Orlando on the cheap - 7 courses in 4 days

sabram · March 8, 2014

I had a few vacation days that I was going to lose if I didn’t use them before March, so two weeks ago I hastily planned a four day trip to Orlando to play golf. With my friend Steve on board, we booked airfare, car, hotel and 7 rounds of golf in a little more than 24 hours. The amazing thing is that the trip cost a total of only $917 (excluding meals). That’s ridiculously cheap for a 7 round escape from the frozen and snowbound Northeast. We booked most of the rounds on Golf Now and avoided the expensive courses near Disney and Universal that I’ve played numerous times before and hit some of the places that the locals frequent. We played 36 holes a day except for the day we arrived. Morning rounds are typically a little more expensive than afternoon rounds, but it’s worth it to be the first ones out in the morning so you can play at a fast pace. Each day we zipped around in the morning round in under 3 hours and as we drove to our second course of the day we saw long queues of carts backed up at the first tee to go out. Green fees averaged less than $40 per round including cart (and lunch at red Tail):

Palisades $28 (am) – first ones out

Royal St Cloud $29 (pm)

Sanctuary Ridge $30 (pm)

Black Bear` $31 (pm)

Remington $48 (am) – first ones out

Red Tail $55 (am) – first ones out

Eagle Creek $59 (pm)

The second amazing thing was the quality and variety of the courses. You can visit Florida and play lots of courses that feel like a Déjà vu… like you’ve played there before. The ones on this trip provided a lot of variety.

We stayed at the Comfort Suites in Orlando proper since each day we’d be driving out in a different direction. This way we never had more than a 30 minute drive. Comfort Suites was clean, nice but not fancy. They have a buffet breakfast that we never tried since we were gone each morning before it opened, but the hotel did provide a bag of snacks for the early birds (fruit, granola bar and a bottle of water). That was a nice touch and those became our on course snacks.

Day 1

Eagle Creek. At $59 Eagle Creek was our most expensive round. We chose it because of its close proximity to the airport. We got off the plane, grabbed our clubs and were at the first tee 20 minutes after getting our rental car. By the way, don’t use Payless in Orlando. The service sucks. I could have played 12 holes in the time I waited on line for the car, but that frustration was soon forgotten having gone from 17*F that morning to 71*F that afternoon.

Eagle Creek was the most typical Florida “resort style” course that we played. Green and lush from tee to green, flat terrain, numerous water hazards and soft fairways. The course compares favorably with Celebration, and Falcon’s Fire so, if you like those courses play a round at Eagle Creek, especially if it is your arrival or get-away round.

Eagle Creek #18 par 5 par 5 from right side 250 yards out r

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Eagle Creek slide show

sabram · March 8, 2014

Day 2 - The next day we headed 30 minutes north of Orlando to Red Tail, which is in a very rural area. We arrived before anyone was there so drove to a McDonalds for breakfast. That was the closest palce to eat and was 15 minutes away. The lesson is if you pass a place to eat on the way, stop.

Red Tail is laid out in a very pretty, pastoral setting. It is target golf. The fairways are many instances extremely tight with danger some visible and lots hidden. It’s definitely a course that you’ll play better the second time around. The greens were in great shape and for some reason I was really hitting my drives straight this day, which is an imperative on this course. You won’t lose balls in any trees, but you will end up in a minefield of moguls, ponds, natural areas, marsh, bunkers and other lurking hazards. This is a course that is unrelenting, making you focus on every shot (and the first time you play, you’ll end up in trouble a couple of times even with a good shot because you didn’t know what was out there waiting for you.

Red Tail #2 from green tee r

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Red Tail slideshow

We finished our round at Red Tail before the grill room opended. We waited around since lunch was included with the green fee. After finishing an ordinary turkey sandwich, we drove to nearby Eustis to play Black Bear.

