Lots of great venues where you can give golf the old college try

Over on GolfArizona.com, we just published a review I did on the Karsten Golf Course at Arizona State University in Tempe.

Playing college golf courses has a whole different feel than regular daily fee or resort courses. First of all, it’s a real bonus when they’re on campus, and secondly, most of them have that real old-time golf feel.

By that, I mean the service isn’t over the top, food and beverages are usually reasonably priced, and you see a lot of folks walking the courses.

Many college courses are bargains as well. Karsten Golf Course can be had for well under $100 this time of year and about $25 during the summer. You can play Purdue University’s Kampen Course at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex, which hosted a recent NCAA national championship, for as little as $75. And one of my favorites, the Tom Doak-designed Rawls Course at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, can be played for under $50.

I always thought a great golf vacation, kind of like taking the major league ballpark tour, would be to start at Stanford Golf Club in Palo Alto, Calif., and end up at the Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed Duke Golf Club in Durham, N.C.

Sounds like a great way to spend a summer month.