Just across the water is the recently renovated Emerald Pointe Resort. Formerly the Hilton at Lake Lanier Islands, the resort is now managed by KSL Recreation, the California-based operator whose other first-rate properties include PGA West, the Arizona Biltmore and Michigan’s Grand Traverse Resort. The lively, Joe Lee-designed golf course offers 13 holes along the lake, followed by post-round relaxation in the form of a 216-room hotel, a 300-site campground or—if you really want to live the high life—luxury houseboat rentals.

Venture 16 miles east of Atlanta and you’ll come upon Stone Mountain Park, home to the 825-foot slab of granite known locally as “the Big Rock.” Stone Mountain is also home to Evergreen Conference Resort, where the role that golf played in transforming Georgia’s top day-trip attraction into a complete getaway destination is as prominent as the carved likenesses of the Confederate military heroes etched into the face of the namesake landmark. In 1997, the state-owned park privatized the management of its entertainment, recreation, dining and lodging attractions, with Marriott assuming responsibility for the 36-hole golf complex, a newly constructed 5,000-square-foot clubhouse, three restaurants and the 428-room conference resort and inn.

The original 18 holes, a 1969 Robert Trent Jones layout, served for much of the following two decades as Metro Atlanta’s premier public golf experience. A third nine was added by John LaFoy in 1988 to ease heavy traffic on the popular Jones course, and LaFoy returned in 1994 to complete the deal. The newer nines, known collectively as the Lakemont Course, afford ample views of scenic Stone Mountain Lake and the ever-present carved faces that gaze down from the great rock. On the original Stonemont Course, the essence of Jones’ “hard par-easy bogey” philosophy is apparent: Nine par-4s exceeding 400 yards eventually expose every weakness in a player’s game.

Further east, about 90 miles from town, Reynolds Plantation is threatening to become the South’s most expansive golf destination. In fact, that’s the intent, according to CEO Mercer Reynolds, who envisions the 8,000-acre resort/residential community on sprawling Lake Oconee as “the new Pinehurst.”

If development continues at its current pace, Reynolds just might be right. A nine-hole addition to the Tom Fazio-designed Reynolds National Course debuted in 2000, and Rees Jones’ brand new Oconee Course, slated to open this fall, gives the property 81 holes—and the grounds crew a lot of flagsticks to plant each day. The National and Oconee courses join the original Plantation Course and the much-acclaimed, Jack Nicklaus-designed Great Waters, home to the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championships from 1995-97.

Also due to open soon is the snappy Ritz-Carlton Lodge and Spa, where 252 guest rooms—including the lavish Presidential House and its full-service wait staff—overlook the lake. With additional accommodations in golf cottages at the Plantation and Great Waters courses, Reynolds is a golf vacationer’s fantasy.

The new Fazio nine at the National Course is a delight, with vast, rollicking fairways framed by flowering dogwoods that lend an Augusta National-like touch in springtime. The Oconee is an aesthetic treat in its own right, with the lake coming into play on five holes and gurgling streams wandering through four others. The developers reportedly have tournament aspirations for the Oconee, where five sets of tees allow it to extend 7,393 backbreaking yards.

A tournament-caliber layout has long been the hallmark of Callaway Gardens, where the Mountain View Course is home to the PGA Tour’s Buick Challenge each fall. Sixty-three holes in all, plus a dazzling year-round horticultural display, make this vast, 14,000-acre spread a recreation- and nature-lover’s haven.

Lodging options include a homey, 349-room inn and a series of cozy cottages and villas. Located 80 miles southwest of the Atlanta airport, Callaway is home to a year-round cornucopia of events, including a professional water-ski tournament in May, a hot-air balloon festival in September and the Fantasy In Lights, a twinkling Christmas-time tour of the property.

And of course, there’s the Buick Challenge, whose past champions include David Duval, Nick Price and Davis Love. The event lately has become a favorite among the tour pros, thanks in large part to immaculate grooming of the 7,057-yard layout. Much like many of the other golf courses discussed here, Mountain View has a decidedly rural air—it’s just you, the golf course, and in this case, the wild turkeys that have free rein of the grounds.

Wild turkeys on the golf course? Doesn’t sound like big-city golf—which is precisely the point.