Black Bear is a PB Dye design and is the most linsky of the 7 courses we played (notwithstanding Royal St Cloud’s claim to the contrary.) The firm and wide fairways at Black Bear were a contrast to the narrow soft fairways at Red Tail. The greens were firm and fast. You could heard a thud when a pitch hit a green. The fairways were hillocky with all kinds of slopes and humps. There’s no water on the course until #18, and wou;dn’t you know that I dunked my approach shot into the pond, losing the ball that had been my friend for 35 holes that day.

Black Bear #13 m approach shot to green r

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Black Bear slideshow

sabram · March 8, 2014

Day 3 – We drove 30 minutes west of Orlando to Clermont to play Palisades and Sanctuary Ridge.

Palisades is a sporty locals course with a lot of variety. It is laid out in the midst of a residential neighborhood, but the houses don’t intrude on the course, although the drive through the neighborhood between a couple of holes would make this a hard course to walk. There are some nice elevation changes that give this course more character than many of the typical flat Florida courses. There are some very interesting marshland holes (2, 3 , 11 and 16). Number 3 is a par 5 with a tree that can block your approach shot over a marshy area if you’re too far right . Number 16 requires a knee knocking approach over a pond and number 11 is a quirky short par 4. I’d suggest you drive up to the landing area to see what lies ahead before you tee off for the first time. #5 is a downhill dogleg left par 5 which is followed by an uphill par 4 to a hidden green. Although we liked the course the greens are suffering from a fungus and were quite slow and bumpy. But, for $28 and being the first ones out it was a very fun round well worth the green fee.

Palisades #2 par 3 r

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Palisades slide show

We next drove about 10 minutes to Sanctuary Ridge. We were several hourse early for our 1 pm tee time and wanted to see if they could fit us in earlier. Unfortunately the course was packed. In fact they were short of golf carts so people who were waiting to go out on the first tee were waiting for people to come off #18 to take their carts. We went to a nearby Cracker Barrel for lunch and a small local golf store called “In the Hole Golf” and then back to Sanctuary Ridge, where Phil, the friendly starter, originally from New Jersey, was doing his best to get everyone out on time. After checking out some of the souped up golf carts that the locals owned, a cart came off the 18^th and we were off to the races (the first tee.)

Sanctuary Ridge is appropriately named as the course is laid out along, above and below the crest of a huge (by Florida standards at least) ridge. This makes for a lot of pretty steep uphill and downhill shots which other than the now defunct Sugarloaf Mountain (which was one of the best courses in the area IMO), is unusual for Florida. Number 1 is a par 5 with a ridge that runs across the fairway so that your second shot will get a lot of roll down toward the green. I hit a great second shot over the ridge and then couldn’t find my ball. Booo!. Number 2 is a steep drop-shot par 3. Everyone in our foursome hit the large green. Yay! Number 4 is a long dogleg left with the approach shot palying long because it goes back up yto the top of the ridge. #5 then has a drop tee shot. You get the idea of the ups and downs of this layout. A nice change of pace for a Florida holiday round and a great value at $30, but not sure I’d want to play it every day.

Sanctuary Ridge #3 from tee r

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Sanctuary Ridge Slide Show

sabram · March 8, 2014

Day 4 – 30 minutes to South to Kissimmee/St Cloud area to play Remington and Royal St Cloud.

To be continued…

Remington #6 from tee r

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Remington Slide show

Royal St Cloud White #7 bunkers guard front right of green r

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Royal St Cloud slide show

RichieHunt · March 12, 2014

Great pictures.

RedTail is one of my favorites. If you like that, next time I would recommend try to get on Juliette Falls. It's a long drive, west of Ocala, but they usually have super cheap prices. What's crazy is that if you took money out of the equation, I still think only World Woods - Pine Barrens is better for a course in the Orlando area on GolfNow.

I liked Palisades' design for the most part outside of the 3rd hole. I layed up there and hit my lay-up shot right down the middle of the fairway and was blocked by the oak tree. With that said, it's in awful condition. The greens are terrible. This is surprising since I would imagine they would have the $$$ given there's a big housing population there and unlike most Florida housing populations, these houses seem to be occupied. Really jealous of some of those houses on the lake.

I hated Sanctuary Ridge. To me, it's a torture chamber. And there's too much unnecessary bunkering. On #11 there's a bunker in the freaking woods.

