Spring arrives in the Napa Valley on waves of wild golden mustard, two and three feet high, vivid yellow rivers beneath the grapevines blanketing the valley floor. The grapes ripen all summer, and in the fall when the leaves turn red and gold, open bins of harvested grapes are ferried to the wineries for the crush, a busy, celebratory time of the year in the California Wine Country. In the heart of the valley on a quiet country road, anchoring the 1,200-acre grounds of Silverado Resort is a circa-1870, white-pillared, ante-bellum-style mansion reminiscent of a southern plantation, built for a Civil War general on a Spanish land grant. The rambling grounds are shaded by towering eucalyptus, palms, oaks, weeping willows, and magnolias whose creamy white, dinner-plate-sized blooms are seductively fragrant in the summertime http://www.silveradoresort.com.

Massive overhanging trees line the fairways of the two Robert Trent Jones, Jr. layouts, built in the 1960s. Surrounded by vineyards and wooded hills, and watered by ponds, lakes and three creeks, the courses have good bones, having hosted many PGA Tour and PGA Champions Tour events. A new grounds maintenance program and a $4 upgrade has raised course conditions to near-perfect, creating a stiff challenge, especially on the greens. Tees were leveled, bunkers restored and fairways re-sodded, among other improvements. Club member and U.S. Open winner, Johnny Miller, who lives in the neighborhood, said, “(The courses) …are so popular because they are traditional, natural designs, not tricked up with railroad ties and funny bunkers, and the place is run like a gracious, old-style resort.” (Click here to read the article in full)