Our Perfect Fall Golf Weekend in Kingsland, Georgia
My wife and I have reached the point in life where our favorite getaways don’t need to be complicated. Give us a comfortable hotel, a couple of good golf courses, some local restaurants, and enough time to enjoy ourselves without watching the clock, and we’re happy.
That’s what we found on a fall weekend in Kingsland, Georgia.
We’ve always enjoyed golfing together, but these days the trip is about much more than our scorecards. We like the early-morning tee times, discovering a restaurant we’ve never tried, sitting outside when the weather is nice, and having nowhere in particular to be afterward. With warm fall sunshine and the easygoing pace of a small town, Kingsland turned out to be just our kind of weekend.
We rolled into Kingsland Friday afternoon ready for two things: lunch and a chance to stretch our legs.
Our first stop was Karv Bistro, where we settled in for a casual lunch. One thing we’ve learned after years of traveling is not to overplan the first day. A good meal and a little time to get acquainted with a place are usually all we need.
After lunch, we checked into our hotel and unpacked. We had a little time before dinner, so we had an important decision to make: pool or downtown?
When the fall weather is this pleasant, either option is a good one. We could have spent the afternoon relaxing by the hotel pool, be we decided to head into downtown Kingsland and explore a little before dinner. One of our favorite parts of traveling is discovering the small places that give a town its character.
We spent the afternoon browsing local shops and enjoying the slower pace. Of course, no afternoon stroll is complete without a good pick-me-up, so we stopped at a local coffee shop called Blue Bridge Coffeehouse. I went with my usual choice, a strong espresso that gets right to the point. Wanda, on the other hand, ordered what she calls a “special treat,” which was a fancy iced coffee creation with enough sugar to compete with a slice of cake.
That’s one of the things I enjoy most about traveling with Wanda. We may not always order the same thing, but we always enjoy the experience together. With our coffees in hand, we wandered a little longer through the Veterans Memorial Park, took in the afternoon sunshine on a bench, and enjoyed having nowhere we needed to be before dinner.
We turned in reasonably early because Saturday morning meant our first tee time of the weekend.
I’m a firm believer that you shouldn’t play 18 holes on an empty stomach, so Saturday started early at Steffens Restaurant.
Steffen’s has been serving homestyle cooking since 1947, and it feels like the kind of place every town ought to have. We ordered a hearty breakfast, poured another cup of coffee, and talked about the day ahead.
We headed to Laurel Island Links for our first round of the weekend. Fall is a wonderful time to play golf in Coastal Georgia. The morning air is comfortable, the sunshine feels good, and you can take your time enjoying the course instead of worrying about the summer heat.
That’s the kind of golf I enjoy now. Of course, I still want to play well, but I’m just as interested in the scenery and spending a few uninterrupted hours outside with my wife.
After our round, we didn’t have to go far for lunch. We stopped at the clubhouse, ordered something to eat, and spent some time discussing the morning’s highlights. As is customary in our marriage, we remembered our best shots much more clearly than the bad ones.
After a little downtime back at the hotel, we made the short trip to downtown St. Marys for dinner at The Firefly Taco Cantina.
This was one of our favorite parts of the weekend.
We chose to dine outdoors, where we could enjoy the breeze coming in from the river. There is something about dinner outside on a fall evening that makes you want to linger a little longer. Downtown St. Marys has that relaxed coastal feeling we both enjoy, so there was no reason to hurry.
After dinner, we took our time around downtown before heading back to Kingsland. With another early tee time waiting for us Sunday, we were more than ready for a good night’s sleep.
Sunday morning arrived too quickly. Before heading to the golf course, we stopped at Kraken Coffee for coffee and breakfast to go. I’m not interested in doing much before I’ve had that first cup in the morning, and fortunately, my wife knows it.
Coffee in hand, we headed toward Osprey Cove for an early round.
This was a beautiful way to finish our golf weekend. The course’s coastal location gives you views of the marsh and water as you play, and in the quiet of the morning, you really get a sense of what makes this part of Georgia different.
We weren’t in a rush. We enjoyed the views, watched for birds around the marsh, and tried to make the most of our final few hours on the course. Some holes went better than others, but that’s golf.
By the time we finished, we had worked up an appetite.
Before pointing the car toward home, we stopped at Locals Dockside for lunch. You can’t visit the coast and not include at least one seafood meal.
Over lunch, we did what we always do at the end of a good getaway. We talked about our favorite meals, compared our golf rounds, and started discussing when we might come back.
That’s what I liked most about our weekend in Kingsland. Nothing felt rushed.
In three days, we played two rounds of golf, enjoyed some terrific local restaurants, spent an evening along the St. Marys waterfront, and still had time to relax.
At 67, I’ve learned that a great golf trip doesn’t have to involve an exhausting schedule or a famous resort. Sometimes you just want good courses, good food, pleasant weather, and your favorite person riding beside you in the golf cart.
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