Orlando recommendations for Chicago guy traveling in June

[third-times-a-charm]

> @DeeBee30 said:

> Well, my pulled rib muscle felt good enough to get in a lot of swings during my Orlando visit last week.

>

> I decided to play Falcon's Fire on Monday morning. It was just OK. A few interesting holes, but pretty sketchy conditions. I don't play on bermuda much, but there were tons of areas just off and around the greens that were patchy with maybe 50% grass and 50% dirt/mud. It made getting up & down a miserable challenge. The fairways were soaked in some areas from an overnight shower - I'm surprised the course doesn't drain better since rain is so frequent in FL. The other kicker is that the greens were fairly slow, which contributed to the course feeling low-end. I suppose it was still worth the $38 or so that it cost, so I got in a quick 18 and moved on.

>

> The second stop was Orange County National's Panther Lake course. That's a fun track that held my interest across more holes than FF due to its elevation changes and rolling terrain. The family of raccoons by the #1 tee that tried to jack my cart got the round off to a lively start. Once I was playing, the course was in great condition with tight fairways, manageable rough and decently quick greens. That dwarf bermuda is pretty similar to the bentgrass we have in Chicago, and I felt like I could see almost every putting line clearly. I got around the course in about 2:45 and tried to get onto Crooked Cat, but it was backed up on the first tee. So, I went back out on PL and played another 18 in less than 2:30.

>

> So...54 holes on the day, which was able to help me get my golfing fill for the week while I was in Orlando. And, thanks to the folks here, I now have a list of about 8 more target courses to hit on future trips. Thanks everyone for the recommendations.

 

Glad you had fun at one of the two.

 

Many of the courses here drain very poorly no matter what is done to them due to being built literally on top of swampland. The water just sits. Celebration is another one with notably bad drainage.

 

We've also had two weather extremes lately in Central FL. For the last 8 weeks it's been bone dry and blistering hot, and then all of a sudden it's been several inches of rain per day each for for the last 2 weeks, so the dead grass and mud you saw is from that.

[DeeBee30]

I want to make a point of how cool it is that we have an online community of golfers who not only like to talk about their own games but also are willing to help out fellow golfers looking to benefit from their local course knowledge. As a guy who travels for business a bit, it's great to get intel from local experts to increase the odds of enjoying a good golfing experience while on "foreign" soil.

 

Thanks again, and if any of you are ever traveling to Chicago, hit up our local group for course recommendations. We have a very active group with quite a few guys who have played a vast majority of our 200+ area tracks.