Golf in Florida

Cody OHare

I'm taking a trip to Florida next March with my son. Staying in Orlando and with friends in West Palm Beach. Planning on going to Arnies Bay Hill PGA event. We want to play 5 or 6 courses over 2 weeks. Prepared to push the boat out (price wise) for 1 or 2 high profile courses if we can get on for a reasonable price.

I'm sure there are a number of Board members who have experience of Florida, so a few questions

1. Bay Hill Tournament: Anyone been? Any Advice?
2. Recommendations for courses in Orlando and West Palm Beach area?
3. Trophy Hunting Courses. We'd love to play one of the famous courses, PGA National, Doral or Sawgrass. For PGA National and Doral you have to stay at the resort in order to play which makes the cost even more eye watering. Is there a way of getting on without breaking the bank?
4.Best way to get value for money? There is a South Florida Golf Pass which offers terrific access to high quality courses for a great price. Gets you on the PGA National Beartrap for $95 and the other 4 in the resort for $50 a go. I thought it was the answer to my prayers but it only operates from May to Oct.

Its a trip of a lifetime and costing me more than I want to think about. I appreciate we are going high season and therefore there is less room for maneuver. Any advice is much appreciated.

Russman

Cody OHare wrote: »

I'm taking a trip to Florida next March with my son. Staying in Orlando and with friends in West Palm Beach. Planning on going to Arnies Bay Hill PGA event. We want to play 5 or 6 courses over 2 weeks. Prepared to push the boat out (price wise) for 1 or 2 high profile courses if we can get on for a reasonable price.

I'm sure there are a number of Board members who have experience of Florida, so a few questions

1. Bay Hill Tournament: Anyone been? Any Advice?
2. Recommendations for courses in Orlando and West Palm Beach area?
3. Trophy Hunting Courses. We'd love to play one of the famous courses, PGA National, Doral or Sawgrass. For PGA National and Doral you have to stay at the resort in order to play which makes the cost even more eye watering. Is there a way of getting on without breaking the bank?
4.Best way to get value for money? There is a South Florida Golf Pass which offers terrific access to high quality courses for a great price. Gets you on the PGA National Beartrap for $95 and the other 4 in the resort for $50 a go. I thought it was the answer to my prayers but it only operates from May to Oct.

Its a trip of a lifetime and costing me more than I want to think about. I appreciate we are going high season and therefore there is less room for maneuver. Any advice is much appreciated.

My tuppenceworth:

Lots and lots of great golf around Orlando, I haven't been to Palm Beach. Try Orange County National - two superb courses that have held the PGA Tour Q School many times. They're also pretty decent to deal with too, we played a round there one time and afterwards were able to haggle a great deal for a game & buggies the following day.
Other good ones to try in Orlando: Orange Lake Legends, Providence, Bella Collina, Legends Country Club, Shingle Creek.

In terms of trophy courses, Sawgrass is spectacular but you may need to spend a night there, not sure. I know you used to back in c2008. But there's two courses there so you could do both the Stadium and the Dye's Valley courses. The Valley course is arguably more enjoyable/playable but doesn't have the "wow" factor. Sawgrass is expensive though, but they sometimes run deals and there's at least one other course more or less on the property, think its called Ponte Vedra Golf and Country Club, also very good but maybe not quite as manicured. Its a bit of a spin up from Orlando too.

I don't know if it counts as a trophy course, but the Magnolia Course in Disney is fantastic, you'd recognise it from the annual event it used to hold on the PGA Tour up to about 2/3 years ago. Really good track, massively enjoyable.

There's a great course called the King and the Bear beside the World Golf Village, not as far north as Sawgrass, but its excellent too.

In terms of getting good value, I'd say directly with the club might be best (but totally open to correction), rather than a booking website.

Haven't been to Arnie's event, so no idea about that unfortunately.

pcasso

I't's nine years since I played there but the stand out courses at that time for me were the two courses at Orange County, which have been mentioned above and Harmony golf preserve, which was a slight step up on those two.

edit, I seem to recall paying about $90 for green fees in Harmony but having checked now it is available to play for $30-$40 so it may have somewhat deteriorated in the intervening years

Cody OHare

Tx for the recommendations guys

Golfgraffix

Pretty much every course in Palm Beach is of high quality. Most of the best are in North Palm and Jupiter.

I can highly recommend North Palm Beach Country Club. Although it sounds exclusive it is a public course. It's a Nickluas design and a great track. It was a gift from him to the local community, I think he charged $1 for the design. If you are staying in west Palm it is about 7 miles up US1.

