Lost Key Golf Club in Pensacola, Florida

The The Lost Key Golf Club is one of those rare resort courses that throws a relatively high degree of difficulty at you but manages to entice you back for more.

"I can't tell you the number of times resort guests have complained to me that the course beat them up," said Assistant Professional Roger Willoughby. "Then they say, 'You got any tee times tomorrow?'"

That's because of several factors; the No. 1 reason being the sheer beauty of the place. The course is laid down gently on Perdido Key, between downtown Pensacola and Gulf Shores, Alabama. It's a narrow, barrier island with sand dunes as white as the reflecting clouds, and it has retained that wild, barrier island feel, even as high-rise condos have risen on the increasingly developed island.