Tampa area this weekend, recommendations for two rounds?

[kmdut]

Ive seen many single digits shoot over 100 at cypress creek, same at Cheval. Cypress has a number of holes that should be blown up. Tiny greens with crazy undulations. Greens on 3,4,8, 9, 11, 16, 17 are impossible for the avg golfer. Ive seen groups spend an hour on the par 5 7th. Its way too severe a course for the mostly senior citizens and poor golfers that play there. You can easily get stuck behind a few groups that can barely move. I play it because my parents have a house in sun city center otherwise i wouldnt go near it, although i have shot 79 a few times

 

I can only assume you have not played since our renovations over the summer, because most of your assessments are spot on to what we set out to improve on. We wanted to "tone down" the undulations of all the greens, specifically we enlarged and toned down the undulations on 3,4,8 & 16 while completely redoing the 9th green. I feel we did a fantastic job of making the greens more playable, creating additional pin locations to help wear patterns on the small greens ALL while keeping the identity of Cypress Creek.

 

Once we get a few aerifications in this summer we should see a drastic improvement in the firmness of the greens. Like others have said, Cypress is a difficult golf course, but if you play the correct tee it should be a very enjoyable, not like any other course in the area, type of day. Unfortunately our scorecard does not do the course justice, 6,800 yards is not created equal!

 

We have a new fleet of golf carts that among other amenities not offered by our competitors, are equipped with GPS. Over the last month and a half (our busiest time of year) our average pace of play has been 3 hours and 50 minutes.

 

Does the Par-3 17th still have 200+ for the white tee players? If so, then that's a major problem, even with playing the correct tees. Average player shouldn't have to hit a driver or more on a par-3. and especially 200 over water. What's the full carry for this - 190 or more???

 

A shorter par-3 can still be difficult (think of 7 at pebble for one example).

 

I played Cypress Creek a few times a number of years ago and thought it was reasonable. but its too far for me most of the time (about 1.5 hours usually) - way way north of tampa.

 

First and foremost let me just say I agree with the common theme here, 17 is my least favorite hole on the course. It is too difficult regardless of the tee played and simply does not fit in with the rest of the course,

 

Now typically I would leave it at that but since you have deemed this a "major problem." Lets discuss it for a moment: Is the white tee stone at 204 yards on the 17th hole? Yes. Is it a 190 yard carry over water? No. The lake is to the left of the white tee box and according to my range finder is roughly 114 to clear the water and 192 pin today.

 

Typically what I see from most courses is their white tee (or 3rd tee from the back) playing to a total yardage around 6,000 yards. Our white tee is on the short end of that average measuring in at 5,974 yards. Which right from the get go is where some players get in trouble out here, they see the white tees starts with a 5 and not a 6 and immediately jump back to the blues. So taking another 25 yards off the total yardage to make the 17th hole look more playable (when in actuality it will still be just as hard) and putting our total yardage around 5,550 would have the adverse effect by promoting more people to jump back to the blues for the day.

 

Other notable local par 3 yardages from the 3rd tee in:

Southern Dunes 3rd: 197

Streamsong Blue 16th: 205

TPC Tampa Bay 17th: 187

Southern Hills 8th: 197

Black Diamond 17th: 191

[jerebear21]

the 17th is NOT a dealbreaker. 1-16 is great and you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't give it a go.

 

great golf architecture and good routing imho. we'll be there again next weekend.

[jerebear21]

and the yardage is very deceiving because of all the wind there. 5950 probably feels like 6200; the blues sit at 6400 but probably plays like 6700

 

the tips where i played was 6800 and goodness it felt like 7100.

[suaviter]

Any recs on courses closer to the Clearwater area beaches? Down next weekend on a guy's trip and playing Cypress Creek on Friday but want to play somewhere around 10 am on Saturday then hit the beach without heading back to Tampa. Does anything fit the bill in this 'better' but not crazy expensive track?

 

Thanks in advance.

[turtlesvs]

Any recs on courses closer to the Clearwater area beaches? Down next weekend on a guy's trip and playing Cypress Creek on Friday but want to play somewhere around 10 am on Saturday then hit the beach without heading back to Tampa. Does anything fit the bill in this 'better' but not crazy expensive track?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

I would think Dunedin Golf Club or Belleview Biltmore although I haven't been to either in quite a while so I can't speak to their condition. Very close to Clearwater beach

[chilllwave]

I just got back from a 5 day Tampa trip and we played 6 different courses. 2 courses that I really enjoyed that I haven't seen mentioned are The Eagles forest course and Lexington Oaks. Neither of which are world class courses like the top 100 stuff but the eagles was in fantastic shape, had some really beautiful holes, wasn't crowded and was quite a bargain at roughly $40-50. The exact same could be said for Lexington Oaks, which also happened to be my best round of the trip. I think both of these courses are great value options if you don't want to break the bank or want to knock off some winter rust before heading to the pricy courses.