J

First Up

Cody OHare wrote: »

I'm taking a trip to Florida next March with my son. Staying in Orlando and with friends in West Palm Beach. Planning on going to Arnies Bay Hill PGA event. We want to play 5 or 6 courses over 2 weeks. Prepared to push the boat out (price wise) for 1 or 2 high profile courses if we can get on for a reasonable price.

I'm sure there are a number of Board members who have experience of Florida, so a few questions

1. Bay Hill Tournament: Anyone been? Any Advice?
2. Recommendations for courses in Orlando and West Palm Beach area?
3. Trophy Hunting Courses. We'd love to play one of the famous courses, PGA National, Doral or Sawgrass. For PGA National and Doral you have to stay at the resort in order to play which makes the cost even more eye watering. Is there a way of getting on without breaking the bank?
4.Best way to get value for money? There is a South Florida Golf Pass which offers terrific access to high quality courses for a great price. Gets you on the PGA National Beartrap for $95 and the other 4 in the resort for $50 a go. I thought it was the answer to my prayers but it only operates from May to Oct.

Its a trip of a lifetime and costing me more than I want to think about. I appreciate we are going high season and therefore there is less room for maneuver. Any advice is much appreciated.

Grand Cypress is an excellent course in Orlando.
Great courses around Palm Beach but a lot are private and only accessible with a member. As a general rule, the further west (inland) the better the deals but you won't go far wrong with any of the better public courses, especially if you drive a bit away from the old Palm Beach scene around The Breakers.

Cody OHare

So my long list in no particular order

Orlando
Orange County, Magnolia (Disney), Legends, Providence, Bella Collina, Orange Lake - Orange Lake Reserve and Orange Lake Legends, Harmony, Shingle Creek, Grand Cypress.

W. Palm Beach, Jupiter, Port St Lucie
North Palm Beach Country Club, Abacoa, Emeerld Dunes, Palm Beach Par 3, Westchester, President CC, Atlantic National and Winston Trails, PGA Village (Ryder and Dye).

I'll need to do a little research in terms of cost. I suspect it might be worth having a long list and then choosing the best deals closer to the time.

Russman, on reflection, I think I'm unlikely to venture further north to Sawgrass but thanks for those recommendations. My friend (non-Golfer) in Florida is seeing what favours can be called to get us on to the Bear Trap.

Russman

Just re Orange Lake, the Legends is far better than the Reserve course. They're in the same complex off the 192 after Disney. That's not to say there's anything bad about the Reserve course.

Cody OHare

Booked to stay at Bayhill Golf Course & Lodge. Room $250 per night and golf $225 per person. So for 2 of us its $350 each to stay and play. I'm not sure I'll get better than that for any of the Florida courses that host PGA events.
We'll be at the Palmer Invitational Tournament 8 days previously, so that'll be interesting. Course conditions should be perfect as long as we don't hit into the gallery areas.

Most probably will play Shingle Creek (Orlando) & North Palm Beach Country Club . We'll play 1 other course in Orlando and 1 in West Palm Beach. I'll have to choose them with a significant weighting on the price as the budget is already blown.

slave1

Sounds like a great plan, enjoy, weather should be perfect at that time of the year...

ShivasIrons

Cody OHare wrote: »

So my long list in no particular order

Orlando
Orange County, Magnolia (Disney), Legends, Providence, Bella Collina, Orange Lake - Orange Lake Reserve and Orange Lake Legends, Harmony, Shingle Creek, Grand Cypress.

W. Palm Beach, Jupiter, Port St Lucie
North Palm Beach Country Club, Abacoa, Emeerld Dunes, Palm Beach Par 3, Westchester, President CC, Atlantic National and Winston Trails, PGA Village (Ryder and Dye).

I'll need to do a little research in terms of cost. I suspect it might be worth having a long list and then choosing the best deals closer to the time.

Russman, on reflection, I think I'm unlikely to venture further north to Sawgrass but thanks for those recommendations. My friend (non-Golfer) in Florida is seeing what favours can be called to get us on to the Bear Trap.

No favours required to play PGA National, just pay the fees. Best place to play in Florida is Streamsong, 90 minutes from Orlando. Far, far superior to Bay Hill

Cody OHare

ShivasIrons wrote: »

No favours required to play PGA National, just pay the fees. Best place to play in Florida is Streamsong, 90 minutes from Orlando. Far, far superior to Bay Hill

Looks pretty spectacular.