The Ultimate Asheville Golf Getaway Itinerary: 4 Courses in 4 Days
Asheville has been a golf town for well over a century, and it has the pedigree to prove it.
Cool mountain summers made it a warm-weather escape for early players, and the game's most storied architect left his fingerprints all over these mountains: Donald Ross, the Scottish immigrant who trained under Old Tom Morris at St Andrews before designing Pinehurst No. 2, shaped more than fifty courses across North Carolina, from Asheville to Wilmington. Several of them anchor this itinerary.
The professionals came too. From 1939 to 1942, the city hosted the Land of the Sky Open, where a young Ben Hogan won three years running and claimed his first professional title. Then the PGA TOUR stayed away for more than eight decades, until now: in September 2026, PGA TOUR golf returns to the Blue Ridge with the Biltmore Championship Asheville.
Day 1: A Hole-in-One Experience
Breakfast at Blue Ridge
Day 1 barely leaves the property. It's built around the Omni Grove Park Inn and Spa: a morning round, a couple of long meals, and time to take in the architecture and mountain views. The inn opened in 1913, a grand Arts and Crafts landmark built from local granite boulders, and over the years it has hosted ten U.S. presidents along with guests from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Michael Jordan. Start the morning at Blue Ridge, the resort's farm-to-table buffet, where the daily Art of Breakfast fills two big rooms with omelets, pastries, a doughnut bar, and fruit, plenty of fuel for the round ahead.
A Donald Ross Original
Set against the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Omni Grove Park Inn Golf Course is the real thing: a genuine Donald Ross design that opened in 1899 and was reworked by Ross in 1926, and is often ranked second only to Pinehurst No. 2 among North Carolina's Ross courses. It was a PGA Tour stop through the 1930s and '40s, and its fairways have been walked by Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and, in 2010, President Obama. At just over 6,400 yards and a par 70, it isn't a distance test. It's a walkable, strategic layout of elevation changes and cleverly contoured greens that rewards thoughtful play over power, with the granite mass of the inn watching over it all from above.
Lunch on the Spa Level
After the round, keep it light at the Spa Café, tucked into the resort's subterranean spa level, with salads, sandwiches, wraps, and smoothies to reset before the afternoon.
Steaks and a Sunset
Wrap the day with dinner at Sunset Terrace, the open-air chophouse terrace off the Great Hall: hand-cut steaks, chops, and fresh seafood with sweeping Blue Ridge views, best timed for the sunset it's named for.
A Nightcap in the Great Hall
Cap the night in the Great Hall Bar, the inn's cavernous granite lobby, where two 36-foot stone fireplaces anchor the room (the elevators to the historic Main Inn are hidden inside them), a grand piano plays most evenings, and the cocktails run classic. A fitting place to toast a good round, or at least a few good shots.
Day 2: Mountain Views are Par for the Course
Breakfast in Weaverville
Nothing starts the round worse than an empty stomach, so begin Day 2 at Yellow Mug Coffee Lounge, a cheerful counter-service cafe on Weaverville's Main Street known for espresso, scratch-baked pastries, and hearty breakfast sandwiches.
A Highland-Style Round
Reems Creek Golf Club sits ten minutes north in a secluded valley ringed by the Blue Ridge, and it plays like a piece of Scotland dropped into the mountains. That's by design. It was laid out in 1988 by the British firm Hawtree and Son of Oxford, the same architects behind Royal Birkdale on the British Open rotation, who gave it a Scottish Highlands feel with rolling terrain, doglegs, blind shots, and bentgrass from tee to green. A regular on Golf Digest's four-star "Places to Play" list, the par-71 course frames nearly every swing with a mountain view.
Beers by the French Broad
Back in Asheville's River Arts District, settle in at New Belgium Brewing, whose riverside campus sits on a reclaimed former stockyard along the French Broad. Beers on a wide patio over the water make this an easy post-round stop, and a good launch point for the RAD's world-famous galleries.
Dinner in the River Arts District
Dinner is at The Bull and Beggar, a River Arts District landmark from the team behind The Admiral, set in a candlelit 1920s warehouse tucked behind the Wedge Studios. The kitchen calls it European-inspired Appalachian cooking, which in practice means a raw bar of just-shucked oysters (half off from 5 to 6), thick-cut steak frites, beef tartare with shoestring fries, and a bone-in ribeye worth splitting. The room is low-lit and candlelit, dinner only, closed Wednesdays.
Mezcal, Then Live Music
Finish the night with live music at The Grey Eagle, Asheville's longest-running music hall. It got its start in Black Mountain back in 1994, moved to this room near the river in the late '90s, and has since put more than 10,000 acts on its small stage, from Ralph Stanley to the Avett Brothers to Nathaniel Rateliff. It stays all-ages and refreshingly unpretentious, with some of the best sound in the city and an in-house taqueria slinging scratch-made tacos and arepas if you skipped dessert. Before the show, duck into Anoche across the street, a tiny agave bar with the deepest mezcal list in town, for a cocktail or a flight.