[BEND OF THE RIVER GC]

Thanks for the tip on those two! Did you snap any pics?

[suaviter]

Any recs on courses closer to the Clearwater area beaches? Down next weekend on a guy's trip and playing Cypress Creek on Friday but want to play somewhere around 10 am on Saturday then hit the beach without heading back to Tampa. Does anything fit the bill in this 'better' but not crazy expensive track?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

I would think Dunedin Golf Club or Belleview Biltmore although I haven't been to either in quite a while so I can't speak to their condition. Very close to Clearwater beach

 

Following up on this trip:

 

Belleview Biltmore: enjoyed this one despite pace of play issues

Cypress Creek: great day out, zero pace of play issues, fun track, good condition.

Dunedin: Save your time and money. Spotty shape, terrible pace of play, unfriendly and unapologetic staff. Very frustrating.

[Wigeon]

Ive seen many single digits shoot over 100 at cypress creek, same at Cheval. Cypress has a number of holes that should be blown up. Tiny greens with crazy undulations. Greens on 3,4,8, 9, 11, 16, 17 are impossible for the avg golfer. Ive seen groups spend an hour on the par 5 7th. Its way too severe a course for the mostly senior citizens and poor golfers that play there. You can easily get stuck behind a few groups that can barely move. I play it because my parents have a house in sun city center otherwise i wouldnt go near it, although i have shot 79 a few times

 

I can only assume you have not played since our renovations over the summer, because most of your assessments are spot on to what we set out to improve on. We wanted to "tone down" the undulations of all the greens, specifically we enlarged and toned down the undulations on 3,4,8 & 16 while completely redoing the 9th green. I feel we did a fantastic job of making the greens more playable, creating additional pin locations to help wear patterns on the small greens ALL while keeping the identity of Cypress Creek.

 

Once we get a few aerifications in this summer we should see a drastic improvement in the firmness of the greens. Like others have said, Cypress is a difficult golf course, but if you play the correct tee it should be a very enjoyable, not like any other course in the area, type of day. Unfortunately our scorecard does not do the course justice, 6,800 yards is not created equal!

 

We have a new fleet of golf carts that among other amenities not offered by our competitors, are equipped with GPS. Over the last month and a half (our busiest time of year) our average pace of play has been 3 hours and 50 minutes.

 

Does the Par-3 17th still have 200+ for the white tee players? If so, then that's a major problem, even with playing the correct tees. Average player shouldn't have to hit a driver or more on a par-3. and especially 200 over water. What's the full carry for this - 190 or more???

 

A shorter par-3 can still be difficult (think of 7 at pebble for one example).

 

I played Cypress Creek a few times a number of years ago and thought it was reasonable. but its too far for me most of the time (about 1.5 hours usually) - way way north of tampa.

 

First and foremost let me just say I agree with the common theme here, 17 is my least favorite hole on the course. It is too difficult regardless of the tee played and simply does not fit in with the rest of the course,

 

Now typically I would leave it at that but since you have deemed this a "major problem." Lets discuss it for a moment: Is the white tee stone at 204 yards on the 17th hole? Yes. Is it a 190 yard carry over water? No. The lake is to the left of the white tee box and according to my range finder is roughly 114 to clear the water and 192 pin today.

 

Typically what I see from most courses is their white tee (or 3rd tee from the back) playing to a total yardage around 6,000 yards. Our white tee is on the short end of that average measuring in at 5,974 yards. Which right from the get go is where some players get in trouble out here, they see the white tees starts with a 5 and not a 6 and immediately jump back to the blues. So taking another 25 yards off the total yardage to make the 17th hole look more playable (when in actuality it will still be just as hard) and putting our total yardage around 5,550 would have the adverse effect by promoting more people to jump back to the blues for the day.

 

Other notable local par 3 yardages from the 3rd tee in:

Southern Dunes 3rd: 197

Streamsong Blue 16th: 205

TPC Tampa Bay 17th: 187

Southern Hills 8th: 197

Black Diamond 17th: 191

 

I've played your course a handful of times, as well as Jovita, World Woods and a bunch of other Tampa area courses. Cypress Creek is an absolute gem. The clubhouse staff are friendly and engaging, the course routes beautifully and is very challenging. The first time I played there it did rattle me a little. There's not many misses to be had with the driver, particularly on the front, and I lost 5 or 6 strokes from spraying it with the driver. This year, I played much more conservatively and scored well. 3 wood or 2/3 hybrid is a smart play on many of the holes (1/7/9 jump to mind).

