Orlando right now

italianstallion · March 2

22 hours ago, diablocrusher said:

Thanks for that. Would you have any suggestions for other courses around that area during the last week of April/first week of May?

I was looking at the Google maps and not far from where I'll be staying is Orange Lake or Orange County National, a little north. Falcon's Fire is right near Celebration, how is that course?

I haven't played Falcon's Fire in about 4 years, but it was never in good shape back then during that timeframe. They would get it looking decent during the winter months with overseed, but once the heat killed off the overseed it was back to messy bermuda. The bunkers were also always washed out. I liked the layout alot though.

In that area OCN is truly your best bet. Actually owned by the same people that own Celebration, but its not in a swap so it drains much better and is in much better shape year round.

sabram · March 2

I had avoided Falcons Fire for a couple of years as the conditions had deteriorated the last couple of times I had played there. However, I gave it another chance in late Decmeber 2024 and mid January 2025 and the conditions had improved a lot.

markheardjr · March 3

On 3/1/2025 at 10:16 AM, diablocrusher said:

Thanks for that. Would you have any suggestions for other courses around that area during the last week of April/first week of May?

I was looking at the Google maps and not far from where I'll be staying is Orange Lake or Orange County National, a little north. Falcon's Fire is right near Celebration, how is that course?

Both of those courses, IMO are more favorable for a visitor that is coming from a winter zone. If your game is a little rusty, you can spray it a little at OCN or Falcon's over Celebration. All of them have their spots that you can't go to, but Celebration is tighter with more water IMO than the others.

OCN has some elevation, so it will have pockets of wet collection areas but its a top notch facility with lots of drainage. Big deep bunkers, so bring your wedge game or plan to spend some time practicing out of bunkers before the round.

Falcon's Fire is a nice comfortable track. Similar to Celebration but more generous off the tee. Its typically a lower price point option in the Disney area, rounds can be long, but I can't complain about the layout. Its pretty flat, big greens, not a ton of undulation. OCN and Celebration greens have a ton more movement.

rrheisler · April 8

Played LBV and Magnolia (hooray, DVC member discount) this past week. Magnolia was excellent. Greens pure. One minor nit with 16 having some GUR in the fairway on the left side. But otherwise a gem. Shocked at how well this northerner adjusted to playing off Bermuda. If only I could stop spraying it all over God's green Earth off the tee...

But well worth it, even getting paired up as a single.

lsgo_man88 · April 10

Played OCN Crooked Cat twice in the last few weeks. They seem to have a disease on the greens. Number 1 and 16 were quite badly affected. They still ran quite true but the greens certainly are not pretty..

JCarl · May 12

On 4/10/2025 at 6:14 PM, lsgo_man88 said:

Played OCN Crooked Cat twice in the last few weeks. They seem to have a disease on the greens. Number 1 and 16 were quite badly affected. They still ran quite true but the greens certainly are not pretty..

the greens are completely getting redone on May 15th. The cat will be closed until September.

markheardjr · June 2

FYI on Harmony in 2025, they dropped the price to $49.99 and the course is green....however....it is in inconsistent / interesting shape. Yes there is green grass, but it has a lot of crab, zoisa, bahia, st augustine and bermuda all mixed. The green are S L O W. Not joking, maybe a 6 on the stimp. You can hear the ball impacting the grass during its roll because of how long the blades of grass are.

Still, probably one of my favorite layouts, you can score. But, go in knowing your paying $50 for fast sub-3hr rounds and great layout, not conditions.

doglegs · June 7

The Ritz is a dump. Horrid conditions, to the point of crab grass infestatiopn around the greens/tee boxes, destroyed chewed up tee boxes and fairways that looked like they've been stripped of grass and replaced with mud. All I've heard about this course is the conditions are top notch. That was not the case. They should be embarrassed.

Southern Dunes was an absolute pleasure.