Front Nine

Happy Haunting Grounds

These courses will trick and treat you

Jack-o’-lanterns and skeletons may be scary, but they’re not nearly as frightening as standing over a three-foot putt with a match on the line. October is a great month for golf in many locations, especially at these venues with haunting themes and backgrounds. For further inspiration you can watch Boo Weekley play in the closing events of the PGA Tour season, and catch up online with friendly golf great Billy Casper, who now has a thriving course management business, at billycaspergolf.com.

A Spell of Bad Putting
The White Witch Golf Course, near Montego Bay, is named for Annee Palmer, a 19th-century plantation owner who, according to legend, cast spells and killed three husbands, though she has not been directly linked to a case of the shanks. This Robert von Hagge/Rick Baril design plays over ravines and hollows across the mountains of Palmer’s former sugar plantation. The course is part of the five-diamond Ritz Carlton Golf and Spa Resort. ritzcarlton.com

Scaring Up a Game
Located about an hour from Newark — in aptly named Suffern, N.Y. — Spook Rock Golf Club offers a Francis Duane design that’s been listed among Golf Digest’s top 100 public courses. The classic venue winds through wooded highlands in the Ramapo Mountains. Blazing foliage makes autumn the perfect time to play here — just beware the triple-bogeyman. ramapo.org

Drop It in the Hole
Just outside Indianapolis, Coffin Golf Club puts a new twist on the concept of “nailing” your shot. This 6,715-yard Tim Liddy design opens with a par 5 and features back-to-back par 5s on the back nine. The narrow fairways play between mature trees and alongside the winding White River en route to bent-grass greens. coffingolf.com

Great Pumpkin
Golf facilities don’t get much greater than Pumpkin Ridge, outside Portland, Ore. Robert Cupp carved the facility’s renowned Ghost Creek layout through open meadows and forests of fir, maple, ash, and oak. Classical bunkering with overhanging edges creates shadowy places where goblins may gobble golf balls. The frolicking Ghost Creek appears and disappears like an elusive specter throughout this public course. pumpkinridge.com

Exorcise for Good Health
You’ll find some devilish golf holes at the Diablo Grande Winery and Resort, near Sacramento. Denis Griffiths designed the serene, pastoral Ranch Course, which plays long and narrow along rye-grass fairways and features elevation changes. Jack Nicklaus and Gene Sarazen partnered to create the Legends West course, with small greens and numerous bunkers that could lead to a buried lie. diablogrande.com

Ghost of a Chance
Golfers on the century-old course at the Church Stretton Golf Club, south of Manchester, England, have long reported that a ghost has been stealing golf balls — appropriately enough on the 13th hole. Players describe hitting their shots right to the middle of the fairway and then walking out to find their golfballs have disappeared. Design legends Harry Vardon and James Braid both worked on the hilly, wind-blown course, which overlooks Roman era ruins. churchstrettongolfclub.co.uk

Gourd-geous Scenery
About 60 miles from Manchester, N.H., in the town of Woodstock, golfers can light it up at the Jack O’Lantern Resort. The Robert Keating design in the heart of the White Mountains dates to 1947. No local course can hold a candle to the 6,003-yard layout’s views of Franconia Notch and an authentic New England covered bridge. jackolanternresort.com

Dust Devil
Some Native Americans consider whirlwinds a sign of ghosts. At Whirlwind Golf Club, outside Phoenix, architect Gary Panks created further mayhem on the Devil’s Claw course, a 7,029-yard layout that has received accolades from Golf Digest and Zagat and hosts the Nationwide Tour’s Gila River Classic. The course plays through cottonwood, mesquite, saguaro, and native grasses. whirlwindgolf.com

Golf Down Under
About 40 minutes east of Norfolk, Va., the golf is hot at Hell’s Point Golf Club, a Rees Jones design that was ranked by Golf Digest as a best new course and by the American Society of Golf Course Architects as one of the top 100 designs in the United States. Tricky angles, lakes, and 61 bunkers place a premium on strategy, not length, on this venue winding through hardwoods and Virginia pines. hellspoint.com

Getting There: All the destinations covered in “Front Nine” can be reached by flying Continental Airlines. To book your trip, contact Continental Airlines Vacations at covacations.com.