Golf in Mountain Top

Golf is a sport of physical precision and aerial dynamics, won and lost upon the pendulum of your swing. Use today's Groupon to brush up on your golf physics and practice blasting balls with your refined stroke. For $30, you get a 30-minute video swing analysis (normally $50) and large bucket of balls ($10) from Par Breakers Golf Academy, a $60 total value. This comprehensive indoor golf facility is a short 30-minute golf-cart trip from Philly in Oaks.

After spending his formative years helping his father to operate multiple golf facilities, John Invernizzi decided to dedicate his adult life to spreading the gospel of the game. The PGA pro opened Hereford Golf Center in 1995 with the aim of creating a pressure-free space for golfers of all stripes to hone their swings, learn to appreciate the game, and debate about which club would be the most useful to ward off feral caddies. In the ensuing 17 years, clubbers have been hitting practice balls at the center’s 36-stall driving range, replete with eight target greens that range from 50 to 260 yards.

The adjacent Lost Falls Miniature Golf Course takes friendly competitors careening past two ponds, a large stream, and a mysterious cave as they steer golf balls toward pintsize flagsticks. True to his mission of making golf fun and accessible for everyone, John and the staff at Hereford Golf Center provide clubs free of charge, sparing clubless players from hastily purchasing one or digging in their backyard for a conveniently shaped mastodon bone.

Nestled in the rolling hills of Maryland's countryside, the Wakefield Valley Golf Club showcases three different nine-hole courses. Each course presents a unique set of challenges, with the green course showcasing lengthy par 5s and the white course challenging golfers with hilly terrain and water holes that lure errant shots and experimental scuba-tank golf bags. The gold course, meanwhile, sets up demanding tee shots into narrow fairways, as seen on its signature eighth hole, where water guards the green on all sides.

Golfers can warm up for rounds at the driving range and practice green or employ the swing-honing advice of PGA Professional Scott Magee, who teaches enough students to believe that he will find one who can pull a putter from a stone. Guests can also refuel rumbling stomachs with casual food and drinks at Fenby’s Restaurant.

The 18-hole course at Chapel Hill guides golfers along lush fairways framed by dense tree lines and confronted by water on 11 holes. Six holes—beginning with No. 1—demand precise course-management skills when navigating shots around the stream that cuts through their fairways, demanding that players lay up, muscle their shots over, or swap their golf ball out for a beach ball. Laid end-to-end, the course measures 6,089 yards from the blue tees, the farthest of four available for play on each hole.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 70 course
• Total length of 6,089 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 69.7 from the back tees
• Course slope of 125 from the back tees
• Four sets of tees per hole

The Director of Instruction at Edinburgh USA Golf Academy and PGA-certified instructor Adam Guili teaches swing-honing wisdom and results-oriented practice techniques accrued through a 14-year teaching career. Adam’s teaching philosophy is based on the notion that a sound short game and a simple golf swing are crucial to achieving success on the course, and he helps golfers develop a tension-free motion. During lessons, Adam can address any on-course concern, such as how to add length to drives or how to extract shirttails from ball washers.

Supreme Golf makes maintaining an oft-pricey golf addiction a bit easier on the wallet by granting golfers discounts at golf courses and golf schools, as well as cutting the price of books, golf clubs, and nutritional supplements. Golfers can enjoy relaxing, discounted rounds at area courses in cities across the country including such area courses as Bear Creek Golf Club in Dallas, Gateway National Golf Links in St. Louis and St. Andrews Golf and Country Club in Atlanta, soaking in the sights and badgering local pros for analysis of the annual caddie draft.