Black Bear has gone to hell. It's your typical Pete Dye design which can work if it is in great shape, but it's hurting financially. Last time we went there we were treated very poorly by the pro shop staff and I'm not one that ever complains about that.

Red Tail is one of my favorites. Good design, usually in good condition, great clubhouse and just a fun course to play.

I like Eagle Creek, but don't love it. For some reason they charge more than North Shore and I don't think it's better than North Shore. I had heard this past summer they had condition issues which is odd for them, but it appears they are back to their old well conditioned selves.

RH

moose557 · March 12, 2014

I just home from playing redtail for the first time and wow did I love it. Very challenging but a fantastic layout. Course was in pristine condition which is great at that cheaper price point. It's a little bit of a hike from the resort areas, but well worth it. A great hidden gem in the Orlando area

RichieHunt · March 14, 2014

For other good courses on the cheap in Orlando, I would recommend:

Deer Island
Mission Inn (El Campeon)
Deltona Club
Victoria Hills
Juliette Falls

3jacker · March 24, 2014

Just played Deer Island last weekend in the 30 mph winds. Despite the difficulty of those conditions, and being between two large bodies of water, the course was letting me feel all of it... I love the place.

Looking forward to trying out Red Tail soon.

RichieHunt · March 25, 2014

I just played Victoria Hills and Eagle Creek this past weekend.

That's the best shape I've seen Victoria Hills in the past 4 years. It wasn't Augusta by any means, but the fairways are really starting to come around and the greens were in very good condition. Just a great course to play.

Eagle Creek was in great condition on the tees, fairways and greens, but their rough was in bad shape. I had heard they had problems in the summer with their conditioning. Overall a happy experience there.

RH

BewareTheGlowball · May 15, 2014

[quote name='RichieHunt' timestamp='1394631154' post='8854611']

Black Bear has gone to hell. It's your typical Pete Dye design which can work if it is in great shape, but it's hurting financially. Last time we went there we were treated very poorly by the pro shop staff and I'm not one that ever complains about that.

[/quote]

This is troubling. Would love to hear how exactly for curiosity sake. Either here or by PM. Just boggles my mind!

RichieHunt · May 15, 2014

[quote name='BewareTheGlowball' timestamp='1400167336' post='9300779']
[quote name='RichieHunt' timestamp='1394631154' post='8854611']
Black Bear has gone to hell. It's your typical Pete Dye design which can work if it is in great shape, but it's hurting financially. Last time we went there we were treated very poorly by the pro shop staff and I'm not one that ever complains about that.

[/quote]

This is troubling. Would love to hear how exactly for curiosity sake. Either here or by PM. Just boggles my mind!
[/quote]

We went there as a 4-some on GolfNow. Called the day before to say that 1 of the golfers couldn't make it. Got there and they made us still pay. I could see that if the course was packed and we were taking away a tee time, but that was hardly the case.

When they loaded our bags on the carts the cart guy asked if we wanted to use their GPS system which we could rent. We said no thanks because 2 of the guys have GPS systems of their own and I have a rangefinder. I ended up going to the bathroom and overheard the Pro scolding the cart guy that '[i]next time just tell them that they have to pay for the GPS whether they like it or not.' [/i]

It's not a big fee (I think it was only a few dollars to rent one). But, it's just a poor way to treat people. If you read on GolfNow reviews you'll see that this is a frequent practice and people are upset about it because it is incredibly poor tact.

The course was in horrendous condition. It was the year before as well. But, I have no intention of ever playing there again because of the way we were treated. It's not like they are the only course in Orlando. Maybe they should think about that next time.

RH

golfnhack · May 15, 2014

[quote name='RichieHunt' timestamp='1400172446' post='9301587']
[quote name='BewareTheGlowball' timestamp='1400167336' post='9300779']
[quote name='RichieHunt' timestamp='1394631154' post='8854611']
Black Bear has gone to hell. It's your typical Pete Dye design which can work if it is in great shape, but it's hurting financially. Last time we went there we were treated very poorly by the pro shop staff and I'm not one that ever complains about that.

