Streamsong Review - Bowling Green Florida

[FairwayFred]

Nice. Have fun down there. I'm planning a trip down there for winter 2020. Heard great things.

[LICC]

Theoretically you could rent a cheap house by Streamsong too. Obviously DR has more than golf.

Punta Espada is a spectacular golf course. Corales is fun.

[raynorfan1]

I don’t think you could. Have you been to Streamsong? There might be a double wide for rent an hour down the road...

[LICC]

I have been but stayed at the Streamsong hotel.

[Roadking2003]

Is it a group trip? Are you renting a house?

[Roadking2003]

I would love to rent a house at SS, but I can't find any within reasonable driving distance.

[LICC]

I just saw one listed online on Star Lake

[Roadking2003]

We will have eight golfers and we don't share rooms or bathrooms. We try to get one large house, but we have rented two houses.

 

What web site is the listing on?

[LICC]

Airbnb. You are probably right; I just did a quick search. This isn’t a heavily populated area. But back to the topic, to compare Streamsong value/cost, the equation for groups renting houses may be much different than those looking to stay where they play.

[dcmidnight]

I cant stress this enough but saying that SS is in the middle of nowhere is not an exaggeration or a figure of speech. For the most part there is absolutely nothing out there.

And in that area, a 30-45 minute drive is honestly not really the kind of drive you'd want to do after walking a round and having a beer or two either. At that rate you're better off getting individual hotel rooms in Lakeland. But to me, all that driving sounds exhausting just to play at SS. Would much rather say...rent a couple cottages at Sea Island.

[LICC]

I wouldn't choose Sea Island for a golf getaway in January or February. And I love Sea Island.

[duffer987]

As DC says, it is grim out there. I stayed at one of the resorts at Little Harbour/Ruskin, on the bay, so I could at least have a bunch of food and drink options and stare out at the water, beach, and watch the sunset.

Still that was a 50min drive to SS, and after 3 days that was enough. That said you guys are only 1 round/day guys, so it could be worth a look.

The only positive thing to say about the location is AUS to TPA is a simple short flight.

[N8dogg2669]

Played the Red course this past Saturday. I really enjoyed the course. Got paired up with a 2 some from Maryland and our Forecaddie was very good. The views on that course are awesome and pretty unique for Florida. Overall if you can make it down there, I would highly recommend playing. Next trip to see the fam, I plan on getting back down there to play the Blue or Black course.

[LICC]

Golfadvisor ranked Streamsong Red as its top-reviewed course for 2019:https://www.golfadvisor.com/best-of/golfers-choice-2019-top-50-10-1

[duffer987]

LOLOL! That's hardly a ringing endorsement. That list is cobblers and says more about the folks leaving reviews on GolfNow/Golf Advisor, than anything about the courses themselves.

[Roadking2003]

But doesn't that beg the question of who would you prefer to get course rankings from?

 

Would you prefer to get evaluations from Nicklaus, Crenshaw, Coore, and Fazio or three of your best golf buds who have played hundreds of courses?

 

Personally, I would go with my golf buds because I'm more interested in courses that are fun to play than courses that are technically superior designs.

[LICC]

Agree. These are reviews from the golf masses. Disregarding it is obnoxious.

[duffer987]

Forget the generalizations please. Dealing specifically with this list, which isn't from my golf mates and is just a bunch of randos, I'm familiar with their #1 & #3.

#1 has had 12 reviews left in the last year. 12 (twelve). Including one by the very person who provided the link. After the first person in the list who has left 200 reviews, the next few have left 4, 5, 48, 85, 40, 70, 13... hardly a string of 100s.

#3? It's a good course, I enjoy it. It's a Troon run casino course, so lots of comments wowed by service, food, and conditions. It's on reservation land, so they were able to keep it in good nick, while the drought wrecked a lot of other courses out that way, although that has led them to over-water, plugged drives are silly.

It has had a total of 38 reviews the past year, from what seems to be users who have left around 8-15 reviews in total. Hardly 100s. It's not the #3 US golf course. It simply isn't.

[LICC]

I would never say this a list of the best courses in the country. I would call it a ranking of courses most played by the golfing masses, which is valuable for what it is. And the site does say that it incorporates food and service into the ranking.

[dcmidnight]

I play a lot of golf all around the country during the year. I read a lot about golf. I'm on this site - and especially the travel forum - just about every day reading about new courses or courses that should be on my list to play.

I've only heard of three courses on that list. A top 10 list with 7 courses I've never even heard of? Yeah, it makes me wonder.

[duffer987]

So you consider 12 people the 'golfing masses'?

I think Golf Advisor/Golfnow reviews are definitely useful for checking current/seasonal conditions if you've not been to a course in a while.

And RK said "...three of your best golf buds who have played hundreds of courses". Well of course I am taking three of my best golf mates opinion into consideration. As I said in my reply to him, that is clearly NOT what you get from Golf Advisor. Some guy who has left a grand total of 4 reviews including his Streamsong review (which got him a discount or some freebies), is someone's opinion I should take? No thanks.

Gold Advisor bigwig says...

"Reviews are valuable currency, and the more you have, the better. Remind golfers throughout your facility. “Print up business cards that ask golfers to visit GOLF Advisor and rate their round,” Lowe said. Have your cart and bag drop staff pass the cards out. Train them to ask every customer about his or her round and ask for the review. Some operations have iPads available so employees can ask for the review right there with the customer.“And most importantly train all of your staff to greet guests, communicate politely and deliver top-shelf service. I work with some courses that reward any employee who gets called out in a review by name. That’s one way to incentivize great service and ensure a great review,” says Lowe."

Ya that's a real grassroots effort. Anyways apologies for the sidebar, but your local course, this place, other golf sites, are a better 'masses' IMHO, Golfadvisor needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt by anyone who likes golf courses, but back OT:

Red is my favorite of the 3, if choosing 1 and 1 only I would choose that to play again; however, if you want a change of pace, have seen enough C&C, and haven't played many Hanse courses, then by all means go Black. Blue is a clear third, Doak paint by numbers, outside of a few good holes.

[LICC]

The site says they weight more heavily the reviews from those who have posted more reviews. If you consider all the reviews posted from all the reviewers, who are open to the public and not a controlled panel, it has interest. For example, if I was in the Boston area, the fact that Pinehills ranks so highly here may lead me to check it out.

I completely agree with your take on the Streamsong courses.

[raynorfan1]

The Pinehills inclusion blows my mind and - for me - destroys the credibility of the list. I mean, it’s a fine golf course. Definitely one of the 25 best public courses in Massachusetts (there’s a thread in the New England section where we ranked ‘em).

But top 10 in the country? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

I mean, that’s some funny joke.

[dcmidnight]

The Omni course is great but if you dont live in the Mid Atlantic you have probably never heard of it.

Its rated #2 in the country based on 24 reviews.

But - only 14 of those reviews are from 2019 , the rest go back to 2014. So you're ranking a course #2 in the country based on 14 reviews? Get out of here with that kind of data analysis.

 

[david.c.w]

Just got back yesterday from a 3 day, 72 hole marathon.

What a cool place. Would go back in a heartbeat. Golf was awesome. Service was great. Food was good as well. Citrus/Bison sausage on the red/blue was so amazing i had it twice. I had no bad service anywhere at the hotel or on the course. We got stopped for rain at one point so the red/blue clubhouse was jammed. Prompt service with good clubhouse food.

For the courses I would put blue and black as a tie for first. I thought the architecture and landscape of blue was awesome and black is just something you just never get to play. Yea sometimes tricked up but really, really neat. Black clubhouse/bar and short courses are awesome too.

Red was my least favorite of the 3. Dang hard and plays way harder than the 71.7/125 they gave it (yes i know those are not really valid anymore). Even though every hole does not looks or play the same, it felt a little repetitive.

Anyone into golf trips should go. Not it is not cheap. No the food is not going to be #1 on Trip Advisor in Florida. But it will be #1 in Bowling Green, FL. Will I go back? For sure. Will I go back in the next few years? Probably not as I have other bucket list trips.

Summary:

Golf = Excellent

Service = Excellent

Food = Great

Value = Good (there are no great value destinations)

[Z1ggy16]

Did you hire the caddie service or no? If it was your first time there, if you did use it... how was it? And if you didn't did you wish you had?

[Roadking2003]

I am planning a trip there next winter. I hope their on-site service is better than their phone service. I do a few golf trips every year and SS has been the most difficult by far. I've had better phone service for courses in Mexico and The Dominican Republic.

Their web site also sucks and you can't call without being on hold for 15 minutes and being transferred around.

 

I'm trying to find a way to talk to their general manager. He needs to know how bad their phone service is.

[Z1ggy16]

Oh also, for guys who've played Blue or Red... how long was your round? I'm trying to see the logistics of playing 36 holes. I have an 8:45am tee time on Blue, and my flight home from Orlando leaves at 930pm. Considering I'll have to drive the 90 minutes or so back to the airport, drop the rental car off, get through TSA, etc... will I have time to play 18 on Red? If I end up getting unlucky and deal with a 5 hour round or something... it might be cutting it reeeeealy close. Worst case has me getting to the airport at like 8:30 or 8:45pm.

[UCFKyle]

Z1ggy16,

 

When are you going? I was there on Thursday and it was dark by 5:50. I played the Blue on Thursday and teed off at 9:45, finished at 1:45, so right at 4 hours.

[LICC]

If it runs late leave after the 15th, You can cut back toward the clubhouse from there.