Right: Catch the top players on the Champions Tour at Rock Barn during the Greater Hickory Classic this month. Fall Travel: NC's New Golf Courses Swing into Fall With a Round of Golf By Kevin Brafford

You may want to throw your clubs in the trunk before setting off on your fall weekend getaway because there’s no better time for a round of golf than in the cooler months of September and October. The next few weeks also offer three chances to see the game’s top pros when the PGA, Champions and Nationwide tours stage tournaments in North Carolina.

And here’s an idea: if you’re planning a “leafpeeper” trip up to Asheville or Boone to see the fall foliage, stop in Hickory to walk a few holes with Tom Kite and Hale Irwin at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn. The inaugural Champions Tour tournament is scheduled for Sept. 26-28.

Rock Barn, which actually is in Conover, just east of Hickory, opened in 1969 with 18 holes designed by Russell Breeden. Today, it’s a sprawling 36-hole semi-private facility that includes a spa set to open this month. The course features a spectacular 18 holes designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., the son of one of the game’s most famous architects. The course opened to rave reviews a year ago this month and quickly caught the attention of the Champions Tour, which was looking to fill a week on its calendar that became available when R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. dropped is sponsorship of the Vantage  tournament at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons.

Be sure to wear some comfortable shoes because Rock Barn is a hilly layout where two-thirds of the holes play noticeably uphill or downhill, according to head professional Jeff Isenhour. Water comes into play on 12 holes. “It’s a shotmaker’s course,” says Isenhour. “It’s plenty long enough (7,242 yards from the championship tees), but what’s most important is that you control where you’re hitting the ball.”

Rock Barn represents Jones’s first design in the Carolinas. “Mother Nature certainly provided a wonderful canvas from which to work,” he says. “We simply embellished upon the natural features to create the course. The elevation changes we had to work with offered a unique challenge, and utilizing this feature to its fullest gives Rock Barn its dramatic feel and character.”

If you want to play Rock Barn you’ll have to make a tee time before Sept. 15, which is when it will close in preparation for the tournament. It is expected to re-open on Sept. 30. Best of all, it’s a bargain at $65, including cart, a rate that’s good daily through the fall.

The Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn is the middle of three pro tournaments to be played in the state during weekends this fall. It follows by one week the SAS Championship — also a Champions Tour event — that will be contested at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary.

If you prefer a younger crowd, the PGA Tour returns to the Piedmont on Oct. 16-19 for the newly named Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. The former GGO is one of the tour’s oldest stops, but its buzzword this year is “new.” It has a fall date for the first time, and players will tour a Forest Oaks Country Club layout that has undergone a multi-million dollar renovation overseen by former University of North Carolina star Davis Love III.

The luxury of combining a round of golf with quick visits to a regional festival or an historic landmark is one of the things that makes fall travel in North Carolina so special. For many, the pleasure is heightened when the course is a brand new layout that hardly anyone has played. In addition to Rock Barn, there are three other new courses you may want to check out:

On the fringe of the Sandhills is Keith Hills Country Club in Buies Creek. The “Campbell University course,” as it’s known to locals, has maintained a reputation as one of the state’s best public courses since its opening in 1974 thanks to a wonderfully flowing 18 holes designed by Ellis Maples.

Now it’s even better, thanks to an additional 18 holes designed by Dan Maples, Ellis’s son. “There just aren’t that many father-son golf courses out there,” says Martha Shooter, head pro at Keith Hills. “Not only are we lucky in that regard, but we’re lucky to have two courses that are terrific.”

Half of the new 18 holes opened in November 2001; the remaining nine opened last November. Shooter says the new course has wider fairways and larger landing areas than the older 18 holes, and at 6,888 yards is long enough to accommodate the advances in golf equipment.

“It’s a course where you can need every club in your bag,” Shooter says. “There are several truly picturesque holes that run along the Cape Fear River that give you all you can handle. And what we hear most from golfers is that the greens roll superbly.”

Keith Hills receives high marks from golf purists because walking is both allowed and encouraged. Rates during the fall will be a maximum of $40 on weekdays and $45 on weekends, including cart. Some discounts may be available.

One new course that fits within the framework of a weekend getaway is Kilmarlic Golf Club, located near Kitty Hawk and just north of the Wright Memorial Bridge in the small community of Harbinger.

Kilmarlic features terrain rarely found in a golf course near the coast, says head professional Bryan Sullivan. “It’s such a beautiful piece of property,” Sullivan says. “I walked it initially with (designer Tom Steele) and thought it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in this area. Other courses on the mainland are built on farmland; this has a natural setting of pine trees and wetlands.”

The abundance of pines on a couple of holes, according to Sullivan, will remind golfers of Pinehurst. “The ninth hole is a par 5 that’s just beautiful,” he says. “It moves gently left to right uphill, and there’s a pine tree on the right side of the fairway that does a wonderful job of framing the hole.”

Good scores can be posted at Kilmarlic, which is uniquely configured with five par 3s and five par 5s. “The par 3s will test your mettle,” Sullivan says, “and the par 5s are very much risk and reward. If you don’t put the ball in the right spots on the golf course, you’ll pay for it.”

Fall rates are $78 daily, including cart. Twilight rates and some other discounts may be available.

If a pleasure trip takes you to the mountains, maybe you’ll have time to sneak a peak at the ultra-private Diamond Creek Club, the latest North Carolina work of noted designer Tom Fazio, a Hendersonville resident.

Diamond Creek is in Banner Elk, not far from a quartet of the state’s best courses: Grandfather, Elk River, Linville and Linville Ridge. It has a limited membership, which only lessens your odds of getting to play it, as guests must be accompanied by a member.  

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