DATE: Monday, July 14, 1997                 TAG: 9707120299

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DAVE PATON, PILOT ONLINE STAFF 

                                            LENGTH:   77 lines

YOU CAN TOUR THE WORLD'S GREATEST GOLF COURSES WITHOUT CLUBS OR A CART

Midsummer is the high season of golf. Players tee it up all over the world, 24 hours a day in Alaska. The U.S. and British Opens spellbind millions of fans. And like a Tiger Woods tee shot, the Internet is far ahead as a link to the links.

The Web is a huge clubhouse of golf news and commercial information. In this area, you might want to play a round at Hell's Point, to many the best public course in South Hampton Roads.

You can go online to get a tee time, directions to the Virginia Beach layout, look at a scorecard and find out what course designer Rees Jones had in mind.

Hell's Point and two Williamsburg courses, Two Rivers and Williamsburg National, are found at US Golf Courses, a directory of golf courses with Web sites - 164 at this writing.

Those are just a fraction of the tens of thousands of U.S. courses, though, and the bigger golf world is easily browsed on the Net. GolfWeb, iGolf, and Golf.com - the three major golf news sites on the Web - carry some of the biggest locators. The iGolf finder's advanced search lets users specify such variables as course architects, difficulty ratings and greens fees.

Each finder is searchable by state; in some the Virginia listings is broken down into regions.

Each of the big three sites is full of travel, instruction and opinion pieces, too much to take in at a single session.

These and other sites beckon to vacation planners. Williamsburg has become a first-class golf destination, and Virginia Beach has its aspirations, but no place on earth can match Myrtle Beach, with well over 100 courses in its environs. Browsing galore for courses and accommodations can be found at the area's Golf Holiday site.

Want to visit St. Andrews, the Scottish cradle of golf where the game has been played in some form since 1553? First click to the course's official site to find out how to get on the Old Course, which is only 18 of the 99 holes under the St. Andrews umbrella.

You'll see that the greens fee is 70 (pounds) - about $118 - and that a valid handicap card is required.

That's OK if you belong to a course that computes your handicap, but if you don't have one, maybe you should form your own club. That can be done without a home course and as few as 10 members by turning to the U.S. Golf Association for the rules and by-laws.

The USGA has the materials online, including an official decision that scores may not be sent into the handicapping database by individuals on the Web. Why? The ruling body of U.S. golf deems that it would be too difficult to conduct an ``immediate review'' if necessary.

The USGA's site has good information on its championships, including the U.S. men's and women's Opens. Its British counterpart, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, has a detailed site on its major tournament, the British Open this week at Royal Troon. American Tom Lehman defends, while Tiger Woods is fresh off a PGA Tour victory and hunting for a second major title in 1997.

Closer to home, Virginia's golf championship, the Signet Open, is this Thursday through Sunday at Willow Oaks in Richmond. Last year Keith Decker struck a blow for the amateurs in this pro-amateur event with his 12-under-par victory total.

The Virginia State Golf Association and Middle Atlantic Professional Golfers Association have a page for the tournament and will update it, possibly daily.

The VSGA, which has been around since 1904, has plenty of archival information on the many great players that have won its championships and gone on to bigger things - Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins, Chandler Harper to name three.

So take a look at what the Web has to offer, golfers. It's almost as good as playing. Well, maybe even better, depending on how you're playing.

PILOT ONLINE: The Sports section has been expanded to include national golf news from the Associated Press Wire, as well as the Hampton Roads golf calendar and information on the best places and times to play.

You'll also find local sports news and columnists and national news on games from baseball to women's college basketball. MEMO: Got a Hampton Roads related Web site you want to share? Alert us

at pilot(AT)pilotonline.com. We may include your site in a future

column.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu