Naples Golf Trip

Hey everyone, I'm going on a trip with 3 other guys at the end of February and we were looking for some course suggestions.

I searched and most of the topics were about a year or two old, and here is what seemed to be the most mentioned courses. Courses often change, so if there are any that should be added to or removed from the list, please chime in:

Old Corkscrew - Most have said its a very difficult track

TPC Treviso Bay

Naples Grande GC

Lely Golf Resort - the mustang course

Raptor Bay

Hammock Bay Golf & CC

And Calusa Pines seemed like a must. Do they reciprocate with other private courses or do you have to be there with a member?

Any help would be greatly appreciated since we've never been to the area. :drinks:

We did a Naples winter trip for 5 years and the area is such a great combination of golf and great food. You can't go wrong with anything on your list above but if you can use reciprocal privileges, you might consider Eagle Creek. There another course called The Quarry which we only played a couple of times but was in awesome condition then and it's a nice break from traditional Florida courses with a links feel.

Enjoy the trip...and color me jealous!

You’ve hit some of the nice courses. I would add Tiburon to the list. Good luck with Calusa. That may be a tough one to get a reciprocal on, but if you do, enjoy it! With regards to Lely, both the Flamingo and Mustang are nice so I wouldn’t necessarily put one over the other. If you’re looking at reciprocals, look into Twin Eagles also.

We did a Naples winter trip for 5 years and the area is such a great combination of golf and great food. You can't go wrong with anything on your list above but if you can use reciprocal privileges, you might consider Eagle Creek. There another course called The Quarry which we only played a couple of times but was in awesome condition then and it's a nice break from traditional Florida courses with a links feel.

 

Enjoy the trip...and color me jealous!

The Quarry is a fun track but be warned, the entire course is paspalum, people have a lot of opinions as to whether that grass belongs on the greens

I agree with The Quarry idea. Corkscrew is good, Raptor Bay good, Mustang also good but a lot of houses close enough to the fairway to cause some angst.

We did a Naples winter trip for 5 years and the area is such a great combination of golf and great food. You can't go wrong with anything on your list above but if you can use reciprocal privileges, you might consider Eagle Creek. There another course called The Quarry which we only played a couple of times but was in awesome condition then and it's a nice break from traditional Florida courses with a links feel.

 

Enjoy the trip...and color me jealous!

 

The Quarry is a fun track but be warned, the entire course is paspalum, people have a lot of opinions as to whether that grass belongs on the greens

Please keep me honest here as I'm not an agronomist and didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night but I thought the golf version of paspalum was intended for courses that could handle regular and salt water? I might have mir-remembered that or made it up but I do remember the greens being very good...IMHO.

I'd recommend TPC Treviso Bay

We did a Naples winter trip for 5 years and the area is such a great combination of golf and great food. You can't go wrong with anything on your list above but if you can use reciprocal privileges, you might consider Eagle Creek. There another course called The Quarry which we only played a couple of times but was in awesome condition then and it's a nice break from traditional Florida courses with a links feel.

 

Enjoy the trip...and color me jealous!

 

The Quarry is a fun track but be warned, the entire course is paspalum, people have a lot of opinions as to whether that grass belongs on the greens

 

Please keep me honest here as I'm not an agronomist and didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night but I thought the golf version of paspalum was intended for courses that could handle regular and salt water? I might have mir-remembered that or made it up but I do remember the greens being very good...IMHO.

I remember them being on the slow side and rolling a little weird and uneven at times. I think its a great grass for fairways and tee boxes though.

Thanks for all the suggestions, if there are any others we should take a look at let me know!

Heritage Bay is a great course. They have 3 different nines, each uniquely different. I would do Old Corkscrew as option A. TPC Treviso Bay B, then the rest can kinda fall into place. I am not a big fan of the Lely Flamingo and Mustang courses. They are very old and worn out in my opinion. There are definitely better courses in the area i would spend my money one.

