Valhalla was the great hall of Norse mythology, where the souls of brave Viking warriors banqueted with the gods. Valhalla Golf Club (main image), located 20 miles east of Louisville, has a mythical status all its own. The Jack Nicklaus design opened in 1986 over 487 acres of rolling terrain, and it has hosted three major championships and the Ryder Cup in the years since.

Getting onto Valhalla and the private Lake Forest Country Club—Kentucky’s only Arnold Palmer design—should be a priority for golfers heading to Louisville. Also on the playlist is Quail Chase, perennially ranked as the city’s best public facility. With 27 holes, the club can be played as two 18s, West and South.

Two other favorites of local golfers are the sibling Fuzzy Zoeller designs, Covered Bridge and Champions Pointe, just 15 minutes across the Indiana border in “Kentuckiana.” For a trip back in time, head to Shawnee, on the banks of the Ohio River in Downtown Louisville, which hosted the 1932 U.S. Amateur Public Links, or to the nine-hole Cherokee, which dates to 1895 and is one of the oldest munis in the nation.

Stay

Louisville doesn’t have a golf resort per se, but the original 21c Museum Hotel is convenient to several courses—and far cooler than your average golf resort. Combined from five 19th-century warehouses, the art-centric hotel includes nearly 10,000 square feet of exhibition space, along with Proof on Main, one of the city’s best restaurants.

Hotel Distil is a recent addition to Downtown’s revived Whiskey Row, once the epicenter of the bourbon industry and now the city’s touristic heart. Behind its original bourbon-barreling warehouse façade, the Marriott Autograph Collection hotel is modern and swank. Sample its huge whiskey list at the open-air, second-floor bar and the standout Repeal Oak Fired Steakhouse, where meat is cooked over a live fire of bourbon barrel staves.

Eat

Grab a table at the historic Brown Hotel, where Louisville’s signature dish, the “Hot Brown,” was created as a hangover remedy in 1926. An open-face sandwich broiled brown in a sauté pan, it layers hand-carved turkey, Mornay sauce, cheese, bacon, and tomatoes.

For a contemporary spin on Southern fare, 610 Magnolia from three-time James Beard nominee Edward Lee is the city’s most acclaimed eatery. Enjoy dishes such as local duck breast with Carolina dirty rice or charred okra and hoisin sauce.