This week, I traveled to Highlands, NC to celebrate my wife Valerie’s birthday.

We were guests of Lou and Linda Kay Miller at the Old Edwards Inn and Country Club. We arrived this past Tuesday afternoon at Old Edwards to find Mr. Miller had paired us up with Marcus Miller and Harrison Gray, both from Lexington.

The backstory is Harrison is my son Wesley’s brother-in-law, so he called ahead for some “Golf Fun” assurance. This was a “fixed fun game” from the start. Harrison and Marcus are a lot fun and have game.

The Gray and Miller families were already in Highlands vacationing when we arrived.

Old Edwards Club is a pure regulation golf course featuring lush bent grass fairways with the smooth perfect bent greens. The mountain views are amazing.

In some places, you can see for many miles. The elevation is between 3,600 and 4,000 feet. Most of the front 9 meanders through rolling hills with mild elevation, while the back offers the true mountain flavor with breath-taking beauty and long range views.

There are a couple of tee shots, Holes 12 and 18, with fairways a couple hundred feet below and your ball seems to fly forever.

While Old Edwards Club was awesome, the crown jewel for me was the opportunity to experience Glen Cove.

Here is why.

My wife Valerie is recovering from foot surgery. When she saw Glen Cove, she suddenly got the urge to take a swing at the golf ball.

This idea expanded into wanting to play and she ended up playing 3 consecutive days walking.

She rode in a cart and had fun watching the 1st day. Considering GlenCove is a walking course, I did not even consider her playing to be a possibility.

“When I saw the course it made me want to play,” she said. “I need to walk for re

hab anyway and this is the kind of course that looks fun to me.”

Although Valerie has walked along the fairways watching golf for 40 plus years, she has had little to no interest in playing, until now.

Glen Cove is a 12-hole par 3 that spans over 20 acres. It’s simply amazing.

The furthest point from the clubhouse is only a couple hundred yards away. My first visit, I witnessed 2 groups playing number 1 and 2. There was a group of 13 and 14 all playing together, 1 big family and the occasion was a wedding.

There was an age range in the groups from 2 to 73 years old, 4 generations. Not all were playing as several were in strollers, but big groups are welcome. The more the merrier.

Did I mention the temperature ranged from the low 60s to mid 70s for the week?

Know what 2 major advantage of a short course is? You can play more holes and the more you play the better you get.

In closing, congratulations again to Steve Larick, head pro at Golden Hills. He was the medalist at the 2020 Peach Festival at the Country Club of Lexington. He shot 7-under par 65!

Here are the team results and final score in parenthesis:

Pro Am Winners (124)

Chris Tucker, Sam Jackson, Dave Davis, Jeff Burkett

2nd place (129)

Daniel Seawell, Terry Bishop, Denny Van Wyk, Lyle Van Wyk

3rd place (130)

Steve Larick, Charles Grey, Matt Brandon, Joe Keenan