Golf in Covington

Currently the Head Golf Professional and Director of Instruction at The Heritage Golf Club, Keith Jarvis calls upon his 24 years of experience as a professional player and coach to enhance each lesson. Students perfect swings for extra distance off the tee and practice short-game precision for more one-putts and fewer galleries showered with sand. Lesson programs incorporate the K-Vest trainer, worn to limit extraneous movements and develop muscle memory during the swing, and Tomi putting equipment, which helps putters develop a consistent stroke.

Today’s side deal gets golfers a private one-hour long-drive lesson at Hit It A Mile with John Marshall for $40 (an $80 value). Lessons take place at the East Course at the Alpharetta Athletic Club in Milton. It’s a fairly long, ahem, drive from downtown Atlanta (25 miles), but well worth it for the unique knowledge and teaching ability of the instructor.

Lead-footed motorists can experience unlimited access to Malibu's high-performance go-karts. Zip around hairpin turns, pick up speed on straightaways, and fly over banked curves with a passenger in tow aboard Malibu's safe and speedy four-wheeled chariots. After an afternoon of speed, slow down with the thoughtful, zen-like meditation that is miniature golf on the park’s whimsically appointed links.

Bear Creek Golf Club's 18-hole course takes golfers voyaging across 6,585 yards of rolling terrain characterized by renovated bunkers, contoured greens, and dense tree lines lining the fairways. Refurbished in July 2011, the par 72 is now carpeted with Champion bermuda grass on all of its greens to form smooth, slick putting surfaces devoid of any bumpy nettles or suspicious troll knolls. Chirping birds and whistling winds serve as the course's commentators, occasionally warning players of the scattered water hazards that reflect the skies above without ripple or wave but reveal their orb-eating desires when balls land atop their motionless surface. At the onsite snack bar, players can fuel up before rounds.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course
• Length of 6,585 yards from farthest tees
• Course rating of 71.8 from farthest tees
• Slope rating of 130 from farthest tees
• Four tee options
• See the scorecard

Nestled inside 180 acres of tree-lined, gently rolling grounds, the Newnan golf course springs up from the natural terrain, gracing golfers with scenic views of ridges, ravines, and waterways. The meticulously maintained fairways and greens wend along natural, wooded buffers that create a sense of public but peaceful solitude, like delivering a speech from inside a sleeping bag. Golfers hone their short game at the practice green, deliver pep talks to lazy 9-irons at the all-weather driving range, or pick up anything from tees to new clubs at the pro shop. The 15,000-square-foot clubhouse's Coweta Grill serves casual or formal dining fare and slings drinks at full bar, and a sweeping veranda overlooks the 10th tee and its hazards, including the catapult-launched Harlem Globetrotters, who slap down soaring golf balls.

Golf with friends is the best kind of bonding. There's nothing like being out in the open air, hearing the wind blow through the beautiful old trees lining the well-groomed fairways, and refusing to grant your compadres mulligans. Today's Groupon gets you one round of golf on the championship course, plus a GPS golf cart, at Durham Lakes Golf & Country Club for just $30 (normally $51–$61 before tax; note that the course offers a discount for seniors). Buy a few Groupons and make it a foursome.