 

I love 7/8 and 14/15 in particular. The greens were pretty hard this year when we played, but a nice tradeoff - no issue with short irons at all, and they rolled beautifully. 17 is a challenging hole, didn't bother me a bit. It's maybe not as aesthetically pleasing as the rest, but it's fair.

 

Actually, if you're Kevin I met you briefly in the pro shop. And the older lady in the grill from Long Island is hilarious.

 

We will certainly be back in 2018, Super Bowl weekend.

[kmdut]

Ive seen many single digits shoot over 100 at cypress creek, same at Cheval. Cypress has a number of holes that should be blown up. Tiny greens with crazy undulations. Greens on 3,4,8, 9, 11, 16, 17 are impossible for the avg golfer. Ive seen groups spend an hour on the par 5 7th. Its way too severe a course for the mostly senior citizens and poor golfers that play there. You can easily get stuck behind a few groups that can barely move. I play it because my parents have a house in sun city center otherwise i wouldnt go near it, although i have shot 79 a few times

 

I can only assume you have not played since our renovations over the summer, because most of your assessments are spot on to what we set out to improve on. We wanted to "tone down" the undulations of all the greens, specifically we enlarged and toned down the undulations on 3,4,8 & 16 while completely redoing the 9th green. I feel we did a fantastic job of making the greens more playable, creating additional pin locations to help wear patterns on the small greens ALL while keeping the identity of Cypress Creek.

 

Once we get a few aerifications in this summer we should see a drastic improvement in the firmness of the greens. Like others have said, Cypress is a difficult golf course, but if you play the correct tee it should be a very enjoyable, not like any other course in the area, type of day. Unfortunately our scorecard does not do the course justice, 6,800 yards is not created equal!

 

We have a new fleet of golf carts that among other amenities not offered by our competitors, are equipped with GPS. Over the last month and a half (our busiest time of year) our average pace of play has been 3 hours and 50 minutes.

 

Does the Par-3 17th still have 200+ for the white tee players? If so, then that's a major problem, even with playing the correct tees. Average player shouldn't have to hit a driver or more on a par-3. and especially 200 over water. What's the full carry for this - 190 or more???

 

A shorter par-3 can still be difficult (think of 7 at pebble for one example).

 

I played Cypress Creek a few times a number of years ago and thought it was reasonable. but its too far for me most of the time (about 1.5 hours usually) - way way north of tampa.

 

First and foremost let me just say I agree with the common theme here, 17 is my least favorite hole on the course. It is too difficult regardless of the tee played and simply does not fit in with the rest of the course,

 

Now typically I would leave it at that but since you have deemed this a "major problem." Lets discuss it for a moment: Is the white tee stone at 204 yards on the 17th hole? Yes. Is it a 190 yard carry over water? No. The lake is to the left of the white tee box and according to my range finder is roughly 114 to clear the water and 192 pin today.

 

Typically what I see from most courses is their white tee (or 3rd tee from the back) playing to a total yardage around 6,000 yards. Our white tee is on the short end of that average measuring in at 5,974 yards. Which right from the get go is where some players get in trouble out here, they see the white tees starts with a 5 and not a 6 and immediately jump back to the blues. So taking another 25 yards off the total yardage to make the 17th hole look more playable (when in actuality it will still be just as hard) and putting our total yardage around 5,550 would have the adverse effect by promoting more people to jump back to the blues for the day.

 

Other notable local par 3 yardages from the 3rd tee in:

Southern Dunes 3rd: 197

Streamsong Blue 16th: 205

TPC Tampa Bay 17th: 187

Southern Hills 8th: 197

Black Diamond 17th: 191

 

I've played your course a handful of times, as well as Jovita, World Woods and a bunch of other Tampa area courses. Cypress Creek is an absolute gem. The clubhouse staff are friendly and engaging, the course routes beautifully and is very challenging. The first time I played there it did rattle me a little. There's not many misses to be had with the driver, particularly on the front, and I lost 5 or 6 strokes from spraying it with the driver. This year, I played much more conservatively and scored well. 3 wood or 2/3 hybrid is a smart play on many of the holes (1/7/9 jump to mind).

 

I love 7/8 and 14/15 in particular. The greens were pretty hard this year when we played, but a nice tradeoff - no issue with short irons at all, and they rolled beautifully. 17 is a challenging hole, didn't bother me a bit. It's maybe not as aesthetically pleasing as the rest, but it's fair.

 

Actually, if you're Kevin I met you briefly in the pro shop. And the older lady in the grill from Long Island is hilarious.

 

We will certainly be back in 2018, Super Bowl weekend.

 

Glad to hear it. Spread the word and come back soon!