Day 3: Small Town, Big Day
Biscuits in Black Mountain
Start the day in Black Mountain at Open Oven. Breakfast sandwiches on house bread, biscuits with gravy, pancakes, and strong coffee set the tone before a shorter drive and a relaxed round. Looking for lighter fare? Dripolator Coffeehouse, a downtown fixture since 1999, is a great spot for coffee, smoothies, and pastries.
The 747-Yard Par 6
Black Mountain Golf Course has been the town's course since 1929, and its front nine is another Donald Ross design, which puts you on Ross greens a second time this trip at some of the best-value fees in the region. The layout is friendly and walkable, but its claim to fame is the 17th, a 747-yard par 6 that was once billed as the longest hole in the world.
Note: Black Mountain Golf Course is currently undergoing renovations after Hurricane Helene. Please check course availability before playing.
A Downtown Brewery Crawl
After your round, stay in Black Mountain for a compact brewery crawl that keeps the afternoon easy. Start with a pint at Black Mountain Brewing, a small downtown spot where the taproom doubles as the brewhouse, move on to Lookout Brewing Company, a nanobrewery turning out small-batch beer since 2013, for patio pours and mountain views, then finish at Pisgah Brewing Company, a regional mainstay that has poured certified-organic beer since 2005, with a wide tap list and an outdoor music stage.
Dinner at Hell or High Water
Dinner is at Hell or High Water, a farm-to-table restaurant in the brick-and-timber historic Icehouse downtown. It comes from the Foothills crew that runs the town's butcher shop, so the meat is the main event: chef Eric Morris builds a seasonal, shareable menu around whole-animal cuts, and the 28-day dry-aged bone-in ribeye is the one to split. Get there early for a cocktail on the rooftop bar and the mountain views that come with it. If you'd rather wander, there are plenty of other Black Mountain restaurants to pick from.
Last Call at the Town Pump
Cap the night at the Town Pump, Black Mountain's longtime downtown dive: cheap cold beer, live music most nights, and a room packed with decades of vintage clutter. Pro Tip: it's cash only.
Day 4: A Local Classic to Finish Strong
A Mediterranean Breakfast
Start your final morning at The Med, a downtown Asheville diner slinging breakfast and lunch since 1969. The plates are classic with a Greek streak: omelets and biscuits, the Pisgah Bowl of pulled pork and a sunny-side egg, the fried chicken sandwich, and strong coffee.
18 Holes of History
Your final round closes the Donald Ross loop at Asheville Municipal Golf Course, the master's 1927 design and the first public golf course in North Carolina. Ross used the varied terrain to build two very different nines: a flat front along the river and a back that climbs and winds through rolling, tree-lined hills. "Muni" doesn't show off. It asks you to think, manage your game, and respect the layout. Its roots run deeper still. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it became one of the first municipal courses in the Southeast to integrate, and it hosts the Skyview Open, the area's oldest golf tournament, dating to 1961, which welcomed Black and white players to compete together during times of social unrest. Lee Elder, who won on the PGA Tour and was the first Black golfer to play in the Masters, won three straight Skyview titles from 1962 to 1964.
Note: Asheville Municipal Golf Course is currently undergoing renovations after Hurricane Helene. Please check course availability before playing.
An Alternate Ross Round
If you're a member of a McConnell Golf property back home, the Country Club of Asheville offers reciprocal access through its network of sister clubs. It's a private club in North Asheville built around yet another Donald Ross mountain course, a fitting alternate for a Ross-themed trip.
A Pint at Asheville's Oldest Brewery
Once the scorecards are signed, head to Highland Brewing, Asheville's oldest brewery, founded in 1994 by Oscar Wong in the basement of a downtown pizza spot and now a sprawling, family-run campus in East Asheville. Order a pint of Gaelic Ale, the city's first craft beer, or an AVL IPA, and settle in.
Burgers in Biltmore Village
Grab a burger and a house beer at Hillman Brewing in Biltmore Village. The Hillman family started out brewing in a garage before opening here, and the patio sits right on the creek.
A Michelin-Recognized Dinner
For dinner, Luminosa sits on the ground floor of the 1926 Flat Iron Hotel and cooks what chef Graham House calls Appalachian Italian: handmade pastas, wood-fired pizzas (the lemon and smoked-mozzarella one has a following), and more, much of it grown or foraged within a short drive. It has earned a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand and a Green Star for sustainability, one of only a handful in the American South. Browse the other Asheville MICHELIN winners if you want to weigh your options.
One Last Cocktail Downtown
End the trip at Times Bar, a coffee shop by day and cocktail bar by night set inside the 1929 Art Deco S&W Cafeteria building downtown. Looking for more? Check out our guide to a late night in Asheville.
