St. Pete Beach, FL course recommendation

Buddy is getting married in St. Pete Beach in May. There will be a decent amount of us that would like to golf. So as the best man, I said I'd do some research. A lot of the courses around the hotel we're staying at (Grand Plaza)l is private. So I wanted to see if anyone had any good recommendations on courses in the area that is open to the public? Will even consider courses that aren't too far off the island.

Thanks in advance!

Streamsong

St. Pete is a little tough for golf. My favorite course over that way is Dunedin Club. Old school Donald Ross layout with some elevation changes, but it might be more of a hike than you're willing to make.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Typically a lil bit of windshield time isnt a problem or concern but trying to coordinate roughly 20 guys, that makes it a little more difficult .

My family lives in St. Pete and unfortunately it's not a great place for day-to-day golf. Most public courses immediately around there are not particularly high quality.

Theoretically you could drive over to Tampa to play a couple places like TPC Tampa Bay (which is supposed to be decent but expensive for what it is), Fox Hollow (I haven't played but supposed to be decent).

Other than that, the more high-profile locations that are further away would be:

Innisbrook, which hosts a PGA Tour event but has never really interested me enough to go up and spend the money, would probably be 45 mins from SPBWorld Woods which is a great value, two-course facility (Pine Barrens is top 100 public I believe) but an hour north of St Pete at leastStreamsong would be the highest profile, likely best golf, but is probably 1hr 20 mins from St Pete and the most expensive of any of those options. It depends what level of golf you're looking for I'd say. I honestly don't know what Streamsong would be charging for golf and/or hotel there these days. Their website is less clear than say Bandon Dunes in their pricing.

have you played any of the private courses in the area? i have a plan to play belleair CC and looking at adding in old memorial but that dunedin course has my eye as well.....i thought about doing innisbrook but pricey (but the private ones are not too far off of them).

Depending on what you want to spend...

The Bardmoor Golf & Tennis club was a nice course when I lived around the area.

Feathersound CC is close and a nice course, could always call and ask. I know there is some CC teetime website (I forget the name - but they are part of it).

EastBay is a public course, not the best, but not terrible. And they have a lighted par 3 course which is fun.

Yeah, I'm beginning to realize that haha. At first it seemed promising and a bunch of courses came up but then come to find out, majority were private/CC's or at least the ones that looked good/nice. I'll look at some one the ones you suggested.

Thanks, Ill look into them.

I've only played Bayou Club, which I don't think is terribly private. Other than that, I'm really a public track guy. Can't speak to Belleair or other privates like the Vinoy in the area unfortunately.

I've played Bardmoor, which I wouldn't recommend for anything more than a place to play 18 holes of golf in St Pete. The back nine has a little bit of intrigue, but feels appropriately priced around $30 if you can find it on GolfNow/TeeOff. Can't speak to the other ones.