Calusa Pines is nearly impossible to reciprocate with. Good luck. (Old Collier is one I would highly recommend if you can pull some strings. Mark Lye is the membership director there and is often on property sharing his time with people.) http://www.theoldcolliergc.com/

My mom and sister live in Naples and I have been going down for the last 20 years. I have played all but Calusa. I would add golf club of the Everglades to your list as well. It’s private but fun and it wasn’t as pretentious as some of the clubs down there. Twin eagles courses are fun too.

I have played tiburon more than a dozen times and it’s still fun to me. Nice practice area.

I have played old corkscrew a lot as well. Started playing there when the clubhouse was a trailer.

The dining and food options in the city has gotten so much better in last 5 years. Fun place to visit for golf and food.

We did a Naples winter trip for 5 years and the area is such a great combination of golf and great food. You can't go wrong with anything on your list above but if you can use reciprocal privileges, you might consider Eagle Creek. There another course called The Quarry which we only played a couple of times but was in awesome condition then and it's a nice break from traditional Florida courses with a links feel.

 

Enjoy the trip...and color me jealous!

 

The Quarry is a fun track but be warned, the entire course is paspalum, people have a lot of opinions as to whether that grass belongs on the greens

Played The Colony in Bonita this week and they had the best paspalum services I’ve ever putted on. Not sure if there’s are a newer strain but they were smooth.

My mom and sister live in Naples and I have been going down for the last 20 years. I have played all but Calusa. I would add golf club of the Everglades to your list as well. It's private but fun and it wasn't as pretentious as some of the clubs down there. Twin eagles courses are fun too.

 

I have played tiburon more than a dozen times and it's still fun to me. Nice practice area.

 

I have played old corkscrew a lot as well. Started playing there when the clubhouse was a trailer.

 

The dining and food options in the city has gotten so much better in last 5 years. Fun place to visit for golf and food.

LOVE Golf Club of the Everglades.

Calusa and Naples Nat'l are the best by far in the area. If you can get on them, do it! Other favs include Tiburon Gold, Naples Grande(great final 4 holes), Twin Eagles Talon. I do like very much the layout at Old Corkscrew but the greens actually make it not fun for anyone. Fiddlers Creek is a beautiful as a layout can be but greens are like shag carpet so if you're a 'player it will wreck your rounds after.

Have fun. Please update after as I will be there in April/May taking advantage of reciprocal season.

I’m heading down for the week after Easter Sunday. Was looking at TPC and maybe Tiburon. Any better recommendations? Happy to get out with any locals that suggest something else.

Any other recs? Heading down this coming weekend and fly into Ft Lauderdale early Saturday with no golf booked yet, playing Calusa Pines Sunday and flying home that night. Also any food and drink recs?

Thanks

Best Steak hands down is Andre's and would highly recommend. If you want something more commercial Bonefish Grill is in a nice location.

Golf course recommendations, my favorite have been the Quarry which is a nice course to start when you haven't played all winter definitely less penal then some courses down there. I also liked Bonita Bay East, both courses there are really nice.  And also Hammock Bay 

Piggybacking on this thread rather than starting a new one.

Any recs for affordable (under ~$80/round) public courses in Naples? I don't have any reciprocity and can't get on many of the above recs. I'm not that picky, so doesn't need to be pristine. Appreciate the help.

Nothing in Naples for $80 bucks. They sock it to you. I live here year round and quit playing 12/1 until 5/1 I refuse to pay for courses that charge $120 to $ 200 when you play them in the summer on Golf Now for $30 bucks. Makes no sense and when the Baby Boomers get to old no one will golf as the young generation hardly golfs at all. Some of these golf courses down here in the near future will be nothing but fields as no one will be able to afford them.

> @pup142 said:

> Nothing in Naples for $80 bucks. They sock it to you. I live here year round and quit playing 12/1 until 5/1 I refuse to pay for courses that charge $120 to $ 200 when you play them in the summer on Golf Now for $30 bucks. Makes no sense and when the Baby Boomers get to old no one will golf as the young generation hardly golfs at all. Some of these golf courses down here in the near future will be nothing but fields as no one will be able to afford them.

Interesting. Yeah, that seems to align with the rates I've found so far just by googling. Thanks for the info.