Miles of lush green fairways, tee times available 365 days a year, courses designed by big-name architects and world-class golf academies are just a few of many reasons to tee up in Florida. The golf course lineup in the Sunshine State features nearly 1,500 courses, including more than 50 amenity-laden resorts where golf is king. When it’s time to chase the white dimpled ball, there’s no place better than a scenic and challenging golf course in Florida.
SOUTHEAST
Gentlemen and ladies, start your golf carts. Whether it’s Miami, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale or another beach community, you’re never far from a golf course.
The Trump National Doral Miami Resort, with its five championship golf courses, has undergone a property-wide US$200-million refurbishment in the past two years.
The resort’s famous Blue Monster course has been
completely redesigned to be even more monstrous. Be sure to check out the 2015 Cadillac Championship taking place from March 4–10. In Aventura, 18 miles north of Miami, Turnberry Isle Miami has two palm- and lakedotted courses with high-impact water features.
The property showcases a Mediterraneandesigned resort hotel, voted one of the “world’s best” by Travel + Leisure Magazine. PGA National Resort and Spa in Palm Beach Gardens is home to The Champion, site of the PGA Tour’s annual Honda Classic, and four other impressive layouts—plus the PGA National Golf Academy.
SOUTHWEST
Encompassing golf-happy communities such as Naples, Fort Myers and Sarasota, this region of the state is extremely welcoming to the whitedimple ball set. The upscale, family-owned Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club has been entertaining golfers since the late 1920s. Redesigned, refurbished and enhanced several times, the course often receives accolades as one of the top women-friendly golf courses in the nation.
For fans of legendary Scottish designer Donald Ross, the venerable Bobby Jones Golf Club in Sarasota has two 18-hole championship courses and a nine-hole executive course ideal for players of all skill levels
CENTRAL EAST
Daytona Beach is home to the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), which is headquartered at LPGA International, an upscale resort/residential complex with two highly rated layouts: the Arthur Hillsdesigned Legends Course and the Rees Jones
Champions Course. To fully immerse you in the golf experience, the PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, owned and operated by the PGA of America, has 54 holes designed by Tom Fazio and Pete Dye and a stateof-the-art 35-acre learning and performance
center for instruction and game improvement.
CENTRAL
Home to celebrity golfers such as Bubba Watson, Annika Sorenstam and Arnold Palmer, Orlando, which has more than 125 courses within a 45-mile radius, is a fantastic golf destination.
The Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate is one of the state’s most comprehensive golf resorts with two championship courses designed by Greg Norman, a lighted nine-hole, par 3 layout, and the world headquarters for the David Leadbetter Golf Academy. The resort was recognized as one of the Top 125 Golf Resorts in the World by Condé Nast Traveler.
For those who love Scottish and links-style golf, the Villas of Grand Cypress Orlando is home to Jack Nicklaus’ New Course, which incorporates replicas of St. Andrews’ stone bridges and walls, deep pot bunkers and seven double greens. Nicklaus also designed 27 other holes at the resort.
Less than a 10-minute drive from Walt Disney World, Reunion, a Wyndham Grand Golf & Spa Resort, features three 18-hole layouts designed separately by Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Arnold Palmer, as well as the ANNIKA Academy, a golf school and teaching facility headed by golf great Annika Sorenstam.
CENTRAL WEST
There are an estimated 100 public-access courses in the Tampa metropolitan area with an excellent selection of resort and daily fee layouts. Two Arnold Palmer-designed courses await you at Saddlebrook Resort in Wesley Chapel near Tampa. A wonderland of cypress, pines, palms, undulating fairways and well-maintained greens, the courses are the quintessential high-quality Florida resort experience. If you want to play where the pros tee up, the 900-acre Innisbrook, a Salamander Golf & Spa Resort in Palm Harbor, offers 72 holes of golf including the spectacular Copperhead Course, which hosts the PGA Tour each March for the Tampa Bay Championship.
Highly rated TPC Tampa Bay, a co-design by Bobby Weed and Chi Chi Rodriguez, is a great challenge in a natural setting that’s been designated as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.
NORTHEAST
This golf aplenty area is brimming with highprofile courses and resorts. In Ponte Vedra Beach, headquarters for the PGA Tour, the Sawgrass Golf Resort & Spa is home to 99 holes of golf featuring THE
PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, where the famous No. 17 island hole awaits you. Near St. Augustine, the sprawling 6,300-acre World Golf Village resort/residential development draws golf enthusiasts with World Golf Hall of Fame, and the King & Bear and the Slammer & Squire courses. Two other area resorts on golfers’ must-play lists are Hammock Beach, a Salamander Golf & Spa Resort in Palm Coast with 36 holes of exceptional golf, and Omni Amelia Island Plantation, 30 miles north of Jacksonville, which has three picturesque and challenging courses certified by the Audubon International Certified Sanctuaries.
NORTH CENTRAL
Away from the theme parks and attractions, this region of the state offers a slower pace and superb golf options. Southwood Golf Club in Tallahassee, a design by PGA Tour star Fred Couples, is set on lush former pastureland accented by rolling hills, giant oaks dripping with Spanish moss and impressive native grass areas. In Gainesville, the Mark Bostick Golf Course, situated on the northwest corner of the University of Florida campus, is a legendary Florida course, designed by Scotsman Donald Ross in the 1920s and later renovated and modernized by architect Bobby Weed in 2001.
NORTHWEST
Known for its outstanding deep-sea fishing, the town of Destin is also home to Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, a 2,400-acre resort development offering play on four championship golf courses. Highlighting the impressive lineup is the Raven Golf Club, a Robert Trent Jones, Jr. design that weaves through marshes and pine trees, and the Rees Jones-designed Burnt Pine Golf Club, with its phenomenal views along the Choctawhatchee Bay. In Panama City Beach, Bay Point Wyndham Resort has two layouts that provide a comprehensive test of your golf skills. The resort’s high-profile Nicklaus course has spectacular panoramic views of St. Andrews Bay and the Grand Lagoon.
The Pensacola area entices golfers with up to 15 courses, including the Perdido Bay Golf Club, a venerable championship layout that was the former site of the Pensacola Open for 10 years. FL
Post a Comment