Here are three golf-worthy Florida spots to visit
If you’re headed to the 2018 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, here are a few golf options ranging from the closest course to the show to an overlooked bargain and worthy destination a day away.
Shingle Creek Golf Club
The nearest golf course is the Rosen Shingle Creek Golf Clubless than two miles from the Orange County Convention Center, the sprawling venue for the show.
Shingle Creek was redesigned just over a year ago by Arnold Palmer Design Co. with reduced bunker sizes, lengthening of par 4s and 5s, and improved sight lines. While the size of the bunkers has been reduced, their location still influences which club is needed off the tee.
Most significantly, Shingle Creek’s revamped greens are enormous, ranging in size from 3,500 to 9,500 square feet.
Here’s what Thad Layton, head of Palmer’s design team, had to say about them:
“Bold Greens with Character – A variety of green shapes and sizes with a relatively large amount of contour will set this course apart. There is ALWAYS more than one way to approach the ball when off the green. The different slopes on and around the greens when combined with fairway closures around the greens, it will promote creative recovery options.”
We found that to be true during a round last year during the 2017 PGA Show. While you may be facing a 40-yard drive from 10 yards from the green, 30 of them will be from a green with as many wild undulations, with two and even three severe breaks, that throwing and running is not the appropriate play. What Layton means is that a high shot at halftime can be to get closer.
Suffice to say, if you’re putting away from more than 30 feet, you’ll be hard-pressed to two-putt.
Greens fees for the week of the show range from $119 to $149 and include GPS cart, shot balls and free valet parking.
A bargain outside of Orlando
Rio Pinar Golf Course
So much of Orlando is so new, so conventional and high-end leaning that it was refreshing when an Alabama golf writer I know and his pro friend from Florence, Alabama found Rio Pinar Golf Club a throwback. to another era.
On the northeast edge of the Orlando metropolitan area, 22 miles or about 30 minutes from the PGA Show, Rio Pinar has the feel of an old-fashioned 1950s-style country club. The course opened in 1957 and once it served as the venue for the Citrus Open. PGA Tour stars who played there included Arnold Palmer, Julius Boros, Lee Trevino, Hale Irwin, and Jerry Heard.
Winding through houses from the same period, Rio Pinar boasts plenty of water and plenty of mature trees, enough to miss the fairway which requires its fair share of shots. With plenty of shade to ease the Florida heat, I found Rio Pinar to be an unassuming delight when I played it in 2017.
Its $40 green fee for 2018 will be soft on your wallet, and the homey friendliness of the staff went a long way to making me want to return.
A long journey but worth it
About two hours south on the Florida Turnpike is PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, where the three outstanding golf courses, the Dye, Wanamaker and Ryder courses, have been joined by a nearby property, the now-operated St. Lucie Trail Golf Club. under the auspices of PGA Village.
For those unfamiliar, PGA Village is a multi-course property operated by the PGA of America. It serves as a de facto retirement community for PGA professionals from across the country.
There are many golf towns in Florida, but none like Port St. Lucie, with a thriving community of all age groups. While the demographic skews towards silver hair, dining is excellent, with plenty of fresh seafood and a strong touch of international cuisine.
While each of the original PGA Village courses (Wanamaker, Ryder, and Dye) have been renovated to keep up with modern technology, the course that has really stood out since its renovation has been the Dye Course.
PGA Village Dye Course
The greens were restored to Dye’s original vision. The bunkers were resurfaced with pure white beach sand, and the fairways, collars and greens were re-covered with a dizzying array of grasses, each with a specific strength, such as drought tolerance or shade hardiness.
The result is a feast for the eyes, painted in various shades of green, highlighted by wrinkles and contours and abundant bunkering, all of which may make you forget that this is ironing-board-flat terrain fringed with palm trees. Putting is easy, as long as you recognize the effect of Bermuda Tif-eagle grain on putts.
(It was at the Dye that two locals demystified how to read the grain on a putt: the clean rim of the cup is the side the grain grows toward, and the hairy side is the side the grain runs off.)
Superintendent Dick Gray, at a roundtable with reporters last year, said he was intimidated when he got the job to renovate the Dye job, which was in a sorry state of disrepair, with grass growing in the bunkers and poor maintenance. poor quality which exacerbated the drainage problems.
The two men met when Gray was working decades earlier at Crooked Stick, another Dye design in Carmel, Indiana. Contacting Dye and explaining that he had been tasked with restoring the field, Gray said Dye welcomed him and offered guidance throughout the project.
Gray’s success with the Dye renovation project undoubtedly led to his selection as the 2016 Superintendent of the Year this past February.
A round on the Dye course with cart and range balls through January ranges from $97 to $139, and most major tee times are already booked, according to the club’s booking engine. Stay and play packages are available through the nearby Hilton Garden Inn and there are plenty of condos in the community available to rent for groups of friends.