Short spring getaways. (Golf).

Time line was--no more than a couple years ago, actually--when CEOs passionate about golf exercised their executive privilege each spring by making pilgrimages to Scotland or Ireland and playing historic links such as St. Andrews or Ballybunion. But that was before the recent wave of corporate scandals, which has left many executive golfers reluctant to take extended vacations.

"I don't know of any CEOs who can justify a full week off at this point," sighs Douglas Freeman, avid golfer and chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based NetBank, the nation's largest independent retail Internet bank. "Things are just changing so fast and furiously."

Indeed, companies that exist to ferry executives on luxury golf vacations confirm that most of their clients are opting for shorter trips to resorts in Florida, southern California and the Caribbean--and increasingly they're bringing along clients in order to mix more business with their pleasure.

"Executives are not traveling over the pond to Scotland and England, because they know that their shareholders and board of directors are watching with a keener eye," says Tim Bennett, co-founder of Michigan-based Jet-Golf, which provides customized door-to-door travel packages. "I see more people using Tuesday and Wednesday to get away with clients, then hustling back to the office to close it out on Thursday and Friday."

But just because CEOs are staying closer to home doesn't mean the spring golfing break has lost its luster. Perhaps because of the US GA's and PGA's efforts to move some of their major championships away from private clubs toward top public venues such as Bethpage State Park in Long Island, New York, Bennett is seeing new interest among executives in playing America's finest municipal and resort courses. That means a brisk business in shuttling execs to Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis., which will host the PGA Championship in 2004, as well as Pacific Dunes, a celebrated course on the southern Oregon coast that will be the setting for the 2006 Curtis Cup. "Bethpage changed everything," says Bennett. "Clients now want to know, "What can I play before the rest of the world learns about it?'"

Among those CEOs sticking closer to home is Freeman, who makes weekend escapes to Hilton Head and Kiawah Island, S.C., as well as an array of courses in north Florida. One of his favorites, largely undiscovered, is The Golf Club of Amelia Island, a private club just north of Jacksonville that's accessible to guests of the posh Summer Beach Resort and nearby Ritz-Carlton. "It's a sleeper you don't hear much about," says Freeman. The 6,681-yard, par-72 layout--designed by PGA Tour veterans Mark McCumber and Gene Littler in 1987--has two distinctly different nines: The front side winds through lush oak forests, while the back skirts the Atlantic Ocean. It was there that Freeman, a 20-handicap, recorded a rare 82 a couple of years back. "That's two standard deviations away from my normal score," he jokes. "It was just one of those beautiful spring days when everything worked."

But Freeman's fondest golf moment occurred at the Stadium Course at Marriott's Sawgrass Resort on Florida's northeast coast, between Jacksonville and historic St. Augustine (site of the World Golf Hall of Fame). "If you're a CEO with an ego that could stand to be checked, well, two to three rounds at the Stadium Course will usually do the trick," he says. "With the greens as quick as they are, it's absolutely the most difficult course I've ever played." Two years ago, Freeman recorded a small victory on the Stadium Course-- which hosts the PGA Tour's Players Championship each March--when he nailed a nine iron on the 121-yard 17th hole, the infamous island green known for devouring 120,000 errant shots each year. "It went where it wasn't supposed to--right in the middle of the green," Freeman laughs. Two putts later, he escaped with what was easily his most memorable par.

Unlike Freeman, CEOs of privately held companies--most of whom have investors decidedly more patient than their public counterparts -- find it easier to slip away for a week of unfettered golf. At least that's the case with Herbert V. Kohler Jr., chairman and president of Wisconsin-based Kohler Co., a leading maker of plumbing products. Kohler acknowledges that as the overseer of a family-owned business--and one that, by dint of the housing boom, enjoyed a record performance in 2002 --he has relatively little difficulty getting time off. Still, he feels CEOs need not apologize for setting aside a day or so for R&R. "Beyond question, it's important to take time to recharge your battery," he says.

Ditto for Doug Dobbs, cofounder of Minneapolis-based Pro Staff Personnel Services, whose 230 offices make it one of the nation s largest staffing companies. For the most part, Dobbs plays only on business these days. But he still makes time each spring for an informal "CEO retreat" with 20 other execs at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort, outside Charleston, S.C. There, Dobbs finds himself inspired by the natural beauty of the famed Ocean Course, a rugged Pete Dye design where all 18 holes wind along the Atlantic Ocean. "It's a lot of golf course unless you're a 12-handicap or below," says Dobbs, whose handicap is 17. "And it's a lot to handle particularly if the wind is blowing, which is often the case. For sheer playability, Dobbs prefers the inland River Course, an eight-year-old Tom Fazio layout that flows along the tidal marshlands of the Kiawah River. It was there, at the most recent CEO gathering, that Dobbs and his friend James M. Bethmann, global head of the technology sector at TMP Worldwide Executive Search, recorded the lowest combined score, securing bragging rights ("and a few hundred bucks," he admits) from the group.

As for Kohler, for years he ushered in each spring by trekking to central California to play in the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. "The Monterey Peninsula is special, and even more so if you have the connections that let you play not only Pebble Beach but also private courses like Cypress Point," he says. However, these days Kohler spends his spring breaks on Upper Captiva, a private barrier island a half-mile off Florida's Gulf Coast where the primary mode of transportation is the golf cart. While there are no courses on Upper Captiva--most of the 700-acre island remains a protected state wilderness park--Kohler uses it as his base camp to play in the area around Ft. Myers and Sanibel Island. "I can hit eight or nine golf courses with my boat within a half-hour," he says.

Kohler's preferred course there is Alden Pines, a semi-private club on nearby Pine Island designed by Gordon G. Lewis, a prolific regional architect with nearly 200 courses across southwest Florida to his credit. Built in 1971, the course is decidedly short, a mere 5,596 yards from the back tees. But with water and sand coming into play on every hole--not to mention osprey, ibises and the occasional alligator--Alden Pines will test the nerve of even the best shotmakers. "It's a funky course," says Kohler, a 17-handicap. "Some of the pros I've played it with look at the distance and laugh. But it's only when they play it that they realize how difficult it is."

Kohler's other favorite getaway lies further south in the Dominican Republica, where his friend Pete Dye, who designed Kohler's Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, developed three courses in the lush Casa de Campo resort. Kohler built a home next door to Dye, just off the seventh green of Teeth of the Dog, the resort's best-known course. The name derives from a native coral rock known as diente del perro that gracefully lines each fairway.

With seven holes situated hard against the Caribbean Sea, the windswept course demands strong drives off the tee and a deft touch around the turtleback greens, some of which are no more than 15 yards wide. The 226-yard seventh hole requires a direct carry over the pounding surf, while tee shots on the 445-yard 12th must cross the jetway that serves as Casa de Campo's airport. Kohler finds the golf challenging and the views as breathtaking as any he has seen. "In my mind, Teeth of the Dog is one of the top 20 courses in the world," he says. "It takes your breath away." And for executive golfers, it could provide a welcome respite to the trials and tribulations of the past couple of years.

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Casa de Campo

Teeth of the Dog course

La Romana, Dominican Republic 

6,888 yards, par 72

Designed by Pete Dye, 1971

The Golf Club of Amelia Island

Amelia Island, Fla.

6,681 yards, par 72

Designed by Mark McCumber

and Gene Littler, 1987

The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass

Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

6,954 yards, par 72

Designed by Pete Dye, 1981

The River Course

Kiawah Island, S.C.

7,206 yards, par 72

Designed by Tom Fazio, 1995