Barbados became an independent nation in 1966, but more than 300 years of British rule had an everlasting effect on the island and its people. The Bajans are proud of their heritage and hospitality, so visitors experience warm island welcomes with British accents.

One of the most notable British bastions on Barbados is the Sandy Lane resort, a beachfront retreat for royals, captains of industry, and celebrities since its opening in 1961. Queen Elizabeth II, Sidney Poitier, and Elton

Barbados became an independent nation in 1966, but more than 300 years of British rule had an everlasting effect on the island and its people. The Bajans are proud of their heritage and hospitality, so visitors experience warm island welcomes with British accents.

One of the most notable British bastions on Barbados is the Sandy Lane resort, a beachfront retreat for royals, captains of industry, and celebrities since its opening in 1961. Queen Elizabeth II, Sidney Poitier, and Elton John have stayed here; Tiger Woods chose it for his wedding in 2004. The posh enclave is owned by two Irishmen who poured $450 million into a total rebuild of the hotel in the late 1990s, and another hefty sum in 2008 to tweak the 112 guestrooms and suites and open a new restaurant.

As in the old days, visitors are met at the airport and transported in a Bentley to the Palladian-style great house lobby for a tropical drink and easy check-in. The guestrooms are exquisite, with the finest furnishings and high-tech gadgets. Guests' whims are indulged by staff who rush along corridors under the hotel—a common practice in European palaces and mansions.

The antithesis to the staff's pampering, Sandy Lane's three golf courses will not treat you with any deference. One can be downright cruel. Solace can be drawn from the fact that they are beautifully manicured and quite scenic. The kindest of the three is the nine-hole Old Course, a remnant of the original 18 that entertained golfers for 50 years.

The rest of the original course was overlaid by Tom Fazio during the creation of the Country Club Course, a 7,060-yard par 72 with five lakes—and many difficult choices. That's the case on the 14th hole, a 584-yard par 5 ranked the layout's most difficult. Smart money is on a layup short of the lake, behind which is tucked a narrow, sloping green. If you go for it in two and stray left, your ball meets a watery end. The round concludes with a 195-yard par 3 over a lake into the wind. It's not a big target, and sticking the ball on the fast green with a longer iron is tricky.

The world golf community impatiently awaited completion of the 7,389-yard, par-72 Green Monkey, which Fazio carved around, over, and through a former quarry. The course opened at the end of 2004—and it was worth the wait. Hole eight plays along the rim, leading to the ninth, which descends to an upper tier of the pit. The par-3 11th hole passes through a cut in the rocks, followed by three more holes with opportunities to carom shots off stone walls and outcroppings. The 15th hole skirts the quarry rim to a green teetering on the edge, prefacing a glorious par 3 dropping to a lakeside green on the quarry floor. Hole 17 climbs back to the surface, where Hole 18 heads toward the clubhouse with two lakes en route.

For more than 20 years freelancer Dale Leatherman has specialized in golf and adventure travel. Assignments take her all over the world, but she's always happy to be back home playing mountain courses in West Virginia. She is president-elect of the Society of American Travel Writers.