don't: Give amateurs a taste of what it's like to play where the big boys do, without beating them with a big stick.