Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg

To an outsider looking in, the Tampa Bay area has it all. The enormous, sugar-white beaches of St. Petersburg/Clearwater are some of the best in the world. The peaceful, warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay are a veritable maritime playground.

It's also a favorite host city for the Super Bowl.

Now, if this swashbuckling chunk of coastline along Florida's Gulf coast could only establish itself as a "golf" coast, we'd have to consider the Tampa Bay area as one of the premier destinations in the U.S.

It really shouldn't be a hard sell.

Tampa Bay is home to an intriguing collection of first-class resort golf courses, upscale daily-fee and semiprivate tracks and a heaping helping of affordable public access facilities sure to appeal to any skill level and income bracket.

Copperhead, the flagship course of the wildly popular Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, remains one of the Bay area's best. North of the city and just a chip shot from Interstate-75, Saddlebrook Resort awaits with two Arnold Palmer-designed golf courses, luxury suites and one of the country's premier tennis facilities.

Busch Gardens has been Tampa's heavyweight attraction for amusement, but thanks to modern gem World Woods an hour north of the city, the title bout may not exactly be a knockout. This 36-hole Tom Fazio designed "core" golf panacea with its nine-hole short course and state-of-the-art practice center is deserving of its own mini-series.

A revitalized downtown and waterfront area that includes a multi-sport arena, a sea aquarium, museums, hotels and eateries holds the city's urban and civic fabric together. Local planners, government officials and citizen groups have also banned together to create a vision for the city reflecting its Hispanic and American heritage.

A series of residential/retail enclaves make Tampa one of the most unique mid-size cities in the South. Ybor City, former headquarters for the city's cigar-making business, is now home to a collection of bars, nightclubs and restaurants that pulses with activity and diversity nearly seven nights a week.

Come and you'll discover Tampa's greatest three assets: a jaw-dropping location along the tranquil blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, some of the world's best weather, and a bountiful supply of resort and daily fee golf courses.