Destination: Portland

Residents love Portland with as much enthusiasm as the magazines that frequently praise the city for its "livability" - and part of that has to do with its abundance of outdoor activities. Come the warmer months when the rain subsides, golf becomes a big draw. And when it is raining, the masses huddle up in one of the city's countless coffee shops, or more than two dozen microbreweries. Portland is among America's top pub towns, so rest assured, golfers will find some of the finest 19th holes here.

Portland is very visitor friendly with plenty of sights and attractions to explore, and it's also compact enough that it is easy to escape for greener pastures. The city has a solid municipal golf system, which starts with two golf courses at Heron Lakes just a few miles from downtown. Both are Robert Trent Jones Jr. designs of varying degrees of difficulty, with the demanding Great Blue serving as 2000 U.S. Public Links Championship host.

One of the northwest's earliest golf courses dating back to 1917, historic Eastmoreland Golf Course is a pleasant step back in time and full of scenery and wildlife on a charming layout. RedTail Golf Course and Rose City Golf Course round out the five affordable offerings run by the city.

Among the northwest's most nationally recognized and prestigious clubs is Pumpkin Ridge, which features a private golf course and one public, Ghost Creek, that is a rolling, Bob Cupp-designed parkland test with a rocky creek that torments golfers throughout the round.

Just south of the city headed towards Salem, you can play two popular daily-fee golf courses for low-handicappers both built during the 1990s golf boom, Langdon Farms and the Oregon Golf Association Golf Course, both regular local and regional tournament hosts.

As much as beer is a draw in Portland, so is wine, and the Reserve Vineyards in Aloha features two very different semi-private golf courses in the heart of Oregon's wine country. Both the South and North course are available for public play on alternating halves of the month.