[/quote]

This is troubling. Would love to hear how exactly for curiosity sake. Either here or by PM. Just boggles my mind!
[/quote]

We went there as a 4-some on GolfNow. Called the day before to say that 1 of the golfers couldn't make it. Got there and they made us still pay. I could see that if the course was packed and we were taking away a tee time, but that was hardly the case.

When they loaded our bags on the carts the cart guy asked if we wanted to use their GPS system which we could rent. We said no thanks because 2 of the guys have GPS systems of their own and I have a rangefinder. I ended up going to the bathroom and overheard the Pro scolding the cart guy that '[i]next time just tell them that they have to pay for the GPS whether they like it or not.' [/i]

It's not a big fee (I think it was only a few dollars to rent one). But, it's just a poor way to treat people. If you read on GolfNow reviews you'll see that this is a frequent practice and people are upset about it because it is incredibly poor tact.

The course was in horrendous condition. It was the year before as well. But, I have no intention of ever playing there again because of the way we were treated. It's not like they are the only course in Orlando. Maybe they should think about that next time.

Ha! I absolutely agree with you. I USED TO like Black Bear, but loathe it now because of the service, conditioning, and sloooooooowwwwwwww play.

I played it 2 years ago, and said I would never return. I made the mistake of playing it again 2 months ago, only to experience the exact same issues. I would say I am DEFINITELY not going to return.... but then again never is a long time.

Don't waste your money. Go 5 minutes down the road and play Eagle Dunes, or 10 minutes down the road and play one of the best in Central Florida, Red Tail.

RH
[/quote]

golfnhack · May 15, 2014

For some reason, it won't NOT put my reply in quotes... so I will break it out

RH

I absolutely agree with you. I USED TO like Black Bear, but loathe it now because of the service, conditioning, and sloooooooowwwwwwww play.

I played it 2 years ago, and said I would never return. I made the mistake of playing it again 2 months ago, only to experience the exact same issues. I would say I am DEFINITELY not going to return.... but then again never is a long time.

Don't waste your money. Go 5 minutes down the road and play Eagle Dunes, or 10 minutes down the road and play one of the best in Central Florida, Red Tail.

golfnhack · May 15, 2014

Here is the review of my last round that I wrote on GolfNow.

You get what you pay for......Literally!

Round was $37 including lunch. So why was my bill $41+? Well, because you are forced to pay $1.50 for a "GPS" fee. We are not talking some fancy visual GPS, but instead you get a early 1990's non-visual with front, center & back measurements. I did not look at it at all. I have a range finder. I did not need (nor want) a 1990's GPS.

Want ice? Sure that will be 50c. Not a biggie, but would have been nice to know so I could have grabbed my wallet before I left the cart. Now at least you know.

Want a cart key? Sorry. No. Come back no sooner than 10 minutes before your round please.

Oh.... your round was at 11:40? Sorry you only get to tee off at 12. Don't want a 5hr round? Oops, sorry. 5hr+ round you will get, and no rangers out on the course.

You want a drink with your "free" lunch. Sorry, not included.

Want to call ahead to place your lunch order at hole 8? Sorry... our phones have "technical issues". Better let that 4-ball behind you through at 10 if you want lunch. Turning groups with to-go orders are not given priority over others at the "restaurant". So 20-25 minute wait for your food you will get.

A little germaphobic? Avoid the restaurant. No gloves for food prep. Let's just hope the "cook" washes his hands after using the bathroom.

I avoided playing here for more than a year because of the 5hr+ round I had the last time. Nothing has changed.

Better off playing up the road at Eagle Dunes (less than 2 miles from Black Bear) or spend the extra $10 and play one of the best courses in Central Florida, i.e. Red Tail, which is less than 4 miles away.

RichieHunt · May 15, 2014

I would much rather play Red Tail than Eagle Dunes. Although Eagle Dunes treated us just fine when we played there. It's just that Red Tail is head and shoulders above Eagle Dunes.

RH