'Fall' in love with these golf destinations during autumn's changing of the leaves

GolfPass Staff

September 22, 2016

Updated September 24, 2018

Mother Nature provides one last hurrah before golf season fades away in the Midwest and upper East Coast.

Playing golf during the changing of the leaves is almost a spiritual experience. If you time it just right, the vibrant colors will explode. Red. Yellow. Orange. Brown. This kaleidoscope, when juxtaposed against a canvass of green grass, looks spectacular.

Some states are famous for their fall colors -- Vermont, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota and New York are just a few. The color band can stretch south into North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama as well. Many of these states just happen to have pretty good golf courses, too.

With Sept. 22 marking the first official day of fall, we've collected a gallery of images that celebrates the changing of the leaves on courses around the country.

Even the Southern outposts of Alabama's Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail will offer up some colorful trees. Asheville, N.C. -- a fun golf town tucked into the mountains -- might be the best option in North Carolina.

If you want the real thing, though, it's best to point your compass north. Virtually anywhere in the Midwest is a picture waiting to happen, especially in Brainerd, Minn., and northern Michigan, where the golf courses generally stay open until mid-to-late October.

The changing of the colors in Canada generally occurs a couple weeks earlier, so plan accordingly if you're planning to play in the Maritimes provinces of Prince Edward Island or Nova Scotia. North of Toronto, Muskoka a golf-mad region with plenty of scenic views accentuated by foliage. Some of Canada's top destinations out West -- the Canadian Rockies and British Columbia (Vancouver, Whistler, Vancouver Island, Kelowna and Kamloops) -- can be hit or miss color-wise with so many evergreen trees as a backdrop. The same caveat applies in the Pacific Northwest.

Wherever you are, don't delay in squeezing in those last rounds of fall. As Game of Thrones warns: Winter is coming. A white golf course just doesn't look the same.